I've been writing on CrazyKinux's Musings in one form or another since 2005. Long before ChatGPT, Claude, image generators, or any of the current AI tools existed, I was writing about EVE Online, about the community of players & bloggers, sharing things I had learned, interviewing people and generally following whatever rabbit hole happened to interest me.
So AI didn't suddenly make me creative, but it's definitely changed how I create.
He almost ignored it.
There was nothing unusual about receiving messages in space, but this one was different. No corporate header. No security tag. No context. Just a name he had not seen in a very long time.
Cassian Drake.
The text beneath it was short.
Jita 4-4. 2200.
The Glass House. Come alone.
I need the favour back.
He stared at it for several seconds, then checked the routing data attached to the message.
Drake was not the kind of man who crossed dozens of systems for a casual conversation. If he was willing to travel that far just to ask for a favour in person, whatever had happened was serious.
Reluctantly, he set course for Jita.
This week, Rixx Javix and I sit down with Jim Halescott, one of EVE Online’s most unconventional entrepreneurs. From thousands of characters and an industrial network stretching across New Eden to an ambitious plan for something resembling a galaxy-wide chain of convenience stores, Jim has built an EVE career almost entirely outside the paths the game officially gives us. What sounds absurd at first gradually reveals itself as a remarkably sophisticated operation involving manufacturers, haulers, intelligence gatherers, market manipulation and hundreds of working relationships.
But the conversation goes well beyond ISK and spreadsheets. We explore why Jim considers highsec a legitimate endgame, how certain mechanical changes quietly weakened player communities, what EVE’s Freelance Jobs could become, and why the game’s greatest opportunities often exist in the spaces its developers never deliberately designed.
Along the way, we also reflect on how EVE can shape real-world careers, business instincts and our willingness to take risks. It is a fascinating glimpse into what becomes possible when someone stops asking what there is to do in EVE and starts inventing something no one else thought to build.
