Since Just About began, we’ve taken joy in collecting capsuleers’ most compelling, true EVE Online stories. We’ve been acquiring them via rewards that offer cash prizes for the best of the best. After editing them, we reshare them with the wider EVE community via curated content. Now, for the first time, you can find links to all of these prize-winning stories in one place. We’ve organised them and laid them out below, and we’ll continue updating this master list when we run more contests.
EVE Online first PvP kill stories
They say you never forget your first, and these players certainly didn’t. This was the first piece of curated content we ever made in conjunction with EVE Online players. It contains tales of sweaty palms, thumping hearts, and rushing adrenaline, culminating in the sweet joy of having nailed that first-ever kill. So for seven great tales of ‘the Shakes’, click below:
“What followed was a race to the death. If I couldn’t kill his drones faster than he could kill me, I was done for. Every drone I killed was swiftly replaced in what felt like an endless onslaught. Eventually, he stopped replacing the drones that I destroyed, and soon was left stranded in space with no means to attack me. I then turned my guns onto the Dominix itself.” - a snippet from EVEIL's first PvP kill EVE Online story.
EVE Online resourceful entrepreneurship stories
EVE is equally famous for its tales of cunning and skulduggery as of mega-scale battles, so it’s no surprise that our EVE players had many stories of crafty capitalism to share. In the article below, you’ll read about daring heists, economic bait-and-switches, and all manner of dishonest wheeling and dealing, although you might be surprised to discover some tales with happy endings too (and not just for the con artists).
“Just a few weeks ago, I was moving some old mining material in a freighter. As I’m flying my slow Charon through a gate, three billion ISK appears in my wallet alongside a message saying ‘Merry Christmas’. I’m searching my memory for any reason in the universe someone might have sent me that much money. I check my mail, and it’s him: ‘The industry is going great these days. Thank you for not letting me down when I started. Fly safe, and may our paths cross again.’ There’s the worst of humanity in EVE, but also sometimes the best.” - a snippet from KAZO+AR's entrepreneurial EVE Online story.
EVE Online peaceful adventure stories
Despite its cut-throat reputation, there are a great number of fantastic EVE Online stories that don’t end in bloodbaths, nor even offal showers for that matter. We collected a few great ones, and Ford James turned them into this collection of non-combat endeavours:
“Some stories don’t end with the narrator achieving the greatest goal ever. And not every story is one that will be remembered forever in the annals of EVE history. More often than not, great stories are about pushing your own limits and discovering adventure on your own terms. One day, long ago, I almost stole a Titan. And, for me, that is a pretty amazing tale." a snippet from Rixx Javix's non-combat EVE story.
EVE Online against-all-odds stories
Never tell capsuleers the odds! We loved these six underdog stories in which players snatched victory even when the whole galaxy seemed against them. They go to show that no matter how outnumbered and outgunned you are, that doesn’t mean you have to be outplayed.
“One of our guys decided he would buzz around through some connecting wormholes to look for gas-mining sites. His gas-huffing boat was nice and stealthy, perfect for what he was about to do. He took off to do his thing while we sat around PvPing each other and scratching our butts. Before long, his voice came over our comms: ‘Bring boats, lots of them!’” - a snippet from LeeeroyJenkins's against-all-odds EVE Online story.
EVE Online narrow escape stories
While those players may have fought and scraped to get the upper hand, there’s no shame in running away to fight another day. These cautionary tales of survival will have you white knuckled; you’ll grit your teeth while learning how players escaped by the skin of their own:
“In this instance, I was well and truly caught - pinned down by the enemy forces. I handed leadership over to my second-in-command to guide the fleet to safety. But that left me stuck at a gate ping-ponging back-and-forth while waiting on my timers. Now this is where the big-brain thinking comes in. I was delaying trying to catch up with my friendly fleet through choice, by design if you will. I was allowing them to extract to safety.” - a snippet from FUN INC's narrow escape EVE Online story.
EVE Online 'painful in-game loss' stories
Not all EVE Online stories have such happy endings. These tales of woe still haunt their storytellers. Let us take a moment to reflect on battles lost and favourite ships gone boom.
"The last thing I saw was the incoming fire converging on me, and the realisation hit hard—I had just lost four billion ISK worth of ship and gear. As I drifted in the storm, a cautionary tale in the making, I couldn’t help but feel the weight of my mistakes. From that day on, I made it my mission to share my story, warning others about the unpredictable storms that could cost even the mightiest pilot everything." - Nth Dimensional
EVE Online ‘A Pirate’s Life’ photoessays
We explored a different medium for these true EVE Online stories: photo-essays with the brief ‘A Pirate’s Life’. So get your grog swillin’, peg leggin’ fix using the link below, and let us know if you’d like to see more photo-essay rewards!
"Now that I've started 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 needs be.” - a snippet from Melicien Tetro's pirate life photo-essay.
EVE Online player highlights
These next two links are a bit different. At the end of both 2023 and 2024, we asked our community about the in-game and out-of-game achievements that they were most proud of. There are some great stories in both, so we’ve decided to include them. First up, the 2023 edition:
“The significance of the moment coupled with the uplifting realisation that I had become part of something greater filled me with a profound sense of belonging.” - a snippet from Sturmer's 2023 player highlight.
And here’s 2024’s:
“We were outnumbered and outgunned, facing a mercenary group with T3 cruisers. The first thing I thought of was imminent death, but this time we managed to properly control the use of our weapons and the cooldown of our shields, and the battle started turning to our favour! My team was then able to use ECM drones, scramblers, and other tactics to isolate our enemies and put an end to their strategy!” - a snippet from JHenckes's 2024 player highlight.
Be sure to check back in on this EVE Online story collection from time to time, as we’ll update it as we run more rewards. And if you think you have an EVE story worthy of inclusion, simply find a competition that fits: EVE Online rewards. Image credit: Razorien on Flickr.
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