CEO Rant: Impounded Items

I'm kind of a bad CEO. I haven't looked at Corporation Assets in forever but for whatever reason I checked them last night. And noticed that we had impounded assets in what looked like a couple hundred or so stations. What!? Seems I had forgotten that assets of biomassed characters convey to their (player) corp, and quite a few former members had terminated their characters.

Now, most of the stuff was not worth the effort to travel to get it or pay a courier, and some was inaccessible anyway. So I trashed a lot of it. But there were some goodies in there...7 Geckos in one station, some spendy implants and ships in a couple of others, lots of T2 gear in others. So, I thought...okay, I'll go on a wander and get it all out of Impounds, contract it to a hauler alt, and get it rounded up to put to use for the corp.

Only...I didn't know how to get the impounded stuff released and it was COMPLETELY non-obvious from within the Corporation window or Impounds tab. No buttons...no useful tooltips...no helpful context menu choices. Hmmm.

So I Googled "EVE Online corp assets impounded" and the first hit was a handy support article from CCP, which starts off with:

A corporation may find some of its assets to be "Impounded" inside stations, which CEOs and Directors may release through paying a fee that equals 50% of the current rental price for offices in the respective station.

The article then goes on to explain events that cause items to be impounded plus some industry-related issues, and ends with:

Should a corporation have re-rented an office in a station where it has impounded items, those can be delivered into the corporation hangar without additional fees.

Okaaay. I review the list of items left in the nearest station six jumps away and think, well, I'll just go there and figure this out. So I fly over, dock up and look again at my Corporation window Impounds tab. Nothing new there. Hmmm. I read the support article again. I'm sure not gonna rent an office here to get the stuff, but hey, might as well check what the rents are here. So I click on Offices in the Station Services panel and ... oh...

HOW INTUITIVE.


NOT.


Now, I've been playing EVE for 10 years and should be used to this kind of thing. But apparently, all the QoL improvements made to the game in the last couple of years have ruined my "old days" EVE UI instincts. These days, I'm just annoyed when things that should take a minute take an hour due to lack of information or non-intuitive design. A simple change to the support article I linked earlier would have saved me that hour:

A corporation may find some of its assets to be "Impounded" inside stations. Using the Release Items button in the Station Services window's Offices tab, CEOs and Directors may release impounded assets by paying a fee equal to 50% of the current rental price for offices in the respective station. 

Sigh, heavy sigh. Now off I go to the next of 35 stations where there are assets impounded of sufficient value to hopefully be worth the trip. Gee, if only there were a MultiRelease button in the Corporation Impounds tab that listed all stations with impounded assets, their estimated value, cost to release, single station Release Items buttons, and one great big Release All button. Hey...a girl can dream, can't she?

Catching Up and Rebooting

This has been one seriously neglected blog. It's not like there haven't been things to talk about related to my EVE Online activities. It's simply that in the crush of the day to day, I either didn't have time, energy, or motivation. And to be fair, this blog has never enjoyed much in the way of engagement from its few readers so posting often felt like shouting into an echo chamber.

But lately, I find myself wanting to muse more about Signal Cartel, the things our amazing members do, the challenges of leadership in a corp like ours, and my own EVE-related fan art, among other things. Although podcasts and Twitch streaming seem to have trumped blogs in recent times, I still prefer a blog for my own blatherings.

Catching Up

Since my last post, EVE Vegas 2016 came and went and was awesome! Johnny Splunk and I gave our talk "Cultivating a Counter-Culture in New Eden" which was very well received.

In mid-November, the Ascension expansion brought Alpha Clones to New Eden. In anticipation, we ramped up on T1 fitted exploration frigates and new player welcome packages. As expected, we had a huge influx of new members. Our Alliance chat and forums were crazy busy helping new players get a good start in EVE. I wrote "Alpha Positive" for Imperium News to share our own and other new player friendly corps' experiences as a result of Ascension.

On January 20, 2017, Signal Cartel turned two years old. It has been quite an experience watching our little idea bloom and see our culture evolve and mature. I am constantly amazed and delighted by the interesting, smart, engaging, dedicated folks we are fortunate enough to attract to our ranks. To-date, we've received over 3,600 applications from those wishing to join us, with an average of 600-700 members at any given time (I rigorously remove 60+ day inactives in support of our desire that membership count should at least roughly reflect how many members actively log in and play). Our lean management and relatively unstructured organizational style have worked very well so far, both from a security and a "demands on leadership" perspective. Most surprising has been how well our Credo has held up after all this time, with relatively little change.


Rebooting 

I'm calling this a reboot but it's still my same old EVE blog. I'm just focusing my content going forward:

• Signaleer Spotlight. Our folks have come up with some great programs to serve the community, such as the EvE-Scout Rescue Cache program, Signal Converter program, Johnny Splunk's amazing Twitch stream The Life Galactic, and more. Besides that, the stories of their encounters with other players are often delightful, with amusing or unexpected outcomes. I aim to give these things more public attention here.
• Wanderings Illustrated. I started something like this before using the hashtag #podjournal; you can find those posts in the archive. Then the puppy LITERALLY chewed up my work and I stopped. But as an artist who is addicted to sketchbooking in real life, I am itching to create another illustrated journal of my wanderings, written in-character.
• EVE Portraits. I'm going to start accepting character portrait commissions again on a limited basis but haven't decided on how to structure that nor how much to charge. Stay tuned for those details. Meanwhile, I'm going to do a narrated speed painting of the portrait for Illectroculus Defined. His commissioned portrait has lingered in my queue since last year. I got a good start on it, then things went wobbly and I trashed it, intending to start over. Then life got super busy with a book illustration project that went on forever and Signal consumed all the time I was able to allot to EVE. But things are calmer now, so I am ready to revisit this portrait and produce the video of its creation as a bit of a thank you to Illectro for his legendary patience. 
• Leadership Musings. My co-leader Johnny Splunk and I spend a considerable amount of time discussing various questions and challenges related to Signal Cartel organization, policies, security, programs, culture cultivation, serving our players well, managing reputation in New Eden, and more. In the interest of inspiring or helping those contemplating or involved in their own leadership adventures in New Eden, I will share some of our insights  and lessons learned here.
• In-Character Fiction. I love writing this stuff, spinning out the history and stories of Mynxee's life in character, in game.
• Just EVE Things. This is a grab bag category for thoughts and opinions about game changes, community related stuff, or whatever I want to talk about that doesn't quite fit anywhere else.
• Real Life. Because sometimes it's fun to get to know the person behind the avatar a little better.

