The Little Stories

Back in September of last year, before CCP announced it's renewed commitment to Eve and spaceships, there was a thread on Failheap that sought to look at what made Eve worth playing despite CCP's failings. One comment by Killfalcon stuck with me:

When you go to Ogrimmar, the Zeppelin overhead is coded in. The shop keepers are scripts, and not even smart ones.

When you go to Jita, you sell to humans, you buy from humans, you are scammed by humans. There's a player flying that mile-long cargoship currently esclipsing the sun, and for that matter the other 17 giant fucking scifi transports dotted around your screen. 

It looks like something out of Babylon 5 or a Star Wars 'crowd shot', but none of it is staged. Everyone is there for their own reasons, and you might never know what it is.

I've been the player flying one of those freighters.

I play Eve because I like building things. I grind missions for the standings, do exploration when I'm in the mood, and sometimes I even mine. But most of my playing time is spent buying and moving ore, refining it, building things with the resulting minerals, and selling them. It's not the most exciting game in the world, and I'm usually playing while watching TV and browsing the web. Still, I find it satisfying.

Sometimes, I look at my transaction log and see the shadows of other players stories. This one bought five Herons and five T1 webs, no doubt to fit out cheap tacklers. That one bought four each of five different frigates. Is he stockpiling for himself or shopping for corpmates? Over the space of a minute, three players from the same corp each buy a Rifter. Are they planning a roam or a duel? This player bought a Bestower, then an hour later a Thorax with a point and web. Did he come back to fit out a new combat ship because he was done with his errand? Or because his hauler got ganked and he wanted revenge?

I'll never know the answer to those questions and to be honest I don't really care. My interaction with those players is limited to the market, but the interaction is still real.

It wouldn't matter much if I were to stop keeping the Agil market stocked with small ships. Prices might be a touch higher with one less player in the undercutting game, but my competitors would make the sales instead or, at worst, my customers might have to buy in Jita or Amarr. I enjoy my chosen role in Eve's economy, and by playing it I contribute to my fellow players enjoyment.