Kuronaga wrote:Some EVE players are very smart and have much to be proud of. Most are not, but will cling to faux killboard statistics to try and make themselves feel relevant.
While it is fun to shine a flashlight on these sad people and call them out when they start bragging (ooh, you got to be 1 out of 32 people shooting at a single target, big accomplishment) it is unfortunately not a fight you will ever verbally win against them. Some people will always be bad, and they need the reassurance of false accomplishment to make life worth living for themselves. Even if that reassurance is a bald faced lie. They will happily plug their ears when the truth comes knocking because that's just human nature.
That argument works both ways. The elitist mentality is evident from [some, not all] soloers and small gangers with reference to large scale PVP. At one point I had alts in all three types of groups (small, pirate, null) and the L33T groups have always been baffled by my preference to play more dominantly in medium sized groups.
Apart from the obvious (that I can fleet up and get drunk/forum whilst in fleet) they seem to overlook the very real enjoyment people get from group PVP. You don't get parts of
this or
this when you're soloing or in small gangs - or you do, but there's no one to share it with. If the fight does have significance in a larger campaign, it's part of a player-driven story. That's not better than going out and soloing a Battleship in a Frigate, it's just different. People who prize individual pilot skill, fitting, engagement decisions and being a baller get to experience that adrenaline and satisfaction themselves, fair enough. I've had my speakers on during run ups to fleets and listened to an FC whip dozens of people into a hilarious frenzy before a fight - if anyone ever walks in who doesn't play whilst these are on they absolutely wet themselves laughing. But they comment it's kind of awesome too.
Gevlon's analysis of killboards is interesting in a few ways, but I think using it as a vehicle to criticise certan types of player organisation or playstyle is a massive mistake. Corps and alliances have a backbone of people (basically the unsung heros) who do all the work in the background to put people into fights. And those are never credited on killboards. Think things like POS fuellers, moon mining managers, diplomats, scouts, recruiters, spies, forum warriors, propaganda creators, fitting managers, event planners, personel, miners, manufacturers, haulers. I could go on and on here, but the point is larger groups offer massive diversity in terms of playstyles and abilities that pure solo PVP elitist clickmonkeys just don't have, and don't appreciate. Which completely undermines any attempt to use big group killboard stats to critique player organisations in this game - because you can win in a lot of different ways.
I remarked to a lowsec alliance leader a while back 'This is a wargame, after all' and he said quite primly 'It is, but not for you' and I thought 'hmmm, we'll see about that'. We aren't all FCs or really mouthily at the front clickclickclicking and being an elitist gamerboi, but you can absolutely fight from the back on your own terms. I don't ever recall hearing a soloer recount having recruited as many people as me, moved a corp through multiple regions, dealt with their infighting, kept them motivated, stayed up all hours in meetings and tearing down structures or running mass evacs. So when they whip their KB out and waggle it in my face (or anyone, for that matter) it's not an unreasonable response to burst out laughing.