For over a decade now, I’ve watched real-life programmers make professional-quality apps for EVE, real-life economists produce analyses that (probably) teach CCP a thing or two about their world, and real-life statesmen shape this historic single-shard server, all while I continued to study writing, music, teaching, and, most importantly, PVP. Maybe I internalized what all those older family members said, that I was wasting my life in the Humanities. (Well, now I have a blog, so I’ve shown them!) It took me a long time to realize that I could also contribute to the community, in my own way. So here it is. This is not going to be your asteroid belt-variety EVE blog.
So it’s fair for you to wonder, Who are you, and what have you done with my spaceships?
The short answer is, I used discursive methods to whittle them into ontological insignifigance.
The longer answer is, nothing.
Nope, I’m not interested in your spaceships.
Now I’m sure you’re wondering, If this blog isn’t about spaceships, is it at least about explosions? Well, duh. What about EVE’s stories? Forever and always. What about rage, salt, and other trendy condiments? Reluctantly. Will you have opinions about EVE’s direction, culture, or gameplay? Who doesn’t? So, that would involve some back-seat development? I have already slashed the tires. Will you care about my opinions? Nope. But I may do some interviews. Can I bring my drake? My representatives have advised me not to comment. Also, I think you mean ‘Risk Averse.’ That’s not a question, but I’ll answer it anyway.
The name of this blog is a nod towards one of my all-time favorite comments from the r/eve subreddit: in response to someone asking ‘Why do you lurk here if you don’t even play the game?’ some wise soul replied, ‘For the same reason people go to the zoo.’ Using this pithy yet catastrophic smackdown as a metaphor, I can say that Isk Averse is something of an all-in-one zoo tour guide, conservation initiative, emergency veterinary clinic, nature documentary, and taxidermist.
Ok I’ll bite. So, who the hell are you?
I’ve been a sci-fi writer, literature student, and EVE player not only for all of my adult life, but for much of my earlier life as well. I probably started EVE first of all these, back in 2008, as a precocious young nerd with a passion for explosions. In 2012, no doubt influenced by EVE’s world of New Eden, I began developing my own world of speculative fiction, a project that continues to this day. This blog is a way for me to keep up my essay-writing chops while trying to question the answers that this game, world, and community have left with me for years.
Yawn. TLDR?
Well, my inability to keep even this intro short enough you don’t want a TLDR doesn’t bode well. (Maybe in a future post we’ll get to intersections of EVE and the modern attention span, if I can remember to.) But if you’ll allow me to wax somniferous for one more moment, I think we can get it done: Isk Averse is a series of social, literary, and political essays about EVE Online that promises to be empathetic but unapologetic, unbiased but opinionated, intelligent but accessible. One week we might be using EVE players’ mourning rituals to look at how we view death as an online society; the next week we might take a deep dive into the ways EVE develops fleet commanders, or what can make a videogame a work of art. If, after reading, you appreciate the game more, appreciate life more, come to doubt everything you thought you knew about both, love me, hate me, block me, subscribe, or just want to start playing with us, I’ll consider it a job well done.
Isk Averse 