Is, frankly, a bad idea. Ever since the Somer BLINK 'scandal' with the...what was it, the Golden Magnates? Everyone and their mother has gone off the fucking deep end since then. We've got all sorts of idiots making 'lottery' posts with the same basic idea: Buy GTC from person's referral link, get ISK. And don't forget the-blogger-formerly-known-as-Poetic-Stanziel quitting EVE over BLINK's 1 Quadrillion prizes, then quickly sliding off the fucking continental shelf into sheer insanity.
This isn't a healthy reaction by any means. It's just not good for anyone. How does tarring yourself with the same brush accomplish anything besides make you look like an utter dumbass? Honestly. It's like protesting against terrorism by being a terrorist. Not only is it ineffectual, but anyone who would have otherwise listened to you is now deafened to everything you've got to say.
I agree that the relationship between SomerBlink and CCP is suspiciously incestuous. I don't use Blink anymore myself - mainly because it's a waste of ISK that can be better spent on PvP with KILL or some other wormholer group, but also because, yes, the buying of GTC and getting a kickback on their site that can theoretically be turned into ISK strikes a bit too close to RMT for my comfort. I've dealt with the financial repercussions of it on an alliance level: when a director takes 2B of your SRP, blows it on Blink, then 'returns' the taken money via RMTed ISK...well, let's just say that rather sours me on it.
Not to say that I was fine with it before, because RMT by its very nature is a risk I was never and will never be willing to take. Plus, selling a billion ISK for $5 does devalue PLEX, which is (along with traditional subscriptions) CCP's primary income source - and this is precisely why all the stupid lottery threads on the forums are absolutely the wrong way to object to Blink's (supposed) RMT practices. Point is, doing this kind of shit is likely to hurt CCP's already shaky finances. And while I'm sure there's a few people out there who would not be bothered by that at all, or might even want CCP to go bankrupt, I'm reasonably certain that folks like DNSBLACK or the other grognards making those posts don't actually want EVE to die. There's much better reactions to this, such as the ingame riots a la Incarna. Or do any number of things that don't involve sticking a log into your own eye to point out the splinter in someone else's.
The long and short of it is, if you don't like RMT in any form...why the fuck are you engaging in it as a form of protest?
28 October 2013
06 June 2013
Not Everyone Likes Mint Chocolate Chip
If you didn't know already, CCP hired Mintchip to be the DUST 514 Community Representative. A welcome thread was posted on the EVE-O forums as usual, and then a shitstorm ensued. Apparently the rampant misogyny and just general bad behavior got so out of control that the thread was locked with this post:
The thread was deleted shortly after, but you can find around 30 pages of it on EVE-Search. EDIT: Poetic Stanziel let me know this link is dead. Apparently Chribba used to date Mintchip and he's scrubbed EVE-Search of any Mintchip-related content. To be honest, though, you're not missing much with that thread gone.
Frankly, that she allegedly sold nude pics of herself for 190bn ISK doesn't matter. It does negatively impact her public perception, which I'd think is important for a Community Representative, but a little more worrying is the Amazon wishlist that she reportedly actively links to, and encourages her Youtube fans to buy things for her from that list.
It is, first and foremost, in rather poor taste. Secondly, it quietly implies that she can be bought. When coupled with the "190bn ISK for nudes" story, whether it's true or not, you have to ask yourself...what the hell is CCP doing hiring this woman? When people make jokes about selling pictures of breasts to get a job at CCP, or an alliance announces in a Jabber ping that it's time for the "Story of Mintchip Being A Whore" to be told in their publicly accessible Mumble, it's clear that the players of CCP's flagship product have no respect for Mintchip, and since there's a great deal of crossover between EVE and DUST players...
Who is going to listen to Mintchip without thinking she can be bought? The logic of "She's already sold her body and integrity, why not ask her to unban me if I give her a brand-new mouse?" is bound to run through more than one person's mind.
Whether or not that logic is accurate is irrelevant; Mintchip has the reputation of a whore and - since EVE players are not immune to the G.I.F.T. - it's likely people will attempt to treat her as one.
The question that concerns me most is how CCP will react to that sort of thing, whether or not Mintchip disproves the reputation - deserved or undeserved, it's there. CCP has shown they're not afraid to completely censor a thread that's gotten far out of hand, but once you start down that path it's difficult to stop. In regards to female CCP employees, I'm sure Ripley, Punkturis, and others have had to deal with creepy questions or uncomfortable jokes, but the typical sexist bullshit is far less nasty - and easier to deal with - than what I think Mintchip is likely to face.
The thread was deleted shortly after, but you can find around 30 pages of it on EVE-Search. EDIT: Poetic Stanziel let me know this link is dead. Apparently Chribba used to date Mintchip and he's scrubbed EVE-Search of any Mintchip-related content. To be honest, though, you're not missing much with that thread gone.
