Skip to main content

Saving the World and Other Random Things

Maximum Ride: Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports is a book by James Patterson. I like this series a lot. You have to throw out a healthy dose of practicality and enjoy the somewhat alternate universe. It is just crazy enough to be throw out able as well. Sometimes you just want to indulge in science fiction for the sake of alternate worlds.

Today, I was thinking a lot on Eve. I expect that is unsurprising. Last night, I was discussing (lecturing?) my corpmates on my ideas about how to save the newbies from the world. Hence the title, for I feel as if I am on a bit of a crusade of thought.

To top off my crusade, I logged on and  Vov had just ganked a hauler. Said hauler was moving 500 million in a T1 hauler. We all know that it is too much to move. Vov ganked said hauler who told him that he only had fifty million left. Now, Vov I know was lecturing him about the proper ship to move said goods in. That is good. However, I suspect that said gankee wouldn't be interested in listening when he was down to his last 50 million with all of his stuff gone.

I didn't get angry. I just felt like giving up a little bit. All of this constant energy to figure out how to save the newbies from their own ignorance so that they might make a place for themselves in the shark infested pool we call Eve. And here I was faced with the exact situation. Only, I didn't find it tough and charming. I just found it counter productive to all of my thoughts for the day. It is always easier to burn it down than to build it up. All of my thoughts shuddered like glass one moment before the perfect pitch breaks it. My thoughts of the future are fragile. The problems that I must solve and not break, are a strong reality.

What is a girl to do?

I joined the chat. Said gankee was getting pissy. So I gave him the 140mil sitting on Sugar and asked him to actually take a moment and listen to Vov's advice. Because, Vov does give good advice when it comes to explaining how to avoid being ganked. But, who wants to listen to their ganker? Who wants to be lectured when they are dead and in the hole with all of their possessions gone? I don't normally do this. I don't normally give people ISK. I'm a big believer in giving advice and educating people but today, I was tired. Work was kinda bad.

I wanted to save the world.

I think I just wanted to be nice today. The last few days have been full of negativity. It is what I signed up for but sometimes, I just want to sigh and take a step away from it. Take a breath of clean air and remember that in fact, everything is not terrible.

Because, its not.

I have a world to save. Maybe it will happen one thing at a time. Or maybe I will get to be part of the last battle.

Whatever. I'm up for it.

But not everyone is going to get ISK. :p

Now I have more thoughts to go and spin.

P.S. Rhavas asked if he stopped and calmed down. Yes. And he started asking questions.

Comments

  1. "Who wants to listen to their ganker?"

    I remember the first time I was podded.

    My corp had been wardecced, and I was really new and decided to try to fight back in my stealth bomber. Saw him at a station and thought a hurricane would make a good target (didn't know about instablap yet). I was popped and podded before I even knew what happened.

    I didn't whine, rage or complain. I sent a polite mail congratulating him on his kill and asking how it happened. He sent a polite mail back telling me what I could have done differently.

    We're now in the same corp.

    The newbies attitude is just as important as any skill they can train.

    Your advice is valuable- make sure the people you spend it on are ready to learn.

    The players who will truly succeed in this game are those who are willing to listen and learn from everyone.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. But remember, today, I want to save the world.

      I love when people respond like you do. But in the bare, naked truth of the question, "Is that how most people are really going to respond? Even the ones who will make wonderful Eve players?"

      Do I just throw aside everyone who doesn't have the proper, immediate reaction? Is not there some in between where both sides reach? Sometimes, one side reaches more.

      I don't think I can save the world if I don't become a super hero.

      Delete
  2. I remember ganking a freighter once. It didn't end up having much of anything in it, but we ended up talking with the guy. He ended up being a pretty cool dude, took it well, and even asked for some advice. We were so impressed with him in fact, that after figuring out he had the thing platinum insured, we refunded him his insurance costs so he could get a new freighter, and even had him in our corp for a few months after that and taught him some PVP among other things. He's grown up and moved on now to bigger things, but every once in a while one of the guys brings up some nice kill he got and we look on with a bit of mist in our eyes remembering fondly how we helped that little terror grow his teeth.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I have done this very thing many times. It can get their attention, which is a good thing. The loss softened, they are more willing to THINK in response to the conversation about how they could have avoided their loss in the first place. Not that everyone should expect to be compensated by their ganker; but depending on the person's (positive) response to conversation, compensation and sharing knowledge/advice might prolong one more subscription which can't be a bad thing.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Why don't you use your CSM powers to create a simple popup window, like the one that warns you that you are about to undock without the distribution mission cargo?

