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 Source: Andrew Ryan Game: Bioshock  Source: Emily Kaldwin Game: Dishonored  Source: Halo Advertisement Game: Halo series  Source: The Jackyl Game: Far Cry 2  Source: Lulu Game: Final Fantasy X  Source: Queen Myrrah Game: Gears of War 2  Source: John Marston Game: Red Dead Redemption  Source: Pandora Game: God of War 3  Source: The Hero's Shade Game: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess Hope some fellow Pimp Zoners have found these quotes as inspiring and helpful in their lives as I have.
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Mar 2, 2016 19:00
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 02:48 |
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 wisdom
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Mar 2, 2016 19:23
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 this one truly speaks to me personally
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Mar 2, 2016 19:24
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Mar 2, 2016 19:39
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Mar 2, 2016 19:40
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Batman: You want to know something funny? Even after everything you've done, I would have saved you. The Joker: [laughs, coughs] Actually that is pretty funny.
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Mar 2, 2016 19:46
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Gave me chills. This is going up on my bedroom wall.
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Mar 2, 2016 19:48
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Mar 2, 2016 19:50
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Mar 2, 2016 19:52
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Aaaah.... I thank you for the excitement....
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Mar 2, 2016 19:53
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You can choose a ready guide In some celestial voice If you choose not to decide You still have made a choice You can choose from phantom fears And kindness that can kill I will choose a path that's clear I will choose free will - Lucifer, Shin Megami Tensei 2
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Mar 2, 2016 19:54
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Mar 2, 2016 19:58
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Inspirational.
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Mar 2, 2016 20:01
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Max Payne: [running into Mona Sax, Max's gun pointed] Lisa Punchinello? Max Payne: [narrating] Lisa Punchinello was the Don's Wife Mona Sax: [also packing heat] Mona Sax. Lisa's evil twin.
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Mar 2, 2016 20:03
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In Training posted:Max Payne: [running into Mona Sax, Max's gun pointed] Lisa Punchinello?
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Mar 2, 2016 20:04
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In Training posted:Max Payne: [running into Mona Sax, Max's gun pointed] Lisa Punchinello? Haha
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Mar 2, 2016 20:06
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In Training posted:Max Payne: [running into Mona Sax, Max's gun pointed] Lisa Punchinello?
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Mar 2, 2016 20:10
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 What a poignant take on the frailty of all life.
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Mar 2, 2016 20:27
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In Training posted:Max Payne: [running into Mona Sax, Max's gun pointed] Lisa Punchinello? Powerful
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Mar 2, 2016 20:59
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I'll let this one speak for itself.
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Mar 2, 2016 21:01
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Mar 2, 2016 21:06
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Black Baby Goku posted:Batman: You want to know something funny? Even after everything you've done, I would have saved you.
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Mar 2, 2016 22:44
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Mar 2, 2016 22:49
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Mar 3, 2016 02:20
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In Training posted:Max Payne: [running into Mona Sax, Max's gun pointed] Lisa Punchinello? cant wait to replay max payne with kungfu mod
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Mar 3, 2016 02:39
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Mar 3, 2016 02:41
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Mar 3, 2016 02:57
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classic
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Mar 3, 2016 04:54
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Mar 3, 2016 07:28
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Retarded_Clown_ posted:
thank u lulu froom final fantasy x
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Mar 3, 2016 07:37
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 Source: Gordon Freeman Game: Half-Life
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Mar 3, 2016 11:32
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 Source: It's-a Meme Mario dot com Game: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
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Mar 3, 2016 11:33
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 Source: Pascal Game: Animal Crossing: New 
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Mar 3, 2016 11:36
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Mar 3, 2016 12:37
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I'M A TWENTY-FOUR-YEAR-OLD GAMER.
