3...2...1...Ignition...

There are times in life when ya just gotta say "Fuck it." and do what feels right. Today was one of those days.

I'd finally gotten to the point where I just had to say something on the E-O forums about the Griefateers, come what may. Basically I'm just fed up with these people not only using noobs as target practice, but then having the unbelievable gall to to try to contend that well after all, EVE is a rough game, so hey, y'know, if six battlecruisers blast a single noob frigate into space dust for no other real reason their own entertainment, we should all be cool with that cuz it's all just part of the game, right? Bullshit.

It's people with attitudes exactly like these that inspired me to bail out on EVE a year and a half ago. Putting the game itself on the side for a moment, the fact is that EVE, as a commercial business, needs a regular supply of new players who get into the game long-term or it will not, it cannot, survive over the long haul. When the first thing new EVE players have to deal with are assholes who gleefully pod them repeatedly just for laughs, chances are they're not going to be sticking around very long, if for no other reason than getting your ass kicked over and over and over, before you've even had a chance to really get your bearings in the game and figure out how to make progress and defend yourself, just isn't any fun at all.

Apparently, some players really just don't seem to care about whether or not EVE will be able to continue to attract and retain new long-term players. What these folks do with their behavior is send a clear message to new players: "Don't expect to be made welcome in this game. This is a place where the strong prey on the weak for the entertainment value. Unless you're a really hardcore PvP'er who's willing to put up with this crap for weeks, maybe months on end until you grow strong enough to defend yourself or find allies who will do it for you, if you're someone who wants more from an MMOG than just PvP, you'd probably best forget about EVE and look elsewhere because we're just not going to let you get to that point.".

That's exactly the message I got the first time I tried this game and a big reason why I didn't return to it for over a year afterward. Why would I? Getting killed over and over no matter where I tried to go or what I tried to do just wasn't any fun, and what's the point of playing any game if it isn't fun? How many noobs have been victimized repeatedly by the Griefateers and finally said "Fuck this...what's the point?" and moved on? How does this sort of behavior help the game or the playerbase as a whole? Answer: It doesn't...quite the opposite in fact.

Also, let's take a reality break for second here: Star Trek Online is coming, pretty soon in fact....June was the last projected launch I've heard, though it's been a while so my info may be outdated. Anyone who thinks STO isn't going to put a serious dent in the EVE subscriber base when it launches is kidding themselves. If EVE remains as inhospitable as it seems it has become to new players, a hell of a lot of players are going to jump ship and head toward a game that not only is based in the most beloved sci-fi universe in history, but which I have absolutely no doubt will be far more welcoming to new players.

Certainly, there are many, especially long-timers, who would stay with EVE because they've got so much invested in it, but those are the serious, hardcore players. Let's be probably overly generous and say 35% of the current EVE playerbase are hardcore enough to stay with the game no matter what. If we take CCP's standard figure of approximately 150,000 total subscribers as accurate, that means that about 52,500 players will almost certainly stay with the game...but what about the other 97,500? How many from that group will stay with this game when there's another, brand-new sci-fi MMOG out there to play, one which is not only based on the most popular sci-fi adventure series ever, but also will almost certainly be a far more grief-free gaming environment than EVE?

Let's think about that for a second. What would happen to EVE if 2/3-3/4 of its players decide to bail and go play Star Trek Online or other MMOG's? Hardcore EVE PvP'ers can proclaim their gaming purity from now until doomsday and it ain't gonna mean shit if all of a sudden EVE doesn't have any players left because they've all sailed on for friendlier shores.

By now, maybe you're thinking "Aaah, she's full of shit...it'll never happen!". Yeah, and I bet there are a lot of players from now-defunct MMOG's that said the same thing about their games...until suddenly, one day, they just weren't there anymore. I have no doubt that CCP would do anything and everything it felt it possibly could to keep EVE alive, but every business has to bow to economic reality sooner or later, and one of the most basic of these is: If there's not enough income to keep a service thriving, eventually the business has to cut its losses or it whithers and dies.

150,000 players...that's not really a very large margin for error. Add to that the fact that we're not talking about EVE having to compete with just any other original sci-fi/space MMOG, but with one based on the most successful sci-fi franchise in history. Many will flock to STO simply because it's new and it's Star Trek. In fact, I'd strongly suspect that STO, if it's as high-quality a game as EVE, will be giving WoW, rather than EVE, a run for its money. Let's be honest, compared to ST's fanbase, EVE's is less than a drop in the bucket. That STO will outsell EVE in subscriptions is pretty much a foregone conclusion, the question is whether it will also kill EVE in the process. Players who act like the Griefateers do nothing but help to ensure that when STO is live, when an attractive alternative does become available, that many more players are going to be disenchanted enough to dump EVE and take advantage of it.

There are plenty of other reasons why what the Griefateers do is wrong and unfair. I've posted some of them in this thread...my comments start about halfway down the page. As expected, just about everyone wants to bash me and tell me that if I can't handle PvP (a bullshit argument at it's core as I don't have a problem with PvP, I have a problem with griefers and bullies) to go play something else. Yeah, great attitude to take on this, people...exactly the way to ensure that the maximum number of players will indeed say "Fuck this!" and bail on EVE as soon as STO goes live.

I've said this a number of times here and elsewhere, but I'll say again: I love this game. It's because I love this game that when I see shit like this going on I feel compelled to speak out. In my opinion, these people are harming something I've come to love and are helping to ensure that sooner or later, it's going to disappear forever because some people are just too selfish to share the wealth and to treat new players decently, at least until they have the time to establish themselves enough to stand on their own as players, even going so far as to declare war and attack a corporation set up as a school for exactly this purpose. It's incomprehensible to me that these other players, who presumably love this game as much as I do, can't seem to wrap their minds around the fact that what they're doing may be technically permissible, but that doesn't mean it's advisable, or good for the game...or maybe, perhaps more likely, they just don't give a shit.

Well, fine...I've said my piece. I'll continue as a player as long as this game continues to be enjoyable and entertaining for me, as I'm sure many will. Yet, I'm also conscious of the fact that this is a game, one that most players pay for on a monthly basis. I've already paid for a full year, so I'm good til next February, but what about those who aren't? What's going to keep them playing EVE instead of moving on to something else? One thing and one thing only: Fun.

No one's going to pay for a game that they don't find to be fun to play. Being treated like shit isn't fun. There's no gun to anyone's head here...in fact, people are paying for the privilege of participating. It's this simple formula that will spell EVE's continued success or it's eventual failure.

Great gameplay and cool graphics can only go so far in making an MMOG a real success. In the end, a game like this lives or dies on the quality of the social and gameplay interactions within its playerbase, and right now, it seems a significant portion of the players are taking great pleasure and pride in behavior that will drive away rather than draw in players, and that, to me, just seems like a recipe for failure.