I noticed a response on twitter today of a tweet I made two years ago. I looked at the date because I did not remember making that particular tweet earlier. It was a lament about the lack of low sec focus in the CSM7 minutes.
I remember being frustrated. Very, very frustrated. I hit search and typed in 'low' and received two hits. This was also right after the removal of the 1/10 and 2/10 static DED complexes. The community that had lost some of its content was looking for answers and we had hoped to see something in the minutes discussing the removal and explaining why it happened. We had a thread up at the time as well that was silent and there was a lot of anger.
This is the period where I bitched a lot about it in the blog. This is also, I suspect, the moment where my first effort to change Eve started and it would lead to my suggesting to CCP Masterplan to bring back the complexes as exploration content at the very least. That particular change was not what the community wanted but we were not going to get what we wanted. I at least wanted to salvage what I could that the content had given us. It wasn't enough for many. Some didn't care. I believed that the complete removal was harmful and I was very worried about the way that low sec was just passed over.
In that singular tweet, and the ensuing conversation, is one of the moments that made me start involving myself in following the CSM and the greater Eve meta in general. It made me want to find a candidate that would promote low sec for the next election and left me distraught when CSM8 would have no one from low sec.
I think I can blame CCP for winding up with me in their faces for the last year starting here. I don't know why I picked up this cause. It isn't like me. Yet, I did. For some reason I pushed out of my normal wallflower state. I remember being angry. Not raging ranting angry. Just furious at being ignored. It is the same anger that I felt as a newbie in Eve Uni chat as people told me that people only lived in low sec because they could not succeed in null sec. I know that those casual comments, made by members of now dead null sec corporations or cast down from their once mighty positions in permanent corps, burned a deep suborn streak in me when it came to the perception of low sec. They are also the earliest nudges, I suspect. I can still name the people who said those things and I still feel an under current of anger at the words.
Anger is a fascinating motivator. Now, two years later, I am packing to go to Fanfest again. Only, things have changed. Low is more than something said twice during the summit. I'm staring at a Fanfest with two low sec round tables. I've had low sec sessions at the summits. I'm going to have to sit back and try to figure out how I got from there to here. Low sec is spoken of differently as well. People may not find it for them but the curled lipped insults that he only reason someone stays in low is inferiority and failure to thrive in null sec I do not hear as often. The concept that it should be a training ground has been beaten down and replaced with an idea of individuality and worth.
And I've been a part of making that change. It is not as tangible a goal as some. However, seen from a distance and over the course of time it is a real one that has gained shape and started to grow into itself.
Not everyone has to take a path. There are to many factors in our lives. I don't believe that I can judge someone by if they have been on the CSM or not. I don't know what their day to day is. Knowing the CSM as I now do I'd prefer them to dedicate their energies to what they can change if that is their goal. I've learned that you can make change without being on the CSM as well. The person, their motivations, their skills, and their tenacity all matter.
I knew going in but still sad that low sec is not a catagory
— Sugar Kyle (@Sugar_Kyle) January 16, 2013
The whole thread is here.I remember being frustrated. Very, very frustrated. I hit search and typed in 'low' and received two hits. This was also right after the removal of the 1/10 and 2/10 static DED complexes. The community that had lost some of its content was looking for answers and we had hoped to see something in the minutes discussing the removal and explaining why it happened. We had a thread up at the time as well that was silent and there was a lot of anger.
This is the period where I bitched a lot about it in the blog. This is also, I suspect, the moment where my first effort to change Eve started and it would lead to my suggesting to CCP Masterplan to bring back the complexes as exploration content at the very least. That particular change was not what the community wanted but we were not going to get what we wanted. I at least wanted to salvage what I could that the content had given us. It wasn't enough for many. Some didn't care. I believed that the complete removal was harmful and I was very worried about the way that low sec was just passed over.
In that singular tweet, and the ensuing conversation, is one of the moments that made me start involving myself in following the CSM and the greater Eve meta in general. It made me want to find a candidate that would promote low sec for the next election and left me distraught when CSM8 would have no one from low sec.
I think I can blame CCP for winding up with me in their faces for the last year starting here. I don't know why I picked up this cause. It isn't like me. Yet, I did. For some reason I pushed out of my normal wallflower state. I remember being angry. Not raging ranting angry. Just furious at being ignored. It is the same anger that I felt as a newbie in Eve Uni chat as people told me that people only lived in low sec because they could not succeed in null sec. I know that those casual comments, made by members of now dead null sec corporations or cast down from their once mighty positions in permanent corps, burned a deep suborn streak in me when it came to the perception of low sec. They are also the earliest nudges, I suspect. I can still name the people who said those things and I still feel an under current of anger at the words.
Anger is a fascinating motivator. Now, two years later, I am packing to go to Fanfest again. Only, things have changed. Low is more than something said twice during the summit. I'm staring at a Fanfest with two low sec round tables. I've had low sec sessions at the summits. I'm going to have to sit back and try to figure out how I got from there to here. Low sec is spoken of differently as well. People may not find it for them but the curled lipped insults that he only reason someone stays in low is inferiority and failure to thrive in null sec I do not hear as often. The concept that it should be a training ground has been beaten down and replaced with an idea of individuality and worth.
And I've been a part of making that change. It is not as tangible a goal as some. However, seen from a distance and over the course of time it is a real one that has gained shape and started to grow into itself.
