Greedy Goblin

Tuesday, March 7, 2017

You can't compare reality with a dream

I am still in my BDO miniproject, now checking out how my blogging alters the economy (the ingot business really has to go). The main reason is that I still didn't find a game. I've found some exact criteria that the game must pass, but not the game itself.

The reason is that I still compare games to EVE. I still look for the ability to alter the whole gameworld, to create completely new narratives, to own vast space of the game universe or crush major guilds. Of course I've found no game that matches what EVE offers. But it's a very unfair comparison. It's like comparing the woman you meet with the one you dated online: she was smart, witty, funny, stunningly gorgeous and she was very positive about sex. And she was actually a guy in the basement with photoshop whose hobby is to publish dating chatlogs on 4chan for lulz. Of course no living woman can be as good as "her"! She never existed, she was a lie all the time.

Many are telling that I should somehow "get over" my feud with CCP Falcon or simply start an anonymous account so he can't attack me. These people - socials - focus on the interpersonal conflict between Falcon and I. Sure, it's now personal and if I'd publicly return, he'd try to destroy anything I do, even the most cliche "rat for ISK and roam lowsec for PvP" life. But it didn't start personal. We didn't have any bad blood or even any form of previous communication before he went no holds barred on me. For me, it was totally out of the blue. For him, it was just business: I started to evict Goons and he had to make sure I go away before they roll out the $150K book deal together. He probably expected me to "get the picture" and "realize that killing Goons is not fun" and go elsewhere. If I'd do that, we could have a beer, he literally offered that. But above all, he surely didn't protect the Goon monument vandals because of me.

The narrative, the stories of EVE are in complete control of the devs. Are they executing some corporate policy to create great stories, employing players into the key roles? Are they corrupted and helping the highest bidder? Are they just idiots who ruin their day job to help out internet friends? It doesn't matter. Players have no agency in EVE. If I'd return anonymously and start something, they'd sabotate it, not because I'm Gevlon but because my agenda contradicts theirs. Goons were untouchable until they failed to deliver the $150K. Then they became outcasts overnight and the IWI RMT block became above the law - until they met with real life gambling law. Then IWI got banned overnight and the devs found their next "winner": whoever controls the trillions-for-nothing Perimiter citadels. Please note that I didn't quit when Falcon started his hate campaign, I left when the citadels were introduced: only then I realized that the favoritism for Goon wasn't an exception, this is the normal way of things in EVE. The name of the selected winner change, but there will always be a clear favorite of the devs.

EVE was - and is - a lie. You are just as a grunt in the pre-written storyline as in WoW. If you try to change the role you are cast into, the devs will get rid of you. I will not mention EVE ever again in this blog. I will not compare games with EVE. BDO node capture might be shallow and pointless, but you can clearly do it and devs will surely not stop you. That shallow play is not for me and I should keep looking. But it's there, if I'd try it, my success would only depend on my skills compared to my opponents. I will have to settle with a game that is shallow compared to the promies of EVE. But it will be real.


PS: if I'd slip and mention EVE ever again (even as part of some list), please instantly comment and I fix the "offending" post. Also, all comments on my blog mentioning EVE after this post will be deleted regardless of content (of course you can comment about EVE on this post). I must delete EVE from my brain to be able to find a new game.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Gevlon, enjoyed reading your blog for a long time now. I think you have it wrong. Do not delete Eve from your brain. Rejoin Eve anonymously, or maybe just come back as Gevlon, and make it a plan to prove your point once and for all that the Devs are corrupt as you say they are. What better than to come back under cover, or out in the open, and play the long game. Its a win-win, no lose situation for you if you do that. You get to play a game that you obviously enjoyed playing, and you might get to prove your point once and for all, if not, just enjoy playing Eve anyway.

Provi Miner said...

you said a few things that wrong and I think you might want to reconsider your point of view:

you said the dev's play favorites and you can't beat that: That's bullshit wrapped around a truth. Dev's play favs = true can't beat that = not true.

