Blog Banter 29(WIP/I'm just not sure where to go with it)

"EVE Online is renowned for it's depth. Its backstory, gameplay and social aspects are all qualities that draw players in. What does immersion in EVE Online mean to you?"

Definition of IMMERSION

:the act of immersing or the state of being immersed: as

a : baptism by complete submersion of the person in water

b : absorbing involvement <immersion in politics>

c : instruction based on extensive exposure to surroundings or conditions that are native or pertinent to the object of study; especially : foreign language instruction in which only the language being taught is used immersion>

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/immersion

Immersion. As a person who spends only a few months at a time due to finances and college education, being able to involve myself in Eve somehow becomes a interesting and somewhat difficult past time. I call it difficult because you are, in fact, without any means of interacting within the game. While many will say that immersion does not need the game, and they're right, to an extent. There is twitter and the #tweetfleet, which I have found to be a valuable asset to the socialization of Eve Online. I have met and interacted with numerous pilots that I would never have met or even heard of in game. And even better, I have been more recently getting really into a lot of the lore and roleplay aspect of the game. After tech4news.org, a recently created roleplay news group, posted their first story, I started looking at sites like the Eve wiki page. The things people do in-game are fantastically complicated and time consuming, or at least seem so.

I have been playing Eve since May 2008, when I signed up for the 14-day free trial. Didn't sub until July the same year, and have been subbing on and off since. And here I am, on Twitter, as part of the #tweetfleet, getting involved with other people from the game, and it is SO MUCH FUN!! This is what I would call immersion, and this is only one horrible example. People get so much more into this. Podcasts...hooo boy aren't those a fantastic example!

On Abby's parents:

May YC112- Parents abducted; June YC112- 18^th bday; December YC112- Became capsuleer; June YC113- 19^th bday; October YC113- current

Abby stared at the picture of her parents. Tears started to fill her eyes as she started daydreaming of her childhood. Only a month before her eighteenth birthday, her parents had disappeared during one of the first full-scale incursions by Sansha's Nation forces in the system of Ashab. They shouldn't have been there, it was frustratingly depressing thinking about it. Her parents worked within the administrations of a couple of the smaller corporations supporting the Caldari State. Lauren Baxter, her mother, surprisingly had meetings with some interested investors on a planet in Ashab, Abby never did find out which planet. Abby's father, Kent Baxter, went along with his wife. Her parents tended to go on what they called “business vacations”. If one had a meeting and the other did not, they would both take time off around those dates and sight-see or do something, whatever they felt like doing at the time. Abby faintly remembered having gone on a couple of these trips when she was younger, but after she turned 10, her parents had stopped taking her with them. Her parents shouldn't have been in Ashab on the day of the incursion because they had told her they would leave that morning- the incursion in Ashab didn't happen until around 17:00. And yet, she hadn't heard from them at all that day, nor has she heard from them since then. She's played with the idea that something happened to them before the incursion with the Nation had even occurred, but that seemed too ridiculous. And it isn't like their disappearance couldn't have been avoided. The attack by the Nation was late enough in the day, and the Nation had already attacked three other systems, one in each of the other empires. After reports that Sansha forces were abducting people off of planets and some reports even stated that a few civilian ships were hijacked or otherwise taken, people should have hidden or gone into bunkers. But dammit, why her parents?! What were they doing? So many questions, but no answers. Though Abby was certain that any answers she did get would only result in more questions. Damn those Amarr! They should have known, they should have been prepared! And all the capsuleers, why good were they in these incursions?! She realized the irony of that thought the moment she said it.

'No...fuck you, brain,' she yelled at herself within her mind, 'I did this to find my parents! If I continue to build a rapport with the Navy, they might be able to get me some kind of information.'

You could always talk with other capsuleers, people who have been in incursions.

'What?! No! I don't need other people.

You are but nineteen years old! There is no reason for you to do it alone! Just ask someone from the comm center, can't be that hard.

'You know what, fine! I'll give it a try sometime, and when that doesn't work...then we'll go with my original plan of blow shit up, make connections, profit, and then ask questions later. Bitch.'

I heard that...I am just you, y'know. You aren't crazy, just having a conversation based on reasoning and logic with yourself in your head, about what you're going to do. It happens.

'Does it? Does it, really?'

Maybe.

“But I don't even know who I'd ask. I don't know who would have been in that incursion,” Abby spoke to her empty bedroom. Glancing at the clock, she saw how horribly late her daydreaming had made it. She'd mull it over some more in her head while she slept.