Mr Mann contacted me asking if I would post the following for him.
Ethics and Eve (Eve Online and the Japan Earthquake)Unless you live under a rock or are snobbish about your news sources, you know Japan was rocked today by a nasty quake that will likely disrupt the entire country for weeks and months to come.The title above isn’t a misnomer it is a challenge, to the player base, CCP, the CSM, and the players in Japan who have suffered a real loss. Eve is unique in that stupid actions in the game will result in someone smarter than you teaching you a rather harsh lesson, no do-over’s, no givebacks, no free passes (99% of the time). The disasters in Haiti and more recently New Zealand probably affected some Corps/Alliances but Japan itself is unique as well… as a people they are more homogeneous and less likely to associate with the rest of the player base. This is a problem… because roughly 1% of Eve plays from Japan, and with the internet, power, and life in general in turmoil for the foreseeable future 1% of eve is about to go dark.“but excuse me Mr. Mann.. Why should I care about this? I just wants to blow up internet spaceshipz!, get lost, be quiet and go cry somewhere else”I like anyone else reading this, play Eve for the fun, for the explosions, for the friends, for the lols, and yes my fair amount of grinding boredom, camping, POS shooting and the like… I have escaped from traps, fallen into them and woken up in a pod, set traps and gone on roams of my own, solo kills and the whole damn corp whoring in on my KM. All these things happen because I sit at my desk and I make choices, I push the buttons, and I am playing a game where those actions have consequences. No magical CCP fairy will come along and make it better. 1% of Eve has just had a choice made for them, accounts will expire, towers will fail, assets will be irretrievably lost.Here’s the Ethics part… I remember from a friend in CVA at how taken aback they were when they lost control for a day and –A- guarded Providence exits like it was their own. This was both honorable, and just because it was the right thing to do, it also preserved a hunting ground for gang roams. Starting today the whole player base has a similar choice:A) Find their stuffz and kill it cause I wants it!!!!
B) Protect a defenseless part of the community so EvE doesn’t lose a whole country
I’m sure someone with better understanding or creativity (its 4 am here) and energy can invent a better solution but those are the basics. I sincerely hope CCP gets involved to monitor traffic in game from Japanese ISP’s and if all is well, then we’re all good. If the numbers drop to near zero then they need to make some business decisions as well, write off a whole country (cause by the time they get back all their stuff will be dead or gone) and let them start from scratch, or be creative in identifying strong Japanese corps and get them some Dev Hax or DED protection until they can rejoin us.I for one will be considering leaving my current corp and hoping CCP forms up something in-game to allow volunteers to keep towers up and defended until they can get back. I hope others will join me in this effort.EvE… This is our game, learn it, love it, live it or die trying… Now you have a choice to make, help or don’t, but however, bad your day was… theirs was worse, I will be helping.
Mr. Mann… out.
Posts
What a wonderful idea. I will be glad to spread this message to as many EVE people as possible.
ReplyDeleteLongtime reader, first-time poster.
ReplyDeleteFirst, thank you for your concern. I am a Japanese player and the quake and its aftermath have been very worrisome for me and my friends. While today's horrifying events were indeed a tragedy, Japan is not completely in shambles as perhaps you perceive it to be. In my area (towards Kyoto/Osaka) all we felt of the quake was a minor tremor. I don't mean to downplay the loss of life nor the terrible damage but I mean to say that the great majority of Japan is still functional and predominantly unaffected at least physically by today's quake. Not to say the quake did not have any effect: a good chunk of northern Japan (and the Japanese player base) may still be without or have just regained power. There will also obviously be emotional, social, and economic repercussions.
My message is not meant to be antagonistic but rather to clarify that many/most of us are still here and still pewing.
Once again thank you for your concern and I love your ideas and posts. My heart goes out to the victims and those affected by today's quake.
AK
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteand by 'you' I mean the original author, and in not in any inflammatory manner at all.
ReplyDeleteI agree with ya Mr. Mann. Contact Zombieofice if there is anything I can do.
ReplyDeleteZombie out!
I think this is a bit of a misguided effort.
ReplyDeleteThe only people this would matter for are those people who have had their lives turned upside down. But for them, there will be no quick return to EVE. They have much bigger issues in their life, and it will be months or years before they come back, if they come back at all. No force will keep the game from moving for that long.