Bigrex
Australian Belt Strippers Apocalypse Now.
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Posted - 2016.03.24 09:17:18 -
[1] - Quote
________________________________________________________________________________________________ The Black Dog VS EVE
As someone who works on mine sites in regional Western Australia as a supervisor, playing EVE has been a great way to unwind and release the tension and stress from working in such a hostile environment with the rather odd people geology departments attract. Last year it took on a whole new level for me personally and in the midst of all the stories of betrayal, theft and conflict I wanted to share the profoundly positive impact of the communities and contacts we develop in game.
In late 2014 I found myself drifting corps a little after a bit of a break from serious playing and I stumbled on a recruitment ad for an Australian mining corporation. At the time I was taking time away from pvp to rebuild and do something positive and constructive so I convoed the recruiter and got chatting. As a corporation aspiring to be part of the providence community I was pleasantly surprised that they would give me a chance given my history of fighting against providence for years as a pirate in the teshkat pocket.
I joined Australian Belt Strippers and I was invigorated from my break and inspired by the crazy and positive atmosphere of this new and growing corporation of Australians like myself ( I had never been in an aussie dominated corp before). I threw myself into everything I could helping with PI, POS management, Mining and helping to train some of the survival and pvp skills I learnt from my time living in null and lowsec. For such a small corporation these guys achieved amazing things and learnt things with impressive speed.
We started in North Provi, living in the yulai pocket as part of ARK alliance, building what felt like a good reputation as a driven and efficient group of miners and industrialists with rather sharp teeth and an impressive record of hunting the bombers, cloaky droppers and small stuff that frequently harassed the pocket on AU TZ. Before long though ARK fell to internal strife and drama and we found ourselves as a lone corporation looking for a new home. At the same time I came into contact with the AUTZ of a corporation called Unity Ventures that was in the process of joining ARK before it collapsed and were left hanging.
At this point we approached and joined an alliance in South Provi we had had contact with previously while on ARK mining operations down south, Apocalypse Now. APOC had a few other aussie TZ corporations already so I found my ingame community explode to a level I had never had the pleasure of experiencing before. This made even the hassles and drama of uprooting and shifting from north to south an enjoyable and often humorous process.
Unfortunately It was not long after this in mid 2015 that RL took some pretty bad turns. One of the other senior techs was fired for a drunken incident and I ended up conflicting with the other remaining senior, a somewhat reckless and inexperienced younger guy, over our approach on the safety of those under us. On top of this an old back injury flared up and between the work stress, constant pain and loneliness of working away from family I fell into full blown depression. Luckily for me my wife saw that I was barely keeping it together despite my rather ineffective attempt at hiding it and contacted the CEO and Director of AUBS, Draksi Vonholle and 15070P3 (isotope) who I had come to know in real life, to help talk to me and help me out.
Being away at work left me more often that not far from the usual avenues for support like extended family, medical services and support programs. However the direct help from these friends and the indirect help from interacting with the aussie community in APOC at times drove or pulled me through one of the darkest times of my adult life.
I still struggle with depression and as anyone who has dealt with it will tell you the climb back out of that pit can be a long and very difficult process and I believe that I can figuratively feel the light at the top. If they know it or not the small part of the eve community that I interact with has played and will continue to play a big part in this recovery. People may look and say GÇ£itGÇÖs just a gameGÇ¥ but with the time we spend flying, fighting, struggling and building with each other many of your corp or alliance mates may get to know you better than anyone outside your immediate family. So in the midst of all the conflict, drama and crap we so often see in the headlines on EVE I say this: Treasure the relationships and communities you build on Eve and donGÇÖt let greed, drama or pride destroy the bonds you forge.
Finally I would like to publicly thank those who deliberately or unknowingly helped me. While Draksi and Iso were the architects of much of the help I got both in game while at work and in person when I was home on breaks the active guys in corp namely Yoda, Riv, Evo, Larcos, Khaleesi, Checkmeister, Jeds, Marbs and others gave me positive things to do and fun times in fleet and in corp. Of note are also the AUTZ members of Unity Ventures whose fresh arrival in alliance and enthusiasm to learn gave me something positive and constructive to do whenever I had the opportunity and time to help which is an incredibly valuable part of recovering. Thanks to everyone in the alliance as well for their patience with the occasional outburst of insanity or annoyance.
Thanks and remember to never be afraid to talk when things aren't going well.
Bigrex Australian Belt Strippers Wearer of the tinfoil hat |