My new goal is to post at least twice a month. And as part of the reboot, I've tweaked font size and color in posts for better readability and updated the sidebar with links related to Signal Cartel stuff.

So that's that for now, I hope you'll share your thoughts on upcoming posts and add a link to this blog on your own EVE media site.

Edited on 3/26/2017 to add In-Character Fiction to the content list above. How could I have forgotten it before?!

Get the Balance Right

I commented on Twitter a week or so ago that it felt like so much EVE stuff was going on in the META, it was impossible to keep up. The null sec war, Fanfest, the endless churn of topics on Twitter and r/eve, the Citadels expansion, CSM stuff, the blogs, the news sites, the podcasts, the videos, the books, and on and on. Then there's all the considerable stuff going on in my own alliance...leadership discussions, member initiatives, processing recruits in and departing members out, ops, questions, AFK notices, great stories about experiences, and more.

It's a seductive avalanche of activity, discussion, and engagement. It's so easy to get sucked in and lost amidst the crush and swirl, feeling like you have to keep tuning in to stay afloat, knowing its probably a losing battle, and wondering all the while how EVE has come to dominate every spare moment of your life.

It struck me a few weeks ago that the balance between RL and EVE was getting out of whack. This probably happens to every long-time, engaged EVE player. I went to bed thinking about EVE stuff, woke up thinking about it, checked Reddit and Twitter obsessively every chance I got, got a little twitchy if I didn't log in every day, felt a weird sense of obligation to have an opinion on everything and be in the know about all the stuff going on. You probably know what I'm talking about if you've been in EVE for more than five minutes.

Problem is, my time for EVE is limited. Real life is busy and full of interesting stuff needing doing that has nothing to do with gaming or even computers. And yet, I wasn't getting those things done because I was letting EVE steal so much time and mental energy. In analyzing my habits, I figured out that it wasn't EVE itself that was responsible, it was the META--all those addictive channels of engagement outside the game--that was the issue.

So, I decided to dial my engagement in the META way the hell down. Turned off retweets for everyone I followed on Twitter. Stopped Tweeting as much. Unfollowed a bunch of people who added nothing of value to my newsfeed. Stopped looking at Twitter and r/eve every 15 minutes. Stopped feeling obligated to comment on every post in my corp subreddit. Read few to no blogs or news sites on an ongoing basis.

It was tough at first...all those things are highly addicting. But having gained some distance from the META is freeing. There's suddenly more time for what's really important to me in EVE, which is Signal Cartel. In the bargain, the balance with real life obligations has gotten more manageable too.

Cutting back on the META also made me realize that I don't really care all that much about what is going on outside the game. Causes, movements, tirades, witch hunts...not important to me. I log in, I play the game. I focus on my corp responsibilities, fly my ships, join ops when I can, and enjoy bantering with my corpmates and friends in-game. That's enough. EVE is relaxing again, as a recreational activity is meant to be.

None of which is to say that the META is a bad thing. It's just an overwhelming thing. Don't get me wrong. I like being connected to the META, but more and more I prefer to keep it at arm's length. "Get the Balance Right", as an old Depeche Mode song goes. When it comes to EVE, that's always a challenge. Doing it successfully requires a measure of personal discipline and occasionally a good hard chop through the weeds with a sharp axe.

EVE Roleplay: Dipped Toe, News Mention, Fun Experience!

tl;dr Roleplaying is an under-appreciated form of gameplay but can be fun, is flexible enough to suit personal preferences, and might just result in cool things happening. It got my corp an official World News mention. This post shares our experience for the benefit of others who might be curious about incorporating roleplaying into their game play.

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Note: A version of this post was originally published on r/eve and is cross-posted here for the sake of posterity.

Over the last year, I became very interested in New Eden lore because of Thera and the Drifters story arc. In exploring the lore, I got addicted to the Hydrostatic EVE podcast (thanks, Ashterothi and Phyridean and all your Lore Panel regulars!) and became friends with a few folks who are lore specialists as well as roleplayers, among them Makoto Priano. Mak has graciously served as a lore and RP mentor of sorts, even presenting an excellent Research, Lore, and Roleplay Q&A session for my corp last year.

The upshot is that many in Signal Cartel, including the leadership team, have become quite tuned into lore and some of us have begun to dip our toes into roleplay. So when the Upwell Consortium research race began, the leadership team saw it as a potential opportunity to do a little corp-level roleplaying although we weren't quite sure of how to approach it.

Then OSS attacked Upwell's prototype citadel sites and that gave us an idea. As a serious competitor in their research race, why should we trust Upwell with all these valuable Research Components when their site and supply chain data security seemed to be so poorly managed? Why not hang on to the RCs and encourage other concerned capsuleers to entrust their components to us until our concerns were addressed? Why not conduct our own PLEX giveaway as a way of rewarding those capsuleers' trust and giving them another way to profit from their RC inventory? (And yes, what a perfect way to encourage outsiders to assist us in amassing Research Components!) Thus, our first roleplayed message to Upwell's agent and a related Press Release on the matter.

