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Foundations

I'm going to talk about myself to talk about someone else. Kinda. I got asked, in a mail about two weeks ago to explain how I visualized low sec. I feel odd repeating my start in the game but I have a few new readers with the CSM announcement. I figure, its okay to touch on some of these points.

I promise I have a history post coming, have not forgotten! Got a bit distracted... I am so bad...

The original name for my blog (for those who have not read the typo ridden, very bad start) was the walrus bucket. I named the blog that on a whim. it was about the fourth month of playing where I changed the name over to Low Sec Lifestyle. It took me a few days to pick the name. That was because I didn't feel that I could pick any name that was aggressive or PvP focused or pirate oriented. I wasn't any of those things. I was a newbie, I was very small in a very big world, and my main emotion was a weird jumble of fear, awe, and frustration as I tried to learn and catch up.

I didn't come to low sec to PvP. PvP was just part of what could happen. I came to low sec because it was exciting and I was at risk.

I came to live a life.

I wanted to be brave. You see, I had the choice to stay in high sec. I had the encouragement to stay in high sec. But, I was... well... disgusted by the restrictions imposed on me. I wasn't allowed to talk with Chella because the corp did not want anyone to notice us and possibly get us war deced. That is why Sugar Kyle is the known part of me instead of Chella Ranier. There were worries about ganks. Don't fly that blingy hull because someone might gank you just because. Be careful where you go, who sees you, what you do because someone might kill you. Avoid, hide, slip through the shadows but always be cautious. Never believe that someone not affiliated with you won't attack you.

I'm not the most aggressive person. I'm not competitive. However, I do not like being threatened (in game) by people with war decs or 'my big alliance dot'. I do not like being told to hide when I can fight (There are times when you dock). I do not like cowering in the corner  and going, "These guys are pirates. Don't tell them our home system!"

That was not the game of Eve I signed up to play.

On the other hand I had these guys who lived in low sec, made oodles of money doing exploration and doing these insane level five missions and killed the people who came after them without seeming to break a sweat. Sometimes they died.  But, they tended to  kill more than they lost. They were not afraid to talk in local. They were not afraid of war decs. They were not afraid to fly what they wanted to fly when they wanted to fly it. They lived in danger. They took on uneven odds. They played Eve in a wild, violent, excited frenzy while they dictated what they wanted and when they wanted it.

That is what I wanted.

I wasn't introduced to a Low Sec where you were expected to be poor. I didn't grow up in a low sec where you were only there for any other reason other than wanting to be there. I learned that PvP meant sometimes you win sometimes you lose but you fight when the time comes. I learned the power of being a tackle frigate with a Machariel running from my Rifter and the woes of not having the skill points to properly fit things. I was taught to do everything in a mindset that you may be attacked and you may die but you needed to give a good account of yourself.

In death ground, fight.

There was no shame in PvE. ISK came from PvE and we all needed ISK. None of it was easy. That was the appeal. To gain anything you fought for it and sometimes people appeared and kicked down your dreams. You learned from it and you did better the next time. PvP was a fact of life. It was as much a part of the environment as it was the environment. Who is not us is against us but that did not make them an enemy.

Two concepts formed my early determination to prove that low sec was not 'lol sec'. One was a person who said low sec corporations couldn't make it in null sec. none of my boys wanted to live in null sec so how could you judge us by that measure? The second was someone who said I could be redeemed from a pirate and taught to play Eve in a way that mattered with people who are important. Null sec.

Few things motivate me in this game then someone insulting those who I play the game with. Insult me and I won't like it and may even have my feelings hurt. Insult my boys and I'll set the universe on fire to prove you wrong (well I'll write passionate blog posts). I was happy in low sec. I liked it. I assumed everyone would see it as I did. When they didn't, I did my best to share it and when they told me I was wrong... well... that hasn't been a good enough reason yet.

I don't like losing my ships but I don't want to be safe. I don't like being shot by gateguns but I'd never ask to remove them because for the thought and tactics that they create. I want to make my ISK in sleepy pleasant peace but I'd never ask for it. Every time of jump freighter warps my heart is in my throat and I'd not have it any other way. I thrive off of the struggle for the basics of game play. I love it. Being in space can be mentally exausting and I'd not have it any other way.

That's kind of my thoughts on low sec. The one that I want to promote, preserve, and improve all at the same time. The wild, risky, dedicated people that populate these system secs are what dragged me into the game. It's what I know as home.

Comments

  1. Excellent post is excellent :)

    Echo's how I personally feel about lowsec very well, lowsec represents freedom to me, freedom to do (and afford) what I want as long as I'm happy to shoot people and get shot at by people.

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  2. An excellent post and I couldn't be happier that your on the CSM.

    Personally LowSec allows me more freedom and opportunity to pursue my personal goals than I ever found in either the risk obsessed environs of HiSec or the paranoid and constrictive confines of the Null groups I was a member of during my years there.

    I'm glad to see we have an advocate on CSM9 that understands the worth of our space.

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  3. Interesting perspective, really looking forward to see what your view on the realites of lowsec will add to the conversations at the table

    Would also like to add that my views on the reasons to live full time in lowsec are very different, and that i come from very different backgrounds as far as progression through eve, yet i defenatly agree about the ability to chose your destiny and being given the opertunity to cease the chances that lowsec provides

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    1. As long as you don't walk away feeling that my view of low sec is the only view I believe in. I simply want to let people see where I am working from in conceptual belief when it comes to this space.

