Xenea
Amarr
Paladin Imperium
Curatores Veritatis Alliance
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Posted - 2007.10.19 05:39:00 -
[1]
There have been some excellent points made here, especially about POS warfare in general, but those issues are not inhibiting role-playing in EVE -- you simply have to adapt. As Jade Constantine mentioned elsewhere, too many role-playing entities want to dwell in the sandbox and are afraid to interact with the non-RP organizations in the larger context of the EVE community.
For some, a smaller setting without the logistical overhead of 0.0 space works great. While this is sure to cause some ire among my Bloc fellows, I don't think there is a better group of role-players in the community than Electus Matari. There have been some awesome forum exchanges with them that are head and shoulders above the banter produced by other role-playing groups. Still, as proven by both CVA and Ushra'Khan, larger sized role-playing organizations have made an impact outside of Empire space and effectively worked within the confines of the 0.0 mechanics.
Simply, not every pod pilot can be William Wallace. It is highly arrogant to assume that because I, and my fourteen person corporation, cannot wage a war against Band of Goon Federation and quantifiably compete against a 5,000 person alliance that my role-playing experience has been impaired. If those are your role-playing goals, you need to be willing to invest a good deal of preparation in planning, a lot of ISK to make things happen, and very long time building a solid organizational structure. Sadly, conflicts are not won by force of will, role-playing ability, and sheer passion -- otherwise UshraÆKhan would still claim UNITY station.
The role-playing organizations that have outposts, POS networks, cyno-jammers, and capital fleets started at the very same place as everyone else -- in a noobie ship fitted with civilian modules with only a handful of ISK to their name. It is what you do after that point, as a group, that determines your relative strength to other organizations. In other words, 2,000,000,000,000 ISK is greater than 17,000,000,000 ISK, 1,500 people are greater than 150 people, and 4 years is greater than 2 months.
Despite the grief we get from the rest of the community, we do not exist in a vacuum. However annoying the 0.0 mechanics are to some people in certain situations, removing them would have an even greater impact on the rest of the community. Without those mechanics it could become a game of pure, transitory numbers. Whoever could field the largest fleet at that particular moment would dominate several regions within a few days, only to lose them when the other side had more players log online the day after. It is partly about the blob now, but honestly, it's not entirely about the blob either. I can think of several smaller organizations that pull well above their weight in the deepest of 0.0 politics. Burn Eden, Outbreak, Ev0ke, and Mercenary Coalition all come to mind in this regard û each with their own specialty and strengths.
If we really want to fix the role-playing community, we need to look at ourselves and not game mechanics. What can we do to improve the community? Can we actively help in expanding the backdrop known as the EVE universe? Are my actions in game consistent with the ethos of my character? Does my role-playing angle make sense or does it contradict itself because I am pursuing OOC, and not IC, goals? There are many things we, as players, can do to improve the role-playing community; CCP can also do a few things as well. Changing the game mechanics to let everyone be a William Wallace for three hours a day when they have more friends online than the other guy, well, that wonÆt help improve role-playing. |