We crossed our fingers and hoped that Upwell would do something to mitigate our concerns so that our RC inventory could still be applied to the research race...although there was a bit of hand-wringing discussion about what we'd do if they didn't. We did kind of worrisomely wonder what we might have gotten ourselves into, but nothing ventured, nothing gained! And we figured if there was no response, we could just RP our way out of that. I think if we had thought too much about potential consequences up front, it might have stopped us in our tracks so I'm glad we didn't. But we are sensitized for next time because as Upwell's response to OSS' destruction of the prototype citadels demonstrates, things don't always go the way you expect. CCP Affinity, CCP Falcon, and others who are behind the story arcs like to play hardball (which is awesome, imho)!

Anyway, the first thing Upwell did was secure the prototype citadel sites so that capsuleers couldn't shoot at them--a fact confirmed by a couple of our pilots. That was a promising move to mitigate our expressed concerns. Then they [held a press conference](http://community.eveonline.com/news/news-channels/world-news/upwell-reports-excellent-progress-with-research-component-program-calls-on-capsuleers-to-redouble-efforts/) where their agent Lee Brinalle addressed specific concerns and rival capsuleer RC acquisition programs (e.g., ours):

Asked to comment on rival capsuleer component acquisition programs, such as that being operated by the well-known surveying outfit Signal Cartel, Lee Brinalle urged co-operation with Upwell. "I would like to say to those with concerns as to the security of the prototype sites that we have addressed the previous vulnerabilities and it is a major concern that large numbers of research components may not be released for use in our efforts. The Upwell Department of Friendship and Mutual Assistance is monitoring the situation and we hope that our capsuleer friends will see the benefits of placing any recovered components under our control."

I won't lie, we were giddy here at Signal upon seeing our corp mentioned! After discussing Ms. Brinalle's statements, leadership decided that we could feasibly roleplay that our concerns had been addressed and that there were good reasons for us to not continue withholding Research Components from Upwell. And that continuing with our alternative RC deposit service made sense because it simply gives capsuleers another opportunity to profit from their own inventory of RCs. So we issued another Press Release to address all that.

Fortunately all of this RP stuff meshed very nicely with our desire to be competitive in Upwell's research race. It was fun for our members to see it roll out, too, since they knew nothing about it until our first Press Releases was in the wild. And now we are looking forward to seeing if our competitive efforts were enough to be a top contributor in Upwell's research race, which I guess we'll find out next week. However that turns out, we are seriously enjoying the ride.

Again, thanks to Mak and other roleplayers and lore geniuses who have answered our questions and served as fine examples to follow! While we are noobs at doing this kind of thing, it is fun. The thought, planning, and creativity required to engage in the game at that level of immersion is remarkably satisfying--not least of which when it is acknowledged from the NPC side of things as in this circumstance! In any event, I'm certain there will be more dipping of our toes into the RP side of the game in the future.

CSM Season *yawn*

In the past, I have been an enthusiastic advocate of the CSM. As a CSM 5 alumni, I always felt a certain sense of obligation when it came to CSM advocacy. But alas, I find myself feeling indifferent about the CSM this year as the CSM 11 election cycle spins up. Some things just take more energy than seems worth it to invest.

Oh sure, I will cast a scant handful of votes for a few friends who are running. Mostly because they still care and I care about them. I'll probably listen to the candidate interviews as part of my EVE podcast addiction. Regardless of who gets elected, maybe CSM XI will turn out to be the term that is the exception to the drama, leaks, deadbeats, burn-out, communications issues, and disillusionment which have so tediously recurred over the last 10 terms. Not holding my breath on that one, though.

I recognize that a lot of good people have done a lot of hard work on behalf of the CSM and as CSM members, despite the obstacles. They certainly deserve our appreciation. Been there done that myself in CSM 5; it's no easy job when you take it seriously. And I recognize that a lot of folks are still optimistic about the CSM's potential. I believe there is potential there, too, but not without some kind of reform. After 10 terms fraught with the same old issues, I'd like to see someone capable at CCP engage with sitting and former CSM members to do a root cause problem analysis, identify practical and useful reform solutions, and implement them. Not holding my breath on that one either.

Anyway, as things stand, it's freeing to let go of that "because I was on the CSM once, I should care" feeling. To those running, good luck. To those pouring energy into candidate interviews, CSM reform advocacy, and CSM work, more power to ya.

As for me...I'll be out in space, scanning for sigs...

My EVE Vegas Experience

EVE Vegas 2015 is the first really big player meet I have attended. The tl;dr for this wall-of-text blog post is that it was freaking magical, amazing, fun, and wonderful. The caveat for this blog post is that I will probably forget to mention many people and things that happened. Feel free to call me out on oversights in the comments and I'll update the post accordingly when I get back to civilization (no Internet at my Mom's house; I'm sat at Starbucks posting this).

It is impossible to describe the rush of meeting all the devs who work so hard on our beloved EVE Online, the excitement that comes from hearing what's in the works for the game and being able to ask questions to learn more, and most of all, the buzz of meeting all the players I know from the game and/or #tweetfleet on Twitter, blogs, podcasts, and more. I felt so humbled and utterly delighted at the warm reception I got from ... well ... everyone. It was a bit overwhelming.

My plans for EVE Vegas started after I made my reservations back in April. The Signal Cartel leadership team started talking about swag we might like to take. We decided on a budget and chose to go with two imprinted items that would represent our #freehugs, snowballs and Festival Launchers doctrine: round white stress balls and stickers. I designed the imprint (based on the awesome Signal Cartel logo designed by Signaleer Noene Drops). Items were ordered and at the right time shipped to Planet Hollywood. I also shipped a small box of swag to CCP in Iceland to share the #freehugs love among those who couldn't attend EVE Vegas.

