I am writing this because today left me frustrated, exhausted, and questioning why I still play.
Before anything else: I made the mistake that led to these losses. A neutral appeared in local, and I chose to keep ratting. I knew the risk. I ignored the warning. I am not asking CCP to reimburse me, and I am not blaming the players who killed us for playing the game.
But accepting responsibility for a mistake does not make the experience enjoyable, or remove the frustration behind it.
My friend and I wanted to spend some time together, shoot some NPCs, earn some ISK, and feel like we were making progress. We were getting roughly 30 million ISK each per 20-minute tick. Then we lost two ships, with a combined loss of around 8 billion ISK.
These are the losses:
What remains is two killmails, two empty spaces in the hangar, and the question of how much time it will take to get back to where we were.
That last part is what hurts most.
The loss takes a moment. Replacing it becomes a project.
I know the usual answers: watch local, dock when a neutral enters, fly cheaper ships, do not fly what you cannot afford to lose. I understand those answers, and today I failed to act on one of them.
What I struggle with is what playing that way feels like over time.
People come through local constantly. Sometimes it is an explorer looking for relic or data sites. Sometimes it is someone hunting. Sometimes there is a hostile fleet behind them. You keep watching, interrupting what you are doing, and deciding whether you can continue.
Today, I got tired of that. I wanted to keep playing with my friend. I wanted some progress and some enjoyment. I made the wrong decision, and I paid for it.
Once we were caught, it did not feel like a fight in which I had meaningful options left. An expensive ship does not automatically give you the tracking, tackle, webs, or support needed to deal with the situation. By then, my useful decision had already passed.
I understand that this is part of EVE. I am describing why, from my side of the encounter, it felt like an execution rather than an engaging fight.
Too much of my experience now revolves around replacing ISK.
Ships cost ISK. Fits cost ISK. Replacing losses costs ISK. Funding Omega through PLEX adds another target to work toward.
The moments of satisfaction are still there, but lately they feel small compared with the time spent preparing for them or recovering afterward. Sometimes the reward for a month of playing feels like earning enough to fund the next month, when I get to repeat the process.
If I spend a month joining fleets and enjoying myself without earning much, my wallet steadily shrinks. Eventually, the question becomes how much farming I need to do before I can keep participating.
There are players with enormous reserves built over many years. I do not resent them for that. They earned their position. But the same loss can mean something very different depending on the resources behind it. For one player, it is an inconvenience. For another, it changes what they can do for weeks.
For players in my position, “just replace it” means committing more of our limited free time to earning back something we already had.
I wanted EVE to be an escape from everyday obligations. Instead, I am starting to measure my evenings in replacement costs.
I would like to see a serious discussion about insurance and recovery after a loss.
From my perspective, the current insurance system does too little to soften the loss of an expensive fitted ship.
I would like CCP to explore optional insurance that covers some of the fitting cost, or an insurance broker through which a player could purchase a replacement of their saved fit after a loss, with a defined level of coverage.
That would need limits. Premiums, partial payouts, exclusions, and safeguards against abuse would all matter. A replacement service should source ships and modules from the player market so that builders and traders remain part of the process.
I do not have a complete design worked out. But I think the question deserves discussion: could recovery be less exhausting while destruction still matters?
I want losses to remain meaningful. I also want to feel motivated to undock again after one.
PLEX does not resolve the frustration for me.
I understand that buying PLEX from CCP and selling it for ISK is an officially permitted system, distinct from prohibited third-party RMT.
But from a player’s perspective, real money can still be used to replace lost purchasing power. When the alternatives feel like spending many more hours farming or spending more money, that affects how I experience the game.
I am not claiming that every loss is designed to sell PLEX. I am saying that, when I am already exhausted by the grind, the ability to pay my way out of it does not make the underlying experience feel better.
Today was my fault. I can accept that and still ask whether the recovery loop is enjoyable.
Right now, I am struggling to find that enjoyment. I wanted to spend time with my friend and feel that we were getting somewhere. Instead, I am looking at the cost of rebuilding and wondering whether I have the energy to do it again.
Have other players reached this point? What would make recovering from a major loss more engaging, especially for players without huge financial reserves?
And is there room for better insurance without undermining the economy and the consequences that make EVE what it is?
