At any one time there are upwards of 30,000 players in New Eden. 30,783 as I write these words. Each of those players is in the game right now trying to achieve something. They could be on-line to check assets, pull contracts, fuel a station, mine some rocks, run an escalation, join a fleet, defend a structure, explore a wormhole, drop some bookmarks, chase the perfect 1v1 fight, or any of a thousand other reasons. Some are solo, some are in small groups, and some are preparing some type of fleet engagement. Point being there is a baseball stadium's number of people in the game doing their thing.
And sometimes those things converge. This is the beginning of what I call the "Convergence of Intent" and I'm going to spend the next few minutes trying to explain the concept to you. Why? Because I think there are a tremendous amount of players that seemingly do not understand how Eve Online works. And Convergence of Intent is a fundamental concept to our sandbox. The better you understand it the more that Eve makes sense to you. Certainly there are other concepts at play in our sandbox, but this one is primary to understanding a fundamental tenet - not everything is about you.
It is natural to believe that the universe revolves around you. And I don't feel the need to dive into those reasons right now, let's just take that stance as a given. This does translate to Eve Online. You are the player and this is a game. Your actions, decisions, and intent are your own. And there is nothing wrong about that. You are the focal point of your own game time. And congratulations on that. I do have some bad news for you however, that is also true of the other 29,999 people in the game with you at any given time. We're all the central character in a game we are all playing together. And sometimes, those intentions can intersect with each other. Often to destructive ends. For one party or the other.
I can't begin to tell you just how often I get yelled at by a player who doesn't understand this concept. They logged in to achieve a goal for themselves and they get caught and destroyed for it. A miner just wants to mine some rocks in peace. Someone just wants to run some escalations in their Gila and be left alone. A freighter pilot just wants to move some assets. There are a million examples. And then, often without warning, some crazy pirate ruins it all. And while it is natural to be upset about this turn of events - you really are getting mad at the wrong person. Because MY goal logging in that day was different than yours - my goal was to catch people like you doing the things you are doing. My day is going extremely well for me. And that, at its heart, is what Convergence of Intent is all about.
It has nothing at all to do with you personally. (At least rarely) If you let loose 30k people with their own goals and intentions - eventually some of those are going to cross paths. People are going to bump into other people. Especially if they aren't paying attention, or are afk, or slow, or doing something dumb like mining in Low Sec alone. Or running an escalation in a Gila and not noticing the probes. And we could spend hours talking about the ways in which you can mitigate those dangers - but the real point here today is that no matter what you do - sometimes your path is going to cross someone else's path. And there is really nothing you can do about that.
One could argue, that you shouldn't. Because engagement is the key to the entire game. It wouldn't be very exciting if we all got to do what we wanted without any risk. That would be horrible. And insanely boring.
When I get caught, blobbed, or fall into a gate camp - I also get upset. But never at the other players involved. They are only doing what they enjoy. I get mad at myself for getting caught. Oh sure, I'm human and if someone blobs me there is a moment of "goddammit!" involved. That is only natural. It sucks. But I should have done things differently. I only have myself to blame.
Sometimes you get the bear and sometimes the bear gets you.
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