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Mar 3, 2016 12:46
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Mar 3, 2016 13:54
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Mar 3, 2016 14:18
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Mar 3, 2016 14:23
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In Training posted:Max Payne: [running into Mona Sax, Max's gun pointed] Lisa Punchinello? The truth was like a green crack through my brain. Regdates floating on the screen, glimpsed out of the corner of my eye. The repetitious act of posting, emptyquoting to show off sick burns. The paranoid feeling of someone reporting my every post. I was in a video game joke forum. Funny as Hell; it was the most horrible thing I could think of. (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Mar 3, 2016 14:58
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 02:48 |
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By the time you finish reading this Manifesto II, you will understand why the highsec miners--the ones who don't bot--are the biggest problem facing EVE today. You will learn about the damage they have already caused and gotten away with, you will learn how they almost shut down EVE, and you will learn what the miners are not-so-secretly doing right now to ruin your game--unless we stop them before it's too late. I'll explain what the carebears are trying to do to highsec. For those of you who live in nullsec and think these issues don't matter to you, read on, because I'll also explain how the highsec miners are destroying nullsec. Time is of the essence, so let's dive right in, shall we? Given forum readers' complaints about the length of my previous manifesto, I opted to keep it short and sweet this time. My motto is that you should never use 20,000 words when 15,000 will do. Nevertheless, as this post will be the longest in the history of the EVE forums, I decided to provide some headings and a table of contents to help keep things organized. 1. THE ACCUSATION 2. THE CAREBEARS KILLED NULLSEC PVP 3. THE CAREBEARS ALMOST SHUT DOWN EVE COMPLETELY 4. THE ENDLESS HISTORY OF NERF DEMANDS 5. THE END OF ALL DANGER IN HIGHSEC 6. THE CULTURE OF THE NEW CAREBEAR 7. LESSONS FROM AN ORCA HUNT 8. THE CONFLICT OF VISIONS 9. HOW WE CAN STOP THE CAREBEARS 10. A CALL TO ACTION THE ACCUSATION Several months ago, I wrote a brief manifesto outlining for the carebears why so many people wish them harm and launch suicide attacks against them. I described how highsec mining was rife with bots, and that even the human miners aspired to become as much like bots as possible. Miners weren't interested in playing EVE; they just wanted to make a bunch of isk while AFK. At the same time, they were sheltering the botters and legitimizing bot behavior. When I wrote the original manifesto, I believed that the bots were the most disgraceful thing in EVE, and that the human miners merely harbored them. But I have come to understand that I was wrong. In fact, it is the bots who are being used to deflect attention away from the real threat to EVE, a threat posed by the human miners in highsec. The bots, while doubtless a hideous feature in EVE, are being dealt with by CCP. Everyone hates the bots, and they get periodically permabanned en masse. Meanwhile, they silently go about their work and do little to disturb the fabric of EVE society as a whole, piling up their ore and ice until they get banned. By contrast, the human miners are anything but mute. They are constantly in communication with CCP, begging the Devs to nerf PvP in highsec. They are not content to play the game on Easy Mode. They want to eliminate all forms of violence whatsoever from highsec. What makes the miners so dangerous is that while the bots are being actively hunted and terminated by CCP, these whiny carebears wield tremendous power over the future of EVE's game mechanics. Here's the other part of the problem: When I say that the carebears want to remove PvP from highsec, most people read that and think I really mean "the carebears want to limit the PvP in highsec." Most EVE players assume that the carebears simply want to nerf it a little, to make it more difficult to gank them. Real EVE players know that PvP is the very essence of EVE, and that there is no such thing as safe space in the game. They know that a total removal of non-consensual PvP from any area of the game would be anathema, going against the fundamental principles upon which EVE operates and attracts its players. So when I criticize the carebears for attempting to get rid of PvP, these good-natured readers think it's hyperbole, and that the carebears are only trying to rebalance the playing field a little more in their favor. But no. That's not what I'm saying. Not even close. Let me be clear. I am accusing the carebears of attempting to completely eliminate all PvP from highsec. I am saying that what the carebears actually intend to do is make their mining ships completely invincible in highsec. At the same time, they are also lobbying CCP to drain resources from nullsec and redistribute it to highsec, where it will be completely safe. If successful, the carebears would convert EVE from a game of risk and consequential PvP--the only one like it--into a game of carebears PvE'ing their way to wealth, all while AFK. In doing so, they would also be killing EVE, for it would not long survive in such a state. I realize these are serious charges. I am essentially accusing the carebears of an attempt to kill EVE. There can be only one penalty for such a crime: The death of highsec mining, with the execution to be carried out by the EVE populace at large. Serious charges require serious evidence, I know. That is why I am writing this Manifesto II. I am going to prove that the carebears are guilty. And once the EVE playerbase is convinced of the miners' guilt--convinced that the miners are actively working to destroy everything the EVE players have built--there will be war. THE CAREBEARS KILLED NULLSEC PVP If the carebear dream of a safe highsec is allowed to take hold, the result will be catastrophic. Carebears ask all the time why people hate them so much. There are many reasons why people feel cause to hate them, but I would add one more to the list: Self-preservation. EVE will not survive in its current form--or any form--should the carebears be allowed to continue. The carebears always defend their point of view by saying EVE is a sandbox. According to them, it's not a PvP game, but rather, a game in which people can do whatever they want, including mine in peace. At the very same time, these carebears