The Sand Box

From: Haruko Kitsune
Sent: 2014.02.12 09:36
To: Longinius Spear

Dear Sir,

My recent folly, and your subsequent recollection on your blog, was debilitating, enlightening, and just downright hilarious. The breakdown of the incident which you have publicised was very informative and I appreciate it, although it is unfortunate that you would mock me and insinuate about my temperment thereafter. Just like eveyone else who starts off at something new - I am a noob, I have much to learn and have made many mistakes along the way. I was surprised to lose my stuff and to be betrayed in such a way but I dont believe I overreacted, I'm certainly not upset. I understand your desire for power and the thrill of the hunt, but I deserve no disrespect.

I'm afraid I must disagree with your closing assertation. EVE is just like any other MMO - There is appeal (and certainly something your ego likes) in being the bigger fish, but trying to actually have fun by making other people's experiences more fun takes strength. Also, this "eat or be eaten" paradigm is fallacious and a rather bland, infantile ideal. You and I both know it is more colorful than that, dont we? :] Life is the same way I guess. Certainly it is always easier to take than to give. It is a shame that the heart of such a formidable team as yours should be focused on the humiliation of others. It is what it is though, no doubt.

I have learned two things from this experience:
1. I will continue to help others no matter what to try to foster respect and friendship.
2. Smoking weed and playing EVE is not the most intelligent combination for a noob.

Sincerely,
Haruko Kitsune



My response: 

1st I’m sorry for any kind of disrespect you perceived. I’m not the best writer, I’m just a part time story teller and my editorial skills are very lacking.

I want to clarify something for you though.

You’re statement “EVE is just like any other MMO”.

It’s not.

This is something many new people come into the game with. This perception that there is a right or a wrong way to play EVE.

EVE is a sandbox. If you aren’t sure what a sandbox game is, try Mine Craft. Your experience is entirely defined by your actions within the virtual constraints of the game.

Example 1- If you are sitting in one system of the game and never leave that system for years, no one can possibly say you are playing the game ‘wrong’. Perhaps to you, and your goal set this is exactly where the game should go. The EVE experience is entirely personal perception bound. Sure there are different activities you can engage in, but even if you didn’t engage in them, that wouldn’t mean you are “losing” at the game. You simply haven’t ‘dug’ in that end of the sandbox yet.

Example 2- There are many people in this game who play to watch the little number on their wallet menu, rise and fall. That is their game. They play the game to watch some fake little space money number go up and down. Some activities represent a greater value, some mistakes represent a smaller value. That’s their entire game. This is the section of the sandbox they choose to dig in.

My game is hunting my fellow player. Outwitting them, with a clear finality of their space ship being destroyed at the end. You may call it opposite of what you do, which may be helping people. But that’s your game, not mine. That’s the sandbox. We are both free to follow each other’s ideals of winning.

EVE is so unlike other MMO’s in a way that there is no endgame. There is no final player level. There is no ultimate loot or monetary value to obtain. The things you feel you are winning at, are only winning at them because your personal perception of them has value.

EVE is so much more than any other MMO, because you can create your own moral constraints outside of the reproductions of real life. I can hunt and murder my fellow players in the game only to pull over for another stranded motorist in real life. The two do not reflect each other. They don’t need to because in both life and EVE, each are bound to a different set of sandbox moral directives.

Don’t confuse real life and EVE. Because I choose to do mayhem and evil in game, doesn’t mean I have a Freudian lust for my mother in real life. (joke)

I’m going to leave this final thought with you.

Perhaps when you say something like “90% of the people you come across are Toxic assholes", you may want to hold your fellow EVE player to a different social standard.

My father once said. “If you met one asshole a week, you can say you met an asshole.””But, if you meet nothing but assholes all week””Odds are, You’re the asshole”.


--- Fly safe.