DigitalCommunist
Evolution
Band of Brothers
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Posted - 2006.09.22 22:50:00 -
[1]
Jade, the more I read your posts, the more I begin to realize that all your opinions simplify down to "blame imperialism!". Its not always so obvious, but each post is basically you tailoring that line of argument to whatever the current discussion seems to be. Maybe I'm reading between the lines way too much. But I have every reason to to consider it propaganda..
My personal theory is that you're too engrossed with the character to see it from unbiased OOC perspectives, because you've roleplayed this angle for so long that you've managed to convince yourself.
I can see some logic in what you claim, but you've totally missed the fact that [insert free space theory] has been tried and has been found lacking. The spectacular fall of CFS put me off alliances for a good two years, and they were doing exactly that. You yourself haven't managed to succeed with this free space hoohah in any large capacity. If idealism is what JF has, and the imperials don't, why do they continue to capture the attention and loyalty of thousands? Where is the revolution?
In its most basic form, EVE is a giant rat race for money, power, fear, respect, whatever.. (you can find it on the box somewhere). The installment of EVE-wide NBSI policies comes from a realization that riding the high horse makes you look more like a contriving jackass than anything else. People can only continue lying through their teeth for so long before they say "ah screw it, you're in my way, please die".
The alliances which don't operate under NBSI only do it because they are following the path of least resistance to obtaining riches, and trying to avoid making as many enemies as possible. As stupid as it sounds, it ends up working on a grand scale. Every doe-eyed newbie who grows up to be a power wielding megalomaniac remembers such alliances as ASCN and ISS with affection for not making his newbie days as miserable and repays it by focusing on the ones that did even if its entirely unintentional. Self serving greed can easily be mistaken for idealism.
The real problem is not imperialism, its the demand for it. The biggest alliances are a couple thousand players, mostly alts, inactives and grunts. Which leaves a few dozen people in each calling the shots on dozens of regions around EVE. Meanwhile theres ten times as many pilots sitting in Empire grinding for the almighty ISK at a slower pace. They do it because imperialism has such a ludicrously high entry cost. You could spend months mounting a campaign to steal the bistot of Branch with huge resources at your disposal, or you could simply apply to join an established alliance and be done with it. And there are enough resources in a single high end 0.0 region to satisfy thousands, so theres no real reason to stop them.
So people turtle, and stockpile, and turtle, and stockpile. All the while hoping Kali will bring some kind of end to this cold war in space (an entirely ironic proposition as space is always cold). And even if it doesn't, only a matter of time before someone says "the hell with it" and fields the biggest nutc racker they can find.
The ensing drama would cover this board in minutes, in ways that no amount of bickering over ideology can ever begin to.
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