are asking CCP to ban the way you choose to play the game. Ironic, no? I suppose "hypocrisy" would be a better word. But the carebear ideology and the culture of EVE cannot coexist. There is no "sandbox" when one group is trying to ban the activities of the other group. You might say the carebears are like a kid in the sandbox whose chosen activity is pouring all of the sand out of the box. He claims it's a matter of freedom, but at the end of the day you're left with an empty box, and everyone leaves. That's precisely where we're headed. Some of you may think that I'm being too pessimistic. I know the idea: People always say EVE is going to die, but it never has, and anyone who predicts catastrophe is just another Chicken Little shouting "The sky is falling!" Others agree that there is danger highsec PvP could be banned, but nullsec will be fine. I'd like to address both of these criticisms, and I'll do it with evidence. Not only are the carebears capable of doing damage to our game, they've already done it--and escaped the blame. The carebears have already, to a large extent, wiped out PvP from nullsec. At first blush, that sounds like an outrageous claim. But hear me out, particularly if you've only been playing EVE for the last couple of years. You see, years ago, before many of you came to EVE, PvP thrived in nullsec. PvP took a different form back then; it wasn't the big fleet structure-shooting you're accustomed to seeing today. Once upon a time, people mined in nullsec belts. Nullsec alliances would organize mining ops, complete with scouts and defense ships to protect the hordes of miners and haulers. Enemy alliances and nullsec pirates would attempt to disrupt these operations with all manner of ingenious tactics. Sometimes smaller groups of miners would attempt to "ninja mine" in hostile or unclaimed territory; sometimes solo guerilla fighters would raid a target of opportunity. The PvP involved had a tendency to start small, with perhaps as few as one or two miners under attack. Reinforcements would be called in. The pirates might flee in the face of resistance, or they might be baiting a trap, inviting more targets. If the attackers had reinforcements of their own, a defending alliance would sound the trumpets and put together a defense fleet to chase them off. In short, there were many different kinds of PvP back then: Solo PvP, small-gang PvP, medium-gang PvP, and proper fleet ops. All of this existed because of the nullsec miners. They formed the base of the food chain. Because they had to expose themselves to risk to get the reward (valuable ore), the miners created targets for PvP'ers to hunt--and these hunters became the hunted in turn. Don't get me wrong. I know PvP still exists in nullsec. But all too often, the only possibilities for fights in nullsec come in the form of massive, well-organized, drawn-out fleet engagements. These fleet battles can only be prompted through a series of even more drawn-out structure shoots, the kind that make participants feel more like miners than PvP'ers. And if the enemy are in too weak a position to fight off the enemy blob with their own blob, or if they lack the guts, then no action occurs. Hours wasted for hundreds of participants. At this point I want to mention the Red vs. Blue organization that exists in highsec for people who want casual PvP. I respect the fact that they want PvP, and I respect their willingness to create something for themselves. That's EVE. But make no mistake about it--Red vs. Blue is also a symptom of a major problem in EVE. Red vs. Blue exists because casual, smaller-scale PvP is so scarce that people have to fabricate voluntary scenarios for it. I'm writing this because I want everyone to know that things weren't always this way. All kinds of PvP existed once, and most of it is completely gone. Many old-timers know that PvP as it once was is dead, but what they don't realize is why. Who killed nullsec PvP? The highsec miners. Allow me to elaborate. The reason PvP largely went extinct in nullsec is that the nullsec miner went extinct. The nullsec miner went extinct because it no longer made economic sense to mine there. It's just a standard risk vs. reward calculation. Nullsec ore is more valuable than highsec ore, but not by a big enough margin. When you consider the added risk of nullsec, not to mention the logistical needs, there's no reason why a miner shouldn't just sit in the safety of highsec and mine his heart out. So that's exactly what the carebears do. Why do I blame the carebears for obeying economic reality? Because they created it for themselves. The carebears are at the root of an even greater problem plaguing EVE at the moment. You want to know why the risk/reward calculus is so out of whack? The carebears demand it. For years, they have continually lobbied CCP to transfer wealth from nullsec to highsec. If it weren't for the influence of the carebears, nullsec ore would be a hundred times more valuable than highsec ore. But if CCP tries to fix that, the carebears are in an uproar. They insist they would rather quit the game than play a properly-balanced version of it. Fearing the loss of subscriptions, CCP bends to their will. This has been going on for a very long time. As one ganker put it, the reason why he attacks the highsec miners is that highsec is where the real wealth in EVE is. Right or wrong, it's certainly where the miners are. By all accounts, those highsec miners should be out in nullsec, where they can be attacked and defended by PvP'ers. Because they're hiding away in highsec, it was only a matter of time before people started taking a greater interest in killing highsec miners. In other words, miner, if you won't come to nullsec, nullsec will come to you. In an attempt to correct this problem and resuscitate nullsec mining, The Mittani lobbied for the removal of alloy drops from the drone regions, thereby buffing nullsec ore. But will the highsec miners--the ones who spend all day begging for buffs to exhumers--relocate to nullsec as they should, or will they initiate a new series of demands for valuable ore to be placed in highsec? I guess we'll find out. Before today, you may have been a nullsec player who ignored what was going on in highsec. Believe me, I get it. When I lived in nullsec, nothing made me lose interest faster than people talking about highsec. To my eyes, the carebears were basically scenery for the belts, like NPCs: If you were curious, you could stop by and have at look at them, but otherwise they may as well not exist. As it's become increasingly clear, however, everything in EVE is connected. What happens