That'll Do

As Ripard Teg wrote in a recent blog post, CCP has undertaken to break the back of industry in EVE's highsec and lowsec space in order to make nullsec the center of gravity for most of EVE's industry. To the degree the current changes do not achieve that end, we may expect follow-on changes to further make industry anywhere but in sov nullsec non-viable. In effect the message for the casual player is 'go null or go home'.

This will make sov nullsec far more rich than it already is.  As entry to nullsec is controlled by a small subset of the player base, they will control who is allowed to immigrate to their industrial nirvana. And they will be able to eject any industrial players or entities that do not play according to such rules as the lords of nullsec lay down.

To the extent that lowsec is able to compete with sov nullsec, the latter has demonstrated both the willingness and the the ability to reach out using overwhelming capital and supercapital superiority and burn their lowsec competition to the ground.  Burn Jita, ice interdictions and the routine ganking of freighters at transit choke-points has already shown the lords of nullsec's intentions viz highsec.  Player control of POCOs and the removal of standings as a requirement for highsec POS has enhanced sov nullsec's ability to harrass any highsec industrial competition.

There are some players who have said that this will result in a healthier EVE; that the richer sov nullsec is, the more attractive it will be to pirates seeking to pillage and burn.  This is nonsense.  Nothing that is of value in Sov nullsec will be unprotected. The lords of nullsec are already wealthy and making them moreso will not make them more vulnerable.

Quite the contrary.

Though I spend most of my time in NPC nullsec, I believe diversity of play is financially beneficial to EVE Online. It results in a larger audience for a decidedly niche game and is vital to EVE's in-game economy.  I believe the casual player who prefers the sort of play available in lowsec or highsec to the high opera of nullsec are of value to the EVE community.  Indeed, it is that very diversity of play that makes us interesting as a community.

Now, the contempt with which the 'elite' sov nullsec players regard the rest of New Eden has become CCP's official policy.

For myself, I cannot continue to support a game in which my monthly subscription dollars are used to benefit a small subset of the EVE player base, both financially and in terms of quality of play,  to the detriment of all others.  I have no illusions that my departure from EVE Online will change minds or alter the present course of the game. Mine is, after all, a little blog; a tiny niche within the niche game that is EVE Online, with admittedly little resonance within the larger EVE community.  

I will leave The Edge up for a while longer to allow those of you with an interest to browse a bit before closing the site down. 

As I wrote earlier this year, I have found those of you who are regulars at Fiddler's Edge to be a satisfying audience to write for.  You have not only put up with my particularly esoteric and particular prose style, but seemed to enjoy it as well.  You have not been off-put by the esoteric, and have had the patience to follow what might at first glance seem impenetrable, trusting it would lead you somewhere worthwhile.  I have found you a worthwhile audience to cultivate, and you have repaid my poor efforts many times over with your encouragement and reader loyalty.

Godspeed, you capsuleers.