
Serial Driller
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Posted - 2007.06.12 19:41:00 -
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Edited by: Serial Driller on 12/06/2007 19:41:22 I'm usually a vocal person on issues. However, during this entire issue, I chose to remain the neutral. Actually, I'm still neutral.. ..regarding the events.
Prior to Eve, I've played other games (i.e., AC1, AC2, SWG, EQII, WoW, etc.). In all of those games, there was never any confusion of who the devs were and where they stood. The devs owned the game and everything in it. They were god and you were a tenant. Abuse the game or question their authority and your lease was cancelled. It was a passive dictatorship in that the devs had supreme power, but they also stayed removed (for the most part) from the player community. Then there is Eve.
Eve (imho) tries to make the same mistakes some parents make with raising their children. They want to do their jobs as parents and supply discipline and structure, but they also want to be "best friends" with their children. They want open dialog and the feeling that the children can talk to them on an even playing field. While this can be successful in rare circumstances, it often fails as a tactic. Some children can embrace one aspect usually well, but both aspects simultaneously.. ..not really.
Eve wants to run a game. To perform the necessary tasks involved, they need to parent a community. If I am to respect them, then I must believe that they are really impartial and indifferent to anything but the core rules of play. Why?
For a personal standpoint, I cannot look at a developer playing this game as just another player. They are too empowered. Let's ignore the obvious access to instant high skills and best equipment. Let's suggest that a developer rolls a character the same as everyone else and makes the actual climb up the long ladder as the rest of us. They still have knowledge of (or access to) a vast abundance of the inner workings of this game that exceeds anything available to the general populous. Every mathematical formula, algorithm, and computational aspect of core game play. The "true" strengths and weaknesses of each item (e.g., ships, mods, skills, etc.) in the game.
While it is possible (provisionally) for a person to put on blinders and try to step down to the another persons lower tier, I don't think it can ever truly be accomplished without some aspects of their privileged knowledge or access coming through. They can't unlearn what they already know. As a result, the following is true (at least for me):
1. I will never be able to believe that I am on an even footing if a developer is flying against me in a confrontation (whether a personal duel, gang fight, or corporate war).
2. I will never feel comfortable if a developer is a member of a player corporation. If a dev is in an enemies corporation, I will suspect unfair advantages. If one is in my corporation, I will not feel pride in the successes of my corporation and I expect my enemies to view my personal achievements as questionable.
3. If any developer tries to tell me that they can play on even ground with the regular player base without their knowledge and developers powers ever factoring into the equation then I will instantly lose both trust and respect for them in equally strong amounts.
I apologize if my stance appears harsh or overly cynical. This isn't about faith, or trust, or about anything with regard to the general character of any developers personality. It is about simple logic.
A developer, like any human being, can't simple put on "black face" (makeup) and honestly declare that he knows what is feels like to be black. He can't close his eyes and definitively state he knows what it is like to be blind. He can't log into the game with the same "lack" of universal perspective as the average players. In either of those cases, he can simply undo those conditions at his own choosing and that aspect alone is what separates him.
That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. Thank you for coming. Please leave by the rear exits; and don't forget the speakers. Good night.
Originally by: K'reemy G'udness I think the kind of person who's going to do well at eve is the autodidact. This game requires self teaching, and what that doesn't cover, pain will do the rest.
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