in highsec influences nullsec. This is an ongoing process, and there are no signs that it will end. As the carebears continue to suck wealth into highsec, and as they continue to fortify highsec with nerfs to non-consensual PvP, it's no mystery where things are headed. Unless something is done to reverse the trend, EVE will, in fact, become a PvE game. We know this is true because to a large extent, it already happened. Miners migrated from nullsec to highsec, and the PvP that once existed there disappeared. If it's already been happening, what's to stop it from continuing? It's an inconvenient truth, but as the carebear population continues to grow, the transition from PvP to PvE becomes all the more likely, since greater numbers exert greater influence. As bleak a picture as I've just presented, it gets a whole lot worse. Let's consider what happens if and when the carebears get what they want. THE CAREBEARS ALMOST SHUT DOWN EVE COMPLETELY We know the carebears want to fundamentally transform EVE from a PvP game into a PvE game. Each day, they lobby CCP to transfer all of the galaxy's wealth into highsec, and they beg CCP to remove all PvP from highsec. Supposing the carebears succeed, what happens next? EVE just becomes a really boring game, right? I don't think so. In my opinion, EVE wouldn't survive the transition. Most likely, CCP would drop support for the game (i.e. the servers get shut down and never go back up), or CCP would go out of business entirely with the same result. Why do I say this? Again, anyone can speculate about what the future holds. I'm merely going on the evidence. As with other topics I've discussed in this Manifesto II, we do have some historical background to shed light. There was a time in the not-so-distant past when the carebears did get almost everything they wanted. It was a time when CCP all but abandoned PvP and devoted every bit of their energy to pleasing the carebears. I am speaking, of course, about the infamous Incarna expansion, and the lead-up to it. At a certain point, CCP became obsessed with the idea that because most of EVE's population resided in highsec, their resources were best spent developing highsec and giving carebears what they wanted. The nullsec population, though noisy, was small enough to ignore. It was the darkest time in EVE's history. So few server resources were devoted to maintaining nullsec systems that even a handful of ships fighting in a nullsec system would crash the node. Nullsec was paralyzed so the AFK carebears and bots in highsec could have a smoother game. Meanwhile, CCP radically restructured its staff to eliminate almost all further development of EVE. As they confirmed in a press release, only a few employees still worked on the "flying in spaceships" aspect of EVE (i.e. EVE), and pretty much everybody else was tasked with "walking in stations" (i.e. Incarna, or "not EVE"). Oh yeah, and they were going to sell monocles. It was the triumph of the carebear. By catering solely to the highsec crowd, CCP thought their subscriptions and profits would skyrocket. EVE would become the next WoW, a cash cow beyond their wildest dreams. By transitioning EVE away from that whole PvP thing, they would finally find a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Things didn't quite go according to plan. EVE took a nosedive. By undercutting the essential purpose of EVE, CCP had set themselves up for a disaster of epic proportions. EVE lost subscriptions by the tens of thousands, and CCP started heading down the road toward bankruptcy. The very existence of EVE was at stake, and if things didn't change soon, the game would enter an eternal downtime. It wasn't the first time EVE had been in crisis. Years earlier, EVE was thrown into chaos by revelations that CCP employees were cheating on behalf of the Band of Brothers alliance. As BoB was in the process of taking over all nullsec and imposing its elitist, stultifying vision on the rest of the galaxy, it was a pretty big deal. But BoB didn't count on the Goons. The Goons led a coalition to victory against BoB, and EVE was saved. Now, with Incarna bringing EVE to the verge of total collapse, the Goons were called upon once more to save the game from being desecrated by a misguided segment of the community. The Mittani and the Goons rallied the EVE playerbase and forced CCP to see the light. At first, CCP was reluctant to come to terms with how badly they had misjudged the nature of EVE. But eventually, faced with a downward spiral in subscriptions and profits, they had no other choice. To continue to follow the path of the carebear was financial suicide. CCP wisely took The Mittani's counsel and, with his help, gently backed away from the precipice. CCP reversed course, admitted its mistakes, and asked for the EVE community's forgiveness. Doomsday was averted. If CCP had not changed course, it would have been only a matter of time before the servers went dark. If the carebears had gotten what they wanted, everything ever built in EVE would have been wiped from existence forever. Let me be clear. When EVE goes offline, that's the end of it. No more ships, no more stations, no more wealth, no more alliances, no more anything. And carebears, that means nobody left to RMT your ill-gotten isk. We know what a future of carebearism and PvE holds for us. With Incarna, EVE gazed into the abyss. Let us never return to that. The Mittani and the Goons saved EVE, but only for a time. The carebears who pushed for Incarna are still among us, and they are still demanding an end to PvP. Unlike BoB, the cancer of carebearism was not removed; it only went into remission. The threat remains. THE ENDLESS HISTORY OF NERF DEMANDS Do the carebears really wield enough influence to succeed in their quest to remove PvP from EVE? The past, they say, is prologue. For many years now, the carebears have demanded that CCP nerf all forms of PvP in highsec, whether it be suicide ganking, wardecs, corp infiltration, can-flipping, or anything else that could pose a threat to the miners. Their whining would be nothing more than an annoyance, were it not for the fact that CCP has often granted their wishes. Before I continue, I would like to present a short list of just some of the nerfs with which CCP has indulged the carebears over the last few years. This list is not meant to be all-inclusive by any means; it's only the nerfs I can recall off the top of my head, without doing any research. Before the carebears start whining about the next nerf they want, I'd like them to review the list of what they've already been given and answer, "Why weren't these nerfs enough?"
