Arrrrrr! A Pirate's Life For Me?

Slightly old post, did this about a month ago for the Alliance website before it went tits up!

I'm a good guy. Not in real life, but online. I always do try and play the good guys.

This has always been the case. During my WoW days I was Alliance. During Star Wars Galaxies I was, erm, Alliance (Rebel). In fact, pretty much every game I've played when you can pick between the goodies and the baddies I go for the goodies. Only game I can remember playing the bad guy is that old classic, Dungeon Keeper, and to be honest, you really didn't really have a choice in that game did you?

Now I'm being forced to be a baddy in Eve Online! The .NET Alliance is going pie. Not apple, not cherry, not meat and potato, but -10, flashy, "if it moves kill it, if it doesn't move, kill it until it does move. AAARRRRRR!" type pie. Oh technically you still have a choice in the Alliance whether to go GCC, but with most corpies already sticking on the eye patch and shouting "yaaarrrrr" and "avast" at passers-by, we're all going to be nasty flashy pies within a few weeks whether I like it not. My sec status, which is usually 5.0 (I do go GCC on asshats that are "neutral" but helping the enemy), is just teetering on negative, 0.05 as I write this. For the first time in my three year Eve life I'm about to have a negative sec status as when I log in tonight I'll probably be looking for someone to pop. In fact I'd be minus now if it wasn't for the warning message popping up and the target already melting to other fleet members before I clicked yes, I really do want to do that (turned that fracking thing off now!).

So is it a big deal to be a pie? For me, yes.

Although if there were fellow pirates like this in Incarna I'd have less of an issue going -10......

I find it hard to explain why I don't like playing the bad guy online. Most movie actors say they have more fun playing the villain than the hero, and I know a lot of people who also agree to that online. In fact we've got some people in the Alliance who are Darth Vader to my Luke. Smeg, in fact we've got a couple in corp who would make the Emperor wince and say "Hang on mate, don't you think that's a bit harsh?". Do I go around hugging carebears and miners? No. But I do believe people should be able to enjoy the game. That's why my sec status is dropping slowly, especially when compared to others as I'm kersplatting people in low-sec where there is the expectation that there will be PvP and it is generally unsafe. Many others have gone to -10, gone directly to -10, did not pass go, did not collect 200 ISK by some hi-sec suicide ganking. That's just not how I play. Same with scamming. I know people who have alts in Jita making a fortune scamming noobs and stupid people of their ISK. Seriously guys, if something appears to good to be true, then it probably isn't. Personally I'd never do this. Again it's being the in-game baddy.

However,

Do I think scamming should be banned? No.

Do I have a problem with the guys who have alts that are scammers and griefers? No.

Do I dislike/have a problem the players in the alliance who are hi-sec suicide ganking the miners and carebears*? No.

It's an old chestnut, but without evil, there is no good. Eve is a harsh place and we need the suicide gankers, scammers, griefers, piwates and generally the inhabitants of the Mos Eisly Spaceport (and other wretched hives of scum and villainy) in game. However I'm on the other side of the fence from them. This is not Hello Kitty Online. It's one of the harshest most unforgiving games there is. However, we don't all need to be harsh, evil, and generally low-down and dirty.

Our CEO is looking more like this these days!

In faction war the good side and the bad side are just a matter of perspective. It's easy to justify you're on the "good" side and the others are the "baddies". With war dec's it's even more clear cut. But -10 flashy pies are the baddies of Eve. No one can really deny that. The reason we're going pie is the exact same reason we were in faction war. We want PvP. However, I still have trouble seeing past the "We're the bad guys now". I guess it's because in FW your targets have made the choice to "ask" for PvP. Now any carebear who wanders into the wrong system will be kersplatted with extreme prejudice.

When I joined SoTF we were generally anti-pie. If there were pies around we'd engage them and the corp was strict NRDS unless a specific order was given by a director, the CEO or very rarely a FC. And these very rare times where almost always due to the neut being eyes for war targets or doing some aggressive action like bumping someone off gate/station. KB's were regularly checked by the Directors for anyone in corp who was going pie and bollockings were handed out. Over the past six or so months as we're found ourselves short on war targets we've moved from NRDS to NBSI with a sec status cap of -1.9 and now to no sec status cap which is basically "garrrrrr, kill em all!".

So here I am, slowly working my way towards the dark side. My Luke is now more of a Han and I'm marching towards Anikan, Vader and may be even the Emperor in the end.

Oh well, as my fave weapon is cannon (Artillery) may be I can be a dirty piwate if I can just get my mind around the being a baddie bit....

* If you are a hi-sec missioning carebear and join a militia to avoid tax, then sorry you have entered PvP and when you are visited by a taxman in the form of Loren or S810 jr then you deserve to lose your faction fitted Marauder. If you don't want PvP**, don't join a militia.

 ** Please note Eve is a cruel universe and you still might get suicide ganked even when in a NPC corp. However when you lose your faction fitted Marauder that way, I'll feel a bit sorry for you, in the NPC Militia, you're a legitimate target and I will smile at your loss mail. Oh god! May be I am evil after all.....