No one in Eve likes to get blobbed. In fact, we hate it so very much that we use it as slander in local whenever possible. Getting blobbed, being blobbed, it is all right up there with being perma-jammed by ECM amongst the things most loathsome about Eve Online. In other words it sucks.
And rightly so. Dying to overwhelming force does suck. By golly, it just ain't fair. And it isn't fair. Having your ship exploded by a bunch of other ships and losing it without having an even insignificant chance of escape - well that can be a serious bummer. Lucky for us Eve Online is not a fair game.
There is no other group in Eve Online more dedicated to not blobbing you to death than Stay Frosty and the good pirates in A Band Apart. We will often go out of our way to try and avoid it. I've experienced moments when we've actually put ourselves into danger by not blobbing someone. We have discussions about it all the time, we debate the merits of this or that tactic, and we constantly strive to bring good fights to the honorable citizens of New Eden. We honestly do all of those things. And yet, we also like to win fights. Losing fights is also not fun and also a real bummer.
The thing is, and here is some harsh truth for you to chew on today - real blobs in Eve are extremely rare.
So what is a "real" blob? Let me give you a great example. Yesterday one of our pilots was down in Null Sec being extremely annoying to the locals. Blowing up ships and generally causing problems. He was in an Osprey Navy Issue. And eventually the locals formed a response fleet to deal with this offender. A Proteus, Garmur, Thrasher, Kikimora, Caracal, Ferox, Keres, and two Jags. That is a solid kitchen sink defense fleet and an actual, bonafide blob. Way more ships than needed to deal with a single Cruiser. And exactly what you would expect, because dealing with that Cruiser was exactly what that fleet was for. It wasn't about the good fight, that ship needed to be expunged. And it was.
Also yesterday I was fighting a Succubus in my Dramiel when another SF pilot landed and helped me explode it. He did 12% of the damage. I would have won the fight anyway, but the help was certainly appreciated. That is not a blob, but the other pilot didn't see it that way.
A blob is just a figure of speech. There are no real blobs. You are rarely being targeted for individual destruction. The hand of fate just put you in the way of a much larger force. It does suck, but it isn't usually personal. The other guys are hanging out with their friends, roaming, forming up, moving, having fun, chewing the fat - when they spot your ship on d-scan. Or the scout reports back. Or whatever. This conversation never happens, "Guys there is a lone Drake in the Open and we have about 20 ships with us, which is waaay more than we need. Let's just let this guy go on his way until we can find another 20 man gang to engage."
Now, I have been in fleets when we might only send 4-5 ships along to kill that Drake, but otherwise that ship is getting toasted. Why? Because from the aggressor's perspective anything and everything in space is a threat. That Drake is probably bait for a much larger force, or a cyno, or god knows what! This is how things work in Eve. And when he explodes alone and without help we all feel a little sad for the guy, we do. But we feel happy for ourselves because we avoided being blobbed in return!
And I know, being that Drake is a serious bummer. You got yourself blobbed real good. You did. Me telling you that blobs don't exist is not helping things. But what really happened is that the other guy had more friends than you did and you died because you were alone, you didn't use your d-scan properly, and you were flying around solo in a DRAKE!!?? (Ok, I know this is just an example, but people do this all the time.)
Eve is not a fair game. And everything that happens is all about perspective. The sooner you learn these truths about how things actually work, the sooner you will start to be more successful and happy about your time in the game.
And feel free to continue bitching about blobs in local. We all do.
Comments
I cut my piracy teeth back in 2009-2010 with Blood Money Cartel (Skira Ranos' corp), and our standing orders were that when roaming we were to be in groups/fleets of 6 or less. More than that and we were to split up into separate groups. Even with 6 or less we spread out to look for targets. When we actually engaged we were usually 1v1 or at most 2v1, and we stayed that way until their backup or ours arrived. That's not blobbing, IMO, it's hunting but being prepared. I flew with the original LUCRH too, later, and had a great time and recall a similar ethos.
Contrarily, this site posted something recently that I think I disagree with: http://eveoganda.blogspot.com/2020/07/insta-death.html
The author disparages "content that choose[s] to engage with me, against my will". In this particular case the post is about Triglavian invasions that killed their ship without a fair chance to fight back. How is this different than a pirate in a cloaked Loki/Proteus ambushing a T1 explorer who is running data/relic sites? Or a hisec miner getting ganked by CODE? Neither of those victims can fight back any better than the author's lost Dramiel or Slicer. Nor can the lone unfortunate newbie pilot who gets "blobbed" by 6 or less dedicated pirates.
It can be argued that the T1 explorer can check D-Scan or local and bail, and the hisec miner can do the same. AFAIK, the in-game map shows the Trig-sieged systems, so the pirates can avoid jumping in altogether.
Since March 2009 when I first played, I was told that to undock was to consent to be destroyed, because This is Eve. I'm not 100% sure the Trig invasion should be different just because it is CCP's NPC's destroying us against our will as opposed to us doing it to ourselves. We all had warnings, no?
Anyway, I meant to post this when the Trig complaint post was put up, but I am glad I didn't because I usually agree with you, and this at least let me post an agreement and a disagreement together so I don't look like a hater or a sycophant.
Gwyd
The subtle difference here is that the Trig Gate Guns are NPC driven and not player driven, which in my opinion makes them a dangerous precedent. I'm not against emergent NPC actions, in fact I support them, but give us a chance to burn back to the gate or something.