Frankly, that she allegedly sold nude pics of herself for 190bn ISK doesn't matter. It does negatively impact her public perception, which I'd think is important for a Community Representative, but a little more worrying is the Amazon wishlist that she reportedly actively links to, and encourages her Youtube fans to buy things for her from that list.
It is, first and foremost, in rather poor taste. Secondly, it quietly implies that she can be bought. When coupled with the "190bn ISK for nudes" story, whether it's true or not, you have to ask yourself...what the hell is CCP doing hiring this woman? When people make jokes about selling pictures of breasts to get a job at CCP, or an alliance announces in a Jabber ping that it's time for the "Story of Mintchip Being A Whore" to be told in their publicly accessible Mumble, it's clear that the players of CCP's flagship product have no respect for Mintchip, and since there's a great deal of crossover between EVE and DUST players...
Who is going to listen to Mintchip without thinking she can be bought? The logic of "She's already sold her body and integrity, why not ask her to unban me if I give her a brand-new mouse?" is bound to run through more than one person's mind.
Whether or not that logic is accurate is irrelevant; Mintchip has the reputation of a whore and - since EVE players are not immune to the G.I.F.T. - it's likely people will attempt to treat her as one.
The question that concerns me most is how CCP will react to that sort of thing, whether or not Mintchip disproves the reputation - deserved or undeserved, it's there. CCP has shown they're not afraid to completely censor a thread that's gotten far out of hand, but once you start down that path it's difficult to stop. In regards to female CCP employees, I'm sure Ripley, Punkturis, and others have had to deal with creepy questions or uncomfortable jokes, but the typical sexist bullshit is far less nasty - and easier to deal with - than what I think Mintchip is likely to face.
10 May 2013
02 April 2013
March Grab Bag
So, to start things off, the corp and our friends have mostly moved en masse to a C5 wormhole which we've deemed Nexus. I now fly a freakin' MOROS, and I got to use one to blow up the single POS owned by the people we evicted.
During the eviction I also lost my brand-new Proteus to an instalock gatecamp manned by [RED10] on the Miroitem gate out of Rancer. Whoops. Lesson: The only time you should take a wormhole-fit T3 through frequently camped areas is either alongside more T3s to back you up or if you intend to lose it.
Anyway, we've started doing escalations in Nexus, and the sheer amount of cash we pull in, even distributed among 10+ pilots, is mind boggling. I actually spent a few hours doing things with XML and spreadsheets to make a thing that allows us to fairly distribute ISK from said escalations.
And because of that, I've basically become the alliance's bursar.
Sadly the spreadsheet isn't always accurate and I've been having to recalculate a lot of the shares once we get the actual money in for the salvage and tags, since the spreadsheet pretty consistently overestimates how much money will come in. I might do some experimenting and see how using sell orders as opposed to buy orders for the calculations works. I'd rather underestimate the amount of ISK each person gets from the loot and send a little extra to the alliance wallet than overestimate and be short by hundreds of millions of ISK.
I've done that a few times and it is supremely embarrassing to ask for the money back when I can't cover the mistake by taking it out of my cut.
Of course it doesn't help that E, our CEO and the alliance executor, now gives a couple guys in the alliance who do T3 production what he terms as low-value Sleeper salvage, instead of selling it off for ISK. I need to get a list of what he considers low value Sleeper salvage so I can either convince him that it's not low value - some of the things like Electromechanical Hull Sheetings are underwhelming in low volume but are worth a lot in high volume - or note that those items aren't counted for the purposes of sending people their shares.
We've also been juggling the different POSes we use, and my cans o' stuff seem to have been lost in the shuffle. You'd think a couple secure containers tagged with ☼ would be easy to find. However, in the search for them I did find where the low value Sleeper salvage has been getting put, so I know what stuff to remove from my spreadsheet when calculating shares for escalations. I also think I've figured out why there's such a huge discrepancy between the estimated ISK from Sleeper loot and the actual ISK we get - sales tax in trade hubs. I'll need to figure out a way to reliably make the spreadsheet factor that in so we get more accurate estimates.
When it comes to the CSM, I'm naturally in support of the "Wormhole 5" - Nathan Jameson, James Arget, Ayeson, Cipreh, and Chitsa Jason. I like Nathan Jameson the most out of those, so he got my endorsement during the pre-election. Unfortunately my alt account hasn't clocked 30 consecutive days of being subbed yet, so I only get one STV ladder this year. I think said ladder will look something like this:
During the eviction I also lost my brand-new Proteus to an instalock gatecamp manned by [RED10] on the Miroitem gate out of Rancer. Whoops. Lesson: The only time you should take a wormhole-fit T3 through frequently camped areas is either alongside more T3s to back you up or if you intend to lose it.
