EVE General Discussion

Hey again. Apologies for barking at you. Sometimes it's worth doing to demonstrate annoyance when someone appears to be yelling/ranting, sometimes not. It's not done to upset you personally, so don't take it to heart.

For what it's worth I think your point is a good one, and apologies because this is a long reply.

When I say 'It's just a game' I mean the ships/ISK/region you just lost to a ganker/scammer/hostile force aren't worth getting really worked up over. Yes, you might have a short spurt of annoyance - but it's unhealthy to let it go on too long. Give whoever did it a 'gf' and move on. It's not ideal to internalise it too much either, but learning from it is preferable. A lot of the time when people say this to someone who is basically ranting, they are genuinely attempting to offer reassurance (it's just a verbal shorthand) or correct a negative thought process. As is 'HTFU', although this is a lot blunter, and sometimes funnier if you link the vid and start singing. If the person you're talking to reacts by getting even more irate, you might take the mikey out of them for a bit until they see the funny side. That sometimes backfires too by winding them up even more, but it's worth a try.

Where I (and I'm definitely not alone here) have a massive problem, is when someone completely flips out, and egged on by what you might politely refer to as 'dipsticks' escalates to an abnormal degree. Mounting campaigns against Players, Developers or CSM members - basically anyone, that are excessively, irrationally hostile are absolutely toxic. Stalking people out of game and targeting them for really dangerous attacks, like SWATting where they put the persons whole family at risk are beyond a joke. We're a community here, so it's for us to bollock these people as well as CCP and make it clear that type of behaviour isn't acceptable. Even if it means looking like a self-righteous prat sometimes, I'd rather do it than observe and say nothing.

As an aside, that remark about 'gamers' was probably a bit harsh too. I've run into a load of people ingame who are basically elitist gamers, often pretty immature, and they can be really destructive to have in your corp or alliance. Because they constantly attack other people and cause loads of drama. If you're ever a CEO eventually you have to step in and deal with the situation, and after talking to them half the time I find they're semi-suicidal and suffering from massive RL problems. So basically using EvE as an outlet - but unlike those of us who are doing it in a friendly way, they're abrasive. It is actually a cry for help in a lot of ways. Unfortunately, we're not counsellors, and they don't react well to basic advice. Stop playing 18 hours a day. Adjust your lifestyle. Stop being a knob to people. It's like they're locked in a knot of self-loathing and the only viable answer is to tell them to stop playing, or find likeminded people. I've dealt with 3 former corpies who were like this, and after years of trying to integrate them into the group, the final answer is either to remove them or yourself from the situation. In all fairness to PL and a couple of other groups (who sometimes really tick me off with their public comments) a lot of these lads have found their way there and seem content. But they still follow external groups/people around carping, which suggests to me the problem hasn't been fully resolved, or it's been institutionalised.

Anytime someone invests time in their life, let alone money to play a game- it's not "just a game" to them.

To you, as an adversary- it's a convenient excuse for people to forgive transgression, but to them it's just as real as life itself.

Just something to ponder.

With all due respect, who are you and what prompted this post?

I couldn't agree more with the OP. EvE mirrors human behavior spectacularly. Knowing how people think about scenarios in game has enabled me to apply the same skills in RL and vice-versa. I have on innumerous occasions taken RL systems and tried to replicate them in EvE, again vice-versa.

What the OP is trying to say, isn't that he has a blurred line between his avatar and his persona (which can be said for many well known megalomaniac alliance leaders), but that he acknowledges that EvE is populated by people, behaving like people... If you can't see it, CCP thinks so too. The Sleeper Lore is replete with mentions of "sleeping", with time dilation to learn more and apply that knowledge in their "real world" context, ie outside of the sleeper enclave in the "real" wormhole space and beyond into New Eden. If you add into this to the nods to and the complexity of definitions and names of things in the EvE universe to modules, ships, npc's and regions, EvE actually teaches people a great deal of RL "Lore". Anyone here googled Apotheosis? What about moon goo products? Thera?

EvE isn't just a game, it is an education.

The OP synthesizes something I have been aware of for many years and I have yet to see any evidence that he is wrong. To say he is incorrect is to ignore an erudite observation and deny human nature.

"I am Furio, the master typer-troll who must rattle of reams off philosophical treatise in response to EVE Forum personalities"

News to me that EVE is a game. The last thing I'd call it is a game.

Games are fun. EVE is fascinating, yes, interesting, yes, complex, yes. But a game? I'm not so sure.