Thursday, May 19, 2016

But No One Ever Told Me About the Code

Carebears always have an excuse for violating the Code. Whether it's fear of a diabetic coma, rogue antivirus software, a child setting himself on fire, or their country being invaded by Russia, there's always some reason to go AFK or otherwise break the rules of highsec. The most commonly heard excuse, of course, comes from the miner who claims that he didn't even know there was a Code. That's what we're going to talk about today.

As we've discussed in the past, anyone who has played EVE for any length of time should know about the New Order and its Code. The time for warnings is over; anyone who has managed to remain unaware of the Code by this point must surely be a bot-aspirant. Indeed, ignorance of the Code is itself a Code violation. Most of these claims of ignorance are lies anyway, generally framed as "I would have bought a permit, but now I won't." To which a sharp Agent can immediately reply, "I was going to reimburse your loss, but now I won't."

What about the player who has only just joined EVE? More and more, we're seeing carebears complain about being new to the game; they say they haven't had the opportunity to learn about the Code. They're not happy that their discovery of the Code occurs only when they're ganked by an Agent of the New Order. Again, most of these claims of newbie status are lies--sometimes from people who have been playing EVE for many years. But what about the genuine newbies? Are they right in saying that they should be given a warning instead of a gank?

First of all, we must recognize that these complaints are a strong incentive for us to continue spreading the word about the Code. Claims of genuine ignorance are an argument for the New Order to get more publicity, more people dropping "Praise James!" in local, etc.

And it's a condemnation of the Anti-Gankers for their failure to impress upon fellow carebears how important and powerful the Code is. For every Anti-Ganker who says that we're single-handedly ruining the game, there's another Anti-Ganker who embraces denialism, saying permits don't exist, that the Code has no real impact on highsec, that the significance of the New Order is exaggerated, etc. Their guilt is magnified by the fact that their own actions prove they know CODE. is the most relevant alliance in EVE. The rebels spread skepticism when they should be telling every newbie they can find about the Code. (It's ironic. Imagine a real-life rebellion telling people, "Don't worry about the government we're trying to overthrow--it's not that big a deal." Yet another reason the Anti-Gankers are continuously failing nonstop daily.)

Let's be honest: CCP must share some of the blame, too. If new players are complaining that they don't learn about the Code until they're ganked, then the EVE tutorial needs more Code-related content. If we're to believe that highsec is a place where newbies live, then newbies should be told about the people who run highsec. Granted, the denialists moan and whine whenever CCP acknowledges the New Order and its permits. However, CCP indirectly acknowledges the power and importance of the New Order every time it nerfs highsec ganking. When you consider all of the nerfs aimed in our direction, the New Order is the most-acknowledged organization in EVE. So it wouldn't exactly kill them to give us a name-drop in the tutorial.

What, then, about the newbie himself? He isn't responsible for the content of the tutorial or for the Anti-Gankers' failures. Is the genuinely new player blameless, then?

Arguably, a new player should infer from his surroundings the existence of the Code, if not the particular details of it. If one enters an unknown country and observes the complexities of its civilization, its hustle and bustle, and its various social and technological systems all working together, he would be a fool not to assume that some government and some law are responsible. Hence the clichéd space alien's request, "Take me to your leader." Perhaps we should expect a new player to intuit that highsec must have some Code that keeps it all running, and to seek it out for the sake of his own compliance with it.

Let us put all such arguments aside. Let us assume, for the sake of discussion, that a genuinely new player is absolutely clueless of the Code's existence, and that his ignorance is perfectly innocent. Should he still be ganked for violating the Code?

Although it's true that we want everyone in highsec to be informed about the Code, that's only the first step. Knowledge of the Code, on its own, is not enough. Not nearly. Consider the Anti-Gankers. They know about the New Order and its Code. They know it well enough that when our Agents enter local, they tremble! But all that knowledge does the Anti-Ganker little good.

No, we want new players to know the Code and act upon it. To accomplish this, a new player must be informed about the Code in such a way that he believes in the Code. His skepticism must be wiped away. If you went to a miner and told him that a group runs highsec and that a payment of 10 million isk per year is required for mining, he would have knowledge of your claim. Hearing the claim, he may or may not believe it. By contrast, a demonstration of the truth of the claim is much more effective. To prove the New Order rules highsec, to prove the power of the Code, our Agents enforce the Code with violence.

Ganks are a proven method for convincing new players of the Code's power and relevance to their lives. Hence the complaint, "But no one ever told me about the Code," as opposed to, "There's no Code. You can't do anything to me." He accepts the reality of the Code. He only wishes he'd known about it sooner. That's a victory!

