The Stay Frosty Code is an incredible thing that has stood the test of time. There are many pearls of wisdom within the Code, but perhaps none as important as Number Three - "I am a lifelong learner. I seek the respect of other space-farers through mastery of the martial skills. Knowing that the fight may be over before it has begun, I seek to engage others only on my terms."
There are few things as frustrating to other pilots in this game as that last bit, "only on my own terms". Of course other pilots are constantly trying to get you to engage them on their own terms. They have a plan and they want you to fall into it, to make their lives easier. And sometimes this is unavoidable. The other day I had no idea or expectation that a Pilgrim would de-cloak right next to my Hookbill. That isn't the kind of game-play that I engage in, but I suppose it works for a certain type of player. And, in that case, he did catch me off-guard. So it worked.
But a common mistake players tend to make is falling into other player's terms of engagement. Even when such terms are painfully obvious. If there are 47 people in local and the only thing in space is a Punisher sitting in a Large Navy Plex - odds are that Punisher is bait. If you do decide to slide into that thing, you better have a plan for when the blob arrives. This is why it annoys me when players complain about other player's game-play decisions. Everyone is out in space trying to set-up conditions for them to succeed and for others to fail. No one undocks with the purpose of failing miserably. We are all out there trying to win at whatever it is we are trying to accomplish. It doesn't matter what that might be.
It is the intersection of those objectives that cause conflict. Don't get mad at me if I have 18 Bellicose on a gate that you decide to warp your Exeq Navy Issue to alone without a scout. Or if you are out ratting in your Gnosis and paying no attention to local. I'm out roaming, trying to put my fleet into a position to win every single fight we can get ourselves into. I'm not out there trying to make your day better. It's great that you formed up to fight us, but bringing 20 Caracals with logi is not something I'm going to be interested in engaging. Not usually. Unless I am very, very bored.
Mitigating danger is a sliding scale. For some players it is a hard and fast rule - no danger at all is their acceptable level of game-play. Which is ridiculous and does nothing but lead to anger and frustration. But we see it all the time. Someone jumps into Low Sec and is frankly shocked that we explode their ship under them. Despite the warnings. Despite the commonly accepted knowledge that Low Sec is a dangerous place. Despite the red skulls in local. Despite the flashing red skulls in local. I could go on and on.
For the combat pilot that sliding scale is all about how much danger you are willing to accept. What exactly are your terms? And those can change depending on the circumstances, the environment, and your willingness to accept the potential loss of whatever it is you happen to be flying. Often the greater the risk the greater the reward. And it is that friction between our own terms and the potential rewards that risk entails, that drives combat pilots to engage. Often against their own best judgement.
And that is where I live. Somewhere in-between "only" on my own terms and "often" in the face of the apparent odds. Because that is where truly good fights live. If I was only interested in winning - I'd sit off of plex in a Pilgrim or a Loki and pop idiots dumb enough to warp into my range. If I was only interested in losing I'd only fly a cheap T1 Frigate around and engage every target I came across in space. Somewhere between those two extremes is where I enjoy playing.
Each of us, as players, have to decide for ourselves where that line is.