Welcome Back, Part 2

In the previous installment, I explained how I got out of Eve for awhile. Now I'll explain how I got back into the game.

While I was out, I mentioned that I was playing a fair amount of WoW. In addition, I was trying out some new games, such as Pirates of the Burning Sea and Lord of the Rings Online. I really liked the concept of both games, and played them pretty extensively for a month or so each. LOTRO in particular was really cool in the way that it wove the game around the story of The Lord of the Rings, but each game left me feeling like something was missing. After awhile I just stopped playing PotBS, and really slowed down on LOTRO.

It was at this time I started getting the Eve itch again. Even with all the negative feelings I'd been having about the game when I stopped playing, there was something about it that made me want to come back. As I'm writing this I just realized what it is: teamwork.

The games that I love are those games that require teamwork, especially with the same group of people over the long haul. World of Warcraft has it in the endgame raiding content: you have to pull together once or twice a week with the same group of people to accomplish something that is hard to do, could not be done on your own, and requires teamwork. Eve Online is the same in that for most people, working with your corpmates is the way that you really get ahead in the game.

After being out of the game for several months, I decided to check out my corporation's forums to see what they were up to. I read up on the comings and goings of the various corp members and the activities that they were up to. Seeing that some of my corpmates were spending time with other folks out in 0.0 doing PvP, I decided that that was the itch that I needed to scratch. I reactivated my account, hopped in a shuttle and headed out to our 0.0 station.

Once I reached the station (which was quite exciting for me as I'd never really been out there before), I clone jumped back to high sec to pick up some skillbooks. While I was there, things changed dramatically (as they often do in Eve).

Basically, my alliance decided that being in 0.0 was not working out, and opted to vacate our null-sec station, which they did during a time when I was not logged in. Fortunately, I had nothing out in that station but a clone and an Amarr shuttle. By the time I logged on again, the station was vacated, and my poor clone was stranded in 0.0. I suppose at some point I might clone jump out there, hop in my shuttle and try to make it back to low sec. In the meantime, if you happen to see my clone in your station, say hi to him for me.

Anyway, I was now back in high-sec and getting back into the swing of things. I was out of the wormhole which was awesome, and I was running some missions for standing and chatting on corp chat and things were getting back to normal. In addition, the corporation decided to move its primary base of operations back into high sec for awhile which was great news for me.
Finally, we had some corp mining ops pop up and participating in those really helped cement things for me: I was officially back in Eve. I realize that mining might be the least exciting thing to do in the game, but there is something really cool about your whole corporation out there in a belt, tearing down asteroids in a mammoth mining operation.

And that's how I got back into Eve after my absence. In my final installment, I fill you in on what I've been doing recently...