Not everyone has to take a path. There are to many factors in our lives. I don't believe that I can judge someone by if they have been on the CSM or not. I don't know what their day to day is. Knowing the CSM as I now do I'd prefer them to dedicate their energies to what they can change if that is their goal. I've learned that you can make change without being on the CSM as well. The person, their motivations, their skills, and their tenacity all matter.
Thank you, Sugar :)
ReplyDeleteThere are 3 types of players in Eve: those that make things happen, those that watch things happen, and those that wonder what the hell just happened. I’m glad to say that you my dear are a player that makes things happen and that's why I voted for you. Have a safe trip...
ReplyDeleteThere's also those who try to make things happen and are rolled over by CCP. Ask anyone who trusted CCP about Incarna -if you find them.
DeleteI'm one of those, Angry, and I'm still playing. Not only that, I'm optimistic for the game's future.
DeleteOnions dear friend,
DeleteIncarna was June 2011, some 3 & ½ years ago. CCP is merely a gaming company who’s managed a few stunning successes inextricably linked with equally astounding failures. They’re not your spouse, they’re not your children, they’re not parents, they’re not your siblings, they’re not your beloved friends. They’re merely a gaming company that happens to produce a product you, at one time, enjoyed.
Nursing this grievance of yours, reclaiming betrayal again and again as you do cannot be good for your wellbeing.
Eve Online is not the second coming of Jesus. It did not, cannot and should not be a central spoke in your life’s purpose.
It’s a big world out there Onions. Explore. Dabble. Experience. Gain a sense of balance. Equanimity is wonderful place for a sit.
@Heretic Caldari: people who are happy with CCP are not the issue. The issue is whether they can pay for all the other people, those who quit or don't buy it and see no reason to buy it.
DeleteThe future of EVE it's just more of the same, with a pretty seagull on top. If you didn't bought EVE in 2003 nor 2004 nor 2005 nor 2006 nor 2007 nor 2008 nor 2009 nor 2010 nor 2011 nor 2012 nor 2013 nor 2014... you will get no reasons to buy it in 2015 and beyond.
That's not a problem for you, you bought it. But then, will you pay for all the people who quit? What when CCP's numbers start going red? Who is going to pay for you when you quit EVE?
There is no future for EVE without implementing in game what has never been before. Avatars. PvE drama. Something the ultimate survivor players don't ask for.
Something so the people inside stay inside and the people outside wants to be inside... not something so the people inside think that they'll be getting another serving of their favorite cake and to hell with those who don't like it.
Angry, EVE is obviously not the game for you. It's always been a niche game and always will be. I have no problem with that. I've gotten my money's worth from it.
DeleteSomeday EVE will end, and that will be sad, but everything ends. There's a reason EVE doesn't have larger numbers and that's because it's not a game for all people. Nor should it be.
I'm intimately familiar with this sort of thing. I'm a board wargamer at heart. A grognard. And when I speak of wargames, I don't mean crap like Settlers of Cataan, nor Risk, nor Axis and Allies. I mean games from the Golden Age. Games where we pushes cardboard chits on a map with a hex grid as we fought and re-fought the great battles, campaigns and wars of history. And fantasy and sci-fi. Games that took up several square feet of space and took days or weeks to play.
Almost no one plays those games any longer, or if they do, they're of my generation and older. I miss playing those games. I wish I was still sitting down face-to-face weekly over a game board, but I'm not. There are still board war games being made today, but for the most part they are not in the same class as what I like to play.
I could play the newer stuff, but I honestly don't have as much fun playing the new stuff. Sure, game companies could re-issue the old classics tweaked for today's sensibilities, but I wouldn't be playing them.
That's EVE in a nutshell. It appeals to a certain set of preferences that will, by definition, prohibit the game from ever achieving success like WOW or lesser titles that are more successful, on the numbers, than EVE. CCP could easily change EVE to the point where it attracts lots of new gamers.
But such a game just wouldn't be the game I like to play, nor would I.
That'd be okay; CCP has no obligation to design their game to my standards. They are a business and they need to make money. I'm frankly astonished they've kept the faith this long.
If they can keep things going in the same vein, keeping true to their original vision of EVE, and it means EVE remains, and remains moderately successful, that would be awesome for those of us who like the game. If they can't, if they need to change it to stay afloat, and in doling so the game morphs to the point where the players that like the overall current game are driven away, that would be regrettable, but I'd walk away and get over it, just like I have with my war games.
EVE can't be all things to all people, not and retain the core of what it is. Doesn't mean CCP can't introduce new game play, but not at the expense of the main game.
We don't get a lot of new players, but we get them. I'm playing with a bunch right now. So there's obviously new blood. And yes, I have no doubt lots of people are turned off by all the negative press. And by certain game mechanics, like permanent loss.
CCP can certainly try to do something about the negative press, and they should. They should add new missions and do a serious pass on the existing ones to shake things up. I'm hopeful they will.
In short, EVE has more right with it than it has wrong. People who quit, or don't sign up, do so for all sorts of reasons, and not all of those reasons, not even the majority, can be fixed without ruining what EVE is.
Heretic, the only reason why I don't play EVE is because the mechanics I like of it are not in pair with others.
DeleteWhat I like of EVE, rewards me only with ISK. And that is CCP's doing, not mine. EVE should have the nastiest NPC interaction in games, much as it haves the nastiest PvP combat.
You can come and hyperdunk my freighter or gank my Hulk.You can force me to play your way, but I can't force you to play mine... and that's CCP doing. Serously. Being -10.0 in hisec without a good "laywer" should be as dangerous as flying around a untanked exhumer.
You push me your way. I push you my way. That's sandbox. That's balanced PvP. That's a better EVE.