    It should say "You are about to undock with a X ISK/EHP. This means your ship, fitting and cargo is too expensive compared your ability to defend it against pirates. While CONCORD will destroy their ship, they won't care if they can get your loot. Consider taking multiple turns or putting on more defensive modules on your ship."

    The problem is that most newbies don't know that they can die in highsec until it happens.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Because if I had such super powers I'd have already saved the world.

      Delete
  5. [prior comment deleted and reposted, kause I kant spel… sheesh]
    Huh... interesting, I don't agree though... I don't feel we have to save the newbies from their own ignorance... ignorance didn’t kill him... it was your friend ganking a T1 hauler, nothing more and nothing less.

    I've been playing a tad over 3.5 years and I have taken part in one, only one, attempt at a classic gank, a gang kill of a freighter. We didn't suicide gank, a scout found a freighter jumping into lowsec and we got to him after he jumped but before he was able to warp off.... but... thereafter ensued a very silly amount of wasted ammo and time... we failed to explode him. He was properly tanked and, as far as we could tell, probably had a full set of defensive 'plants... plus he had people show up to rep him and such... and he finally got away. I have helped jump a few miners... in W-space... not in Empire... and, well, it really is different in W-space and those guys understood the risks.

    My point is, personally, I don't get ganks. Why is it fun to just stomp on someone who CANNOT fight back? How is that fun? How it that something to be proud of? How it that PvP? cause it really aint.. Oh I guess if you make a lot of ISK that is a ‘justification’, but justifications are used by people to make themselves feel ok about doing things that aren’t really acceptable. I know it’s ‘just a game’ (the gankers/greifers lament), but ask yourself… would you do something like that if it was face to face? even in a game? I seriously doubt it. And there are a lot of other ways to make ISK... ways that don't make me feel like an ass... because after that failed gank attempt I knew I would never do that again, but that's me.

    As for the rest... IRL we don't throw our children out into the streets, we protect them UNTIL they learn enough to make themselves safe... or at least have a shot at it. But not in EVE... and there is something inherently wrong with that. Now I am NOT an advocate of changing the open PvP sandbox mechanics... and I am not an advocate of a "safe zone" or "safe period" or any such in EVE...

    The best idea's I have had I wrote up in my post, "Griefers Throw Stones at Frogs in Sport, but the Frogs Die in Earnest…"
    [http://turamarths-evelife.blogspot.com/2013/02/griefers-throw-stones-at-frogs-in-sport.html]...

    Basically I was advocating some kind of PVP tutorials... training that (1) more realistically taught new players some of what to expect in the, as you put it... sharkpool. But, as we know, CCP wants to do away with tutorials... going to a 'Contextual Information System' (see: CCP Rise, New Player Experience Vision, FF 2014)...

    The idea of a Contextual Information System make me wonder how CCP plans to teach a new player the things he needs to know, like Gevlon said, BEFORE the 'context' happens to him... like your poor ganked hauler. And I can't see it working if it is reactive not proactive... talk about being thrown into the deep end.

    I don't know if new tutorials are the way to go... but we badly need something that teaches Themepark players that things are DIFFERENT here.... We don't need to save them FROM their ignorance; we need a way to TEACH them about the realities of EVE, before they find out the hard way... and end up leaving because EVE is not fun... and, bottom line, EVE aint real… it is a game, and should first and foremost be fun to play, whether you are a 10 year vet or a 1 day old noob...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. How to get this information created and distributed is an incredibly challenging question.

      Get ganks or not, until CCP changes its mind they are part of Eve. I don't get it. I also don't get gate camping, station camping, and why people live in some areas of the game that they do. I don't get a lot about why people play Eve.

      And I don't think that I have to. Accepting how they play is not the same as accepting it or wanting it as a personal style of game play.

