It is this time of year again. No, I'm not talking about the changing of the seasons, the play-offs of your favorite sport nor am I talking about a specific holiday. No my friends, it is time for the new EVE expansion and all that comes with it. More specifically, it is that time of year people start their version of "the sky is falling" prophecies.
Yes, according to some, this year too, EVE will die. Say goodbye to it while you still can. The player base is growing, the biggest expansion ever will be released, there will most likely be in influx of new players due to the retail box, but alas, it won't be EVE anymore. Actually, EVE has already been dead for quite some time now, perhaps even since it left its beta stages. But apparently as MMO's go, this one refuses to die quietly or to stop dieing at all. No, her biggest fans, the only true and worthy players of this glorious yet dead game, won't let her slip into the night quietly, nae, hey will protest at the top of their longs while continuing to pay for the subscription. And more then that, they will have their revenge while they can on the biggest plague in game, the root of all evil, the source of all dread and the reason EVE will die, die again and keep on dieing, surely for many years and expansions to come:
Yes, I know, I'm stifling a giggle too. It's okay. Take your time. Here, have a sip of water. Just get it out of your system, because this is serious stuff of the interwebz! No, sorry, my bad, I'll shut up now until you're ready to continue reading.
So where was I? Oh yeah .... the care bears: not the cute and cuddly bears but the MMO players avoiding PVP, by personal preference, by occupation or other reasons. To a group of mostly veteran hard core PVP players, care bears are the biggest thread to EVE Online's existence, and they will scream so on the top of their longs. They feel entitled to a game that caters to their PVP play style and that forces other players to PVP or leave. They feel only they understand what the game is about and belittle others who disagree with them. After all, they are the true keepers of this game, but they have been abandoned by CCP, the creator of the game: unjustly, CCP has only provided for PVE content while ignoring PVP. And as a cherry on the cake, they have taken away a lot of means to indiscriminately slaughter care bears by beefing up protection against suicide ganking in high sec.
I keep having this image of a sandbox in a kindergarten. On one side, there is a bunch of older, stronger kids that are used to getting their way by force. It works at home on their little brothers and sisters, so it should work here too. But since the group is of similar age, they can't get their way with it in their group. On the other side, there's a bunch of mostly younger kids, apparently having fun building sand castles, but there are some older kids there too. The bullies are damn jealous of the little kids having fun, they wish they could just wreck their sand castle. That would be fun ... well, for them, not the other kids, but who cares, right? Having tried it yesterday and remembering their teachers intervention, including a good spanking, they stand back and watch, hating the little kids more every second. Instead of thinking of their own game amongst their peers, they focus on the little kids and get so frustrated, and one starts crying.
When their teacher asks him what is wrong, they say the little kids are mean to him, because they get to do what they like and he doesn't. When the teacher tells him he could make castles with his friends, he yells out he doesn't want his own caste, he wants their castle to play with. When his teacher tells him he can't because he's bound to wreck it, he starts screaming the teacher is mean. He screams the sandbox was supposed to be about kicking sand around, since that is what he and his older friends did last year, and it's his sandbox because he was there before the little kids joined the kindergarten.
No matter how much the teacher tries to point out the toys and possibilities of the sandbox, he ignores them, because he is so focused on what the other kids. He will get back at them, because when they weren't here last year, he and his bully friends had the sand box all to themselves.
Gentlemen, the sad truth for you is this: this sandbox isn't yours. It is CCP's sandbox and we're all allowed to play it as long as we pay. CCP will decide where New Eden is going and what is or isn't allowed to provide a potentially fun environment for everybody. After all, the sand box contains a population of all sorts of players with just as much rights to fun as you. All your sense of entitlement is false, all your sense of superiority is flawed. The sooner you get this through your obviously thick skulls, the sooner you will be able to decide: either I'm gonna take things as they come and make my own fun, or I will try to constructively participate in discussions about how rules could be changed to allow more fun for all in the sandbox, or I will cancel my subscription and look for another place to play. The forth option, crying and calling people meanies, has never helped anybody.
I am not saying EVE Online isn't flawed, because I know it is. I might even agree on a number of things, even though I am your arch nemesis: a care bear. However, belittling large groups of the population and blaming them for the fact you're not enjoying yourself anymore is not productive and kinda makes you look like an ass, even when few or perhaps nobody in your group will tell you so.
