The first time I came across EVE Online was when I was looking for a new futuristic online game to play. It's always been one of my favorite genres, I remember when I played with spaceships as a kid. Anyway, I ended up buying the game and got some tips from a friend from school (I was in high school at the time), who encouraged me to start playing. He told me that the game had a ruthless economy, driven by the players, its epic space battles and the infamous stories of betrayal and cooperation on a galactic scale (I don't even need to tell you how much he loved the game, right? Hahaha). He told me that each player could chart their own path in all sorts of ways, and that's what attracted me. The possibility of having an online game as rich as he told me about won me over before I even played it!
I was as humble as any other new player: a simple miner, trying to earn some ISK in the high-security systems, avoiding the pirates and trying to scrape together enough money to buy better ships. But what really struck me wasn't the game's universe, or even the complex gameplay that kept me trying to learn more. It was that moment when I realized how much the game resembled life, the real risks, the real consequences and the real people behind the ships.
The first turning point came when I decided to move from the high security space to the low security space. I had saved up to buy a new cruiser, asked my high school friend for help and thought I was ready (I had been playing for a few weeks, I felt very experienced). It was a gamble. The adrenaline rush of flying through these systems, never knowing who might be waiting, was like nothing else I'd ever played. Of course, many games have places where PVP is allowed, but in EVE I had a different feeling! But the worst happened. I was ambushed, attacked and torn apart by a group of pirates before I even blinked. The loss was staggering, not just because of the value of ISK, but because of the time and effort I had invested. It was like being robbed in broad daylight, and I felt it.
But that's when EVE came into my life. It wasn't just a game where you were reborn and tried again. There were real losses, and the victories tasted much sweeter because of it. I licked my wounds and sought revenge, not directly, but by learning, then joining a corporation and becoming part of something bigger. That's when EVE really became special.
My corporation wasn't an arbitrary collection of players; it was a community (my friend already had colleagues and even people he befriended in the game, these people were in the corporation and made everything more fun). We planned together, contributed what we could and, in due course, began to help each other be present in the low-security space. So the happy feeling of securing our first major victory against a rival corporation's mining operation was incredible. All that planning, waiting and rewarding made me realize that EVE isn't about personal achievements; it's about collective effort. Each ship that goes into battle represents someone's time and dedication. The fact that everyone is a friend makes this help even more present.
It's this sense of unpredictability that has kept me playing EVE over the years. You never know for sure what's going to happen when you land. You could be on a simple mining operation and suddenly find yourself in the middle of a huge fleet...
EVE Online made a difference to me because it taught me about the value of persistence, community and the thrill of uncertainty. It was more than just a game to me. It brought me the first experience of socialization that I'd never had before, since it's with games that these interactions can seem grandiose, and being immersed in it makes it more fun, makes us want to learn and play more and has meant that I've been playing EVE for 9 years now with very few times leaving the game aside, always following the updates.
