Low Sec does not = Faction Warfare

[TL;DR: A minor rant based off of a comment I read earlier today fueled by a bad day]

Hi, I’m Sugar. I live in low sec.

For the past year I have written about living in low sec. The chances are very good that I am going to continue to do so for the foreseeable future. I’ve been living in low sec since the end of my second month of playing Eve. I’ve grown up in a low sec PvP corp and declared myself a Pirate Queen.

What I do not do is Faction Warfare.

I do not have an interest in Faction Warfare. I know very little about the mechanics of its game play. I do not indulge upon the ISK possibilities that it provides. I do not live in low sec space that has Faction Warfare in it.

Now, with all of my not living in Faction Warfare I'm still finding the vague topic to write the occasional blog about doing stuff in Low Sec space. I don’t think any of those blogs have had anything to do with me doing Faction Warfare.

I do not have a single alt in Faction Warfare. I have turned away from the opportunities it offers due to lack of interest. Lacking a min/max personality I cannot bring myself to do things that I do not find interesting just because it is considered the best thing to do.

Having established, what I hope is a basic base line I’d like to express my irritation with people who say that Low Sec equals faction warfare. It is often said in the same breath.  Or that Low sec is fine because there is Faction Warfare. And what makes me roll my eyes is “The only activity in low sec space is in Faction warfare”.

Low Sec does not Equal Faction Warfare.

Faction Warfare is a big aspect of low sec but it is not everything. I don’t want it to become everything. Sure, Faction Warfare is busy. So are certain systems in Sov Null. Last weekend my fleet roamed through twenty systems to find the one occupied system and beat on the station with the hopes that people fell out. That one corporation is not all there is to Sov Null. It is one aspect. Just as Faction Warfare is with Low Sec.

I know I’m a minority.  I live in low sec. I don’t live in FW space.  Yet, I think I’m a valid piece of the population. A piece of the population that is not Faction Warfare but is still Low Sec.

Some will read my words and manage to gather together the impression that I have some issue with Faction Warfare. While gathering that impression they will miss the actual point. There is more to do in Low Sec then Faction Warfare. People live here. Some of us thrive here. In these systems without an influence bar or capture complexes spawning across the system.  In these other parts of space, darker corners, maybe well traveled and maybe not, people live. We do things. We are also what defines low sec.