Alliance Tournament X

I was given this link to this image.

I laughed.

I had no intent to discuss the AT again. I was hoping that it would pass by the wayside, win or lose, whatever. I've been composing and harassing people with the foundation of a project to start later in the summer and using that as a focus of my energy.

However, today the boys won their match. They were not sucessful last week with their first match and it cast a general gloom over things that was very fustrating.

Video of the Match: Forward to the 1hour and 4 minute mark.

When I saw that they won, I was thrilled. I was not thrilled over the winning. I was thrilled becuase they won and they were happy. Their happiness, I realized, was very important.

On a "Give a Fuck" scale of 1-10:

AT Tournament: 0 Fucks Given
My Alliance: 10 Fucks Given

Therefor the happiness of the alliance outweighs my own disinterest (distaste) for the entire competitive sport of spaceships touching each other for points and commentary.

That desire has caused me to support the AT Tournament. I've written mails, given isk, herded people to practice, bit my tongue, been blown up numerous times, and in general attempted to do the right thing by them.

However, my head in the sand approach has not saved me from as much interaction as I hoped.

The first round, last weekend, they lost. This week has involved a lot of thought and decision making. This morning, before I went to work, they were doing their last runs and making their last decisions. The disappointment from the previous weeks loss was heavy. I felt terrible for them. Terrible enough that I watched the killboard all morning at work and had a moment of intense, dramatic excitement when I saw the kills appear.

They won their round. Now, there is just a lot of time waiting to see if they will advance to the next round due to how low the point total is. For now its endless setup chatter. But, I feel better about it then I have been. Their happiness at their accomplishment smooths out everything else.

Long story short, I've managed to grow up and get over myself a bit.

Hence, when reading twitter this afternoon at work, I was amused by Poetic Stanziel's tweet about Capital Punishment making an agreement with their competor to win. I take the tweet as amusing commentary without any belief in truth behind it. It did make me giggle. I responded. Then, when I logged on this evening after work I shared it with the boys.

Beyond the ongoing theme of laziness that we are seeped in, we are much, much to cheap too pay anyone to lose to us. :)

However, the thought of isk and cheapness led me to raise an eyebrow at a post made, in a thread, discussing something totally unrelated. One commentary was that corporate isk is used to completely fund the AT team. I found myself wondering, isn't that the norm? Would that be a draw to someone?

But then, what do people expect in their corps? It seems that being mistreated is considered a norm to some players.

I can't fathom that world or that playing style. Winning something like the AT means isk for everyone. Doesn't it? It does in my alliance at least.

When skimming Mabrick's Mumblings I came across a commentary about a scientific study of the MMO communities social interactions.

While I don't (again) agree with a lot of his conclusions, I also accept that it is very much a different viewpoint we share on everything. We play very different games.

One of his questions was: "What about pirates? I'd say they are perhaps motivated in the areas of relationship (with other pirates of course) and perhaps grief. They are also inclined to immersion so long as it pertains to pirating - YARR!. There may be a healthy dose of achievement in there too. How many kills do you have?"

My answer: I don't think you truly see what social creatures we 'pirates' really are, even in our intense independence. While many may point to killboard numbers, I'd also comment on this. Some will always care intensely. But if we really cared, would we save things for others to whore onto the mail?

(Example in point: Today I logged in said hello, and was immediately told to undock in my cane, dropped a fleet invite, told to get onto coms, warp to a fleetmate, and wait at this wormhole because they were trying to kill someone.)

So for my boys, I may have to fly in the AT next weekend. We are a small alliance. Craziness and end of the world it may be. But for them, if they have need of my handful of abilities, I will give them with everything that I have.