In Stasis
It has been three weeks now since I first took to the skies, and as many have warned new capsuleers in their starting days, it isn’t easy.
I finished the training missions and all tutorials my first week, and it was a really rewarding experience. I could not imagine trying to break the learning curve of this game without it. I got a decent selection of frigates under my belt, broke a few million ISK, and even gained a hauler to make the next step of my experience a little easier. Again, only a little easier.
To my surprise, the next two weeks have proven to be the most challenging. It wasn’t learning the interface or belt rats that got me, but the freedom. I kind of compare it to being dropped of in New York City as a daydreaming teenager with nothing but a backpack and two hundred dollars and being told to make a life for yourself. The mind-wracking question must then come to us all: What now?
So what have I done then? Probably not all the right moves, to be frank.
I’ve already joined, and left, two player corporations. Ouch, I know. The first was out of desparation. The CEO was willing to lend me a few million ISK to do some hauling and salvaging for him. Grunt work, but it was work, and I was happy doing it. The problem came when after a week in the corp, I realize that he was the only active player in the alliance. So I had one corp-mate, about once a day. It wasn’t much of a help in terms of direction.
So naturally, I decide the second corp I join should be a large one. It would have plenty of people to meet, and could provide a range of professional options for me—which is important because I still feel I’m too young to rightly choose what career path to settle on. Call me indecisive.
I found a corp with well over a hundred pilots, mostly traders and miners, that seems to have a sizeable history behind it. But an unfortunate side-effect of the size of this corp, and that they rarely ran ops together (mostly sat in stations, trading), is that they were spread thin all over the ‘verse. There was no central “hub” that I could really feel safe moving to. The best answer I got was “go wherever you want.” That was the problem, right? I had no idea where I wanted to be. When the corp was war dec’d the third day I was there, and we were ordered to sit in our station for a week until it was over, I came to the quick conclusion that this was taking me nowhere fast.
So, again, it’s Tensegrity (my Catalyst) and I with the stars. I did make a move, though. I figured, since while I was working on the tutorial missions I felt like I had a sense of purpose, I would pack up in my Iteron and head to the Sisters of EVE station in Arnon. The epic mission arc there will keep me occupied for some time while I continue my corp research.
Here’s hoping fate lends me a little hand and I’m able to come to some conclusions about where I want to go, or so be it, I’m doomed to roam the black like a cosmic jellyfish, landing where the currents take me. Either way, I’m ok with it being just Tensegrity and I for a little longer.
