This is the diary & short stories of Shalee Lianne Cerra, in the fictitious universe, New Eden, in the game of Eve Online. Come be a part of her world...

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Blog Banter 32- I heart carebears



"A quick view of the Eve Online forums can always find someone complaining about being suicide ganked, whining about some scam they fell for or other such tears. With the Goons' Ice Interdiction claiming a vast amount of mining ships, there were calls for an "opt out of PvP" option.

Should this happen? Should people be able to opt-out of PvP in Eve Online. Should CONCORD prevent crime rather than just handing out justice after the event? Or do the hi-sec population already have too much protection from the scum and villainy that inhabits the game?"

****

By their own rules, or lack of, EvE Online allows their members to steal from, destroy, slander, harass, and abuse other members.

It's not merely tolerated, it is celebrated.

On any given day across New Eden's five thousand plus star systems, you will find an array of pilots trolling other pilots in local channels.  You will find fresh-eyed newbies being scammed out of whatever ISK they manage to make for themselves and if they happen to venture too far out, you will find these same new players being blown up over and over and over.

You will also find some random miners being suicide ganked and high sec industrial corps getting wardecced and slaughtered.

Etc, etc.

EvE is a harsh game.  It is a brutal game.

But in the end, it is a game.  It isn't real and you weren't really there.

At best, you were some smuck sitting at your keyboard pretending to be Lord of the Skies while pressing F1.

I think too many players forget that, that it's just a game.  Games need to make money to survive, to thrive.  Games need to appeal to a wide demographic, not just a sliver of humanity- those who are psychotic, evil, and ruthless.

Because really, why does anyone need to have the ability to kill wtfpwn everyone in the game?

'But Shalee, these noobs need to HTFU!'

Er, why?  Why do they really need to be harassed?  Do you feel better about yourself?  Do you really feel accomplished when you kill a noob pilot? Really?  How does that relate to real life?  'Hey Mom, I just owned some NoobLord and told him I'd stick my dick up his ass and rape him again haha!'  Good boy.

'But Shalee, EvE is dark!  EvE is like reality!"

Uh, no.  EvE isn't reality.  Reality is reality.  EvE is still a game.  And again, games need money.  Where does the money come from?  Ah yes, those bright eyed bushy tailed noobs that everyone is harassing out of game.  Remember that 20% of CCP employees that got fired not too long ago?  Guess who could be paying their salary right now!  Guess what those fired CCP employees could be doing right now!  That's right.  Fixing our game.

Yes, I agree, EVE is a sandbox but that doesn't necessarily have to be it's selling point.  When most people decide to play EVE, I'm sure the majority came to the game to fly spaceships."

I came to EVE cause I wanted to be this:


or this:




I think it's that simple. I don't think anyone was sitting around one day thinking, 'mmm, I need an mmo that I can lie, harass, and grief newbies."

Don't get me wrong, I love pvp, and I would be utterly bored without it.  It makes the game interesting for me, but I can understand that some people simply don't have the time or desire for it.  Should they be forced into it anyhow?  I don't think so.  I don't really see the point in forcing one style of gameplay onto the entirety of EVE.

Why can't new players and industrials or whoever have their own safe zones.  They can play how they want.  And for those who want to pew pew, go to low or null.

Granted, I don't think there should be a lot of safe zones, but just enough to give new players the chance to actually experience the game and have fun with it before saying 'fuck this game' and heading off to spend their money elsewhere.

Also, I'd rather have the 'carebears' happy.  They stay in the game and give CCP money.  CCP uses that money to make my gaming better.  The carebears then tell their friends, oh come play this game!  We get more people, more money, better game- it's a cycle, see?

Just my two cents.  Flame away.

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3 comments:

  1. Fidelium MortisJanuary 30, 2012 at 10:10 AM

    Rather than sectioning off the sandbox for "carebears" I would much rather see some means of player implemented regulation added into the game. The current problem is, many of the players that current grief/gank in high sec can do so with relative impunity (for most concord is a non-issue). Perhaps modifying the bounty system would help, also it's too easy to circumvent concord using a neutral second party.

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  2. AnonymousFebruary 17, 2012 at 8:08 PM

    I won't flame you for your opinion, but I will mention that I was a carebear myself once, unaware how to effectively pvp and quite scared of doing so. I felt I worked really hard for the ISK I had at the time and was afraid to lose it. But something changed after I got ganked by a ninja salvager that I had enough of. He came back in an Ashimmu, neuted me out, and destroyed me with ease. I was flying a Myrm at the time and was no match for him after all my cap was gone.

    Even though I was ruthlessly decimated, baited into a situation where I clearly had no advantage, I felt quite a rush from the experience. It's one thing to die from rats, yet a whole different thing to be destroyed by a sentient player. It was then I knew it was time to shed the carebear fur and learn to pvp. I started flying with people who would "Yarbear", as they liked to call it. Part time bears, part time pirates. I had a few humiliating losses until I solo'd a Dominix from a corp that wardecced us in a Thorax. It dropped nearly 1 billion in loot. More than I would make in a month of Lvl 3 missioning. I was hooked. There was a whole new world, and a much more fun side of Eve that I'd never played simply because I was too scared to risk losing something. Now I'm richer than I've ever been. I'm enjoying the game 200% more now. Had I continued bearing it up, I would've probably gotten bored and quit.

    Had there been mechanics put in place to keep me safe, to prevent someone from baiting/griefing me, I would've never stepped into PVP and known how awesome this side of Eve is. I was a fair bit of a noob when this happened. It forced me to learn how to fit ships well, how transversal and angular velocity works, and how to engage appropriately. I learned aggression mechanics, evasion techniques, and how to effectively wage war.

    Perhaps I'm biased because something good came out of the untimely demise of my missioning Myrmidon, and not everyone will feel the same as I do. Nonetheless, if you change the mechanics of the sandbox to protect someone indefinitely, you also rob other players from experiencing what I did and also learning such an awesome part of this game.

    Space is not safe. It never should be. When it's safer to undock from a highsec station in Eve than it is to walk out of my front door in the morning, the game fails to be a SciFi spaceship simulator that takes place in the untamed far reaches of the galaxy.

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  3. Shalee LianneFebruary 17, 2012 at 10:56 PM

    Dear Anonymous.
    I agree with you that space shouldn't be safe. However, there are already varying degrees of safety in game. High sec is safer than low, etc.
    What I propose is for those first few weeks, not an indefinite time of playing in a safety zone.
    I feel like we lose a fair amount of players who try the game and never log back in. If we could appeal to those players, give them an idea of what EVE can be.
    Not the guys who have already played for weeks or months who have some idea.

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