Thursday, August 22, 2013

The True Test of a Man, Part 1

The New Order acts as a magnet for ambitious young pilots in EVE. Agent Lenda Shinhwa is surely one such pilot, and has been very busy of late.


Highsec miners are a bit like potter's clay. In the hands of a skilled potter, clay can be molded into different shapes. But without the assistance of an expert, the clay--like the miner--remains a useless blob. Lenda Shinhwa saw Ria'ac Aideron engaged in unlicensed mining, and so the path to enlightenment began.


Ria'ac didn't get off to a promising start. After the first gank, he was mute. But Agents of the New Order know that some blobs are more stubborn than others, so Lenda delivered a second wake-up call, free of charge. As if by magic, Ria'ac found his voice.
Lenda Shinhwa > o/
Ria'ac Aideron > so your serious about having to pay 10 mil for protection?
Ria'ac was genuinely surprised to learn that New Order mining permits are all too real. With two deaths under his belt, Ria'ac now understood why the New Order was relevant to his interests.
Lenda Shinhwa > The one thing about the New Order, we are very open. Our killboards are public. The blog posts all our info. We're legit.
Ria'ac Aideron > why do you just go randomly killing people because supposedly your clan controls these systems?
Lenda Shinhwa > because we launch on whoever doesn't support the new order.
Lenda Shinhwa > its a "if you're not for us, you're against us" sort of thing.
Ria'ac Aideron > whats this new order anyway? ive never heard of them
Lenda Shinhwa > Have you read the links I've sent?
Ria'ac Aideron > no i didnt give a shit so no i didnt see them
The first step in every miner's journey is to discover the existence and power of the New Order. So far, Ria'ac was only taking baby-steps. Lenda was eager to speed up the process, but Ria'ac suddenly went AFK in the middle of the chat.
Lenda Shinhwa > so you might want to do the pre-reading for the course.
Ria'ac Aideron > ok im back
Lenda Shinhwa > Kill: Dmitry Skywalker (Retriever) Kill: Dmitry Skywalker (Capsule) thats ok, i took advantage of the down time.
Ria'ac Aideron > who the hell is he?
Lenda Shinhwa > a non-complaint miner.
Ria'ac Aideron > and why do i care?
Lenda Shinhwa > Well I care about you and what you are doing. Just thought you might like to know what I did while you were gone on your break. Sorry.
Ria'ac Aideron > well looks like you did kill another person who was innocent and probably had no clue about this new order and just lost his ship
Agents of the New Order aren't too proud to call in reinforcements. Agents have each others' backs. RlgorMortls was invited to the convo to help educate Ria'ac.
RlgorMortls > some people use programs that mine for thenm
RlgorMortls > they arent even at their house sometimes
RlgorMortls > this is against the EULA
Ria'ac Aideron > i just afk mine most of the time
RlgorMortls > when you are afk, and someone asks you something
RlgorMortls > its a bit rude to not be there to answer it
Ria'ac Aideron > so thats why you kill people? because they wont answer you?
RlgorMortls > if i was flying in a mission with my corp mates and they needed me to protect them, and i was off somewhere else, they would be mad at me, right?
Ria'ac Aideron > well yeah but thats different that not mining
Lenda Shinhwa > Why not be at the keyboard while mining?
Ria'ac Aideron > because its boring as hell
With two Agents speaking to him at the same time, Ria'ac finally felt comfortable enough to admit that he habitually mined AFK, and that he didn't enjoy mining.
RlgorMortls > im at the keyboard, and it keeps me safe
Ria'ac Aideron > thats what the drones are there for to protect you
RlgorMortls > did your drones protect you when you lost your retriever?
Ria'ac Aideron > no because it was a faggot player that killed me
Ria'ac Aideron > if it was npcs i would be fine
But Ria'ac still had a long way to go. He wasn't willing to accept the legitimacy of the ganks. He blamed his deaths on Lenda.
RlgorMortls > mining is boring, this is what you think
RlgorMortls > why do you mine
Ria'ac Aideron > because it makes me money
Lenda Shinhwa > What are you going to use the money for?
Ria'ac Aideron > missions dont get me very much
Ria'ac Aideron > i cant really gank people in low sec too much of a risk
Ria'ac Aideron > i really dont know of anything else
Ria'ac Aideron > im planning to get some plex though
Under the pressure of RlgorMortls' questions, Ria'ac's entire worldview fell to pieces. He was mining--which he hated--for the purpose of paying for PLEX, so he could do more mining.
RlgorMortls > you know, lots of miners have decided that they agree, playing EvE is more fun than mining
RlgorMortls > and some have even joined us
Ria'ac Aideron > ok but you dont have to kill them
Lenda Shinhwa > me for one.. i used to mine all the time. but once i found out about the New Order I never looked back.
Ria'ac Aideron > if they want to mine to make isk just leave them be
RlgorMortls > thats not how it works anymore
Ria'ac Aideron > and how come?
Lenda enthusiastically shared his own conversion experience. And with the opening of Ria'ac's question about why things are changing in highsec, it was time to drop the J-bomb:
RlgorMortls > James 315 decided that he wanted to make a difference
RlgorMortls > and the way he wants to do it is to make sure that miners are playing EVE, like everyone else does
Ria'ac Aideron > why would he care?
RlgorMortls > becaused he LOVES this game!
Both Agents firmly believed that Ria'ac, despite all appearances, could be molded into a proper EVE player, one who played the game in a manner consistent with my values.
Ria'ac Aideron > im known to be a very sarcastic person
Lenda Shinhwa > I know what you think you are. But I think you can become better. I have faith in you Ria'ac Aideron .
Ria'ac Aideron > you have faith in the guy you killed twice
Lenda Shinhwa > Everyone can be redeemed. I myself was a miner once.
Ria'ac Aideron > and what happened then? got killed by some faggot
Ria'ac remained skeptical. He didn't think he could change.
Ria'ac Aideron > i guy tricked me into dueling him and killed me
Ria'ac Aideron > and we kinda became friends after that
Lenda Shinhwa > How do you get tricked into a duel?
Ria'ac Aideron > of coarse i was gullible back then
Ria'ac Aideron > and i soon learned its not good to be guillable in eve
Lenda Shinhwa > There was the big warning box that came up when he asked to duel you though.
Ria'ac Aideron > like i said dipshit, i was guillable back then
In an unguarded moment, Ria'ac lashed out in anger. It was time to end the day's session.


