Shadow of Cerberus EVE Community Forum

Revisiting the conflict

First, a big thank you to everyone who sent me your sympathies and kind words about the loss of my dog Riley on Friday night.  I also appreciate those of you who sent me remembrances of your own pets and animal companions.  Lots of you realized that I need a couple of days away from all of this to remember my faithful and loving friend, and I appreciate that as well.

As I get back into the groove here, I'd like to share a response that I've made in my CSM candidacy thread on the EVE-O forums.  The response isn't political, per se, and instead covers a topic that I've gone over once on this blog already.  But it seems an important item to revisit because whether I'm elected to CSM8 or not it's going to be an important aspect of EVE's development in the next 18 months or so.

I'm getting raked over the coals pretty hard on that thread on one topic in particular, and that's nothing I didn't expect, of course.  That topic speaks to the nature of EVE Online itself, specifically should high-sec be "safe"?  I'll have more to say about this topic today, including my own opinion on the matter but before I talk about that I want to cover why I started talking about this topic in the first place.  The blog post that got me in hot water was an old favorite, the Comment of the Week I subtitled "Ganking isn't PvP and never was".

At the time I chose the topic for that post, I knew it was gonna be controversial, and unsurprisingly a lot of people seem to think the title of the piece and the COTW that prompted it are my opinion.  That part, I've already talked about here and I don't feel the need to do it again.

But the person that asked me this particular question took a slightly different tack and made an impassioned defense for EVE not to be fair, and for the right of long-time players to prey on short-time players if they so desired.  Here's what I had to say in response.  I repeat it here in full because it belongs here.  This is important stuff...

Remember when reading [the post I link above] that the opinions in it were expressed by the commenter, not myself. There is one and only one opinion of mine in that entire post. I do agree a lot of people have been confused by the distinction in a rush to judgement. And that's probably quibbling over semantics in any case.

One of the things I respect about New Order is that while they're not completely ideologically pure in this regard, the bulk of their pilots are not "level 90"s; they've made a deliberate choice to ply their trade with only a few million skill points. I respect that. I'm still not convinced it's anything like a majority stake in suicide ganking, but I can get behind what they do for that reason.

You on the other hand are making a strong argument for the right of "level 90"s to attack all the "level 1"s they want. After all, you paid your dues, got your level 90 and now it is your duty to inflict misery on the pathetic level 1s. I'm sure a lot of people feel that it is a valid argument.

I'm a level 90 myself. Someone just one page back is having some fun at my expense because I'm out there most every night doing what level 90s do, too. I'm just not doing it high-sec, that's all. The irony of that is completely lost on this person. I say it only to remind you. But let's get back to your statements and those two blog posts.

The one and only one opinion I expressed in the first post you listed is that I myself am conflicted about how far and to what extent this should be part of EVE. Because as long as it is part of EVE, then I believe EVE is doomed to a niche that it will never break out of. DUST 514 is very rapidly becoming the tail that wags EVE's dog and 25 years in business has taught me that successful businesses follow the money. If DUST 514 becomes a massive success and EVE continues to languish, then we're going to watch as more and more of EVE's best people leave to develop for DUST. Smart companies and smart people follow the money.

Put another way: it's called "World of Warcraft". Gee. That kind of implies there was a "Warcraft" once, doesn't it? Was that a game of some sort at some point? I wonder what ever happened to that?

So yeah, you bet I'm conflicted. I admit to that readily.

You didn't link the post that prompted the philosophical discussion, Conflict of self-interest

Read it and you will be reminded that I'm not the only one who's conflicted about this. CCP IS TOO. They were the ones that brought it up. I'm not alone in this boat.

In short, the topic of safety in high-sec is one that I would have brought up whether I ran for CSM or not.  It's an important topic and it's going to drive a lot of the dialogue about EVE development in the coming months.  I'm just taking more than the usual amount of flak for this one, which I find ironic... 'cause CCP ain't, as far as I can see.  I'm sort of taking the flak for them this time.

Guess I can handle it.  ;-)

Anyway, more to come on this topic today.  I just wanted to introduce the topic properly.
Source: Revisiting the conflict