I am me

There was another recent article posted about what your EVE in game behaviour might reflect in your real life personality.

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/14/feature/10910/Chronicles-of-a-New-Eden-What-Does-the-Violence-of-EVE-Say-About-Us-as-Humans.html

This is such a complex area and I don’t particularly feel like debating it at the moment, but he made a couple remarks that stood out for me.

The first remark was:

“the sense of empowerment they get through that transaction is meaningful to them in some way”

That is a simple and powerful idea. To expand – if you repeat an action in EVE regularly then it implies you must be getting some sort of real life mental reward from doing so.

EVE is a game that you can play different roles within. It’s back story is harsh and often unjust.

You can behave objectionably in EVE. The definition of objectionable however varies widely. For me personally I judge this less on the in game action, and more on the rewards they seem to take from the game, and the level of respect shown for opponents.

Let’s visit three pirates.

The first pirate spends their days in Low Sec hunting the ships of other player’s. After a battle they offer up only a polite “good fight”, or some helpful advice if their vanquished foe is amenable. Their reward is the skill of the hunt and kill.

The second pirate spends their days in Low Sec hunting the ships of other player’s. In their arsenal of tricks and traps, they use psychological attacks to anger their foes, hoping they might react foolishly and put their ship unnecessarily in danger. Afterwards they might offer a polite “good fight” or some helpful advice, but their vanquished foes tend to be less receptive to communicating with them. Their reward is the skill of the hunt and kill.

The third pirate spends their days in Low Sec hunting other players. When they get a kill they belittle and laugh at their opponent. Their reward is the sense of power they feel.

Some people would find all three behaviours to be objectionable, others none. It is plausibly one of those arguments you will always find people disagreeing on. Instead concentrate on the premise that the person behind the pirate is getting some value and reward from their actions.

The player of Pirate 1 likes pitting their skills against other players in the game.

The player of Pirate 2 likes pitting their skills against other players in the game. They sometimes use tactics others might find unpleasant or unnecessary.

The player of Pirate 3 likes making fun of other players.

It is in this sort of way I am inclined to judge people and how they play EVE.

 

The second remark was:

“New Eden as a whole tends to be far more focused on destruction rather than construction—that most pilots would rather watch something explode than work together to build something”

This I think is patently wrong, and bore out by the statistics which show how few players PVP.

In my experience more players like to build than destroy in EVE.  They are generally called Carebears.

The balance at the moment however seems tipped towards those who destroy, and against those who build.

As a result, the generally quiet majority build less. When they do build, they make less fuss of it, in hope of avoiding unwanted attention.