Welcome to the twenty-fourth installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week or so to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed to crazykinux@gmail.com. Check for other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!
This month's Banter topic comes to us from the ever helpful Eelis Kiy, capsuleer behind the "Where the frack is my ship" blog. She asks: How does your real life personality compare to who you are as a character in EVE? Does a good leader of people in the real world make a good leader of pilots in game? Or vice-versa? Do your real-life skills help you with the roles you fulfill in your corporation or alliance? Or do you behave completely differently? Does the anonymity of the Internet allow you to thrive on the tears of others in New Eden whilst you work as a good Samaritan away from your keyboard? Or are you as mean outside of your pod as you are inside it? Have experiences in EVE Online affected your behavior, skills or attitudes outside of the game?
Kirith is pretty much Bill, and vice versa. The years spent running a busy Warhammer 40K community forum and gaming club helped shape me into a relatively even keeled internet person and that carries on in Eve and on the blog here (most of the time... I can revert to Grumpy Mean Old Man Bill at times, just ask Rixx Javix).
I think, for the most part, that this is true for almost everyone: who you are in real life is reflected in who you are in game. The difference is that the rules in which your personality can freely express itself is different in the two arenas. In real life I can't go around and slash people's tires and smash their windows for fun because I know that is an actual cost to them (which might lead one into discussions of actual worth of internet spaceships but I decided to fall down on the side of "just pixels" a long time ago).
But I do participate in board games with the intent of destroying my enemies even if that makes that game un-fun for them, just as in Eve I PvP and will gank a hostile hauler without a second thought. Does that make me a bad person? Of course not.
At the same time, I've done good things to help others such as given away ships and ISK, especially to those struggling. It is who I am.
Some people use the anonymity of the internet to let loose their dark side and I can see the temptation of that, but that opportunity is lost to me. Oh well. I'll survive.
Do I think good leaders in real life make good leaders in New Eden? And vice versa? Definitely. Ultimately, who you really are shines through in both venues. You may say you are only roleplaying a jerk, but deep down we both know that you really are a jerk, jerk.
List of participants:
- EVE Blog Banter #24: Be, all that you can be, and so much more!
- BB24:RL + EVE = | A Mule In EvE
- Freebooted: BB 24: You Talking to Me?
- where the frack is my ship?: Blog Banter 24: Behind the keyboard
- (OOC) CK’s Blog Banter #24: I Am Prano. « Prano's Journey
- mikeazariah » Blog Archive » BB24 Who are you, who hoo woo hoo
- Drifting: The 24th EVE Blog Banter (January 2011 Edition) - Topic: EVE and Real Life
- Victoria Aut Mors » Blog Archive » Eve Blog Banter #24 – Where Eve Meets Real Life
- Who is more real?? « The Durzo Chronicles
- Captain Serenity: blog banter #24 - Personalities
- Confessions of a Closet Carebear: EVE and Real Life (EVE Blog Banter #24)
- The 24th EVE Blog Banter - EVE and Real Life - The Phoenix Diaries
- » EvE Blog Banter #24: EVE and Real Life EvE Blasphemy
- Blog Banter 24: In Real Life « Yarrbear Tales
- The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Alt « the hydrostatic capsule
- Blog Banter #24 – Me « Roc's Ramblings
- More to come....
Posts
People are more ruthless in board games and such because the goal is very concise - one person wins and everyone else loses. The ramifications afterward don't matter. It's purely ends justifying the means. If real life were reduced to a win-loss scenario, would people use as much craft and effort as they use in the game? Sometimes they do. What strategies would you employ in getting that lucrative business contract, that rare college invitation, that first date? Plenty of people have used underhanded tactics in the pursuit of those goals. Such people should have no problem using such tactics in-game since they already justify them in real life. It's just a matter of where game-morality and life-morality crosses. I don't play a jerk in-game and I don't think I'm a jerk in real life, but I bet I could roleplay a jerk. Does that make me a jerk?
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