It's crazy how things work sometimes.
As I was going through all of the old WTFMan archives a couple of months ago to tidy things up (my damn OCD compels me to do some useless shit sometimes), I came across a post about EVE Online. I remember briefly trying that soon after it came out in 2005/06-ish, and thinking it was pretty intense, but I was more into something else at the time, so I didn't give it much of my attention. After reading that old post here, I decided to check if that game is still going... and it is, indeed. As a matter of fact, one of my good friends (and JoV guild member of 25 years) was extremely active in that game until a couple of years ago. What a nice resource to have!
As I've mentioned, I've only been playing Xbox games recently, and mostly single-player ones at that. What a filthy casual I've become in my 50s. But the game just sounded so expansive and PvP-centric, it was hard not to want to dip my toe into the vast pool of space.
Jesus Christ, that game is huge. And complicated. I don't think I'm the smartest guy on Earth, but I like to think I'm pretty far from stupid — and this game is a bit overwhelming at times. As you can imagine, in a game that has been ongoing for 20 years, there is a lot to it. An immense amount of ship types, equipment you can fit them with, PvE, PvP, mining, industry, the most complex player-driven market in gaming, the largest scope of any video game (over 7,000 star systems worth of space), etc. It's a bit intimidating, but in a good way. I like to be challenged. And challenging it has been.
My buddy was nice enough to spot me some starting cash so I could experiment with various careers, min-maxing my newbie ships, etc. I eventually, recently joined his alliance — the infamous Goonswarm, via KarmaFleet. So I've gone from complete newb in the safe-ish part of space to a complete newb in the most dangerous part of space. It's been quite the experience, and I'm only six weeks in.
One thing that does drive me crazy a little bit is that you cannot advance your character's skills by actively playing. You can buy a couple of things that will make skills train faster, but once you've done that — it's going to take as long as it takes. My longest-term skill in my queue has a 16-day training time, and I am one incredibly impatient person. So yes, I've spent some RL money to kick things into a slightly higher gear, but I haven't gone apeshit. It's hard not to, though — I want everything, and I want it right now. *insert tantrum here*
But all in all, I've been enjoying it a lot. If ChatGPT had emotions, I'm certain it would get fucking tired of my incessant questions about ship fittings, money-making, alts, planetary industry, and myriad other EVE-related topics. Hell, the research aspect has always been an enjoyable part of MMO games in the past, and this is no exception, but the sheer amount of info out there is nuts.
Anyhow, that's what I'm up to in gaming. Wish me luck. I may need it. ;)
Ok, so I spent a good bit of time going through the "Featured" pages here and cleaned them up. The Archives took forever to handle because of the terrible and inconsistent code we used over the years, but it’s finally pretty standardized. Looking back at that old code makes my OCD twitch. There's still a lot of broken links and missing pictures, but I did what I could, even going so far as to use the wayback machine to get some of the missing images.
But honestly, that’s a long way from the worst of it. Going through all those old posts from my late 20s and early 30s… whew. There's a lot to shake your head at. The not-so-subtle misogyny, casual use of homophobic slurs, and even a few moments of borderline racism. Reading back through it has been rough. I think I’ve grown a lot as a person in the past couple of decades, and seeing a younger me say things that today I would now leap to defend AGAINST fills me with more than a little shame. Keeping that stuff up with my name on it is very difficult, but you can't ignore the past and whatever got me to where I am now, I guess I'm ok with, even the stumbles. Know better, do better.
So, for the record: equality is deeply important to me. I’m a feminist. I walk in every Atlanta Pride parade. I stand with marginalized people - whether it’s people of color, women, LGBTQ, or any other group that's been pushed aside. Equality matters. Full stop.
OMG, an update? Well… sorta. I don't really plan on updating the site, but I was getting tired of how ancient the main WTFMan page looked. Since I use AI models regularly for work and research, it didn’t take much effort to throw together a cleaner, more modern HTML layout. So why not? My sanity is worth 15 minutes of tinkering... barely. Will boredom strike and compel me to update sub-pages? Maybe, but I would never touch Ron's McDonaldland or Grey's UOEvil content.
I've been enjoying doing Python coding via AI for work and home stuff, so it's possible that I'll view the old WTFMan.com as a little side project— but I’m not making any promises. Really. This site's purpose was to talk about games we were passionate about and were at the top of our respective games, and that ship has long since sailed. I still game, but I'm a filthy casual that only plays games on the almost-defunct Xbox platform, so there's nothing really to talk about there. Sad to say that the days of gaming as much as humanly possible to get to the absolute top tier of play is long behind me.
The site’s still for sale, but I've pretty much given up on finding someone who’ll pay serious money, let me keep the email address I’ve had for three decades, and maybe even preserve an archive link for the diehards (and let’s be honest… mostly for me). Could it happen? Sure. Am I holding my breath? Not even a little.
Well, it's been a long time coming, but I think it's time to put old yeller out of his misery.
My friend has stopped hosting the site for free. It's just not worth spending any money to keep the site online for the few people that come here to look at posts from back when we were updating more than once every year or so. I'd love to keep it online forever because I too am a fan of nostalgia, but if I can get some decent money for the domain name, then it's gone.
I'm in talks with one guy now who has expressed interest passingly over the years, so it's possible that will pan out, but who knows. In either case, the domain is up for grabs. If you have a lot of money and you insist on throwing it at me, then send me an email.
For those of you who come here occasionally because you miss the good old days and this site fills that need for you, I'm sorry. The fans really came together for some neat stuff in my life. The first JoV dungeon crawl 21 years ago (holy shit!) which spawned a gaming guild that still lives on to this day, our several attempts at hosting private UO servers and all of the crazy amount of interactions I've had with you guys in game, via email and on the forums. You guys are why I did this site. It wasn't for ego - it was for the fans.
Thank you for that.
Edit: for those asking, the best offer I've gotten is $7500, but I think it's worth in the five figure range since it's a six letter domain, has humor value and with the right strategy/fit it could really turn into something (again).