Some Background On The Recent Bans For Harassment

"Yes Ripard, you are literally nearly the worst kind of human filth. You parade around as a social justice champion while you purposely try to destroy people for your agenda. Reminds me of a lot of extreme right wing conservatives we have here in the states. You make me sick. You are truly sick in the head."

Erotica 1, Failheap Challenge, 11 September 2014

Yes, the silly season is in full tilt in EVE Online.  The recent bans based on out-of-game harassment using in-game EVE assets have brought the old bonus room crowd back into the spotlight.  The ring leader of that circus, Erotica 1, even trotted out some of the arguments from the GamerGate crowd.  Of course, he just knows the words and doesn't understand the concepts, as "social justice" and "extreme right wing conservatives" never go together. 

For those new to the EVE Online community, Erotica 1 is the name of the main avatar of a person who preyed upon the greedy and weak-minded in EVE.  He would prowl the main trade hub of Jita looking for victims to lure to an out-of-game "bonus room", where he would, along with his sycophants, scam the victim of all his/her ISK and assets and then try to humiliate the victim for hours, all the while recording the sessions to maximize the humiliation by posting the edited session online.  Ripard Teg is the man (and member of the Council of Stellar Management) who brought the practice to the attention of the greater EVE community in his blog post, "The bonus round". 

Yesterday, I referenced the Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory.  I believe this theory does not apply to Erotica 1.  I have gotten negative feedback about the way I choose my sources, but I consider Erotica 1 as unreliable a source of information as exists on the Internet.  When he claimed that he was permanently banned from EVE, I totally discounted that statement.  I wanted additional proof.

Now, while people are talking about the recent bans for out-of-game harassment as just a follow-up for the Erotica 1 scandal, I don't believe that's true.  I believe that these are all new infractions and that some of the Erotica 1's flunkies failed to learn the lesson.  I agree with the following Reddit post from RonUSMC:

"I understand you think you have been wronged. You should move along.

"I understand it's a sandbox, and you think you have the right to play how you want. It's not your sandbox, so move along.

"I understand that you want clear lines... so it's easier to skirt them, well, go ahead and move along.

"The party is going to be even more fun without you sociopaths here to torment us, so guess what.... move along.

"You are a cancer and we have been operated on. So please, just leave.

"You will not be missed. There will be no protests. You will just fade away like the other miscreants. If anything, we will be able to retain more new people that never knew how dark and freakish you guys ever were.

"If you really start to admit that you need EVE more than it needs you, and you create an alt and come back.... I hope they ban that too."

I will slightly disagree on one point.  Contrary to what CCP Falcon has posted, I don't think the EVE EULA and player code of conduct is clear on this matter.  I would like to see a statement concerning "the usage of EVE Online and assets, characters and items from within the game environment as leverage for the purpose of real life harassment" put directly into the Terms of Service or some other policy document.  I do not want this position just placed somewhere on the forums.  CCP doing that is one of my pet peeves and I wish they would cease that practice.  But besides that, I don't have a problem kicking these people out of EVE.

A Non-RMT Ban Wave

I guess some people didn't learn that CCP is serious about some of the things it bans.  Last month, SOMERblink tried to institute an RMT trick that was banned in November of last year.  Yesterday, CCP Falcon posted this on the EVE Online forums and stickied the post to the top:

"Hello everyone,

"We would like to remind the EVE community of our stance regarding the usage of EVE Online and assets, characters and items from within the game environment as leverage for the purpose of real life harassment.

"As outlined in our previous announcement, this type of behavior lies in clear breach of our End User License Agreement, and as such we have a zero tolerance approach when dealing with these cases.

"Our stance regarding this type of behavior has not changed since the last announcement, and any individuals who are found to be engaging in such behavior will be met with disciplinary action against their game accounts in accordance with our Terms of Service."

Apparently, someone once again proved the validity of the Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory (GIFT).