But what about the vulnerability and tender feelings of the newbie? Aye, the tenderness of the newbie. "Malleable" might be a better word. The newer the player, the less time for him to be poisoned by the rebels and skeptics. Newer players also stand to lose less-valuable ships when we gank them. True, they may lose a larger percentage of their assets. Some newbies complain, "That ship was all I had, and now I'm broke." It's an important lesson, though. A newbie in that situation learns that the New Order can take away everything he owns. A wealthier carebear takes in the truth in smaller doses, losing one ship after the other. He suffers longer, like the apocryphal frog who doesn't realize he's being boiled in the pot as the temperature slowly rises.

For various reasons, EVE's newbies are coddled too much these days. People act like it's a bad thing when they lose a ship. EVE is built around spaceship combat. That means people lose ships. When ships blow up, that means the game is running smoothly. About a week into my own EVE experience, I was rummaging around in lowsec in a cruiser and was attacked by a random player. Within seconds, I'd lost my ship. It almost wiped me out, but I learned more about lowsec and EVE in that encounter of a few seconds than I had in the entire week leading up to it. It didn't occur to me to whine or petition or threaten to quit. That wasn't how an EVE player behaved.

In truth, a blameless newbie losing his only ship to a New Order gank is a lucky newbie. He stands the best chance at truly grasping the urgent truth of the Code. If it were possible, I wish that every EVE player would be struck by a "reset" one week into the game, being ganked and losing everything they'd accumulated up to that point. Then they could put aside all that they thought they knew, read the Code, and really play EVE for the first time.

42 comments:

  1. Wonderful, Supreme Protector! Real Talk HARD STYLE.

    CCP has already told us that the exploding of newbie ships isn't the principal cause of them not extending their trials, or unsubbing from the game; that they are more not less likely to continue if the message is brought to them in this way.

    It's a PvP game; they should be encouraged to realise that as soon as possible - before the creeping carebear menace overtakes them.

    Great stuff.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. All I see is banter of morons seeking to prove they are morons to the point that the moronic nature of this entire site is nothing short of a Jones Town ending. Do everyone in Eve a favor and simply shut down, drink your Koolaid, and vanish like dust into the wind. The Mitanni is going to fade to nothing like his failed Imperium, and so will all of you since your Goon Funding will be no more. Before you all try to claim I'm a butt hurt carebear, no I am not. I have not encountered your kind, I have not been ganked by your kind, and when you do notice me, it will be a Disco light show of destruction upon your Uedama undock with all those shitty fit Catalyst just waiting to clog up my KM~ See you all soon my stupid little morsels~

      Delete
    2. Lol so you in reality only go after people that cant find back. You guys are sooo hip and sooo cool.

      Delete
  2. Ganking newbs isn't very much fun. What is fun is showing them that being new isn't an impediment to advancement. The best way to show that is simply to kill older miners. Invite them into tear channels, invite them to send violation notices, invite them into gank fleets. Once bitten they never catch the cancer of carebearism.

    And once you've saved just one, you'll have done more than anything accomplished by the serial incompetents in AG.

    Spread the word, Brothers and Sisters in the Code!

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    Replies
    1. I get what you mean Anon. I've always regarded the gank itself as simply a means to an end and not an end in itself.

      The greater goal is to sustain a PvP culture throughout Highsec, by any legitimate means. Yes, some of the work has an air of drudgery about it (warp-ins...), but it must be done.

      I like your ideas about engaging the new players via invitations, but I rarely have time to spend on this sort of thing. I certainly won't go seeking them out!

      There are many ways to bring The Code to players; each New Order member will find his or her own speciality. That's the beauty of it.

      Delete
  3. "But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness." James 3:17-18 NIV

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  4. Maybe CODE could simply feature on the gate and citadel billboards? I'm sure carebears spend as much time as I do watching them while praying they aren't going to crack off some hidden form of epilepsy!
    Well written and researched article as always, funny how bears know of concord and it's punishment in highsec but have 'no idea' about the CODE.

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  5. "HTFU Carebear vermin, teach newbs to exterminate carebear vermin, and Praise James".

    ReplyDelete
  6. TL;DR yadda yadda wtf

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  7. The Code, making eve great again

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sing to "Mary had a Little Lamb"

      Wolfie Boy Soprano had a little lamb,
      Its fleece was white as snow.
      Everywhere that Wolf went,
      The lamb was sure to go.
      Then one day Wolf was hungry,
      With no food to be found,
      He looked at the lamb with the puggry,
      The little lamb was crying while bound,
      Shortly after, the lamb was no more.


      BM.

