Monday, January 26, 2009

Finding focus in a sea of knowledge & possibilities


Finding focus. Sounds simple enough. But for someone like me it isn't. You see, I like to know as much as I can. I like to gather a lot of information, which means a lot of links, videos, blog posts, screenshots and whatever else I find on EVE Online. I've been doing this for so long that I just didn't know how to do it differently. I just want to list it all.

But being a full time dad, having a full time job, and a well balance social agenda, I've come to realize that I need to make some choices. I need some focus.

So. As of tonight, I will refocus most of my efforts on the EVE Blog Community. I'm constantly being asked for advice on blogging about EVE, on various styles of blogging and side projects, and I feel an obligation to answer. It's not only that, but something out of which I get great pleasure in helping out new folks to the EVE Blogging Community.

As such, though the Speedlinking posts were great as they were - and a real pride for me - they took way too much time in their current form. I've decided to concentrate strictly on the EVE Bloggers. I'll be choosing 10 articles every week, to showcase on the Speedlinking post. Not 20, not 30. But 10. I'll still cover EVE in the gaming news, but not as part of the Speedlinking posts.

This will lead to another change as well. MicroWarpCast had a great beginning. YoMma and I recorded 4 episodes, of which 3 were published. In the beginning I wanted to do a weekly show, then pushed it to a bi-weekly show. Yet, none have been made since. Things needed to change. So in an effort to bring back some consistency to my EVE podcasting, I have decided to record and publish 12 episodes. One each month, published early in the next month.

The EVE Blog Banter will continue, and I'll try to have one published before the end of this month. Which doesn't leave much of a heads-up, I know. Still, I want to have 12 banters this year, and I'll have them, even if I'm the only one publishing - which I doubt very much!

As for my game play, I've been thinking of changing my playing style for some time now, trying to find something which I can easily do by myself, without having to wait for, or be depended on the corp. After reading the recent Dev Blog, and MalphasWats' post, I've decided to go into exploration. I know that this will be helpful to my corporation, and will be something I can pick up whenever I'm able to login. Which isn't very consistent these days.

So there you have it.

10 comments:

Tony "EVE's Weekend Warrior" said...

Glad to hear you're alive :P

Hope you can do well and glad to hear your back with the famous speedlinking!

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry to hear that you will be taking a step back in some ways but we all know how much of a drain on your time this must have been. I'm sure I speak for many when I say, thanks for all you have done so far and we'll all do whatever we can to help with the blog community. It will be great to have the podcast and the blog banter active.

Also though exploration has it's moments I would strongly suggest that you consider faction warfare as a way to keep active and entertained. There are fleets forming on a regular basis and you don't need any special skills trained. And if you really want to train explo or something else just train it while killing. Win Win.

Anyway best of luck buddy.

WTM said...

Good to hear you're not doing anything rash, like quitting Eve...

Seriously though, there is only so much you can do, so focus on what you enjoy.

I have to admit exploration is not something I have done much of, but would be interested in hearing a bit more about (will follow those links up).

Also have you considered a complete change, i.e try a different path in Eve; low sec, 0.0, or Faction warfare (as suggested above)?

Stephen Grey said...

In other words you're going to blog less and less and eventually stop.

Then you will quit playing Eve.

Wait and see. This is how it starts.

Anonymous said...

It's good to focus. Trying to do too much at once dilutes the quality.
Keep up the good work.

P.S. Worg - You're so negative man!

Carole Pivarnik said...

Exploration as a profession fits very well into more casual play. As for the upcoming wormholes, not so sure...sounds like once you go into a wormhole, should the entry point collapse, you might be stuck there a while until you find another to exit from. I'm quite keen to see how this all rolls out in practice.

Focus is a good thing, CK. I have to curb my overachiever impulses quite severely to keep balance in my life...so I know where you're coming from on these decisions.

I'm going to try and participate in the Blog Banter this week.

Bahamut said...

I'm glad you've come to some resolution about all this. We spoke about it and I was wondering when the shoe would drop.

I'll be participating in the banter, as usual.

I hope the new speedlinking format won't be exclusive to pack members.

Anonymous said...

CK I appreciate the effort that gathering info requires...I too am the info guy for my Corp...when people want to know what is going on in the larger scheme of things they seem to ask me. I will participate as well with the banter :) That is always fun.

@Worg I seriously doubt your thought
@ psycheDiver...as far as I know it was never exclusive to the blog pack It was more... well the content of the blogs is all I can track the three speedlinking posts where CK linked me bro..hell I was grateful for one :)

Anonymous said...

Realistic goals, and I'm sure it's better to strike a balance between work/family/play this way. I've always been amazed at your Speedlinking, I know it's time consuming and you *always* find things I'd never even seen before. But that's a major chunk of time and I don't think anyone should hold it against you for cutting back on it.

Also I think I'm in agreement with the commenters above -- standard exploration can be a rather passive thing, but wormhole exploration seems to be a real step up into something more demanding. Just make sure your clone is current so you can suicide yourself back into the known galaxy should you end up in some far flung corner of New Eden.

Unrelated but I laughed -- one of the Google ads to the right is for "Eves Addiction".

:D

CrazyKinux said...

Thanks for all your positive feedback guys! Your support means everything.

As for @Worg, I see what you're doing there with that reverse psychology thingnamajy! :p