A picture says a thousand words

A Reddit user by the user name of Patwa put up the following opening post:

As seen on 10 September 2014

"Two of my accounts were banned as of today. The reason stated: Participation in a group engaged in out of game harassment of EVE players. I have confirmed that I am not the only participant to receive this ban. Due to policy, I won't publish or quote any part of the email I received from the GM. However, I can tell you that my participation in the bonus room was minimal at best - only x-ing up for contracts."

When asked if the ban was related to the Erotica1 scandal earlier this year or was a new event, Patwa replied, "It was the original issue. And no, I did not. I only actually x-d up in a small percentage of the total bonus rooms. I found that it wasn't really worth my time."

Really?  Another Reddit user, rykki, found another post back from the original Erotica1 incident:

As seen on 10 September 2014

"I'm friends with Erotica 1. I've made quite a bunch of ISK from the victims in the bonus room. We use TS not to avoid EULA stuff, but because it's funny.

"We also force people to pod themselves 20-50 times without updating their clone."

That was the situation as I knew it as of midnight, EVE time.  Shortly after midnight, another post appeared on Reddit:

"Earlier this morning, many players were banned permanently, pending investigation. The reason given was 'Participation with a group involved in real life harassment.'

"To my knowledge, many members within CODE have been banned, along with steadfast and trustworthy members within Calmil. People within GSF have also been banned.
People in every region of space are being banned--and everyone down to a dime that I've talked to have no idea what they got banned for.

"We don't know what we were banned for, and we've been stonewalled. I didn't even know most of these people before we got banned today.

"The only reason specified is 'Participation with a group involved in real life harassment.'

This has set a most startling precedent."

Confusion is also reigning over on the Failheap Challenge forums.  The post with the most information came from a poster named Lucence:

"It's still early, the bans were only handed hours ago. At first the wording of CCP Falcon ('harassment') was reminiscent of the sohkar episode so we thought bans were related to anyone involved in it, but we soon got reports from banned people saying they had never been involved in it in any way (wasn't on TS, didn't accept a contract, wasn't in the ingame chat channel), and others from people who were eyebrow deep in it and yet didn't get banned, so it must have been something else.

"So far we haven't been able to draw a complete picture, the only pattern seems to be people generally involved in griefing in some way. However I know of at least one banned person in a lowsec alliance who is apparently described as trustworthy and not into griefing; he claims to have no idea why he got banned. My understanding is CODE is surveying its ranks and all its PR is centralized with line members instructed to lay low (do not post GM logs, do not partake in flamewars etc.) while we figure out wtf exactly happened. BU is pinging logged off regulars through jabber/TS/IRC/Steam.

"We haven't heard anything back from CCP yet, besides CCP Falcon's cryptic message, and we don't expect anything for another few days if at all. This is why we concentrate our efforts on building a solid case we can submit to CSM members."

At 2:22am EVE Time, CCP Falcon put out a reply to the 2 1/2 pages of posts that were asking what happened (and that CCP was ruining EVE).  Responding to the question, "can we expect some clear-cut rules on what you would classify as 'real life harassment'?", CCP Falcon replied:

"It isn't our job to dictate to people how to maintain a base standard of human decency toward one another, and we're not going to do so.

"The bottom line is that it's down to members of the community to know where the line crosses from common decency to harassment. We will not draw a line in the sand so that people can skirt on the edge of it and bend the rules as much as possible.

"This isn't a debate about what constitutes "harassment". If you're not familiar with the word, find the definition in a dictionary and that will satisfy your question.

"What we will do, is continue to use best judgement on a case by case basis to ensure that real life harassment is kept out of the game, and ensure that those who choose to involve themselves in such activities are no longer permitted to be part of our community.

"Cut and dried, that's all we have to say on the matter."

To save time, I visited the Oxford online dictionary (UK version since that is where CCP Falcon is from) and found this definition:

Harassment: Aggressive pressure or intimidation.

Hopefully that will make things clearer.  No?


