Titan = over $7000

Over at Jump On Contact, there is a diagram pointing out the real life cost of various ship classes from the humble Thorax at less than a dollar to the mighty Avatar titan, estimate at around 7600 dollars to build. Go over there and read the whole thing.

Whence Goonswarm?

Just the Facts

On the early morning of Jan 26th, the Goonswarm alliance lost sovereignty control of about 30 systems out of about 130. However, some of these systems were of great strategic importance, including the historic NOL-M9 system in Delve region. Goonswarm's enemies (IT, -A-, S-K, and others) descended on Delve, Querious, and Period Basis regions in an effort to secure station systems with which to launch further attacks into the area.

It was later revealed that the reason control dropped in these system was because the bills came due and the controlling corporation lacked funds in the right wallet division with which to pay them.

Despite a desperate defence, many key systems in the area were taken by IT alliance (which is the core of the old Band Of Brothers alliance goons screwed over a year ago) and -A- alliance. Soon thereafter the Goonswarm leadership announced to its members that the fight for Delve and the rest was already lost with the key systems lost and that the alliance would withdraw to Syndicate region to regroup.

Then on February 3rd, the coup de grace: the current leader of Goonswarm and CEO of the main corporation, Goonfleet, kicked all corporations from the Goonswarm alliance and moved Goonfleet into an alliance called Band Of Brothers. The Goonswarm alliance is empty except for an executor corp, and Goonfleet is locked into the Band of Brothers alliance as the perpetrator announced his intentions to leave Eve (taking the keys to the corporate control with him), this last act his poke in the eye to the players he felt had lost the way according to his posts on forums. According to some estimates, he also made off with 300 billion in cash and assets

Random Musings

Its hard to feel sorry for the Goons who will lose a lot in the following days and weeks as they try to regroup in Syndicate. This is, after all, an alliance that used every meta-gaming trick in the book and took great pride in scamming and trying to ruin other pilot's enjoyment of the game at every turn. But when you are part of an alliance built on such attitudes, can you really be surprised that eventually you get burned by the same disregard for others towards yourself?

I was surprised by the announced retreat to Syndicate so soon in the episode. I expected them to be able to put up a larger and longer fight, but apparently a large majority of their cap fleet assets were locked in those stations that fell, crippling them at the knees against a refreshed and hungry nemesis in IT alliance. Rather than fight a demoralizing battle over weeks or months, leadership apparently thought it was better to cut the losses and run.

But as frustrating as the loss of space must be, the betrayal of their leader and the loss of their brand and name must sting even more. Homeless in space and name, is this the end for the Goons?

Rewind one year. Band Of Brothers alliance was disbanded by a disillusioned director with too much control who defected to the Goons. The pilots reformed as Kenzoku and fought a battle to prevent their space from being taken by the invading Goonswarm, but they lost that fight and the alliance seemed to crumble and disperse in empire. Then, this past fall a new alliance called IT forms of the old Band Of Brothers/Kenzoku corporations and launches attacks at high end moons and eventually Fountain region, an obvious stepping stone towards Delve and the Goons.

The point is that names and space can change and assets can be lost worth billions, but a dedicated group of pilots never go away in Eve. I expect the Goons in some form or another will be back, causing their brand of mayhem.

Last Thoughts On Star Trek Online

Short version: I will not be subscribing.

Longer version: Over the past week or so, whenever I had 15-30 minutes to spare (anything longer and I'm in Eve) I've been trying to get on Star Trek to give it a go. My hope is that I will have a game that can be my second MMO for casual laid back play when I have only moments to spare. Drop in, shoot stuff, explore, log out.

First off the good news. The release game is far more polished and stable than the Beta. The transitions between zones is reasonable albeit longer than what I am used to in Eve. The space combat is very positional, and progress so far even with my limited time in game feels substantial. And the graphics are much improved with the better server hardware, I can run at much better levels of detail.

The bad news is that the space combat, the only thing I want to really do, is frustrating for me at the moment. Its not for lack of things to do, its because I have to always be doing something! Steering the ship is an exercise in frustration. I wish so bad I could pilot the ship with mouse clicks like in Starfleet command. Constantly having to instruct the weapons to fire is annoying as well. Combat feels too... frenetic. I still miss the overview too. And orbit command, and approach. Dammit, you can learn somethings from Eve guys! Its not that hard.

Overall, the frustrations in space combat are minor, but the game is not lending itself to drop in casual play very much. Last night I accepted a mission which involved going to four different systems to patrol. I went to the first, got thrown into a 3 ship instance with two strangers, and battled pirates. All well and good, right? I had a few more minutes so I left to go to another system and found I was still in an instance group with the other two ships, even though they went different directions. Now I'm sure I could find a way to leave instances and join a different one in my system, etc, but I felt bad. Furthermore, the fighting at the systems took forever even with three of us, and myself alone in one system was hopelessly outgunned in my starter ship.

