Hoo-boy. What country do you live in that has zero to one political parties? It's a time honored tactic dating back to the Garden of Eden to unify your group of people by demonizing another group, thus giving your group a purpose and a reason to take action.

Close seconds for why carebears are scum are: "bullying is fun," 'they don't fight back," "hiding my insecurity behind internet anonymity," and "really bored."

edit: To be clear, "carebears" don't exist per se. "Hating carebears" does exist.

I see this term get thrown around a lot, more often as a pejorative for players that play the game a certain way - I'm not sure I understand what that certain way is, though, so I would appreciate it if someone explained. I know I'm going to get a few people who just say "carebears are the scum of highsec" and that's it, but that's not a definition, is it. I *don't* want to know WHY they're scum - or why they're NOT scum... in fact, I'd rather a definition, properly delivered without bias, not include the word scum at all. An explanation would be nice, not more accusations, pejoratives and condemnations. I just want to know what it means, not how you feel about it - although I'm sure some of you will tell me anyway.

The interesting thing here is that you answered your own question in the very first line of your opening post. The term Carebear is used by one subset of individuals to describe generally, though not exclusively, in negative terms another subset of individuals who engage in a different style of play.

Attempting to seek a rational and non-emotion based analysis of a word whose basis is firmly set in the individuals emotional perception of another individual is highly illogical. In fact, the only thing that could possibly be defined, though rather loosely unless one intends on having different definitions for every game in existence, would be the different play styles available to the end user.

So essentially, what I'm seeing when this word is used is an irrationally upset player referring to another player doing something they don't like.

I wouldn't say it is irrational, because that is as subjective as the term Carebear. Such thoughts may well be perfectly rational to the one using the term Carebear, which is why no wholly accurate definition for it is possible. As beauty is to the eye, so the meaning of this term is to the mind.

Makes sense, except for the part where rationality is subjective. People have done and said a lot of things they found "rational" at the time, but whether or not they were logical is another matter. But it can't be that simple, either, because something has to drive such common application of the term - why is it common usage if it's definition is purely subjective? The term certainly seems to be applied to a certain segment of players only, while simultaneously denied by that same segment.

Rache Bartmoss' link above for urban dictionary I think is a very concise and helpful (and somewhat amusing) link - I didn't like the dictionary.com one from earlier because it was just too vague.

Carebears are awesome, and are the backbone of EVE's economy.

Without them, all us ebil people wouldn't have anyone to build ships so that we could blow eachother up.

Carebears are awesome, and are the backbone of EVE's economy.

Without them, all us ebil people wouldn't have anyone to build ships so that we could blow eachother up.

It is a term used by pvpers to describe pilots who do not want to pvp 24/7

To assume that rationality is objective, and not subjective would be to assume that everyone shares an equal sense of reason. History shows that this is not the case, where some groups of people may have a shared sense of reason within their own boundaries, that particular definition may not be equal to that of another group of people.

As to your point regarding ration and logic, the two are not mutually exclusive, since rationality can be influenced by cultural and societal values whereas logical thought is the ability to strip away those cultural and societal influences. In the case of EVE and the term Carebear, it should be clear that cultural and societal influences from both the real world AND the game world not only determine its usage but combined, are the singular source for the words existence. Any attempt to strip away the rational to find the logic beneath would, by definition, render the word meaningless.

tl;dr: The term "Carebear" is an entirely subjective one, and thus cannot be solidly defined as anything other than which I described in my previous post.

@Kitchner; but then.. you are the carebears!

Carebears are awesome, and are the backbone of EVE's economy.

Without them, all us ebil people wouldn't have anyone to build ships so that we could blow eachother up.

I will never understand how people get this far in LIFE without being able to use google when they have a problem

I'm sure they do, but when you're in a blob you reduce the risk - therefore, you have to be more specific about risk aversion. Hence why I directed you to the post above regarding attitude.

Carebears are awesome, and are the backbone of EVE's economy.

Without them, all us ebil people wouldn't have anyone to build ships so that we could blow eachother up.

Fixed for joo

I will never understand how people get this far in eve without being able to use google when they have a problem