Well, I'll admit I'm a bit confused.  From what I gather, this is not a repeat of the bonus room situation.  I'm not going to try to guess what occurred, although CCP Falcon's recommendation to visit the dictionary does provide fodder for speculation.  Some names of characters are already floating around and I don't want to malign anyone with totally baseless speculation.  The story may continue, and with CODE. involved, many people will want to learn more.  I kind of do myself.

UPDATE: Erotica 1 has decided to jump in and defend those banned.  When evaluating sources to determine the truth, one should always consider past behavior.  So here is a post from the Failheap Challenge:

sharptoast: Having not really paid much attention to this whole thing I think people are going to regard you generally as an arsehole no matter what you say mate.

Erotica 1: Well, that is to be expected. Mynnna and Ripard did a great job with making up shit.

Lady Spank:  You haven't spoken a single truth in your Eve playing life so don't expect anyone to pay you any regard now either. There is no point to you trying to defend your honour or whatever else you might want to say because no one except the truly uninformed is going to take you seriously.

For the record, I consider Erotica 1 a predator and EVE is better off without him.

Clearing The Decks

Summer is basically over and it's time to organize some things.  No, not my closets, although I need to do that too.  I have this whole blogging and gaming life thing and I need to shake some things up.  I found that I've diverted a bit from the goals I set for myself at the beginning of the year and I want to get back on track.

On the blogging front, I'm going to stop following Player Auctions on a daily basis.  Sure, graph porn is good, but that particular project takes up so much time.  The last PA graph I made represented 45 hours of labor.  Admittedly, most of that time was spent on the train ride home from work, but that is still a lot of time.  Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your point of view), a group of game journalists decided to, perhaps unwittingly, open up the gaming scene to the wider culture war. So my next project is to start seriously cataloging the articles and different points of view flying around. Even if I never write about the subject, I need to pay attention now.  Some people think I'm some sort of "investigative journalist" or that I produce "scholarly work".  Trust me, the people who are starting to sniff around make me look like a rank amateur.  If I decide to write about the subject at all, I need to improve my writing.

On the gaming front, I'll probably not sub up for Final Fantasy XIV.  Not that I don't like the game.  I do.  I just don't have the time needed to commit to a good free company.  Maybe I'll feel differently after I run a battleleve, but I'm just invested in EVE and have neglected the game too much.  I finished reactivating my planetary interaction colonies last night and am using Trello to keep track.  The software is cool and I'll probably write about it in a couple weeks.  Also, I now have Mastery V in all logistics ships.  That doesn't mean I'm good at flying the ships, but I have the skills that will help.  Did I mention I hope to have at least one Prospect BPC when I get home?  Outfitting and flying that ship could lead to a lot of fun.

I also want to get back to playing single player games.  I bought Tropico 5 and haven't even downloaded the game yet.  I think that is an offense that warrants the death penalty in some jurisdictions.  I also purchased Papers, Please and the Fable Anniversary Edition.  I also want to get check out Kerbal Space Program again to see what's been added recently.

All in all, my hobby takes up a lot of time and I need to prioritize better.  Even the unfun stuff.

The Digital Dozen: 9 September 2014

The rankings of the top twelve MMORPGs as determined by the players of the Xfire community from play on Sunday, 7 September 2014.  For more details about the methodology, click here.  Historical data can be found here.

Rank	Prev Week	Game	Score	Hours Played	+/- %
1	1	World of Warcraft	47.0	6,594	+60.7
2	2	Guild Wars 2	12.3	1,730	+49.3
3	3	Star Wars: The Old Republic	10.9	1,527	+89.9
4	6	Final Fantasy XIV	5.6	792	+120.6
5	4	EVE Online	4.6	650	+57.0
6	5	Aion	4.2	594	+49.2
7	7	Tera	3.6	507	+49.1
8	8	Runescape	3.3	462	+89.3
9	9	Lord of the Rings Online	2.6	367	+58.9
10	10	Neverwinter	2.1	296	+96.0
11	--	Planetside 2	1.9	263	+806.9
12	12	Metin 2	1.7	244	+67.1

 

Total Digital Dozen Hours: 14,026

On Sunday, Xfire collected data properly after experiencing issues the week before.  Comparing the numbers with two Sundays ago, the Xfire community spent 10.8% less hours playing the top 12 MMORPGs.

