This post starts with a story. Due to the death of the server hamsters yesterday my eventual play-time in Eve was extremely limited. I only managed to carve out about 45 minutes or so. But I did manage to hero tackle a Maller who was actually in a belt ratting, pop a pod that was foolish enough to just sit there on the gate with me too long (and ended up being full of Snakes!!), and then this amazing little Tormentor.
I was in a Wolf.
Sitting on a gate in Eve is a little different for me than it may be for you. As a dedicated, committed and permanent criminal (I've been -10 for over four years and ain't changing for no one, not even Australians) everyone in the universe can freely engage me, but I can't do the same without taking serious fire from gate or station guns. I often spend a lot of time staring at a mutually yellow-boxed target powerfully trying to voodoo them into firing at me. They have to start first. A point I will often point out to them in local.
And so it was with great surprise and joy yesterday that I watched the yellow box from this little Tormentor turn red. As we all know I will take whatever fight I can get, but the outcome of this fight was never in question. But immediately upon turning red the pilot of that little ship earned my respect. Had I been in a Tormentor on the gate with a Wolf I would have taken the fight. I admire that kind of spunk and "wtfwhynot" attitude. We need more of this in Eve.
I said as much in local. In fact, after the pilot re-shipped and warped off to an out gate, I tried to warn them about a gate camp on the other side. Luckily my intel was a few minutes old and the camp had dissolved. I know this because the pilot convo'd me back.
I've written about civility in Eve many times in the past on these pages. I strongly believe that, as players, we are also ambassadors of the game we enjoy. And generally I think we do a pretty piss-poor job of it. The clear line between an in-game persona and the person behind that line, is often a difficult one for some people to understand, grasp and appreciate. And maybe the big picture is too big to understand. Maybe the mantle of responsibility for an ENTIRE gaming community is beyond any individual player to grasp.
Instead of trying to shoulder that mass yourself, why not start small? Small is easy. Small doesn't actually take any work at all. Instead of snarking over a kill, why not invite them to a convo. Why not say "gf" in local? Why not offer some advice? It only takes a second and I think those seconds could make all the difference.
The difference between "winning" and "losing" in Eve often comes down to just a few seconds. When you read that sentence you immediately thought about fighting, didn't you? My challenge to you today is start thinking about those seconds in another light. Maybe a few seconds here and there could make a difference in other ways?
And maybe, just maybe, those seconds can add up to something bigger than us. Maybe we can help create the kind of universe that people want to play in. A universe that remains as harsh, cold, and difficult as ever - but that maybe isn't full of harsh, cold and difficult players.
Maybe?
Comments
There was a second ship somewhere between 40 - 50km off gate while my gate cloak hid me. As a solo pilot I'm cool with multiple-to-1's and have taken several managing to take at least one ship down with me, but the ship I could catch was a wolf. By itself it would eat me alive unless the pilot made glaringly obvious mistakes in fitting or was flown by someone with absolutly no piloting skills (campaired to my almost-no-skills). Preferably both.
But, that pilot was Rixx Javix. A person who's killboard I peruse ocasionally to see if he's lost anything to compare fits and evaluate if mine wouldn't be better off with X or Y instead of Z. Someone who's blog I read when I can steal a moment or two, and someone who would have to be having such a horrible day piloting as to be near afk for me to win in anything short of a hard-counter to the ship he is flying.
Oh yeah, didn't I just apply to join his corp the other day?
But what it boiled down to wwas a wolf, sitting 12 km off a gate with my overview kindly glowing a target-me red over his name. 12 km is only 2km short of my ships effective range...
gf. I was laughing from when I first yellow boxed you till the end.
Just FYI our recruitment is slowed down to a crawl right now because of the Alliance Tournament, we are "officially" closed. All that really means if we are only taking pilots that we know or know of until after the AT. But if you have put in an app I'd be more than happy to accept it.
You certainly have the right spirit.
What was that motto? Aha!
"All for one and one for all"
Another Dumas quote I think has EVE application:
“Never fear quarrels, but seek hazardous adventures.”
Why would one say gf in an unbalanced match where it was one sided. For instance, gate camp, blobs, versus a link ships or a superior ship that simply blasted you out of the skies in a few shots. I consider a good fight something that was balanced.
Besides Rixx, you don't always say good fight yourself. The very few times we fought 1 on 1 and I killed you, I find amusing you always come up with an excuse for your loss. Sure, you will always say it when you 3v1 kill me. Probably to annoy me or something.
Rixx could have been a complete asshole (he of course wasn't) and it still would have been a good fight for me. I had fun.
If I used 'winning' in my definition of my fun in eve I would already have lost, and would likely stop playing the game.
I don't always say 'gf' in local either, but this is primarily due to my local state of mind and nothing to do with the other player, or the fight itself.
Side note: Low-Sec statics are awful and I do not recommend living with one unless your life goals include losing orcas.
See you can't create epic kills if you don't engage up. Wooptydoo you won a balanced fight \o/ Hosanna! /slowclap.
You know what's really cool? Engaging the ship(s) you aren't supposed to beat and the either winning or taking down more then you have any right too.
Sure if you only aim is to win as many fights as possible with as few losses as possible, you can always make the 'smart' choice. But lots of people in EVE take fights because they're interesting or amusing or whatever. I often take fights just to have the fight, Bit like a martial arts thing, just enjoy the moment roll with punches, if you lose, you lose, so what? vOv Dock up grab a new ship go again!