I cheat by following the rules...

The other night in the blogger channel the subject came up as to whether or not people use alts are cheaters. I didn't realize this was even a matter for debate, but apparently some hardcore players think you aren't a real Eve player if you have a second account. I wanted to address my views on this very briefly.

I personally think the notion that someone is a cheater because they have more than one account is bogus. There is one very simple reason for this.

It is allowed in the rules of the game, therefore, not cheating!


Throughout the course of my conversation I felt like I was dealing with someone who creates house rules to make the game favor them. It was like when I was told during a game of checkers that I wasn't allowed to simply leave my back pieces in place, or when playing baseball the winning team wasn't allowed to take more than a double. Similar to the people who create these arbitrary rules that differer from the established rules of a game this gentleman had all sorts of weak arguments, many of them the same as the arguments used by vindictive school children.

Argument #1 - "It unbalances the game."
First off, I would challenge anyone to provide proof that this is so. It may affect the game, Ore prices may be depressed because it is easier to mine if you have an Orca alt. Or Salavage prices might plummet, because having a salvager follow you around on missions saves you time and nets you more salvage. However, these are simply economic pressures that change the balance of the game. Or prices most likely fell when T2 mining vessels and Orcas were first introduced because they changed the balance of the game. Likewise, the upcoming planetary interaction may cause a huge market upheaval in terms of what is going to happen to established trade centers. There is a difference between altering the balance and unbalancing something. Furthermore, if the game is so unbalanced and broken, why keep playing?

Argument #2 - "It is not what the original intent of the game was."
This very well may be, but that doesn't change the fact that it is what the game is today. The game didn't originally have skill queuing. Does that mean that skill queuing broke the game? No. As I mentioned in another post, when you create a game there are always going to be unintended events. As a game designer you have to decide whether these effects reflect where you want your game to go or whether they are bugs. By creating PLEX and even promoting deals for people to open second accounts CCP has taken a very firm stance on how they feel about multiple accounts. If they wanted to restrict this practice they could do so, but they choose not to, which brings us to the next argument.

Argument #3 - "CCP only allows it because they want your extra money."
Okay, so? The question isn't why the rule exists, it is whether or not the rule exists. The entire purpose of Eve PERIOD is to make money for CCP. So to state that just because CCP may make an additional $15 off a multiple account holder is irrelevant. Are people who buy PLEX to sell them for ISK cheaters as well? Whether or not you agree with these game mechanics, they exist.

Argument #4 - "It lets people who have more money to spend have an unfair advantage!"
Frankly I think if anything it merely balances the advantage that someone else may have had because they had no disposable income and lots of time. Just because I have an alt doesn't mean I can skill up any faster. Yes, I can spread some of the responsibilities among two characters if I choose. I can make one focus on mining while the other focuses on production. Or I could have one focus on trade while the other focuses on piracy. Ironically on his own blog the gentleman who was arguing against me conceded in a post on the topic that he didn't mind people multiaccounting if their characters didn't interact with each other. Why is this so important? Well, there is his last argument.

Argument #5 - "It eliminates the need for people to work together in the game."
I disagree sharply. No one has ever engaged in large fleet combat with nothing but alts. No one has ever created an epic empire solely on their own. Yes, in small ways it may make me self sufficient, but I am hardly hiding in a corner just playing the game alone. I have corp mates who I sometimes work with, mission with, mine with. I am still interacting with other people and having them build things that are beyond my capability. Eve is such a diverse game that while you could potentially create accounts to fill every single role you desire filled, (trading, hauling, mining, combat, piracy, production, probing, etc) it would be ultimately futile. While I agree there is a social element to Eve I don't feel that should be forced upon players anymore than players are forced to become pirates or forced to become miners. The effort it would take for me to find another pilot who keeps my erratic hours and schedule who is interested in working with me as one of us flies and Orca and the other mines would be monumental and would detract from my enjoyment of the game.

Interestingly this quote is taken from the blog of the other player

"I am one of those of the opinion that multiple accounts do take away from the game. Do I feel like forcing this posture on other players? No not really, but I would hope to encourage other players who do have multiple accounts to use them for different purposes."

The other night his words were more to the extent of "people who can't play the game for real have to cheat and use alts." That hardly sounds like the words of someone who doesn't want to 'force their posture on other players.'

A Tale of T2 Crystals

To use T2 Crystals or to not use T2 Crystals, that is the question. Actually, it is more likely an intensely debated subject. I've seen a lot of miners who fly their own Orca alongside their Hulk and have countless hours grinding the rocks who say T2 Crystals are useless. I've also seen countless people who think they are better than sex on a summer afternoon. I've typically fallen into the previous camp. I looked at the cost, the extra training time and heard about the break rates and decided they aren't for me. But now that I'm getting myself maxed out on pretty much everything that has to do with mining I find I need to revisit the issue.

