Happy 5th Birthday to Drackarn

Just over five years ago I upgraded my computer at the time. I wanted to get a new game to try it out. It was a brand new gaming PC I'd spec'd myself so wanted to try it out with something new.

It was at this point I finally downloaded Eve Online.

I say finally, I'd read about Eve before in gaming magazines and being a fan of Elite, Wing Commander, Privateer, Homeworld etc it sounded like a great concept. But one thing always put me off. At the end of almost each and every review I'd see the same line. This was roughly along the lines of.....

".....as skill points are learnt at a set rate in real-time and as there is no grinding and no gaining of XP, those new players joining now will never catch up to those who started one, two or five years ago."

You will never catch up! Those five words always put me off. I'd started MMOG's in the 90's with Everquest. Then moved onto Star Wars Galaxies. Yes I'm afraid, WoW was in there, as were Warhammer Online and Age of Conan. So the thought that I'd never catch up in terms of 'levels' to older players really put me off. I was thinking in terms of most normal MMOG's. You need to level up to max so you can join the raid groups as that is the 'end game'. Just imagine explaining this to your average WoW player......

Any toon you start now will never reach the same level as those already playing.

Most will question what is the point of playing such a game.

Anyway, I thought I'd just give it a try as it was free and would be something different to try on my new shiny PC. I guess at the time I fancied a bit of sci fi too. So I downloaded the game, created a character and jumped straight in.

Like most people at the time I started with the tutorial, got a short way through and then stopped it as I was bored and went off and did my own thing!

I started flying Caldari frigates. Then I was really excited to get into a Cormorant. Next up was the Caracal! I thought I was uber then with my missile spitting bird of prey type ship. A few months in and I was still going strong solo.

After a chat with a old mate who I discovered also played, I joined my first player corp and was given a Drake by some rather generous chap in corp. Soon I was carebearing in Ravens. Slowly Revelation Space Corp turned me from a carebear to a "one weekend per month" werebear when we joined faction war for two or three days a month.

Then in 2009 -RS- merged into Shadows of the Federation and I went full time PvP. After a few months I was made a Director. CCP fixed the standings hit bug for repping a pirate when in militia and then we started to shooting everyone. I was soon pushing -10. We tried some NPC Null-Sec holidays and bashed the bears that inhabit that space. We got invited to join a bloc in null sec sov holding, we built a station, went ratting, pressed F1 in massive 500-a-side BS blobs that needed no skill and got bored.

By 2012 SoTF was becoming "l33t". Stargates were an inconvenience compared to Titan bridging. Stand corp fittings ran in the billions of ISK. Small mistakes caused raged.

During that summer I moved to QCats and back to informal fun PvP. And here I am.

5 years of playing Eve.
97m skill points.
4164 important internet spaceships killed
467 important internet spaceships lost
Over 500 billion in ISK assploded
Made a lot of good friends.

So if you got here by searching "Is it too late to start playing Eve?" or "Can a new player ever compete in Eve Online?" then the answer is yes. It can be a hard game to get into, but the rewards are worth it.

Whilst it is usual to receive presents on a birthday, I'm actually going to give one away. Post below what your character would give my character as a birthday present if Eve was real and we were friends. It can be in-game items but where is the fun in that? Think out the box, and the best theoretical present can have a T2 rigged Cynabal cruiser fully fitted and armed. I've had it ages gathering dust in my hanger and TBH I'm too scared to fly it myself! Expensive ship + poor, drunk piloting don't mix!

So just post a comment below, something similar to "If Eve was real and my character was friends with your character I would get you for your 5th birthday a......". I'll choose my favourite just before Wednesdays usual post which will be around noon Eve time. Remember, in-game items are unlikely to win. Think out of the box! If you were an immortal with enormous wealth and power, what would you buy as a birthday present for someone?

P.S. Oh yes, and winner collects the Lorenabal..... from Nisuwa!

P.P.S. I get a lot of spam on this blog from Eve Online ISK to webcam 'performers' so I moderate as I hate captcha. There can be 8-10 hour delays in your comments appearing if I'm asleep.