Spirit

Hi All,

There’s something that I’ve been mulling over for some considerable time now about EvE Online. It really is to do why I haven’t been able to walk away from the game despite essentially being on a hiatus from it. Oh, I check the various blogs regularly and I very definitely listen to podcasts while driving all over the frakking show. But log in? Not so much.

I am playing Elder Scrolls Online at the moment too, and will little available spare time between shiftwork and small humans, EvE has suffered. And yet.. I cannot bring myself to unsubscribe, when really I should. And the why of it has been running around for some time.

EvE is different from anything I’ve encountered before or since, and I think it has a lot to do with the harsh and dystopian underpinnings – and the way in which humans band together to overcome it. And more to the point, the way in which we treat each other, our enemies and our friends.

Back 100 years ago New Zealand, though we didn’t know it at the time, forged its national identity at a place far from home on Ottoman shores. The name Gallipoli rings like a massive bell to people in Australia and New Zealand. A place, during World War 1, where we and the Turks paid a terrible cost in human lives.

For all intents and purposes, the allies were an invading force and the Turkish army the defenders. Half a million men were estimated to have died in 8 months of fighting. A tragedy for a small country like ours, and equally so for Turkey.

But it was what happened afterwards, in what I can only describe as a moment of staggering grace, Mustapha Kemal Ataturk issued these words:

“Heroes who shed their blood and lost their lives! You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours. You, the mothers, who sent their sons from far away countries wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.”

Gallipoli is now in many ways, sacred ground. In a foreign land, on foreign soil, and all the more remarkable for it.

I was reminded of these thoughts again today, about the EvE Online community and how it reaches out to help. Specifically by Neville Smit and his mention of Broadcast for Reps. And while I must acknowledge it’s not exactly the best form to use even an extremely simplistic war analogy to try and describe a game or its community, I also can’t think of a better way to describe something of the spirit that suffuses EvE Online.

Time and time again, I read and hear about people who go hard out to blow each others ships out of the sky. Who get together and laugh over a beer (or three) at various meet ups and Fanfests. Who go out of their way to support one another both in game and out. Who morn their lost comrades and worthy foes alike. Who fund raise like dervishes for various worthy causes.

And I think to myself that this, more than just the game itself, THIS is EvE.

FS

H