The Scythes of poverty and fun

While all games are for entertainment, they all require some attention, training and skill. This is especially true for team games where the action of one player affects other players. While amateur baseball is a game played for fun, you can't get in a team if you don't know which end of the bat goes to your hand.

I can't tell what is the difference between computer games and table-top games or sports that creates the "for fun lol" player. These players refuse or unable to provide the needed skill and effort to play the game any good and yet expects to be accepted as a participant. Can it be anonymity? Or the fact that the player pays individually to the game provider while in offline games there is no provider (kids playing soccer in the car park) or the pre-created team as a whole pays to the provider (bunch of friends at the bowling club). Anyway they pay money to the provider who doesn't want to lose this money.

A totally incompetent, not goal oriented player has near-zero chance to be any successful in the game, therefore having the fun he came for. There are three ways for a video game provider to handle this situation:

• HTFU or GTFO: this is practically what would happen in real life. The wannabe player is told to either change his attitude and give the game the proper attention and effort or leave the playing field. This is what Everquest, Darkfall, EVE Online did. Their stable but small playerbase proves both that there are enough serious/good players to keep the game alive but also they lose on large amount of possible players. The "for fun lol" bunch isn't a marginal group, they are the majority. It's not a surprise, 98% of the students are not on the school basketball team either.
• "Accessible content": this means lowering all bars to allow the "for fun lol" players to complete the content. World of Warcraft spearheaded this way. The original WoW was much more tolerant to bad playing than its contemporaries and the subsequent expansions all introduced ways for bad players to get game rewards. Emblem gear (raiding level rewards for dungeons) was introduced in Burning Crusade. In Wrath of the Lich King the raiding content was nerfed to triviality and the "every patch resets gear" system was introduced. The subscriptions stopped their previous rapid grow and started to decrease. The content was strongly criticized by the good players and the community started to fade. Current WoW and clones are often called Massively Single Player games due to the near-zero interaction between players. It's unavoidable, just as the teacher can command the basketball team to take little Johnny in, but can't make them be his friend. Single player games have short natural life, players hop on the new shiny fast.
• The third way is somewhat new and has good potential: while the game remains "serious", it allows "for fun lol" players to be around without actually affecting the game. Minipet collection, leveling alts, doing various random silly things can make the "for fun lol" players busy playing, without making them interact with the real players which would lead to frustration for both parties.

OK, but why the title? It is to explain a new direction in EVE Online development, a change from their original HTFU/GTFO attitude. The most recent addations to EVE (besides DUST integration and fixes) are various nerfs to highsec aggression and serious buffs to mining and small ships. It affects both combat cruisers which receive DPS buffs, serious buffs to T1 logistics cruisers and also introduction of logistics frigates and new destroyers. Jester recognized that T1 logistics will be near as good as their T2 counterparts for much less ISK. One could think that it's to help new players get into ships faster. However for new players the problem is rather ignorance than skillpoints. I'd guess most Moas lose more DPS on having non-meta T1 guns, stupid fittings and unlearned support skills than they gain on that 5%/level hybrid gun DPS. Aura telling you that you should learn Rapid Firing 3 before Caldari cruiser 5 would help more than any rebalance.

No, the targets of these changes are not new players. It's the "for fun lol" players who have problems of even getting the price of a Drake. While I called the poor things "Drakes of poverty", I've seen the term "upshipped to battlecruisers" so many times that I reconsidered. My cloaky travels in low/NPC null also helped. Most gatecampers are in destroyers and cruisers, not battleships. A Drake - while considered newbie doctrine next to Foxcats here - is something serious in the eyes of the "for fun lol" players who are unable/unwilling to rat/mine 100M needed for a fitted Drake. They want to have instant fun in something that requires little ISK or skillpoints to fly.

I support this change. Every player paying the $15 helps the game be better. The Scythe supported Moa gangs won't make any difference on the Sov map. I'd be extremely surprised if we'd ever encounter such fleets. They will be no match for serious lowsec pirates either. But they can lol around in lowsec killing each other and careless ratters/miners. They will die at the end but for them it's "gf lol".

Elitism is bad. Everyone has the right to play and enjoy the game. The problem comes when someone has the bizarre idea that everyone has the right to win the game. Arthasdklol has no place under a Kingslayer title. Someone who can't get even a battlecruiser has no place on the Sov map or in a C2+ wormhole. CCP does it right while Blizzard messes it up. The question is can they properly advertise it, can they make the legions of "for fun lol" players try out EVE which still have the reputation of being unforgiving and evil?

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On Monday extremely nasty article comes, don't miss it!

Friday morning report: 180.3B (5.5 spent on main accounts, 6.5 spent on Logi/Carrier, 3.2 on Ragnarok, 2.7 on Rorqual, 2.8 on Nyx, 2.8 on Dread, 37.4 sent as gift)