Diary of an EVE Addict – All About EVE - In the beginning...

Dear Diary (9-4 to 9-7/04),

Today, I hit upon the bright idea of doing a diary for this extraordinary game. I've played EVE before, for a brief time, and couldn't get over the absolutely amazing graphics. The star systems here are just unbelievable, and the color and detail mesmerize me. But it wasn't until I saw my hubby having the time of his life that I decided the game warranted further investigation. I want honking great guns and huge ships, big as third world countries.

I'm going to start at the beginning and follow a character all the way through newbie-ness, learning the skills, learning how to blast those snarkin' pirates to hell, and learning to be the meanest son-of-a-gun...er daughter-of-a-gun in space. Guild experience (called corporations here) will be a part of it...and face to face encounters with the characters, PC and NPC, who people the multiple worlds of EVE Online: The Second Genesis.

I decided to create a character called Raya Warcry. After all, I am doing this at least 50% for the magazine, 25% because I feel EVE needs writing about, and 25% because I love doing this sort of thing. So I hit upon the Caldari race, Civire bloodline, because she had the kind of red hair that really portrays me, at least on the inside. I am a redhead in real life, but this redhead is the redhead of redheads. Okay, that's a bit of a girly reason, but I also liked the no-nonsense, handle-herself-in-a-fight look.

The really neat thing about character selection in EVE is that it is soooooooo detailed. I played around with the mouth and other controls and managed to leave Raya Warcry with a sort of a smirk on her full lips, a coy look that leaves you wondering what she is really up to, and a devil-may-care tilt to her head. She has an arsenal of weapons on her back and is dressed in a rather fetching ensemble of silver armor.

After I had the physical creation out of the way, I had to figure out what she was going to do in life...scalliwag and rogue doesn't quite cut it in EVE, so I had to look at all the options...decided I wanted her to go out and KILL things. Bloodthirsty maybe, but oh, so satisfying, after dealing all day with deadwood words, myopic meetings, and emasculated emails.

My husband Hyaplew (Malamber in-game) brought me down to earth by telling me I had to pick certain things in order to give me certain skills and attributes that would allow me to do all these space missions of death. Yahoo! I have an inside track on knowing which skills to pick, so I don't have to either compensate later on or reroll, which is tiresome...ask me, I have done it three times for various reasons. It's very nice having a rich (in-game anyhow) sugar hubby. Anyhow, I listened and learned...found out that, yup, perception is highly prized for things like gunnery and space command...but charisma isn't even on that list. After all, I figured, I'm gonna be a killer--who needs charisma? So I put my initial points in perception. After I was finished, even Malamber nodded approvingly. Nothing like those little strokes of ego to make you feel like you're accomplishing something.

Now to introduce my beloved creation, Raya Warcry, into the game. I am looking forward to doing that tomorrow.

Love,
Raya