      Delete
  8. TL;DR Jamey boy tears

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  9. All praise Zopiclone!!! Why are you not telling us his story master Jamey? Is it because you must admit that you still can't understand what hit you cause you are too stupid?

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    Replies
    1. Probably because James writes about excellence. I guess if James wanted to lower the bar and write about loyal's personal whipping boy who took maybe 30% of the assets available to him then I guess I would read it.

      It would be a singular post though. All these posts about total victories and then one about an awox that was so ham-fisted that it's more sad than anything else.

      Let's hope the bar stays high :)

      Praise James!

      Delete
    2. Come on show me how Zopiclone touched you...dont be ashamed...

      Delete
    3. Code Alliance - making eve great again. James 315 for CSM!

      Delete
    4. I blame you for that John. Everyone knows that the Zopiclone incident was at least 90% your fault, if not more. So if he took 30% of the assets, then really you are only responsible for 27% of this entire affair, John. Zopiclone is only at 3% in this responsibility matrix.

      Time to own up and face the music, John. You're the one that stole all that stuff, not Zopiclone. Admit it. Math doesn't lie, John!

      Delete
    5. You want to discuss the responsibility matrix Jerry? Let's talk about the time we audited that twitch stream that was hosted by that chick in a sexy bunny outfit. You handed me Mace Windu like an African warlord hands a child an AK-47. You had to know that there would be consequences...

      The Mace Windu troll should only be used by experts and you just gave it to me. It's all on you my friend.

      #onehundredpercentresponsible
      #macewinduhaseverythingtodowitheverything

      Delete
    6. Zopiclone did not exactly set a bar for excellence! Stole 40 Billion in a month when one (1) person donated 140 Billion... yeah!

      Oh... and Zopi helped kill a shit-ton of carebears!

      Delete
  10. " It didn't occur to me to whine or petition or threaten to quit. That wasn't how an EVE player behaved. "


    That right there gawddammnit!

    HTFU or GTFO.

    It's EvE, we don't give a crap about your sensibilities!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Or your diabetic, flaming, cancer ridden children!

      Delete
    2. Bring RL hate into this Anon9:31? That is sad. This is just a GAME if you have yet to figure that out.

      Delete
    3. @ Colonel

      Sarcasm friend. All the big excuses rolled into one sad IMAGINARY carebear kid.
      If you have yet to figure that out

      Delete
    4. He has yet to figure that out. You can explain it for them, but you can't understand it for them.

      Maybe his sensibilities were offended.

      Delete
    5. That colonel prolly didnt read the first part of Jemes' post that lists the various carebear excuses for non-compliance

      Or he dont sarcasm

      Or both

      Delete
  11. In today's installment, James admits that EVE has so few new players that everyone already knows about all of the existing EVE stories.

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  12. I can't wait for Sasha Nyemtsov to narrate this epic post!!!

    ReplyDelete
  13. This is something for the grandchildren!!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Well since the reset is suggested for real Eve players, I guess code members would not get affected by this, since we know they are not real players and not real pvp'ers. This would be good, as any sensible player would not want to listen to code members whine and cry on a weekly basis, at least not more then they do already.

    -=M=-

    ReplyDelete
  15. But where oh where is Ming?

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  16. "And it's a condemnation of the Anti-Gankers for their failure to impress upon fellow carebears how important and powerful the Code is."

    LOL

    The problem with that statement is why would AG promote the code, which was crapped out of a dog's ass, in the first place? You guys talk about carebear logic, well here's an example of ganker logic...logical fallacy that is.

    BM

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The problem appears to be your choice of verb. You aren't being asked to 'promote' the code in the sense of supporting it (though that would be nice). You're being accused of failing to make your fellow carebears aware of its existence and the potential implications for them, should they choose to remain in ignorance of its provisions.

      Delete
    2. Does BM stand for bowel movement?

      Delete
  17. One of my favorite minerbumping posts on this subject from 2 years ago...

    "The New Order's presence is too big to ignore, even for a bot-aspirant. They don't need a "warning" before they get ganked. They've already been warned. Carebears of highsec, the time for warnings is over. The time for payment has come. "

    http://www.minerbumping.com/2014/04/who-you-gonna-call-part-2.html

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    Replies
    1. One of my favourite bites, too, Super; should be drummed into every would-be New Order member, from the get-go.

      Delete
  18. You are all insane. I have personally seen how under the supervision of your agents bots skapyvayut ice belt. You are none other than petty tyrants. You are cheating yourself and your writings will not change anything.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Mostly we only kill weak people and are scared of anyone that is as powerful or more so than us.

    ReplyDelete

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