I see a tremendous amount of loss in Eve Online on a daily basis. And it has always been fascinating to me the various ways players deal with that loss. Some get angry, some make threats, some go quietly, and others (rarely) reach out to wonder, "What could I have done differently?" The vast majority say nothing and vanish into the ether - most likely to never be seen again. I've had a couple of interesting encounters recently that I thought I'd share. No names, just stories.
I was in local waiting for a ship to appear at the plex I was haunting, when a fellow SF pilot came into system. We decided that he would bait in the plex for this ship. Sure enough he caught him and we removed him from his ship. Classic random encounter. Happens all the time. Well, you'd have thought I broke some rules by the way this dude reacted. The funny part is when someone threatens you in local and then gets very sensitive about threats when you try to play along. This guy is notorious in Stay Frosty circles as a very sore loser.
Another player actually convo'd me afterwards and thanked me! He was being lazy and he admitted it. I gave him some advice and encouragement, and sent along some iskies to help alleviate the loss. That player might make it and turn into something someday.
The best ones are the ones that run off to avoid a fight and then brag about it in local. I rarely engage with those pilots unless they say something truly funny worthy of a reply. It's just not worth engaging with their irony engine. And, let me be clear, running away is a legit tactic - but don't pretend it is anything else. PvP is a voluntary sport, you don't have to play along, that's perfectly fine. But you still ran away.
And then we come to the toxic avengers. Goodness knows I've had more than my fair share of these over the years. These are the players who are truly losing their minds over being removed from their internet spaceship pixels. They threaten, insult, throw profanity, promise revenge, and otherwise ruin a perfectly solid win. Good grief. I've read some truly vile things. And the secret here is this - your rant only serves to become fodder for our Discord. We laugh. We make jokes. And sometimes those jokes become instant classics we will repeat over and over again on comms. Just know that.
Losing sucks. We all hate it. I've lost 3,155 times in Eve Online. A few of those really hurt. Way back in 2009 I lost three Cormorants in one day and I still remember that. That was all the isk I had. And I came very close to quitting Eve on that day. And then someone in my Corporation made me whole out of the goodness of their heart. Since then I've learned a lot about this crazy game of ours but possibly the most important lesson is this: Loss might hurt, but nothing is as sweet as victory. Suck it up, go home, re-ship and undock again. Get back on the horse. Learn from your mistakes.
We all have bad days and we're not always at our best. It happens. Be the type of victor you'd want.