Skip to main content

Because, Because, Because, Because, Because!

Somewhere in my pondering stuff came the question of value of that stuff. The value that stuff has to me and that value that stuff has to others and what value should it have. That is the question of accessibility vs status.

I've never played World of Warcraft. I understand, in a vague way from hearing other's discuss it that the gear you wear in World of Warcraft is super important. I know that in Diablo you are supposed to care about some high end gear that I've never cared about. Getting this gear is something that is brag worthy. In Eve it often translates into someone buying plex and making an officer fit Drake because in other games high value equipment improves you more than anything else does.

Last year I worked to get escalations redone. This improved the number of escalations which caused an uptick in modules found by exploration. This brings more modules to the market and thus their price crashes. However, there are more of them so while the individual price goes down the number the player can gain offsets that price crash.

But, along with that came complaints that finding these modules no longer felt special. That getting these modules was not so exciting. That is true but at the same time the use of the modules increases as the cost comes down to what more players consider within their expense ranges.  They become more accessible and people are willing to take a more expensive step.

So, the accessibility is increase and the status is decreased because it is more common. Common things are not exciting things because everyone has that. But the accessibility seems to be worth it to me.

Some of that comes down to the why are we playing aspect. As players play their interests and tastes change. I often come back to the killboards because there is so much focus on them. The amount of destruction that one player visits on another is the way that many define their actions in the game. Status is created by that cost and as that cost decreases the value of that kill decreases.

Are we attacking players or attacking stuff? That may be the question to look at. Are we fighting for the fight or just trying to destroy someone elses things? For those engaged in actions with such questions, they know their own answers. But, I think these questions and topics get tied up in the greater aspect of the game.

What game are we playing? Eve is a transmutable creature. It is part of the appeal. But it cannot support each style to the exclusion of others. It is very easy to get trapped inside of our own game and wrap ourselves within self imposed rules. After all, Diablo is about getting epic gear and WoW about end game raiding? So Eve is about expensive pvp kills...?

Comments

  1. Eve hasn't figured out what it's about yet, if you ask me....

    ReplyDelete
  2. While I understand the frustration that can arise from sitting in a room full of posturing scorekeepers, in a game like Eve with its central harvest/manufacture/destroy circle I’m also aware that though I’m not highly motivated to partake in said posturing I remain supremely grateful some people are. Killboard/Faction Tier/Nullsec Sov scorekeeping demands considerable space murder and space murder is good for my manufacturing business. Posture on scorekeepers. I like you that way.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's not so much that they posture, it's that they keep trying to inflict their view of New Eden upon those of us that don't. Have you DireNecessity heard the good word of efficiency percentages and kill:death ratio's yet? No? Could I have a moment of your time perhaps, so I can save your immortal pod soul? They're like EVE's jehovah witnesses. ;-)

      Delete
    2. Well and amusingly put Kaeda. The question for me is how to navigate the evangelists’ incessant barking. Me? I jovially accept their complimentary copy of The Space Watchtower while quietly slipping them a combat product price list (order form attached) and proceed on my merry way wryly bemused. Eve is a big raucous space city. I enjoy the cacophony.

      Delete
    3. Completely unrelated, I just want to say thanks to you two. This is the first smile I've had in a craptastic day.

      Delete
  3. Manufacturers revel in death = more sales

    ReplyDelete
  4. "posturing scorekeepers" - DireNecessity

    Very befitting description of the majority of Eve. I've come to the conclusion that Eve is about blowing up someone else's stuff just because it's there. Period. Yeah, sure, some people manufacture, mine, mission, etc... But for the most part it's a - destroy it because we can - mentality.

    After awhile it gets boring. It becomes a rat race for the same old shit.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If EVE is boring, one of two things is happening - 1) you're playing it wrong (in that EVE is a game about constant goal re-invention) or 2) the game has lost its appeal.

      Delete
    2. Or 3) You've ran out of motivation/goals... because there are only so many things you can do in Eve and they eventually all feel the same.

      Solution to this is usually to find a new group of people to hang out with.

      Delete
  5. Eve is full of breakers.... here is a poem, I didn't write it but its sums up a the few good people in Eve and a majority of the people that make it not so great.

    I watched them tearing a building down,
    A gang of men in a busy town.
    With a ho, heave, ho and a lusty yell,
    They swung the beam and a side wall fell.
    I asked the foreman, "Are these men skilled?,
    The kind you'd hire if you were to build?"
    He gave a laugh and said, "No, indeed, common labor is all I need.
    I can easily wreck in a day or two,
    What builders have taken years to do."
    And so I asked as I went my way,
    Which of these roles have I tried to play?
    Am I a builder with a well-made plan, lifting others the best I can?
    Or am I a wrecker who walks the town,
    Content with the labor of tearing down?

    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