Selfishly Altruistic

I started Eve about 3 1/2 years ago with one account. Like many a young noobin, once I figured out that you could clone the game client to run multiple at once (pre-launcher), I gleefully plotted out skill queues for the two other slots on my account that I would now actively play in conjunction with.

Right.

Of course I very quickly realized that CCP was much more business savvy than I’d originally given them credit for, and I learned to swallow that red pill that we all eventually do: that alt accounts are almost as much a part of Eve as undocking. Sure, you can absolutely play and enjoy this game with a single account, and many people do. But the nature of the beast is simply that alts make the world go ’round, and your Eve experience will magnify exponentially once you go down that secondary or tertiary account rabbit hole.

To me, the choice was an easy one; there were things I wanted to do in eve that simply required two pilots, and it wasn’t long after I started playing that the orca was released with it’s obvious application to ninjaing. I’d also started playing Eve in part due to the infamous Eurogamer article on the GHSC heist, and I of course wanted to get in on some spying and thieving. It wasn’t long before I had my second account.

Over time since then, I’ve slowly added a few more accounts to my roster. At this point, I’m at 4 with about 10 active characters. Some are merely placeholders, some are actively spying and gleaning information from alliance forums. They are boosters, scanners, scammers, haulers, AWOXers, thieves, and one that is inexplicably mining director of the corp he’s currently infiltrating despite only having mining level 3. I am in small corps and major alliances, including both sides of the upcoming Delve battleground, and though they don’t know it, I can call 3 prominent Eve Blog Pack members corpmates.

Though I’ve amassed my billions in game, I prefer to spend that on shinys rather than PLEX, and as such, I choose to pay for Eve with real life currency. To me, the money I spend monthly is perfectly reasonable for what I consider an active and enjoyed hobby. I’m an adult who works full time (currently slightly too full time); it’s no more than going out and having a few drinks, and it’s certainly cheaper than a lot of other hobbies and habits. I started this game around the same time that I ended my career as a pack-a-day smoker of 7 years. Call it trading vices, but believe me, Eve is a much better way to spend that money.

I bring this up because apparently CCP thinks yours truly is awesome enough to warrant a free media account for the next year; I must say, I’m inclined to agree with them. The question I have now is, do I use this little gift to play one of my existing accounts free of charge for the next year, or do I go buck wild and get another account altogether. I freely admit that four accounts is probably overkill, and more than a little ridiculous, so in saying that, I’d probably never get a 5th unless it was either free or on someone else’s dime; enter the free media account.

So, what do you think?

-Aiden

~ by Aiden Mourn on June 30, 2012.