tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86049731128653166342024-03-14T01:55:09.927-07:00Fiddler's EdgeUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger215125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8604973112865316634.post-665879832295337762014-04-29T11:43:00.000-07:002014-04-29T11:43:12.992-07:00The Infinite Reach<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>"Always with the writing," she said with, I thought, a slight strain in her voice.</i><br />
<br />
<i>"Always with the writing," I affirmed quietly.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i> <a href="http://fiddlersedge.blogspot.com/2011/02/interlude-terminalis-fiddlers-end.html">- Interlude Terminales </a></i></blockquote>
<br />
As I commented in my last post, and in response to a few of the emails I've received since, the writing goes on.<br />
<br />
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<br />
I've been working on a new website. That should be ready for prime time in a month or so and, until then, I've set up temporary digs at a new blog site, <a href="http://www.theinfinitereach.blogspot.com/"><i>The Infinite Reach</i></a>. <i>The Reach</i> is dedicated to scribblings about Fantasy and Science Fiction and will include commentary, essays, reviews, reports from the odd convention field trip and the occasional story. I would be pleased and honored if those of you who've enjoyed your time at <i>The Edge</i> would stop by now and again for high tea and a wall of text.<br />
<br />
<i>The Edge</i> has been a little blog. The new website will be a bit more ambitious - certainly not something one writer can accomplish on his own. Knowing you for the talented and insightful readership you are, please feel free to contact me if you develop the writer's itch and wish to propose or submit an essay, interview or review for the new site. I can be reached at my usual mordfiddle gmail address or via my Mord_Fiddle handle on Twitter.<br />
<br />
As to the <i>Fiddler's Edge</i> site, some of you have asked that I keep the
dormant archive active as a player lore artifact. I'm disinclined to do
so for a number of reasons. However, I'll leave it up for a few
additional weeks while I have a think on the best way to sunset the
site. <br />
<br />
Thanks once again for your thoughts, good wishes and parting shots. Post-hoc rationalization is not uncommon when someone we know leaves the EVE Online community. So let me leave you with a few assurances: <br />
<br />
My departure from EVE Online is for the reasons I outlined in <a href="http://fiddlersedge.blogspot.com/2014/04/thatll-do.html"><i>That'll Do</i></a>; no more and no less. I have thought very carefully about the decision and have simply decided that EVE Online is no longer a game I can support financially or through my writing. <br />
<br />
Anyone who says otherwise is itchin' fer a fight. <br />
<br />
My reasons for leaving have been off-putting to a few members of the EVE community. Some have, for reasons of their own, attempted to dismiss my departure as rage-quit or burn-out. The former is mere projection. As to the latter, mine has been a very eventful life this last year and, to the degree I have had the quiet time needed in order to write, <i>Fiddler's Edge</i> has been a welcome refuge from my daily cares and no burden at all.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8604973112865316634.post-79700353174953929352014-04-21T07:58:00.001-07:002014-04-21T11:48:23.498-07:00That'll DoAs Ripard Teg wrote in a <a href="http://jestertrek.blogspot.com/2014/04/traitor.html">recent blog post</a>, 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'.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
Quite the contrary.<br />
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
Now, the contempt with which the 'elite' sov nullsec players regard the rest of New Eden has become CCP's official policy.<br />
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
I will leave <i>The Edge</i> up for a while longer to allow those of you with an interest to browse a bit before closing the site down. <br />
<br />
As I wrote earlier this year, I have found those of you who are regulars at <i>Fiddler's Edge</i> 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.<br />
<br />
Godspeed, you capsuleers. <br />
<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8604973112865316634.post-42837609105135376712014-04-17T11:35:00.000-07:002014-04-17T11:43:44.971-07:00Visions<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>"Any industry feature must be balanced around our risk versus reward philosophy."</i><br />
- CCP Ytterbium </blockquote>
For those of you who missed it, the value of nullsec real estate <a href="http://community.eveonline.com/news/dev-blogs/building-better-worlds/">went up the other day</a>. <br />
<br />
As more comes out about the changes I'll weigh in. However, at first blush this strikes me as a high-risk strategy that rests on some very wobbly assumptions with regard to what the industrial actors in the EVE economy will do. I would very much like to hear what Dr. Eyjog's opinion of the changes were, assuming he was closely consulted. He expressed misgivings with such a direction during the CSM7 summits and seems notably quiet on the matter during the CSM8 summits. But then, more immediate concerns than the health of the in game economy may be driving design at the moment.<br />
<br />
As Drackam over at <i>Sand, Cider and Spaceships</i> <a href="http://community.eveonline.com/news/dev-blogs/building-better-worlds/">writes</a>, this beneficence occurs on the heels of CCP's 20 million dollar write-down, and the collapse of their <i>World of Darkness</i> development project. Meanwhile <i>Dust 514</i> continues to perform poorly in the market, it's player base languishing under the 4,000 mark.<br />
<br />
These dismal tidings are made all the more ominous with the <a href="https://twitter.com/CCP_Unifex/status/456062423393640448">departure</a> of Jon Lander, CCP Unifex, who Ripard Teg <a href="http://jestertrek.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-lost-gem.html">credits</a> with saving EVE Online after the Summer of Rage. CCP Unifex's departure is only the latest in an exodus of talent that has seen some of CCP's best and brightest seek greener pastures elsewhere. Indeed, Poetic Stanzial commented yesterday on Twitter that all of the good CCP employees are jumping into life boats, and that none with any vision remained.<br />
<br />
But perhaps visionary designers are, at the moment, superfluous to the situation on the ground. <br />
<br />
With all of CCP's eggs now in the EVE Online basket, CCP seems suddenly and profoundly dependent the upon the good graces of sovereign nullsec. Sov nullsec is, after all, home to many of EVE Online's 'elite' and high-profile players, and nullsec is the part of EVE Online that receives the most publicity from both the gaming and mainstream media. With this in mind, CCP's sudden willingness to risk their game by handing the keys of the in-game economy to the sov nullsec player-base is not surprising.<br />
<br />
Highsec and lowsec may pay the bills, but they rarely make press.<br />
<br />
And I suppose, if there is an advantage to be had in any aspect of EVE Online, sov nullsec <i>should</i> have it. CCP's design philosophy says that a player's reward opportunities should be closely tied to the risk they face. And as every capsuleer knows, life in sov nullsec is, without exception, one long unending roller coaster ride of heart-stopping peril and certain doom. Those who survive there are the steely-eyed masters of New Eden, the two-fisted heroes of EVE who eat lightning, shit thunder and before whom the very gates of Jovian space tremble. Who among us would gainsay these digital demi-gods an absolute advantage in all things industrial? <br />
<br />
Lowsec? Please! Doing industry in lowsec is for risk-averse pussies. <br />
<br />
With CCP's business model weathering recent set-backs and their design team apparently betting the farm on CSM Mynnna's nullsec-centric vision of EVE Online as their last best hope, one should not be surprised that CCP's visionary employees are seeking employment elsewhere. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8604973112865316634.post-29580949333069502502014-04-11T14:41:00.002-07:002014-04-12T03:58:23.831-07:00The Icarus Agenda<blockquote class="tr_bq">
</blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>"You have no power or desire to lay New Eden low," unbending Hilmar called after him. "And even didst thou, it is the stage 'pon which your own reputation struts. Turn off New Eden's lights and you likewise stand in darkness. Where, Mittani, would you go, New Eden having fallen?"</i><br />
<br />
Fiddlers Edge - <a href="http://fiddlersedge.blogspot.com/2011/09/fever-dream.html"><i>Fever Dream</i></a></blockquote>
<br />
Every now and then I'm asked why I so dislike Goonswarm, Clusterfuck Coalition's (CFC's) dominant alliance. The answer, as I've pointed out <a href="http://fiddlersedge.blogspot.com/2012/06/logoi.html">elsewhere</a>, is that I bear them no particular ill-will. Indeed, on any number of occasions I've allowed that I have a peculiar fondness for Goonswarm's rascally player base (by which I mean it's core, paleo-Goon membership) and that <span id="bc_0_3b+seedOr1PD" kind="d">The Mittani® is much as I'd be if I let my darker self run off leash. </span><br />
<span id="bc_0_3b+seedOr1PD" kind="d"><br /></span>
In fact, regular readers of <i>The Edge</i> readers will recall that I had long foretold the sort of hegemony currently enjoyed by the CFC.<br />
<br />
As long ago as August of 2010 I predicted that the Dominion sovereignty changes coupled with the then-nascent supercapital economy would result in the eclipse of nullsec's 'pure' PVP alliances by economic powers; merchant princes of nullsec who would leverage huge cash inflows in order to dominate nullsec's warrior class.<br />
<br />
I've touched back on that theme over time as changes in game mechanics and the fortunes of war warranted. For those of you jonesing for a <i>Wall O' Text</i> overdose, the full set of 'Carebear' posts can be found here: <br />
<br />
<a href="http://fiddlersedge.blogspot.com/2010/08/rise-of-thecarebears.html">Rise of the Carebears</a><br />
<a href="http://fiddlersedge.blogspot.com/2010/08/rise-of-carebears-part-deux.html">Rise of the Carebears (Part Deux) </a><br />
<a href="http://fiddlersedge.blogspot.com/2011/03/carebears-ascendant.html">Carebears Ascendent</a><br />
<a href="http://fiddlersedge.blogspot.com/2011/07/carebears-unbowed.html">Carebears Unbowed</a><br />
<a href="http://fiddlersedge.blogspot.com/2012/08/carebears-triumphant.html">Carebears Triumphant</a><br />
<a href="http://fiddlersedge.blogspot.com/2013/08/carebear-empires.html">Carebear Empires </a><br />
<br />
The ascent of CFC has proven my 'Rise of the Carebears' hypothesis and disproved the 'Carebear Rot' hypothesis, supported by many detractors at the time I published the original 'Rise' posts. In a very real way, Goonswarm's success has been my success; they have validated a number of key theories of mine with regard to the impact of EVE game mechanics on New Eden's political economy.<br />
<br />
At this point, some of you might be scratching your heads and wondering why, if Goonswarm has demonstrated my bona fides as the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hari_Seldon">Hari Seldon</a> of New Eden, our relationship isn't much cozier. How can I claim a degree of commonality with <span id="bc_0_3b+seedOr1PD" kind="d">The Mittani®, yet periodically </span>thwap the suits on Goonswarm's leadership team with the rhetorical rolled-up newspaper? As a long time champion of economic complexity in nullsec, why aren't I a Goonswarm apologist? In short, why aren't I on their side?<br />
<br />
Well, that would be because I'm on EVE Online's side. <br />
<br />
At the end of the day the rise of economic power in nullsec was inevitable. The ossifying influence of Supercapital proliferation and consolidation on New Eden has been called out for years by a broad cross-section of the EVE blogosphere. Put the two together and the current state of affairs in nullsec was a foregone conclusion. Although we told CCP in no uncertain terms what their designers should have seen coming, CCP couldn't be bothered to listen. They, after all, were the 'experts'. Cue a cascade of quite foreseeable macro-level outcomes to which CCP's design team apparently was willfully blind.<br />
<br />
Now, it would be easy to get all mad at Goonswarm's leadership for acquiring a choke hold on EVE Online. However, it's important to bear in mind that they are playing the game CCP provides and can do no more than CCP allows. While it's true The Mittani<span id="bc_0_3b+seedOr1PD" kind="d">®</span> and Goonswarm's leadership have a <a href="http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304887104579306663398628476">financial interest</a> in maximizing their in-game notoriety and their influence within CCP and EVE Online, their gaming of the game is not new. It is merely more efficient. And while one might quibble over whether the advantage a well-managed semi-professional player enterprise has over a recreational player enterprise is 'fair', the presence of the former in EVE Online is not new either.<br />
<br />
Eventually, someone with a sufficient insight, business acumen and time on their collective hands was going to take advantage of CCP's blinkered design approach. If it wasn't Goonswarm sucking all the oxygen out of New Eden it would be somebody else. Heck, it was almost the Drone Russian Federation (DRF). Recall it was Krutoj the Destroyer who famously coined the phrase 'ISK wins wars'. They ran the nullsec table back in the Fall of 2011, and looked to be settling in for a long turn as the big bad of EVE.<br />
<br />
However the DRF had several things working against them. First of all, they didn't have an organization structured to cohere in the absence of a common enemy. Secondly, for the DRF, the in-game utility of ISK was limited to fighting wars. Military, not economic hegemony was their game, and ISK and production inflows were a means to that end. Finally, their ambitions ended at the borders of sovereign nullsec. Once nullsec was won the DRF was rather at loose ends. Boredom set in, old grudges surfaced, and in the absence of external enemies they began to war among themselves. The DRF's <a href="http://fiddlersedge.blogspot.com/2012/05/rationality.html">fall</a> from the Technetium throne followed soon thereafter. <br />
<br />
CFC is a different breed of organizational cat.<br />
<br />
Goonswarm's leadership has structured the CFC as a hierarchy of alliances rather than a confederation of nominal equals. Federations of equals sound good on paper, but are very ineffective when it comes to collective action. As the alliance atop the CFC hierarchy, Goonswarm's leadership team consults with coalition alliances but wields the decision hammer with a firm hand. For most CFC alliances this is a good thing as, thus far, it returns positive results. Even alliances at the bottom of the CFC reward hierarchy are averse to risking their protected space and income in nullsec's new order against an uncertain future elsewhere.<br />
<br />
In order
to avoid the sort of internal frictions that consumed the DRF in the
absence of external enemies, aggressive tendencies in the CFC must be directed outwards. With a lock on the supercapital high ground and their movement toward massed capital ship fleets, boredom is Goonswarm's sole clear and present existential
threat. And the only preventative for that is new enemies and new
conquests. If those cannot be credibly manufactured in sovereign nullsec, then they will have to be found in other parts of New Eden.<br />
<br />
Goonswarm's leadership plays a broad-spectrum game of EVE Online.
