Diary of a Pod Pilot

Welcome to the twentieth installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed to crazykinux@gmail.com. Check out other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

With the recent completion of the 3rd installment of the Hulkageddon last month, @CyberinEVE, author of Hands Off, My Loots!, asks: “Griefing is a very big part of EVE. Ninja Salvaging, Suicide Ganking, Trolling, and Scamming are all a very large part of the game. What do you think about all these things? You can talk about one, or all…but just let us know your overall opinion on Griefing, and any recommendations you may have to change it if you think it’s needed.”

Wikipedia tells us this: “A griefer is a player in a multiplayer video game that purposely irritates and harasses other players.”.  However, within the EVE community, there are some that disagree that ninja salvaging, suicide ganking, trolling and scamming should be called griefing as CCP allows these things to happen and labels them valid tactics, not to mention there is a nice bit of ISK to be made. Let’s take a closer look at the arguments of both sides.

Ninja-salvaging: Unlike looting wrecks, salvaging them does not flag a player as salvage does not have an owner. This means that if you are running a mission or complex, and get probed out, another player can simply come in and go from wreck to wreck turning them into cans of loot. This can be annoying if the salvage consists of a high-price makeup such as armor plates. However there are also mission runners who prefer to simply run mission after mission and leave everything behind. So going by Wikipedia’s definition it depends on what the “victim” intended to do with those wrecks to begin with. It also depends on what the purpose of the “attacker” was. Did he know the “victim” would get upset? Or did he simply want to earn some easy ISK?

Suicide ganking: With the recent changes to the insurance system, this is becoming a more expensive way of causing tears to flow, meaning the attacker will more likely go for either targets that carry valuable goods, or have another good reason like carrying out a contract against a competitor for which he will get paid. Nobody likes their ship and contents getting blown up, even if they are rolling about in ISK and assets, but to be called griefing the attacker must have enjoyment of the act in mind as well as monetary gain and not consider it strictly business.

Trolling: Now this is something that will 99% of the time will fit Wikipedia’s description. 1% is reserved for the unintentional troll. The troll can have a variety of motivations, going from dislike for the person, not understanding what is written and react poorly to that fact, or just plain simple boredom. CCP does step in here when done on the forums, or when it escalates into pure harassment. However trolling can also be done in good spirits, my old friend Vaden Khale does like to do this to me at times, and I must say in every instance I had as good a laugh as he did.

Scamming: Contract scams and any others that give quick is in little time go right into the monetary gain category. Others, such as corp theft or alliance takeovers can be part of a strategy to eliminate competition, or are acts of revenge from disgruntled (ex-)members. The latter will of course be done to cause irritation, but again not exclusively.

Now let’s sum this up: The above mentioned examples can at times be motivated by what wikipedia calls griefing, but does not have to be so exclusively. It can also be an unintended side effect of a moneymaking, competition eliminating or war strategy. So in the end both sides make a valid point. However, one more thing should be taken into account: Griefing holds a very negative tone and has become slang for things done purely and exclusively to cause irritation and harass. Thus some will wish to only use it in that context, rather than its original definition.

And what do I make of it? I’m with CCP here. They are valid tactics. And they pay off. Just like piracy I could never see myself do any just to make some tears flow. I have better things to do, and making ISK is one of them. I also hold very few grudges, and those that I do this against tend to dig their own hole and fall into it sooner or later. So why bother?

Blame and / or thank Casiella for this quiz. I wouldn’t say EVE is the best MMO out there but it is so far one of the few that I’ve actually played longer than a month or two.

The earlier announced blog pack cleanup by CrazyKinux has hit the first stage by removing his own as well as two other “veteran” blogs from the pack, and filling the gap with a couple of others whom I’ve just given a spot on the sidebar. Looks like the second stage will be removing inactive blogs cluttering up the list. I hope my little EVE break won’t get me tossed out, after the weekend I’ll be starting a major catchup of what happened in character, and there’s a few ideas for other posts floating around as well. Would have started on that already since my last post, but vacation comes first.

Until then a little poll which I’ve also put on Twitter: “I find myself more often reading blog posts that contain an interesting / funny picture: true or false? Why?”. Leave a comment with your opinion and then go have a look at the pack newcomers.

Everyone has a breaking point, and I have hit mine. I’ve been in hiding for what now, two weeks? Something like that, at least. Operation Platinum Halo ended quite unexpected. I should write the report on that, but I simply lack the willpower to do so.

Gods and spirits, this is frustrating, I need to get myself together again. Before someone gets the bright idea of checking up on how I’m doing. I submitted a vague leave of absence some days after returning to Goinard, saying the loss of the VCS Acquisitio and getting a skill level yanked out of my head had me needing some time to recover. There’s some truth in that, surely, but that ain’t all of it.

Why did I have to go and fall for the most stubborn man in the whole of New Eden? I had no other choice than to come here. Yet the irony of it all, considering the role the Guristas played in his history and how this almost resembles what happened in the past …

Myrhial gives a pained sigh.

He probably doesn’t even realize how much I miss him, even now. In some way, I probably deserved this. Yet all I want is him back by my side. I promised Aria I’d take care of him. Breaking his hart and then crushing the pieces under my boots sure ain’t doing it right.

But I can’t just give up. I’ve learned so much here, but I am not quite done. Just a little longer. Then I can go back to PRETA. The revival of Naraka. A phoenix from its ashes. I have no doubts it will be a success.

Will he return to me then? I am not sure. I’d give so much for it to happen, but I realize I might have wasted all my chances. If only he could see things my way, I am sure he’d understand.

Myrhial takes a deep breath.

Enough ranting, nothing is getting done this way. I’ll rest a little longer and then get back into the action. Finish what I started, and then onwards to the future. I’d let so many more down if I didn’t. And that is not my intent.

As part of the periodic blog maintenance I’ve changed the Naraka blogs category to Veto blogs, as Naraka is still in stasis until I assume my position as CEO / Alliance executor again. I’ve also updated the blog roll again  and am still looking for a Wordpress plugin that can just import and update the whole list without further input from me. If anyone runs one, suggestions are most welcome. Lastly I’ve removed all blogs from all categories that ain’t the Blog Pack who haven’t been updated since the start of 2010, as well as those who’ve failed to respond to my request to update the blog url for this blog on their own. I did send a very nice evemail about it, but I’ve got only one response. Should you have forgotten or simply receive the news late, contact me through evemail and you’ll be put back on the list. New reader and blogging as well? Read this to get on the blogroll.