My point is not simply that there have been a lot of nerfs to highsec PvP. It's that even after all this, the next item on the agenda is yet another round of nerfs. It's the "one more nerf" syndrome. I was there for the wardec nerf on the Privateers. Every carebear was trumpeting this as their salvation. It was the last word on wardecs, they said. But what happened? Over the years, more nerfs to wardecs. Coming down the pike for the next big expansion? They're currently working on another set of major nerfs to wardecs--with the aid and advice of the very same carebears who do nothing but evade wardecs. Pirates have been stealing from cargo containers forever, and you would think there's no way to break any new ground on the topic. But somehow a new nerf to can-flipping made it to the top of the list of "features" being planned for the next expansion. How? Who asked for that? And the insurance nerf, of course. Just a few months ago, the miners were telling everyone who would listen that it was the end of suicide ganking. I heard it directly from miners in local who gloated about the new present they were being given. I mocked the miners' arrogance in the first manifesto for that very reason. They predicted total safety for carebears, and I predicted more ganking. I was right. But what happened next? Because gankings still occurred, carebears begged CCP for "one more nerf," to eliminate boomerang gankers. Were the highsec miners satisfied with the elimination of boomerang gankers? No. Within days after boomeranging was declared an exploit, the carebears were back at it, begging for hitpoint buffs to their exhumers. Is it over? Not by a long shot. The carebears got their "one more nerf" many times over, but you can bet another series of nerfs to suicide gankings is in the works, even as we speak. Judging by this pattern, what can we predict for the future? My guess is, the nerfs will continue to pile up...until the carebears get what they really want. THE END OF ALL DANGER IN HIGHSEC Let's stop for a moment and think this over logically. At what point has highsec PvP been nerfed enough? The carebears claim they're only asking for things to be properly "balanced," but how do we know things aren't already balanced? Maybe the way to balance things is to give a buff to suicide ganking. To put it another way, how is CCP supposed to determine that it's time to tell the carebears "Sorry pal, I think you've had enough"? We know it's not based on frequency, because the carebears have been granted dozens of nerfs. And we know it's not based on some kind of back-and-forth, because the PvP'ers never get buffs to balance out the nerfs (more on that later). We know it's not even based on precedent, as CCP has been willing to overturn rules that have been established for years. It seems to me that there is only one remaining principle, or comparison point, that guides the decision-making process: Keep nerfing until it's no longer possible to kill a miner in highsec. Because until then, the carebears will keep demanding nerfs, and judging by the only evidence we have--history--CCP will continue to grant them. Now, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe CCP does have some kind of defined limit in mind at which they no longer give in to the nerf demands. If so, they've done a good job concealing it. But let's suppose CCP intends to keep giving the carebears everything they ask. Let's imagine CCP actually wants to remove violence from highsec, and has a plan to transition EVE from a PvP game to a PvE game. What would that look like? It will happen this way: First, CCP becomes fixated on the idea that if they can make highsec totally safe, they'll pull in tons of new players and make lots of money with a more mainstream, WoW-like game. But having seen the backlash from earlier attempts to carebearize the game, they decide that the transition needs to be handled gradually. They'll need to do a little "crowd control" to avoid unduly ruffling the feathers of the playerbase. To implement the new nerfs in a manner that doesn't enrage the remaining PvP'ers, CCP begins introducing changes to the game in pairs. Each nerf to highsec PvP comes along with a buff, to balance things out and placate the PvP'ers. Or so it appears. In reality, the supposed buff to PvP isn't enough to cancel out the effect of the nerf, thus constituting a "net" nerf. Later, as the PvP'ers come up with ways of using the change to their advantage, CCP pulls the rug out from under them by classifying such methods "unintended exploits." The buff is rendered useless, while the nerf remains effective. (If the carebears manage to find ways of using the nerf to an even greater advantage to themselves, CCP allows it, rather than calling that an exploit.) So that's the way it would happen, in a hypothetical, worst-case scenario where CCP consciously attempts to change highsec into a 100% safe zone. Come to think of it...some of what I just described sounds a little familiar, doesn't it? Let's consider the big insurance nerf from the most recent expansion. On the one hand, the carebears told us that it was all the nerf they needed to put those villainous suicide gankers out of business--until a couple months later when those same carebears told us they were in desperate need of new nerfs to suicide ganking. On the other hand, the insurance nerf did come along with a supposed buff to suicide ganking, in the form of improved hybrids, destroyers, and, most of all, tier-3 battlecruisers that almost seemed tailor-made for ganking. The inclusion of the latter items helped keep the lid on the ganking community. Was it really a balance? No. Despite being cheaper to purchase, the new battlecruisers, for example, were more expensive to replace without insurance than battleships had been with insurance. But gankers, unlike carebears, have a tendency to adapt and innovate. They changed their tactics, relying more on cheaper hulls and expensive fittings, as the fittings have a 50% chance of being dropped and recovered. Meanwhile, gankers were hard at work, experimenting with ways of making the new ships more effective than the old ones. This led to the creation of the "boomerang" tactic, wherein a ganker strikes and warps away just before CONCORD arrives, then warps back for one more strike (or in the case of multiple targets in separate locations, multiple strikes). I want to be clear about something: It had never been an exploit to warp away before CONCORD arrived, as long as the ganker's ship was eventually killed by CONCORD. Long ago, when CONCORD was first introduced, some individuals had created ways of completely avoiding death by having their ships in warp during the entire 15-minute aggression timer. That was immediately classified as an exploit by CCP. But the act of warping away was always permitted--as long as CONCORD got its man. But many years later, that rule became inconvenient for the carebears, so naturally it had to change. Actually, the