Due To Technical Difficulties ... Not. - This week confirmed that the partial data was not an aberration where Wildstar and Elder Scrolls Online were concerned.  Both games remain off the list this week.  That means that ESO was on the list for 22 weeks after launch and Wildstar only 13.  Wildstar's performance was made more remarkable because the game's Digital Dozen score declined every week until the game fell off the list.  Even The Secret World, which also remained on the list for 13 weeks after it launched back in 2012, managed to see two weeks of a positive gain in its score.  I should add, however, that both games will probably wind up on the annual year-end list for 2014.

The Party's Just Starting - Lord of the Rings Online had the best performance over the past two weeks with a decline in the time Xfire members spent playing the game of only 4 hours.  That was probably due to the Farmer's Faire event running from 2-16 September.  The annual event features egg and mushroom hunts along with dealing with drunks and fishing.

EVE Is Dying? Tell That To The ISK Sellers

Now that summer is almost over, I thought I'd take another look at the secondary RMT market¹ for EVE Online ISK.  My last review occurred three months ago when prices crashed.  Now that CCP has published the Kronos, Crius, and Hyperion updates, I wondered what changes had occurred.²

GamerGate: Tempest In A Teapot

I've followed the GamerGate "scandal" for a few weeks now.  At the risk of besmirching the name of a fine Minmatar battleship, I think the whole thing is a tempest in a teapot.  Although the participants would disagree.  For a rundown on the whole scandal, please read Erik Kain's excellent piece published on Forbes yesterday, "GamerGate: A Closer Look At The Controversy Sweeping Video Games."  For those who don't want to take the time, here are some points to take away:

"First, we have a young industry that began, like so many others, as a male-driven industry on both the producer and consumer side now experiencing growth pains. The media is even younger than the industry itself and it’s experiencing growth pains, too. These growth pains have resulted in some raw, open wounds that fester whenever controversy erupts, and risk being infected further by politicized forces that care less about video games and more about political agendas. (All of this is a distraction from the real business of reporting on the video game industry and critiquing video games, though I think there is plenty of room for cultural commentary with political slants here as well, just like in TV, film, etc.)

"Second, we have deep mistrust between consumers and the video game industry thanks to years of bad DRM and other poor business practices. That mistrust is now being cast on the press that’s supposed to be covering the industry to protect the consumer. Consumers (gamers) have increasingly viewed the press as 'in bed' with the industry rather than working for consumers. This is enforced by stories of chummy developers and journalists, lavish AAA publisher-thrown parties, high-scoring games that aren’t particularly good, and so forth.

"Finally, we have a video game press with a largely left-leaning political bias in some ways alienating itself from much of its readership. This seeps into the first two problems and complicates the matter, but isn’t in and of itself an invalid complaint. If the video game press were deeply conservative, you’d have a lot of left-leaning voices decrying it as well. The tenor of the discussion has become so 'us vs. them' at this point, that many gamers simply feel unrepresented and condescended."

I've only spent 15 hours or so researching and reading about the topic, but in that extremely brief time I've come to one conclusion: who cares?  The matter is about as important as mass-based ejection in wormhole space in EVE Online.  Extremely important to those involved, but on the scale of the millions that play video games on planet Earth, not very significant at all.

Excuse me if I ignore 4chan, because that's my policy on dealing with 4chan if at all possible.  That was reinforced with this whole "scandal".  The only thing I can say is that they've appeared to have gotten better, at least in projecting a more positive image upon an unsuspecting audience. 

