1000 Pieces of Destruction

"Killboard stats don’t matter! But, I look at them anyway!"The Public Voice of Eve on, "Killboards... do they matter?"

Yet I am amused at how often I see Battleclinic rankings and monthly statics pointed out and long discussions had on them. I’d think that meant killboards mattered or the ability to point at the activity of an individual mattered to someone on some level. I have to remember that competitive natures thrive on things like most kills of the month and most top damage kills.

It is strange to look back to one of my first battle reports. I have come rather far but as long and exhausting as the trip has been, it's going to be just as much work to keep going. That's not a bad thing. Looking over my past is a way to look at my growth and change in game.

I’m pro-killboard. I like to see the activity. I like to see what died and what killed me. I don’t worship them. I refuse to worship them. But, I don't want them to go away. Every time someone I respect goes into a 'get rid of killboards' discussion I'm kind of sad that I can't and don't agree with them. I have a tendency to feel as if I should if I admire their thoughts and opinions. But, I just suck up the shame and admit that I like killboards even if I do not like some of the weight people hang from them. 

But why am I looking at it today? Why am I looking at numbers?

Moving corporations I wanted to make sure I had fed the various killboards my personal API. I’ve been living off of THC2s pull. What this has caused is a split across the killboards that I am working to correct so that I can have a master list. I may have to make myself my own killboard on my domain for this. (I will think about that later…)

While sorting through the list I noticed that I was near 1,000 kill mails for destroyed things in Eve. I say it that way because it involves ships, POS mods, and POCOs.

It took me a year and nine months of Eve to reach a thousand things in my kill history. Curiosity became my greatest motivator. Here I was in a position that I have seen others speak of. I might as well do the same shuffling and sorting to see where I ‘stand’ in this grand world of Pvp that doesn't matter but people look at the rankings anyway while saying they don’t care and then posting them as a factual statistic.

According to my page view history this is the fourth time I have visited battleclinics website . According to battle clinic I have 709 kills.

This is where counting kills gets fun. Kill mails are granted to the person that received the final blow and the corporation of that person. Therefore, each character will only personally hold the final blows of their accounts  Each corporation will hold its corporation details until that corporation vanishes. That means that each killboard has to be fed from many different places to see how many kills a player has.

I’m a fleet flyer. Not only do I fly in fleets but I fly tackle a lot. Before, I started focusing on being a tackle frigate I was just extra DPS. The lowest skilled ship in the game meant that I put out the lest damage on averge and rarely ever got the final blow which rewards me with the killmail.

I went looking for my missing kills with a bit of an idea as to where they might be and suddenly this became a write up on finding ones PvP history.

TEXNs killboard does not feed to Eve Kill or Battle Clinic. When we flew with them we often had to manually post kill mails so that they showed up on THC2's killboard on Eve Kill. THC2s killboard holds the bulk of my life. However, once I left for 7-2 THC2s killboard stopped logging my kills. It has me at 925. Seven Two’s killboard only knows me since its creation in October of 2012 and shows me at the same number as Eve Kill.

Eve Kill knows me and has me at 1002 kills at the writing of this.

But not everyone will have fed their information into Eve-Kill. Personal boards, public boards, they all have to be checked. Some people will do their best to hide their activity as not to give away intel. If you are PvPing a lot, you are going to wind up on killboards. What it can tell someone is that you may be an easy target or you may not be. If one looked at battle clinic it believes I love Ruptures. I have no idea why. I am not fond of Rupture's and I fly them in exactly two fleet comps.

And the information is also deceptive. The relative few amount of losses compared to my kills screams that I do not solo and fly in fleets or with some type of backup. Skimming the kills will show that I am in low sec. Some people are impressed by numbers and high efficiency  Don't be. A lot of the best PvPers have lower levels of efficiency. Skim the killboard, look at how many people are on the various kills.

Look at where I am flying. How many ships are on my kill mails. See that there are cyno kills. This tells more information about a pilot then fits do sometimes. Especially if one is looking at engageability.

I don't see myself ever becoming a top tier pilot. I fly to much support to have many final blows. It is almost magical when it does happen. The killboards show that I participate regularly in combat. That is a good thing for someone who is in a PvP corporation. 

Others may say that my relatively low number of loses points to someone who is risk averse and not willing to take chances. To some, I may be. I don't think that I am. I go out and try to participate. I also try to get out. I have more Jaguar losses than a killboard will show from dying to gate guns holding a point. At the same time, if second and third points have been established it is time for me to get out and stop taking gate guns. I am more useful in the fleet, in a ship, ready to take on the next target. That doesn't mean I am not willing to lose a ship when the time comes to lose a ship. I've just never prescribed to the concept of joining a fleet with the goal of losing my ship every time. Loss happens. That does not mean it has to happen.

It is all an example of what the killboard does and does not reflect. To wrap oneself up in it is to wrap limitations around oneself as well. Some of the pilots I admire the most also have the most losses at the end of the month. Yet, I envy them. I wish I had what it took to do what they do and approach things the way that they do. I don't try to maintain my high efficiency and lowish death ratios from fear or pride. Its inability, more than anything else. Something I'd like to eventually improve upon.

This is my kill history. Think of me as you wish.