It is kind of hard to complain about the cost of T2 crystals when I'm flying a Hulk next to an Orca I also own, I have an Obelisk in the hanger, and a Highwall mining implant shoved in my head. So here is an in-depth analysis based on nothing but the math. My apologies if I'm repeating information found elsewhere, but no where have I seen people really take the issue to the bottom of the well. They tend to merely harp on one or two things and ignore the larger issue. So dive with me into math and statistical analysis as I explore whether or note T1 or T2 crystal are the better choice.

What women want (in Eve) - Blog Banter

**DISCLAIMER** I am not a woman, I have no intrinsic knowledge as to what they want or don't want in a game. I am basing this entire article off what my experience with other female gamers has been.

This entry is part of Crazy Kinux's 17th Blog Banter where he asked "What could CCP Games do to attract and maintain a higher percentage of women to the game?" This is a pretty heavy subject, so lets get down to it.

With women making up less that 5% of the total Eve player base it is understandable why CCP might want to tap into this under represented market. One thing is clear, the must not sacrifice their current player base to do this. Even if they were able to increase the number of women playing the game by 300% it would be catastrophic if those same changes caused the male player base to drop by even 1/3. So the question shouldn't just be "How can CCP attract, and retain, more female players?" It should be "How can CCP attract and retain more female players while not diminishing it's current player base?"

It all comes down to nepotism - Alternate History Meme

Last night I was chatting with the lovely people in the Eve-Bloggers channel. Jerran Ragnar (author of Victoria Aut Mors) spoke up. "We should all do a post on the same topic tomorrow!" Silence ensued. I offered up that I thought that could be interested and asked what Jerran had in mind. More silence ensued. Someone else pointed out "I thought that what CK's Blog Banter was for?" This time the silence was tinged with that wonderful aura of "Yeah, moron." I came to Jerran's defense saying that just because CK did it didn't meant that we couldn't play Newton to his Hooke and claim it for our own. Sadly we were still without a good idea, but then Mike Azaria spoke up and said "Well, the blog banter tends to usually be forward looking. So why don't we do something looking into the past?" (Please note I am paraphrasing, so Mike - don't pod me.)

Through a quick round of "pass the buck" Jerran was selected to lead us off and has done so with his latest post. He went ahead and summed up the meme as thus -

“What would you change about Eve if you could go back in time?”. It can be something about the world itself, game play, or anything else you can think of.

He went the route of exploring the setting of the game and thought about taking capsuleers out of the capsule. My entry is a bit more focused on a game mechanic that annoys me and I'd like to explore through a short work of fiction with a summary at the end (so if you don't like the fiction you can fast forward.) Enjoy!

Abyssus in Terra

This entry is written for the contest posted on CrazyKinux's site found here. I wrote it before looking at any other submissions and was relieved to see that I was not the only one writing fiction. I tried to make my fiction reflect the realities of both what this will mean for game play and for what it will mean for the Eve Universe as game setting. My apologies if any of my tech or in game mechanics seem fudges as I am a relatively new player, though I will tell you that I broke out EFT for Part 3. I hope you enjoy.

Burnt Offerings and other terrible metaphors

I like games. I've played CCG (Collectible Card Games), Tabletop RPGs (more systems than I'm willing to list), board games (both American and "German" style), video games on systems dating back to ColecoVision, MMORPGS in limited varieties, FPS games, Turn Based Strategy, Tabletop Wargames (if I never paint another stinking Eldar I can die a happy man), I've even LARPed (if you don't know what LARP is I'm not going to explain it and if you do know about it you can't laugh because you are probably as pathetic a soul a me. So when I say "I like games" I am not just talking about one small corner of the genre. And while this is an Eve Blog please indulge my brief moment of exposition on gaming in general (or just don't read the post, it isn't like I'll know the difference.)

There are three main reasons I enjoy playing a game. They are as follows:

1. The story latches onto me like a pitbull convinced I'm smuggling prime rib in my trousers.
2. There is some element of social interaction that just makes the game compelling to play, in essence the game is merely a vehicle for me and my friends to have a good time.
3. The intellectual puzzle the game provides gives me hours of endless amusement, either a puzzle I must master on my own or a chance for me to grind my brain against an opponents till one of use emerges victorious.
4. Or there is an element of prowess, either through hand eye coordination, effective use of real time strategy, or some other measurable skill that exists in the moment
   
   (the main difference between 2 and 3 is the immediacy of 3. I'm allowed to mull over a move in Scrabble or a turn of Civilization for a long time, or at least until my opponent brains me. But I can't ponder the mysteries of a Zerg rush and live, its is a matter of skillful reaction.)