Jhyme
Amarr
Igneus Auctorita
GoonSwarm
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Posted - 2007.12.19 07:31:00 -
[2]
 Originally by: Althair Erin
Originally by: Jhyme
I disagree with the OP. Part of the fun in PvP warfare is cultivating a "healthy" hatred for your opponent. This makes any sense of victory more enjoyable. However, keep in mind that hatred doesn't necessarily have to be mutually exclusive with respect.
Best,
Jhyme
I held off on addressing this question for a while, because the issue is a really huge one- maybe the most important for us to try and grapple with inside the discussion we've framed so far. How do we reconcile the fact that a healthy feeling of competition is important, while keeping in mind the need to be fair and kind to our opponents?
I don't know if hatred is the right word to use here. For my part, I'll stick with 'competitiveness' until a better term appears. I'm not sure if hatred can play a constructive role.
I'm glad you point out that we can be opposing each other and still experience respectful feelings. It's exactly that sentiment that's inspired a lot of my ideas so far- like protected tours of the wonders of 0.0 space (I'd go on one), and pilot 'fostering' programs.
EVE is a cultural experience- have we reflected on that enough? The players come from many different countries, speaking many different languages, and everything is filtered through a world of spaceships and lasers. It's a totally unique opportunity. You can say "I didn't just get an experience of making a German/Russian/British/Chinese/Indian/etc friend, I got to experience making an international friend in space!"
Jhyme, and everyone- what do you feel the most effective techniques are for creating an EVE where we experience respect for each other even during competition?
I think the answer lies in how you interpret "smacktalking". In some professional sports, such as wrestling/boxing, smacktalking is an institutionally sanctioned event. The telecasters show snippets of the wrestlers/boxers talking trash to one another before fights. This effectively raises the stakes in the wrestling/boxing match-up, and makes the upcoming fight more entertaining. Sports teams, whether it's professional or college sports, has a set of fans that also engage in variations of smacking.
Now compare this to politics. Smacking here often involves mud-slinging and personal attacks. Propaganda isn't aimed at trying to raise the stakes on a particular outcome, but to cut down the opponent independent of whatever outcome occurs.
EVE has both. Over time, some alliances have developed the norm that smacking is negative, and consider a smack-free fight an honorable fight. However, I posit that smacking can be respectful as long as it's non-personal, and kept in the spirit of professional sports-- where there are no politics. Whoever loses the outcome should accept defeat and humiliation. This is a system that promotes competition, as the stakes are raised by smacking. Respect isn't necessarily something that is earned before the fight, it is a relationship between the winner and loser afterwards. If political-oriented or personal propaganda tries to mitigate the roles of winner and loser, creating win-win or lose-lose situations, there can be no respect.
tl;dr : Politics is the culprit.
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