Talking In Local

As you can probably imagine, I often get quite the reaction when I appear in local. It can vary from the sudden appearance of o/'s filling local chat (always appreciated), to everyone running away or docking up. I don't tend to stay long when either of those things happen. Seeing friends in local is always great, but they've just given me away and eventually they will all gang up on me. And everyone running away and hiding is no fun for anyone. Those two reactions are both understandable. I say Hello to people I know in local myself, when I see them. And I can't blame people from running away from me. I wish they wouldn't. But I get it.

If those two reactions are the polar ends of a ruler, then the middle is a huge mess of anger, resentment, idiocy and posturing. I've recently been away from the day-to-day game playing due to moving and selling homes. But as I return once more to a regular play schedule, this middle-ground has become more obvious. You tend to notice these things more when you've been away from them for a time. When you experience it every single day, it tends to become background noise.

Mix that with having played Eve for over eight years and the observant fella, of which I am one, will have noticed larger trends. As unique and interesting as you probably think you are being in local, trust me, you are not saying anything I haven't heard a million times before. Please, don't let that stop you. As you have reminded me a thousand times, you certainly have a right to say whatever comes into that excuse for a brain on your shoulder.

Witness the gentleman, who is usually safely docked, who has defeated me in battle dozens of times. I get it, I understand why you are saying this in local. You want everyone to think you are awesome, accomplished, and a great fighter. What better way to say it than by boastful proclamations that cannot be easily disproven?  It is the same line of thinking the guys in the past 12 systems thought as well. Yes, I do lose fights. I've lost about 1,500 of them. All while winning just shy of 6,000 at this point. Which (maths) mean I win right at 75% of engagements. You should also know that, of the fights I lose, about 60% are ones against multiple targets. 75% is exactly where I want to be and I work very, very hard in a very, very casual manner to stay right there. How do I manage that? Because I am really, really good at it. But I don't like to boast. So we'll just leave those claims alone when they appear in local. Let the young man have his ego moment.

I also try hard not to be one of those people that use the phrase "back in the day", but lately something seems to have changed. It seemed more likely previously to encounter people willing to have conversations after a fight, than it does today. I can easily remember long post-fight convos with total strangers about tactics, mods, and learning from each other. Such convos seem to be rare lately. I know that such conversations taught me a lot when I was busy learning everything I could. And I know I've helped others do the same. It was part of the game that I enjoyed. And a real source of pride especially in low sec for those of us that live there.

Yesterday I engaged a Breacher in my Comet. I've had this fight a hundred times and it is usually a good one. 9 times out of 10 I will emerge victorious, because I've fought it so many times I know exactly what to do. I also know that typically the other pilot will make the same couple of mistakes that I will exploit and he will lose. And sure enough this pilot did them. He let me pull range, he let me lull him into my web at range, and then I overheated him head-on and he exploded. Trick was, right at the end of that fight, another Stay Frosty pilot arrived and managed to do 200 dps. This did not sit well with the Breacher. The 200 dps had no bearing on the outcome, trust me. I still had nanite in my rep and I hadn't even needed to overheat it yet. I tried to explain this and offered the fact that the pilot had made errors that cost him the fight. But to no avail. A couple of easy suggestions and he will win considerably more of those fights in the future. But he wasn't interested.

I could go on. There are the local guys who posture for their own Corp/Alliance and I understand that. Stay Frosty and ABA suck. We will probably die off eventually. Not as soon as you guys said we would, but y'know, even a blind squirrel finds a nut eventually. There are the people that want me to fight their 8 man gang, even though I'm running solo. Nice try. There are the idiots who kill you on a gate camp with insta-locking Svipuls and give you a "gf" in local. Bite me. There was that guy the other day whose buddy was in a ECM ship and I engaged anyway. They got away, of course. And he celebrated in local so much you would have thought he won the lottery. He was very pleased with himself. Which wouldn't have been so bad had he stopped with the "you suck" angle. If you are going to use ECM, or WCS, or cloaky Recons, or whatever, take ownership of it. Don't try to blame me for your own risk aversions. I don't have any.

However you want to engage local yourself, please feel free to do so. You have every right. Just know that I am there to have fun, play a game, and be a professional pirate. It is only business and nothing personal. Ever. I'm just trying to find good fights.

¿o/