Aww, you're all sweethearts.

Thanks for the birthday wishes, everyone! Best present: Mynxee’s autograph! (She signs them in autocannon rounds, apparently.)

Upheaval, Reflection, and a Special Day

Yeah, it feels like a year has passed since the last time I posted. To make a long story short, I had a bunch of RL stuff going on that I'm now trying to put behind me. Within EVE, I left the Tuskers a year ago yesterday, joined Death by Design with Predator Elite and friends, stopped playing entirely for a while, then I rejoined some old friends in Molden Heath under the banner of Calamitous-Intent (which seems to be a Voltron-esque amalgamation of former RANSM, R1FTA and THC2 pilots, among others). After joining 7-2 I promptly vanished once again, and only really returned to the game about ten days ago.

Damsel in Distress: Part 1 - Tropes vs Women in Video Games

Big thanks to Kaeda Maxwell for sending me this.

DeathRace and Ducks

The Tuskers DeathRace, will be happening on Saturday, March 16. The race will be MCed by fellow Tusker and blogger Rixx Javix of EVEOGANDA, and features a race through approximately 75 different low- and null-sec systems with all the mayhem that entails. Check out the official DeathRace 2013 web site for more info!

Disclaimer: I don't get any kickbacks from this. I advertise it because I think Rixx is a pretty cool guy (eh writes blogs and doesn't afraid of anything) and because it looks like it'll be a LOT of fun. Come join us!

On an unrelated note, my last post on morality in EVE has garnered a number of comments in-game about... the duck. Since it's already stolen the show, those of you who are interested can now see The World Travels of a Giant Rubber Duck. (The fourth picture down, with the duck against the sunset and the Osaka skyline, totally looks photoshopped.)

Moral Paradox, or "Why E-Honour Is Important"

EVE is a moral paradox, and there are days where I don't understand how this game can function on a social level with so much conflict and divisiveness. I also believe the game would be boring to the point of falling apart if everyone got along.

No, this post wasn't just an excuse to use the ducky pic.

Morality is necessary to EVE, but not in the way most people would think. Read on to find out why.

PSA (Warning: Kind of Sappy)

I had a couple of different versions of a post lined up that included some long-winded, philosophical ramblings about respect and values and such in the world of internet spaceships. The reason mostly comes from some in-game behaviours I've seen recently that are getting under my skin. One of my alts joined a major nullsec alliance - I won't say which, and if you already know I'd appreciate it being kept quiet - and... well, I'll just say that the culture is different than I'm used to, and adjusting to it is more difficult than I thought it would be. (I'll go into more detail about that in a later post.)

As grumpy as I was, though, I've also seen some incredible acts of generosity today. A corpmate helped me out of some dire straits - I won't post his name publicly, but you know who you are, and it means more to me than I really know how to express. Such generosity has, naturally, made me feel like a horrible person for not doing more to help others around me. I was looking for a way that I could pay it forward as well as back, and Twitter was kind enough to provide me with the answer, which brings me to the actual PSA.

For those that aren't aware, Sindel Pellion has this awesome thing she's doing called The Angel Project. Please check it out and consider giving her a hand.

Shameless Plug: EVE Altruist's "Know Your Enemy: Combat Cruisers"

In the spirit of promoting generally good info, giving props to a fellow Tusker and not having to generate my own content (ha!), I'd like to point everyone to the Combat Cruisers edition of Know Your Enemy, over at Azual Skoll's EVE Altruist. Azual posts this kind of thing because he's a reallyniceguy (maybe a little too nice, in his own estimation), and frankly, is modest enough that he hates plugging his own blog. So, I'm going to do it for him.

(Seriously, folks, read his stuff. It's awesome, and I'm not saying that just because he's a corpmate.)