Its just not a game that I think I can play casually. And when combined with the fugly ground combat system with stupid NPCs (I STAND HERE AND SHOOT AT YOU! CROUCHING? UNHEARD OF! RUNNING WHEN SURROUNDED AND OUTNUMBERED? NEVER!) I find myself not wanting to play.

I will give it more of a try since I do have one month free, but I don't foresee me ponying up for a subscription. Time involvement to get my money's worth would be too high.

Fiction Friday: Chapter 13

Previously:
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9
Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12

* * * * *

"OPEN UP! SECURITY!"

The banging on the door startled Rusack and he involuntarily pulled the blaster back while looking towards the front of the apartment. If I had had my military training back then I would have taken advantage of the distraction but instead I simply yelled, "Help! My brother is hurt!"

He looked back at me with a snarl on his face, angry that his fun had been interrupted. I could almost see the wheels turning in his head as he pondered if he could get one more shot off and still claim to be defending himself. His self preservation must have overcome his sadistic side as he backed away, the weapon still trained on me but finger off the trigger, and he called out, "Security! Please come here immediately!"

The door banged open and a team of four station security officers ran in with weapons drawn. One aimed at Rusack and ordered him to drop the weapon, another trained his sidearm at me and my unconscious brother while talking into his comm unit, asking for medical assistance to my relief. The other two scoured the apartment for anyone else. I could see out in the hallway the figure of Blodel's slave Derranna looking in with a worried look on her face.

The next few minutes felt like both and eternity and an instant. Rusack laid the weapon down while talking a mile a minute about how his home was invaded by us waving the gun around, while I was taken and put in restraints while lying on my stomach. I noticed with alarm how Rusack was not similarly restrained by my protests were stopped by an 'accidental' boot to the ribs. The paramedics finally arrived with a med-gurney and they spoke in jargon I barely understood as they tended my brother and ran out with him, my cries ignored as I tried to find out how he was.

With my brother gone from the room, the adrenaline was wearing off and my body ached from the awkward position on the floor, hands tied behind my back. My nose and back throbbed. I felt drained; beaten. Finally security was done taking Rusack's statement and I was roughly helped to my feet. "Don't leave the station," the guard warned Rusack as we were leaving, "but I'm sure we'll have this all settled shortly."

"Of course not, Jake, I mean officer, " he replied with a smirk on his face that only I seemed to notice. He felt more than heard the guards holding my arms chuckle and I realized the warning and compliant answer were merely formalities for the automatic recordings made of all security officer activities. It slowly dawned on my clouded mind that Rusack would be gone long before anyone came to corroborate my side of the story. I was however, too tired to care.

As we left the apartment I saw Derranna was still there and I wanted to say "thank you" as we passed but she was talking to a newly arrived Blodel. I could tell she was trying to explain something when a look of anger passed over Blodel's face and he backhanded her across the face with a practiced motion. "I told you not to get involved!" She crumpled on the ground, obviously taken off guard by the sudden blow.

"Sir," one of the guards said with annoyance in his voice, "don't do that." But I caught the unspoken implied word at the end: "here." I slowly realized that slavery was tolerated in practice in the State, but it was the least of my concerns despite the sorrow I felt for Derranna's plight.

"Of course officer," answered the flustered Amarrian, "I don't know what came over me."

As I was led away once more, I looked back over my shoulder to see Derranna slowly getting to her feet without help while holding her side of her face, Blodel looking all the more furious for getting publically reprimanded, and Rusack standing at his door with a smug look on his face.

EEEEK!

Warhammer 40K MMO to be fully revealed this summer!

...


No, I did NOT just squeal like a little girl.

To Be Or Not To Be...

Since I can't get in game due to increasing real life pressure from preparations of the third member of the carebear brigade (March 8th!), I'll avoid saying much about the renewed -A- offensive other than I was surprised at first they opted to attack 9UY, but in hindsight I can see some very possible logic from the strategy.

There are times I really really regret not being involved at higher levels for corp and alliance planning. Some of the best moments during my Warhammer 40K hooby days were marshaling battle plans for my side at megabattles, culminating in the epic beatdown my Chaos side delivered to the Imperials in a massive megabattle back in June '07. I would love to be formulating strategies for the alliance warfare but I lack the time to give to such a commitment and I leave it in the hands of others.

But that is not the focus of this post. This post is a rambling thought regurgitation on that central concept that is often ignored in moderns MMOs: Roleplay.


In the Beginning... 

Pencil and paper role play games (rpgs) were built to allow you to actually play the role of a character in a fantastical setting. You were a character over a series of adventures with a static group. The characters progressed, improved, and the challenges scaled accordingly. I'm sure you all know this but its always good to set an agreed starting point in any conversation.

