We asked Just About EVE Online’s fearsome buccaneers, scoundrels, and knaves to show their introspective sides by creating photo-essays on what it truly means to live a pirate’s life. We wanted to know if roaming the asteroid belts of J-space in a battlecruiser is as romantic as sailing the Seven Seas in the galleons of yesteryear.
It’s the first time we’ve run a photo-essay bounty. Having seen the results, there’s no doubt that we’ll be running more. Below, you’ll find the three submissions we deemed most worthy of our booty.
3rd Place: Smugglers’ Folly by Kane Carnifex
The names of New Eden’s most feared pirates can be heard whispered in quiet places from Jita to Hek. But they don’t earn their reputations by chasing down measly mining and commerce vessels. They let other pirates do the dirty work, then once their hulls are filled with plunder, they give them a taste of their own medicine. Here’s @Kanecarnifex being a scourge of stars. Original post
Home Sweet Home, or as a German would say, ‘Lebensmittelpunkt’ which means ‘food-mid-point’. It’s from here that I terrorise the Guristas Pirates ‘faction’.
My prey uses smuggler warp gates to move easily from A to B. It would be a pity if somebody were to wait at one of them.
Just to give you a sense of size. The thing is huge compared to my cruiser.
Looks like somebody isn't amused by my visit.
Looks like somebody still isn’t amused and explodes in anger.
Another one bites the dust.
This is the moment they touch you a little harder. Just grab them gently back and show them who rules this smuggler gate now.
2nd Place: Pistols and Plunder by Brother Grimoire
Next, we have Brother Grimoire’s tale of cut-throats and cutlasses. We chose it for second place thanks to the stunning second image in the series and the seafaring spirit showcased throughout. And yes, bonus points may have been awarded for the tricorn hat.
Packing the piratical essentials for a hunt!
Don’t look now, but there’s a cop behind us.
How do you do, fellow miner?
We’ve found B O O T Y, mateys!
Roll out the cannons! Prepare your pistols and steel!
We’ve keelhauled the filthy landlubbers! Let Jones have them in the deep!
Officer, I just got here, I swear
A pirate and his plunder :)
1st Place: A Voyage of Self-Discovery by Melicien Tetro
Finally, we have our first-place winner Melicien Tetro who has now deservedly amassed more loot than a boatswain’s favourite niece. Their poetic journey of introspection navigates doubt, ambition, and fading fires, all in search of answers to the question of the hour:
What does ‘A Pirate’s Life’ mean to me?
Am I even a pirate anymore? Sometimes I wonder.
Am I roleplaying a revolutionary leader with larger goals?
Have I just gone totally carebear?
Am I just keeping up appearances?
It can be easy to feel that way. Even though we’re brutal Triglavian Invaders, the infancy of our alliance is a lot of insulated krabbing.
Setting up cute little homes for my friends and painting them in cute colours doesn’t feel very piratelike…
And yet without our cute little cradle, we wouldn’t have been able to grow strong enough to be a threat.
My little killers are getting so big, and I’m so proud of the blood they spill, but I thought it wasn’t for me anymore.
I encourage them to take ransoms and spoils, but I thought I was over it.
Now that I’m starting to get back out there, I’ve realised something.
I’ve still got that dog in me.
Am I just grabbing a few kills in my retirement…
…or am I a sleeping dragon waiting to rise?
Who knows?
What I do know is this:
‘A Pirate’s Life’ means keeping my crew happy, at others’ expense if need be.
N.B. Some text has been slightly amended for grammar and brevity. You can find the submissions in full at the *original bounty post*.
Created at . Page last updated at .
