It’s working! They got me!

A couple of weeks ago, on a Thursday afternoon, while working at the office I had received a new email notification. Taking a short break from my task, I opened the unread message. This is what it stated:

This is not the first time that CCP tried to lure me back and bring an old pilot out of retirement. With each dangling carrot I would ignore their messages. This time, CCP’s offer was different. What piqued my interest was three full months for $24.95. That offer got my notice and I pondered whether I would accept their proposition.

As day turned to night, I was still on the fence on whether I’d reactivate an old account. The thing is, Anjo Ryker is one of my oldest accounts in the EVE universe. He was created back in 2006. While not my oldest character, Anjo is the oldest that’s associated with an email address that I actively monitor today. My history in the EVE universe actually goes back to 2004. Back then I’d play it in brief periods and walk away, perplexed as to what I had accomplished during my short stay. The universe of New Eden is immense, daunting and in some cases quite unfriendly. The depth of what one can do is extraordinary. The skill leveling system is, in my humble opinion, the best around. EVE is a game that rewards patience.

So, why shouldn’t I accept CCP’s offer to activate an old subscription. The thing is, following the lack of success that I had experienced with Anjo, that I can attribute to my ignorance of playing the game. He was left parked in a star base a ways into null sec. As an example of why I viewed Anjo as a failure was my poor choices in his skill leveling as well as the ship that I had him piloting. What that ship was I couldn’t recall, except that I remembered an ill fitted Thorax armed with lasers. That’s how much I sucked, you don’t arm that cruiser class ship with lasers. So I abandoned Anjo Ryker.

Although I had cancelled my subscription and left EVE, I can emphatically state that it’s a game that’ll forever be under my skin. On an annual basis I renew my subscription on the character that I view as my main, who at this time has over 29 million skill points. Last year I took advantage of CCP’s offer of The Power of Two, where you can create a second account for six months at a discount. So going into this past March I was playing two characters simultaneously and not even considering a third. Playing those two together only lasted through a seven month period after which I cancelled both subs. Recently I’ve re-subbed my main with the goal of getting all of his certificates to elite status. Currently he’s parked in high sec and I log in weekly to queue the next week-long training session for him to meet that goal.

So, the day after I had gotten CCP’s offer to bring back Anjo Ryker was on a Friday. That evening, after a date with my wife and spending time at home with her, she called it an early night and went to bed. I stayed up, logged onto my computer, wondering which game I should play. It was going to be either Guild Wars 2, or The Secret World. On the release of The Secret World I had gotten a lifetime sub, so had no pressure to play either game. The offer to bring back Anjo won out. So I reactivated his subscription.

Besides a monetary incentive the decision to do resub was for a few other reasons. Since CCP had revamped the new player tutorial I was curious to see what that was going to be like. I also wanted to rectify a wrong by giving Anjo a reboot on his progression. Once the account was reactivated, I logged on with a bit of excitement. It was like running into an old friend. Being the first character that galvanized my interest in EVE, I looked forward to see how Anjo had aged. This was done by the initial creation of his portrait as I slowly teased out the fine lines of age on an old warrior. Someone who has seen battles that he’d rather forget. Perhaps even losing a son too soon as they were both in a battle against pirates, and Anjo watched helplessly as his sons incursus exploded before him. What came from that mindset was a pilot that looked resolute and stoic, with a few battle scars to remind you that he’s a veteran. So, here I present you with Anjo Ryker, reborn.

Upon logging in with Anjo I found him still in the null sec star base. He wasn’t in a thorax though. I can’t recall which ship it was but I didn’t care as I had intended to sell it. After exiting the ship and repackaging it as well as the fitted modules I then sold what I can while trashing the rest. Once done I did a clone jump out to high sec and then destroyed the clone that was left behind. That final act severed Anjo’s ties to null sec as I looked to move him forward with no connections to his past. After purchasing a shuttle for quick transport, I then piloted Anjo to the new player tutorial agent.

In a nutshell, the new player experience is not bad. My only critique is that the tutorial instruction windows should be scripted to update automatically as you accomplish each step. Once completed I then moved Anjo to the career tutorial agents. So far he’s completed the business, industry and exploration. I’m nearly done with the military agent missions and will finish them all by going through the advanced military missions. Once those are all done I’ll then direct Anjo to The Sisters of Eve to complete their epic mission arc. For now that is my short term goal with Anjo. Afterward I don’t know what to do with him. I imagine once the first epic mission arc is completed I can then park Anjo in a high sec star base and cancel his subscription, satisfied that I had righted a wrong.

Posted with Blogsy