Their approach to the game is an intersection of war, markets, media,
industry, intrigue and metagame. In this sense they access a much
larger set of in-game and out-of-game levers as they interact with the
game than do their opponents. And, unlike their opponents in the
sovereignty game, Goonswarm's ambitions, both in terms of influence and
income, do not end at the borders of sovereign nullsec.<br />
<br />
Finally, it's critical to recall that Goonswarm's leadership in its present incarnation delights in <a href="http://fiddlersedge.blogspot.com/2013/04/breakfast-of-champions.html">playing EVE Online's players</a>
more than they do in playing EVE Online. Machiavellian metagame, not
digital capture the flag, is their entertainment of choice. For the Mittani<span id="bc_0_3b+seedOr1PD" kind="d">®</span> and his advisers, winning
nullsec in and of itself is not winning EVE, though it is an important prerequisite to so
doing. In this extended game paradigm, hegemony in nullsec is merely
one stage in a larger game that
encompasses the whole of New Eden. Victory is achieved to the degree
that fun in EVE Online is a commodity Goonswarm's leadership can
dispense or withhold at their will.<br />
<br />
This is not a bad thing. Really. <br />
<br />
As I mentioned above, Goonswarm has embraced industrial and economic activities as components of a larger strategy, forcing other in-game entities to think and play in those terms as well. That makes EVE a more nuanced and interesting game as long as alternate play styles are viable and rewarding. Further, from a narrative standpoint, the larger Goonswarm story arc with it's transition from Goons as plucky upstarts taking on the Big Bad BoB (Band of Brothers), to Goons as EVE Online's version of <i>Firefly</i>'s Alliance, <i>Star Wars</i>' Empire or <i>Game of Thrones</i>' House Lannister is nothing if not compelling. In a game that depends on player interaction to
drive content, the value of a good, neigh-invincible villain cannot be overstated.<br />
<br />
However (and you knew there would be a however) I believe certain of The Mittani<span id="bc_0_3b+seedOr1PD" kind="d">®</span> and company's out-of-game activities to this end go profoundly against the interests of the larger EVE player community. Thus, bide a moment while I roll up a copy of this morning's <i>Post</i>. <br />
<br />
<span id="bc_0_3b+seedOr1PD" kind="d">I</span>n order to realize their in game agenda, The Mittani<span id="bc_0_3b+seedOr1PD" kind="d">®</span> and company are pressing for changes to a number of foundational game mechanics. While pitched primarily as attempts to 'fix' the <a href="http://www.ninveah.com/2014/04/willful-ignorance.html">self-inflicted paralysis</a> in nullsec, the desired effect is quite the opposite. The primary immediate beneficiaries of the desired changes are The Mittani<span id="bc_0_3b+seedOr1PD" kind="d">®</span> and company. They are intended to make holding sov nullsec even more profitable than it already is, and allow nullsec's dominant entities to further lock in their control of that space. Further, the proposed changes allow the lords of nullsec to gain a stranglehold on New Eden's means of production and key inputs thereto.<br />
<br />
The good news is that, should CCP implement the desired changes, any benefits that accrue to the lords of nullsec are likely to be short lived. The bad news is that this would be because, at least as described, the desired changes would very likely bring about the wholesale collapse of New Eden.<br />
<br />
Now before you set your collective hair on fire and start resorting to reductio ad tinfoilhattium, consider these questions: Would EVE Online re-engineered to be an MMORPG of, by and for Goonswarm be commercially viable? What would be the consequences if the EVE economy went into a tailspin so profound that CCP could not prevent its effective collapse? <br />
<br />
To put it in classic science fiction terms: The Mittani<span id="bc_0_3b+seedOr1PD" kind="d">®</span> and company are meddling with powers they do not understand. I appreciate they think they do; hubris is part of most tales that end in tragedy. And if they were taking upon themselves the attendant risk, I'd say 'godspeed', take out an insurance policy on them, and let them have their Icarus moment.<br />
<br />
In this case, however, every resident of New Eden has some skin in the unintended macro-level outcomes looming in the digital wings. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8604973112865316634.post-19554708709903878842014-03-26T09:26:00.000-07:002014-04-03T07:10:18.857-07:00Heroikos<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Blog Banter #54 - Heros<br />
<br />
Welcome to the continuing monthly EVE Blog Banters and our 54th edition! For more details about what the blog banters are visit the Blog Banter page.<br />
* * * * *<br />
<i>Today's topic comes from <a href="http://diaries-of-a-space-noob.blogspot.ca/2014/02/day-612-swashbucklin-in-brooklyn.html">Diaries of a Space Noob</a> blog and other sources:<br />
<br />"Quick post. I was listening to a song and a question occurred to me. Where are the EVE heroes? Against a dark background surely all we have are anti-heroes? A lot of mockery is aimed at any who attempt to be white knights. EVE is a dark place and yet pretty much all other MMO's try to place the player in the role of some form of hero, boosting the ego and taking the player out of the humdrum 1 in 7 billion that is RL. Why have I fitted into EVE? Did I never want to be that? So Iguess my question is:</i><br />
<i><br />
"Do classic heroes exist in EVE? Is such heroism even possible in EVE? How would you go about being one without opening yourself wide open to scams? Is the nature of the game so dark that heroes can't exist? How do you deal with that irony? What effect does this have on us and the psyche of new players coming in from other MMOs? Is it something special that we don't have classic heroes, or should we? Are our non classic heroes more genuine?" </i></blockquote>
<br />
First things first:<br />
<br />
Virtue, goodness, codes of honor and the other generally accepted cultural markers of morality are not prerequisites to being a hero. Paragons of virtue can be heroes, but they do not define heroism. Acts of heroism as not necessarily virtuous acts. The relative morality of a person has very little to do with whether or not he or she is a hero.<br />
<br />
Consider: <br />
<ul>
<li>Achilles allowed his fellow Achaeans to be routed and his best friend slaughtered because he was having a fit of pique over being denied a female prisoner he wished to enslave and rape. </li>
<li>Thomas More burned 'heretics' while dreaming of Utopia</li>
<li>Galahad was a suicide. His father, Lancelot, was an adulterer and a traitor to his king. </li>
<li>Charlemagne, light of the early Middle Ages, ordered the slaughter of 4,500 unarmed Saxons, and enacted laws sentencing to death Germanic non-Christians who refused to convert</li>
<li>Lil Orphan Annie was watched over by two deadly Au Pairs; the assassins Punjab and Asp. Plucky optimism is an easier world view to cultivate when a couple of morally unconstrained killing machines have one's back. </li>
<li>Deception was wily Odysseus' stock in trade, and he shared Calypso's bed for years before finally returning to Ithaca after two decades of war, piracy and nymph-shagging. There he murdered from ambush the suitors gathered to court Penelope, his presumed widow</li>
</ul>
Forget about the distinction between anti-heroes and heroes. Anti-heroes are heroes. Period. The only reason the term 'anti-hero' exists at all is that the various boards of censors during the twentieth century such as the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_Picture_Production_Code">MPPC</a>, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_Practices_for_Television_Broadcasters">CPTB</a> and the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comics_Code_Authority">CCA</a> had so undermined and bound the core concept of heroism to a narrow moral code that such characters' utility as a compelling narrative force was severely compromised. An entirely new word was needed to reintroduce the morally ambiguous heroic figure back into popular culture.<br />
<br />
So, jettison any lingering notions of 'Lawful Good' and the rest of the
Dungeons & Dragons moral spectrum from your thinking. Get the
trademarked Disney heroes out of your head. Prince Charming never got
half the ass-kicking he deserved.<br />
<br />
Traditionally, a hero is a protector or defender whose deeds are 'larger than life', i.e., far beyond what we would reasonably expect of ourselves or others given a similar situation. The hero usually battles against what would seem to be impossible odds and somehow manages, through strength, skill, sacrifice or sheer stubbornness, to beat them. A hero may be a cultural archetype, but it is often a hero's distance from the archetype that makes his or her story compelling.<br />
<br />
Finally, never forget that one group's hero is another group's villain. And yes, that means heroism is subject to moral relativism. Ajax and Achilles were heroes to the Achaeans, but little more than the
worst of a grubby mob of thieves and murderers to the Trojans. Crazy Horse was a hero to the Sioux, but somewhat less popular among the troopers of the US 7th Cavalry regiment. And I'm sure there are Imperial Storm Troopers who collect Sith Lord trading cards, hang Darth Vader posters in their barracks and have exceedingly unpleasant things to say about intergalactic terrorists like Luke, Obi-Wan and Yoda.<br />
<br />
A number of writers in answering this blog banter have stated that there are no heroes in EVE. EVE Online, they reason, is far too cynical and jaded for heroes. <br />
<br />
Piffle, say I.<br />
<br />
The hero's natural place is among the jaded and the cynical. It is fallow ground for heroes precisely because it is when we need them most, and when they arrive most unlooked for and unrecognized. <br />
<br />
My own list of EVE heroes is a long one that goes back to my earliest
years in game. Some would surprise you. Many of them, as is true of most
real-life heroes, are largely unknown to all but a handful of the EVE
population.
They are and have been leaders, warriors, thieves, tricksters and
industrialists. Their deeds of derring-do, self-sacrifice and
steely-eyed courage will
never grace the pages of EN24 or TMC. Indeed, most do not consider themselves
heroes.<br />
<br />
I would not have it otherwise.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8604973112865316634.post-29634165514402485952014-02-19T15:30:00.000-08:002014-02-22T06:07:21.486-08:00Blue Balls and Adverse Possession <blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>If a barbarian horde comes over your borders and you won’t or
can’t field a force to turn them back, you’ve no one to blame but
yourself when they start drinking your tea, eating cake off the good
china and leaving the toilet seats up.</i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>“Hey, nice bit of real estate,” they’ll say “Good pig country. And
there’s nobody using it. I think we’ll stay.” Next thing you know, the
locals are calling the lead barbarian “Your Highness”. </i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
- Fiddler's Edge, <a href="http://fiddlersedge.blogspot.com/2010/07/barbarians-at-gates.html">Barbarians at the Gates</a></blockquote>
The blue-ball doctrine is, in essence, the practice of denying fights to the enemy. It is commonly employed by members of sov holding alliances when raiding parties roams their space and those home-defense forces willing and able to counter the interlopers are not sufficient to guarantee said interlopers are properly curb-stomped.<br />
<br />
By denying a raiding party the kills and good fights they came for, the blue-ball doctrine seeks to discourage marauding bad guys without having to call in the cavalry. When a band of desperadoes ride into nullsec town, guns blazing, the locals simply safe up and wait them out. And, absent an overwhelming home-defense fleet advantage, this makes perfect sense as there is no penalty for defensive indifference.<br />
<br />
Everything of real value to the locals and the sov holding entity is protected by reinforce timers. As you might imagine, returning to complete one's pillage and burn on a schedule known to local law enforcement is not in the raiding party idiom. As such, high value resources are normally safe from roaming desperadoes, as are an alliance's sovereignty infrastructure. <br />
<br />
CCP has, of course, added deployable structures sans reinforce timers to provide targets for raiding parties without threatening the nullsec status quo. However, at the end of the day such structures don't represent significant enough of a strategic or financial loss to get the locals or the sov holders onto the field of battle. And, absent any motivation to defend one's space, blue-balling is the smart strategy for passive defense: Deny the desperado fights. Deny the desperado kills. Deny the desperado fun. A sufficiently bored desperado will soon be on his way to elsewhere, and slow to return. <br />
<br />
Now, nullsec alliances often overextend their sovereign space, claiming more systems than they can actively use. There are a number of reasons for this, some financial, some logistic and some strategic. However, the end result is that much of sovereign nullsec is very sparsely populated. As many players will attest, once you leave the main traffic pipelines and jump bridge systems, it is possible to travel through one sov-controlled system after another without encountering another player.<br />
<br />
Yet, despite a
near complete absence of resistance to their presence in such places,
raiders can do little harm to a sovereign's interests. And again, there's no
penalty to sovereigns who fail to repulse invading subcapital fleets.<br />
<br />
But what if there were?<br />
<br />
There is a difference between holding sovereignty over a territory
and controlling it. Historically when barbarians show up to pillage the village the local sovereign may temporarily lose control of the village, but his/her long-term sovereignty is not in question. The locals go back to generating revenue from the territory and all is as it
was. The status quo is maintained. <br />
<br />
However, sometimes the barbarians don't leave. Sometimes they hang around
and prevent the local population from harvesting resources or
generating revenue from the territory. Or they begin keeping said revenues and
harvests for themselves. Initially the barbarians are interlopers. However, unless sovereign takes umbrage at being so dispossessed and visits a
big ol' can of kingly whup-ass on the barbarians in a timely manner, said barbarians become the de-facto rulers in the sovereign's place. This sort of thing isn't uncommon when sovereigns become too weak or distracted to take an interest in local affairs at the far ends of an over-extended empire.<br />
<br />
An <a href="http://kaedamaxwell.blogspot.com/2014/02/00-bears-have-attitude-problem.html">emergent form</a> of game-play in EVE Online is for a gang of 'barbarians', especially
those in need of cash, to hang out in a sov-nullsec system for a while, and rat
some anomalies. In addition to being a means of picking a fight with
the locals (“Hey, I’m ratting
your sanctum! I'm AFK taking a shower! Come stop me if you can!”), it is a much safer and more lucrative way to make
ISK than ratting in lowsec.<br />
<br />
With some slight tweaks to the sovereignty mechanics, this pattern of play could be leveraged to allow supercapital poor (or indifferent) alliances some stake in the nullsec game, and increase the amount of small an medium fleet action in nullsec.<br />
<br />
For example: <br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Rixx Javix and his merry band of piratical anarchists have begun to target a sov nullsec system. They camp the system on an ongoing basis. They rat its anomalies and pod any of the locals foolish enough to venture in their direction. They sell the mining rights, take over the POCOs and lie in wait using the miners as bait for sov-holder gangs. If a sov holder fleet too big to handle shows up, they fade away, but always return after the fleet is gone and take up where they left off. They eschew any grinding of sovereignty infrastructure. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At a certain tipping point, such forces in New Eden as manage claims
to sovereignty will say to the owners of that system, "Look. I know you claim overlordship of this system, but I
can’t help but notice that <i>Stay Frosty</i> is actually running things there. They are collecting a substantial majority of the system's revenues and resources. You're not using the system and you are either unwilling or unable to prevent <i>Stay Frosty</i> from so doing. Thus, you have tacitly surrendered control
of this system.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m pulling your
sovereignty."<br />
<br />
I call it the <u><i>Adverse Possession</i></u> (AKA Squatters Rights) mechanic. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In such cases, from a design standpoint, there are several ways
one could go. My favorite option would be for the <i>Stay Frosty</i> squatters to be offered sovereignty of the system as they have demonstrated effective control over time. In such a scenario, <i>Stay Frosty</i> would have the option to: </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Accept Sovereignty:</b> In this case <i>Stay Frosty</i> gains sovereignty over the system with all the attendant rights and responsibilities. All existing sovereignty infrastructure, including stations, SCUs and iHubs become <i>Stay Frosty</i>'s. If <i>Stay Frosty</i> doesn't have sufficient funds available to pay the requisite sovereignty costs, accepting sovereignty is not a valid response to the offer. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Refuse Sovereignty:</b> Sovereignty in the system is dropped. All existing sovereignty structures become unanchored. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">If <i>Stay Frosty</i> does not respond to the sovereignty offer notification within a set
period of time, it is treated as a refusal of the sovereignty offer. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><b>Ransom Sovereignty: </b> <i>Stay Frosty</i> may offer to ransom the system back to the former sovereignty holder for an amount set by <i>Stay Frosty</i> (pirates, after all). The ransom offer can be made only to the sovereignty holder. If the sovereignty holder accepts within a set period of time, they automatically pay the ransom and retain sovereignty over the system. If the </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">sovereignty holder refuses or cannot afford to pay the ransom, or fails to respond within the allowed time period, <i>Stay Frosty</i> retains the option to accept or refuse sovereignty, but may not make further ransom offers.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
Of course, the sov holder can always unlimber his supercapital fleet and retake sovereignty of a lost system. However, beyond the costs and inconvenience of so doing, we've seen the awkward strategic, tactical and political blow-back that can result when sov is lost due to inattention. And an overextended sovereign engaged in wars elsewhere may find that playing a continuous game of wack-a-mole to reclaim peripheral or low value systems isn't worth the while. <br />
<br />
As I said long ago, one of the things I like about the Dominion Sov mechanics is that they require an active defense of one's space. However, with the proliferation of supercapitals, only possessors of large fleets of these ships can contest nullsec sovereignty. With the consolidation of such fleets into fewer and fewer hands, the need to actively defend sovereign space is on the wane.<br />
<br />
Adverse Possession mechanics would provide subcapital fleets and gangs a meaningful role in nullsec. Its requirement that sov-holders not only claim systems with sovereignty infrastructure, but actively control them, would inject risk into blue-balling as a strategy against small fleets, and should lead to more subcap PvP dust ups in parts of nullsec that have gotten <a href="https://twitter.com/midi2304/status/432495224875933696">all too peaceful</a>. <br />
<br />
I do not expect the Adverse Possession mechanic to be popular with nullsec's current <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoi_oligoi" title="Hoi oligoi">hoi oligoi</a>.<i> </i>It will likely discomfort them. Their empires would be smaller. Small players, formerly beneath their notice, would enter the sovereignty game. They'd see more visits from lowsec as naughty folk like Rixx Javix and Kaeda Maxwell would have a new way to pick fights in local, and to shake coin from the pockets of the mighty. The lords of nullsec would rest less easily on their starry beds. <br />
<br />
But this is EVE, and no one should sleep <i>too</i> soundly. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8604973112865316634.post-46680745254049590972014-02-07T14:16:00.001-08:002014-02-07T14:16:08.054-08:00Spreadsheets in SpaceIn real life I do an excellent impersonation of a responsible adult. <br />
<br />
While I don't hide the fact that I play EVE Online, it's not something I wear on my sleeve. As a (ahem) mature player I am of the 'analog' generations. This is to say, I am old enough recall when vacuum tubes were the primary technology underpinning consumer electronics. <br />
<br />
'Analogs' tend to find MMPORGs (and social media in general) somewhat suspect and off-putting; life sinks that gobble up time and money that could be better spent on worthwhile real-life pursuits and persons. Real adults, in the minds of many Analogs, don't play in online worlds, particularity adults who wish to be trusted with responsibility. Online amusements involving spaceships, vampires or wizards are 'kid-stuff' and, even in that context, are suspect.<br />
<br />
Mrs. Mord takes a fiendish delight in 'outing' me as an online gamer.<br />
<br />
This usually occurs at social events during which some combination of economists,
lawyers, corporate execs or academics are chatting over drinks, and discussion
turns to the role of online worlds in the dissolution of our youth and the