Then I got my crafting on by making personalized gifts for all the devs listed to attend, as well as a few friends. These consisted of small journals stamped with each character's racial symbol (except for CCP Falcon, who got a Guristas symbol of course!) on the front. I carved these stamps, a fun little project that took about 3 hours one evening. Inside each journal, I hand-stamped the recipient's character name using individual letter stamps in a typewriter font. Then I stamped "You are Simply Amazing" and "Heartfelt Thanks" using phrase stamps, and signed each journal. I also stamped black gift tags with racial symbols and the recipient's name written in metallic silver ink. Each gift was wrapped in decorative "EVE-ish" paper from my long-ignored scrapbook paper stash. I tucked a couple of #freehugs stickers under the ribbon of each gift and loaded them all into my carry-on bag. That damn thing was HEAVY!

I arrived in Vegas on Thursday evening and discovered via Twitter that Signaleer Zoe Schereau was arriving at the same time. We met up, then grabbed Makoto Priano of IKAME fame after arriving at the hotel. The three of us had a lovely dinner: these are two delightful people! After dinner, we headed to the Heart Bar because word on Twitter was that that was the happening place. Hint: Twitter is awesome for figuring out who's where and organizing people for activities.

At the Heart Bar, I had my first experience of what the entire weekend was going to be like: being warmly greeted by both CCP folks and other players, so many of whom I've known via Twitter or in-game for years. It was such a treat to meet you all. But OMG, the sheer number of was sometimes overwhelming! I could never list everyone. But I will share some stray thoughts and a few memorable takeaways.

• I spent a lot of time with current, former, or friends of Signaleers Johnny Splunk (@eve_scout), Zoe Schereau (@gabbyhon), Noizy Gamer, Markus Vulpine, Manic Velocity, Makoto Priano, Illustria Madeveda (aka scaredpanda on Twitch but we just call her Panda), and Mark726. It is impossible to overstate how wonderful each of these folks are and how pleasant it was to have such a like-minded core group of folks to x up with for meals, presentations, and more. Plus they helped me distribute the #freehugs swag. I love you all, my dears!
• CCP Rise saved me from having to lug around all those dev gifts by taking me back the devs' staging room where I was able to leave them all on a table. Thank Bob. I felt a little bad that more devs were in attendance than were on the dev attendee list (including Rise). Hopefully they got some of the swag I left lying around if they wanted it.
• My awesome Signal co-leader Johnny Splunk is an even more awesome friend. He gifted me with a 3D printed Astero model that is about 6" long. After a complicated process to get the 3D model just right, he then hand-painted it in that grunge pinkish mauve color I so love and covet on a SKIN for my real Asteros in-game (wrap your mind around that oxymoron, "real in-game"). The thought and care that went into this gift are astounding and so much appreciated. I am truly humbled and amazed to receive it and will treasure it forever. Thank you a million times, Johnny. 
• Didn't get to spend as much time with Sugar Kyle as I wanted but a huge shout-out to her for her tireless CSM work...Sugar, you're amazing, admirable, and so funny in the way you express yourself, lady!  
• The Mittani greeted me with enthusiasm and a giant hug when I introduced myself. This was quite unexpected and delightful. We had the opportunity for a brief but pleasant chat later in the weekend and he gave me an Imperium shot glass. Yay, swag! Now for what will no doubt be an unpopular opinion in some quarters: The young man behind the character is quite personable and charismatic yet fiercely protective of his tribe. You can see why he's a powerful leader. Thing is, I'm usually somewhat in Mom Mode when interacting with players like him who are a couple of decades younger than me. This tends to put those interactions on a more human level. No surprise I found myself quite liking Alex and not really factoring his in-game persona into that. Another thing is that our in-game paths/objectives have little to no overlap. Being in EvE-Scout Enclave with our neutral stance toward everyone also means I don't  let politics color my interaction with others. Thus I come at just about every player with a a positive mindset. It is a pleasant position to take, especially when it comes to interacting with often-maligned groups like the Goons and controversial players. So, ymmv. I keep my own counsel. Let the Imperium/Signal Cartel tinfoiling begin, haha!
• Speaking of Goons, I also met the gracious and charming Sion Kumitomo who kindly added a nifty Bee pin to my swag collection. 
• Wow, was the swag flowing! Besides everything already mentioned, I received a lovely pink Neocom polo shirt from Protovarious, beautiful handmade earrings and TimTams from Kira Tsukimoto, a Total EVE t-shirt from Dirk MacGirk, and a BRAVE patch and pocket knife from Dunk Dinkle. Thanks so much, everyone!
• Proto did not agree to sing the creepy stalker song that he hilariously shared on a prior episode of The Neocom. Much disappoint. :P I'll have to work on his resolve at the next meetup we both attend. Proto, it was an honor to meet you and the adorable Kira Tsukimoto...you guys are both delightful!
• Greygal is a classy lady in-game and out! Was a treat to finally meet the woman who so intimidated me back in the day when she FC'd the Agony Unleashed PvP Basics class I took. 
• The Chateau party was really fun but protip: When you see a dude with a pretty blue drink and the bartender identifies it as "a lot of liquor", only have one. Really--especially after two glasses of wine. I had two and thus made it back to my room only due to excellent scouting by Markus Vulpine and Manic Velocity. Thanks, you guys!
• Matterall (EN24) and Lanctharus (Cap Stable podcast) are super guys, fun to talk with, and have fascinating stories to tell about their EVE experiences and focus. I thoroughly enjoyed the time I spent with both of them. Would've loved more time to talk with them...there's always next year.
• Was great so see my old friend and CEO Alekseyev Karrde who gave a fantastic talk on EVE corp startup success.
• CCP folks did an excellent job organizing and presenting...a special shout-out to all of them for being so engaged and present with players in addition to working and partying hard the whole weekend. The weekend had to be extra exhausting for them yet they were friendly and accommodating the entire time. Devs, you guys are awesome. Special shout-out to CCP Falcon, who I was so happy to meet after all these years since we flew together! 
• The presentations by CCP were inspiring and suggest so much good stuff to come. With all the positive stuff that has happened in game in the last 5 years, my confidence that they will deliver...and deliver well...is so high. Citadels are going to be a very interesting addition to the spacescape of New Eden and I won't lie: we in Signal are quite keen to have one of our own! They won't be anchorable in Thera (I'm fine with that; let Thera be different) so we'll have to figure out where and why we'd have one. Potential lore and PvE developments sound very exciting too...I won't rehash them here...go watch the videos on YouTube.
• It was a pleasure to variously meet, chat, and/or dine with Debes Sparre, Jayne Fillon, Onslaughtor, Druur Monakh, Dirk MacGirk, Erika Mizune, Random McNally, Mangala Solaris (who drinks beer for breakfast, WTF!), Lost in EVE, Phyridean, Ashterothi, Mike Azariah, Wilhelm Arcturis and his lovely wife, my old friend Sard Caid, Chance Ravinne, and Xenuria. There were countless others my poor brain was too overwhelmed to recall as I wrote this post.
• I wanted to play a poker tournament or two but the schedule was so packed that I never managed to fit it in. Lesson learned...next year, I will go a day early so I can devote some quality time to playing. I didn't do any casino gambling either but that's because it just doesn't appeal to me.
• Johnny Splunk, his lovely wife, and I attended the Cirque du Soleil show "KA" on Sunday evening. A fantastic experience...the sets, the costumes, the music, the story...all amazing. Cirque is not to be missed if you can swing the cost of the tickets.