Dev's favor Bob --- bob lost, Dev's favor Goon --- goon lost. You miss your whole social point, by becoming socially important you can beat the dev's. Why do you think the dev's went after the banks because they had the isk and the willingness to change the dev story line. You too can if you choose to... change the story line.

you think the dev's pick the winners you are wrong they back the current king but should that king be replaced they will/do/have switch their backing.

Gevlon said...

@Provi Miner: did they lose or did they just fell out of grace? I mean devs turned on Goons before they lost, when they failed the book deal.

Also, this time they gave an unbeatable advantage to the king: the trading citadels. You just can't do anything against trillions per month.

Provi Miner said...

I see what you mean and I disagree, you can't beat trillion's put to use, you can beat trillion's that sit there and do nothing. The trade cartels are stuck in high sec. While the story line is driven by null (that's Players turf).

Trade cartels while linked to null are not tied to null. at least half of null has minimal if no ties to trade cartels. and none of low sec.

My point is this as long as you pick and choose carefully you could build an off set to such an extent that it becomes cost inefficient to go after you.

back my main point

trade cartels = money for the sake of money not active players.

Active players = social dynamics.

I agree you can't beat the cartels out the gate, you can't even compete however that is not the story line you are looking for, you can destroy PL, goon, what ever (sure they will reform with their isk but not the point is it). In eve you can not really win anything, you can only stay on top long enough to get bored and beaten by someone who wants what you hold more. you can be that someone.

I know most think you can't beat unlimited titan's, and that is true to a point. that said 13 dreads can "dread bomb" a titan and the time it takes to replace that titan is far less than the time to replace those dreads. Don't win the isk fight against the cartels win the resource war against other players. destroy their E complex's force them to lose by not being able to field their "I win fleets". One thing I noticed about the major titan users they tend to lose people when they can't quickly replace those "elite" ships and that is well within the grasp of a social game.

Tithian said...

@Provi Miner

"trade cartels = money for the sake of money not active players."

So you're saying that people will literally boatloads of money just sit on it? I can't believe you are so naive.

Cartel A has affiliation (behind closed doors) with Alliance B. Alliance B gets attacked or wants to claim space. Are you really claiming that the cartel they set up will just sit on the money, for the sake of it?

Gevlon said...

@Tithian: some cartels really just collect money for the sake of it (RMT-ers)
However they need protection, so they send money for the strongest nullsec coalition, making it even stronger, practically undefeatable.

Lorelei Ierendi said...

Gevlon, I think you need to maybe consider and come to terms with the fact that the game you want does not exist. The pressure (money) from socials (and whales) on the game developers is such that even a game such as EVE would not come into existence nowadays.

Have you looked at Star Citizen (http://dereksmart.com/)

Tithian said...

@Gevlon: heh, I completely missed the probability of RMT, because outside of EVE (which I haven't played in years) there isn't a game where the industry has such a chokehold on a game.

Silly me, I really should lower the bar when it comes to CCP.

Anonymous said...

Star Citizen is a scam, of course he knows about it.

Anonymous said...

"Also, this time they gave an unbeatable advantage to the king: the trading citadels. You just can't do anything against trillions per month."

I don't know a lot about EVE. Would it possible to pay mercs to attempt to suicide gank freighters/haulers coming to the citadels? The goal being to remove the items traded and thus the income from the citadels.

Gevlon said...

They can just pay 10x more for mercs not to do it.

Anonymous said...

I think EVE cannot be uncorrupted, even if all devs were fired today. This is because past corruptions (T2 BPOs, gambling isk, renting) and outright idiocies (FW exploit, technetium farm, droneland minerals giving cheap hugs super fleets) still keep paying dividends for those who took advantage of them at the time, even years on.

Perhaps if another company were to make EVE2, and learn from the mistakes.

Anonymous said...

I think you should come back. You made a tremendous difference in the game and your blogging about Eve was very entertaining. You will never find the perfect game, Eve is about as good as it gets

Unknown said...

[They can just pay 10x more for mercs not to do it.]

This depends on the specific numbers, but once word gets out that they are effectively paying protection money to random mercs, then anyone who is able to accomplish this kind of pseudo-blockade also needs to be paid not to do it. That's potentially a lot of currency.