Poker & Internet Spaceships

Poker: Eve Online Hold’em ring games remain down after someone hacked many accounts and absconded with much isk. Selene has given reassurance that the ring games will return with new and refortified security measures. I have not played many of the sit&go style tables on EOH because they require some very specific tactics that I’m not developing right now.

I picked up a copy of one of Dan Harrington’s newest books: Harrington on Cash Games Vol. 1. If I haven’t mentioned it before, his 3 volume set, Harrington on Hold’Em is the best investment I have made in poker thus far. And I’ve made a lot of investments, from Poker Tracker and Poker Stove software to a veritable library of books.

So I’m focusing my game on cash ring play right now. I got back on Full Tilt and am playing the micro limits. I find it amazing that you can sometimes pull down a $15 pot in a $.05/.10 game.

Internet Spaceships: I’m still involved in Faction Warfare on the side of the State Protectorate. The 22nd Black Rise Defensive Unit (my corporation) has made many inroads of late into the plexing and system flipping niche.

A lot of people lament that FW and plexing in particular are no fun because the systems lack any inherent reward. To some degree I concur. I wish there was a more substantial return on investment for the time spent plexing. But, the more I think about it, the more I am convinced of a couple of points:

CCP does not want FW to be an end in itself. It was always meant as a stepping stone between the Hi Sec Carebear population and the LoSec/Null Sec PVP population. It is a gateway between the two play styles.

Secondly, plexing, although boring and without integral reward does something that no other mechanic in EVE has so successfully done; it provides a diverse conflict space for a wide variety of ship types. If you can only fly T1 frigates or destroyers you can still engage, fight and win while plexing in FW. If you can fly cruisers and T2 frigates but don’t want to be ganked by HACs or a BS gang…you can do it while plexing.

This mechanic enhances the first point, that Faction Warfare is a gateway system for new players or older PVE centered pilots who want to get their pvp legs under them without jumping straight into the deep end.

I grew tired of the FW grind about a month ago and left for a short time. I’m back now with this renewed perspective and I hope to utilize the FW community and multiple targets in limited conflict spaces to get some FC experience.