As for the "social justice warrior side", are these people I should really worry about?  I'd never heard of any of these people before.  After what I learned doing my research, I wish I'd never heard of them.  That goes for the indie game developer involved as well as the games journalists who wrote the "Gamers Are Dead" pieces.

I think I need to say this about the games journalists in question.  Not only have I never heard of these people before, but for the most part they write for gaming sites that I only visit if it comes up on a Google search.  As for the quality of those sites, if I have a choice between any of those sites and PC Gamer, Eurogamer, or Massively, I don't use the sites that published the "Gamers Are Dead" articles.  Sites like Gamasutra, Polygon, and Kotaku always seemed sketchy to me, so I'm glad to see my judgement vindicated.

So what we have is a scandal a game developer who make games I'll never play and the relationship with writers whose work I never read on sites I rarely visit.  The group that really pushed the story, 4chan, is one I try to avoid if humanly possible.  Then I think about the tens of millions of people who play video games.  Do they even care?  I highly doubt it.

As the title of the post states, the whole GamerGate scandal is a tempest in a teapot.  Unless the scandal grows way beyond where it should (and that is a real possibility), I'm done with this topic.

Grr Goon Industrialists

I did something stupid last night.  I read a thread on the official EVE Online forums titled "Ore Compression and the State of Crius Industry."  Apparently Goons and other members of the CFC are upset that the high sec miners are not doing as they should and compressing their ore.  I'm not going to tar all of null sec with a broad brush as others, notably from Pandemic Legion and The Fourth District from the alliances I recognized, disagreed with the CFC members.

When I first saw the proposal for the refining/reprocessing changes, I figured that null sec alliances would need to set up POS in high sec in order to do the ore compression needed to supply the newly buffed null sec industry.  Apparently a lot of null sec industrialists thought that people in high sec would do all of the work.  Personally I didn't think they would.  I know I would refuse to haul the ore around when I could just refine it.  Or, as Goonswarm's Retar Aveymone stated:

"There is a massive amount of round-trip hauling, which is perhaps the worst sort of pointless busywork that exists in this game. As a result, few people are doing compression and I expect a shocking number of those are hauling bots. No sane human at the computer can sit there doing round trips from a station to a pos in a freighter all day."

In another post, Retar stated:

"Price signals do not work when the producers are too dimwitted to respond to them. Furthermore the immense effort of compressing any reasonable amount of ore is not a fun addition to the game. Nobody wins when someone's doing an infinite number of round trips to their pos. Their pos has nothing valuble in it, their freighter doesn't either (and even if it did, it's ungankable unless they don't think to dock up) and the actual gameplay is basically a war crime.

"Anyone who wants to verify what I say is correct needs only look at the actual compressed ore volume in jita. I have simply halted my T1 building until it's fixed, and I'm not the only one."

Like I stated above, this attitude was not shared by most of the posters.  The tone was pretty much reserved for CFC members and forum alts.  The Fourth District's Grace Chang responded directly to Retar's quote above:

"So basically you are saying people are too dumb to make a profit in EvE and the market is broken when the market is ruthless for pretty much other item. I am pretty sure that is it and not you being a cheapskate.

"Here is what i suspect: The market accurately reflects the effort and much volume is handled via private contracts.

"You can currently buy plenty of compressed veldspar at a 19% markup in Jita. Seems fair to me considered the hauling around issue.

"Here is a thought:

a.) pay the extra fee to the people who do the logistics of buying ore, hauling it, compressing it, and hauling it back
b.) befriend some highsec miner corporation to get a stable deal
c.) recruit miners for your 0.0 operation (because that is what this is about) and stop treating them like ****.

"Either way the easy mode mineral logistics is gone for now. HTFU."

Pandemic Legion's Kenneth Feld chimed in with a few notable words.  Post 1:

"Education is the key. I flew around and found corps of miners, talked to them, educated them, now I have brokered deals with them to buy every piece of ore they mine. I have now 8 corps on my roster and I buy everything, I haul it for them.

