Crime & Punishment

I've been playing on and off since '09. I wanted to take a moment to reflect on what I see as an erosion taking place in the game.

I did loads of PVE my first year or two. I mined in everything but a mining ship, ran missions up to level 4, lived in a WH, mastered scanning back when it was confusing(did all the exploration sites). I tried every bit of PVE content this game offered.

The whole while, I was in corporations dodging war declarations and trying to keep corps together. Every time I mined, flippers posed a risk. Every time I undocked, someone was baiting. If I smacked in local, I increased the chances of getting a war dec.

Even doing PVE, I could see the people doing interesting things. There was risk everywhere and it felt real.

At about two years, I was sick of shooting red crosses. I was still doing some exploration, but mostly just for cash. Even the social element of the game seemed boring to me because it revolved around the same dull activities. (Missions are like playing checkers against an opponent who makes the exact same moves each time.)

That is when I decided to try to kill some of the evil can flippers I had hated all that time. And I lost ships. And I had fun.

I had sweaty palms, a high heart rate, and no idea what I was doing. That was 500 kills ago now, but I still feel it every time I fight. I think the pvp aspect of this game is the best I have encountered.

4 years later, I still want to experience that high.

My first war dec was against a mining corp. We killed loads of them. Then they hired some tiny merc corp to attack us. But before the merc could dec us, we started giving the miners some pointers and made friends. Then the miners declared war on the mercs they had paid to attack us in order to help us out. I have no idea what the mercs thought. It was absolute numbnuttery, but I loved it.


My problem is this. I think PVE content in this game has a short life span. I can hardly think of a PVE based game that anyone plays for more than 2 years. However, when I look at empire space now that is the only content that is growing. Everything else is nearly gone.

The changes to crime watch have nearly eliminated pvp in the section of space where the vast majority of the players live. Nobody is facing threat and nobody is pvping. I think this is crazy. It's not Eve.

It's extremely hard to find a pick-up fight now. There are no war fleets in local., no funny smack talk, no canners, no baiters, and I'm seeing carebear corps who haven't had war secs.

I used to fly around in a shield rep osprey to get fights. I would find a fight and rep both sides while smacking in local about peace and brotherhood. Once one side would shoot, I'd change into something else and get a kill. I always wanted to kill both sides, but never pulled it off.

The only pvp I see left in high sec is suicide ganks which isn't worth my $15 a month.

My question is this:
1) as you force the high sec portion of eve (the majority)down the road of PVE... How long do you expect to keep these players? How long can someone legitimately play PVE in this game? Are these all 2 year players?

I think you are trading guys like me who would still be playing 6 years later for guys who want a PVE experience and are just looking to amass some isk and ships before the move on to another game.

What game will I be playing by the time you bring pvp back? I've been looking desperately to replace Eve for a while. The replacement isn't here yet, but it's coming.

Please give back the old crime watch mechanics and cheap war decs.

You can't think of any PVE based games that last longer than 2 years??? What about the most successful games in the MMO market? You know, all of them?

Who is forcing high-sec players into PVE? I have one character that pvp's in a wormhole, and one that pvp's in high sec and several alts that do PVE in both. No one forces a gamestyle on you or anyone else.

What do you mean "when you bring back pvp"? CCP is making a change to null that will monumentally change the frequency of pvp in that space and the war dec system in high sec is far better than it was back in the day.

I think you don't get it. Also 500 kills in 4 years of pvp??? You are doing it wrong.

But he might actually face competition in lowsec. Thats just too much risk for a highsec pvper.

CODE and their sort limit themselves because of the prey they are looking to "fight'. Low and WH space are full of adversaries that you can actually fight.

Don't limit yourself. Get beyond the ganks and go looking for actual fights. There are plenty of folks out there looking to swap paint and ammo (most of them don't fly covetors).

I've been playing straight through since my born on date. I started as empire merc prey. Joined said mercs and had an absolute blast for several years (many thanks to Hans and all the other great folks I flew with). Moved to WH space and never looked back. WH space rich somewhat takes the edge off of the jitters that you speak of, but it's still there. Ditch empire and find a nice small gang wh corp and you'll see it's still a great game.

Ok,
I think I clouded my assertion with attempts to slow the trolls.

This is a sandbox game. Most of the sandbox is in empire space. The vast majority of the players all play in empire space.

As empire is the experience to the majority of players, the state of empire is the state of the game.

Regardless of how you feel about the bad pirates, I am arguing that this game is changing from a game that included pvp into a game that has pvp features.

High sec is not as interesting as it was when there were people fighting everywhere. I think it's an erosion in the quality of the game. It affects most players.

Even if you are a miner and nobody is bothering you, war decs and smack talk are content. I liked that content.

Hi Purple. I'll see if I can find you next time I log on.

First: Every action taken in EVE = PVP.
Also: Every assumption made in your post is nothing but that. An assumption. Wrong on top of that but in itself just an assumption.
Hisec has become perfectly safe the last years resulting in subscription decline and loss of meaning/value of anything we do.
NPC corp players that fit their ships slightly smart might aswel be NPC's themselves.
People who are into EVE for PVE are not only sick but detract from the unique qualities the game has.

I'll leave it at that. Rant on.

D.



Darn, edit anyhow: PVE drones who are engaged by the game's deep meaningfull community driven core PVP have a good chance to be saved and stick arround forever, yes. What's your point again?

When looking for pvp, head to FW low sec. Watch out for Dem force recon ships...


....damit.

A haiku:

We like to pew pew
Join us in Red verses Blue
F.C. L.P. too

ive been around about 10 years now, mostly as an industrialist and pve pilot, aside from my few times of war and going on killing sprees against gankers. I enjoy the pve and other activities, I have gotten more fun out of killing gankers then killing innocents or others I have no reason killing, I even have a special ship I made and named for ganking gankers. I just choose to do industry to contribute to society, and I do pve to run my 1 account and assist others.

Ive seen people drop off because they get ganked or take a jump into low sec and instantly die before they can experience anything past death.

I know, so the question remains, why are you here?

D.