overall decline of civilization. Now, Mrs. Mord's intent in such cases is not to embarrass me, but to challenge the established Analog orthodoxy regarding adults who play MMPORGs. She, in effect, is presenting me as the exemplar of the responsible grown-up; as mature, accomplished and charming as anyone else in the room. It's really quite a lavish complement. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span><br />
<br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">That, and she enjoys seeing me squirm. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">However, it's usually done in a good cause. Most recently she outed me in order to engage the two youngest people at a New Year lunch; the sixteen and twenty one year-old son and daughter of a multinational VP.</span> The mother of these youngsters was lamenting the fact that her children were wasting <i>so</i> much of their lives online when they could be developing <i>'real'</i> friendships, meeting the <i>right</i> kind of people, planning their futures, and in general shaking the dust of their digital childhoods from their shoes.<br />
<br />
There may have been something said about the importance of fresh air and exercise too. I'm not sure. She went on for a bit and I sort of checked out.<br />
<br />
The sixteen year-old had drifted into the thousand yard stare as well. He managed to look attentive and well behaved while he did, which speaks to the rigor of his upbringing. However he was present in the room only to degree minimally required by the parental rule of law. His elder sister, being the principle target of her mother's fears, was executing an impressive slow smoulder during the conversation. Seems being disapproved of in the third person to a room full of boring old people was not a winning argument in favor of the 'real' world.<br />
<br />
Suddenly Mrs. Mord found an opening. "He plays EVE Online," she said, nodding toward me. <br />
<br />
The room went suddenly quiet. Everyone looked a bit confused - most because they had no idea what EVE Online was. But suddenly the conversation had moved onto to familiar terrain for the kids and they engaged with a will, explaining to the room what EVE Online was, what the 'sandbox' was, and doing a rather good executive summary of how EVE compared and contrasted with other MMPORG offerings. The sister sat down next to her mother and launched into a fairly sophisticated and well informed explanation of EVE's in game economy.<br />
<br />
It lasted thirty minutes. Her mother looked daggers at me the whole time. <br />
<br />
In my responsible adult disguise I'm usually safely invisible to anyone under thirty. However, before they left, the sibs pulled me aside to talk a bit of MMPORGs in general and EVE Online in particular. They had both played it, the sister apparently on and off for a while. So I asked them why they didn't keep with it.<br />
<br />
"Spreadsheets in space," said the sister.<br />
<br />
"Those guys are assholes," said the brother.<br />
<br />
Which brings me to my point. <br />
<br />
The sister is graduating with a natural science degree. Math and stats is in her wheelhouse. The brother is a JV lineman on his high school football team. I'd call him six foot six and two hundred twenty plus pounds of solid muscle, and he faces off against equally big guys for fun. She's not afraid of running numbers and he's not afraid of conflict. Neither are put off by the game's complexity. <br />
<br />
Yet, despite their obvious fascination with EVE Online, despite their being in the sweet spot of the gaming industry's target demographic, they don't want to play CCP's game.<br />
<br />
It's nice that EVE Online is seeing a spike in player interest after all the publicity over recent
events in nullsec. However, if past precedent holds, not many will be
engaged by the game and most will depart before too long. CCP knows this occurs, but doesn't seem to know why it occurs. <br />
<br />
CCP knows a lot about the people who self select into the EVE Online community. However the answer to why players leave will not be found among the the players who stay. CCP needs to go outside the EVE bubble if they're to find out why, beyond a relatively small and self-reinforcing subset of the gaming community, EVE is more interesting to read about than it is to play. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8604973112865316634.post-55046933371580185332014-02-05T06:43:00.002-08:002014-02-05T06:43:51.503-08:00Mord, Lord of Delve<br />
I've been thinking or ruling Delve. <i> Mord, Lord of Delve</i>. It has a deep, sonorous ring to it that's pleasing to to the ear. It tolls majestically, as a name from the <i>Nibelung</i> or the <i>Poetic Edda</i>. OK, yes; <i>Lord of the Rings</i> too. Tolkien sourced his names heavily from old Germanic/Norse works. <br />
<br />
Of course one should never make such decisions solely on aesthetic considerations. Delve would not be my first choice of regions for a number of strategic and economic reasons. Still.<br />
<br />
"<i>Mord, Lord of Vale of the Silent</i>" <br />
Too wordy.<br />
<br />
"<i>Mord, Lord of Tribute</i>" <br />
It's all 'Lo, the tax man cometh!' <br />
<br />
"<i>Mord, Lord of Period Basis</i>" <br />
Ew.<br />
<br />
"<i>Mord, Lord of Outer Passage</i>" <br />
Double Ew. <br />
<br />
"<i>Mord, Lord of Fade</i>"<br />
As if.<br />
<br />
"<i>Mord, Lord of Querious</i>" <br />
Well, I can <i>be</i> querulous at times. Still.<br />
<br />
See? It keeps coming back to <i>Mord, Lord of Delve</i>. And Delve does have the advantage of being something of a turn-key rental operation. The tenants are already there and, with the right incentives I'm sure they could be encouraged to stay under new management.<br />
<br />
Of course, the current landlords would have to be convinced of the wisdom of turning the rule of Delve over to me. Hmmm. That could be a challenge. I can think of four or five ways it might be managed and only two of them could be accomplished without a fanatical army/barbarian horde at my back. And a quick glance over my shoulder confirms I'm a bit short in the fanatical army or barbarian horde department at the moment.<br />
<br />
Well, perhaps that can be remedied. This is EVE after all, and the play's the thing. What with events in nullsec of late I'm sure there's more than a few fanatical armies/barbarian hordes jostled loose and wandering about, at loose ends and with an axe to grind. In fact you may be just such a fanatical army/barbarian horde, in need of useful occupation and a bit of blood-letting. Or you may be close friends with a fanatical army/barbarian horde in a mood to create some in-game events to call their own. <br />
<br />
If that's the case, we should talk. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8604973112865316634.post-79866064598267698362014-02-01T13:08:00.001-08:002014-02-01T13:14:07.654-08:00The Gaming Media<br />
I'm in mid-think about events surrounding and related to battle at B-R5RB. Most of what can be said about the immediate outcomes and aftermath has already been said. The battle has been a high probability event and waiting in the wings for some time. In and of itself, the battle produced little more than shrugs in the offices at Fiddler's Edge. The questions of where, when and of magnitude were much more interesting. I've been reading and listening to numerous holdings forth on "what it all means" and most have, I believe, missed the mark by a wide margin.<br />
<br />
I'll publish a piece once the current sound and fury dies down.<br />
<br />
In the meantime, over at <a href="http://madhaberdashers.wordpress.com/2014/01/30/massively-irrelevant/">Mad Haberdashers</a>, Corelein has taken <a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/">Massively</a>, an online gaming 'zine, to task for shallow coverage of the industry in general and the quality of its writing which, Corelin points out, are often no more than a restatement of a company press release. In particular, Corelin calls <a href="http://fiddlersedge.blogspot.com/2011/05/sock-puppet.html">Brenden Drain</a> (who writes the <a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/2014/01/26/eve-evolved-eve-needs-real-colonisation-now/">EVE Evolved</a> column at Massively) to account. Corelin suggests that Brendan, a paid blogger, should write at least as well as any number of unpaid bloggers such as Ripard Teg, Rixx Javix, Noizy Gamer or (ahem) Mord Fiddle.<br />
<br />
A bit further down Corelin writes: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"I’m just gonna link <a href="http://fiddlersedge.blogspot.com/">Fiddler’s Edge</a> because… well… I have no interest in being fair. Mord has Brendan beaten like a rented mule." </blockquote>
My blushes.<br />
<br />
In the comment section, Matt Westhorpe of <a href="http://freebooted.blogspot.com/">Freebooted</a> fame joins the fray and comes to Brenden's defense. He and Corelin have a very thoughtful exchange - one well worth reading. Matt being the writer Matt is, the meat of his argument is laid out early on: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"I’ve always taken pride in ensuring that I try to I write something well-researched, fresh and engaging. However, you soon realise the folly of spending an entire working day (or longer) information gathering for and writing a 1200-word article when you work out the hourly rate. However, I have no intention of capitulating on my principles (which is why it is unlikely I will survive as a games journalist).<br />
<br />
With this in mind, it is not at all surprising to see unpaid blogs written by people who write for the love of the topic and the joy of writing producing material of exceptional quality, whilst in contrast, paid writers find themselves increasingly pushed toward ‘churnalism’ by their paymasters.<br />
<br />
Personally, I think Brendan does a good job of maintaining a balance between writing accessibly for an EVE-curious audience and delving into enough detail to sate those who are more informed.<br />
<br />
On the other hand, Mord has the luxury of being able to focus his appeal on his choice of audience, providing some fantastic but very esoteric and often impenetrably niche material."</blockquote>
<br />
<br />
First of all, thanks to Corelin for his kind words. Without taking anything away from Brendan it's always gratifying to have one's work held up as an example of a good read - in spite of my apparent tendency toward the esoteric and impenetrable. <br />
<br />
As Matt points out, anyone wishing to write a 'popular' blog will follow a well circulated set of rules and guidelines, almost every one of which I violate with abandon. I do challenge my readers at times. However, I find that those of you who are regulars at <i>The Edge</i> are not only up to the challenge, but enjoy it as well. You are not off-put by the esoteric, and have the patience to follow what might at first glance seem impenetrable, trusting it will lead you somewhere worthwhile. I find you a worthwhile audience to cultivate, and you have repaid my poor efforts many times over with your encouragement and reader loyalty. <br />
<br />
While the act of receiving payment for work can change the nature of the work, this is not an absolute. Many writers like Matt stand on their principles, even if it means a reduction in output or an investment of labor that makes no economic sense in terms of shillings per hour. However, writing content tailored to the payer's wants doesn't seem to be the issue in this case. <br />
<br />
Brendan's difficulty does not seem to be one of editorial directives so much as that he does not have the time to write in-depth owing to the demands on his time by his Predestination project. Assuming that's the case, both Brendan and Massively's editorial board are not serving each other (or their readers) well. Brenden ends up providing Massively with low value-add content and Massively, occupied in pushing new content to drive revenue, ends up publishing low value-add content. <br />
<br />
So long as no one holds zines like Massively accountable for the quality of the content they publish, zines like Massively will not hold the writers of that content (such as Brendan) to meaningful quality standards. And good authors like Matt, who are willing to put in the time and effort to write well, will always be undervalued by zines like Massively as long as the status quo holds and writers can get paid for submitting the journalistic equivalent of toenail clippings. <br />
<br />
It is ironic that as Corelin attempts to hold Brenden and Massively accountable for their content, Matt is arguing against such accountability. Of course Matt is arguing on behalf of a fellow writer, which is laudable. However, in so doing he is, by his own admission, arguing for a system in which talent like his own has little place. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8604973112865316634.post-14654195967155246722014-01-10T06:56:00.003-08:002014-01-11T07:05:03.043-08:00The Butterfly EffectOnce upon a time, roughly 1,150 years ago, a pimply teen-aged boy did what pimply teen-aged boys have always done since pimply teen-aged boys first walked the earth. He screwed up his courage, asked a girl if she'd go out with him, and got shot down in flames. Then as now, the pimply teen-aged boy ego is prone to bruising and, by all accounts, the girl in question was less than gentle in administering the brush-back. There is no doubt the young man took it to heart. However, as I often say, it's an ill wind that blows no one good. <br />
<br />
Thanks to his humiliation we have EVE Online.<br />
<br />
Now, some of you may know precisely what I'm going on about and already made the necessary logical leap from a bruised medieval ego to digital spaceships. For most readers, however, some elucidation is in order. Pull up a chair. <br />
<br />
You see, the young man in question did not have the option of retreating to his parent's
basement and treating his wounded ego to a week of non-stop video games, pizza
and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirvana_(band)">Nirvana</a>. In Northern Europe in the 860s there were no video games. None. Not
even Pong. Depressing music was available, but monks were required (Ew.); lots of monks (double Ew) if you wanted to crank it up real loud. I'm
not sure about the pizza, but even if some corollary to pizza existed it would
have been topped with stuff like unseasoned mutton or smoked fish. Tomato
sauce was certainly out of the question as was anything we'd recognize today as
pizza delivery. <br />
<br />
Lacking the modern balms for a broken heart, he conquered Norway instead.<br />
<br />
I am, of course, referring to Harald Hálfdanarson, better known to history
as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harald_Fairhair">Harald Fairhair</a>, the first king of Norway. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">Now in giving Harald the heave-ho, the </span>cheeky object of his desire, one Gyda Eiriksdottir of Hordal, said something along the lines of “Sure, dweeb, I’ll go
out with you. When you’re king of all Norway.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
<br />
It should be pointed out that Norway at the time was comprised of
a number of petty kingdoms, each with its own ruler. They were a proud, fractious
and independent lot who, when they weren’t out raiding the rest of Europe, feuded mightily with each other. The odds
of anyone, let along a pimply teen-aged boy, subjugating this fierce collection
of earls and petty kings under a single crown seemed so long as to be impossible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thus, Gyda was sending Harald
off with the 862 CE equivalent of ‘When hell freezes over”. It was a bit of girlish snark that would profoundly change the <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">course of European history.</span><br />
<br />
Like many young men of today, Harald was slow to take the hint. As Gyda
hadn’t said ‘no’ outright, and, being something of an optimist, Harald felt he
was still in the game.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All he had to do,
he reasoned, was become high king of Norway and date night with Gyda was
on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And he must have been looking
forward to date night quite a lot, because a mere ten years later, at the battle of
Hafrsfjord, the last significant opposition to his rule was vanquished. Lo and huzzah, Harald was king of Norway.<br />
<br />
And Harald was all “Yeah baby! How d’ya like me now?”<br />
. <br />
OK, loose translation. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But as it
turns out, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyda_Eiriksdottir">Gyda</a> liked him well enough to become the first queen of Norway and bear
him five sons. In fact Harald would father no fewer than twenty one sons
altogether (that we know of) with six different women. So despite inauspicious beginnings, I like to think things turned out well for Herald. He'd won the throne and he'd gotten the girl. Cue the triumphant end title music and run the credits.<br />
<br />
Of course where there are winners, there are usually losers and the unification of Norway was no exception. Things had decidedly <i>not</i> turned out well for the earls and petty kings who had opposed Harald to the bitter end. At best they would be forced to submit to Harald and suffer the humiliation of accepting their place in the new order from his hand; a place likely beneath those earls and petty kings who had, through conquest, coercion or predisposition, joined Harald's side in his quest for date night. At worst they would end up, like Ned Stark, an object lesson on the perils of opposing their sovereign.<br />
<br />
Now, as I mentioned earlier, the leaders on the losing side were fierce, proud and independent. Recall that, of all the fierce warlords of Norway, these were the guys <i>least</i> willing to bend the knee and play the game by someone else's rules. As such, their chances of flourishing under Harald's rule, where the crown administered justice and held a monopoly on the legitimate use of violence, were quite poor. Fortunately for them, in addition to being fierce proud and independent, they were mobile. Unlike losers in many sovereignty wars before and since, the holdouts to Harald's rule were among the best seafarers of the day. <br />
<br />
Following the defeat at Hafrsfjord, many of what were arguably Norway's most dynamic, colorful and entrepreneurial people packed up such goods and wealth in their ships would hold and sailed away. They set their courses for viking settlements abroad where they could live according to their own rules. The Norway they left behind, while more governable without them, would be a much duller place thereafter. <br />
<br />
Some of the travelers emigrated West, to the then recently discovered island of Iceland. There they settled and whiled away the years, farming, fishing and occasionally feuding. Centuries later their descendents would finally bend their knee to a king, but not forever. And one day, in a future the earls and petty kings of old could not have imagined, some of their descendents would find the true calling, software development, and go on to create EVE Online.<br />
<br />
See? Butterfly-effect. The snubbing of a medieval teen results in digital spaceships over a thousand years later. <br />
<br />
I often think of EVE Online's nullsec as analogous to Norway in the pre-unification days. It is comprised of
a number of petty kingdoms, each with its own ruler(s). They are a proud, fractious and independent lot who, when they aren't out raiding low and highsec space, feud mightily with each other.<br />
<br />
As with Norway of old, there are forces in play that seek to consolidate power in nullsec under a single administrative structure; to exercise sovereignty over this patchwork of small kingdoms. This is an old story, played out again and again over the course of real world history. Perhaps it's endemic to the human condition and thus an inevitable outcome in our digital realms as well. As events currently playing out in New Eden unfold, we'll see if nullsec's mead-hall paradigm can thrive in competition with Nullsec Inc. At present, the state of play doesn't look promising for the warlords, but one never knows.<br />
<br />
Butterflies are capricious things. <br />
<br />
If the mead-hall is supplanted by the board-room, some of the present earls and petty kings will doubtless take a place in the new order. Others, however, who either refuse to bend the knee or, having bent it and finding themselves ill-suited to PVP in service of a Disneyfied nullsec, would likely leave. Unlike their medieval counterparts, however, New Eden offers these digital warlords no nullsec version of Iceland, Orkneys, Scotland or Ireland to which they can retreat. Should they leave, many would likely set their courses for other games.<br />
<br />
The nullsec they leave behind, while
more governable without them, would be a much duller place thereafter.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8604973112865316634.post-28727026076605694012014-01-06T07:04:00.001-08:002014-01-06T09:25:23.468-08:00Seraph Basarab and Org Chart of Doom Over at EVE News 24, Seraph IX Basarab has written <a href="http://evenews24.com/2014/01/05/seraph-ix-basarab-identity-within-the-cfc/">a good post</a> on the organizational structure of Clusterfuck Coalition (CFC). It is a significant piece and well worth your time. Much of the information was previously available in isolated works floating about in the EVE media cloud. As such, the article won't raise eyebrows among the more erudite CFC watchers. However, Seraph has pulled these islands of information into a single coherent work, adding analysis and insights of his own. The result is a clear outline of CFC's internal clockwork at a macro level. It should certainly be on the recommended reading list of anyone wishing to understand the CFC either as a stand alone entity or as a participant in the economic/sovereignty wars that are presently consuming nullsec.<br />
<br />
Much of what Seraph writes is not terribly controversial. Indeed, many of his observations on the internal hierarchy of alliances and how resources/rewards are allocated can be sourced from CFC leadership itself; in podcasts, state of the alliance addresses and published internal communiques.<br />
<br />
