EVE General Discussion

This is what I mean, though - I don't think carebears can be simply defined just be people who avoid risk. You avoid risk if you're smart. Hitting a defenceless miner or hauler - it's smart, it makes sense. Sure, you're avoiding risk, but unless you have a Cargo Scanner, who knows what goodies are inside? The reward could be well worth the lack of risk involved in hitting someone who is defenceless. Hardly as much a cowardly act as one that is avoiding risk.

I don't think going head-long into high-risk situations without being prepared for them is very smart. Finding new ways to lower the risk, and increase the reward, is smart. Is it really carebear, though? No, I think I agree with it all being about attitude - if you've lowered the risk as much as you can for the reward that you're seeking, but you still succumb to that risk, or one you weren't prepare for, you can't complain about it. Well... you can, but that, I think, is the underlying factor of a carebear.

If I'm running nulsec courier contracts, which I do as often as they're available (which isn't much) I know the risk, and I'm prepared for it - I've lost no shortage of collateral payments doing that. Alternatively, though, the reward for many high-sec is contracts often higher. I reduce the risk and increase the reward of courier contracts by running the ones that pay highest per jump, not highest overall, for example. But if I lose my **** on the way, I'm not going to complain because I knew the risk when I undocked - as should everyone, every time they undock.

It's SMART to avoid and minimise risk, but I think a carebear attitude is defined best by people who don't expect risk, or expect everything they do to be risk-free.

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In my noob-ish point of view, care bear = someone who knowingly steps into the sandbox, then flips out when sand gets in their eyes. Instead of going 'how did that happen? how can can I make that not happen again', they tear up. Inviting more sand in their eyes.

to put it another way (so I understand, again, noob here), care bear = severely risk averse. Which, in a risk=reward game invites so many tears.

Care Bear is a meme.
Care Bears had a TV show, a Movie. A bunch of bears with special powers, they were all do gooders, cheesy as hell.Yea, sure it has evolved to be an insult in any definition that suits it but the origin is in the notion that anyone who is a care bear wants to take EVE and make it just another MMO for the masses to do theme park PvE be in a happy place and reach an end game. Care bears don't see any value in brutality in a video game. All things can be accomplished with friendship and understanding.

Null Bear is an elaboration of that. NAP trains that insure the serenity of your space translates to said goals. NAP train null alliances are Null Bears.

Most of the issue people have with blobs is they can't figure out the counters for themselves.

I already know your vulnerability.

It's kittens.

It is kittens, right? Someone told me kittens will win every time... I just gotta get myself one of those kitten cannons and your blobs will be no match for me

Going for the cannon fodder diversion blob? I like the way you think

Yes, but.. I would hazard to say that carebears treat Eve as a PvE game instead of a PvP game. They're more than happy to beat up on NPCs and rocks, but draw the line at direct, in your face, competition with other players.

To get back to the OP's question, publicly carebears are "scum" because there are so many of them and because their popular PvE attitudes (i.e. sub money) run the risk of adding more PvE elements into a PvP game, e.g. tears about ninja salvagers and hulkageddon, suggestions for instanced missions, etc..

However, IMHO, privately, carebears are considered "scum" because because they should be easy to bully (i.e. they're easy targets because they don't fight back) however, game mechanics (CONCORD, CCP) protect them from bullies. Whenever someone figures out how to harvest carebears (hulkageddon, boomeranging, suicide ganking, etc.) CCP "always" seems to step in on the side of the carebears and increases their protections (e.g. insurance no longer pays out for suicide ganking, boomeranging is bannable, miners got new tankier ships even though you had to choice to fit for tank instead of yield, etc..) This in turn offends the "I'm entitled to kill/bully/cull/harvest the high-sec carebears" and invokes their "righteous" indignation while stoking cries of individual responsibility, HTFU, reward versus risk, etc.. (Yes, the hypocrisy is lost upon them.)


edit: tl;dr Carebears are many, so anyone who fights against carebears is in the minority. Being a successful underdog makes one elite. Ergo, killing easy targets makes one elite.

Personally I would define a carebear as someone who demands that the game changes to suit them, rather than change to suit the game.