Community Spotlight: Fly Reckless
Among the many EVE Online podcasts out there, few can boast the history of Fly Reckless. Having been in existence for nearly 6 years and with over 100 episodes, it has stood the test of time and remains a preeminent EVE podcast. However, its life has not been easy. It has gone through many ups and downs over its history and yet remains standing.
Early Days
The Fly Reckless podcast started in 2008 as a project tied to the EVE Tribune, an online magazine dedicated to the game. Sillicon Buddha, a writer for the tribune, started the podcast initially to read Tribune articles aloud. However, this format slowly drifted, gradually turning toward chronicling Buddha's adventures PvPing for Agony Unleashed.
After a while, the podcast was joined by Atraxerxes, an old FW pilot who sported a solid run on the podcast before departing to start his own, WTFFTW. After a short while, the podcast changed hands, passing on to Simon Cameron (aka Chad), who took on the role after talking to both Buddha and fellow podcaster Crovan.
Buddah offered Chad the wheel and the podcast flourished once more. He was soon joined by Lobos as his co-host, specializing in the industrial side of EVE Online. With his introduction, the podcast once again underwent a shift, moving to focus more on general EVE discussions.
It was around this time that the so-called “heart and soul of the second age” arrived in the form of Angus McDecoy, a fan favorite who, despite initial reservations, moved up from occasional guest to standing as a key member of the cast. Buddha returned at Chad's request and the four plowed on, producing excellent content and booming the podcast's popularity.
Transfer of Power
After a while, Silicon Buddha decided to live up to his namesake and (literally) seek enlightenment and thus left both the podcast and EVE Online. For a time, he considered closing down Fly Reckless but, at Chad's urging, agreed to transfer control of the podcast to him with a single condition: Fly Reclkess was never to end.
With the spiritual center of the podcast now open, the spot was eventually filled by Priest Kristoph. He, Chad, and Angus continued the open talk format for the podcast, which proved strong enough to carry it forward. The content focused on reviews of upcoming game changes, conceptual premises within EVE, and an all-around good sense of humor and laid-back charm. Despite having changed hosts often enough to be considered a completely new podcast, it carried on!
More rollovers
Eventually, things changed once again. Chad decided to leave the podcast and handed control to Angus and Priest Kristoph. He did not depart completely, moving to take a more supportive role maintaining the website and hosting services. The podcast pressed on.
Soon, however, real life struck again. Priest Kristoph was promoted to being a deacon and then a priest in the Russian Orthodox Church (yes, he is an actual priest!) Finding his time rather more restricted, both Priest Kristoph and Angus found their interest was waning, so they opened new auditions for a new lead host.
The winner of the contest ended up being Connall Tara, who was a member of Red vs Blue and looked into shifting the podcast into its current form. Drawing inspiration from the Warp Drive Active podcast, Connall (self-described) shameless lifted the concept of Failmail Commentary and combined it with producing a podcast focused around playing EVE, with regular discussions focus around fitting, flying ships, and upcoming changes.
Shortly after, Angus found himself drawn away with real life commitments relating to a new job, so they looked back through the previous auditions and found Tumbles Goodness, a wormhole dweller and EVE jack of all trades. The podcast continued strong for a good while, often collaborating with other podcasts such as Lost in EVE and Declaration of War while featuring community members such as Seismic Stan of the Freebooted blog.
Once again, however, the podcast went through a host change, as real life forced Priest Kristoph to retire from EVE completely. He left the podcast fully in the hands of Connall and Tumbles. The hosts decided to switch things up a little and began working with guest hosts, while the podcast continued focusing mechanics as the rebalancing of T1 ships known as tiericide continued in EVE.
The Present & Future
Eventually, Connall and Tumbles decided to recruit they're corporation's industrial expert, Gynax Gallenor, to become the third member of the podcast's host team. Fly Reckless has continued pushing forward and producing quality podcasts ever since.
Since the most recent host team has come aboard, they've had such memorable moments as a haiku contest featuring Seismic Stan, discovering the biggest concentration of failmails on a single character, and interviewing Evebet. Recently, they interviewed CCPs Fozzie and Rise about balance and the game for their 100th episode!
Up next on their board is the 101st episode, aimed specifically at new players to EVE Online. They aim to release it on February 18th!
They've also got some big plans, hoping to expand their interview minisodes. They hope to get notable community members and CCP developers to discuss things and add it to their mechanics-based discussions.
About the Team
As mentioned before, numerous hosts have come and gone over the lifetime of Fly Reckless. The current team consists of Connall Tara, Tumbles Goodness, and Gynax Gallenor.
Connal is a PVP-oriented pilot who flies with the Conquering Darkness corporation. He suffers from a shiny ship addiction and spends most of his time working on new ways to fit ships for various tasks and jobs. He's currently trying to pay back an ISK loan, but is hindered by his constant purchases of new HACs. In real life, he's a student currently studying chemistry in Scotland.
Tumbles has been playing EVE on-and-off since 2007, focusing mainly on PVE and industrial content. One day, he caught the wiff of blood in the space-water when helping take down a dread in w-space. Currently, he does a bit of everything in EVE, also as part of Conquering Darkness. He works as an administrator at a GSP in South Africa.
Gynax is a manufacturer, tower fueler, miner, and market manipulator for Conquering Darkness. He joined the corp after hearing about it on the podcast. In real life, he is a quantitative analyst working with equity and equity index derivatives.
Final Thoughts
Fly Reckless hasn't survived for 100 episodes for no reason. It remains one of the highest quality EVE Online podcasts you can find. Connall and the team see Fly Reckless as the happiest podcast in New Eden. They try to look at the game with optimism and enthusiasm, trying to inspire other people with their views. They try to celebrate the best and brightest in New Eden, while also drawing attention to spectacular failures; both their own and others'.
The political metagame may be what draws many to EVE, but they like to celebrate other aspects and the successes of both the development team and the players.
Connall would also like to comment on the excellent relationships they've developed with other podcasts, most notably High Drag, whom Connall helped start up, and Down the Pipe, whose host Bronya Boga was kind enough to guest host regularly on Fly Reckless.