      Delete
  6. I've been ganked. I didn't whine or complain. I just moved on and did something else. Did I engage the ganker? Umm, no. Just not interested.

    When I needed to learn more about how to prevent that kind of thing, I asked people I know and trust. It doesn't make sense -- to me, anyway -- to immediately engage the ganker. First, how do you know you're not gonna just get a load of bullshit dumped on your head for even opening a convo? Who needs that? And assuming it's a reasonably civil exchange, how do you know they're gonna tell you anything helpful? It's not in their interests to make you LESS likely to be ganked.

    I guess it's also a dominance thing. The ganker is seeking to dominate people. Okay, so they popped your ship and maybe your pod, too. Why roll over and expose your neck by asking them to "educate" you? Yeesh. No, thanks.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Aye. I've never been overly fond of the 'convo people who kill you'. I know sometimes you hit jackpot but I tried it with my FW alt and lets say I was less than successful. A lot of people were downright confused that I was contacting them.

      I also don't have a problem with the suspicion that they are only going to lie to you and put you in a bad situation. However, it is not a story that I often hear.

      Delete
    2. I think to some extent my mentality on this comes from being Southern and female. I don't want to intrude on someone else's fun. When someone intrudes on mine, my first impulse is to just back off and avoid further engagement.

      Delete
  7. Sometimes I convo obvious noobs that die in our gate camps and chat with them a bit. If they have the "right" attitude about learning what happened and how they might have avoided it I will often flip them the isk for their loss so they can try again along with tips on fits and habits that can help them survive and prosper. I think it helps the game overall when we support the adventurous while still enjoying our own play style. If it helps even one pilot keep subscribing to overcome losses and failure, that's one live target that stays in space... :P

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Maybe one day!

 [15:32:10] Trig Vaulter > Sugar Kyle Nice bio - so carebear sweet - oh you have a 50m ISK bounty - so someday more grizzly  [15:32:38 ] Sugar Kyle > /emote raises an eyebrow to Trig  [15:32:40 ] Sugar Kyle > okay :)  [15:32:52 ] Sugar Kyle > maybe one day I will try PvP out When I logged in one of the first things I did was answer a question in Eve Uni Public Help. It was a random question that I knew the answer of. I have 'Sugar' as a keyword so it highlights green and catches my attention. This made me chuckle. Maybe I'll have to go and see what it is like to shoot a ship one day? I could not help but smile. Basi suggested that I put my Titan killmail in my bio and assert my badassery. I figure, naw. It was a roll of the dice that landed me that kill mail. It doesn't define me as a person. Bios are interesting. The idea of a biography is a way to personalize your account. You can learn a lot about a person by what they choose to put in their bio

Taboo Questions

Let us talk contentious things. What about high sec? When will CCP pay attention to high sec and those that cannot spend their time in dangerous space?  This is somewhat how the day started, sparked by a question from an anonymous poster. Speaking about high sec, in general, is one of the hardest things to do. The amount of emotion wrapped around the topic is staggering. There are people who want to stay in high sec and nothing will make them leave. There are people who want no one to stay in high sec and wish to cripple everything about it. There are people in between, but the two extremes are large and emotional in discussion. My belief is simple. If a player wishes to live in high sec, I do not believe that anything will make them leave that is not their own curiosity. I do not believe that we can beat people out of high sec or destroy it until they go to other areas of space. Sometimes, I think we forget that every player has the option to not log back in. We want them to log

And back again

My very slow wormhole adventure continues almost as slowly as I am terminating my island in Animal Crossing.  My class 3 wormhole was not where I wanted to be. I was looking for a class 1 or 2 wormhole. I dropped my probes and with much less confusion scanned another wormhole. I remembered to dscan and collect my probes as I warped to the wormhole. I even remembered to drop a bookmark, wormholes being such good bookmark locations later. My wormhole told me it was a route into low sec. I tilted my head. How circular do our adventures go. Today might be the day to die and that too is okay. That mantra dances in the back of my head these days. Even if someone mocks me, what does that matter? Fattening someone's killboard is their issue not mine. So I jumped through and found myself in Efa in Khanid, tucked on the edge of high sec and null sec. What an interesting little system.  Several connections to high sec. A connection to null sec. This must be quite the traffic system.    I am f