"Now before you get up in arms about freighters, red frog does the same thing - I am just one stop shopping.

"This is not rocket science but sitting in Jita and bitching and moaning about the compressed ore not coming to you is stupid

"425mm railguns never came to you either, but in the end you figured out a way to get them

"This is NO DIFFERENT

"You need to figure out how to get ore or compressed ore, the tools are there for you to use"

Remember my belief that null sec entities would have to set up operations in high sec?  What Kenneth is doing is what I thought would happen.  Then again, perhaps the fact that PL's spiritual home is in Minmatar low sec has something to do with having a more pragmatic attitude.

Post 2:

"If people have been doing something for 11 years and now you need them to do something different, bitching on forums to get CCP to change it back isn't the answer. Education is key my friend - that also is NOT CCP's job

"If you want to get to a different discussion on how viable mining is in nullsec ---> forum is that way

"Last year at EvE Vegas when anomoly changes were coming and Mexallon was getting the big nerf bat, we complained and everyone toed the same line 'We will monitor'"

"In lieu of them changing, you must overcome and adapt, obviously, you have been unable, I have been able with little or no fuss whatsoever."

Post 3:

"So, educate the miners to not refine, it isn't difficult and I have had GREAT success at doing it, I suggest you try the same. It would require you to talk to pubbies, which is beneath you, I understand.
 
"or you can continue to ***** and moan here
 
"Your call"

Tzar Sinak of Mythic Heights (which I believe is a w-space corp) offered up some practical advice:

"CCP has changed the mechanics of the game and it is having an impact on the way many in null sec play the game. Instead of asking CCP to change the game to meet null sec needs and effecting everyone else I respectfully suggest null try to adapt to the changes.

"Let us see, how do I now get all the minerals I need to build my fleet of capital ships?

• I could slow down production.
• I could hire miners to mine the low ends exclusively in null sec (better pay them appropriately). Yes, that means anomalies, combat sites, belts (shudder) of many systems.
• I could hold mining ops in low sec.
• I could take control of some low sec systems for the sole purpose of mining them.
• I could hire hi sec miner corps to produce what I need.
• I could hire hi sec transport outfits to haul and compress.
• I could, wait for it, mine in WH space while linked to my null sec systems.
• I could hire WH corps to mine and transport for me.

"I could do any combination of the above WITHOUT affecting the rest of the game by insisting on a mechanics change.

"Compression mechanics as is is just fine. Time to expand your horizons and possibilities."

[Some reformatting performed to make more readable]

Another member of the CFC, Komi Toran, believes the small, high sec mining corps or casuals who mine part-time should just carry a small tower around with them.

"You only put it up when and where you need it. A compression POS doesn't just save you ISK, it lets you mine anywhere in high-sec without the need of a freighter fleet to get your goods to market. So not only do you make more ISK on the rocks you mine, but it saves you over one billion ISK for your logistics chain. It's a better investment than upgrading a barge to an exhumer."

Sorry, but I know if I still lived in high sec I wouldn't bother with a POS.  Why do I want to go through the hassle of setting one up and tearing it down all the time?  Besides, I don't mine enough to make a POS cost effective.  I think those who are just mining on an alt in order to afford to PvP would agree.

I should add that some wondered about low sec mining.  A character in an NPC corp, handige harri, wrote:

"It appears this is not really a high sec miners not compressing problem though seeing your trit and pyerite numbers. It looks more like nobody mining Lowsec ores, which are the major supplier of Isogen/Nocx and in a lesser amount Mex.Which is weird, as they have been the best isk/hour ores in the game for a while and with the new compression ratios you get mad isk/m3 with compressed low sec ores."

Grace Chang added:

"Makes perfect sense tbh. With lowsec being the most dangerous region for miners, the prices have to go up a lot more i suspect before people bother to go there with a prospect. But wouldn't it be nice if they would actually eventually do that?"