Anyways, you can see the basis for many common "themepark" MMOs in that basic premise. Somethings are vastly different though. For one thing, the "static group" is now an exception rather than the rule because the online games brought large numbers of people together making it easier for "pick up groups" to form as opposed to having to wait for all members of the static group to be available at the same time. The pick up grouping eventually developed into large entities typically called guilds but with varying names based on the game you choose (i.e. corporations in Eve). Some games, like Eve, have even larger groupings of players emulating an actual society as it grows. But that's another post for another day.

Another thing that has changed a lot from the pencil and paper days, and that is the concept of roleplaying. And thus we come to the focus of this post.

Today

Two things happened recently to make me think on this subject more. For one thing, my best friend Andrew has been playing Dragon Age: Origins and posting about his adventures in that game. And for a second thing, my corporation joined Paxton Federation in Providence which means we are a close ally of the Curatores Vertatis Alliance (CVA), the Amarr role playing alliance in Eve. Listening to Andrew describes how he makes choices for his character in the game (i.e. Fiona would say this and choose this) and how the CVA pilots choose to role play in Eve makes me realize that in this day and age these are often the last things players do in a game, exceptions rather than rules.

All too often in games players make choices based on what is perceived to be the winning move; how to get the best ally in Dragon Age; or how to fight a war against an enemy in Eve. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that Andrew and CVA are weirdos or lolRPGers but just that most commonly people don't make decisions based on the character's preferences, but on their own.

I don't role play in Eve. When I'm in game, I'm using Kirith Kodachi the character but it's me, Bill, talking and making decisions, and choosing to shoot that ship. That's not to say I don't think about what my character might think and feel if I was actually roleplaying him, and my "Fiction Friday" series is evidence of that. Its just that I prefer to not add that extra level of complexity to my game when I'm in game. I have been tempted in the past, back before I found m3 Corp, to join a role play alliance and let my right brain have some free rein (I even tried to apply to Ushra'Khan at one point but I was turned down, don't remember the details, was a long time ago) but it was never a driving need for me.

(Although, I have to admit that right now, the fiction I have for Kirith in which he is disillusioned with the Caldari State ideals and hates slavery, does not jibe with being in an alliance allied with CVA. It was hard enough living in Amarr space! I am trying to mentally reconcile that still. Someday I will return to my adopted homeland in Molden Heath! ... OMG, I'm roleplaying!)

So the question is, why has role playing become an oddity in these "Role Playing games"? I believe there are a number of reasons.

1) The introduction of single player RPGs.

The Dungeons and Dragons "gold box series" set the tone for many copycats for years after, and in that game it took a traditional static group role playing game and turned it into a single player experience with the game acting as Dungeon Master and the player as all characters in the party (typically six). The result was that there is no other role players to feed off of and by inspired by, and as you are playing 6 characters its harder to "get into character" as it were. The divorce of the character and the player is important as it turns the player into a gamer as opposed to role player. Also, game itself, i.e. the Dungeon Master, is a fixed obstacle without any built in human judgment to make the game enjoyable for a player who is struggling. This means that the game rewards optimal decision making rather than character decision making whereas in a pencil and paper game the person acting as the Dungeon Master can more easily change parameters to scale the adventure and reward in-character decisions and acting.

2) The introduction of strangers.

As RPGs moved into the online world and brought about the idea of Massively Multiplayer Online games, the other people make it harder to roleplay. It takes a certain amount of chutzpah to start talking to greet a player you do not know with "Forsooth good mage, I am Lord Lucas Draknoght, knight in the Order of the Obsidian Tempest!" rather than "hi there, how's it going?". In a group where you know everyone well and everyone else is also roleplaying, its ok. In a public sphere, its a different matter.

3) The introduction of casual players.

In order to boost sales and number of subscriptions, role playing games strive to appeal to people who may not have ever played a role playing game before and don't want to. They just want to play a game, Peggle , WoW, Batman, whatever. Thus fewer players in the population role play and fewer people are encouraged to do so.

4) Alts and level caps and progression ramps, OH MY

Since many games have a strict character roles (i.e. DPS, Tank, Healer) and level caps such that a character stops progressing when they reach a level cap (admittedly there are others ways to progress but the main method is fixed). Couple that with lower and lower progression ramps and you have players often playing many different characters (i.e. alts) in order to try different roles and continue to progress, thus further divorcing player from character.

5) Emergence

My last, and most controversial point I suspect, is that as games develop further into communities working towards common goals there is no need to roleplay. I don't have to roleplay a character fighting a war with thousands of allies against thousands of enemies in a battle to control resources and living space because I AM fighting a war with thousands of allies against thousands of enemies in a battle to control resources and living space. Eve is interesting in the same way a sport is interesting to participate in; you have competition, camaraderie, glorious victory, ignominious defeat, and at the end of the day everyone goes home to have a beer and go to bed.

