Behind:
Work sent me to the east coast this week for a series of meetings. Productive and overall a good experience, but I really didn't have the time at home or at the office to be out of pocket that long. Lugging the work laptop around, I didn't bring the gaming laptop and have been out of touch with most everything. A modern cell phone can do a lot, but only so much. I got back to the house after 11pm on Thursday, was too wired from the trip home to sleep and was still awake at 1am. Alarm clock went off at 5am and I did a full day at the office. Came home and crashed, then took Mrs. Durden for mexican at the local cantina since we hadn't really talked in almost a week. There were a handful of things I should have done last night and I didn't do any of them.
As I type, I'm staring out the window at grass that's well beyond needing mowed. So that's task 1 for today.
Discouraged:
Big Dumb Ride prep has again been interrupted. When I signed up for the ride, I knew that I'd struggle to get the miles I needed in April and May. The weather is unpredictable, and waffles between "super mega-nice" and "shitstorm rain." I track all the miles I've ridden since 2013, and April is typically in my lowest mileage months, with some years recording a big fat zero.
Although I've hit some great high marks - longest unsupported ride, and a non-formal-event metric century (100km), I am not getting the less glamorous weekday rides in that I need to maintain and extend my base. With the work trip this week, I'm behind on a thousand things at the house and the weather is again uncooperative - I may not ride at all this weekend. The BDR event day is closing in and I'm now beginning to doubt my ability to hang on for the full Imperial Century (100 mile) goal.
Hopeful:
One bonus perk of the cold/windy/wet weather is that I might actually be able to undock this weekend and kill some Guristas or Sanshas. It's been awhile....
Philosophical:
I've had a sequel post in my head for the previous "85%" bandwagoning, but will spare you the long dissertations and give a few thoughts with bullet points. Bullet points are cool.
- No, I don't agree with everything in Neville's post. But I do agree with the overall sentiment.
- I am not against Citadels. I'm not personally interested in them, but I see the perks, and like the overall size/shape/flavor of the design. For the past year or more, I've been pretty happy that CCP seemed to be balancing dev investments pretty well. All corners of the community got something (sometimes big, sometimes small, but SOMETHING) in each patch.
- My beef with the 2016 plan seems to be that CCP is banking on "trickle down economics" of null driving interactions in other areas of space. And yah, they will. But it's that feeling of being second class citizens that chafes.
- As a person pretty heavily invested in capship BPOs, I really do want to see capship Fleet warfare get fixed and come back to being en vogue. But I wanted it alongside content directly focused at my preferred way to play.
- I am not upset with CCP Affinity. I think she's done the PVE community a few favors over the past year.
- That being said, I stand behind my previous words about the lack of focus, clarity, and scope control from a project management perspective. I'm not disappointed with any single hardworking dev; I'm disappointed with CCP as a whole for being unable to demonstrate reasonable management and having the balls to communicate directly with us.
- Is it the end of the world? Bah, hardly. I can still rain hot kinetic cruise missile death down upon my foes, save the damsel, and poke the occasional burner in the eye. I've said before and I'll continue to say: EVE today is the most playable state we've ever enjoyed. And that's pretty ok with me.
Abavus quietly celebrated another birthday. He was born just after midnight server time on May 10th, 2003. That's a few days after the original launch. In those early days, owning a battleship seemed like an impossible goal; having 1B isk in your wallet (let alone 20B) was a laughable thought. I don't exactly how how I pictured spending my time in EVE, but at the time it probably involved a lot of Merlins and Kestrels. Every time I think I've peaked in this game, I find another goal and another plateau to climb to.
Pukin' Dogs was actually born several months before EVE's launch, notionally in October of 2002 (though the exact day and even month are now fading with time). We existed in EVE's beta7 but because of skills and cost didn't actually appear in EVE until 31 May 2003. So, around Memorial Day in the US, I'll be hefting an icy cold beverage to the Dogs.
Back then, the notion of playing this silly space game in 2016 was absurd. Perhaps just as absurd as playing the game in another 13 years in 2029. But who knows?
And with that, it's time to go mow the lawn... fly safe!
Happy birthday Abavus!
ReplyDeleteI too have found myself reflecting on Neville’s 85% post. Not in the sense of, “Oh I have to sit down and put some thought into this” but rather discovering small notions percolating to the surface that end up being connected to the 85%'s theme. I suspect in the end Neville’s post didn’t resonate with me because 2015 didn’t leave me feeling like a second class citizen (or first class or third class) any more or less than any other year did.
I’ve always maintained my subscription(s) to play the game at hand rather than on the promise of future content. I suppose, if I was growing bored with my Eve, I’d feel differently but I’m not. Rather, most of the time I feel like I’m barely scratching the surface.