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| The Hyperion, which now makes Wormholes!! |
Sugar Kyle wrote a great post about killboard shame which you should read. And Nosy wrote up a post on this idiot in Jita who killed his own Alt a dozen times to pad his killboard. That one broke on Tweetfleet the other day as we all watched the Bestower kms pour in.
I was going to write about the new Hyperion Battleship and how it makes Wormholes, but instead I'm going to talk about killboards and ships exploding. If I write about Wormholes I may just confuse myself, so I'll stick to something I know something about. Explosions.
(It's humor people, relax!)
I rather famously or infamously, depending on your own perspective, do not play Eve for my own killboard stats. And I don't want this to turn into a thing, this ground has been well traveled here in these pages. Let's just take that as fact at this point. What I enjoy is playing Eve and essentially ignoring my own peril while doing so. In other words, I don't worry about losses because without them there are no victories. Your own level of participation in that concept may vary. Far be it for me to tell you how to play a game. I will say that I strongly believe my way is far more enjoyable and sustainable over the long haul. But of course I would say that.
Killboards are important however for a variety of reasons and they should not be removed from Eve. Perhaps it all could have been handled differently from the beginning, and that might be a valid argument, but we're twelve years down that road now. So no going back. That isn't to say that killboards couldn't be better, or that the data could be presented differently. I happen to agree with that. One of my own personal gripes is Booster Link Alts - I believe they should show on kills. For example. I fought two Kestrels yesterday within ten minutes of each other. Both solo. I killed the first one and then lost to the second one a few minutes later in another system. Why did I lose to the second one? And why, when he was in structure, was he able to kill my buddy in the Rifter after we fought? Because he had Legion links up in system. And yet he gets a solo kill notched on his killboard. That shouldn't happen. He didn't kill me solo. He had a buddy giving him boosts. That needs to change.
I feel no shame losing that fight. My ship was well fit. My tactics were solid. It is a fight I should have won. That isn't always the case. And when I screw up I want to learn, understand my mistakes, and move on. The loss is a record of that moment in time. But the past is dead. Already gone. Nothing I can do about it except bury it in a mountain of kills so no one notices. I've had about 1k ships explode under me in the last six years and I've been podded about 90 times. Every single one of those was a mistake. Sure I've killed 4-6 times more than I've lost. Sure I've learned many valuable lessons. Sure I've become a much better pilot. And sure, I am a rather decent pirate. Not to mention incredibly handsome.
Shame comes from doing something wrong. And if you are feeling "shame" about a loss you need to ask yourself why? Find out why. Ask someone about it. Share your fit. Learn something about your ship. Do better next time. There are so many great resources available to players today. Heck, steal fits from other people's killboards. We all do it. Whatever it takes, learn how to fit a ship properly. At least make the attempt. That will go a long way to removing shame from your game.
The only real shame is in not trying. When I enter a system and 27 players are docked up, that is shameful. When I see a new player with 6x WCS on his Rokh, that is shameful. When someone in a Dramiel runs away from my Breacher, that is shameful. But losing a ship? That should never be cause for shame.
Free your mind from worry. Dive into danger. Laugh when that bait ship turns out to be actual bait. Scream "Geronimo!" as you jump into the enemy! (I do!) Fight even when you know you will probably lose. Because you only live once out here in the real world, but in Eve? In Eve you always get a do-over.
You can't make an omelette without breaking some eggs.