A few weeks ago I had a Steam chat from my old EVEcorp CEO. The conversation went like this:
Him: "There's a new MMO. It's like EVE, but with robots. I'm thinking of getting the band back together"
Me: "I'll get my coat"
And lo! Statecorp version 2 did thusly arrive within the world of Perpetuum Online, which didn't really notice, and just got on with things as normal.
It's been a funny few weeks in a world populated by robots that walk like they badly need a shit. There's a hardcore population of deeply bitter gamers who all seem to be psychologically damaged in some way but are, at the same time, incredibly nice. The population seem to be so glad that there's an influx of new players that they're falling over themselves to help us out, giving us free ingame items, and helping us out with research into the more advanced stuff. They're not shy of shooting us either, although people do tend to get told off on the killboard for harassing the new guys. It's all so very condescending.
About two weeks in, I must admit that I was pretty sure I wasn't going to play anymore. Despite the draw of being part of the State group again, there wasn't much going on ingame that made me want to log in on a daily basis. That changed not long after our great leader's first article about us on the wee website he runs appeared. Literally, within hours, the corp population blossomed from 20-30 up to 120. Admittedly most of those people who joined, including some of the Statecorp old timers, played for a few hours and left, but the explosion did make me realise that there was something to keep me logging in, a reason for playing and for devoting hours to the game.
That reason, oddly enough, was to do with the potential extant in the game, the potential to build something that would have an impact on current and future players. The potential, really, to become the Perpetuum version of EVE's Band of Brothers or Red Alliance (although we're more likely Goonswarm with better manners). Thus far we've been treated as the new kids on the block, with plenty of people putting their metaphorical arm around our shoulders after they slaughter our bots wholesale, knuckling our chins and telling us to "Keep at it, little buddy!" like an eight-year-old struggling to piss up a wall. We've started punching our own weight in group PvP, but we're still prone to underestimating our enemies just cause we're in bigger bots, or horror shows like the Terrible Termis Massacre. For all the experience that some of us have brought from EVE, which is, in many respects, the game that Perpetuum most resembles, there is still a lot of learning to do.
And I'm happy about that. Perpetuum will never capture me in the same way that EVE did, because I'm burned that particular bridge, but for the moment I'm content to help build a Statecorp that can drive the game and become a power. It'll be fun even if we lose, but I rather think it'll be even more fun if we win.
