by Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle


Eris Discordia

November 3, 2007 - In the second session of EVE FanFest 2007, Eris Discordia shared her reasons for participating in Player vs. Player (PvP) combat in EVE Online as well as some basic pointers for PvP success. Although the session was well attended (due in no small part to Eris’s good looks and coy demeanor; the fact that she’s a young, attractive female that’s very active in EVE Online doesn’t hurt either), this was a session targeted at newer players perhaps fearful to venture out of high security space. That said, Eris’s subtle humor and seductive schadenfreude overtones provided entertainment for even the most experienced PvP’er in the room.

Eris began her talk with a disclaimer of sorts, explaining through a screenshot of the EVE official forums with “WRONG!” scrawled over top courtesy of a wide brush from MS Paint that many have vastly different opinions about how best to PvP and hers is but one opinion in a roiling sea of discourtesies. She did a good job of keeping her tips broad-based, however, and implored new players to get over their fear of dying, group up with other players or join a corp, and go pick a fight with a player character.

Examining a common mistake new players make, Eris made clear that the size and relative armament of the ship doesn’t equate to PvP success, strongly urging new players to spend a long time- literally months - in an inexpensive frigate before moving on to cruisers, battleships, and more specialized, pricier vessels. Concentrating on the versatility of frigates, Eris detailed the common roles each type of ship commonly serves in PvP, peppering her comments with seeming insider knowledge teasers from the many devs and powerful players she speaks with.

Eris skimmed over the duties of a Fleet Commander, stating repetively that she lacks the multi-tasking skill required for the role. Turning instead to voice chat etiquette, she explained that “it’s basically shut the f*** up” – explaining that the fleet commander and scouts should be the only ones communicating during a fleet action and others should speak only when spoken to. Eris suggested that players uncomfortable with this approach should try flying with a smaller, more informal outfit.

After concluding with a mélange of video and stories from PvP exploits against various EVE player and dev personalities, Eris fielded questions from the crowd. Being one of the first sessions, some players had still-fresh axes to grind and the Q&A period quickly devolved into a nonsensical argument about some aspect of the user interface (despite Eris’s pleas that she’s not a UI designer). Still, she fielded tongue-in-cheek questions with aplomb. For example, how to PvP while mining? Stage a mining op with Ravens, and rely on pirate dimness to bring about their ruin.

Now for the best part: want to see the entire session? Ten Ton Hammer is your source for full-length video from EVE FanFest 2007, and we’ve got the entire PvP session (minus the Q&A nonsense) on video right here. Enjoy!


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Last Updated: Mar 29, 2016

About The Author

Jeff joined the Ten Ton Hammer team in 2004 covering EverQuest II, and he's had his hands on just about every PC online and multiplayer game he could since.

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