7 years old...... DAMN...

Well Eve has done it, made it to the 7 year mark, and I think we can all safely say that is a damn impressive feat.

Think of all those other MMOs that came, tried to succeed, but eventually failed... either closed down, or fading away.....

Myself, I started playing Eve nearly nearly 3 years after it started, in February 06 to be exact, so that makes me a 4+ year veteran, something I still find hard to comprehend.

When I came to eve, I had been playing WOW for nearly a year, and although I was enjoying it a lot, I always felt "restricted", unable to do what I wanted to do. Forced to follow a certain path to get anywhere.

Reading about the great heists, and wars that were occurring in Eve, I was inspired to give it a try. Though admittedly a childhood of playing Elite, probably also had an lot to do with it.

I spent the first 6 months of my time in Eve alone, I was too worried I didn't know enough to join one of these might "player corporations" (in hindsight one of my greatest mistakes). Until the stories of piracy peaked my interest, and my 2nd account was begun.

My 2nd account was as a direct result of quitting WOW, as my wife said she was happy to have a 2nd eve account, if it meant no extra costs....

(The irony now being that she also plays, and between us we have 5 accounts).

I didn't end up getting into piracy, but instead joined my first corp, a little high sec corp with big dreams, that unfortunately never went very far. However it increased my confidence, and within several months I had decided that I really wanted to get in on this 0.0 action.

Late 06 or early 07, I joined my first 0.0 corp, and made some great friends, that even to this day are some of my most trusted friends in game (and dare I say it, out of game as well).

I found myself in the Drone Regions, in the space that was eventually renamed "Perrigen Falls", in the FREGE alliance. A lot of bad things were said of FREGE over the years, but I have personally have fond memories, as it was there that I learnt the basics of 0.0 combat, and moved into the first T2 ships I ever owned.

With the fall of FREGE, I found myself back in high sec, and I quickly realised that in my heart that my home will always be in the depths of 0.0, and so I returned, this time with Ethereal Dawn.

My history beyond that, has been previously covered in this blog.... but really the point of this, is that looking back, the depth of the life in Eve is immense.

We all have a stories, and pasts, within Eve, but what makes Eve so great is that they are all so different, yet also all matter and are interconnected. Compare this to any sharded game, where everyone has done the same instances, over and over again...

This is why Eve keeps going, why it has lasted 7 years, because we create our own world, our own goals...

To CCP and all my fellow eve players (be the red, neutral, or blue) - tonight I drink to you all!!!!

CHEERS and see you on the field....