As I've written before, the problem isn't the actual mining itself.  The problem is getting the ore to market.  Small-time operators like myself are not going to operate a POS in low sec.  That's asking to lose a lot of ISK.  So if we want to move significant quantities of ore, low sec miners will need to use either a Miasmos or a deep space transport.  I came up with a Miasmos fit that relies on the Cloak/MWD trick.  I'll have to look up my Mastodon fit, although I don't know if the extra cargo capacity (the Mastodon can use giant secure cargo containers) is worth risking a tech 2 ship.

The use of the Prospect is amusing since the introduction of the Mordus rats in low sec belts.  The argument for the Prospect is, besides the ability to use a cloak, that its defense would rely on a small signature.  But with the tackle bonuses on the Mordus rats, would I want to risk a tech 2 frigate?  I think a Procurer could fight its way out of the situation.  I'm not sure if a Prospect could run away.

Also, I'm not sure if a Prospect can really mine fast enough.  I saw a fit that relies on Modulated Deep Core Miner IIs that could match a max tank Procurer in mining output, but I'd rather rely on a Procurer for low sec.  I'd use the Prospect in either a wormhole or in NPC null trying to track down mercoxit.

I guess I'm getting mean in my fifth year of playing EVE, because I have very little sympathy for Sir Mittani's industrialists.  I realize they are locked in an arms race with Nulli and PL and the industry changes benefiting null sec weren't supposed to inconvenience them in any way.  Instead, high sec miners are acting in ways that make sense to them and not according to design plan set up by CCP.  As Kenneth Feld and others pointed out, the optimal play is to actively engage with high sec miners and otherwise adapt to the new environment.

I know, I know.  Why should the industrialists of the Greater Goon Community have to stoop so low as to talk and work with pubbie scum?  Such a system puts a group like the Goons at a severe disadvantage.  After all, between the thousands of scams, daily suicide ganking of freighters and miners, payment of billions to James315 to harass high sec miners, the yearly Burn Jita event, plus the constant name calling and derision that comes from the GSF and CFC, why would any high sec miner want to do anything to benefit Goons if they have any alternative at all?  CCP, in effect, has set up a system that benefits people like Kenneth Fuld who belong to alliances that at least keep their antics mostly confined to low and null sec.

I realize that is so unfair and that I should sympathize with the desire to have CCP alter the game to benefit a group like the Goons and CFC who have a poor reputation.  I mean, why should the Goons' actions have any consequences?  The stupid pubbies are supposed to do all the work of compressing the ore.  If they don't, then the game developers need to change the mechanics.  After all, what do they think EVE is, a sandbox?

Handling Distractions

I need to come up with a better way to keep myself organized within EVE.  I'm not referring to where I keep my stuff.  I think I have that covered.  No, I'm referring to what I'm actually doing in the game.  EVE isn't the only gaming-related thing I do and sometimes the other things distract me from what I'm trying to accomplish in New Eden.

Currently I have three main distractions.  The first is Final Fantasy XIV.  I really like the game so far and I get lost for hours playing.  The second is the Alliance Tournament.  I do most of my gaming on the weekends and now that the tourney near the end, I find myself watching both the matches and the studio coverage.  I can't really play EVE and watch the coverage at the same time.

The final distraction is "Gamergate".  That whole thing is a little disturbing, and not just because 4chan is involved.  A lot of members of 4chan are trying to go against the 4chan image and act like responsible adults with reasonable concerns.  That in itself is interesting.  But as I look further into the "social justice" side of things, I'm starting to get a little creeped out.  I'm not writing about what I'm finding, though, because I want to try to avoid getting into politics.  I may write about the pseudo-conspiracy involving gaming journalism though.  I love conspiracy theories.

So that leaves trying to remember what I planned on doing when I do log in for a serious play session.  EVE does have some tools to help.  I already use EveMon, a third-party tool, to make sure I keep my skill queue filled.  EveMon is also useful for keeping track of my market orders and industry work.  But unlike EveMon's skill training function, the industry functions just tell me what exists, not what I need to do next.

