~or
“EVE Needs Bad Guys…”
I have been surfing and linking
and reading the posts and reddit threads and pastebin
dumps and notehub posts about the Imperium Viceroyalty Program… and I was concerned about what I was
reading… initially.
I will admit to being of a
somewhat ‘grr goons‘ turn of mind, though definitely a lower case version more
like grr goons lite™, nothing like the full bore Gobblinish “GRR GOONS” mindset
nor of the far moar tinfoil & trollish “GRR RMTing GOONS” of the Dimmy
Snetterton set.
My personal take on Mittens,
Goons and their antics is more based on the simple fact that I just don’t like
liars and cheats and scammers on general principle and the new Viceroyalty
Pogrom is nothing more than the same play that was made on my home corp wayyy back
when we were just noobs. That was nothing moar than a straightforward EVE style
Hisec WarDec Protection Racket. This Viceroyalty thing is just the same racket all
dressed up and being played out on a much larger stage for moar ISK in Null
& Lowsec.
While I am at best luke warm
about Goons the majority of the time, and at worst case a little worried about
their impact on our great game every so often based on specific cases I have always
said that no matter what else you say about them, they do create content and as
Bad Guys go, we could have far worse… and EVE needs good Bad Guys.
“EVE needs ‘good’ Bad Guys?” “Are
you fuked in the head?” I hear your frown and mumble… Yes, and No.
Think about it… in all other
MMO’s (that I know of) the Bad Guys are normally fairly powerful, hard but not
impossible to kill, NPC “Bosses” and their less powerful though usually numerous
horde of mindless minions. And yes we do have Sansha Koveki, and Bloody Omar
and all the somewhat LOLable thousands upon thousands of pirate and faction NPC’s
we take contracts on to kill for their bounties, but none of them, not even the
Sleepers or hell, not even the Drifters are “The Big Bad Guys” of EVE. NPCs are
not and cannot be the Final Dungeon Boss in our game… no, in EVE it is all
about the players, about Emergent Player Behavior, and so man must fulfill this
role…
In New Eden, nihil inimicius quam sibi ipse is a cold hard truth. In EVE Man must
be his own worst enemy, we have no one else. We have to provide our own Dungeon
Bosses with their Horde of Minions to revile and strive against. And Mittens
and his gang are just that, and they don’t even just accept the role… they play
it with dedication, serious effort and, one must say, with gusto.
Why? Well… somebody has to.
As I understand it, Goons did not
originally start off as Bad Guys in EVE. From what I have read and heard they
started out as most of us do, players just playing the game. Not intending to
be asshats or Bad Men much less THE Bad Guys of EVE. Yes they started out
centered around a core of players from the Something Awful forums and that
became a ’thing’ for them.
Being “Community Born”, as
Mittens calls it has obviously contributed to their disassociation from the “EVE
Born”, IE the rest of us. This has helped to foster a mindset of “us” against
“them” with ‘them’ being everyone not a Goon. And that made it far far
easier for the Mittani to take the steps into spying and subversion and for the
line troops to follow he who became Darth Mittens and with him to embrace the
Dark Side, and all that goes with it.
Their descent into evil was
something that also grew out of the war against BoB and in general their desire
and the fight to take and hold Sov in nullsec. And yes, once they decided to put
on the Black Hat of the Bad Guys, they surely didn’t do it in half measures now
did they? No, in for a penny, in for a pound as they say. And so, here we are…
living and dying in a New Eden that has real life booygmen… and this is not,
necessarily, a bad thing.
I had a discussion with a friend
and co-worker who has been a long time WoW player and who joined us in EVE
about 6 months ago because WoW had become, well, boring for him. He gave it a
good try, had me and another co-worker who also joined us in EVE, pulling for
him. I gave him the PLEX I got for him subbing, so ISK was not a major issue
for him… But EVE is a niche game, a very niche game, and he is simply not a
highly social or a PVP centric player. Now he is flying in Elite Dangerous and
while he is enjoying it, he says he still struggles to find a reason to play… One
of, if not the most important aspects for gamers about gaming is why do we
play?
For most games it comes as Instant
Gratification in the form of an adrenaline rush from the Dev created content. But
EVE is not an Instant Gratification game, it is the Long Game… but
interestingly because Risk and Loss are Real in EVE, the adrenaline rush in PVP
and sometimes even in PVE combat can be far far better. We all know the main problem
with Dev created content is that it takes veteran players just days or even
hours to burn through content that can take years to create, and then, no
matter how good it is, it’s over. Look at WoW’s last big expansion… My friend
completed it in one week… just one godsdamned week!
In EVE we need the Devs to care
for and maintain the sandbox, to keep the sand clean, to craft the NPC Lore, to
keep making the toys we need and want to build and play with, and destroy. We
also do need them to create the work we do… the mining, market, BPOs, missions,
sites, belts and interactions with the NPCs that inhabit this great verse with
us… We do all of this in order to make the ISK we need so we can afford to lose
what we fly when we fight. ALL of the Dev created content in EVE is the
background and sets and props we use in living out our stories, creating our
history, creating the player’s Lore.
No group of Devs could ever begin
to write or code the Lore and content we MAKE every single day. And say what
you will… the Mittani, Goonswarm Federation and their Allies are creating Lore
and Content in EVE… Lore and Content for all those who want to get involved and
take part on either side, Lore and Content for those who will work to profit
from it and Lore and Content for those who will change their plans and game play
to avoid it…
After my friend completed the new
WoW content in one week he asked himself, “Now
what do I do?” “Run it again? but
why? for what reason, to what purpose?” And that is the crux issue here.
Why do we log on? what are we fighting for? what do we get out of it?
Grr Goons, Good Fights and a
reason to undock… that’s what.
And our War Cry? 117 BILLION ISK!!!… LOL
Fly
reckless and see you in the Sky =/|)=
