Ethan Richards set out to explore every solar system in the galaxy in the space MMO EVE Online. He achieved this and even made it into the Guinness Book of Records. But as he now recounts, players from the community wanted to sabotage him.
Who is Ethan Richards? He plays Katia Sae in EVE Online and wanted to achieve a very special goal with this character: He set out to visit every solar system in the game, write a blog, and take a screenshot of each system.
Did he achieve his goal? Yes. After more than nine years, he had visited every system and recorded his experiences in a blog. For this, he even received an entry in the Guinness Book of Records.
A Dangerous Journey
What does he say now? He was recently asked about this achievement and explained that it was anything but easy to reach his goal. This was due to a part of the EVE community.
What was the problem? About five years into his mission, he had visited all the systems in high- and low-sec space. Now a journey into null-sec territory was on the agenda. There, open PvP reigns without protection.
The community had already become aware of his mission and had noticed that he had not lost a single ship in all those years. Therefore, a part of the community now set out to sabotage Ethan Richards’ mission. The null-sec space was perfectly suited for this.
How did the players want to stop him? There were hunts for him, and they tried to ambush him repeatedly. For this reason, Ethan Richards kept postponing his blog entries. This way, the players could not guess where he would travel next. Furthermore, he did not want to draw more ire by complaining about attacks in the blog.
A bounty was even placed on him. And players told him that they would now know exactly when he would die.
Narrowly Reached His Goal
How close was he to being caught? There was a situation where Ethan Richards was stuck in a solar system because other players had blocked the only jump gate out. He did not want to lose his ship under any circumstances but still needed to make a breakthrough. For this, he waited for the right moment. With a lot of patience and courage, he finally managed to jump out of the system and continue his journey.
Were there more challenges to follow? After Ethan Richards had mastered null-sec space, he wanted to visit the systems in the wormhole area. This area is extremely dangerous because there are no jump gates. The systems are connected by unstable wormholes that constantly disappear.
However, he mastered this challenge with the help of the Signal Cartel and a trick. The Cartel organized a fake event to map the wormholes. Ethan Richards then used these maps for his mission. The fake event served to obscure the fact that Ethan Richards was operating in that area. Because he feared that a Cartel spy might betray his position, causing others to attack him.
The journey ended successfully on March 9, 2019, without Ethan Richards losing his ship. This was, of course, worth the entry in the Guinness Book of Records. The character Katia Sae even received a monument in the game.
