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All The Things Said

There is a lot to learn from watching people argue and discuss things. There are often answers to more than is being discussed and questions about things not brought into the discussion. And so I found myself, yesterday, while watching a discussion and dropping in an occasional question to keep that discussion going, thinking that sometimes we do not realize that what we most need is change because we cling to what is familiar and comfortable. And that grip on what we love comes at a cost of us destroying it because it no longer satisfies us.

It started with an argument that was made back when I first entered to game. Back then, in my first few months, the CSM was not something I knew or paid attention to. But for others far older it was a time of great change and directional focus. And now, three years later they are looking back at the changes and not satisfied with the direction things have gone. Not because it has not been productive or produced various results but because it was not the results wanted.

We understand the game through our own eyes. Our experiences will mold us in some way or another. It may be insight and understanding or it may simply be the way we comprehend the flexibility of game play. This was exhibited beautifully today in a conversation with Vov. He had found a 3/10 DED complex and there was a Gila in it.

"Kill it," I said to him. For that is my reaction. That is what low sec is for me. If that Gila is not a corpmate or a personal friend, it is someone to chase off or remove from 'your' resource.

"It is high sec," he said. "I will see if I can beat him to the drop."

He did get the drop for those curious. It was my reaction to things. My reaction based off of what I do and what I have done. And in games that we have played for so long, we develop habits and habits can be frightfully hard to change.

A habit, however, is a habit. It is not the same as being fulfilled and nourished. Sometimes we need breaks and sometimes we need change and sometimes we are not able to make ourselves do so. Love fades and bitterness grows. And I think that it happens more often then I'd like in Eve, an old game with players who are deeply devoted to what they do until they are often trapped by it.

So, I listened to what they said but I heard something else. I heard someone that needed a change and wanted and desired a change but could not force themselves to change. So they pushed that desire upon the environment and when the environment became resistive they became bitter.

It is a cautious walk to take. Where ideas come from and why they develop must be examined as often as the idea itself. Otherwise, instead of adapting to the situation Vov could have raged over a dysfunctional system. Instead he adapted. As I talked to this other player I looked over what they wanted and where they wanted that change to happen and saw someone who might just need to take that personal leap. What they wanted existed. It was just not where they wanted it to be.

Often times things need to change. Stagnancy is dangerous for a game. But sometimes we need to change to. Stagnancy is just as dangerous to the individual players. Its part of the endless question of why.

Comments

  1. I was going to quote Gandhi, “Be the change you wish to see” because ~Gandhi~

    Turns out he never said that. He did say, “If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. This is the divine mystery supreme. A wonderful thing it is and the source of our happiness. We need not wait . . .” Not quite a pithy but still ~Gandhi~

    And I’m not just cracking wise, not entirely. Sugar’s space life version is closer than you think, “So, I listened to what they said but I heard something else. I heard someone that needed a change and wanted and desired a change but could not force themselves to change. So they pushed that desire upon the environment and when the environment became resistive they became bitter.”

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