Anyway, we've started doing escalations in Nexus, and the sheer amount of cash we pull in, even distributed among 10+ pilots, is mind boggling. I actually spent a few hours doing things with XML and spreadsheets to make a thing that allows us to fairly distribute ISK from said escalations.
And because of that, I've basically become the alliance's bursar.
Sadly the spreadsheet isn't always accurate and I've been having to recalculate a lot of the shares once we get the actual money in for the salvage and tags, since the spreadsheet pretty consistently overestimates how much money will come in. I might do some experimenting and see how using sell orders as opposed to buy orders for the calculations works. I'd rather underestimate the amount of ISK each person gets from the loot and send a little extra to the alliance wallet than overestimate and be short by hundreds of millions of ISK.
I've done that a few times and it is supremely embarrassing to ask for the money back when I can't cover the mistake by taking it out of my cut.
Of course it doesn't help that E, our CEO and the alliance executor, now gives a couple guys in the alliance who do T3 production what he terms as low-value Sleeper salvage, instead of selling it off for ISK. I need to get a list of what he considers low value Sleeper salvage so I can either convince him that it's not low value - some of the things like Electromechanical Hull Sheetings are underwhelming in low volume but are worth a lot in high volume - or note that those items aren't counted for the purposes of sending people their shares.
We've also been juggling the different POSes we use, and my cans o' stuff seem to have been lost in the shuffle. You'd think a couple secure containers tagged with ☼ would be easy to find. However, in the search for them I did find where the low value Sleeper salvage has been getting put, so I know what stuff to remove from my spreadsheet when calculating shares for escalations. I also think I've figured out why there's such a huge discrepancy between the estimated ISK from Sleeper loot and the actual ISK we get - sales tax in trade hubs. I'll need to figure out a way to reliably make the spreadsheet factor that in so we get more accurate estimates.
When it comes to the CSM, I'm naturally in support of the "Wormhole 5" - Nathan Jameson, James Arget, Ayeson, Cipreh, and Chitsa Jason. I like Nathan Jameson the most out of those, so he got my endorsement during the pre-election. Unfortunately my alt account hasn't clocked 30 consecutive days of being subbed yet, so I only get one STV ladder this year. I think said ladder will look something like this:
- Nathan Jameson
- James Arget
- Ayeson
- Cipreh
- Chitsa Jason
- Apricot Baby (for giggles)
- Psychotic Monk
- Sgurd Battersea (unless he pulls out)
- Psychobitch
- Korvin
- Unforgiven Storm
- corebloodbrothers
- Ali Aras
- Mangala Solaris
That's about it for this grab bag post - I'll try to to more focused posts later on this month.
30 March 2013
AWOX'D! Day 3
So I started an alt account for this thing Fweddit is running called AWOX'D! It's basically a celebration of their one-year anniversary and it lasts all April.
Open only to their alliance, of course - I'm eligible because I actually have a toon in Fweddit. I'm going to keep a running log of what I do with the alt each day - Day 1 was spent getting my skill plan set up and sending some ISK from my main account to get him started. Day 2 he just sat around in station while I did stuff on Siobhan and let him train up for his Catalyst. I'm going to need to either find targets with bounties or keep him supplied with a steady trickle of ISK for new Catalysts when he gets blown up by angry corp members.
Anyway, I started G on an account with 51 days of time and today started establishing his background. That is, assuming the identity of someone who knows nothing about EVE.
And then I started asking questions in the FNA corp chat. People were surprisingly helpful and responsive to my faux-newb questions.
Things clearly explained: training time multipliers, that doing the career agents is a Really Good Idea, and that EVE is unlike any other MMO. Good start thus far. Anycase, I'd headed out to Amarr for reasons, so I toodled back to Deepari to run the Career Agent missions. Again. For the second time.
God, kill me now.
Anyway, buckling down and doing them later - probably tomorrow, since it's late as hell right now. I still need to finish them on my Fweddit alt, too, and do stuff on Siobhan.
Busy busy.
Open only to their alliance, of course - I'm eligible because I actually have a toon in Fweddit. I'm going to keep a running log of what I do with the alt each day - Day 1 was spent getting my skill plan set up and sending some ISK from my main account to get him started. Day 2 he just sat around in station while I did stuff on Siobhan and let him train up for his Catalyst. I'm going to need to either find targets with bounties or keep him supplied with a steady trickle of ISK for new Catalysts when he gets blown up by angry corp members.
Anyway, I started G on an account with 51 days of time and today started establishing his background. That is, assuming the identity of someone who knows nothing about EVE.