To Be Or Not To Be...

So there you have it. My rambling post on role playing in todays "role play" games. I'd love to hear comments on what others have to think and say.

Provi Versus Catch Part 2

A followup article in the Eve Tribune that I finished writing Monday is now up on the site!
Enjoy.

What Now For The South?

I'm not super up to date on alliance politics outside of my own little corner of Eve (-A- & U'K bad, Proviblob GUD!) but I'm not totally ignorant either. With Goonswarm and allies Zenith Affinity in full retreat, the regions of Delve, Querious, and Period Basis are being occupied by IT, Against ALL Authorities, Systematic Chaos, and others. The problem is that those new occupiers are all blue to each other.

Or at least, perceived blue. Was it merely an alliance of convenience while Goons were the common enemy? Will the powerhouses of IT and AAA regard each other with hostility now that they share a common border? Or will AAA be free and clear for an extended campaign against the  Holders and CVA? Its all very exciting even from a grunts point of view.

Unlike life prior to Dominion, alliances can't up and go across the cluster for temporary wars. The new Sov rules mean the bulk of pilots have to stay close to home, which means you want at least one border with a hostile entity. Makes me wonder most particularly what IT alliance will do with control of both Fountain and Delve. Will they occupy both, or leave one to fortify the other? Decisions decisions.

And is RED.Overlord a blue or red to AAA? I thought blue but I could be wrong. What about the Initiative? Curiouser and curiouser.

At the end of the day, all these questions control the ultimate fate of m3 and Providence as a whole. I eagerly await to see what the outcome of this sudden Goon collapse will be. Glad I'm not in Syndicate these days.

Reorganization

I currently have three characters in m3 corp: Kirith, my main character and used for anything to do with shooting; Kla'strit who is trying to repair sec status in rare quiet moments and also a backup pvp char; and Derranna who I planned to use for logistics, exploration, backup PvE, and a second char for PvP ops.

However, plans don't always work out. Logistics hasn't been really necessary with Providences fairly easy access to empire and the number of jump capable pilots in the corporation. I haven't had any time for exploration or PvE at all, and I'm hesitant about dual-boxing in PvP as I find all my computer's and brain's resources are required for one ship.

In essence, Derranna has been seeing very little use in M3 corp, and it costs me money as a result (corp taxes). So last night I pulled the plug on her roles and will move her out to Ninveah Enterprises where she can still do the logistics and industry I need without the constant war decs a regular 0.0 alliance sees.

I've got an order for more Flycatchers, so time to dust off her production skills and put her to work.

My Thoughts On The War

Its hard blogging about a war you are directly involved in because you don't want to be a fount of inspiration and intelligence to your enemies, nor discouragement to your allies. So I try and stick to publicly available facts and avoid inserting too much opinion. It tends to lead to dry blogging as a result.

It also sucks being on the losing side of the fighting so far because its harder to get excited to write a blog post that effectively says "we got the crap beat out of us last night!". Even if some of the beatings verge on the historically epic kind.

Fear not, my good readers. I am making notes for a retrospective after the dust has settled, for good or for ill. I have opinions and they will not be dulled by the lens of time. For now I can only say that my corpmates have made me proud and my alliance has tried hard to succeed in the face of overwhelming firepower and enemy competence.

A New Reality

Regular life in Providence faces a new reality. With the vital southern system of D-GTMI in the hands of the enemy, its much easier for Ushra'Khan and Triple A to launch roams into our space. Before we had the buffer of SV5 and F9E to warn us of incoming hostiles from HED and beyond.

What it means is that you have to be on your toes more than ever in Paxton space.

Last night a roaming gang from Gentlemen's Club alliance came strolling through in about 30 HACs and Recons and we scrambled a fleet to engage them. Our FC decided upon Remote Rep battleships as the ship of the line and I rolled out in my Armageddon battleship, Memories of Mynxee. We were only about to get about 18-20 battleships along with a support fleet, but we decided to try to engage anyways.

We didn't fare so well, losing a few battleships and support ships for four enemy ships worth nothing in the grand scheme of things. I did manage to activate my weapons on a Drake that went down so I have proof I was there.

We made our way back to base and we formed up a new home defence fleet made of Paxton pilots. I jumped in my Crow, The Question,  and we moved to try and engage and destroy a Vagabond harassing friendlies in a nearby system. The Vaga was joined by a Rapier and our own Rapier pilot went in for a tackle but a miscommunication meant the Falcon that was to back him up was not in position. Our pilot was lost but his sacrifice was not completely in vain as the rest of us jumped on the hostile Rapier and took him and his pod down. Sadly, the Vaga got away.


I thought those three killmails put me at 10 for January but even though it was Jan 31st for me, it was Feb 1st for Eve. Oh well, headstart on February's goals.