Monday, July 15, 2013

AAAAAAAAMMMM! I'm Telling Teacher!

Have you ever petitioned a war target or enemy for posting something in local you didn't like? May be after they renamed their ship to something offensive? They could have posted some link that made you wince?

Now, would you have petitioned them if they had been in your corp or alliance?

No? Why not?

So basically you were using the petition system as a way to attack them then? Really?


Why is the petition system seen as an alternative to guns to some people?

Over the weekend I was talking to a alliance-mate who had got a warning from a GM. Following some local smack-talk with war-targets he'd renamed his ship to something, well, inappropriate shall we say. But as far as inappropriate things I've seen in Eve, that was well down the list. It was hardly goatsee.


Is it just me who finds this a bit sad? Petitioning war targets for minor infractions that you probably see scrolling through your own corp chat most late nights? I've always had a problem with this. In the past I've had people say to me "You should petition him for that, get him banned!" when the local smack talk has got a bit 'colourful'. Why? If someone out of game made a similar comment would you make a big deal out of it? Probably not. If someone in corp said the same thing or posted the same thing would you petition it? No you wouldn't, in fact you might even have laughed at the same thing.

This has been raised recently with some high-profile blocs banning bow-chicka-wow-wow links in fleet chat as spies are reporting them to get them bans and to get them out of the fleet. Now is this taking the meta game too far? I say yes.

If you are using the actions of a GM to further your in-game cause then you are really scraping the barrel. I'm fine with meta-gaming as long as its within the confines of the game mechanics. I see little difference between account hacking and running to a GM saying "Sir! Sir! Sir! Look what he has done!" when really you are neither shocked, disgusted or outraged reakky. Its more about who they are, than what they posted.

This was similar to the problems at Fanfest 2012. If Chribba had got drunk and made those commends but 'the wiz' or whatever he was called, would it have attracted the same attention? No. But poor old Mittens has a lot of enemies in Eve and they leapt on the bandwagon with both feet. I wonder how many of them calling for Mittens to be hung, drawn and quarter would have made the same levels of noise if it was a corp mate who said the same thing on their forums. You know, posted the eve-mail and then suggested they continue to gank him.

In my first player corp the CEO was very specific about smack. His motto was always "Let your guns do the talking.". I continue to stand by that, well, whilst I'm sober anyway. My local posts might get a tincy wincy bit 'smacky' after the 8th ot 9th glass.


It is amazing the ability the internet has to reduce grown men to 9 year-olds. And lets face it, the vast majority of Eve players are male and significantly older than most games.

So please just stop it. If you cannot beat your enemy with important internet spaceships and the in-game mechanics, then just simply accept that fact and....




P.S. Yes I'm sure there are asshats who do need petitioning due to really inappropriate postings. This is directed at those who petition simple as a 'weapon'.

3 comments:

  1. You are not alone in seeing this used as a weapon of retribution. I've seen it done in my own alliance. I've seen it done to people in my own alliance. Both sides are wrong in cases like this. They are wrong to break the EULA. My alliance mates are wrong so exercise such situational ethics. But that's what humans do. I can't condemn them carte blanch for living up to expectations.

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  2. Yeah, it sucks. On the other hand, if everyone else is using a weapon, do you hamstring yourself by not including it in your arsenal? If everyone else is metagaming, don't you put yourself at a disadvantage by not doing the same?

    Regarding the Mittani/Wiz thing.. I think what contributed a lot to that was the episode was seen as the latest in a long history of dick moves by Mittens. Chribba has a very different reputation, so it would probably be seen differently. Reputation counts for a lot. You can't be the biggest dick in Eve and expect it to not bite you in the ass someday.

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  3. You are right. It shouldn't make any difference who posts it. If it is insulting or against EULA or whatever you should petition it. If it is someone from your corp or on your coms you can take him aside and talk to him before petitioning.

    But there are a lot people out there who don't see the line between fun and insults. If you can't talk to them about it (or can't reason with them) petition is still the best way to go.

    It really shouldn't be used as a weapon, but everyone providing a target for that weapon had seen in coming.

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