And nothing of value was lost.

TLDR: Taking a vacation from EVE. No you can't have my stuff.

In my opinion, there is a little moral compass that directs what’s right and wrong.  A true sociopath doesn’t have that compass and if they do, its stopped working within the boundaries of society. The majority of people in real life follow that compass to a T.

But in the fantasy game of EVE online, that compass can be suspended, if you got the balls. If you can put aside that compass, be a bad guy, be terrible, you can profit from fame and fortune. But that path brings danger... thats the draw... the hook. To be good or to be bad. To eat the apple, or not.

Here we come my tattoo and I. People might be under the false impression of why I have my tattoo of a video game. That I’m some sort of ultra fan boy or insert reason here “____ “

The true reason I have this tattoo and I have said it many times before privately and publicly is, it’s a reminder of how diabolical humans can be to one another, when given the rope to do so. When given the choice between right and wrong, people can shock you and impress you. That little “compass check” for lack of a better term. EVE teaches you to be aware, cautious and question everything, because not to, has consequence. Just like real life.

I played EVE multiple times before it truly clicked in my mind the potential of this game and it got me “hooked”. My “hooked” moment was a guy was trying to recruit me to join someone else’s corp for the soul reason of tearing it apart from the inside. The idea that someone would want to destroy another player group from within and to lie to another group via a total new person… was shocking at the time. It was like video game role playing. Something I could never do in real life. I could be a double agent, I could join their corp, talk to them as one human to another on their voice coms, acquire their trust only to totally destroy them from within, and not without reproductions either. I had to be on voice coms with that person while I did it to them, to hear their hard work go down the toilet because they were dumb enough to put faith in me.

It takes a special kind of person to do that and not have some level of empathy. Someone without a moral compass to guide them. Or at least the ability to suppress that compass. That was the fantasy, that was the draw. I could be an internet sociopath without the real life consequence.

I chose to not do it, because at the end of the day, I simply didn’t have the heart.

But the choice was there. That choice, between right and wrong is why I got my tattoo.

A video game managed to capture and facilitate that choice over and over again. To do wrong, or not.  EVE made me a more critical person, to question human emotions and motives. I carried that new found perspective to real life, its proven incredibly useful and removed the level of naïveté I had about others I wasn’t aware of before.

People ask why I play EVE. My answer every time is, “Because its hard, and the people who play it at the level I do, are hard!”

The game has become less hard in my mind. Its devs have become less hard and its player base, the people I respect as opponents are less hard. EVE to me is the razors edge of morality, trust and betrayal. The thought process you had to engage to conduct yourself successfully, is that of a paranoid trauma patent.

In my mind, this is no longer the fact. What worse, it’s my view that the players, the people I called opponents, threats and victims are fully embracing this change. Those that don’t, well theirs the door.

This was made apparent to me in a conversation I had on reddit.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Eve/comments/2g4xv8/csm9_as_the_ban_hammer_swings_funkybacon_noreply/ckfr3nl

I said:  Quoted:  “ Clearly you are just trolling for trolling sake. “

“he isn't if you actually read the comments. He didn't get banned, he doesn't seem to care if people are banned or not, but what he is crying for is clarity, the same thing the rest of non-peons are asking for. Its not a huge request, its a logical one made by logical people who don't make a habit of eating the shit we are shovel” – Longinius Spear

Unrelentingone responded: 

“You'll eat it, you'll like it, and you fucking well know it. That is of course the source of all these wonderful tears. But you go ahead and see what making demands to CCP does for you. I'll wait here, you come back when you've got your answer, or you cancel your sub. Because after all, you won't eat the shit, right?”


This was my “Ah Ha” moment, the second I realized. Wait a minute, I’m paying these people to do this to me. I’m paying CCP for the privilege to treat me like a consumer and not even going so far as giving me the pleasure of a reach around.

It all fell into place in my mind. I’m paying these people who don’t even give a fuck about me, to give a basic explanation on how they are fundamentally changing the reasons I play this game.
By removing people from the ecosphere who are deemed less desirable, they are removing the choice that I value in this game. The idea that I could be terrible but choose not to. That choice is gone in my mind and now its just another video game.

The thing is, without that moral compass, and that right and wrong to hide EVE’s actual issues. This game really isn’t good. It’s a terrible space simulator with a broken economic system, and I’m paying for 5 accounts worth.

$75 dollars a month gone in revenue because the devs can’t stand behind the idea that EVE is a harsh game filled with hard people. The game to me is less harsh… filled with people who are a little less hard.

Here are some very upvoted comments found on reddit voiced in response to people being banned, for reasons not even the responders know. They just know mean people are gone.

Darfidiot -- Good riddance. Fuck anybody who is involved in this shameful business.

Lowlevelguy - Oh that's a real shame. Now you can have more time for real life activities, like bullying your girlfriend, making fun of developmentally disabled people, suffocating puppies and kittens, and generally feeling like a badass because of all that cool stuff you like to do.

Bryn987 - Good. Gtfo

Paladin327 - At least nothing of value was lost

That final comment is what got me. At least nothing of value was lost. Remember what my hook was in playing this game. The danger, the moral compass that I needed to consult, that right and wrong choice matrix.

At least nothing of value was lost. When you remove the flavor of something, it becomes more bland. Sure its easier to consume by the masses, but easier to consume isn’t what kept me here as long as it did.

You could say that banning these people who are the equivalent of internet bullies, you can even spin it in random ways that these people were torturing another human. I say it was someone who was tricked, a stiff warning to others that the danger is real, that this is the limitations of meta. That consequence and difficulty are real.

BUT--  To remove these people without even so much as to what line was crossed, makes me sick. CCP would like you to think these people are just a different version of an internet bully. But the point is, no one banned bullied the HUMAN, they bullied the persona, the meta.. They were meaner than most, bragged about it and found wanting.. by CCPs never to be written rules. Because I quote "Will never be written,  so people can just skirt the edge".

I hope you get 5 more subs from this course action CCP, because you just lost my 5.

And nothing of value was lost.