CZ Minutes: High Definition

Last week on CZ Minutes, we discussed whether alliances should become more formalised in-client via mechanics such as bookmarks and the like. This week round, we make things a little more personal, asking the question ‘what defines you as an Eve player?’

Xander: How do you define yourself as an Eve player? What makes you the character that you are in game? Is it the players you fly with? The area you fly in? The alliance you are in? The people you fight? The ships you build? Your wallet? Your corp ticker? What makes you ‘you’ in Eve Online?

Niden: Of the things you mentioned, for me, it’s the area I fly in. I’ve been in love with lowsec for quite a few years now, but for various reasons not found my way ‘in’ to it until late in my career. Before that happened I quit the game a bunch of times. My first stint as a pirate 6-7 years ago was a miserable one, none of us knew what we were doing really and ended up dead and poor.

Unfortunately I didn’t listen to my gut when FW was released. A friend had said it was just a blob-fest and recommended I avoid it. I did, and quit again. I finally made it into FW in January 2013 and haven’t looked back since. Since then I have been flying as a pirate with a flag, a privateer if you will.

I love being a part of the reputation of ruthless PvP that lowsec enjoys. The culture that I help define and that defines me. In many ways lowsec made me the EVE player I am today, and now I have a hand in building and continuing that legacy. It took some time, but I finally found my EVE.

Forlorn: I am Forlorn Wongraven, a virtual character in the EVE universe. My connection to my corp and alliance is pretty much RL for me. Also this is a silly question.

Mangala: For me, my RL character IS Mangala. What I am in game – a social type, loudest guy in the room, leader and so on, is me in the real world. Yes, its usually a me with less of the restrictions imposed by social and cultural mores in the real world, but it is still very much me.

Even without RvB, Ganked, the CSM, my column on CZ, I am still the same person I was when I first started out in EVE, just with a bit more experience under my belt, yes all the things I have named have affected me in ways their absence maybe could not have, but the fact that I have taken on these communities, these activities and integrated them into my EVE experience is just another facet of me the person in RL, a guy who always wants to learn and experience new things.

Suppose what I am saying is I do not use the things I get up to in game to define my character, I just treat my ingame character as an extension of my RL self.

Xander: For me, what Xander ‘is’ is the real life relationships I have made with real life people. Not the toons, the actual people on the other side of the Teamspeak server or Skype client. Predominantly, this is my corpies in Zebra Corp but also all the guys here at CZ, all the people who message me in game, the guys I talk politics with, the devs I chat to and so on. It’s the people I interact with that defines my experiences in Eve and as such, Xander itself.

HVAC: This is such a weird question. I’m not sure what really defines me in EVE; I only really play anymore because I’ve played with the same group of people for the last seven years. The relationships I’ve built in that time have morphed from “dudes I shot Band of Brothers with” to, in some cases, real-life friends that I get drunk with. If Goonswarm vanished from the game overnight and everyone in it left, there would be no way I’d ever continue playing EVE.

Joran: I don’t think it’s that strange a question. I think everyone has a definition of how they identify in Eve. Obviously you define yourself as a Goon. I define myself as a member of my corporation, and I do believe I’ve developed strong friendships that extend to other games and real life. Some people define themselves by the roles they have, whether it’s industry or lowsec or whatever else. I think an interesting corollary to this, and perhaps something to consider in the future, is how much of you is in who you are in Eve, and how much that is something that Eve has developed or gaming has developed. I would say 80% is me, but there’s a good portion there that is an online persona I have, and not exactly how I would behave in real life, that carries across all games I play, whether it’s Eve, DOTA, or anything else.