Rude Awakening

This man thinks you're a commie!
I have two job interviews today, so it has been a rather busy and stressful day. I mention that as context and perspective to what I am about to write. Not as an "excuse" for anything. I don't make excuses.

But I woke up this morning to half-a-dozen attacks on Twitter that had arrived while I slept. Over coffee I wrote the "Warp Speed" post and then replied in my own defense to those tweets.

I want to plainly state that at no time have I opinionated or editorialized on the issue regarding the gifting of ships to certain parties by CCP. The other day I felt it incumbent upon myself to "come clean" in regards to the one gift that CCP gave me once. The same gift they gave lots of us by the way. I was being sarcastic and humorous. But even in that article I made it clear that I thought CCP probably crossed the line.

My history of not only calling CCP to task for things, but also doing something about it, is quite clear and readily available. I owe no one an apology for my own actions in defense of Eve on many, many occasions.

And so it was that I awoke to several misguided and strangely personal attacks on Twitter this morning. Tweets which I naturally responded to, as I always do. I had been charged with some serious accusations which ranged from "you don't respect the sandbox" to "you are a douche". In reply to the name-calling, some of which was in good spirit, I simply replied with facts. Those facts are that 15,000 ships a day are exploded in New Eden (2010 numbers), which equates to about 5 million or more a year. That is a fact. It provides context. Perspective. And it is true.

Does it change anything about the current incident? Nope. Does it change Rixx's mind when it comes to the current incident? Nope.

You want to solve problems, you are going to need solutions. Pushing CCP into a corner is not a solution. And you will achieve nothing other than damaging the game you profess to love more than it already has been. If you can't see that clearly, then I'm not sure I can help you.

I've written over 16,000 tweets about Eve in the last two years and not once have I been reduced to name calling. But I came close this morning. I could have been an advocate on this issue. I could have helped in many ways. But I've decided to sit this one out. There is an agenda here that I am not comfortable with, driven in large part by people who seem to have no issue with using personal attacks to gain advantage. And a few that don't even play Eve any more. This concerns me.

Past advocacy efforts have been successful because they built consensus among the community, not by driving a wedge thru its heart. And, I am forced to admit, that is exactly what some are doing. Just try and express a thought, an opinion, or a perspective that is different than theirs - and see what happens to you.

Or just ask Ripard.
Or my good friend Roc.


Or to quote my comment from another thread:

"You are making out like I'm on someone's side here and I am not. So stop doing that. Well, granted I am on Eve's side as I always am. As I've stated before, many times, I am actually against gambling. So let's start there. I believe it corrupts and that is all that it does. Those are facts proven time and time again. Secondly, I do not support the gifting of ships to 'for-profit 3rd parties' for any reason and I've never stated that I do.

I do however strongly support the involvement of CCP in their game and with their community. I support that because it is good for Eve and it is good for the community. While I agree CCP is most likely in error on this incident, the entire story has not been revealed and the facts are not in. Starting a witch hunt based on the available facts, over a singular incident is not wise. Especially when the result could easily be the further withdrawing of CCP from the community."