EVE New Citizens Q&A

Greets!

Since day 1, I've understood that a carebear was one who was not PVP, avoided low or null sec.

What is the definition of a carebear?
- No PVP?
- Positive security status?

What of those who live near or in null sec? Or those who gas-mine in nul sec, but don't gank or attack other players - are they carebears?

Thanks!

we do have the term nullbears, for those in 0.0 that dont pvp.

I would say in general the term carebear just means someone that dont pvp.

But like with everything it isnt black and white. Lables.. I hate them myself.

You are here by labeled as: The person who hates labels.

At OP:

Correct, in general when people say Carebear, they mean people who go to the end of the world and back to avoid / prevent to be actively involved in any form of direct PvP.

Nullbears is just an "upgraded" name for carebears living in null-sec.


Then again, as Lady Naween said, it's all labels and doesn't mean a single thing. People like to boast about their own type of players and mock others.

Theme park mmo player?

I use the term loosely to refer to anyone I find doing what I would consider to be "carebear stuff".

Implied to be anyone who wants EVE to be a theme park mmo and complains about non consentual pvp in conjunction with prior statement but I prefer short and to the point which is why I gave vague answer to give OP the general idea.

It's a word people use that has no real meaning. It tends to be used by people who don't want to admit that everyone in eve has carebear characters, because PvP isn't an income stream, it's an income sink. Danger and destruction are time wasters from an income generation point of view, so most people have a carebear stream that is easily and quickly maintained with a minimum of interruption.

If you weren't aware, every aspect of EVE is a form of PvP. This extends into the metagaming sphere, and it can take many forms. These sorts of terms and conversations are really combat over EVE's core design. By using a term that implies that anyone who doesn't want to live the nosec alliance slave life is somehow contemptible, it's easier to make blanket generalizations based on stereotyping. It's Political Speech and Language 101 -- controlling the terms of the conversation.

There is an easy rule of thumb for generalizing carebears.

Do you or have you ever fit a warp core stabilizer?

If so, you are in fact a carebears.

Care bear is an attitude more than anything else.

The obsessive pursuit of isk, even though it's not used for anything is often the mark of a care bear.

But just trying to shoot other players is a far cry from PvP. Many care bears attempt the 'weekend warrior' thing by mining all week in high sec, then trolling in an isk-tanked ship in low sec (then die to frigates, rage post on the forums that Eve is broken, and go back to mining)...........I wouldn't call this meaningful PvP either. Still just care bear behavior- most don't know any of the mechanics involved or how to employ tactics beyond the same Orbit/Shoot they did against rats.

The same holds for that debacle of a Live Event a couple months ago- those were miners and haulers joining a kitchen sink blob hoping to be led around by the nose and told exactly what to do- that is not PvP. Just flying a combat ship, dying helplessly in the first seconds of a fight, then crying in the forums- does not a PvP'er make.

The biggest defining feature isn't a lack of combat experience, but rather how loss is dealt with. A PvP'er has lost many ships and is lucky to remember renaming them before undocking to fight again. A care bear is more attached to his pixels of a space ship than life itself, and will wallow piteously for ages over any loss- despite the fact that it so rarely happens to them.
Care bears complain to the FC when they didn't get handed kills during every roam, they cry when they actually get killed in a fleet, they make excuses when they screw up, and they think all of Eve's code should be rewritten so they never lose anything.

Care bears also tend to make great demands of the game, their corp or people they know in game, but utterly refuse to contribute themselves in any way. Many are the threads here with some newb complaining that corps don't just hire his 500k SP toon and hand him ships/skillbooks/implants/space to care bear/move their stuff- but then complain that anyone dare expect them to fly a Rifter for an hour to help save a tower........