Given that, the attention Serpah's article have received from CFC's forum warriors is notable. CFC posters have laid into it with a vengeance. Their primary accusation is that the article is mere N3 propaganda. However, few if any of the pro-CFC commenter argue against the facts he presents, or call out facts not in evidence that he's ignored. In other words, the information Seraph has presented is correct, but that the coalescing of those facts into a clear portrait of the CFC organization comes at an inconvenient time for the CFC. I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions as to what CFC touchiness on that subject might mean. <br />
<br />
So, the article is assuredly not propaganda and well worth a read, despite all the churn in the comments section. It's a solid add to EVE player lore. If Seraph has erred, it's in not anticipating the political churn and providing references to primary sources. However, that is a trivial criticism. Such references would not have blocked accusations of bias and most of the information he presents is easily fact checked by those who care to do so.<br />
<br />
In fact, Seraph goes out of his way to call out bias on my part in my post <a href="http://fiddlersedge.blogspot.com/2013/12/wolves-of-southern-wilds.html">Wolves of the Southern Wilds</a>. It's an understandable rebuke, given how I closed off that piece. <br />
<br />
We'll talk more about that next time. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8604973112865316634.post-61545827736284354112014-01-03T09:32:00.002-08:002014-01-06T05:19:14.478-08:00A Series of Unfortunate Events<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>"The war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan's advantage."</i><br />
- Emperor Hirohito </blockquote>
Wars have consequences and the nullsec war in Fountain last summer was
no exception to that rule. ClusterFuck Coalition (CFC) finished that war
in an enviable position. They rested comfortably in their new region,
wearing well-earned victory laurels on their collective brow. The spoils of that war included the extending of CFC frontiers through
Fountain
and possession of that region's enhanced moon income, as well as the
establishment of a
new rental alliance to further augment Goonswarm's income flows. <br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
While subject to light harassment, Goonswarm's home space in
Deklein is far from its enemies and well buffered by territories held by other
CFC members and Goonswarm allies. Goonswarm, which was comprised of
~9,500 members before the Fountain war, has increased it's membership to over
11,000 pilots, some of the new members cherry-picked from the losing side of
the war. Overall the CFC’s membership count hovers somewhere in the 40K range,
up by roughly 30% since the height of the war.<br />
<br />
With their borders secure, their fortunes increased and no
existential threats on the horizon, CFC's leadership might have been content to
watch from a distance for a time as N3 (a coalition led by Nulli Secundi and Northern Coalition[dot]) and Pandemic Legion (PL), who had entered the Fountain war on the side of Test Alliance Please Ignore (Test), feuded with the southern Russian
alliances. After all, a cardinal rule of foreign policy is to never distract your opponents when they are occupied with beating each other bloody at no cost to you. However, as autumn wore on and the N3/PL forces showed no sign of cracking, CFC's movers and shakers grew restless. At the end of October, two proxies, Solar Fleet and Black Legion, were dispatched to assist the Southern Russians and hurry along the demise of N3/PL.</div>
<br />
Two weeks later N3 and PL were still holding fast despite the new fronts opened up my Solar and BL. Indeed, the N3/PL morale seemed to be higher than ever as, confident in their supercapital superiority, they deployed capital fleets in a decisive manner that kept their enemies back on their heels. Thus, Goonswarm's leadership decided that it was time to up the ante and officially involve CFC forces in the conflict, albeit in a manner intended to avoid at least the appearance of a full blown sov war. <br />
<br />
On November 15, The Mittani<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">®</span> <a href="http://themittani.com/news/gsf-ceo-update-honourable-third-parties">announced</a> that CFC were entering the southern war as 'honorable third parties' (HTP). HTP status, you'll recall, is what N3 and PL claimed when they joined Test in the defense of Fountain against CFC's invasion of that region. Ultimately CFC was able to remove N3 and PL from the field by a coordinated attack on the N3/PL rental space by CFC proxies and CFC agents within the rental alliance. That accomplished, the CFC was able to quickly overrun Fountain, the remaining defenders having been deprived of the supercapital high cover PL and N3 had provided. <br />
<br />
According to the November 15 announcement, CFC was merely doing unto N3/PL as N3/PL had done unto CFC during the Fountain war.<br />
<br />
Now, by way of fairness it should be pointed out that, in the case of the Fountain war, CFC was the aggressor; invading Fountain in order to forcibly acquire its moons, which had become much more valuable as a result of the moon-goo re-balance. Further, none of Goonswarm or the CFC's territories were invaded or at risk, with the bulk of the fighting occurring in Fountain. Nor was Goonswarm already under attack by the combined forces of Stainwagon, Darkness of Despair(DD), Against All Authorities(-A-), Solar Fleet and Black Legion at that time. Thus The Mittani<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">®</span>'s justification of mere tit for tat breaks down fairly quickly.<br />
<br />
The Mittani<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">®</span> went on to write that, by declaring HTP status, CFC could pursue the
war in the South without risking political consequences. "If your side
wins, you share the glory; if your side loses, it
was the other guy's fault because you were just a third party", he wrote. However, the strident tone of the marching orders that followed exuded such confidence in a CFC romp over N3/PL that it undermined any chance of distancing CFC from any blame or blow-back were the new offensive to fail: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>"I want nothing less than absolute cruelty and sadism on display. No
honor, no fun for the foe, nothing but having their faces smashed in
shit over and over and over again until they cry, beg, and plead for
forgiveness for what they tried to do to us."</i></blockquote>
Thus, failure does not seem to have been entertained by CFC's war planners as a plausable outcome of the formal intervention announcement on November 15. <br />
<br />
Nonetheless, there is little doubt that Goonswarm's leadership wished to avoid at least the overt appearance of a Southern invasion by the CFC. Despite the animosity between N3/PL and the Southern Russians, CFC must contend with the possibility that the Russians might put aside their differences with N3 and PL in order to deal with a greater threat to them all pressing from the North. Such turn-abouts are not uncommon in EVE or real life. Further, the large scale wars between Northern and Southern nullsec are not so far in the past that the participants, many of whom remain in game, have forgotten them. Even years later, players on both sides retain many axes yet unground.<br />
<br />
So, while the southerners may be persuaded to accept an expanded CFC presence in the south predicated on a mutual dislike of N3, that acceptance could evaporate if CFC pushes its Russian allies too hard or is perceived as a potential conqueror.<br />
<br />
Following the HTP announcement, CFC deployed on multiple fronts against N3/PL, their primary force of CFC fleets fighting alongside the Southern Russian fleets in Catch and Curse. With the main N3/PL forces pinned down countering the primary CFC fleets in Catch and Curse, secondary fronts were opened by CFC against N3/PL, such as Gentlemen's Agreement's (Gents) offensive against N3 assets in Kalevala. While these enfilading attacks enjoyed some initial success, alliances supporting N3/PL, such as Insidious Empire (EMP) led by nullsec veteran Phreeze, deployed to counter them and quickly slammed the door the secondary fronts. By December 8, all lost ground had been recovered by the N3/PL.<br />
<br />
Life as an honorable third party was was not going much better for CFC in the combined CFC/RUS/BL/Solar fleets on the Catch/Curse front.<br />
<br />
Despite superior numbers, the combined coalition fleets appear not to have been well integrated, and operated without a unified strategy or command and control structure. RUS fleet participation in joint operations began to drop off, reportedly owing to friction with CFC command. To make matters worse, N3/PL stepped up support of their fleet actions with Slowcats; fleets of spider-tanked carriers armed with sentry drones. The long jump range of the carriers allowed N3/PL to project both offensive and defensive power over a considerable distance.<br />
<br />
Unable to come up with an effective counter to the Slowcats, or to effectively leverage the numeric advantage enjoyed by the anti-N3/PL coalition, CFC command became risk averse when it came to deploying their own capital fleets. The result was a slow erosion of CFC/RUS/BL/Solar supercapital high cover; a capital fleet gap that N3/PL would exploit to devastating effect on Friday, December 13. <br />
<br />
On December 13, a fleet of Solar supercarriers was detected operating in 78R-PI. N3/PL command quickly coordinated a drop and in short order the 13 supercarriers were tackled and under attack by N3/PL capital and supporting fleets. Responding to a Solar call for assistance, Black Legion and Stainwagon rushed to the rescue in subcapital fleets. Goonswarm began to form up but, upon assessing the situation, stood down rather than risking a capital fleet fight for which PL/N3 was evidently well prepared. Lacking capital ship cover, the BL and Stain subcaps were unable to execute a rescue and the entire Solar supercarrier fleet was lost.<br />
<br />
That same night, hard on the heels of the 78R debacle, came the loss of a Goonswarm station <a href="http://www.blogger.com/Station%20egg%20http://evenews24.com/2013/12/13/goonswarm-station-aborted/">egg</a> while it was in transit to a friendly system in -A- space. Apparently Goonswarm leadership was aware that the freighter carrying the egg was being tracked by hostiles, and had been scanned several times along the way. Despite this intelligence, and despite repeated warnings up the chain of command, the operation was allowed to continue. As might be expected, the freighter was intercepted short of its destination and destroyed along with its cargo.<br />
<br />
Despite a public <a href="https://www.kugutsumen.com/showthread.php?44215-The-SouthEast-A-War-of-Platitudes/page19">mea
culpa</a> by The Mittani<span style="font-family: "\0022Times New Roman\0022";">®</span>
for the loss of the station egg, the two events rattled nerves within in CFC
and caused consternation among the CFC's Southern allies. Rank and file
members among Southern Russian alliances began asking hard questions about Goon
stations being deployed in Southern Russian space. The repeated set-backs
against an outnumbered and supposedly on-the-ropes enemy caused complaints in
the CFC ranks against a Goonswarm military doctrine that depended heavily on
grinding structures in stealth bombers (the antithesis of fun) and keeping
capital fleets on a very short leash, despite that same doctrine's success in
the Fountain campaign.<br />
<br />
On December 15 The Mittani<span style="font-family: "\0022Times New Roman\0022";">®</span>
<a href="http://themittani.com/news/gsf-ceo-update-omegafleet-rising-0">announced</a> that CFC was taking off the kid gloves and going all-in against N3/PL
in Southern nullsec. The timing of this second call to arms is
notable.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">First of all, given
the approaching holidays, fleet participation was virtually guaranteed to slump
in short order, negating to a large extent the immediate utility of a chest-thumping
call to arms. The Mittani is not normally so profligate with such
announcements, knowing that to use them too often is to dilute their impact. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Throwing one away when it is unlikely to rally
the rank and file and bring ships to the line, particularly in the face of a
month long storm of ill-fortune, carries a tang of desperation. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Further, the December 15 announcement was made only a month after The
Mittani®’s previous call for the destruction of N3/PL by the CFC. Beyond the announcement of Omegafleet (essentially
a dreadnaught blob doctrine intended to counter the N3/PL Slowcats) it added
little in terms of content to his previous call to arms. The primary purpose of declaring war on N3/PL
a second time seems to have been to invoke the ‘no political consequences’
clause of the HTP policy announced a month previously. In short, The Mittani was announcing that the month-old
war declaration didn’t count as it wasn’t serious, but in the face of CFC
set-backs since then, ‘Shit got real’.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">However, the THP policy announced in November was, by The Mittani®’s own admission, a blatant
fiction aimed at tweaking the nose of N3. He was on record at the time calling fervently
for the destruction of N3/PL. In that light he could not reasonably dismiss the previous
month’s series of unfortunate events by saying CFC hadn't been serious and were just engaged in a bit of
light-hearted hijinks. ‘Shit got real’ in this context translates
as ‘Mistakes were made'. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">None of this, of course, has been lost on CFC's enemies. EMP and Test have begun a siege of Vale of the Silent and both BL and Gents have been redeployed North to defend that region. This amounts to the first significant attack on CFC territory since the DRF was driven out by Goonswarm and friends. Harassing attacks against Deklein have increased resulting in an uptick of CFC capital ship losses in that region. Pandemic Legion is rumored to be on the verge of breaking their No Invasion Pact (NIP) with the CFC, which would be a precursor to their participation in an invasion of CFC territory. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The smart money will remain on CFC, at least in the short run. It has been one of the best led coalitions in the history of New Eden. Its leadership, when at its best, has operated like a cross between a Wall Street private equity firm and the Prussian General Staff, and the resulting string of successes these last two years have been startling. However, ongoing success can be as much a curse as a blessing. It can lead to complacency; to an assumption that events will tend to break your way for no other reason than that they always have before. And that, my friends, is a wellspring of disaster. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">When you start to try to force events, when you begin to believe your
own press releases and think of yourself not as one navigating a sea of events, but
as a fixed point driving events, you are in trouble. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Assuming CFC's leadership hasn't become complacent, this recent series of unfortunate events will serve as a wake-up call for them. If they avoid recriminations and wishful thinking as they plan their way out of the current situation, it'll be Sally-bar-the-door time in Southern nullsec. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If not, it's going to be a long winter in the North. </span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8604973112865316634.post-24330026819105929252013-12-20T11:19:00.000-08:002013-12-21T05:13:33.365-08:00Wolves of the Southern Wilds<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>And now, what’s going to happen to us without barbarians?<br />They were, those people, a kind of solution. </i><br />
- C.P. Cavafy - <i>Waiting for the Barbarians</i></blockquote>
<br />
The word 'barbarian' was coined, to
the best of our knowledge, by the Mycenaean Greeks. It is an onomatopoeic word,
intended to reflect the sound of barbarian-speak as the Greeks perceived it. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>Seems Agamemnon and his lot found the speech
of non-Greeks to be coarse, guttural and rather silly; they mocked it as
sounding like” Bar, bar, bar". It was pretty funny at the time, or
at least everybody who spoke Greek thought so. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And they all had a good laugh at the expense
of these benighted outsiders. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mind, the
joke lost a little of its jolly when the bar-barians sacked Pylos and the other
Mycenaean citadels sometime around 1200 BCE. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">Who the barbarians are has always been largely a matter of perspective. It is an exclusionary word, intended to draw a distinction between persons outside a group and persons inside a group. In particular, the word is loaded to underscore the relative superiority of the insiders and, especially, the inferiority of the outsiders. </span><br />
<br />
To Goonswarm, we are all barbarians. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
<br />
And that's a bit ironic since, upon a time, Goonswarm itself was viewed as a bunch of pubbie barbarians; their tactics at the time depending
on overwhelming the enemy with a mass of inexpensive ships flown by inexperienced
pilots. But, as they say, the only constant is change. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>Band of Brothers (BoB), nullsec's major power of those early days is no more, laid low by the very
barbarians they scorned. And now Goonswarm sits in the seat of empire, enjoying
a degree of hegemony unseen in nullsec since the founding of New Eden.<br />
<br />
Indeed, Goonswarm has completely rewritten the character of nullsec and the
playbook for holding and extending sovereignty here. Wherever Goonswarm and its
proxies in the ClusterFuck Coalition (CFC) hold sway, nullsec is a relatively risk
free place where the living is easy. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wars
are imposed on others and are fought elsewhere, allowing ISK to be easily
harvested and flow without interruption in to the imperial coffers. As CFC
member Razor Alliance’s leadership recently <a href="http://evenews24.com/2013/12/20/leak-rzr-military-update/">pointed out</a> to its membership, it “…
doesn’t have to do anything but joining fleets and making ISK”. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
<br />
Having ‘won EVE’, one would think Goonswarm’s leadership could rest easily 'pon
their starry beds. Alas, one can do anything with bayonets but sit on them. And. for
some reason, empires tend to evidence a strange compulsion toward controlling populations
for whom they historically express contempt. As in life, so in EVE. For Goonswarm, the elimination of meaningful
threat is no longer the point. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> All barbarians
(i.e., non-Goons) must be either be domesticated or eradicated. <br />
<br />
Thus the empire assembles a vast host and marches south in all its strength. The wolves of the south wait for them, and sharpen their knives the while. <br />
<br />
We are all barbarians. It’s only
a matter of whether or not you’re wearing Goonswarm's collar. That is the narrow choice before free nullsec.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can be Goonswarm’s dog, or you can be a wolf. But you can’t be both.<br />
<br />
Choose well, my friends. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8604973112865316634.post-78039172182875449112013-12-09T12:59:00.000-08:002013-12-09T13:40:53.643-08:00The Spies Among Us<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
Seems that when an Pakistani nuclear scientist, a Venezuelan
embassy driver or a senior member of Iran’s republican guard knock off for the
day they, like many of us, are in the mood for a bit cartoon mayhem. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Beware, my children, for <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/10/world/spies-dragnet-reaches-a-playing-field-of-elves-and-trolls.html?hp&_r=0">there are spies (or at least high value Sigint targets) among us</a>. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And where
those targets go, the British and American intelligence community follows. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The tone of the article is a bit mocking; sort of a sneer
that the NSA is using tax-payer dollars to hunt for spies in MMPORGs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can, of course, understand the humor angle here:
The image of a bunch of mouth breathing NSA interns logging on to WOW in order
to hunt down enemies of the state among wood elves and goblins is… intriguing. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can’t tell if it’s comedy or drama. Maybe
both.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s like someone has announced new
entry in the FX Spring series line-up. Sort of, Homeland’s Carrie Mathison and Big
Bang Theory’s Sheldon Cooper as real world spooks stalking each other through Second
Life. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Still, can you really blame them? I mean, if it was found out that an international conspiracy was
successfully launched against the developing world from an MMPORG, there'd be hell to pay. Just imagine the hearings on Capital Hill. Our spymasters would be slow-roasted in public for allowing our enemies the MMPORG
high-ground. Congress would be all: "Help me understand, Director Brennan. Why wasn't America logged in with special-ops dark elves to prevent this debacle?" </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sigh. Damned if you do and damned if you don’t, it seems.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
EVE Online isn’t named in the article, which surprises me. I
would have thought that EVE would be hip-deep in spies of every stripe. Heaven
knows we’ve got the digital analog of them down cold. And EVE, to my mind,
draws a more worldly and nefarious crowd than other MMPORGs. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Then again, spies, turncoats and masters of international intrigue
may find it difficult to relax by playing EVE at the end of a long day of deception.