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  4. This is a lot of what I like about the WH corp I fly with.

    And the ironic thing about high sec is that the very rules that are supposed to encourage conflict often backfire. To pick just one: I have a high sec industry/general carebear character. Sometimes she gets a bee in her bonnet, hops in a cruiser and goes into low sec to blow up in a glorious fire, and maybe occasionally take someone down with her. Why low sec? Because she also pilots large industrials, and if you blow someone's ship up in high sec they get a kill right on you, which they will of course redeem when you're in a freighter. In low sec, you have to pod someone for them to get a kill right on you, and it's very easy to have lots of shooty fun without doing that. (Of course, in WH's, there are no kill rights.)

    If you imagine all the people in expensive or vulnerable ships in high sec, and then think about how many disincentives there are in place for them to shoot first, let alone blow someone up, and yeah I think that's a problem. It's a disappointing discovery for a lot of new players especially.

    If you wanted to, say, use your newly won position on CSM to maybe bring that up, or at least ask if there are maybe better ways to do high security space, that would be cool. The "clever mouse" style of play should be an option, but for a lot of high sec people it really isn't an option, and a lot of them are not so much clever as timid--which, I agree, is not compelling sandbox game play.

    It might be a subject worth bringing up as a CSM? As with sov, it's not a simple question with a simple answer, but I think there is a problem there. Or maybe you don't see all the weekend PVPers coming into low sec as a problem? ;-)

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    1. I got a kill right on someone who didn't pod me in Low Sec. I think if you become a suspect by attacking them and kill their ship they get a kill right.

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  5. <3 Thank you, Sugar, that is fantastic.

    And @Dersen Lowery, I agree - those are the same things that have addicted me to life in w-space. :) And IMO, weekend PvPers coming into low sec (or wormholes) gives the residents a little variety and more targets. :)

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    1. It's true, although we don't get quite so many.

      By the way, I hope you're thinking of running again. This new system has resulted in many of the once-hopeless type of non-bloc candidate that I love--Steve, Mike, Ali, Sugar, you--getting in, and since the only complaint I could find about your candidacy was that you were too green, maybe a year of seasoning will do the trick.

      I would *love* to have WH logistics person on CSM. That's a particularly tricky subject, because you have to thread the distinction between "that's a huge pain in the ass and we want it gone" and "that's a huge pain in the ass, but it's *our* huge pain in the ass," because WH dwellers are crazy. ;-)

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    2. Aww! Thank you very much, Dersen. I can't guarantee where I'll be in a year, but I certainly plan on staying active within the community.

      And, yes, that is a great point about w-space; life can be difficult, but the thrill of overcoming the environment is just as much a part of w-space as the joy of exploding an enemy fleet.

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  6. I have to join Dersen here... I could change the names to me and wormholes and it would read exactly the same... only I was never happy in Lowsec due to the 'interference' by gates guns, local po-po and always taking a sec stat hit for just doing what CCP WANTS us to do... But in Anoikis, no local, no po-po, no gate guns (well, no GATES but you know...) no CONCORD, no sec loss.... and FREEDOM!! Real in your face you have to live inna TENT (read POS) freedom...

    I could, if it ever came about, not that it will... but I 'could' POD kill 50 people and jump the crazy marble right into Amarr... and CONCORD and the po-po would just wave me on by....

    Anoikis is THE sandbox... and it also exclusive... IE not 'crowded' like Hi and Low... (notice I have naught to say bout naugh.naught... can't stand the people who live there...)

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  7. "Few things motivate me in this game then someone insulting those who I play the game with." Amen. :-)

    I like low sec. I haven't made a home there -- yet -- but it's not out of the question.

    I did enjoy some aspects of living in a wormhole, but I was going through a shopaholic phase at the time and wasn't always in the mood to scan myself out. :-) I think it'd be awesome to live in one if you've got a group with a solid daily routine of scanning, running sites, etc.

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  8. @Suzariel, LOL... yea, scanning and gettin all carpal mashing Dscan are part of the Price of Freedom in Anoikis as twere... Luckily having found that the 'Stero when fully fitted for max scanning, plus my skills and years of experience make scanning far less of a chore than when I was new... and I don't mean the god damned PLEASE make it go away Discovery Scanner... I actually have if off and when it is forced on me, I ignore it... peace of crap.

    But yea... an active group,even a small one, if a blessing... the guys we're with now we have known for years and we all basically treat it as a daily shared chore. Whoever logs on first, scans all-the-things... and forward needed intel, BM locations etc., to all as they login.

    We accept the drudge work that is scanning out of necessity instead of out of a desire to do so as a form of, well actually... protection. The only people who intrude on our spaces are those who are into that form of gameplay and there are far more who aren't than who are... hence it keeps things, personal, somewhat exclusive and more... rural.... in W-space. And that's exactly how we like it.

    Wormholes actually reminds me of my real life a bit... I live on a 100+ year old farm, that is basically a 5 acre hole in the middle of a 40 acre plot of woods surrounded by 200 acres of company owned timberland... I'm a half mile off the paved road and it's quiet and pleasant back here... and if yer not kith or kin... well... =]

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  9. And just to point out the obvious: Sugar's line of "I came to live a life" applies to industrialists as well. Be it someone feeding a reaction POS, going mining or exploring, or just running courier contracts - they all do thrive on the fact that lo-sec is (in general) an area where personal acumen (and/or having friends) matters more than which alliance/coalition you're flying with.

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