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[Jace]

This is going to be mostly me stating the obvious - but I wish I would have been reminded of all this over the last few months.

Follow friendships in EVE. Over the last few months, I have been struggling a lot with whether I wanted to stay in EVE. If so, what character? Did I want to start my own corp, join one of the more well-known RP corps? Stay with one of my endless vanity corps? I've been hopping between characters on my seven accounts over and over, not sure what I wanted to do. I would get tired of something quickly and move on again.

I'd forgotten that when it comes down to the bottom line for me, EVE is about friendships and acquaintances more than it is any particular way of playing the game. Maybe that is different for others - and more power to them of it is - but for me, there is no part of the game that fascinates me enough to keep me going long term unless I enjoy the people I am doing it with.

I realize how absurdly obvious all of this sounds, but it is easy to forget - especially for roleplayers. We can get so caught up with being true to our characters, attempting to delve into factions in genuine ways, maintaining some sort of authenticity, that we can forget to actually enjoy ourselves. Some great fiction can come out of that. But if you sacrifice enjoyment and camaraderie for it, is it worth it? I've come to the point that it isn't worth it for me.

I love roleplaying and will continue to do it. I love writing and will continue to do it. But what I actually do in-game will start to be dictated more by who I am flying with, who I am chatting in corp with, than anything else. It's the only way I can keep from being frustrated. I can make up for roleplaying frustrations by writing prose fiction about Jace, but I can't make up for not enjoying logging in by having an authentic character. I've had an unbalanced give and take in this area for a long time, as I'm sure people have seen.

So I just wanted to post this to perhaps remind others that might be struggling with the same thing. Value your acquaintances, value the people you enjoy flying with. If all of your friends left EVE (and I know how disheartening that is), explore other communities and avenues of the game to meet other people. Friendly people exist in the cluster, they just need to be found. I know there are many players that do not put a lot of stock in the friendliness of the people they fly with, but these days it is important to me.

Anyway, that's all I have to say. If you feel stuck, if you feel frustrated, if you find yourself jumping from character to character, consider stepping back from those characters and thinking like a player for a second and looking for those people to fly with that help you feel at peace when logged in.

[Samira Kernher]

+1

[Demion Samenel]

+1

You should always try to stay where you feel like most comfortable and have fun. I try to foster that for my corp and the members.

[Mizhara]

Depends a bit on your priorities. Many are lucky and can find a community where they can do what they enjoy with people they enjoy, but this is hardly easy for a lot of people, roleplayers in particular. I'm in a bloody two man corp and we are the only two people in the entire game representing a facet of Eve RP that's completely barren.

There's no guarantee you can find both something you enjoy playing and something compatible with your characters.

[Jace]

There's no guarantee you can find both something you enjoy playing and something compatible with your characters.

This was part of my point. The fun and people aspect is going to start taking more priority for me. If the storyline I have Jace on right now goes nowhere because I am spending time having fun in ways that are irrelevant to RP, than I'm fine with that these days.

[Mizhara]

Which is certainly fair enough, but for many of us Eve's mechanics are just not good enough to sustain the game without the RP on top.

[Jace]

Which is certainly fair enough, but for many of us Eve's mechanics are just not good enough to sustain the game without the RP on top.

Yep, I can understand that. When I have those moments, my personal writing can keep me going for a while. Over this long time that Jace has not been publicly roleplayed, his story has continued to roll on.

[Valadeus]

I agree with the original post and its intent.

For some, the facet of RP that our characters embody is what we derive enjoyment of the game from. However, I would strongly urge anyone that if you find yourself not enjoying your character, your chosen facet of RP or anything else, then finding something within the game (usually people to play with) to keep you having a good time is infinitely more important than anything else.

There is little point in playing a game if you're not enjoying doing it.

Besides, it can be quite enjoyable to have a character take an unexpected turn toward something because you will enjoy it more OOC and then finding a way to rationalize that IC. It can lead to a lot of character development and growth that otherwise never would have occurred.

[Quintrala]