Time among us might a little too much like their day jobs. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<![endif]-->Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8604973112865316634.post-24697439044379432602013-12-01T17:25:00.000-08:002013-12-02T04:46:17.967-08:00IfLet's imagine that everyone's worst nightmares about EVE and RMT are true.<br />
<br />
What if RMT (by which I mean the trade of EVE's in-game currency, the ISK, for for real world currency) is not only being done on large scale by EVE online players, but has become the primary reason for EVE Online's existence.<br />
<br />
Let's just say for argument's sake that major in-game sov-holding entities and alliances, EVE gambling sites, EVE web hosting sites and a parade of EVE services purveyors, both in and out of game, are taking big stacks of ISK and systematically rolling them over into real world money. And heck, as long we're blue-skying here, let's say that CCP is not only unable or unwilling to stop EVE's RMT trade, but are actually knowing participants and beneficiaries of the trade. Let's say that CCP is colluding with key RMT interests for a percentage of the take and in order to optimize CCP's RMT yield.<br />
<br />
Let's say EVE Online is no longer an entertainment for spaceship geeks of all ages and nationalities. Let's say it merely exists as a money spinner, a machine for generating game world transactions that, in turn, generate real world transactions, thereby making real world money out of thin air.<br />
<br />
After all, it's not like this sort of thing is science fiction. It's commonplace in the financial world. Wall Street is chock a block with financial organizations whose stock in trade is turning over transactions that have no point beyond the transactions themselves. The firm takes a small cut of each transaction, adding nothing of value to the item transacted. In such cases, the item and its value (or lack thereof) is not the point; the transactions, not things or services that provide utility of any sort, are the product.<br />
<br />
Spinning money, it's called. Right? OK, so let's say for just a moment that all this is happening in EVE, and CCP (or key elemens thereof) are hip deep in the trade of real money.<br />
<br />
Would it make a difference?<br />
<br />
Think about it. Would you stop playing? Go play something else? Would it change the game for you? Would you be less entertained? At the end of the day, does it matter? And if not, should it?<br />
<br />
Just something to think about. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8604973112865316634.post-71936778922601305502013-11-21T14:18:00.001-08:002013-11-22T07:16:11.298-08:00A Little Night Music<i>[Highsec] industrialists will clamor and fight over single-percentage-point
margins... and null industry will not exist when it's essentially raw
cost plus shipping to get it to front lines.</i><br />
- <a href="http://eve-prosper.blogspot.com/2013/08/free-time-isnt-free.html">Lockefox, quoting The Mittani® </a><br />
<br />
Here's a little thought experiment:<br />
<br />
It's morning. You roll out of bed, wander down to the kitchen. You put on the coffee (this is my thought experiment, so we're drinking coffee) and while the staff of life drips into the carafe you turn on the computer and log into a website that earns you $600 an hour. Between sips of coffee you look up from your newspaper to make sure the website is doing its thing. Once in a while you have to set down your newspaper and enter a few keystrokes, but otherwise it's pretty light work. After two hours you check your bank account, note that the anticipated $1,200 has been deposited, and log off the work site. You rinse out your coffee cup and put the newspaper in the recycling bin.<br />
<br />
The rest of the day is yours.<br />
<br />
In this way you earn roughly $312,000 per year for a two hour work day. In fact, everybody in your town has the same sweet deal and earns money in pretty much the same way. <br />
<br />
Being the thoughtful readership you are, you're probably already thinking, "What about inflation, Mord? After all, if everybody makes that much money that easily, shouldn't inflation kick in and the cost for goods and services rise to reflect the town's access to such easy money?" <br />
<br />
Happily, while some things do cost more in your town, your town is largely untouched by inflation. Why? Because there is a class of people who cannot make money the way you do. They don't live in your town, they live ... elsewhere. However they are very, very interested in selling goods and services to the prosperous folk in your neighborhood. In fact, they compete aggressively for the opportunity to do so. They compete so aggressively that the price of most goods are kept very, very low.<br />
<br />
And that's a good thing for you and your neighbors. Despite the fact that your money is very easy to come by in your town, your income retains its value. Which is, you must admit, a pretty sweet deal.<br />
<br />
This is, to a large extent, the situation in nullsec today.<br />
<br />
Nullsec's population is, from an economic consumer's standpoint, sitting in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catbird_seat">catbird seat</a>. ISK are easy to make and there are all manner of people competing aggressively to make and sell stuff to nullsec buyers. In fact, they compete so aggressively to be the maker/seller of choice that profit margins for many items are razor thin. In some cases the competition is so fierce that producers heavily discount their own in-game labor as a production cost. <br />
<br />
Of course, this might be a bad thing if it were putting nullsec players out of
work. However, the fact that these producers are falling all over themselves to
undercut each others' prices has no impact on a nullsec player's ability
to make 60M ISK an hour ratting in a semi-AFK Ishtar. Indeed, most
nullsec players regard the fact that someone else is willing to grub ore
at 7M ISK an hour as a public service rather than a stolen opportunity; particularly if it keeps the price of ratting Ishtars low.<br />
<br />
Thus an economic symbiosis has evolved over time, a product of basic
labor economics and player preferences. While it's been a particularly
sweet deal for nullsec, it's been pretty much a win-win for all
involved. <br />
<br />
Alas, every party needs a pooper, and certain lords of nullsec are determined to put a floater in the punch bowl.<br />
<br />
Hopefully while I was away you had an opportunity to listen to Xander's <a href="http://crossingzebras.com/2013/08/28/cz-does-industry-3/">interview</a> of CSM Mynnna and Eve Prosper's <a href="http://eve-prosper.blogspot.com/">Lockefox</a> (both of Goonswarm)
on Crossing Zebras last September. If you haven't it's certainly worth your time. <br />
<br />
First of all, you get to hear Xander, a genuine Scottish roughneck, practically a-giggle with delight over Mynnna's participation in the interview. It's truly eyebrow-raising and not to be missed. See if you can listen without the words 'man-crush' coming to mind.<br />
<br />
You will also hear Mynnna admit that nullsec industry is indeed suffering from a labor shortage. Despite the
Odyssey improvements to nullsec mining, there hasn't been a parade of industrial bears lining up to fill
Mynnna's hangers with low-end ores and/or minerals. And it seems that parade won't form up until the hourly wage for mining
and hauling Tritanium is competitive with the 60M ISK per
hour (as Mynnna reckons it) that one can earn doing far less onerous
tasks in nullsec.<br />
<br />
Yeah. I was <a href="http://fiddlersedge.blogspot.com/2012/12/farms-and-fields-question-of-labor.html">right</a>. Mynnna was wrong. All right, move along. Nothing to see here. <br />
<br />
Then there's that lovely rendition of The Mittani<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">®</span><span style="color: black;"><a href="http://eve-prosper.blogspot.com/2013/08/free-time-isnt-free.html"></a></span>'s favorite aria from <span dir="auto"><i>La fanciulla del Deklein</i></span>. My Italian is a little rusty but, roughly translated, the lyric goes something like this: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Woe is me! Behold the rapacious merchants of highsec.</i><br />
<i>They vie like raging beasts, one against the other,</i><br />
<i>For the honor of selling me my hearts' desires. </i><br />
<i>See how their prices fall, how their profit margins dwindle!</i><br />
<i>The market-house is like unto the floor of an abattoir; </i><br />
<i>So awash is it in blood-red ink. </i><br />
<br />
<i>But ah, my poor heart! </i><br />
<i>Though I delight in low prices, yet do I sorrow.</i><br />
<i><i>For Nullsec industry shall n'er quicken and grow,</i> </i><br />
<i>Lest I pay in excess for my purchases, and lavishly so. </i><br />
<i>Alas for nullsec bears, who live piteous lives of penury</i><br />
<i>While greedy highsec bears grow rich by mining ore for free</i></blockquote>
<br />
Which is, of course, a big, wet load of Puccini. <br />
<br />
Despite all the wailing and gnashing of teeth, there is a lot of industry going on in nullsec. It is primarily industry in which nullsec enjoys a competitive advantage and where the large returns on investment compensate for the high cost of nullsec labor inputs. For nullsec industry to dominate manufacturing in product families that don't offer those advantages some combination of the following must occur: <br />
<ol>
<li>The price of the finished goods must go way, way up</li>
<li>The cost of nullsec labor inputs to the finished goods must come way, way down</li>
</ol>
That's
it. One, the other, or both at once. Every possible plot, plan or
scheme I've heard on this subject to date pushes one (or both) of those two
buttons once you get past the wishful thinking. Most push button number one. However, pushing either button results in a nerf to nullsec player income: They either make less ISK per hour, or the hourly ISK they make buys less. Or both. It's a pay cut either way you slice it. <br />
<br />
Given the benefits of the status quo, the real question isn't whether the lords of nullsec can compete in the manufacture of commodity goods, but why they would want to. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8604973112865316634.post-12399430771630634672013-11-13T03:24:00.002-08:002013-11-13T03:24:41.901-08:00Watch This SpaceYes, I know. It's been two months and change. Apologies for that. <br />
<br />
Life in real-time has moved at a blistering pace. It does that, at times, without much in the way of warning. Between new corporate clients, dead EVE Online clients and gazelles (yes, gazelles), there's been little wherewithal for on-line play. But that time is drawing to a close. All work and no play make Mord a dull boy. Now the dull days of Autumn draw to a close and it's time to have some fun.<br />
<br />
There's change on the wind at Fiddler's Edge. While I haven't been writing, I have been planning.<br />
<br />
More on that anon. <br />
<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8604973112865316634.post-13889887530852142072013-09-02T07:50:00.000-07:002013-09-02T07:50:12.060-07:00A Tyranny of Choice<a href="http://fiddlersedge.blogspot.com/2013/08/undead-again.html">Undead Again</a> was intended as a good-natured tweak at the noses of some
fellow bloggers (you know who you are) over their premature predictions with regard to
the fate of -A- back around the turn of the year. The piece got quite a bit more attention than I'd expected and
seems to have stirred a few long-simmering pots. Obviously the subject
is one that has wanted attention by the EVE community but hasn't been
getting it from elsewhere. <br />
<br />As I hadn't been following events in the deep South after the breakup of Honeybadger Coalition (HBC) earlier this year, and
didn't have the bandwidth to do a proper job of researching
it (Note to self: Must hire a staff of research assistants), I
didn't try to chronicle the resurgence of the Southern
Russians following the break-up of HBC in 2013. <br />
<br />
However, in providing a brief, high-level background to events leading up to -A-'s near terminal fall from grace at the turn of the year, I wrote the following: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>A schism within Red Overlord (ROL), which was at the time providing some
of the most effective resistance to the Northerners, resulted in the collapse of ROL and the defection of certain member corporations to the newly formed Darkness of Despair, which was aligned with the PL, Test and the Honey Badger Coalition (HBC) cause. </i></blockquote>
As a number of you pointed out, the now defunct Unclaimed[DOT] was the alliance of corporations that broke away from ROL and aligned itself PL and HBC in October 2012. Darkness of Despair was formed in January of 2013, a full three months after HBC and PL persuaded Sacred Templar Knights to turn on ROL and undermine the Stain Russian defense of the South.<br />
<br />
A serious misstatement on my part. I've made the correction in Undead Again and offer my apologies to the lads at Darkness of Despair for doing such a poor job of fact-checking.<br />
<br />
However, it's an ill wind that blows no one good. Along with the above-mentioned correction, there's been an influx of information describing the Southern Russian resurgence from both sides of the conflict. Most of the accounts are surprisingly even-handed and are more or less in general agreement on major points in the timeline. As I pointed out in <a href="http://www.fiddlersedge.blogspot.com/2013/08/eve-lore-blog-banter-48.html">EVE Lore</a> and Wine in the Ruins, EVE is short on unbiased histories. This may be an opportunity to develop such a chronicle describing events in the South over this last year. <br />
<br />
If you would like to contribute to such a project, either by providing a narrative of events, or by assisting in the research needed to distill the collected of narratives down to a single coherent story, please contact me at via my hyperspace com uplink (AKA mordfiddle[at]gmail.com).<br />
<br />
There's a lot of other writing in the pipeline as well.<br />
<br />
If you listened to Xander's interview with Goonswarm's Mynnna and <a href="http://eve-prosper.blogspot.com/">Lockefox</a>, you'll have heard Mynnna admitting indirectly that that <a href="http://fiddlersedge.blogspot.com/2012/12/farms-and-fields-question-of-labor.html">I was right</a> and that nullsec does, indeed, have a labor shortage. Seems that when you can make 60M ISK an hour ratting in a semi-AFK Ishtar, there's little motivation to mine any but the highest value minerals. I'll be writing a reaction to the interview, asking pointed questions, proposing solutions and discussing the economics of the current nullsec fetish with 'bottoms up' alliance funding.<br />
<br />
I also have a Rixx Javix a story in the works. Why? Well, because there's nothing Rixx loves more than a Rixx Javix story. But beyond that, I'm writing the story to underline what I perceive as a weakness in official EVE fiction. <br />
<br />
In my humble opinion, official EVE fiction to date is its own worst
enemy. It is self-conscious and far too mindful of its humble origins as
the spin-off of a cartoon space ship MMPORG. It works overtime at being
taken seriously, to portray New Eden as cynical and bleak; an
unrelentingly noirish dystopia. I mean, look at this:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"<i>From the murky depth of madness, reality churns and boils over in my
head, a great distance away. Like a pair of entangled protons, my
actions seem hopelessly enslaved to a new consciousness that many,
including myself, would consider depraved.</i> "<br />
<br />
- Tony Gonzales: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/EVE-Templar-One-ebook/dp/B004WJQNY2/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1378132990&sr=1-1&keywords=eve+templar+one"><i>EVE Templar One </i></a></blockquote>
<br />
More than a page of this sort of prose and I'm reaching for the Xanax. <br />
<br />
There's only one remedy for self-important, overwrought writing, and that's an injection of fun, a bit of whimsey: A little touch of Javix in the night. Given the goal of the story, it's got to be right on the page before I post it. So there's a bit more hand wringing over that piece than usual, which has tested Rixx's patience no little bit. No worries, Rixx. It'll get there.<br />
<br />
Of course I haven't given lowsec attention for some time. I've promised a piece on why the lowsec's population tends to cluster in certain areas leaving some lowesc constellations relatively low on population and uneventful from a PvP point of view. I also want to follow up on lowsec's spheres of player influence which, though they exist, remain largely undocumented.<br />
<br />
So much choice. So little time. But it's a good problem to have. <br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8604973112865316634.post-12287369568569853702013-08-26T12:17:00.002-07:002013-09-02T05:25:26.825-07:00Undead Again<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>"Call
it mental toughness. Call it 'Too dumb to die'. Call it zombification.