The reason I started thinking about better organizing myself is that I want to build a Prospect but I forgot a couple of steps.  The most important is making blueprint copies for invention.  Instead of just going out to gather the results of my data core mining and begin inventing the BPC, I had to make copies, which means I won't begin my invention attempts until next Monday.  All because I'm unorganized.

I'm thinking about setting up a calendar I can look at so I know what I need to do next.  I'm not sure if I want to use the calendar in EVE Gate or Google's calendar.  I would just put in what I need to install in the various industry queues based on a building plan I'd create.  Almost sounds like a job, doesn't it?  But that's not a knock on EVE; I'm considering doing something similar for FFXIV also.  Although FFXIV is a classic tab-targeting themepark, I find the crafting engaging enough that I need to set some priorities and stick to them.

I probably need to set up Word documents listing my priorities in both games so I don't forget.  I find myself chasing after the nearest shiny in both games.  I'm pretty good about resisting the urge in EVE, but FFXIV is still new enough to me that I haven't established any priorities.  A Word document telling me where I left off sounds pretty good right about now.  Taking 5-10 minutes after a play session to make some notes would probably help make starting the next play session a lot easier.  Read my notes and start killing things.  Or making deliveries, if I'm playing EVE.  About the only things I kill in EVE are rocks.

So those are my latest rambling thoughts.  Given that I've rambled a lot lately, I probably need to impose a little order on myself.  After all, internet spaceships are serious business and I need to stay focused with my eyes on the prize.  Whatever that is.

The Digital Dozen: 2 September 2014

The rankings of the top twelve MMORPGs as determined by the players of the Xfire community from play on Sunday, 31 August 2014.  For more details about the methodology, click here.  Historical data can be found here.

Rank	Prev Week	Game	Score	Hours Played	+/- %
1	1	World of Warcraft	48.3	4,103	-39.6
2	2	Guild Wars 2	13.6	1,159	-47.9
3	3	Star Wars: The Old Republic	9.5	804	-58.2
4	5	EVE Online	4.9	414	-46.6
5	6	Aion	4.7	398	-39.8
6	4	Final Fantasy XIV	4.2	359	-61.8
7	7	Tera	4.0	340	-39.4
8	8	Runescape	2.9	244	-55.3
9	9	Lord of the Rings Online	2.7	231	-37.7
10	10	Neverwinter	1.8	151	-57.2
11	--	Need For Speed World	1.7	148	-31.2
12	--	Metin 2	1.7	146	+31.5

 

Total Digital Dozen Hours: 8,497

On Sunday, Xfire recorded 46% fewer hours spent playing MMORPGs by its users than the week before.  Obviously, something went wrong.

Extended Downtime - Looking at Xfire, the service did not collect any data on 28-30 August, with only partial data on the 27th and Sunday.  Of the twelve games on the list, only Metin 2 recorded an increase in playtime.  Given that the average Xfire member only spent 3.5 hours logged in, that represents a real increase in players.  Then again, Xfire only recorded 40 people playing the game Sunday.

An Anomaly? - I've watched over the past few months as both Elder Scrolls Online and Wildstar have slipped down the list.  But is this a blip caused by Xfire's problems or the end of the line for the two games unless they go free-to-play?  Next week should prove interesting.

Housekeeping Note - I've updated the spreadsheet containing all of the Xfire data I've collected over the past 2+ years with this summer's data.  Enjoy!

Final Fantasy XIV - Low Level Character Appearance

I think I'm doing the whole "play computer game, see sexy female character" thing wrong.  I have a tendency to play both male and female characters in games I play for long periods of time.  Female characters are interesting to see how they interact with the world around them.  In some games, like EVE Online, your character's gender doesn't really matter.  Heck, for the first two years, my characters didn't even have bodies.  Even now, I mostly play with the hanger view on display so I never really see more than my characters' portraits.