Wednesday, July 18, 2012

The End of a Era

Issue #28
EON Magazine issue #28 which is now available to purchase marks my 13th Testflight article. It is also my last.

Over three and a half years ago when Zapatero asked me to write the  article for the magazine, my life was very different. My twins were only months old (and we were not even thinking about a third), my job was stuck in a rut with a lot of free time on my hands, and my Eve career was quiet and lonely in plexing in Faction Warfare for the Minmatar. As a result I had a lot of time to think about and plan my articles, then write them to quality I was happy with.

Times have changed. I've got three very active and time consuming boys, my job has become more demanding and rewarding, and my free time is more about playing Eve rather than just thinking about it. The upshot of this is that my ability to write good test flight articles was suffering, up to the point where I was always scrambling to get it done in time. In order to preserve my sanity and pride in my work, I told Zapatero with heavy heart that I could no longer write the test flights.

This was one change in a number of them to focus myself more on playing and less on the metagame. I cut down the number of podcasts I listen to, I no longer edit for the Eve Tribune (which looks like its on its last legs anyways), and I don't obsessively browse Eve forums and news sites. I get my info from twitter and various blogs, and let the rest sort itself out.

For me, its the end of the metagame-obsessing era. Now its just flying spaceships and maintaining my blog and podcast.


5 comments:

  1. I'm sorry to hear you're dialling back, but I also completely understand. More than that, I'm impressed. It takes some strength to achieve - I've tried and failed. Any tips?

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  2. I was mostly forced too by life :)

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  3. I hear ya. Got four of the little buggers myself and they just keep getting older!

    Congrats on the run though, I always enjoyed the articles, especially when I was younger in Eve. I've been trying to play more myself lately since free time is at a premium.

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  4. There should be a retirement programme for long-standing community contributors. Or at least a long-service medal or something.

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  5. The MMO (Most Masochistic One) for putting oneself and one's opinions out there award...? :)

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