Whatever. -A- have an annoying way of not knowing when they're beaten.
You can knock them down, shoot them execution-style, knife
the body a dozen times, rub their collective face in the dirt and
dog-shit, and walk away from their mangled corpse with their lunch money
jingling in your pocket while you whistle tunes from 'Aida'. A week
later -A- will be back, nailing the dismembered body of your beloved
family pet to your front door."</i><br />
<br />
- Fiddler's Edge, <a href="http://fiddlersedge.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-edge-awards.html"><i>The Edge Awards </i></a></blockquote>
<br />
You'll recall that last week I wrote in response to a Ripard Teg post that, while I am not given to gloating, I am not above the odd victory dance when the occasion warrants it.<br />
<br />
You may consider Against All Authorities' (-A-) recent return from the dead such an occasionous occasion.<br />
<br />
Now, if you'll recall, way back in the spring of 2012, there occurred a gradual <a href="http://evenews24.com/2012/06/28/view-delve-iv-how-did-it-come-to-this/">escalation of commitment</a> in Delve by various parties that resulted in a pan-nullsec clash for control of that region. The final step in said escalation was the entrance of Clusterfuck Coalition (CFC) into the conflict on the side of Pandemic Legion and Test Alliance Please Ignore against Nulli Secunda, Raiden and -A-. CFC's leadership pitched this as an all-in, no-quarter-given war aimed not merely at defeating the enemy, but eliminating their capacity to pose a future threat. As The Mittani® stated at the time: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“We – and ‘We’ means ‘Everyone’ – are going to Delve, and it will burn.
No mercy, no respite, no ‘freeports’, just brutal conquest – conquest
which will not stop until this threat to our bloc is extinguished. If
that means that we must set all of Catch on fire to remind this ex-NC,
ex-IT, ex-BoB excrement of their proper place in the universe, so be
it.” </blockquote>
The Southerners, already outnumbered by Test Alliance and PL, were swamped in the subsequent tidal wave of players from CFC joining the fight against them, and were quickly driven from Delve. The war followed the retreating forces South into Catch and the domains of the Southern Coalition (SoCo). By October the Southern Coalition, which had long supported -A- during times of trouble, itself began to unravel. A schism within Red Overlord (ROL), which was at the time providing some of the most effective resistance to the Northerners, resulted in the <a href="http://evenews24.com/2012/10/09/chaos-and-betrayal-in-the-south-rol-capital-solar-system-sov-dropped/">collapse of ROL</a> and the defection of certain member corporations to the newly formed <a href="http://evenews24.com/2012/10/11/battle-report-new-front-opens-for-rol-allies-in-esoteria/">Unclaimed[DOT]</a>, which was aligned with the PL, Test and the Honey Badger Coalition (HBC) cause.<br />
<br />
Resistance from the Southern alliances collapsed shortly thereafter, and -A- took refuge in NPC nullsec.<br />
<br />
Now, -A- had retreated to NPC nullsec during previous wars only to return and retake its old space from the interlopers. However, in those cases -A- had managed a planned and well ordered retreat that maintained the alliance's organizational integrity and kept its combat assets largely intact. In this case -A- had been routed. Its membership's morale was at low ebb, its supporting coalition was in tatters, and the monolithic forces of the HBC and the CFC stood firmly in the way of any return to Catch.<br />
<br />
As 2012 drew to a close, -A- remained in NPC nullsec exile and what had been a trickle of defections to other alliances slowly became a persistent stream. On January 6, Russian Thunder Squad, who'd been with -A- since 2007 and, along with Rage and Terror, were regarded as the most critical of -A-'s corporations, <a href="http://evenews24.com/2013/01/06/raw-all-good-things-come-to-an-end/">announced their departure</a> for Darkness of Despair.<br />
<br />
With that, the writing appeared to be on the wall for -A-.<br />
<br />
As bloggers and podcasters closed the books on 2012, eulogies were being written for Against All Authorities, many of them dismissive and unkind. The common wisdom among the EVE media was that -A- was as dead, and their failscade was foregone conclusion. However, as February turned to March, the flight of members from -A- slowed at around the 1,000 membership mark, and then bottomed out in the mid-800s. At that point the common wisdom in the blogosphere shifted somewhat. Pundits stated that, while -A- might not have failscaded outright, it was still effectively dead. -A-, they said, was spent as a sov nullsec power, incapable of taking and holding space or driving events. They were, its eulogizers held, a hollowed out shell that just happened to wear the -A- emblem.<br />
<br />
As I wrote last January, -A- has been prematurely eulogized so often in the last few years you'd
think they had a Summer home on the River Styx and rented jet-skis from
Charon. -A-'s enemies and critics have an appalling habit of walking
way from -A-'s 'mostly dead' body, assuming that 'all dead' will follow
in due course. Having seen <a href="http://fiddlersedge.blogspot.com/2010/10/undead.html">this scenario</a> play out before I counseled those celebrating -A-'s demise to caution. Wait and see, said I.<br />
<br />
And sure enough, as Spring gave way to Summer, there were signs of life in the cemetery as -A- once again clawed their way from the grave. By June, -A- had rebuilt a large portion of its membership. Of particular interest was the addition of some solid sov warfare corporations, including Anzac Alliance, which spoke to -A-'s long term plans. By mid-August -A- had quietly returned from NPC nullsec to occupy the <a href="http://evemaps.dotlan.net/map/Feythabolis/C45-9Y">C45-9Ya</a> constellation in Feythobolis. Using that base as a springboard, -A- began re-occupying systems in Catch, taking possession of systems in the <a href="http://evemaps.dotlan.net/map/Catch/9HXQ-G">9HXQ-G</a> constellation in Catch from The Initiative as late as yesterday. <a href="http://evemaps.dotlan.net/system/GE-8JV/kills">GE-8JV</a> in that constellation, generally regarded as -A-'s traditional home system, was among the systems taken.<br />
<br />
It's certainly likely that -A- is getting by with a little help from its friends. This is, after all, the age of the coalition and there are very few alliances that can take and hold sovereign nullsec without some backup. And there may be a degree of defensive indifference involved in the recent take-overs, but there's no doubt that -A- is taking Catch systems by force of arms. There are many questions that remain to be answered, but on one point there is no doubt: <br />
<br />
Against All Authorities is undead again. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8604973112865316634.post-82067605886862738372013-08-21T06:00:00.000-07:002013-08-25T05:30:31.438-07:00Carebear Empires<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>"When beggars die there are no comets seen;<br />
The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes."</i><br />
- Shakespeare, <i>Julius Caesar </i></blockquote>
</div>
<br />
Over at <a href="http://jestertrek.blogspot.com/2013/08/well-that-escalated-quickly.html">Jester's Trek</a>, Ripard has been looking at the post-Odyssey Technetium market findings written up in Lockfox's <a href="http://themittani.com/features/odyssey-moon-material-review">recent TMC article</a>. The long and short of Ripard's post is that, owing to Odyssey changes, the price of Technetium has crashed. Thus, he writes, Goonswarm is in dire financial straits straits that mere R64 moons cannot remedy, which in turn means that Goonswarm's existence is threatened; their current dominance of nullsec being utterly dependent on an unbroken flood of Technetium-based ISK. This, Ripard says, has driven Goonswarm to announce they will be renting nullsec systems to pubbie scrublords; an act of apostasy in Goon culture that has turned its leadership into philosophical contortionists as they attempt to reconcile their present financial plans with past moral preaching. <br />
<br />
For reasons beyond my understanding, Ripard has gotten the impression that I am given to gloating and that this news will provide an occasion for me to indulge. While I'm not above the odd victory dance when the occasion warrants it, schadenfreude is not my drug of choice. Gloating is a leading indicator of sloppy thinking. Further, gloating tends to pre-suppose that all the chips have fallen where they may; that all the shoes have dropped.<br />
<br />
In this case nothing could be further from the truth.<br />
<br />
Ripard may be referring to a post I wrote in July of 2011 called <a href="http://fiddlersedge.blogspot.com/2011/07/wealth-of-nullsec.html">The Wealth of Nullec</a>, in which I pointed out evident flaws in the reasoning behind what I call CCP's "One Percent Solution" (1%) design paradigm for nullsec and called for the elimination of nullsecs large-bore ISK faucets. <br />
<br />
Assuming the Technetium numbers are correct, CCP has taken an important first step in turning nullsec toward their long-held vision of a larger number of entities in possession of smaller patches of nullsec real estate. This would mark the defeat within CCP of the 1% paradigm, which assumed the presence of a limited number of exceedingly high value resources would provoke running sov wars as nullsec alliances battled for ownership of them. In fact, as many bloggers and members of the player base predicted at the time, what happened was quite the opposite. <br />
<br />
It turned out that the large-bore ISK faucets, Technetium in particular, merely bestowed upon their posessors an overwhelming strategic advantage which they then leveraged to ensure their hold on those income streams was unbreakable except through internal upheaval. Entities incapable of internal stability or prone to sov aggression were quickly weeded out of the Technetium-holding population. The result was the Technetium cartel and the so-called Blue Doughnut that actively suppressed sov warfare in the majority of nullsec.<br />
<br />
At the end of the day, the cascade of ISK pouring down on selected bits of nullsec real estate proved so valuable they provided a strong incentive <i>against</i> the very sov warfare and power diffusion CCP's designers expected them to promote.<br />
<br />
Unlike Ripard, I don't believe the Technetium nerf or its impact caught Goonswarm's leadership flat footed. Nor do I find the idea that The Mittani® was
completely in the dark as to the income generating potential of system
renting remotely credible. <br />
<br />
The Technetium nerf has been in the works for some time as evidenced by last December's CSM minutes. The Mittani® has long been an advocate of the <a href="http://fiddlersedge.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-farms-and-fields-misdirection.html">Farms and Fields</a> (F&F) paradigm for nullsec and, last Autumn, Goonswarm's financial team published a series of articles in support of that paradigm on TMC. Nullsec's CSM7 reps <a href="http://fiddlersedge.blogspot.com/2013/01/farms-and-fields-phb.html">lobbied aggressively</a> for industrial buffs to nullsec infrastructure and minerals as a replacement for the anticipated loss of Technetium income, which CCP largely obliged in the Odyssey release.<br />
<br />
Now, in order to develop a robust industrial economy capable of replacing a substantial portion of the income lost through the Technetium nerf, nullsec must have a key asset that is beyond CCP's power to bestow: F&F requires that a large industrial workforce migrate to nullsec and ply their trade in that space. <br />
<br />
While Goonswarm's membership includes a healthy number of industrialists relative to its peer nullsec alliances, they are in no wise sufficient to generate the industrial activity needed to jump-start F&F to the degree needed to offset lost Technetium income. Further, in order to sell the presence of a large industrial population in nullsec to its rank and file, the Goonswarm financial team is on record as casting this population primarily as a nullsec underclass: peasants or cattle to be used for financial gain and slaughtered for the amusement of the PvP elite. For obvious reasons, standing members of Goonswarm cannot be asked to lower themselves to fill that role. Thus, this underclass must be recruited and, in the minds of Goonswarm's leadership, the role of renter could have been tailor made for that purpose. Renters are being hawked to the Goonswarm's membership as a lower life form whose presence, while undesirable, is financially necessary.<br />
<br />
Of course I would not be the first to point out that calling your intended clientele cattle, sheep and pubbie scrublords while talking enthusiastically about the vast swarms of enemies that will come and try to blow up that intended clientele's stuff once they arrive is, quite possibly, the worst rental ad campaign ever devised. Switching gears from the virulent pubbie hatred Goonswarm's leadership has cultivated over the years to promoting and providing competitive services for said pubbies will not be an easy cultural transition. It will, however, be a necessary one if Goonswarm expects to command the rents it needs to maintain its present life-style and develop itself as an industrial power-house.<br />
<br />
For F&F to be successful, Goonswarm will need to attract the industrial subset of the carebear community. While ratting renters' money spends as well as an industrial renters' money, the former do not generate the secondary income streams and market activity that the latter do. Further, Goonswarm's desire to become independent of highsec markets cannot be accomplished without a critical mass of industrial players.<br />
<br />
Industrialists tend to be a pragmatic lot and don't place a high value on their landlord's affections. They do, however, expect efficient management, services at favorable prices, limited restrictions on their activities and a reasonably safe environment in which to ply their trades in exchange for their coin. And they will respond positively to targeted production incentives should Goonswarm choose to offer them. But, that pragmatism swings both ways. Unlike technetium moons, industrialists are mobile. If Goonswarm cannot provide these essentials the industrialists will go elsewhere. <br />
<br />
Goonswarm has foreseen this, of course, and will game CCP, the renter community and competing landlords aggressively in order to make alternatives to renting from Goonswarm less desirable. The next war in Nullsec has already begin and will have a heavy economic component, whether Goonswarm's competition realizes it or not. Those competing renter alliances unschooled in business, lacking accomplished spreadsheet warriors and without skilled diplomats would do well to shore up those skill gaps in a hurry. This war will be fought as much from the boardroom as on the battlefield. <br />
<br />
Many large-bore ISK faucets remain in nullsec, and the loss of Technetium should have no-one crying poverty. However, in order to maintain spending habits acquired during the Technetium bubble, renters have become a necessity. Now Goonswarm intends to build their empire into an economic powerhouse independent of New Eden's empire markets. And for that, the industrialization of nullsec is a prerequisite. In such a game, well organized and efficient lords of industry are no beggars, but princes in their own right.<br />
<br />
And their fortunes shall be writ 'pon nullsec's very heavens. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8604973112865316634.post-799671055056249852013-08-08T06:58:00.003-07:002013-08-08T08:30:05.657-07:00EVE Lore: Blog Banter 48This month's topic is a request from CCP Sisyphus who wants to know how important is Lore in EVE Online?<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
How important is “fluff” in Eve online? Would eve online be the same if
it were purely numbers and mechanics, or are the fictional elements
important to the enjoyment of the game? Would a pure text, no reference
to sci-fi or fancy names still be an engaging game? Should CCP put more
or less emphasis on immersion?</blockquote>
<br />
<a href="http://www.ninveah.com/2013/08/blog-banter-48-lore.html">For more entries, see here</a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8604973112865316634">.</a><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
****** </div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Eve, being digital, leaves no traces behind. We are long on epic events
but short on chroniclers of the times. As in the real world, the
landscape of New Eden changes. Powers rise and fall, pirate empires ply
the void for a time and often wink out in a moment, as if they never
were. ... Over time the collective memory of New Eden remakes
itself, shifting and degrading what was in favor of what is. And there
are no artifacts and only limited histories left behind to lead players
to inquire who and what came before.</i><br />
<br />
<i> - Fiddler's Edge: <a href="http://fiddlersedge.blogspot.com/2012/08/wine-in-ruins.html">Wine in the Ruins </a></i></blockquote>
<br />
Strictly speaking, game lore isn't lore at all.<br />
<br />
Game lore is commonly understood to refer to a game's back-story, the larger narrative framework in which a role-playing or video game is played. Depending on the game, that framework may be more or less rich and detailed. It may also be more or less important to the execution of game play depending on 'attitude and latitude'; the attitude of the player and/or the latitude the developer allows the player when it comes to their in-game actions.<br />
<br />
By necessity, game lore is documented and maintained by the company that owns the game. This is done both in order to provide a consistent framework for all members of the player base and to maintain the integrity of and control over the intellectual property represented by the game's back-story. The result is an official (or 'canonical') version of a given game's lore. New game lore that does not conflict with existing lore can be added easily. Making changes to established game lore is, in most circumstances, undesirable for financial and aesthetic reasons. <br />
<br />
Lore in the real world is, on the other hand, less given to consistency. It is an informal body of traditions, stories and knowledge held by a particular group and traditionally transmitted orally. Often the details of lore matter less than the larger stories or lessons they transmit. As such stories in lore traditions are rarely fixed, changing over time and distance as they pass to new generations of a group or to new groups altogether.<br />
<br />
Real world lore is, by definition, public domain. Once it becomes property, it ceases to be lore. This is quite the opposite of game lore, which is not game lore until it has been recorded and formally identified as such (and, by coincidence, copyrighted) by the owning entity. <br />
<br />
EVE's game lore provides the origins and political/social structure of New Eden and the context for play. It provides narrative texture, particularly for groups of role players and PvE players. For most players the framework influences early skill establishment and, from a design standpoint, the strengths and weaknesses of the four major ship families. However, in large part EVE game lore has little impact on player decisions in game and player decisions in game have even less impact on EVE game lore.<br />
<br />
Consequently, for most long term EVE players, game lore fades to the background and provides little more than a bit of color on EVE's starry backdrop. EVE players have developed a culture and lore completely separate from that written and controlled by CCP. This is EVE player lore and, from a practical standpoint, EVE player lore has superseded EVE game lore in importance to the larger player community. <br />
<br />
Player lore occupies a middle ground between game lore and real world lore. In games where the players' freedom of actions is limited and acts are closely integrated with game lore, player lore tends to consist mainly of tips and tricks for navigating the game and odd bits of game-related filk-music, fan fiction and fan labor. In EVE, however, players have exceedingly broad latitude in their decisions and actions, and this has resulted in an exceptionally rich body of player lore completely detached from official EVE game lore.<br />
<br />
I tend to break EVE player lore into three major categories: Player instruction, player entertainments (Fan Fiction, Videos, Songs and Whimsey) and player chronicles. Each type of lore informs the larger EVE player culture in its own way.<br />
<br />
EVE's legendary steep learning curve, coupled with CCP's decision to bypass providing sufficient documentation of play mechanics has resulted in the creation of a great deal of player lore in this area. In short, CCP relies heavily on fan labor to maintain nuanced how-to instructions. Player instruction lore is diverse in its depth, quality method of delivery. A great deal of instruction is delivered player to player in game. Hints and tips can be found in some player bios. There are websites and blogs that are either dedicated to the ins and outs of a particular aspect of of EVE play, or provide links to player-created instructional content. And, of course, there's the odd meme, story, joke or bit of song that delivers nuggets of instruction in a more oblique manner. <br />
<br />
The entertainments a culture produces provides important insight into culture. In this sense, EVE player entertainments are a body of player lore in their own right. They provide functional value to EVE players as transmitters of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2fyO4uKkxo&feature=youtu.be">instruction</a> or <a href="http://fiddlersedge.blogspot.com/2011/09/fever-dream.html">history</a>. Above all, our entertainments speak to the EVE player culture and give insight to who we are as a community.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately all but the most large scale events in EVE Online tend go unchronicled and even then there is only a small body of lore that describes such events in a comprehensive (as opposed to episodic) fashion. Lore having to do with player deeds and politics outside of nullsec are largely maintained orally within the player populations of corporations and alliances. Consequently as time goes by and older players depart to be replaced by new players, this lore is lost.<br />
<br />
This is particularly true outside of nullsec where activities that are chronicled tend to be limited to individual encounters, lacking a larger backdrop to provide them context. As Rixx Javix recently pointed out, both on his <a href="http://eveoganda.blogspot.com/2013/08/low-sec-disney-world.html">website</a> and in his <a href="http://crossingzebras.com/2013/08/04/crossing-zebras-episode-28/">Crossing Zebras interview</a> with Marc Scarus, lowsec PvP entities may fight for and effectively control territory, but there is no mechanism in the game that records their achievement. Further, written histories that provide the larger picture of who's who (and where) in lowsec and the battles and relationships between various PvP entities are few and far between. Again, the player lore is often maintained orally or diffused across many sources and incomplete, making such lore exceedingly transitory. <br />
<br />
As I wrote in 'Wine in the Ruins' it would be good for both the players and CCP if CCP were to provide a means to leave histories and artifacts behind to tell future players who and what came before. At the moment, the wall between EVE game lore and EVE player lore is impermeable. Perhaps it's time for CCP to recognize the value it receives from the latter and allow selected player lore to cross over that wall.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8604973112865316634.post-91897744747519092042013-08-01T10:31:00.001-07:002013-08-01T10:34:14.187-07:00Barbarians!<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>If you hang out in nullsec long enough, there's going to come a day when
the barbarians get inside the walls. They're going to pillage and burn.
