Francis Inch
Amarr
Lightyear Inc
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Posted - 2008.01.29 19:13:00 -
[1]
I'm a miner, a long time, passive, belt sitting, TV watching, book reading miner. I've mined on various characters since 2003 and I still do it now.
But here's the thing. There's a big reason I'm a miner still.
We all know even the lowliest level 4 missions will earn more isk, so why, after so long, don't I just do them?
Well it's simple. Mining is the simplest way to earn an income. I'm not maximising my profit, I'm maximising it for the effort I put in - I don't have the ability or inclination to run level 4 missions all night, I want to sit back, chat, watch some TV, read my book, while I do my mining.
If it was all about the income then people wouldn't mine. And minerals are never scarce if you loot all the missions too, heck being an Empire miner, you're not going to get some of those minerals anyway from Empire ores, so missioning is great.
So this is where I wonder at the issue - why make mining a fiddle? If it requires scanning and searching and looking for the ores I want just to get the minerals I need, heck, I'll just go mission and gobble up all the loot like everyone else.
Macroers aren't improved by it to - they'll just automate the new process and if you make it so they're hidden and you have to scan them down, well you make it even easier for them.
Empire mining isn't about isk, it's about being the easiest activity to do, which for those that do it, I've found in my experience, is the greatest thing about it. It's the pick up and put down task, you can do it anywhere, any time, in any ship, as much or as little as you like. If I wanted a challenge, I'd be doign the exploring and the missions, why does everything have to be made complex?
So what if you make that 20% better ore? If it's more than a little time consuming, most people will stick with the boring stuff and rake in the money by wasting less time over it. Just like no one mines in low sec, it's harder for no more reward so people sit in 0.5 (and the ores out there are ALL less profitable than in high sec, due to market pricing and their poor content).
Adding all sorts of twists and turns to mining might sound great on paper, but not everything needs complex gameplay. If minerals are harder to get, people will either just not mine and do something else easy, or prices will rise until it's worth it. People in general take the path of least resistance to whatever their goal is. (See Raven sales figures for evidence.)
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