idea of warping away after a suicide gank had been around for a long time. Occasionally a ganker might warp out to a safe spot to be killed, in the hopes of keeping his wreck from being looted by nearby miners. However, the tactic became far more valuable with the introduction of the smaller ganking ships, as their agility enabled them to align for warp more quickly. Still, these enterprising gankers had to refine the technique, discover which rigs/modules were best for the tactic--and they had to execute the technique with perfect timing to pull it off. It was a classic case of skilled, creative players in the EVE sandbox doing what they do best. They had been handed a lemon with the insurance nerf, but they were determined to make the best of things. They adapted and overcame. It's the way EVE is supposed to work. The carebears, too, could have innovated. It would have been a simple matter to equip mining ships with a warp disruptor to prevent the boomerang warp-outs. Perhaps the gankers would have figured out some way to adapt again, but I suppose we'll never know, because that's not what the carebears did. Instead, the carebears figured out something new was happening, so they shrieked at CCP to save them. Because that's what carebears do. At that point, CCP had a choice. They could have declined to implement another nerf. They could have advised the carebears to find some way of dealing with their new problem. They could have reminded the carebears that only a couple months earlier they had given them a big Christmas present with the insurance nerf. CCP could and should have done any of those things. Instead, CCP decided to overturn a longstanding rule--almost as old as CONCORD itself--and announced that warping away before CONCORD arrives is an exploit no matter what. I don't want to get too focused on this particular nerf, but there are a few things about the way CCP handled this situation that bear mentioning, because they are so revealing of the thought process at work. First is the speed with which CCP took action. Once they learned what was happening, CCP was practically tripping over itself to put a stop to the boomerang. Not only did they immediately declare it an exploit, they had a brand-new "fix" for it in a patch within a couple days. The anti-boomerang patch has to be in some kind of record book for CCP's fastest response time ever. By way of comparison, it took them most of a decade to add implants to pod killmails, and that's something a lot of people had been asking about for a very, very long time. The final thing I want to point out about the way the boomerang situation was handled is this: CCP called the tactic an outright exploit. They didn't admit that they were changing the rules or implementing a new nerf. Instead, they behaved as though warping out before CONCORD's arrival had always been against the rules. In doing so, they cast the people who developed and used the tactic in a negative light--one normally reserved for cheaters (e.g., Band of Brothers). Suicide gankers oppose the carebears, but they love EVE. CCP was wrong to treat them this way. Why did the situation unfold in this manner? Classifying the boomerang tactic as an exploit enabled them to implement a new nerf without needing to pair it with a new buff. Clearly, the expansion with the insurance nerf and new ships was intended to have the net effect of limiting suicide ganking. When the opposite occurred, it rankled the powers that be. That's why CCP was so quick to put an end to the boomerang tactic. While it's possible that some in CCP could have been under the mistaken impression that boomeranging was against preexisting rules, it's unlikely: The speed with which they acted and designed the "fix" would have involved enough personnel to ensure somebody involved understood the situation. More probably, CCP was frustrated by the fact that their nerfs did not have the desired effect, and were determined to clean up the mess. The trouble here is that too often, CCP acts as though highsec violence is a problem that they need to solve. PvP is not a problem with the game, it is the game. If you are still unconvinced of the bias against PvP, consider the following thought experiment: Do you think CCP will ever buff suicide ganking? And I don't mean one of those "buffs" that gets balanced with a nerf, or gets declared an exploit later. I'm talking about an honest-to-goodness, no-nonsense buff. For instance, an expansion in which CONCORD's response time gets slowed down, or the ganker's security status loss is reduced, all without any nerf counterweight. Do you think it will happen? If not, why not? If ganking has been nerfed a dozen times, why isn't it due for a buff--just like anything else that has been nerfed so many times? (That's a hypothetical, since nothing else has been nerfed nearly as often.) As I was saying earlier, if CCP is planning to gradually phase out all violence from highsec, they'll do it in a way that pairs genuine nerfs with faux buffs. That brings us to the impending wardec changes. Coming soon is the first big overhaul to the wardec system since five years ago, when CCP publicly announced they were going to a stop to the Privateers wardec'ing spree. As a side note, they did succeed in putting an end to the Privateers' reign of terror. Some of you reading this may believe that because your highsec piracy survived previous nerfs, it will always survive. You may assume that because you have adapted to previous changes, CCP will never go far enough to eliminate your choice of gameplay. Tell that to the Privateers. At their height, they inflicted more damage than any alliance in EVE, out-killing bigger alliances by an order of magnitude. Then the nerf came, and they were cast into the shadow of permanent irrelevance. If CCP wants to stop you, they can. So do they want to stop you? The coming changes to wardecs may provide a clue. Aside from adding a few additional nerfs, they've pretty much kept the same rules over the last five years. Why the change? Is it because they want more PvP in highsec, or less? We'll know when we get the final word on the changes, the details of which are currently a bit hazy. But they have suggested that some changes will help the targets of wardecs, while others will close the loopholes currently being abused by those targets. Another side note: If the carebears are "abusing loopholes," then why isn't CCP rushing to declare said loopholes an exploit, the same way they did with the boomerang tactic? Just a thought. At any rate, the changes to wardecs will be an excellent opportunity to see whether CCP is indeed employing the technique described earlier for introducing new nerfs. If so, the nerfs to wardecs will be punitive. For instance, they may raise the cost of wardecs far beyond what it had been before. Since there are already draconian limits in place, this would be a clear sign that CCP wants to phase out highsec violence entirely. Meanwhile, will