On That Grind I: Atonement

After finishing my first play through of Borderlands and completing the Zombie Island DLC over 4 days with approximately 30 hours of play time; I figured it was time for another game. Why not Eve Online? Eve Online is a fine game full of rich content that can, has and will continue to keep my occupied. A game so fine I even have a podcast and utterly neglected blog about it.

When I log in to Eve Online, I usually give myself a particular goal or purpose. Sometimes it’s simple and something like “there was a jabber ping and I’m going to go rep the hell out of some people.” Other times it’s a little more frivolous and I just want to chat it up in some of the channels I’m in, get some footage of ships or pretend to do some market trading.

On this occasion my mission was simple. I wanted to work on my security status. Currently, I’m sitting at a -8.8. Most of that is left over from my time in WSHOT just after Wildly Inappropriate downsized from an alliance to a corporation. While looking for a new alliance we parked ourselves in Oulley and went to town on the local residents. This resulted in a -10 for a few of my corp mates as well as myself.

Since then I’ve picked at my security status off and on. I sat at approximately -6 for a while, but then Burn Jita happened. I couldn’t help myself and in a few days I was back to -8.8. Totally not worth it. The event only resulted in a couple of pod kills and a shuttle kill report for me. Unfortunately not many FCs were skilled in working with pilots with poor security status. It was a known risk, but I made the best of it.

Holy shit I'm bad at this.

Now for my own nefarious reasons I plan to eat my way back down to at least a -2.0. That is my goal. My far, far away goal which seems unachievable at this moment. It will a really tough journey for me, but it will be worth it. I originally planned to wait until “Security Status 4 Tags” was implemented. Then I got the feeling I would be missing out on one of the “veteran” experiences of Eve.

Grinding your security status up is a painful experience. Still, there’s part of me that feel like working the grind is just as much of a bragging right as wrecking my security status in the first place. Plus, I was a very bad girl to get all the way to true -10.0. Maybe a little atonement for my crimes against internet spaceships isn’t such a bad thing.

The Curious Case of the Accidental Scam

This morning I made a startling discovery. It is way easier to scam in Eve Online than I originally thought. In fact, scamming is so easy; you can do it accidentally. What to know more? Found out how by sending me 250 Million ISK in game! All ISK transfers should be made directly to Arydanika.

I’m just kidding. You don’t have to send me 250 Million ISK. Well, you can, but it would be out of the kindness/stupidity of your heart.

So, last night I logged on to my YouTube account to switch the two commercials[1] I did for Alliance Tournament X from private to public since the Tourney is over. As I logged on to my account I noticed I had a new comment and went to check it out. It read:

4 months and I still don't have a photo. I'm starting to think this is bullshit...
– MindVisionMachinima

 The message was posted in the comment section of the Fits of Angel Commercial[2] I did a while back. It was a parody commercial based on the ASPCA commercial featuring the song “Angel” by Sarah McLachlan. It was also the first Eve Online I made that wasn’t absolutely shit. In fact, it was so good the handsome and debonair CCP Manifest (aka Mr. Atlanta) linked the video via the Eve Online Twitter and Facebook account.

When I initially read the message; I just blew it off. Clearly the guy was an internet troll of sub par standard. I mean, the commercial is a parody and obviously a joke. No one would be dumb to send me 18 Million ISK for a picture of a sh… :christ: That’s when I realized I need to check my alt account.

You see, when I made the video I thought ahead. I knew how devious and conniving Eve Online players could be. I could just imaging some jerk in Jita spamming alink to the video on a character in a fake corporation gaffing people out of ISK[3]. Normally I wouldn’t care, but the commercial is on the Voices from the Void YouTube account and I don’t want the podcast associated with scamming[4].

In an effort to project my fellow players (and the imaginary integrity of my news/interview podcast about a video game) I took the liberty of creating the corporation Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Ships [SPCS.] under my alt Ms Flinstone. This way I knew no one could scam with the corporation name used in the video. My plan was fool proof or so I thought.

There’s an old proverb that states, “A fool and his money are easily parted.” When I checked the corporation wallet for SPCS. there was approximately 100 Million ISK in the wallet. It’s not a lot by any means or stretch. However, for a scam I was trying to PREVENT FROM HAPPENING I think it’s freaking amazing.

It’s just another example of the fantastic and unexpected things that can happen in Eve Online. What other game could begin to scratch the surface of this kind of interaction and game play? What other game gives its players the tools and the freedom for these kinds of hyjinks; intentional or accidental? This is just another reason why I find so much enjoyment in being a part of Eve Online. With experiences like these, you can hardly refer to it as “playing.”

Also, I’m not giving those people their ISK back. I will send them a picture of a space ship though.

Footnotes
1. – Amok. Commercial & WGoE Commercial
Yes I know the font & ending effect are the same. They were created very far apart and I’m deeply in love with that font and effect.

2. – Fits of an Angel Commerical

3. - This fear was validated when Ackbarre from Goonswarm Federation popped in to the Amok. Mumble channel to complain the corp name was taken. H was pretty bummed when I told him I made the corporation and he couldn't scam from it.

4. – Which is why I very particular about not scamming at all. It’s not about E-Honor, but my podcast means a lot to me.