I have managed to write a considerable wall of text already and yet it feels like there is so much else to share. But I'll end this here. Yes, I am a CCP fangirl. Yes, I pretty much like everyone and love being social. Yes, EVE Vegas was awesome. Bottom line: if you can find a way to attend in 2016, make it happen. You'll never regret it. It is an amazing, uplifting experience. I aim to be there to throw more "snowballs" at people so plan to join the fun and let's have a drink together!

Musings on Skill Trading

When CCP's dev blog coasting the idea of players being able to sell/buy skills came out yesterday, I had an instantly negative reaction. I found it difficult to express why. The rationale given in my EVE O reply that it would undermine the investment we feel in our characters and cause mindless character churning and a change in the connection we feel to our own and other characters feels logically weak even if--for me--it is emotionally on-target. Sugar Kyle's blog post yesterday and the subsequent comments express better than I myself can some of what's bothering me about it.

After thinking about the matter all evening and this morning, I realized that a big factor in my negative reaction is the fact that the second half of my CSM5 term (2010) was relentlessly focused on micro-transactions and their impending appearance in the planned Incarna release. We spent a 3-day emergency summit in October that year in frustratingly unresolved discussion with CCP on the matter and the frustrations continued through the end of our term. To say that that experience left a bad taste in my mouth for the New Eden Store is a understatement; I think I've looked at the store twice, spent the free Aurum that was given out on ship skins, and continue to have little interest in the overpriced goods there or the Aurum economy.

A grungy pale pink Astero skin is literally the ONLY thing that would ever entice me to buy Aurum.

But...looking at the proposed change after putting the CSM5 factor aside (which takes remarkable effort), my thought is that yes, it will probably encourage new players who buy SP to stick with the game longer for two reasons: they can do more sooner and will have a bigger financial investment in the game earlier than is currently practical. Both of those are key factors in subscription longevity. In the current marketplace, anything that encourages a player to stay longer is probably a good thing for EVE Online. We do, after all, want our beloved game to persist for another dozen years, right?

Will this change have a negative impact on the big stories of the game, the rise of personalities who become space famous, or the tendency of players to develop their main characters lovingly? Heck if I know. But you know what? It won't affect MY game or how connected I feel to my character. I play a social game focused on exploration and culture building with slight overtones of roleplaying.

So go ahead...let new players buy SPs all day long to shortcut their way to being able to undock in ships they don't know how to fly well. Let them explode and buy PLEX to sell for ISK to replace those ships. Let the plex cartels and the deep-pocketed alliances fund SP packets and SRP for their newbros to field more robust fleets. These things won't affect me in any negative manner. I can even see value in using SP packets as rewards for corp members, e.g., those who do do significant work to benefit their corp/alliance. (EDITED TO ADD: SP packets would no doubt be used by corps/alliances to entice new members join and become as common as SRP ... and yes, alt farming to support that would likely happen.) Meanwhile, CCP could see a welcome positive impact on their bottom line and that can only be a good thing for EVE Online and its sister products in light of looming competition for players' attention and wallets.

Meanwhile, I'm determined to maintain my preferred laissez-faire attitude about EVE Online. I am happy to take the game casually, adapting to the environment as it evolves, with blinkered rose-colored spectacles firmly in place. That allows me to remain positive about EVE Online and not succumb to bittervet syndrome again. It's a lot more enjoyable to feel upbeat and to interact with the devs and the community on that basis. The tedious whine of the "Eve is dying" crowd adds nothing useful to my game experience anyway and upon reflection, is most certainly overblown with regard to selling and buying SP that has already been trained on one character or another.

For an opposing viewpoint, check out luobote kong's initial blog post and a follow-up on the subject.

The Engine of Interesting Experiences

In 2007 when my first EVE character was a two-day old newbie mining her little Gallente heart out in the rookie system Bourynes, a friendly 2003 pilot named Edohatrem Inur struck up a conversation. He convinced me to join his corp along with a bunch of other newbies he'd recruited. The opportunity to harvest knowledge directly from a veteran player fast-tracked my EVE experience in many valuable ways. 

