stories-of-eve-humans-of-new-eden

CCP Swift's latest Story of EVE is an unlikely tale of secret friendship.

A year after EVE Online launched in 2003, Peter Farrell began playing. He now works as community developer at CCP Games where he goes by the moniker, CCP Swift. If ever anyone was to put together a HONY-style character snapshot of EVE Online, a Humans of New Eden if you will, it should be him. We're back with another of his Stories of EVE, this time it's about a secret friendship founded in the most unlikely of ways.

Finding a random person in the game and striking up a conversation is one of my favourite pastimes. I'm the crazy person talking in the local chat and everyone's like, 'Oh this guy is going to scam me! He's trying to do something bad. He's going to kill me.' But every once in a while, someone who doesn't know any better will engage with me.

One of my favourite interactions was in lowsec space, which is essentially lawless. There was another Capsuleer and we were both fighting over the same resource, just a simple mining site. So, I killed him. I just killed him then started finishing off the resource. All the while, he's now alternating between promising vengeance and calling me every rude name under the sun. I felt bad, I was feeling guilty, but I thought, 'Hey, he knew what he was getting into when he came into lowsec space.'

But he didn't just close the chat. After a few minutes, he returned. And what does he do? He apologises! He said, 'I'm sorry, I didn't mean that. This is the way it's supposed to go.' So, we teamed up and ran the rest of the sites together – bullying other players who were trying to take them. We had this very unlikely pairing and the whole time I'm thinking, 'This guy is going to kill me. He's going to choose his moment and stick the knife in my back.'

But he never did. And I couldn't stop spending time with him, I needed to know how this story was going to end. We've flown together dozens of times since then. Every time there's an event, I'll see him pop-up on my buddy list, and he'll say, 'Hey, are you taking part in this?'

He doesn't know who I am or that I work at CCP. My character was very active in the game at the time, I was fairly prolific. But he had no idea who I was – just some random guy who killed him once.

And maybe he is playing the long game and I should have one eye open. Maybe he will return with a bigger ship and then he'll take his long-brewed vengeance. And do you know what? I'll be all about it. That will be my favourite day.