They're going to perform unnatural acts with the livestock. They're
going to laugh at you and call you all manner of impolite and impolitic
names.</i><br />
<br />
<i>It's never a good day.</i><br />
<br />
<i>Mord Fiddle</i> - <a href="http://fiddlersedge.blogspot.com/2011/12/golden-hour.html"><i>The Golden Hour </i></a></blockquote>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfxSvvJMOOu-BZKR4hUsCNtgkkO-vaeMwSfilON6QhPYkQR3N5oRJ7rpDe_n2XEF7C2PBtb3PelvBe85_P-tjQMGCYD3I9Pwh-R3JfDSVWPnXvsS7gBO-gWzsu7BD6WiUdH74OZcuQoR4/s1600/fatLady.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfxSvvJMOOu-BZKR4hUsCNtgkkO-vaeMwSfilON6QhPYkQR3N5oRJ7rpDe_n2XEF7C2PBtb3PelvBe85_P-tjQMGCYD3I9Pwh-R3JfDSVWPnXvsS7gBO-gWzsu7BD6WiUdH74OZcuQoR4/s200/fatLady.jpeg" width="126" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ask Not for Whom the Fat Lady Sings</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The Fat Lady sang for Test Alliance, Please Ignore's hold on Fountain last Monday. It had become evident to Test's leadership that help would not arrive from their N3 allies in the East soon enough. And the strains of the long defensive war in Fountain along with a series of unfortunate events had taken its toll among Test's soldiers and leadership alike. Unable to counter-punch against the CFC offensive and with the writing on the wall, <a href="http://evenews24.com/2013/07/29/test-alliance-please-ignore-retreats-to-delve/">Test's evacuation to Delve</a> was announced.<br />
<br />
Poetic Stanziel, having drunk deep of the CFC kool aid, has <a href="http://poeticstanziel.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-war-in-fountain-why-does-test-want.html">suggested</a> that the time has come for Test Alliance and it's 12,000 members to go softly into that good night; to quit nullsec for a time and ponder deeply the trials they've just been through, and to consider, mayhaps, a quiet failscade off in lowsec where no one can see their shame. <br />
<br />
Heh. I'm loving Stanz these days. He's turning into the CFC's Tokyo Rose. He's all "Give up American GI. Why struggle? Why bleed on a distant beach for Roosevelt while he cups your girlfriends' ample bosoms back home?" Next thing you know Stanz'll be flying over Delve on a broomstick skywriting 'Surrender Dorothy' in black smoke. <br />
<br />
Sad, really. Hope Stanz didn't sell his integrity cheap. <br />
<br />
Of course I wrote <a href="http://www.fiddlersedge.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-cost-of-kingdoms.html">last week</a> as to why CFC cannot tolerate Test Alliance's 12,000 members wandering nullsec off-leash: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>If Test stands with CFC's foes on the field of battle, Test's numbers
make a genuine contest possible. Thus, if Test can be brought to heel
and made to submit, or its numbers significantly reduced through
failscade, it will remove an essential component from any opposition to
the CFC's hegemony over nullsec. </i></blockquote>
With Test unwilling to be assimilated into the CFC, Test's dissolution is now high on the CFC list of things to do. While Test remaining on the CFC's new frontier would be better for the CFC in terms of the providing good fights, CFC's leadership's places a higher priority on securing an unbreakable hold on nullsec's wealth. For CFC's leadership, the only good fight is a fight you cannot lose, and that means the CFC's overwhelming numerical superiority over the remainder of nullsec cannot be left to chance. <br />
<br />
Sources within CFC have said that preparations are already underway for the invasion of Delve. Test's leadership were hoping for breathing room while the CFC paused to consolidate their winnings in Fountain. However the CFC is well organized to the extent that the two activities are not mutually exclusive. If matters continue on their current course, Test will be called upon to defend themselves sooner rather than later. If Test's leadership is wise, they will not prepare for the same the same sort of hunker-down defense of Delve as failed them in Fountain.<br />
<br />
It's possible that Test and Tribal Band's Eastern allies have
committed to the defense of Delve, in which case we'll likely see a more
conventional sov tussle. Even if that's the case I don't
expect Pandemic Legion to show up in Delve on the Test Alliance side of
the line. Since Black Legion <a href="http://jestertrek.blogspot.com/2013/07/more-than-one-mfer-had-mouth.html">baited and destroyed</a> a PL supercapital
fleet (doing unto PL as PL has done unto so many others) the vaunted bad
boys of nullsec seem to be suffering a crisis of confidence. It's
possible they'll regain the mojo that Black Legion stole, but a more
likely case is that they'll continue to keep a low profile and watch from a
distance.<br />
<br />
Thus, even with allies, Test and Tribal will likely be at a numeric disadvantage. Standing alone, Test and Tribal are unlikely to have recovered sufficiently to endure a classic sov grind for long. In either event, fighting for Delve on the CFC's timetable and getting drawn into pitched battles on CFC's terms will not keep Test pilots coming back for more. Never forget that CFC's war doctrine is first and foremost a war on fun. Trench warfare in Delve is no fun.<br />
<br />
Barbarian hordes, on the other hand? Way fun. <br />
<br />
For regular readers of <i>The Edge</i> it will come as no surprise that I'm a big fan of barbarian hordes. Barbarians are a fun loving lot. Oh sure, they can seem unpleasant, or even outright and cruel when they're swarming over the walls or setting an axe to your head; barbarians have a rough sense of humor. But, at the end of the day, they're a pretty jolly lot. Barbarians have more fun. And 12,000 barbarians? Well, that's an awful lot of jolly.<br />
<br />
CFC has already shown the way stealth bombers can be used to destroy structures coming out of second timers. With their extended post-Odyssey bridging capability, Black Ops can give barbarian raiding parties a long arm when it comes to making mayhem deep within enemy territory. <br />
<br />
If Test can take the initiative and mount an active defense; combining sharp attacks using inexpensive fleets with deep strikes at key resources in CFCs backfield, they have a chance at keeping the CFC off balance, while providing Test and Tribal pilots with fun fights. And nothing brings pilots back to your fleets and allies back to your side like the sight of you having a good time tugging your foe's chin pussy.<br />
<br />
As this next phase of the war for nullsec develops, the goal of a CFC invasion of Delve is not to possess Delve, but to tip Test Alliance into failscade, or at lease to drive off the larger part of its members. Test and Tribal's goal is for their pilots to enjoy the fight, and retreat in good order with their membership intact should the need arise. If, once all the dust has settled, Test and Tribal remain in nullsec to trouble the CFC as they sleep 'pon their starry beds, Test and Tribal may claim victory regardless of the territorial exchanges.<br />
<br />
For Test Alliance Please Ignore, this will be a fight where the old maxim holds true: It's not whether they win or lose, but how they play the game. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8604973112865316634.post-17626534034226750042013-07-24T13:16:00.003-07:002013-07-25T03:31:02.034-07:00The Cost of KingdomsThe recent birth announcements for Britain's new little Saxe Coburg Gotha princeling have gotten me thinking about Richard III and those who pay the cost of kingdoms.<br />
<br />
Richard, of course, died at Bosworth Field on August 22, 1485, by some accounts taking a halberd to the back of the head as his horse foundered in the mud a mere sword's length from Henry Tudor, whom Richard was doing his level best to kill at the time.<br />
<br />
It is telling that this was the last time a king of England would actively take the field to defend his crown. Five hundred twenty-odd years later the cost of kingdoms is far less than the price paid by Richard. The royal line has moved so far from warrior kings toward its current collection of Disney characters that, when Richard's remains were <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exhumation_of_Richard_III">discovered and exhumed</a> from beneath a Leicestershire car park in 2012, the current royal family's DNA could not be used to verify his identity. A London cabinet-maker turned out to be a closer genetic match to the last Plantagenet king than the current Prince of Wales. <br />
<br />
All of which is excellent fodder for a novel or two, but you may well ask what it has to do with Eve Online. It's a bit of a stretch, I admit, but hang with me.<br />
<br />
Over the weekend the war in Fountain took a profound turn in favor of ClusterFuck Coalition (CFC). Test Alliance, Please Ignore and Tribal Band's allies, Northern Coalition[DOT] and Nulli Secunda are once again drawn East to defend their territories from Solar Fleet and friends. This has provided CFC with a clear numeric advantage and stripped away the Allies' supercapital high cover that has heretofore prevented CFC from deploying its own supercapitals extensively in Fountain during final timers.<br />
<br />
Seeking to make hay while the sun shines, CFC is driving fiercely on the military, psyops and diplomatic fronts to bring the Fountain campaign to a quick conclusion and, if possible, to neutralize Test Alliance as a future enemy before Test/Tribal's allies can return. Sole possession of the supercapital field of play has allowed CFC to extend their previous weekend's gain in Pegasus constellation into <a href="http://evemaps.dotlan.net/map/Fountain/Manticore">Manticore</a> and <a href="http://evemaps.dotlan.net/map/Fountain/Sphinx">Sphinx</a>. This move effectively cuts off the <a href="http://evemaps.dotlan.net/map/Fountain/Wyvern">Wyveren</a> and <a href="http://evemaps.dotlan.net/map/Fountain/Taurus">Taurus</a> constellations, which provide Fountain's sole empire access route, from the rest of the region. It also isolates from the rest of Test's holdings in Fountain the <a href="http://evemaps.dotlan.net/map/Fountain/Chimera">Chimera</a> and <a href="http://evemaps.dotlan.net/map/Fountain/Unicorn">Unicorn</a> constellations which contain seven Test station systems.<br />
<br />
Outnumbered, with fewer effective FCs than CFC and lacking a coherent supercapital force, Test and Tribal leadership have called 'balls to the walls' for their members. Their hope is to pull out all the stops and bring sufficient numbers to keep the fight for Fountain alive and make the interlopers pay a price for the systems they take. However, despite an uptick in Test/Tribal fleet participation, their FCs are having to pick and choose which timers to defend.<br />
<br />
There is a certain irony to an alliance with twelve thousand members and a reputation for overwhelming its enemies with sheer numbers finding itself on the wrong end of the numbers game against a coalition that can claim in excess of twenty-six thousand members. Still, CFC cannot allow those twelve thousand members to roam free in New Eden. No other known nullsec alliance or combination of alliances, however skilled, however well endowed with supercarriers, can come close to matching the CFCs numbers unless Test stands with them.<br />
<br />
It has been shown time and again over the last year or so the advantage CFC's numerical superiority gives them. However, if Test stands with CFC's foes on the field of battle, Test's numbers make a genuine contest possible. Thus, if Test can be brought to heel and made to submit, or its numbers significantly reduced through failscade, it will remove an essential component from any opposition to the CFC's hegemony over nullsec. Once that is accomplished, CFC can rule nullsec relatively unmolested and the rest of its enemies can go whistle.<br />
<br />
This speaks volumes as to the motive behind CFC leadership's recent 'Testie, Come Home' campaign.<br />
<br />
You'll have noted through various CFC media outlets that the <a href="http://poeticstanziel.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-war-in-fountain-moving-day.html">party line</a> is that CFC never wanted this war; that it was backstabbing by Test's leadership - first by Montolio and then BoodaBooda - that brought Test and CFC, once best friends forever, to blows. Come back to the fold, goes the siren song of CFC psyops, and we can all be friends again. All we want is Fountain and your friendship. Give us those and we can have peace for our time.<br />
<br />
Of course the cost for Test of such friendship and colloquy would go well beyond Fountain. The <a href="http://fiddlersedge.blogspot.com/2013/05/millions-of-mischiefs.html">undermining</a> of Test as actor co-equal to and independent from the CFC was well underway before Test withdrew from the Honeybadger Coalition. Test and Tribal's members appear to have no illusions as to what bending their collective necks to the CFC would mean. Indeed, both Test and Tribal appear to understand that this is not a war over Fountain. It is a war over the future and spirit of nullsec.<br />
<br />
The CFC vision for nullsec has a decided corporate tang to it. It is nullsec leashed, controlled and sanitized for your protection. Admission to the CFC's nullsec is controlled by its governing members, as are nullsec PvP events. It is nullsec as an industrial and economic power, with all the order and institutions that implies. Think of it as Nullsec, inc., where l33t administrative or political skills are a more certain path to lordship than one's abilities on the field of battle. <br />
<br />
The nullsec vision of Test and its allies is a much more visceral, less secure place. In their vision warrior kings hold sway and battle for their place. One's reputation is measured in the blood of one's enemies and if the little grey men from the corporate office get out of line, they are quickly minced and thrown to the dogs. Empires rise and fall, barbarians swarm the gates, and princes of nullsec put their very selves on the line to purchase their kingdoms.<br />
<br />
I am, I confess, somewhat torn between these visions. The CFC version of nullsec has demonstrated itself to be much more efficient than the old PvP-centric model, just as Britain under the industrialists proved more efficient than England under its warrior-kings. From a political economy standpoint, the evolution of nullsec in this direction was to be expected eventually. Indeed, as a sometime industrialist, I've wished to see that aspect of the nullsec game more fully leveraged.<br />
<br />
Having said that, I don't log onto Eve Online in order to continue my RL work day. Eve Online is an entertainment; a work of fantasy and science fiction in
which I can play a small part of the larger story. In such a work there should be warrior
kings and barbarian chieftains who lead vast fleets into battle. And
the consequences of such battles should be more than just entries in an ISK ledger or bragging rights over kill-board scores. I've no desire to see the better part of nullsec tamed and turned into a theme park and moon-goo cartel controlled by a small minority of the Eve player-base. <br />
<br />
In Real Life, warrior kings are no more, having been replaced by the more predictable and compliant likes of the Saxe Coburg Gothas; men and women pleased to reign without the burdens of rule. They are as much king as our modern age can bear. Yet the aura of the old kings still clings to their crowns, commanding our attention, however dull and uninteresting the current wearers have become.<br />
<br />
However impractical they are today, the raw and bloody-handed kings of old fire our imaginations in ways the thoroughly sensible Duke of Cambridge cannot. Good or evil, we will likely remember Richard III long after the Saxe
Coburg Gothas are forgotten. He knew the cost of kingdoms, paid it in
full, and inhabits his still. <br />
<br />
Happily for Test Alliance Please Ignore and Tribal Band, they exist in game, where impracticality is the order of the day. Whether Fountain stands or falls, much in New Eden hinges on their actions in the next few days and weeks. This is a rare gift even in the digital world of MMPORGs. The individual pilots will collectively choose how their alliances will be remembered. They may diminish or disband under the CFC assault and no one would blame them. They may bend to the yoke and accept a place in the CFC's new order; an undeniably easier road than the current battle against long odds. Or they may choose to stand to their tackle and pay the cost of kingdoms.<br />