What goes around, comes around...in more ways than one. Not only do I now find myself leading a corp doing the very same thing for exploration-minded newbies, but in full-circle fashion, Edo recently joined Signal Cartel. A self-styled glittervet (kind of like a bittervet but with more optimism and an interest in helping new players), he is still up to his old tricks in Bourynes and elsewhere engaging "adorable newbies" (as he calls them) with his special brand of tough love and carrot-on-stick recruiting tactics.

Edo is fond of pointing out contradictions and questioning assertions. I learned long ago to be amused rather than annoyed by this, since it can lead to interesting discussions and reflections on how we change and grow as players. Case in point: I grumbled recently about the time demands that leading Signal Cartel imposes on me. He immediately pointed out the contradiction of the situation with assertions I posted just over a year ago upon my return to New Eden regarding what I wasn't interested in, to wit:

• Leadership responsibility
• Restrictive corp rules
• Non-PvP, non-low-sec corps
• Newbie corpmates

HA! Guess I'm eating those words now, as my peaceful, credo-bound corp is at 275 members not quite 3 months after public launch...

The contrast between a year ago and now is amusing. But I can roll with it because I've been around EVE long enough to know that nothing stays the same. Anything can happen. Being open to new things--like EvE-Scout founders G8keeper and Johnny Splunk approaching me to lead a peaceful exploration corp--leads to new friends and new experiences. As I've said before, the Signal Cartel experience has given me a fresh perspective on the game, a sense of purpose, and interesting new challenges. All of that is made even better when old friends like Edo decide to come along for the ride...and he is by far not the only one who has done so. Quite a few friends and acquaintances--many who were or are pirates, amusingly--have joined Signal Cartel and contribute significantly to the camaraderie and success of the corp.

Relationships are clearly the engine of interesting experiences in New Eden. Whether those experiences are dramatic and sweeping (e.g, BRAVE's recent troubles) or result from taking a path less traveled (as in Signal Cartel), they all create ripples--sometimes with far-reaching and unanticipated outcomes. The unpredictable way that those ripples, even the tiny ones, intersect with others and evolve will trump assertions every time!

At The Quafe Rack

CCP announced a contest the other day for EVE-related artwork submissions. Two winners will be selected whose work will be enlarged, printed on canvas, and displayed on a blank wall at CCP HQ. Not gonna lie, I would love to see my work hanging on that wall!

For my entry, I repurposed my ink and watercolor portrait of Niraia into a Quafe ad poster, with a little play on words:

I'm looking forward to see which submissions the CCP judges choose as winners and hope we will get to see all the entries in some online format. There's a lot of talent in the EVE community...it would be very cool if CCP designated to target blank wall as a curated "gallery wall" of fan art in the office. The pieces selected for large format canvas printing could be supplemented with framed paper prints of other fan art that could be swapped out from time to time to keep the exhibit interesting.

Recent EVE Character Portraits

I'm continuing to work my way through the Eve character portrait queue. In the last few weeks, Real Life and the considerable attention that Signal Cartel has required since launch have cut into the amount of time I have had to work on these. Fortunately, things are leveling out and I'm back on track with getting current commissions done.

Thinking ahead to real life commitments in the year ahead, I have simplified the portrait service to offer only ink and watercolor sketches for new commissions. These are a lot faster and easier to do than more formal portraits, so hopefully that translates into faster turnaround time for everyone who orders a portrait going forward.

Here are the most recent portraits completed:

Marc Scaurus

Makoto Priano

Zappity

If you'd like a portrait of your character, check out the info in the Gallery tab above and then get in touch via EVEmail or regular email.

By the way, if you're doing creative EVE-related things, there is a creatives channel on the Tweetfleet Slack. Go and share your work there!

IC: A Distant Voice Goes Quiet

Transcript: Even wandering in w-space, the big events filter through. It seems my old friend Ripard Teg is stepping out of the public eye. The most noticeable effect of this is that he is discontinuing his prolific journaling on matters in New Eden. A great loss of shared info, wisdom, and discussion in the capsuleer community. I do hope all is well and perhaps we will catch up in another venue when I return to k-space.

IC: Steve's Remains

Journal Spread

Left Page

Right Page

Transcript (because Mynxee has scrawly handwriting):

I arrived in C9N-CC after a few uneventful jumps from HT4K-M where I got into null from a wormhole.

 The baleful and sullen red glow of this system's star casts an appropriately gloomy pall over everything. A suitable grave for a Titan.

Although broken and scorched, automated systems with their eternal power sources still issue garbled information over audio channels and keep red lights on deep in the guts of the wreck. It is eerie; considering the thousands who died here, one can easily imagine legions of ghosts presiding over what was once surely their pride and joy. 
The resources to build such a monstrously huge ship must have been staggering--and yet despite the efforts of salvagers over the years, so much still remains. 

Someone on Sugar Kyle's blog suggested she post source images that inspired or informed her #podjournal posts. It's a good idea so I'll start doing it here, too.

IC: Biding Time, Coincidences, Paradox

Note: For the creatively interested, I am using a small watercolor sketch kit made from a repurposed watchmaker's case (Lee Valley Tools). The small tins are filled with artist quality pigments from tubes and allowed to dry. The pigment rewets easily with water. Other items in the kit include a cheap Pilot varsity fountain pen refilled with Noodler's Lexington Gray ink (waterproof), a couple of Kolinsky travel brushes, a lead holder, eraser (not shown), and Sharpie. Add a small container of water and a napkin or paper towel and I have all the tools necessary to sketch to my heart's content. I often take this small kit and sketchbook with me in case the opportunity to sketch presents itself when out running errands or taking a coffee break somewhere pleasant. 

I imagine that even in far future New Eden, traditional methods of making art will persist. As a capsuleer, Mynxee is both dependent on and integrated with extremely advanced technology. This offers an interesting contrast with her human need to express herself creatively using non-technical tools. In her years planet-side while on hiatus, she spent time close to nature in a low-tech wilderness cabin where she had time and inclination to develop her artistic skills. No skill books needed, just practice, practice, practice!

