EVE General Discussion

Have you guys considered how it would look if society crumbled and this veneer of civility were stripped away?

Look at what happens inside prisons, or certain areas of Africa for example.

All I've got to say is, "wtf?"

Oh, you have it all backwards. Yes, the cultural pessimist's sloppy fantasy of society being suddenly "stripped away" would likely result in a lot of Bad Things(tm) happening. Leaving the ridiculous notion of such societal collapse aside for the moment, the resulting carnage is not caused by man being naturally violent and nasty - it's caused by man being naturally peaceful and cooperative.

Living in a structured society is man's natural state of being. Fifteen strangers become shipwrecked on a deserted island and the first thing that happens: someone takes charge and starts dividing tasks. Rudimentary society is born.

Now, take any particularly large and complexly structured society and strip that away, the shock is so great that a degree of anarchy sets in before society re-asserts itself. It's a neurosis. It's like a dog going apeshit when you try to make him live in a small room. It offends the natural state so much that behavioral patterns no longer "click." Unpredictable, destructive behavior emerges.

It never lasts very long, a generation or two at most. The anarchic state usually sprouts a new, structured society fairly quickly as people become fed up with getting beaten to death over the nearest loaf of bread. Where society fails to emerge, the remnants immolate themselves. Anarchy never thrives.

Many people say that they act like criminals in EVE because they cannot do it in real life. Making other people's lifes miserable is not allowed in our real world. In EVE it is. But my question is why the desire to act that way is there in the first place?

I personally never felt like that that. I do not have fun making other people's life worse. Be it in a game or outside. Of course I play a game to do something I cannot do in real life. And of course I played a pirate or criminal in games before. The difference is: I only acted against the AI, never against real people.

And that is the aspect many here do not seem to understand. There is very few roleplay in EVE. When you interact with other players in EVE, you do not interact with fictional characters, but with the person behind the screen.
Actually, although I said people do not seem to understand that, I think people to understand that very well. And that's why they act the way they do.
They make other people's (not character's) life miserable and are allowed to do so, because of the often used excuse "It's just a game, I would not do it in real life!". That's not true. A game, in which you interact with other players is a part of real life.

That is why I think EVE can absolutely be regarded as a picture of what would happen, when you took away the rules of our society.

Another point is:
In EVE you can do what you want.
- You can join all the other players to build up a utopia without wars or conflicts between players (which you cannot do in real life)
- You can destroy everything other people try to build up. (which you cannot do in real life)
So when there's the option to do something you cannot do in real life, why do so many people pick the latter over the former?

I was responding to the person I quoted, who brought up the formation of society? You're never going to understand the context if you don't read it.

What a bunch of incomprehensible pablum.

I still maintainn that if you feel 'pain' because I blew up your imaginary, internet spaceship - in a game about blowing up imaginary, internet spaceships - the problem is yours, not mine.

The self righteous, ridiculously entitled notion that you deserve EMPATHY because you are too emotionally stunted to be able to handle your imaginary internet spaceship being blown up is the height of ridiculousness and deserves all the mockery and scorn that can possibly be heaped upon it.

You candy asses who actually hand out such empathy and compassion (lol) to the immature, emotionally under developed, spoiled children are simply attempting to feather the nest of your self imagined superiority of others.

I think it can be said that you also have led a very sheltered life if you actually believe these imbeciles are worthy of your 'empathy.'

You should thank the gods that you have led a life that, thus far, has been so ridiculously luxiourious that you are able to argue, with a straight face mind you, that having your imaginary, internet spaceship blown up is genuine 'pain' and therefore worthy of your morally superioristic empathy.

The whole notion of it all makes me sick.

H
T
F
U

There. I feel better.

Riedle

Dalneya Yakovtu

Human nature pertains to the individual, society pertains to humanity.

You don't need to separate them, it's natural for humans to form society in order to protect themselves from other individuals.

This assumes that society is an evolutionary adaptation to protect the species from itself, which is absurd.