Blog Banter #63 - Customization

The alarms howled in his ears, warning lights flashed dizzily before him. Space whirled about him as the camera drones grasped at the reality of what just happened. He willed himself to warp again, no luck, they had him scrammed. The hull integrity warning bayed again, fraying his already taught nerves. He knew this had been a mistake.

Was there anything he could do? A glance showed the answer. No. Everything was burned out, or close to it. He grasped the engine with a thought, and hauled it all the way to 0. No point in risking a misunderstanding.

An invitation hung in the space before him, pulsing slowly. It was from the traitor. He sighed, reached out, and was pulled into the channel. As the screen resolved itself, a cloud of Hobgoblins passed by, trailing the Vexor that now held him tight. He cursed himself again, bemoaning his foolishness. How had it come to this…?

It was the announcement that had divided them, pitting ally against ally. Of course, there had been bitterness before that, blue on blue incidents, but never anything like this. All from a few simple words, spoken by an insignificant face on a vid­-screen. They echoed in his mind, “Formalisation of ownership”…”Ratification of a de-facto truth”. Anyone could see what it meant, well, any capsuleer. The empires were losing their grip. He just hadn’t expected it to go this far…

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Yes, I’m going there, Nails are by the door, planks on the right. If you want to crucify me, make it quick…

It’s the post you've all been waiting for, the one, the only, the “Low-sec is just null-sec-lite” post.

I'm kidding. Lay the pitchforks down, don’t you know that jumping to conclusions requires getting out of your pods…

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(Content starts here)

Blog banters are all about thinking big, imagining a greater future. This is my first post, so I don’t know if I will quite reach the heights that others may cruise at, but I’ll try. I welcome any and all comments, even if they’re just pointing out my spelling and grammar mistakes. Here goes.

(Deep breath)

Low Security space is the red-haired step child of Eve, to quote various bloggers. It suffers from being neither vocal nor populous. We that live here are hardly the largest, or the most notable players of this game. In fact, I cannot recall any ‘outside the bubble’ news that focuses on the actions of people in low sec. Sometimes I feel that it is only through the actions of heroic CSMs like Sugar Kyle that CCP is reminded we exist.

Low Sec, in general, is a free-form environment. Excepting Faction Warfare, Low Sec space is neither defined nor limited by CCP intervention. Borrowing (badly) from Sony, Low Sec is ‘By the Players, For the Players’. Reputation is king, master and commander. When people whisper in channel about the dangers of Low Sec, they don’t speak of NPCs, environmental challenges or game mechanics, they talk about us, the inhabitants.

Some of you will have heard of Aeschee, the home of Shadow Cartel, who hold planets in their grasp, others, of Egglehende, where Dirt ‘n’ Glitter dominate the warzone. There are few systems in EvE that have the same name recognition as Rancer or Old Man Star.

Perhaps you’ve heard of The Tuskers, a group of pirates, or Stay Frosty, a group of pirates. Players too are famous names, notorious pod-killers or solo-ers. There aren't many people I know who haven’t died to Santo, Mystical Might or to Piir8.

So here’s what I dream of: Let us make this reputation a real thing. I want to let people know:

 Here I am.

 This is mine.

 Take it from me, if you dare…