What Did I Learn?
stargrace 
Joining Pandemic Horde Inc back in April of 2024 opened a few doors to me that I never knew existed. First of all, a huge number of the regular / steady EVE Online players belong to nullsec blocks. Whether it’s Goons, Pandemic Horde, or someone else. Even if you don’t play in nullsec, I dare say that everything that happens in EVE, is touched in some way by these players. Whether it’s the huge battles & content that happens, the mining, or the ratting. To implement things like scarcity within null is to make a change that trickles down and affects every single person in the game – and scarcity, is not good. CCP needs these players to keep doing their thing, so that other aspects of the game continue to thrive and survive. I was astounded at just how many nullsec players are active in the game. On reddit there’s tons of comments about nullsec players crying when changes happen – but nullsec players are the majority. Implementing changes that cause them to quit, is bad. Whether or not everyone else likes it.
Content is good. Cheap ships are good because that lets everyone undock and create that content. If we’re all too scared to undock because ships are expensive, that’s bad. Lack of content is bad. People LOVE the big fights. They LOVE being a part of something larger than themselves. They thrive on the drama. It was so easy to get caught up in it all. Some take it a lot more seriously than others.
Because Pandemic Horde Inc doesn’t have a screening process, ‘Awox’ is common. This is when someone joins only to lead the enemies right to your own alliance. Sometimes it’s as simple as a 1 day member, sometimes it’s someone who has been around plotting for months. Scams are common, preventions are put in place, until those are figured out and so on.
I remained loyal to Pandemic Horde while within their corporation, but eventually you learn you’re just one tiny little insignificant person within a giant cog of other more important people. In a lot of operations, bodies, are what matter. Even when I left PHI to join an ‘ESI-Gated’ corporation (I eventually joined two) – it was quiet. These people had been gaming together for 10-15 years, and I was an outsider joining. The friendliest corporation I joined was actually PHI because of the rotating new players. I’ve mentioned a few times now that I’m not a huge PVP player – but I do feel a fierce loyalty to my ‘area’ in space, I’ve stood up to gankers who were harassing miners, and I chased neutrals out of spaces when they were attempting to rob ess, or skyhooks. ISK is easy to make in nullsec, but there’s also risks. Some newer players would (wrongfully) assume that because it was “our” lands that it was 100% safe. Absolutely not true. It is ‘safer’ than other areas, but never 100% safe. Anyway.
I learned how to fit ships, how to make ISK, how to escape when someone was after me. I learned how to protect an ESS, how to defend a gate, how to roll a wormhole, and so many other little tips and tricks that you can’t learn in EVE without participating in something bigger than yourself. My bookmarks folder overflowed with charts, graphs, websites, and information all relating to EVE Online. I stayed out of the drama portion of it, but I read about it in chat and saw others talking about it. Why certain fights went the way they did, why we did certain things over other things, etc.
One thing that constantly came up that frustrated me to no end was the abundance of misinformation in the newbean channel in game, and the inability for people to just read. I doubt this is a PHI specific issue, more likely an issue with people in general. All of the information someone could ever need has already been written out and posted, somewhere, you just need to actually read it. Day in and day out, the same questions would be asked, and answered, sometimes correctly and sometimes incorrectly. I obviously don’t know everything about the game, but there was just so much misinformation. I wasn’t expecting that.
