Blog Banter 26- Carry It With Us, Or We Find It Not

Welcome to the twenty-sixth installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week or so to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed to crazykinux@gmail.com. Check for other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

This month's topic was proposed by @KatiaSae of the much praised "To Boldly Go" blog. Katia asks: "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. As an astrophotographer, I've found it in the stars and planets of New Eden. Where have you found it? Perhaps you've found beauty in the ships we fly? Maybe it's the sight of profits being added to your bottom line? Or maybe it's the pilot portraits you see in the comm channels? Where ever you've found it, write about it and post an image." Don't be afraid go beyond the simple visual aspects of EVE as well. Is the EVE Community in itself a thing of beauty? What makes EVE the game, the world, the Community, so appealing to you?

Well this is certainly an interesting question and one that kind of stopped me. What makes this game beautiful? I have said before that there are a lot of things that make this game something worth playing for a long time. But that seems to be a different question than what makes it beautiful.

I think the beauty is in many aspects. For others, it may be in the black of space that gives a feeling of solitude and cold survival. The game itself, graphics wise, is quite beautiful. I can't run it at full capacity since I am running on a Mac laptop, but it is still quite something to see. One thing I can say that will out me as a big carebear is that I love staring at the planets. Just watching a lava planet pulse, a storm planet rage with...well storms, or a temperate planet's clouds drift is enjoyable to me and makes PI that much more interesting. I have found myself a bit jealous of Katia, as I am a photographer IRL, but find myself more enjoying what she finds and shows.

Much of the beauty, and ugliness consequentially, is in the people. The community is a wonderful thing and as aspect that Eve has fostered quite well. It is the first game I have even thought of blogging about or get highly involved in and I've played many games. There is a camaraderie with capsuleers, and burning rivalries, that takes on a life of its own. Even Goons have been somewhat tamed by the Eve universe, finding a stake that they claim and being part of the universe rather than trying to destroy it.

But I think what really draws me to Eve is the complexity. I easily get bored of things that do not engage my mind on more than one level and Eve does just that. Whether it's planning training, theorycrafting fits and strategies, or navigating unknown space Eve has the right amount of difficulty to keep me coming back for a long time.

I think I kind of just beat around it, since I can't really put a finger on it. So what is beauty in Eve to you?
-Mem