the supposed buffs to wardecs be effective? Or will it still be possible for carebears to easily evade wardecs, using methods like dropping corp or dissolving and re-forming corps? Time will tell. CCP has also announced there will be some brand new nerfs for people who steal from cans, including a global criminal flag. In the past, if you stole from another corp's can, they could attack you. CCP wants to change it so that third parties (i.e. everyone else) can attack a can-stealer. An interesting idea. At Fanfest, they also suggested that after a third party attacks you, it will get you CONCORDed if you shoot back. The audience was appalled, and CCP quickly backpedaled. They seemed surprised that nobody liked the idea of being unable to defend themselves. The mystery for the EVE players is, where did that idea even come from? With all of the problems faced by EVE today, who are the people who think that the big issue that needs to be solved is, "too much pew-pew in highsec"? EVE takes place in a fictional galaxy. There's no limit to the possibilities that can be explored in such a setting. The imagination is free to take flight. Yet, when it comes time to add new features in new expansions, the first idea on the table to be discussed is, "Let's punish people for shooting at each other in highsec." It's a little odd, wouldn't you say? Who's behind this? The answer is clear. It's the highsec miners who are to blame. Most of us ignore the carebears, and we really couldn't care less about them. For those of us who spent most of our EVE careers in nullsec, we don't give them any thought. As it turns out, the carebears are quite important, because CCP gives them what they ask. So we had better find out what's been going on with these carebears. It's time to learn what the highsec miners are really all about. THE CULTURE OF THE NEW CAREBEAR As EVE players, there are certain basic truths by which we live and die. Among these are that you don't fly what you can't afford to lose, that there is no safe space in the EVE galaxy, that everything in EVE is PvP, and so on. We hold these truths to be self-evident, but we also take them for granted. We assume that everyone else who plays EVE agrees with and accepts them. No matter how many ways you can play this game, no matter what country another group of players is from, no matter how different the alliance on the other end of the map may be, no matter how much you may hate the alliance on the other side of the border...everyone agrees with these core values. It's the shared culture of EVE. It's not surprising that in the face of EVE's incredible diversity, there would still be some shared values. After all, we were all drawn into EVE for similar reasons. You might have discovered EVE after reading the article about the Guiding Hand Social Club's infamous corp infiltration. Or maybe you learned about EVE from one of the articles about the great scams and banking schemes, like the Eve Intergalactic Bank. Perhaps it was a tale from the vast front-lines of the Great War, or The Mittani's spies, or the BoB cheating scandal, or the death of a titan, or some other story about cunning and treachery. Odds are good that you didn't come to EVE because you heard about how great the PvE is. Imagine the kind of stories people would read about EVE if the carebears got their wish. "In EVE Online, some people mined. They arranged their mining lasers, and then they did something else for several minutes. Sign up for your free 14 day trial now!" Years ago, even the carebears who wiled away their days in the belts understood that EVE is, and should be, a cutthroat game. Today, that's no longer the case. Over the last few years, a new presence has crept into the EVE community. Their ideology is so utterly foreign to our own that it defies belief. It wasn't until these last few months that I was willing to accept the truth of their existence. The "new" carebears don't want even the remove possibility of PvP to exist in highsec. They want to ban suicide ganking, can-flipping, corp infiltration, wardecs, all of it. I know this because they told me. In fact, they've become rather open about it, if you ask them. In years past, the carebears at least claimed to believe there should be some violence in highsec, though they wanted to limit it. Now they're calling for an outright ban to anything that disturbs their AFK little mining ships. If you don't believe me--and until recently I wouldn't have believed it myself--then simply go to a chatty highsec mining system and ask them yourself. Miners told me the insurance nerf would end the suicide gankings, and they were terribly wrong, but they're still just as confident that things will change in their favor. Now the conventional wisdom among these carebears is that the Sony tie-in with Dust 514 will result in Sony pressuring CCP to end non-consensual PvP. It's also popular in these circles to claim that after the unpleasantness with The Mittani at Fanfest, CCP will finally classify non-consensual PvP as "cyber-bullying." You may think I'm joking or exaggerating. I wish I were, but I'm not. Just last week, after killing some highsec miners and informing them of my protection fee, I got petitioned. The miner told me that the GM explained to him that ransoms and protection schemes are not against the EULA. That's right, ladies and gentlemen. There are highsec miners out there right now who need to be told piracy is allowed in EVE. When you shoot them, they petition to ban you for griefing. That's the new carebear. I'm sorry to say that they do exist. ...And they're everywhere. Like it or not, these are the kind of people with whom CCP interacts on a daily basis. Who do you think is sending in all the petitions the GMs have to read? It's not the nullsec alliances who lose their fleet or territory in a war, it's the carebear who doesn't understand why his ship is allowed to go boom. This necessarily warps the perspective of the people who run the game. That's why they think what the players really want from the next expansion is another round of nerfs to PvP. To be sure, there are still some carebears who claim e-honour and dress up their whining with a facade of EVE-ness. They make their arguments for why the hulk and mackinaw ships need to be buffed. At the end of the day, it all boils down to, "Another ship shouldn't be able to blow up my ship. Even if I'm alone, defenseless, un-tanked, and AFK." That kind of carebear has been around for a long time, but the new carebears don't even bother with the pretense. They call for an outright ban of hostile activity. And there are thousands of them lobbying CCP each and every day. LESSONS FROM AN ORCA HUNT In writing this Manifesto II, it is not my purpose to brag about all the ways I have punished the highsec miners for their crimes. At least, it's not my central purpose. Not my only central purpose, that is. At any rate, I have lately taken an interest in the Orca-class capital industrial