Out of Pod Experience

it's true I had one good line left..

You've got the study all wrong



This just means that villains liked chili sauce more than chocolate and the good guys like chocolate more than chili sauce, that's what the study was about.

I suicide gank miners in EVE, so acording to the OP's logic I am dead in real life.

Are people really going with this insistent obsession with the old "violent video games/movies/songs are the devil" bull **** argument again?

Look, by this logic, if I play any of the GTA games, it's very likely that I'm any/all of the following...

drug addict
drug dealer
mass murderer
thief
hijacker
cop-killer
violently impulsive
criminally insane
basically the kind of guy that would make the FBI's most wanted or terrorist watch-list look like a bunch of saints

It couldn't possibly be that I'm just playing a video game and well aware of the differences between virtual reality and real-life reality, could it?

Let me break this down for you:

EVE is a game that involves psychological warfare and player vs. player competition as part of it's gameplay.

There are other games that involve psychological warfare and player vs. player competition , such as football or poker.

Therefore, if you claim that lying, scamming, and PvP in EVE requires one to be a psychopath, by extension you are suggesting the same about someone bluffing in poker, or rushing the quarterback in football. It's an analogy to help you grasp that these concepts are not unique to EVE and are applied in many other games where they are recognized as normal, healthy behavior. As such, trying to quantify them as otherwise in EVE is rather silly.

Hope that helps!



Except that stealing the pot and scattering all the cards on the floor are against the rules of poker. No one is breaking the rules of EVE by blowing up your precious space pixels. People who break the rules of EVE, known as the EULA, are ejected from EVE. It's just that you don't like the ruleset of EVE , which raises the question of why you're playing a game whose rules you dislike.

By the way, one of aforementioned rules in EVE? Real life death threats, which apparently in your book is acceptable if anyone violences your internet spaceship.



Why does it matter how objectives are defined? Whether player defined or set by the game mode, all that matters is the rules you have to follow in pursuing them. In EVE, if someone's goal is to blow up every miner he sees, that's a valid goal. So is mining every rock he sees, or dominating the t1 salvager market in Jita, or having 80% personal efficiency. They can accomplish this through scams, extortion, bribery, diplomacy, charity, PvP, PvE, and anything else they see fit so long as they do not violate the EULA.




1. Same thing that's competitive about hunting a deer: can you be stealthy and subtle? Can you execute all of the correct actions before the target realizes what's going on? Are you quick enough to get the pod on the way out? Can you adapt to bad warpins? Can you do the basic math to realize that 3 cats is far too much and you can probably do it with 1? Remember, victory can be defined in many ways; for the average hisec carebear, surviving a gank is victory. They have the tools to achieve this victory, and the outcome depends on how well they use those tools against how well the ganker prepares and executes their own plan.

2. A competitive game requires someone to compete against. Single player games played in a void aren't competitive, until you start doing things like comparing high scores or completion times or some other metric, in which case you have winners and losers again. In a tournament there may be a gold, silver, and bronze, but there's usually more than three people in a tournament, wouldn't you agree?

In EVE, victory can be defined in many ways according to the goals of the players, but usually those goals are at odds with each other. If I were to blow up some dudes venture in wormhole space, I feel safe in saying I won that fight and he lost. I didn't "impose" that paradigm, it emerges naturally. If he had a reason for his venture to get blown up (maybe he wanted to be podded back to kspace) then you could call it a "win-win", but those situations aren't exactly the norm.

3. Newsflash: some people find competition fun. It gets their blood pumping and allows them to show off if they win, and overcome adversity and learn to be better if they lose.

Yes, and what kind of skull you have says something about your personality, too! Phrenology is awesome!

This completely explains your previous posts. Someone who honestly believes that enjoying video games that contain violence automatically makes a person evil or violent is about as open to logic and reason as a Flat Earth Society member or moon landing conspiracy nut.

Thanks for breaking it down for me, but I'm even more confused now. You see; raping your enemy's wife could be a form of psychological warfare, but I'm sure you aren't suggesting I sexually assault players' wives in order to deter them from ganking my Mackinaw.

Furthermore, no "game" except for actual war involves "psychological warfare". Psychological warfare is just another way of saying "trying to neutralize your opponent by damaging or destroying his/her mind". If you do that, in most jurisdictions, you are probably committing a very serious crime.

Games have a psychological aspect. Whoever told you that EVE involves psychological warfare is probably a psychopath or is probably under the influence of a psychopath. I would recommend you disassociate yourself from them immediately.



I'm pretty sure that neither theft nor disorganized storage of the cards are explicitly against the rules of POKER. Those are probably rules governing the meta-game or "house rules".



"I hope you get AIDS and die." <- not a threat
"I am going to give you AIDS to kill you." <- a (hilarious) threat
I really don't care what someone says to me in a video game or even on a forum unless they can act on their threat. People who get butt hurt that someone wished a pox on them are just as misguided as people who make death threats over losing at EVE (or checkers).

To elaborate a little bit, though, people who make threats or say ridiculous things after getting ganked or scammed are probably not upset that they lost the game. They are probably upset that someone did something that could be perceived as unsporting or asinine. From my own experience, it isn't a matter of WHAT is lost, but HOW it is lost and WHY it is lost.



If the game of poker requires you to choke someone out at the table to win the hand, that's gaming. If the player just up and decides to choke someone out at the table to win the hand, that's cheating (and also assault and battery). It's an important distinction.



I am beginning to understand why we can't come to any sort of agreement. You don't even agree with yourself.
Does a deer count as a "someone"? Is murdering an animal for sport a "game"?

I'm sorry, I really tried to formulate a reply but knowing that you think that violent video games are the devil has pretty much destroyed my ability to take you seriously.

lovely

"military application of psychology" makes it sound so harmless. If I didn't know any better, I wouldn't even realize you were lying through your teeth. "enhanced interrogation", eh?

"to mislead, intimidate, demoralize, or otherwise influence the thinking or behavior of an opponent" is a direct quote from the definition you linked. How does one mislead? By lying, deceiving. How does one intimidate? By threatening. How does one demoralize? By subjecting the target to stress i.e. by abusing. So, you are suggesting that to win at EVE (or checkers), players should lie to, threaten, and abuse their fellow players. (And, that's not even getting into the whole "otherwise influence the thinking or behavior of an opponent".)

"the use of propaganda, threats, and other psychological techniques to mislead, intimidate, demoralize, or otherwise influence the thinking or behavior of an opponent." is the entire definition. Do you know what else the military uses to influence the thinking or behavior of an opponent, besides propoganda, threats and psychological techniques? Bullets. VX nerve agent. Thermonuclear detonations. Will one of those be your next suggestion for winning at internet spaceships?

Are you you fruitloops? Yes, you you are nuttier than a box of Honey Bunches of Oats.

Cheerio.