<br />
The ends of such purchases are never certain and often go astray, but they are rarely forgotten.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8604973112865316634.post-83832173332624247002013-07-17T12:17:00.001-07:002013-07-17T15:16:53.508-07:00The Perils of Prognostication<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i> "It ain't over 'til the fat lady sings."</i><br />
<i> - </i>Ralph Carpenter</blockquote>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AnGW4ZXVjIs/Th7xGCmRUnI/AAAAAAAABvs/tMvX1NqFPwU/s800/KirithSnowglobe.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AnGW4ZXVjIs/Th7xGCmRUnI/AAAAAAAABvs/tMvX1NqFPwU/s200/KirithSnowglobe.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Fabled Kodachi Snow Globe </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
For the most part Kirith Kodachi is a conservative writer.<br />
<br />
Which is not to say he goes clubbing with Anne Colter or sits down to poutine with Glenn Beck. No, what I mean is that Kirith is a thoughtful writer, not given to fiery rhetoric and an excess of hyperbole. Kirith thinks twice before clicking on the "Publish" button over at Inner Sanctum of the Niniveh. He has become something of a senior statesman among bloggers; a sane voice of reason when tempers flare and egos collide in the Eve Online community. <br />
<br />
Heck, he even has his own <a href="http://fiddlersedge.blogspot.com/2011/07/interlude-tertius.html">snow-globe</a>.<br />
<br />
However, even Plato stepped in the rhetorical dog-shit now and again. And when that happened his buddies at the lyceum didn't just pass the wine cup around again and pretend they didn't smell the logical fallacies. No, indeed. When that happened a philosophical throw-down would ensue and Plato would be called upon to either defend his thesis before his peers or go outside and scrape said thesis off his metaphorical shoe.<br />
<br />
In that same spirit, I must take issue with the Canadian Sage's recent post <a href="http://www.ninveah.com/2013/07/fountain-war-prognosis.html">'Prognosis'</a> with regard to the ongoing war in Fountain between the Clusterfuck Coalition (CFC) and the allied forces of Test Alliance Please Ignore, the N3 coalition, the Retirement Club and small host of other alliances. Kirith had spent some time looking over the situation and came up with a template for victory - a performance checklist of sorts, describing critical ways in which the Allied forces must execute in order win against the CFC: <br />
<ul>
<li>Excellent participation rates</li>
<li>
Ship reimbursement program humming along</li>
<li>
Finances in good shape</li>
<li>
Allies committed and coordinated</li>
<li>
Enemies distracted by attacks from third parties</li>
</ul>
Holding his assessment of the state of the war and the Allies' execution of it against this template he came to the following conclusion:<br />
<br />
"Test is screwed." <br />
<br />
I know. Not the sort of utterance once expects from a man usually given to nuance. In fact, Kirith was so bearish on the Test's position he recommended they cut their losses and extract themselves from the war lest they lose organizational integrity. <br />
<br />
"If I were TEST leadership, I'd be thinking about my exit strategy at this point before this war grinds your alliance apart."<br />
<br />
Now, it should be pointed out that before doing his research for this piece, Kirith wasn't convinced an actual sov war was going on in Fountain at all. As recently as a week ago he was wondering whether or not Fountain wasn't just another Delve 'Thunderdome' with the combatants using the region as a playground for good large fleet fights; sans any desire to actually contest sov or any meaningful enmity between the combatants. Sort of the 'controlled PvP' concept put forward by PL and CFC as an alternative to sov warfare in the pre-Odyssey days.<br />
<br />
Anyone who's been paying close attention will have known what Kirith discovered last week: There is an honest to goodness sov war going on in Fountain. In fact, a key point that Kirith seems to have missed is the nature of the war in progress. This war is not merely a push for additional space or interstellar goodies. Leadership on both sides of this fight want nothing less than the extinction of their primary enemies. This, my friends, is a death struggle. Neither side is going to let the other walk away to fight another day. For the principles, there are only two ways out of this war: With your shield, or on it.<br />
<br />
The leadership of Test and Nulli want Goonswarm dead. Dead, as in no longer among the quick. Dead, as in singing with the choir celestial. Dead, as in making smores over the flames of a burning Mittanigrad. Test and Nulli's rank and file seem highly motivated toward the same end. This is not a case of senior leadership driving a personal fight of which the membership want no part. Kirith rightly points to the internal fund raiser Test recently held to stabilize their finances as an indication of weakness. However, in so doing he misses entirely the enthusiasm Test's rank and file showed for the effort and how quickly and successfully it met its goals. These are not players ready to turn tail and run. These are highly motivated foot-soldiers with a fierce and personal grudge against Goonswarm. Nulli Secunda, for it's part, has been quite upfront with their position on Goonswarm: Their self-proclaimed <i>raison d'etre</i> is Goonswarm's destruction. 'Nuff said. <br />
<br />
Likewise, CFC leadership does not merely want Fountain. They want Test Alliance well and truly obliterated as a rallying point for anti-Goon resistance. CFC leadership has had both Test Alliance Please Ignore and Pandemic Legion firmly in their cross-hairs for some time, and that has not changed. Goonswarm will not abide the presence of any entity capable of challenging their hegemony over nullsec; a hegemony that is an essential prerequisite to their longer term plans for economic dominion over New Eden. At present, Test is the lynchpin of any such challenge to CFC, and must therefore be extirpated. Further, by having the temerity to challenge Goonswarn directly, both Test and Nulli must be utterly laid low in order to serve as an object lesson and cement the CFC's reputation as an irresistible force in order to discourage future challenges from other quarters. <br />
<br />
Under the heading of <i>'Allies committed and coordinated'</i> Kirith makes much of public statements by Pandemic Legion representatives, particularly in the context of a <i>Crossing Zebras</i> podcast, as to the degree to which PL is committed and how well they're coordinating with the rest of the Allies.<br />
<br />
First of all, as I commented on Kirith's website, it should be recalled that the hosts of <i>Crossing Zebras</i> are CFC members who have a vested
interest in the outcome of the current conflict. Thus it is
notable that their departure from the fairly dull and mostly harmless
CSM/CCP interviews, which have the
virtue of being safe and CFC content free, is an interview with Pandemic Legion
members saying uncomplimentary things about Test Alliance and leading one
to believe PL is ready to abandon the war against CFC should PL stop having fun. This is not to say that
propaganda was what motivated Xanfer and Jeg (who I quite like, Zander's
fashion sense notwithstanding). In fact the content itself doesn't deliver much in the way of new information for those who've been paying attention (see below). However, the timing of its delivery is of interest, coming as it did in the midst of a CFC push to take a second constellation in Fountain, following a series of set-backs for Test and its allies.<br />
<br />
Secondly, as I've reported previously, Pandemic Legion has not been terribly
committed to the Allies from the the get-go. Their participation to date has
been, shall we say, episodic, and not merely due to a lack of coordination. Pandemic is now and has always been in Eve
for the 'pride parade'. While they play hard and are very good at what they do, they
are grasshoppers as opposed to Goonswarm's ants, preferring to gambol in the glades of Summer and move on at the approach of Autumn's chill. Mindful of this, CFC's diplomatic corp will have been working tirelessly to emphasize how cold the Winter will get for PL should they dedicate themselves more than marginally against the CFC and end up on the losing side. Unless and until the present tide turns again and the trench warfare in Fountain turns into a march on Deklein, I don't anticipate Pandemic Legion will battle in earnest for the Allies. If, on the other hand, Fountain turns into a route for the Allies, I expect PL will pull out altogether.<br />
<br />
Having said all this, there's no doubt the tides of war have been running in CFC's favor. The Allies continue to fight the war on CFC's terms which, as I've written previously, has allowed the CFC to concentrate their forces in the Fountain staging areas and given the CFC diplomatic and psyops corps plenty of time to do their work. At the same time, the fall-off in secondary enfilading fronts against the CFC has permitted the CFC home-front to operate relatively unmolested and avoid the sort of perception of vulnerability that brings on the dog-pile.<br />
<br />
But barring unforeseen misfortune for either side, the 'Fountain' war is far from over. Despite recent CFC successes the Allied forces have prevented the fight from becoming a rout and and have limited their losses to the Centaur and part of the Pegasus constellations. Pegasus is heavily contested at present; CFC having just today burned through ten Territory Control Units in a close-run attempt to take 9-VO0Q.<br />
<br />
If the status quo holds, who wins this war may be decided by who has the will to stand against the other and keep punching the longest. In such a fight, who is best led and best coordinated matters far less than the collective will of the rank and file pilots. It is the sort of fight in which the clock could as easily run against the CFC, where to date it has run primarily against the Allies. Offensives
in which the invaders are not heavily invested in the outcome,
particularly those against a determined foe, tend not to end well for the
invader in the long run. Despite their leadership's desire for an end to Test Alliance and access to Fountain's moons, the CFC rank and file are generally quite comfortable and well-fed in their existing territories. The war's justification on CFC's side is primarily financial, aimed at acquiring additional income streams.<br />
<br />
"More money for the Mittani", while an honest battle cry, is not one that's going to keep the CFC pilots enthusiastic about fleeting up for grinding sov fights. <br />
<br />
But status quos can be fragile things, and Test and its allies are battling with their backs to the wall. There is no exit strategy for Test Alliance in this war except kill or be killed and if CFC can score a knock-out punch or open a significant second front against the Allies, resistance in Fountain could collapse along with Test Alliance itself. <br />
<br />
Time will tell. The clock ticks. The winds of war blow ever unpredictably; their small, subtle winds the pins 'pon which the great outcomes swing. Meanwhile, somewhere in the depths of nullsec, a fat lady checks her watch and waits patiently for her cue. <br />
<br />
Tricky things, prognoses.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8604973112865316634.post-23739086745289538422013-07-06T03:13:00.002-07:002013-07-06T03:29:27.436-07:00In Harm's Way<br />
While the battle at Z9PP-H was unable to complete due to node crash, it's a singular fight in that capital ships came out to play in force, and both sides in the fight have said that they had additional caps and supercap fleets on stand-by waiting to enter the fray.<br />
<br />
Given the number of players in the system and the degree of TiDi encountered by players on the ground, it's not surprising that neither side chose to deploy their back-up fleets. Clusterfuck Coalition (CFC) has justifiably claimed victory based on the number of Test Alliance Please Ignore and allied capital ship kills. Further, the CFC forces had a large Test capital fleet bubbled and in trouble at the time the node finally went down.<br />
<br />
However, the peril of the bubbled Test capital fleet doesn't necessarily mean that the node crash saved Test, Pandemic Legion (PL), and N3's collective bacon. In fact there are reasons to believe that the opposite may be true. <br />
<br />
As I've written in a number of prior posts, large-scale sov warfare is won or lost when one side cedes the supercapital high-ground to the enemy. When one side of a nullsec scrap becomes risk-averse when it comes to
deploying supercaps, the other side simply rolls over them, dropping
SBUs in system after system while the defenders retreat; their
subcapital fleets effectively useless absent credible supercapital
cover. <br />
<br />
Until now, the ongoing war between CFC and the Test, PL and N3 allies (TPN), both sides have been cautious about large-scale capital and supercapital deployents in battles over final timers. The battle at Z9PP-H indicates that the TPN allies have changed their posture and are willing to put substantive capital ship fleets in harms way in order to draw CFC's capitals and supercapitals into a stand-up fight. That would mean the allies are confident in their ability to win a cap/supercap war of attrition even if the CFC shows themselves capable of holding their own, or even pulling out marginal wins in supercapital slapdowns.<br />
<br />
Given the outcome in Z9PP-H, we may see CFC adopt the tactic of attacking bait capital fleets and then rushing additional players into the system, slowing the node down sufficiently to make jumping backup capital fleets into system a high risk option for the allies. 'Crashing the node' was a common tactic employed by the old Northern Coalition in their battles with the Drone Russian Federation upon a time and those lessons will not have been forgotten by Goonswarm. However, it is a tactic that can backfire if the CFC is unable to anticipate where the enemy capitals will strike, if they strike at multiple locations at once (preventing CFC from pre-positioning the numbers needed to crash the node), or if CCP is able to reinforce the node sufficiently so its performance doesn't degrade enough to keep TPN allied backup fleets out of the fight.<br />
<br />
If the allies follow Black Legion's example and begin deploying capital
fleets agressively, CFC will be put in a position in which they're
forced to respond with their own capital ships on the enemy's time-table, or abandon their Fountain beachhead. In the former case, CFC will have to go all in and bet the house on a series of large-scale battles that will likely decide the outcome of the campaign. If, however, CFC chooses to let the Fountain beachhead collapse, they virtually guarantee that the TPN allies will invade CFC space and begin a march on Mittanigrad. That would gain the CFC more time to attempt diplomatic manuverings to distract or divide the enemy camp, but would be seen as a sign of weakness and an admission that the CFC supercapitals cannot contest the ultimate high ground with the enemy.<br />
<br />
There is a certain irony to CFC's situation at present. Their foreign policy since ascending to nullsec's technetium throne was heavily occupied with the elimination of any entity that might pose an extintion level threat to the CFC. This was supposed to bring in an era of stability in which the CFC could rest easily upon their sovereign territory and orchestrate a new economic sphere of influence in nullsec that would allow them to project power across the whole of New Eden. However, in their attempts to eliminate or emasculate potential external threats the CFC has created the very extintion level threat they most feared; and one singularly dedicated to the CFC's downfall.<br />
<br />
The CFC's campaign to take Fountain's moons has stalled. Instead of annexing a rich income stream next door, CFC's leadership is faced with a well armed and well led enemy on their own doorstep. As diplomatic means deliver diminishing returns, CFC will have to win the day by force of arms if they are to avoid invasion and the subsequent dog-piling it will bring. CFC's supercapitals will have to go into harm's way or go home. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2