EVE Fanfest 2011: An experience like no other

The Fanfest 2011 has been in full swing for the last few days and though my first experience here, back in 2008, was memorable, this year's Fanfest is something beyond my expectations. No, I'm not talking about the CCP panels, round tables, and awesome content and announcements that have been made over the last 2 days (or later today — looking forward to the CCP Presents keynote).

Why there'll never be a Fanfest outside Iceland. And that's a good thing!

Last week I had the opportunity to have dinner with CCP's Mike Read and a few other EVE Capsuleers! Suffice to say the conversation quickly veered towards anything and everything EVE, for our own selfish pleasure! At one point we all focused our attention on Mike with the well known "When will CCP host a Fanfest in North America?" The questioning and commenting went back and forth and eventually moved on to other more important, more pragmatic topics.
But that conversation stayed with me throughout the whole week and kept popping up in my head. Now, if you've been reading this blog for a while, you'll know that having a Fanfest in Canada or in the States has always been a big wish of mine.

One more Stargate to go

Having gone through the Montreal-Boston Stargate earlier today, I'm waiting for the Boston-Reykjavik Stargate to be activated. Engineers have stated, over the station PA, that their repairs should be done soon and that the gate would be activated somewhere around 20:35, local system time.

We're also being told that the normally instantaneous system to system jump, will this time take a few hours instead. This is due to the nature of today's tweaks with the stargate's inner workings.

Hopefully I'll wake up in Reyjavik system in one piece!

I'll let you know as soon as I make planetfall.

Have Clone, Should Travel.... more

I've been playing EVE for just over 4 years now. During the last two weeks, my corp and I have moved over 60 jumps away from our normal base of operation in the Khanid Kingdom systems. I'm currently stationed in and around Nuken, doing missions and other corp matters.

But something occurred to me just as I was about to set out on my lastest move. EVE has 5152 systems, spread out over 60-some regions. Looking at the in-game Map (F10) and choosing to display the systems I had visited over those 4 years, I came to realize that I had barely visited a quarter of the systems in New Eden. I've basically stayed within maybe 6 regions and haven't gone beyond that.

In my last Postcard, James mentioned that he had recently visited EVE Gate and had found the site of New Eden's birth amazing. A few of us realized then that we'd never seen it. We all agreed that we should make the trip at least once.

So, today being my birthday, I've decided to get ready for a little visit. Kind of a gift to myself. Speaking of which, if you fancy me a gift, I do accept in-game ISKs (Treenara Mazouk), or a little donation (check the right column). Or maybe a little something from my Amazon wishlist? But I digress.

I recall reading in the last issue of EON, the story of a fellow capsuleer who embarked on the monumental undertaking of visiting "all" the systems of EVE, including EVE Gate. Quite a story he tells. He did so in a covert ops frigate to evade some of those less friendly elements one finds everywhere in EVE these days.

This is where I need your help.

I've never flown a covert ops ship, neither have trained for it. I do have a few EW skills trained, but I would need to know what's the best covert ship a Gallente pilot like me should fly, and what skills should I possess in order to make the safest journey. Remember here folks, I'm a Carebear!

I promise to write about it, and to send you a few postcards along the way. Now, I just need the execs of Phoenix Labs to provide me the ship and skill books, and give me enough time to go there and back again. That'll be interesting!

I've been hiding in my little corner of New Eden for far too long. It's time to spread my wings and see the universe.

Homeworld 2 for the road trip!

As I write this, I'm sitting in hotel room in London UK, at the end of a 3-day tradeshow. I left home Tuesday night and so missed the long downtime consequence of the Trinity 1.1 patch. Then again, I'm experience an even longer downtime myself, as I'll only be able to log back into EVE next Monday evening (I've been have trouble installing EVE on this work laptop for some reason, but that's another story).

So in getting ready for this 6 day trip, I installed Homeworld 2 on Tuesday and started replaying the game. I mainly did this so that I could pass the time on the 6 hour flight to Europe. For some reason, unless I'm truly exhausted, I can never sleep during a flight - even a 6 hour long flight. Anyway, since I never finished the game when it came out, I plan on doing so this time. The original Homeworld was a blast and as I've said before my favorite game of all time - after EVE of course! Let's give the (true) sequel a chance.

As for the blog, this kind of explains why I haven't posted over the last 3 days. Tradeshows mean long day, short nights and no time for gaming or posting. I'm staying over for the week-end and will have a chance to play tourist over the next two days. The return flight is on Monday afternoon, which means that I'll be able to give EVE a little run come that evening; once I've patched to 1.1 of course.

You should have the speedlinking links tomorrow morning since I've had a chance to go through the 600 or so posts on my Google Reader and my alerts.

Until then, I'd love to know what game(s) you play when not playing EVE.

Cheer!

I'm back and ready to get back to business

After almost a 2 weeks hiatus I'm back home and ready to start posting again! I took the weekend off and barely touch the PC. I must say it's refreshing to do so. But now, EVE is calling me again, like a mermaid singing her melodies, she's begging me for attention.

Looking forward to renew with you and continue the conversations we left off 2 weeks back.

Greetings from Amsterdam!

Hi folks! Just wanted to let know why I hadn't done any posts recently. I'm writing this post, sitting in my hotel room, overlooking Rambrendtplein in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands. I'm here on business for IBC 2007 for the whole show. I plan to be back next week, so don't expect any major updates until then.

In the mean time fly safe!!!