I’ve been focused on income sources of late in EVE, and part of the motivation behind that is the knowledge that, when I choose, I can use that ISK in a lot of different ways to entertain myself. That aspect, that more ISK or more skill points leads to more options is one of the true beauties of EVE compared to just about any other MMO, and it’s why EVE is pretty unique in how long it’s able to retain players and why you can be a 10 year vet and be completely clueless in many aspects of the game.

I recently completed one of my goals when I acquired my Super Carrier. In terms of big ships, there is only the Titan left to buy/fly. And with my recent dive into running 10/10 escalation sites, I’ve now also seen/beaten some of the games toughest solo PvE content (I’ve never run a burner mission). Having seen/beaten all the various Incursion sites, as well as having farmed wormhole sites back in the day, I can safely say I’ve seen almost everything PvE-related EVE has to offer. I’m certainly no expert, but I’ve at least seen a lot of it.

I’ve also been part of multiple titan kills, multiple 2000+ pilot battles, and was there when the first fully deployed Keepstar citadel blew up. I’ve been on countless PvP fleets big and small, blown up hundreds of ships and lost a decent chunk of them as well. I was part of Goons when Lenny and company moved us from the north to the south, when we attempted to assist the Russians in the south, and currently as we fight a proxy war against Co2.

Way back in the day when I ran a decently successful corp, I experienced high-sec wars, as well as many other aspects of running a group in that space. Later when we moved into wormhole space, we experienced PvP in that area, as well as all the logistic challenges of wormhole life. Later still we joining a high-profile mercenary alliance to experience larger-scale wormhole PvP and what it’s like to live in a C5 wormhole and escalate sites with capital ships.

Yet even with all of that experience, I feel like there is still so much left for me to discover and learn in EVE. I’ve never gotten serious about solo or even small-gang PvP. Having a steady stream of ISK will certainly help should I choose to do that, especially if I learn-by-doing with solo PvP.

There are also many different special interest groups within Goons that also provide different gameplay, from Reavers (deploy behind enemy lines to spread terror), to logistics areas like hauling or space maintenance, to Holesquad (wormhole people). And while I’ve been involved in a bit of production for a while now, I’m not anywhere close to what I know many are doing, which is running massive supply lines across multiple industry-focused alts.

On top of all that, there is also the fact that CCP continues to update EVE, so while there is an unmatched amount of stuff to do today, tomorrow even more will be available. I’m already looking forward to running the new PvE sites with the Incursion sig, and the sig itself has been busy testing those sites on the EVE test server. The changes to moon mining are also coming, and who knows what CCP will bring after that.

Having ISK isn’t about hitting a gold cap to say you did it, or being able to purchase all of the best-in-slot gear for whatever the current ilvl cap is until it’s replaced in an update. Those are all silly, meaningless, or short-term ideas that, once you do them, you get bored or tired of repeating.

In EVE ISK is about options, and about feeling comfortable taking a risk knowing you can recover from it. It’s about being able to do more for your Corp, or your Alliance, or about taking up a pet project and seeing it succeed or fail based on the choices you made. About having a real impact on others, positive or negative. That’s the beauty of EVE, and it’s what motives me to continue seeing my wallet get fatter and my inventory of ships expand. And best of all, I know CCP won’t make that obsolete in the next expansion. What I do today will matter tomorrow, and that is perhaps the most important thing an MMO can provide, while also being so extremely rare in the genre today.