BB77: The Network News Effect in Eve

Over at Sand, Cider, and Spaceships, Drackarn asked an interesting question as part of Blog Banter 77:

Is there a malaise affecting Eve currently? Blogs and podcasts are going dark and space just feels that little bit emptier. One suggestion is that there may be a general problem with the vets, especially those pre-Incarna and older, leaving and being replaced by newer players who are not as invested in the game. The colonists versus immigrants? Is this a problem? Are there others? Or is everything just fine and it's just another bout of summer "ZOMG EVE IZ DYING!"

I raised a few points on this topic with Ripard Teg (formerly of Jester Trek) on reddit, and this blog banter gives me an ideal opportunity to expound a little.

Generally speaking, this blog banter includes two sections. The first raises good questions, but the suggested problem in the second half takes us down the wrong path. Generally, I'd say Eve is just fine, and here's why.

Flagships or Bodyguards?

At the expense of getting two posts out of a single topic (I'm totally shameless enough to do it), I figured a different take on the "flagship" concept (covered in this month's blog banter) deserved a second post.

The blog banter itself was a reaction to CCP's suggestion about adding a new class of ship to the game, a flagship, which would be highly durable and serve the purpose of allowing a pilot to stay on grid for a significant period of time, specifically to counter headshotting by the enemy fleet.

Suffice to say, this provoked a bit of discussion.

One reader in particular was skeptical about having a special ship class have permanent effects tied to it, and suggested an effect that would buff the FC's ship instead:

I'd have it be a more nebulous mechanic born out of the Fleet window which applies an effect much like a Links but to only one pilot. The real trouble is bracketing this effect to only occur in 'real' fights where headshotting is an issue.

This line of thinking tied in so perfectly with a comment my wife made that I wanted to explore it a bit further.

BB76 - Are Fleet Commanders Special?

This month's blog banter asked a compelling question, one that touches on the importance of content amplifiers within Eve:

At fanfest CCP Fozzie proposed a potential new ship class. Let’s call it the fleet commander’s flagship for now. This is to try and prevent “FC Headshotting” where the opposing fleet knows who the FC is and alpha’s them off the field leaving the rest of the fleet in confusion and disarray. Fozzie mentioned a ship with a great tank but no offensive abilities. Is this a good idea? Is FC head-shotting a legitimate tactic? If CCP do go down the route of a “flagship” how might this work? Also is a new ship the answer or is there another way of giving an FC the ability not to be assassinated 12 seconds into the fight without letting players exploit it?

Boy, this question only scratches the surface of the deeper issue beneath it. Too often, we as commentators choose to focus purely on raw numbers. How many players live in high-sec vs. null? What's out average PCU? What's your killboard efficiency?

We're taught to think with mathematical efficiency. In school, we're taught to quantify and substantiate with X number of proof points or number of paragraphs. And too often, we try to port this tendency over to rhetorical arguments as well.

Put simply, we make the mistake of believing that the purpose of the argument is to make the more logical argument. This, as anyone knows, is foolish. Logic has little to do with human nature and the current of human passion. And far more aspects of this game are based on emotion, perception, and narrative than any of these writers would like to believe.

Then again, maybe I'm more of an adherent to the German philosophers than they are. Our world is "will and idea" more than it is fact. Facts fail to capture all the really exciting parts of life that make it worth living, and very rarely does the optimal or ideal mathematical, factually predicted result occur.

And that's the foundation of my pretty strong position on this point.

300: My Fellow Bloggers

Despite what you may think, even the most verbose person has a hard time producing material on a regular interval. Everyone can write one or two coherent pieces; the challenge is in forming your thoughts consistently, both during boom times and droughts.

A lot of magazines and newspapers expect a writer to produce a piece every month for feature columns. For feature articles, it can sometimes be every couple months. TheMittani.com expects writers to produce every two weeks.  That’s a robust and difficult schedule to maintain, and it quickly separates dedicated writers from casuals.

Now, try writing 1500-2000 words every two or three days (and for some of my posts, that’s a bit on the conservative side!).  I’ve tried very hard not to include too many “filler” posts – I want readers to be able to leave with some piece of knowledge they might not have had before visiting. I can count perhaps a handful of posts that haven’t had this goal. No one’s perfect!