ship. The Orca is frequently used by highsec miners both for ice mining and mining ore. The ship itself does not mine, but provides bonuses and a large cargo space for the exhumers in its fleet. Typically, a highsec mining operation will have an Orca along with a few mackinaws or hulks nearby. This configuration is considered much more efficient than using an anchored container and haulers. The Orca is largely considered to be invincible in highsec. With the standard tanking modules used by Orca pilots and accounting for resistances, they often have around 100,000 hitpoints. In addition, they possess some special features that make them an even less-enticing target for suicide gankers: Orcas have a corporate hangar array and a ship hangar whose contents cannot be scanned, dropped, or appear on killmails. For this reason, Orcas are also commonly used as freighters. It shouldn't be surprising to learn that many carebears do not believe it's even possible for an Orca to be killed in highsec. During the entirety of the Goons' Gallente Ice Interdiction campaign, thousands of exhumers died, but only 22 Orcas were reported killed. Orca gankings were highly organized and involved more than a dozen gankers striking simultaneously. Since the combined effort of the same number of gankers can inflict more damage by taking down multiple exhumers, the Orcas are almost always left alone. For the foregoing reasons, I recently became fascinated with the idea of solo-killing an Orca in highsec. As one cannot expect to solo-kill an Orca through can-flipping or suicide ganking, the use of wardecs was an obvious choice. And since CCP is planning to nerf wardecs, I felt it would be fitting to commemorate the wardec system by letting it go out with a bang. I'm sentimental that way. I flew around the belts (particularly ice fields) in highsec and started watchlisting all of the Orcas I saw who were members of corps, planning to wardec them all. I realized most of these pilots and corps would take measures to evade the wardec or simply wait out the week of war. But I was also confident that some percentage would simply ignore a wardec if it were made by a one-man alt corp. The highsec miners were thus presented with a choice: Either they could all stop mining, or they could show their true colors by joining an NPC corp or abusing the corp-dissolving non-exploit, or they could expose their ships to some risk by continuing to mine during the wardec. It was a win-win-win, as far as I was concerned. Carebears will point to this as evidence that the wardec system is unfairly stacked against them. Preposterous. The only reason that their options were such as I described them is that they refused to defend their mining ops with PvP ships. An all-mining corporation simply should not exist. A corp with no ability to defend itself only belongs in a PvE game, not EVE. These "corp" miners are among my least favorite in EVE. They are the bourgeoisie of highsec. They are little more than the bots they strive to distinguish themselves from, but they play at being "legitimate" EVE players by creating corps. Simply by declaring war, I was able to induce many of these players to drop the pretense and join an NPC corp for the duration of their EVE career. I consider this to be worth the effort, as CCP takes miners less seriously if they belong to NPC corps. It also prevents the NPC corp miner from gaining further political influence, since they are alienated them from the alliances they might otherwise join. Over the past few weeks, I have declared war on more than 70 different corporations. This is a large enough sample size to draw some basic conclusions about the response of highsec miners to a wardec. As expected, virtually every single corp refused to defend itself. More than 90% of the corps did something other than adding defense ships to their mining ops, thereby flunking the "Are you really an EVE player?" test. The vast majority of the miners either dropped into an NPC corp, dissolved and immediately reformed their corporations (corps as big as 12 members used this not-an-exploit-anymore device), or remained in corp but ceased mining during the war. The split was roughly even, though remaining offline/docked was probably a bit more popular than the other two options. Then there were those who simply ignored the wardec from the 1-man corp and went on mining. Those were the fun ones. Evading wardecs has become part of the popular culture among highsec miners today. Years ago, it was considered a humiliation, something even most carebears were too proud to do. Sure, they might stay docked up for a week, but abandoning their corp was considered undignified. Dissolving and re-forming the same corp would get you banned. Things are different now. In this Manifesto II, I have been attempting to raise awareness of how "new" carebears view things in a manner unfamiliar to most of us in EVE. As I went about highsec wardec'ing the carebears, I was surprised by how often the "description" label of the corp, or even the bio of the pilots themselves, would proclaim their willingness to evade wardecs. One miner corp's description even said that the corp was "founded on the principle" that highsec should not have PvP, and warned would-be wardec'ers that the corp would dissolve. Some might suppose that they were all bluffing in order to discourage wardecs. In my experience, they were simply being honest. Finally, some miners couldn't be bothered to alter their routines, and they went out into the belts to mine as usual. I don't know what they were thinking. Maybe they were so used to years of peaceful mining in highsec that they didn't believe they could be attacked. If so, they were mistaken. After scouting a miner corp with an alt, I sent their bookmarked locations to my main, who joined the appropriate war corp if he wasn't already a member. Then my main went to the target system and did what every good EVE pilot does to war targets. My ship of choice was the Ishtar, a drone-wielding heavy assault cruiser. I chose the Ishtar for a couple of reasons. First, I could stuff the midslots with a bunch of warp disruptors and tackle as many of the Orca's mackinaw/hulk alts as possible. Second, the (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST) (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST) (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST) (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST) (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST) (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST) (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST) (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST) (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST) (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST) (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST) (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Mar 3, 2016 15:03
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