IC: Titanomachy

Note: Mynxee's expedition journal is being created in a Moleskine small watercolor journal using a pencil, ultra-fine Sharpie, and watercolors. As I explore, I am either sketching directly from what I see on the screen or from screenshots referenced later. There is a long tradition of explorers preserving their observations and thoughts in journals. Even now in our heavily digitized age, illustrated journaling and urban sketching are becoming ever more widespread as creative observers of the world seek to record their experiences in a highly personal way. Through drawing and writing about a place or event in the moment, one can capture memories, emotion, and essence far more accurately than any camera--even when the nitty-gritty details may be less than accurate. Journal pages can usually stand alone without any further commentary. So it will generally be with Mynxee's journal. Feel free to ask questions in the comments if you wonder about the process, subject or anything else to do with this project.

IC: The YC116 Expedition Begins

Note: My old blog Life in Low Sec contained posts written both from a player and character point of view. I'll be doing the same thing on this blog. To make it a little easier to recognize when I'm speaking in-character, those posts will have the prefix "IC" in the title, be tagged IC, and written in third person. Enjoy!

"Sure you're ready for this, Mynx?" Rixx asked.

She smiled and nodded, idly watching crew members prepping Lasher. "Oh yes. After three years wandering planet-side, I guess I'm just not ready to settle into one place yet."

Rixx nodded. "Any idea how long you'll be away"? 

"Not really," she said, and held up a small black journal. "As long as it takes to fill these pages with sketches and musings about the trip, maybe?"

"Charmingly low tech," he said dryly. "Keep in touch, we want to know how things are going. Need anything, you know who to call."

"Of course...and thank you. I'll chat and share my journal when I can. And hey, depending on how the wormhole connections work out -- or for that matter, my luck in keeping my ship and crew in one piece -- you'll probably see me making pit stops in Isho from time to time." 

Rixx  smiled and said, "I'm a little jealous, you know. Running off on a long-term expedition without any agenda or plan has a certain appeal." 

They both laughed. They both knew Rixx was far too responsible to do any such thing. 

"I do have a plan, though," Mynxee said. "The plan is to explore...and profit if the opportunity presents itself. You just never know what or who you might find out there."

Rixx indicated the crew. "Looks like they're done. Be seeing you around, Mynx."

With a warm handshake, he turned and walked away. "Take good care of my cat!" Mynxee called after him. He raised a hand and gave a good natured wave without looking back. Taking a last look around herself, she headed for her ship, journal in hand.

Wormhole Wandering

I recently spent a few days wandering through wormholes in a stealth bomber with a sort-of objective of getting close to B-R5RB so I could go see the destruction there. I found a few null sec exits but they were too far from B- to be interesting. 70+ jumps through null seemed a bit suicidal, so I continued my wormhole-hopping.

Then I got stuck. Not thinking ahead, I had brought only a few scan probes with me--five to be exact. Plenty to scan down wormholes quickly so I didn't really think about it until a RL thunderstorm and power loss disconnected me for a couple of hours when I had those probes deployed. They expired and I had no backups. So I left my nicely fitted Hound at a planet for someone to find (I wonder if anyone has claimed it yet!) and took the Pod Express home. Oh well.

Back home I prepped my beloved Rapier for another expedition. The cargohold is loaded with piles of scan probes this time plus ammo, spirits, and a few fun items for amusement's sake which will hopefully survive if I get killed.

I think it'll be an extended trip this time. I truly love wormhole-hopping by myself. I enjoy the scanning process, the surprise of seeing where newly found wormholes emerge, the solitude of solo travel, the sense of being lost in vast reaches that gate travel fails to provide, looking around for unsuspecting victims, and poking around to see what people have left in w-space. I'm surprised at how many offline towers there are. Perhaps I'll eventually find one with something interesting to liberate :P

If I ever do manage to get close to B-R5RB in this circuitous way, I plan to have a nice long look around and takes lots of pictures (as well as not die at the hands of locals). Then I will continue my wormhole wanderings with some new destination in mind. Maybe I'll just blindly stick a pin in the map to choose that destination and then see how long it takes to get there. Maybe I should document my route and the things of interest I find along the way.

It doesn't sound like the most exciting way to play Eve, I know...especially compared to the energy and excitement of pirate shenanigans in and around Ishomilken. But for me, for now, it's a relaxing retreat and as a bonus, is recalling some of the earliest feelings of wonderment I had when I first started playing Eve. Which is, perhaps, what I am really looking for after all.

Impact

While there were always a few Eve players who felt compelled to assert their negative opinions and even outright hate of me, Hellcats, the philosophy behind a women-only corp, my community activities, who I was flying with, and my work in CSM5, the majority of interactions with other players back in the day was positive. As I have discovered upon reconnecting with folks since my return, much of what I did and said as leader of the Hellcats had a strong impact on how others played. Quite a few women have told me that Hellcats inspired them or gave them the courage to take up pvp.

I couldn't ask for a better legacy than that. To be honest, the good press and fans that Hellcats enjoyed always kind of surprised me. We were, after all, a very small corp (I don't think we ever had more than 35 members) that didn't do much but cruise low sec and look for trouble. Yet even after years of being inactive, the corp still inspires wistful nostalgia and positive memories among fans. Something resonated with people, I guess. Which I suppose is why I am now getting earnest requests that Hellcats be rebooted and hearing good ideas for how that could be done.

That would be an interesting effort, but it won't be my effort. I wouldn't mind seeing it happen (especially if done in the same spirit as the original corp) and might even "advise" if asked. But the time and work required to spearhead such a project is for others to invest in who have more energy, time, and interest than I can muster. Yet, I admit that the idea of Hellcats coming back to life makes me smile. It's a good feeling to know that content I helped bring to the sandbox during the Hellcats heyday has had an impact--however small--that persists to this day.