Writing a blog about a hobby – in particular – is a surprisingly demanding and difficult thing, because the same itch that makes me log in and play is what fuels my writing. That chunk of time dedicated to Eve gets split a couple ways. It’s a balancing act; playing gives me things to write about, but writing makes sense of my playing in a way that enriches the experience.

For Post 100, I recapped the highlights of my first 100 articles. Post 200 was a thank-you to all of my readers for commenting, sharing their opinions, and making the blog truly interactive.  Both of those were fun at the time, but to the right you can see a list of all my articles broken down by month (on a PC), and the “thank-you” isn’t something that should be contained to once every hundred posts. I sincerely thank every one of you. You keep me honest and sane, and you make up a part of the Eve community I’ve grown to respect and appreciate.

Rather, for this milestone, I wanted to talk a little about another aspect of the community I appreciate: the other bloggers I read on a regular basis. These folks all post regularly, present unique perspectives, and enrich my experience with the game. They wield true power, because they have the means of helping each of us make sense of what happens around us. So here’s my must-reads.

This list isn’t comprehensive, and I read a lot of other blogs than those I mention. But, I do want to give special mention to those blogs who I believe readers can learn something from – either through the direct words or the infectiousness of the passion within the words written.

BB65 - Easiest One Ever

I admit, I don’t see the blog banters all the time.  I’m very bad at that, and I apologize.  These topics are typically a really great way for readers to crowd-source the community’s opinions about certain topics, and it’s very helpful to read a variety of viewpoints on them.

This month’s blog banter is all about attributes:

Does Eve need attributes? It's been discussed a lot recently. Unlike other MMO's your characters attributes don't make a difference in day-to-day gameplay. They simply set how fast you train a skill. Is it time to remove attributes from the game or totally revamp their purpose? Do they add a level of complexity to the game that is not needed? If you really need to use a 3rd party application to get the most from it should it be in the game? Should they be repurposed with each attribute adding a modifier to your ship? Are attributes a relic from the past or are they an important part of Eve - You make your decision and deal with the consequences?

Should attributes be removed from the game?  Yes.

Moving on…

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Reasoning With Unreason

A couple days ago, I chimed into a conversation on Reddit in which a player asked about whether Fanfest featured a PvE panel discussion.  This led to the inevitable PvE vs. PvP poo-sling.  I’ll share a couple comments in particular.  The first is mine:

“Without PvE, CCP can seed the market to enable PvP. Without PvP, Eve is a sh*tty game without a distinguishing feature. Which do you think is more important? You [PvE] can be replaced with a machine.”

This met with the response of:

“Hahaha, you're adorable. Typical f***ing Goon. Without PVE, CCP would lose a half of the game's playerbase, there'd be no reason for it to ever be called a persistent universe, there'd be no industry, there'd be no reason to play the market if CCP just "seeded the market" with all the shinies you want.  If that's the game you want, go play on SiSi where everything costs 100 ISK. Get the fuck out of my game, though. There's no place for you here.”

Wow.  I didn’t expect such hostility.

Read This Right Now

This is a very brief article.  Rarely do I find an article I find so compelling that I simply want to catalog it.  So rare is this, in fact, that I've never done it.  But I have to give credit where it's due.

So stop whatever you're doing and read this excellent article by the always-frosty Rixx Javix at Evoganda.  His advice on "counter-fitting" your ship is excellent, and he gives just one example.  Read it.  Learn it.  Do it.

An Ocean of Heroes’ Blood

So, I’ve never done a Blog Banter before, but I’ve read a few in response to Kirith Kodachi’s recent question about heroes that drew my attention.

First, I read this post on the Point Blank Diplomacy blog.  I kind of liked where he was going.  But, in it he identified a hero as “skilled, selfless, calm in the face of danger, and willing to risk themselves for the well-being of others.”

Then I read Ripard Teg’s response on Jester’s Trek.  What strikes me about the groups and player types who made Ripard’s list is what it says about his definition of “hero”.  Look at that list.  Three new-player organizations, two “open arms” homes for players looking for a change, a number of community contributors, those who give to charity, and those who have close ties with (or are) CCP.