When I quit the Corporation and discussed the reasoning with its leader he made a comment which really set me off. I didn’t yell at him, but I did mention that he had a dismissive attitude about the validity of other people and their perspectives.
Here’s how the discussion went:
Him: You know you don’t have to come to each and every CTA, but we do require you to attend some.
Me: But, I’m an industrial character. What part does an Industrial character play in PvP?
Him: Well you can train up non-industrial skills…
Me: But then I wouldn’t be an industrial character anymore, do you see how that works? Once I get enough skills to PvP, I become a PvP character not an industrial character, because all you'll want me to do is PvP (since I now can.) It’s not like I am short of things to skill up in the Industrial line. I’ve only got 8 million SP.
Him: But, industrial is not really playing the game.
Me: Ah, thanks for making this easy! Your attitude of “Only PVP counts” is common in 0.0 space, it seems, and I dislike it. I find it insulting to those of us who do not fit neatly into your definition of reality. It reminds me of how society, in general, creates “norms” and utilizes those norms to marginalize anyone who doesn’t conform.
We’ve seen this belittling of culture throughout American history and, I suspect, throughout human history. Whether it’s “Gay people are bad” or “Blacks aren’t our equals” Americans have repeatedly drawn an artificial line in the sand and said “If you’re not on this side of the line, you don’t count.”
What I believe is that we all count – we’re all valid. The person who spends his day scamming noobs is just as valid as the person who PvP’s. The person who AFK Games is just as valid as the person who never undocks because all he does is play the market. Hell, there are some players who don’t even log into the game anymore. The Mittani is a well know spy and he rarely logs into the game, yet he still exerts a huge amount of pressure thanks to his in and out of game spy network. I dare a corporation to say that Mittens isn’t playing the game, loud enough (and offensively enough) for him to hear and to exert his power on you.
EVE is sandbox and, like any schoolyard sandbox, it is filled with a lot of different personalities. Some have built sandcastles and declared that the way to play in the sandbox is to build sandboxes of your own, or to knock down the sandboxes of others. It’s not that these people are wrong; it’s that they’re myopic, simple, and confused about how important they are, in the grand scheme of things.
Yep, you are correct. EvE is a sandbox and while the PvPers tend to be the most vocal, there are many different types of play available within the game. Frankly, that's one of the things that has drawn me to it and kept me interested.
ReplyDeleteDo NOT give up on corps. Do some more research and ask around. There are plenty of corps that would be very happy to have you as a productive member.
Finally, your previous corp sounds like they were poorly organized, if they were expecting industrialists to conduct combat operations. I wish them well with blob-warfare, but sooner or later that model fails - usually quite colorfully.
I'm still a noob, but I definitely think that all play styles are valid. Where would the PvPers get their new toys or replace their old ones without the industrials?!
ReplyDeleteIf you want to be in a high sec corp that is friendly to AFK gamers, and would be helping out the overall Eve community, you should consider joining Eve University!
Bill
I'd just like to say I find your blog interesting (having just found it and read all the posts just now). I've also done some AFK mining (but with more than one miner) and it's really a great programming challenge. I especially enjoy the debugging. Let me know how I can reach you anonymously if you want to compare notes.
ReplyDeleteLatro:
ReplyDeleteGood advice man, I really appreciate it. I really did let this corp put a bad taste in my mount and your post kind of helped me to realize that they were the ones with the problem, not me. I mean, I'd never PVPed, I didn't have any skills for it, I didn't even know what "tackling" was until I joined and read the forums. This guild was hard up because of the war they were in, so I don't judge them TOO harshly, but it was clearly not the place for me.
Bill: I was not aware EVE Uni was AFK gaming friendly! Thanks for the heads up.
Jake: I'm really glad you find it interesting. I really like to write it and I am finding it's a lot easier to find something to talk about every day than I thought it would be. You can email me at eve dottt agent ate gmail