I took a week off work, and my aim was to tinker with a couple projects. Mainly, write a couple of posts to get ahead a little, look at the design of this blog, and maybe even tinker with the design of my other site and put some real content on there.

That didn’t happen.

What did happen is that I decided to get myself an EVE Online account, and spend the whole week fucking around in that universe. Every time I read one of the cool stories that comes out of it I figure that I need to give it a real go, and maybe see if it could end up being me doing some of that cool stuff down the line.

What’s actually happening is that I’m writing this while my other screen has my mining frigate locked onto a Silvery Omber asteroid and I’m keeping half an eye on the screen since I didn’t equip anything that resembles a weapon. But that’s cool. Once I get some cash behind me I’ll be able to train up some skills and head out to do some of the cool stuff.

One of my online friends described EVE as being like Game of Thrones in space, except you play a low born. Which I can see if pretty correct. Most people will end up making a meager living for themselves, and will likely need to join a corporation to advance themselves, at which time a good amount of their income will be given to the corporation (or their lord) in return for protection and things with which to get this income (in EVE that would be ships and equipment, in GoT (or feudal times at least) that would be land and tools). At times you’ll be called upon to go fight a war that you probably don’t have a personal stake in, and the people at the top are wheeling and dealing with you as pawns.

And the whole thing is also a capitalist’s/libertarian’s wet dream. Hi-Sec (or empire space) allows you to do what you like, provided you don’t attack/harm another person (though you are right to defend your life/property with whatever force is necessary), or break certain laws like having illegal items on board (though you can smuggle if you need). Low-Sec means you can do what you like, and if you do bad stuff you’re just going to have trouble getting into Hi-Sec again without the cops blasting you. And Null-Sec is bordering on anarchistic, where even life and property have no defense in law and only the Corporations with money/power have a say over anything.

It’s pretty interesting. And it’s pretty awesome that I can play and make money while I’m doing the other shit I usually do in my downtime, so hopefully I won’t find myself missing any more posts.