Defining the Solo PvPer

So I haven’t been writing on the blog for the past week. Been writing in other places, actually. In my uni workbooks, for one, which have been sadly neglected for the first half of the semester, much to the detriment of my grades. Oops.

A DUST 514 collaborative writing project is another thing I’ve been getting involved in. Did mention that I wanted to develop character creation skills in a previous post, and I figured some good ol’ fashioned role playing in-character would help. So far so good, actually.

For those interested in that RP thread you’ll find it here, on the DUST forums.

Along with that, I’ve also been getting back into DUST 514 after totally neglecting it since I started EVE back in January. CCP’s games seem to possess this quality that draws you back in. It was understandable in EVE; I figured people who had spent hundreds of dollars in their subscription aren’t simply going to throw it away and never return. But DUST, a free-to-play game, in which I personally have not spent a cent on, possesses such an allure, more so than any previous first-person shooter I’ve played to date. I have not mentioned DUST much at all in this blog, and I doubt many DUST players will read this, nor will I make DUST a big part of this blog (for now, though if Project Legion launches I won’t be so sure I’ll be able to resist), but the next portion is nevertheless going to be a bit hard to understand unless you’ve played the game.

So I got back into it this week, got involved in an awesome dropship deathmatch organised by corporations Dead Man’s Game and Learning Coalition. Great fun with great people, and to be honest not many people may have shown up but those who did will vouch for the blast we had.

Then it got a bit more serious for me. You see, what with the state of the game and other factors right now, DUST isn’t exactly pulling in or retaining new players. Most agree that the game is probably on what you could tentatively call life support. I would optimistically call it an elongated winter with spring just over the horizon, with the start of the winter being May this year. We had no prophetic Ned Stark to warn us though, so when it hit, well… here we are today.

Anyway. So that was the long way of saying our EVE-DUST corporation is dying. In what was effectively a 5% EVE to 95% DUST in terms of player composition, most of the DUST players are gone, from the corp or from the game.

Cutting to the chase, we were what I daresay was a formidable force. And such forces commanded PC districts; we still had 3. Now, we were a small bunch of peasants in a winter blizzard, surrounded by wolves. One stepped into the light of our wavering torchlight and tried to take a bite.

More stuff to write about!

I could recount my day-to-day activities on EVE and/or life and have a new post or two every day, but I’m too inconsistent for that and I’ll probably start letting people down eventually. So casting about for more projects that I can put up here, I combine my interests in writing with my absolute adoration for the lore and backstory of EVE Online, and now I want to create backstories for both my characters.

This’ll probably be an ongoing thing; start off with my initial plans for backstory, write a few things out, then rearrange, chop ‘n’ change, until the final product satisfies me. I’ve always wanted to create vibrant characters with depth, and as always, CCP’s New Eden comes to the rescue, providing an entertaining way to do it with their world already created for me.

A snippet of some of the chronicles of EVE Online and DUST 514’s universe, New Eden.

Firstly, EVE Online and DUST provide a solid foundation upon which you can create backstory for your characters. Unlike other games where the existence of your character is explained for you through the lore of the game, or their story is defined in the initial quests you must undertake, in EVE and DUST your character’s conscience is immortal, either through transference to clones that sit in pods and pilot ships with their minds, or into clone soldier bodies capable of wielding weapons of mass destruction with the aid of full-body dropsuits that enhance your physical properties.

And that’s that. So the big question, “who was I before I became immortal?”, is left open to the players’ interpretations, something I get extremely excited about.

Self-doubt and discord: A recipe for uncertainty

Uncertain is how I feel right now.

Today I logged onto EVE, sent out a mail for the plan of action for an upcoming wardec, calmed down a uncertain CEO of a corporation in an alliance about the plan, engaged in conversations on standings with directors of local corporations, and finally logged into DUST on my PS3 to more or less head a corporation meeting and discuss the general direction the corporation should take.

Fun yes, I certainly felt a sense of power as I did these things, but right now everything is sort of hollow.

Details are classified of course, but I feel worried and uncertain rather than relieved after the last meeting ended and downtime arrived. Who am I to lead? The meeting, led by me on voice chat, was iffy at best. The agenda was all over the place. Points discussed were not focused. For the first meeting I’ve organised, it is safe to say it was disastrous. We came to a conclusion but only after many stumbles and backtracks on my part, and I could’ve sworn I said things one too many times. It was obvious the guys expected me to have more to say and when I blurted out an “Alright guys, everything seems good I’m going to go have dinner now”, the collective silence didn’t sound like they were telling me to go stuff my face.

That forum story is moving on!

Mentioned this collaborative project a while ago. Well, it’s been teetering on the brink of stagnation right now. All of us have been slowly breaking apart as real life and other obligations get in our ways.

The issue with collaborative writing is that for longer stories like ours, it requires dedication from all authors, all throughout. Something that started on a forum dedicated to a game totally unrelated to our writing didn’t help. So I’ve taken it upon myself to move the whole lot onto a Word document.

Word document here. (May take a long while to load)

Once forum format is totally removed, I will also have refreshed my memory of the story once again, and hopefully get it back on track.

By back on track I probably mean wrap it up. By rough estimate we have about 400,000 words. The average word length of a book is 64,000.

And this is but one story, you see. What we have created is a whole world. I believe not just in populating the world with creatures, plants, races, ideas and civilisations of our greatest imaginations, but also populating the world with our stories. A single tale woven by our individual strands is great, but we’re doing the whole bloody WORLD (a WORLD!) we’ve created a great injustice if we leave it at that.

Anyway, that’s after we re-unite everyone, get the Word document of what we have so far sorted, and decide how we will end our current tale. For all I know there’s still a hell of a lot to go. But we are getting a little tired of the forum format. I wonder if I can convince my fellow authors to post through this blog? Mmm.

Crawling before I walk

The elation of my first video post and the 1bill ISK earned from OMC has died down now and I’ve been reduced to humble reflection mode. Aside from the issues I’m facing with the corporation slowing down (I’m seriously considering getting directly involved in a leadership role now, fingers crossed that I won’t be a total failure), I’ve come to realise that just because I have ISK doesn’t mean I should spend it.

When fortune smiles on me, why is it that I can forget so quickly the trials and tribulations before I am graced by such luck?

Two Vexor Navy Issues have burned already. I am not going to throw the rest of my ISK away so lightly.  I need to reconsider my goal in lieu of my progress report, and refocus.

-screws eyes up in concentration-

-thinks hard-

-opens eyes-

Frigates.