Monday 3 December 2012

Why we fly, and why we don't.


Back when I was putting myself through university, I spent a lot of time playing World of Warcraft, especially around exam times. WoW wasn't exactly rocket science, so I could just log on and zone out, focusing just on grinding whatever battleground I happened to feel like (hint: it was always Alterac Valley, until they ruined it). I got my Unstoppable Force that way.

EvE, however, is just not like that. While there are any number of positive adjectives to describe EvE (such as "fun", "awesome", and "beautiful"), "relaxing" is not one of them. At least, not the way I fly.

Perhaps things would be different if I were a carebear. I imagine that high sec mining or mission running is generally pretty grindy and relaxing (unless a suicide fleet finds you, of course), but hunting other players requires a lot of focus. Focus is not relaxing.

So, although I've been able to log into EvE for the last few days, I haven't. Real life stresses have made me want to veg out in the evenings, so I've actually been playing LotRO (it's free to play, so I can just play it for a few days and then leave it if I want). I'd have logged in for a corp roam, but I'm guessing other people have been busy too, because our usual Thursday and Friday roams were not running. However, there does seem to be a roam this evening, which I'm really looking forward to.

Why are corp roams different? I'm not sure, but I suspect it has something to do with being among friends. More cynically, I could also suggest that the responsibilities of being alert to danger and finding the fight are divided among more people, making the whole thing less stressful.

Of course, EvE doesn't actually help either. Not only do I need to stay focused when I play (which is actually one of the game's real strengths), but I need to jump out of my training clone. So, subtly, I'm encouraged not to play when I'm feeling lukewarm anyway - not only may I not enjoy myself, but I put myself behind in training as well!

All of this is just a way of saying I've not forgotten the blog, but that I have no new fights to post at this time. Hopefully, that changes soon, because, like many people, I'm away for the second half of December. I need some new killmails!

4 comments:

  1. Been feeling the same stress myself, so I've been playing Skyrim much more lately. Long days at work where your job is to think...it can be tough to be play eve from there.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yeah, I definitely know how you feel, and have refrained from logging in to EVE on that basis from time to time. That said, it was great to fly with you again on the roam on Monday.

    (As an aside, which server are you on for LOTRO? I sometimes play on Landroval if I'm not in the mood for spaceships.)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I tend not to play LoTRO too often, but when I do I'm usually leveling my captain on Imladris server.

    Buffing other people tends to be my preferred game play. I suspect it's a legacy of my time as a military officer. Fingers crossed for on-grid boosting!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, I can see how you would enjoy playing a Cappy - and yes, on-grid boosting is something I'm greatly looking forward to. Granted, that's primarily because it'll mean more opportunities for shiny kills. >.>

      Delete