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Social Independence

I had a cat named Qwill. He was my first cat and I lost him much to soon. I never doubted that Qwill loved me. People often call cats aloof and not affectionate. Qwill was aloof but he is what I considered companionably aloof. "I'll love you from over there." You see, Qwill would cuddle but it would be short and he'd then set himself a few feet away. One might think he was off doing his own thing. Yet, if I left the room he followed. He was at the door when I came home. He'd sit on the sink when I took a bath. He'd come hang out in the rain when I got home from work and in the evening, he'd come and kneed me as I fell asleep and once I was sleep he'd slip away to lay on the other side of the room. But, he'd not leave the room. He was not a stupid cat. He knew how to open containers and use levers. We had to get a twisting, vacuumed sealed container to keep him out of the pet food. He could open doors and we once watched him pull a stack of containers we had used to weight the lid of the cat container off, then pop the snap handles up, and eat from it. Another container, he opened, ate, and then closed after himself.

I thought of Qwill while responding to a fascinating e-mail yesterday. It was a discussion about market advice and low sec survival. I love these topics. I had Chella skill into a Blockade Runner at the end of her second month and as a reward Ender gave me his Viator that he no longer needed. I still have that Viator. But, I skilled into that Viator because I was moving salvage. Salvage mass was larger then and looting would fill my fully expanded Noctis. I made my first billions off of salvaging and looting level 5 missions and I needed to haul it out to Rens to sell.

How terrible I was at Eve finance. Worse then now and that is something.

So, there I was all equipped to answer these questions. Low sec market advice. Go. Moving items in and out of low sec as a career decision, together. And as I read and as I responded I crafted a series of potential pathways based upon this players particular needs and wants. You see, this player wanted to be a part of the breathing, living game, but they did not wish to do so in an overly social way.

They wanted to supply the market, take the risk of gatecamps and local pirates, buy and sell, but not do so in a sit on the couch type of way. Their joy was in going at it alone but interacting with it all and that intrigued me. I responded to it, I made suggestions on how they could work at it alone and contribute to Eve without doing so socially.

And I thought... some people will say this is wrong. They would want me to push the player towards social game play. Politics. Deals. Blues. Payments. Working with others to optimize sales and cater to clientele. But... I thought of Qwill. I thought about the lessons I learned over twelve years with an amazing companion. And I answered his questions to the best of my ability. I made some suggestions on how to gain knowledge from the quiet corner of the room but in terms of Eve play and interaction. I've spent a large part of my life unnoticed against the wall and I've often been happiest there.

Being social... interacting.. being a part of things is multidimensional. It is where an individual finds their productive place. Because productivity, enjoyment, the want to be there, are what matters when we play a game for pleasure. It let's us enjoy the choices that we make.

Some of us are our most involved when we are across the room.


  1. I am of that type also. The way I play is solo, for sure, but I like interacting with others from distance. You won't see me joining big corporations or being part of big fleets, since those are not enjoyable to me. I feel at home doing my own stuff, whether it is missions, exploration, industry or markets. If I did not want to have social contacts, I would play single player games, but I do... and hence EVE. Sometimes I speak out on chat channels, but often I am content to just read others' comments.


  3. You would be surprised how many of us play solo but only interact when we want to. People views of my play-style is a major reason why i have a love/hate relationship with this game ... how can you tell its a sandbox game and hate me because I play 'wrong' in the same breathe. I don't think people understand that marketing and parroting has gotten us to this point. Marketing (CCP) wants you to get your friends involved in the game; create a social environment so there are more subscriptions. Marketing (blog owners) want people to visit their pages, which has the potential to generate an income stream; the more people visiting, the better the chances of them clicking one something that generates income. Neither is bad ... until we parrot these things and call it "Law" i.e. your play-style is wrong and I don't want you to play unless it's 'the right' way. Goons are a classic example of what im talking about ... well the REAL Goons from Something Awful. They charge 10 dollars for you to join, then they take you out as a newb and shower you with stuff so that you are interested. Then the CTA start and you are involved in big space battles to keep you interested. Then you are told about their news website, where you can purchase game time so you can keep playing and enjoying the social aspect. The entire time, they are saying, if you are not PvPing, your not playing Eve ... which is not true and creates an us vs them situation. Again, that's not bad, until the public jeering and humiliation starts in local, reinforcing 'if your not PvPing, your playing wrong' mentality.

  4. Cat are sociaal. They Just don, t want You to mess up thuis pelt wich they have been grooming all Day. Anway i also want to be an independent in low sec but as a capital constructor.


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