Although I log in these days with a certain sense of remove and casual nonchalance compared to before, the stories created by players continue to fascinate me. If it so happens that the legacy of Hellcats inspires something new and evolved, more power to whomever takes the idea and runs with it. Therein lies the eternal allure of Eve Online...the ability to create an impact at some level of the game and have it endure for years in the memories of players. Such impacts been happening for 10 years across the width and breadth of New Eden and its community. When you think about that compared to any other game, it is quite remarkable*.







* Regardless of mis-steps by CCP along the way and the long list of things in game which still need improvement.

CSM9: I Voted!*

No better way of getting re-invested in Eve than by returning as the CSM elections begin, eh?!

While on hiatus from Eve, I stayed fairly plugged in to CSM stuff. Thus, I don't feel completely at a loss as far as candidate selection goes. However, this is the first time I've voted since the STV system was implemented. Holy shit, it takes some brain juice to put together a personally informed roster! Listening to podcast interviews with candidates, reading blog posts, studying endorsements, following candidates on Twitter, and skimming campaign threads (my eyes glaze over there, I admit) all helped a lot.

Major influences on my choices: informed low sec voices, CSM8 efforts, sandbox preservation, pvp-centric issues, and likelihood that a candidate will step up to the CSM workload and remain visible to and engaged with the community throughout the CSM9 term.

After mushing these imprecise variables around in my brain, I assembled a roster and then voted accordingly. I considered giving slots to mynnna (for good CSM8 work) and Matias Otero (for "Fun Per Hour") but they are likely to be elected anyway by their own alliances so it hardly matters. In case you couldn't tell by my choices, wormholes would be my second choice of residence after low sec so I'm interested to see wormholes have a strong voice on the CSM.

*Yup, resubbed today. Won't be able to log in until I have my new computer set up and software installed; probably this weekend.

Decisions, Decisions...Not Just Yet

I commented on Twitter that I was returning to Eve in a few weeks. Lots of nice tweets welcomed me back and many suggested corps to consider joining (as did a few private messages). I really appreciate this warm response! But the corp decision is one for the future, as I must first discover how Eve runs on my satellite internet connection and whether I will enjoy the New Eden that has evolved since I was last there.

About that internet connection... My little farm is tucked into a rugged corner on the morning side of the Blue Ridge Mountains. There is no cell service here and only one option for internet service: satellite. I used to play Eve on satellite but it was pretty painful for both PvP and voice comms. Eventually, the service I had throttled traffic so much due to oversubscription that I couldn't even log onto a voice server.

Since then, I've moved to a new service on a Gen4 satellite. Overall it is a great improvement but thanks to the laws of physics, the latency in a satellite connection cannot be overcome. With the old service, I had latency and traffic lag; now pretty much it's only latency affecting things. It remains to be seen how much that affects gameplay. It also remains to be seen how Eve performs these days in light of that latency; it is a vastly different game with many under-the-hood changes in the three years I've been gone. Some of those changes may not play well with latency. We'll see.

Assuming the game is playable on my connection (including voice comms latency which seems a little better than it used to be, based on some recent testing), the next consideration is game enjoyment. After I reacquaint myself with the basic mechanics of doing things, sit in a few channels interacting with folks, have flown around a bit, and see whether the old spark ignites again, I will be looking at corp options. I know from four years of previous experience what I don't enjoy in a corp, so any options I consider won't include:

• Rebooting Hellcats; it was fun in its day but I desire zero responsibility this time around
• Corps that impose too many rules, strict ship fits or fleet doctrines, or minimum activity requirements
• Corps that don't have significant pvp activity in low sec
• Corps whose members are on average too young in real life age; I'm old and prefer to hang out with groups that include a majority of older people because it simply makes for more enjoyable and relatable general conversation.

...to name a few criteria :P

This time around, my playtime will be very limited on purpose. Real life is demanding so time for gaming might at best be a very few hours a week. That's enough for me. I'm coming back to Eve because I love flying around in spaceships, I love PvP, and I miss the social interaction with that community in-game. But I don't want any responsibility in-game or out. I just want to fly around, shoot stuff and have a few laughs. Any corp I consider has to be on board with that.

Meanwhile I'm watching posts on Reddit and Twitter from corp prospects on my short list. Who those are, I'll keep to myself. Suggestions for others to consider are welcome on Twitter or in the comments.

Aside: A few people have joked with me that my timing is perfect to prep for a CSM10 campaign. Uh, nope. Not gonna do that again. I love the CSM concept and I really like keeping up with each new council's activities but running for a seat holds no interest for me.

Clone Activation Imminent

"You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave."

-- Hotel California by The Eagles

After being on hiatus for three years, I will return to space in a few weeks.

Much has changed in that time: ship technology, pilot culture, pirating practices, and more. I've kept marginally in touch through various channels but there are a lot of gaps that simply plugging in a few implants can't fill. So I will dip a tentative toe in the water, spend some time having a look around, and focus on getting my space legs back.

Where it goes from there, who knows. I intend to embrace New Eden much more casually than in the past, with decided irreverence and very few fucks given for "doing it right". Thus the title of this journal. My spaceship sojourns will likely involve combat, joyrides, asset relocation, adventures, hilarity, clueless ship fits, kamikaze tactics, and no doubt frequent clone activations. I have neither the time nor the interest to give Eve a very big slice of my life. It is going to be all about the fun this time. I also don't expect to blog as actively as I did with my original (now defunct) blog Life in Low Sec. But when the mood strikes me, I will post here.

So then. See you in space soon...or at the EOH poker tables (where I hope to fund my misadventures).

P.S. Many thanks to Rixx Javix for including me (pictured above) in his delightful collection of Eve Pirate trading cards.