gnaB giB

"But what about the End of the Universe? We'll miss the big moment."
"I've seen it. It's rubbish," said Zaphod,"nothing but a gnab gib."
"A what?""
"Opposite of a big bang. Come on, let's get zappy."
--Douglas Adams


I'm not entirely sure what to write here.  I know that it needs to be done, but I'm at a loss for words as to how to say it.  Expect lots of stream of consciousness style writing to follow.

The Events Thus Far


The Blood Money Cartel is no more.  Announced over the weekend, our current CEO has decided to shut down the alliance as he no longer wants to lead it.  Talk of simply handing the reigns over to another member has been somewhat complicated by a few things.  Worth stating up front that I can agree with the view, the current CEO doesn't want to appoint someone to take his place without explicit permission from the Alliance founder.

As you may know, The Blood Money Cartel was founded by Skira Ranos, who wrote the Beginners Guide to Piracy. Skira hasn't been active within the game for quite some time, and had originally intended to close the Cartel a year ago when he left, but was convinced to pass the leadership on to other members that he knew and trusted.  Since he hasn't been present during this time, he doesn't have that same relationship with many of the current members and officers (myself included) and instead feels it better that the Cartel be dissolved now, instead of allowed to wither under someone else's leadership.

I can respect both of these notions.  If I was in either of their shoes, I would certainly feel the same way.  That doesn't mean it sucks any less for me.  Although there was a general feeling of malaise following the release of Incarna and some much-to-be-expected inactivity over the summer months, I was still taken quite by surprise by the announcement.

The Road Ahead

So where does that leave our little merry band?  The current CEO (Former CEO?) has already been accepted into Veto. A well respected Pirate organization if ever there was one.  Other members of The Directorate have either stopped playing EVE entirely, or found other Corporations to join.  With one notable exception.

Blood Money Dark Angels was our Alt Corporation.  Created from a logistics standpoint to easily separate out people who were online grinding isk versus online looking for PvP.  It also possessed one of our POS towers that had been raised in the name of the almighty dollar.  In an attempt to both keep that running and provide an ease of transition for all former members of the Cartel, one of our members is keeping BMDA open and extended an offer to accept anyone currently in the Alliance, although it's not currently recruiting any new members.

You're Forgetting Someone

But what about me?  Where have I come out in all this?  What does the future hold for the FNG?

I have absolutely no idea.

My first reaction was to start looking for other organizations that were recruiting.  I then ran headlong into a rather embarrassing realization: I'm not half as cool as I'd like to be.  Or that I think I am.  Or something.  That probably deserves some explanation.

As I began looking at other Piratical organizations that I was familiar with, I ran into several roadblocks.  Invite only.  SP requirements.  Recruitment Closed.  This wasn't going as smoothly as I'd hoped.  There are still a lot of organizations out there that I do meet the requirements for, but I either don't know much about them (and thus have little motivation to join them) or they're explicitly recruiting new members to teach them the ropes.

I don't actually need someone to teach me how to be a Pirate at this point.  Sure, I'm still learning as I go, but anyone who isn't has stopped breathing.  I generally know what I'm doing, it would just be nice to find people to do it with and I didn't realize finding those people was going to be so difficult.  I'm currently mulling over a lot of different options, but that's enough to be a post all of its own.  Probably right after this one.  Stay tuned.

Regarrrds,

FNG

PS  Who needs editing?  As promised, this post is appearing as I typed it on the first draft.  I'm going to start working on a post to sort of go over my options going forward, and you can expect that to appear sometime later today.