And then I started asking questions in the FNA corp chat. People were surprisingly helpful and responsive to my faux-newb questions.
Things clearly explained: training time multipliers, that doing the career agents is a Really Good Idea, and that EVE is unlike any other MMO. Good start thus far. Anycase, I'd headed out to Amarr for reasons, so I toodled back to Deepari to run the Career Agent missions. Again. For the second time.
God, kill me now.
Anyway, buckling down and doing them later - probably tomorrow, since it's late as hell right now. I still need to finish them on my Fweddit alt, too, and do stuff on Siobhan.
Busy busy.
29 January 2013
Lights in the Sky over Asakai: Coverage Clearinghouse
This is just a quick attempt by yours truly to assemble as much of the coverage of the Battle of Asakai as possible in one place. In no particular order:
TheMittani.com
EveNews24
CCP Devblogs
The Battle of Asakai and Poinen Must Burn By The Numbers
The Penny Arcade Report
Planning for war: how the EVE Online servers deal with a 3,000 person battlePC Gamer
EVE Online’s Battle of Asakai: who was involved, the stakes, and the aftermath
Mashable
Accidental Click Ignites Insane 3,000-Ship Battle in 'EVE Online'VG247
EVE Online’s Battle of Asakai had 3,000 participants over the weekendEurogamer
Eve Online: when 3000 players collidePolygon
Eve Online players wage a massive battle with more than 2,800 involved
More will be added as I come across it or it's brought to my attention.
E: @meanharri let me know of more coverage on PCGamer, mashable, and so forth. Thanks dude!
E: @meanharri let me know of more coverage on PCGamer, mashable, and so forth. Thanks dude!
24 January 2013
Rabble Rabble
So, while the rest of the EVE bloggers and the subreddit are busy jizzing themselves over the abortive bloc war between the HBC and the CFC, I'm going to just sit here in my corner and talk about dread blapping and the POS revamp.
So first, dread blapping. Apparently Two step, CCP, and the CSM as a whole see the ability to fit a dreadnought to kill tiny shit as a problem. They seem to forget the need for a fleet of webbing and target painting subcaps to allow this to happen at all.
Two step posted this in the forming threadnought:
"My issue with dread blapping is that there isn't a counter to it other than "bring more stuff". I am fine with dreads killing caps and battleships, but if I show up in small sig cruisers, dreads shouldn't be dominant.To which I respond with a hearty "You are full of shit!" The only mechanic within EVE PvP that currently has no counter is permajamming with ECM. If you're anywhere in high-end wormhole space, you can BET people will be using TD/TP/webs/points/the whole goddamn kitchen sink against you. Wormhole space is fucking cutthroat. People in high-end space use tracking dreads primarily for shooting the fuck out of Sleeper battleships in a timely and (relatively) low risk manner. I say relatively, because it's still wormhole space and while the NPCs might not be able to kill you, someone bigger, meaner, and more prepared is probably watching you right now.
FYI, this isn't something that I just came up with out of thin air, this has been a frequent complaint I have heard from many different corps and alliances. What makes EVE PVP great is that you should always be able to counter a specific fleet setup without just bringing 2x the numbers. That isn't the case with dreads + webs/painters."
Paranoia's a way of life in Anoikis.
People in high-end space use these same dreads to drive off intruders because they're territorial bastards and they will use the biggest, baddest, meanest ships they have to scare you away. A blapping dread has far more of the "oh shit" factor going for it than a pair of T3 cruisers. It's also a statement - "We're so loaded with ISK that yes, we can easily risk multiple billion's worth in ship and fittings to make you run the fuck away."
Honestly, people. High-end w-space. You're supposed to be smart and resourceful. you know your enemy will use webs and painters to make you easier to shoot. Unless you're jammed out, you can always fight back with tracking disrupting, sensor dampening, and blowing the support fleet to kingdom come.
Saying there's absolutely no counter whatsoever is patently false, and being mad that people don't roll over when they see [AHARM] on grid is dumb. You jump into someone's home, they'll fight back using all means available.
You want a good, fair fight? Fucking arrange one.
That said...if CCP does change it, and they probably will, I won't be mad unless I can't paste Sleepers in C5s anymore. That money goes right to me making things and getting in fights. I'll be really pissed if my income stream is fucked.
Moving on to the POS revamp...well, not much to be said. The Goonswarm propaganda machine's covered THAT pretty well already, so I'll just say I'm glad it's still happening, if far more slowly than I'd hoped.
Still, someday...I'd love to have a space city in my wormhome. Dreadnoughts at anchor, smaller ships flying about doing things, and a big damn picture window I can sit behind while I drink a beer, manage my PI, and shoot the shit with my alliance mates.
I'll just keep dreaming.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)