The Art of Incoherent PVP Ramble

To PvP, or not to PvP, aye there’s the point. What makes us choose to combat one another, what makes us choose not to combat one another?

When EVE hits the out-of-EVE communities it’s mostly due large battles happening that is supposedly shocking the game industry. The B-R battle even made it to CNN and other news websites. Here, EVE gets defined as a MMO with massive fleet battles with hundreds of players shooting each other over space territory. But is EVE a massive-fleet-battle-MMO? I would say no, not per definition. EVE is a Space Sim. A Sim that might or might not involve massive fleet battles. It might also include a whole lot of other things, such as trading, industry, exploration, and yes, mining.

The big stuff that makes it to the news websites is about the massive fleets of nullsec warfare, the politics, the territory control, the clash of titans. Thousands of people get involved for a purpose: they either want to protect or gain territory or assets. But let us look at a different scale. The small scale roamer or soloist.

You could be flying around in lowsec looking for targets of opportunity to blow up, but that Badger pilot is likely in lowsec because he found himself a shorter trading route. All this evolves around CCPs philosophy of Risk VS Reward. However, a young Badger pilot might not even be aware of the risk he takes of jumping into lowsec. Or the reward for that matter (his Autopilot likely misguided him).

But what is my risk and reward for blowing up a Badger? The only risk I take is losing a bit security status? And realistically, what is my reward? 9 out of 10 Industrials in lowsec are clueless pilots that don’t know what they are doing and carry nothing of value. There is of course the rare exception, but generally the only thing you loot out of a Badger are Cargo Expander II’s.

So, Risk vs Reward, is looting 1.5mil from an Industrial wreck worth my sec status loss? I suppose it’s more of a rhetorical question, as no answer would be sensible. But really, beating someone up for no given reason other than you just felt like it and enjoyed it is the profile of a psychopath. Yet it is what most of EVE’s small scale PvP is about. Are we all virtual psychopaths? I hope not. We just simply like to blow people up. See their ships light up in little bits. We can go further, we like to see their frozen corpse in our cargobay too!

But why? Competition? Is that Badger a threat to my Faction Cruiser? Surely not. So what could I possible gain from destroying someone’s ship.  Is it the sensation? Is it the big explosions we love? Is it that moment of linking the killmail in Alliance chat, showing your latest proud implant-less Pod kill, eagerly waiting for the reaction of others saying “nice one.”? Is it the +1 kill at your name on the Killboard?

Yeah maybe it is the sensation, the thrill of the kill. Or is it? I suppose it is a personal matter. I recall my first solo kill very well. I was flying my Crow in highsec when I canflipped a mining Stabber. At the end I was soaked in sweat, but I got it! My first ever killmail!

After years of small/solo lowsec PvP experience (brag brag), kills leave me with a differently feeling. If any feeling at all. My latest killmail (as of writing 26 june) was a poorly equipped Vexor in a lowsec mission.

To simulate the scenario:

1. Had my Phantasm in system A, my alt in a probing Buzzard in system B, next door.

2. Buzzard spots a Vexor + t1 drones on Dscan. I estimate the distance is under 5AU, so I drop 8AU probes for a first try.

3. I warp my Phantasm to the B gate, and I warp the Buzzard to the A gate. My Phantasm and Buzzard are now “next to each other” with only a gate separating them. I fire up a fleet, Buzzard is Squadleader, Phantasm is a squadmember.

4. With the ease of having multiple monitors I  keep probing while warping my ships around, and after a mere total of 3 cycles I get the Vexor to 100% pinpointed.

5. I jump in the Phantasm to system B, I use the Buzzard to fleet warp myself to the Vexor’s bookmark.

6. Vexor dies in 5 volleys of my Beam laser.

I estimate the moments from spotting the Vexor to fleet warping my Phantasm is less than a minute. I open my combatlog and see the ‘fight’ only lasted 18 or so seconds, which is the time of 5 gun cycles.

I’m still in his mission. There are no NPCs anymore. I bypass his Capsule and check the wreck. Estimated container value: 1.400.000 ISK. Nothing. Capsule is still here, unmoved. The pilot is only 3 months old, I figured he has no implants plugged in so I leave it there. I felt merciful. But does he even recognize this grace?

I spend another good 30 seconds looking him at to see if he warps the pod out. He doesn’t. Only then I notice he has got a Killright available on him. I activate it and a moment later his corpse is in my cargobay.

To be quite honest, I felt numb. I didn’t even look at the (worthless) killmail till 15 minutes after. The x-th mindless gank that has become routine. Is this it? Is this what it is all about? The Vexor pilot unawarely took the risk of accepting a mission in lowsec, but would his reward been worth it?

Two days earlier the exact same scenario happened, but with a different outcome. A T1 geared Thorax fell to the might of my Phantasm. A little while later a conversation invitation pops up. It’s the Thorax pilot. He tells me he is very disappointed in getting blown up so quickly, it was his first time in lowsec and simply didn’t stand a chance. I explain him the same thing I always do in these convo’s: it was nothing personal, merely a target of opportunity. Which is true; I didn’t want to ruin the poor mans game, I simply like blowing things up.

Though unhappy with the experience, he took it rather light-hearted and asked me questions about my ship and his fit. I fire up EFT, build a T1 fit in half a minute and import it to EVE to show him some suggestions. I explain him lowsec is not a good place for inexperienced players, and he should find himself a newb-friendly corp to help him along the long road of EVE. He said he will. He is very low on money so I send him 20mil to get himself a new Thorax. He is stunned and asks me how much money I would have to simply give away 20mil. I felt rather embarrassed telling him; but enough to replace his Thorax. We end up talking for about half an hour, he thanks me for all the new things  he learned so we parted.

I don’t know what made him jump into lowsec, but was his reward worth it? I like to believe it was.