EVE General Discussion

You are welcome to find my latest ship loss and subsequent podding (a drake, within the last hour as of this posting). For those who won't bother (and I recommend you don't, as it isn't particularly interesting or worth it), I'll recount it here.

The story is quite standard, unremarkable, and boring. I was doing the standard ratting of anomalies in nullsec, using a drake. Had local chat pulled up, of course. Was working down the final battleship when a couple of hostiles appeared in local chat. I noticed it instantly, but was also close to getting the kill on the final rat battleship. Decided to risk finishing off the rat, as it was only going to be another 10 seconds or so before it was dead. Hostile then appeared in anomaly, at what I considered to be fairly far away (more than 20km). I instantly clicked "warp out" to the nearest station (already had the tab pulled up), and the hostile began burning towards me as fast as he could. I almost made it out - in fact the ship was already "warping" and the bar was over the 75% needed to go into warp. Alas, he closed the distance really fast and managed to hit me with a warp disruptor, dropping me out of warp. He had a couple of buddies who then warped in, and long story short, I was dead.

Again, not particularly interesting or remarkable at all, and completely "standard." So I will continue on to the "lead-in" to my question.

I already know the third rule of Eve Online well: you do not fly a ship you can't afford to lose (the first two rules being "you do not talk about Eve Online," and "you do not talk about Eve Online"). Well I can assure you, the drake was quite affordable for me to lose. It was insured with the best contract available, and the payout pretty much covered the entire loss, give or take. There were no particularly expensive modules lost on it. I lost a couple of shield extender ii's, but I have a hanger full of them so no biggie. I lost 6 arbalest hams, but through ratting have a whole hanger full of those as well. In fact, this ship was so expendable to lose that I won't even replace it.

As far as implants go, you will notice that I lost cheap ones - like the tier 1 implants. I planned to lose these, which is why I bought them, and why I was using them. In fact, I have a hanger full of cheapo replacements for all of them. Now, I also have expensive implants, but I won't use those until I am in a phase where my clone won't be at risk at all. Until then, when I get podded, I'll just plug in more el 'cheapo implants, which I already have a hanger full of.

The point is, I essentially lost nothing in this engagement: ship was totally expendable, implants were totally expendable, and my clone costs substantially less than a million ISK to replace. This leads me to my question below.

Why do these guys engage in this sort of activity? They are losing far more in time and energy than I'm losing in time, energy, or money. My clone spawned one jump away. It just took a couple of clicks to set up another clone, stick in more el 'cheapo implants, collect my insurance payment, and jump into another waiting ship. Also, I only had 110,000 ISK bounty on me, which is a joke.

If you engage in this sort of activity, I'm curious. Pray tell. What's the payoff, or benefit to you, to expend the time and energy to do this? Do you generally run across people who break the third rule of Eve Online, and fly in ships that they can't afford to lose? Do you generally find people with huge bounties on their heads, and do these bounties give you a better return than doing something else like ratting anoms? These are honest questions, by the way.

No, these aren't tears. No, I don't want anything changed or nerfed in the game. Yes, please continue to play the game as you wish to play it. I'm just curious about an activity which seems to have no benefit or return on investment from my perspective. Since I wouldn't really engage in anything that doesn't have such a return, I'm curious why others do. I'm guessing there is something I'm missing, therefore I'd like to know what it is.

Some people play for the iskies, some people play for the politics, some people play for the bling and epeen waving, but some people play just for the fun of it

It's not about you. Honestly. It's about me.

Or rather the thirty seconds of blurb on TS as the item on the overview turns from a rectangle into a pod, and then into nothing.

The backslapping cameraderie for the moment, between the complaints about being bored and the inevitable awkward silences after that guy says something rude, or after this guy posts a link in TS chat that you know you shouldn't be clicking on.

That's all there is to it.

So, again. It's not about you, really.

If I want meat on the table for dinner its pretty easy to go to the store and buy a pound of hamburger. But it is a lot more fun to sit in a tree for 2 or 3 hours everyday until a deer walks by. Not because sitting in a tree is fun; but rather because I am gambling all that time and preparation on one very brief moment.

That pitch of the dice down the table, they roll and bounce and clatter along and then the whole world freezes. Time splits, it could go either way, and along each of those paths a very different future exists. In one my attempts to control my life and future have led to naught. The other however is a place that I have exerted some control over my destiny, despite the chaos of life and others actively working against that future.

In RL I need to take the meat to justify the harshness of bloodsport and the loss the animal suffers. In Eve the loss is, as you say, irrelevant. So there is no need to justify it. There is only the excitement of the hunt, of outsmarting and outplaying someone else. The joy of figuring something out and using that knowledge to take apart a puzzle and to perhaps illuminate the future.

It is a very fine win indeed.

Could be because some people who got kersploded make threads about it on the forums.

Asmodai Xodai, Are you really on here asking why someone shot at your space ship in a video game about space ships with guns? IN NULL SEC..

I see what your problem is. You can't understand why someone would do something you wouldn't. You are one of those "what's in it for me" people.

Some people don't need a reason. It is a video game. Did people need a reason to eat pellets and run from ghosts in Pac Man?

Sometimes its like the buffoon above says. Mostly not. I imagine you are doing anoms to make isk so you can buy bigger and shinier things, trying to reach a personal goal.

Other folks goals are building a good killboard. Or the hunt. Or the kill. Its nothing personal and they probably targetted a drake they saw on D-Scan - nothing to do with the pilot. Podding is standard in WH and Null where there is no faction/Sec hit.

On the other hand it could be everything to do with you.

This is EVE - Anything goes.

On the positive side you didn't waste good Isk on insurance. So everyone involved is a winner!

Have fun,

Raptors

They are honest questions so I'll give you honest answers as they pertain to myself.



I enjoy it, what better payoff do you need?



On occasions you catch a real gem of a target but on the whole I prefer a good knockdown drag out close fight to an easy kill with lots of bling any day.



Bounties aren't often large and are of no importance, neither is any potential profit any target may hold, my indy/trade toon provides more than I need in that area.

Stalking people is fun. In fact, hunting down and engaging other human beings is one prime reasons most of us play EVE in the first place.

Curious, why do you play?

Hmm, you edited this before I replied.

Anyways, This post (and thread) are a good example of something i was talking about in another thread.

Some people run from reality by rationalizing away uncomfortable truths. You ignore solid, verifiable facts and replace them with non-sense that makes you feel better about losing a fight in a video game.

Bottom line is: That's weak as hell dude.