The next day, Ria'ac was reduced to mining in a Venture. Lenda found and killed him for the third time. Now Ria'ac was on the dreaded Red Pen list. Was he too far gone to be rescued? Not if Lenda and friends had anything to say about it.

To be continued...

8 comments:

  1. Some might consider ganking Venture to not be worth the loss of a T2 catalyst.
    But sometimes there are cases where a lesson needs to be learned. And any cost is worth it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lenda's kill mail on eve-kill looks like it was a meta fit, not T2. Still a bit overkill, though :)

      Delete
    2. Lenda was willing to sacrifice a cat to show a Venture miner that a permit is still needed.

      Such kindness. And the miner learns a needed lesson while only losing a free mining frigate.

      Delete
  2. We need to be cautious that we don't actively hunt this guy as CCP have said that constitutes as bannable griefing (as said on the forum on a bumping thread)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AFAIK that was about bumping, not ganking.

      Anyway, I'm not sure how far Atlanins is from Balle, but he has to make an effort to avoid us. Also not sure how much shit talking Ria'ac did, which could also be justification for ganking him more, since he's in a NPC corp and can't be war decced. Not sure how war deccing a corp for a month straight isn't griefing, but ganking the same guy a three times in a four day period is excessive, when if he was wardecced he could be killed constantly.

      Delete
    2. Balle -> Atlanins? 7-ish jumps, I think?

      Delete
    3. Hmm if I were a GM I would consider 7ish jumps to be sufficient effort to avoid us. I'd probably check to see if a locator agent was run on him, and if Lenda just happened to be in system making other random kills, and if Ria'ac sent nasty tells or emails to provoke another gank before having a chat with Lenda, though.

      Delete
    4. Vindictive behavior in pursuit of profit is perfectly within the EULA.

      This miner can make the pain stop by either paying the fee, or by doing something other than mining.

      If you need help with EULA lawyering, I suggest hiring Babatunda B. Babatunda.

      Delete

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