I fit Akirei Scytale's definition of bitter vet pretty well. But I have been giving it some thought, and I think that it goes a little deeper then that.





When I was more noobish, I had an Idea of how my EVE game could grow into something larger then myself. That after all is how EVE is marketed; a huge sandbox where anything is possible. So I played the game and tried too, ya know, build my own destiny. Playing the game entails a ridiculous amount of preparation time, time talking too people, time invested and time negotiating with other pilots... ending in about 30 seconds of fun (or) a long drawn out blob fest with lag.



So each time I "created my own destiny" the end result was, well... vastly underwhelming.



To give you an example of what I am talking about, I have built more then one alliance from the ground up (ranging from 1200 to 500 pilots), I have lived in null, I have been a merc, I have tried trade, I have ran numerous PVP schools and I have even "conquered" multiple wormholes. But all of this was just my idea of a game. MY IDEA is the key point here, because playing the game itself never changes. The game was always the same, it was only my idea of it that changed. Kind of like the matrix when they say "there is no spoon?"



What I Have Realized As A Bitter Vet


No matter what you "think" you are doing in EVE online, the GAME NEVER changes. It will always been a great deal of prep-time leading to you blowing up, in a 30-60 sec fire fight or a lengthy lag fest. Every now and then you win, and most of the time you explode. That is the game. The dream of "forging your own destiny" and "creating your own world" is a hallucination on our part, created by CCP's expert marketing campaign. You cannot actually change the game at all. Whether you are in null, in a wormhole, being a merc or teaching 500 people how to conquer the universe... it is the exact same thing in the end.


lots of prep time
you get 30-60 sec of semi-satisfaction once you get there
you usually blow up
you have to make a new ship, make isk to get a new ship and invest more time doing so... just to do it all over again.



This pattern IS THE GAME PLAY. That gameplay is not very fun nor is it very rewarding. It is only the idea of EVE's potential keeps us playing. The reward comes from the pursuit of that light at the end of the tunnel. But if you play long enough EVERYONE realizes that there is no light at the end of the tunnel, what you are doing now... and what you have been doing the entire time... is the ENTIRE game, and has been all along.


It takes some people longer to realize this then others. Shamefully, it took me the better part of four years. But once you realize this basic truth of eve (as you seemed to have), you never get that special "flare" for the game back. Because it was never the game play that compelled you in the first place, it was only the idea of what you can become/made/do that did. You will stay because EVE has no competition (yet) but if it did, you would be happy to leave. You can't leave because if you did, where would you go? What would you play? WOW? No. So you are stuck in this weird "EVE sucks balls" limbo like so many of the rest of us who do not log in anymore.

I just feel really sad after I read this post. And the more I think about it the more I think he is waaaay closer to the truth about Eve.

All games have rules and limitations, and so do eve, but it's not so limited that you only grind isk for ship and blow them up, if so it's because you choose to play the game that way.

What i really like about eve is the long term goals, it's the goals and all the small baby steps you need to take to reach them, that makes it fun to play eve.

Large Collidable Object, please explain, perhaps my definition of bittervet is incorrect, because as i understood getting irate and irational over pixels getting blown up by people new to the game in comparison to someone older in the game was a bittervet, i could be wrong though, i have been many times before.

will you boys at least TRY NOT to implode another alliance?