To those that lost loved ones that day, and to those who suffer to this day from the events of that day, my sincerest heartfelt condolences.

The winter following, a woman named Darlene Racicot in Timmins, Ontario, produced this very touching ice sculpture. For me it captures the sorrow and heartache I felt, and still feel, about that day. May it help us all remember, and encourage us to do what we can, each in our own way, to work towards a safer world for us all.

Sorrow of 9/11

(Click the photo for a full size image – 800×600)

Basically, I’ve never been a fan of the right click method to select distances (orbit, keep at range, warp to, etc). It seems like a lot of mouse movements for a simple command. And I find I miss click, especially if the adrenaline is flowing. The dev blog on the new shortcuts got me thinking how to make this easier/quicker, then I read Arctic Monkey’s post in the comments to the dev blog, and thought “wow, that’s a great idea”.

The idea is to use the mouse scroll wheel to ramp a given distance up or down. Using the new shortcuts there are keys to orbit, keep at range, warp to, etc. Arctic Monkey’s idea is to press and hold the key, then scroll the mouse wheel until the desired distance appears, then release the key or click the target. This would be much easier than trying to follow a pop-up menu and click the right line.

I added my voice to this idea. If you like the idea, I urge you to add your voice to it too. The dev blog specifically said they were looking for other things to support with shortcuts. I think this one should be included – don’t you?

I have one suggestion re the rules: put in something to discourage ducking and hiding. He’s put everyone in a fleet, so you can warp to anyone anywhere, but it would still be possible for a cowardly type to bounce around safe spots avoiding fights until there are only a few left, then engage with full tank and ammo. I’m not sure how to do that – maybe a rule that says you have to appear on a certain number of killmails, and not all at the end of the event?

“With the recent completion of the 3rd installment of the Hulkageddon last month, @CyberinEVE, author of Hands Off, My Loots!, asks: ”Griefing is a very big part of EVE.  Ninja Salvaging, Suicide Ganking, Trolling, and Scamming are all a very large part of the game.  What do you think about all these things?  You can talk about one, or all…but just let us know your overall opinion on Griefing, and any recommendations you may have to change it if you think it’s needed.”

A good topic to get involved with the Blog Banters again.

Griefing is a form of expression.

Now how did I come up with that?  Well, first for the purposes of this post, I’m going to use a very broad definition of griefing to cover the range of unwelcome hostile activities including those generally allowed (piracy, gate camps, ninja salvaging, suicide ganking, scams, etc.).  I’ll let others argue about what’s the acceptable level of such activities, because I think there’s as many ideas on that as there are players. But for this post, let’s consider griefing as those actions done by the first to the second that the second would decline to participate in if given a choice.

Cailais’s banter post suggested griefing is a social interaction, which made me ask myself why we don’t see it other social games. Like sports. Sports are social games too. But I realized we do see griefing in sports, too. Players in games like hockey, football, and basketball will try all kinds of intimidation tricks on their opponents. Physical bullying, verbal taunting or humiliation can often be seen in competitive sports. Watch poker sometime – you’ll likely see at least one player goading another, trying to get under their skin.

Why do people do this? Cailais’s post compared the Care<–>Grief spectrum to a Constrained<–>Freedom scale. More freedom allows more room for choice and allows greater range of expression. In real life, we are constrained by the rules and attitudes of our societies. We are not totally free to do as we please. Some need a venue to express aspects of themselves that are not suitable to express in day-to-day life. They can find outlets in games that provide a different rule set which constrains them differently. Eve constrains the player much less that society does in many areas (but not all). This goes beyond Eve and other MMOs – consider the football player who is a total bear on the field, but a the nicest of human beings at home and on the street. The rules of the game allow him to overpower the opponent, to bully him and humilate him, to treat him in ways that would get him arrested if he tried it in the shopping mall. he takes advantage of that freedom to express that part of his personality that you won’t see other than on the field.

Similarly in Eve, the game allows players to conduct themselves in a number of ways not permitted in real-life society. Scamming someone in real life like you can in Eve will get you charged with fraud and/or sued. Trashing someone’s car and looting it if they drive on your street (ie gate camp) is certainly forbidden. So players take advantage of this in-game permissiveness to let go on some of the inhibitions forced on them by societal norms. They can express that side of their personalities, and for some it’s quite a rush. While it’s not the main reason I play the game, I’ve learned to appreciate this aspect of the game. I’ve let go some inhibitions in-game, and anticipate continuing to do so.

At some point there needs to be a limit on that expression. Even in Eve, complete freedom to do exactly as you please to whoever you please won’t work. People need some structure to stand on. What gets debated is where is that limit. I’ll wager that CCP would set the line below the point that people getting griefed quit the game. And above the point that people wanting to grief quit because they can’t. But there’s a whole lot of room to express yourself in between.

So griefing in Eve and other games, in its broadest sense, can be seen as a form of expression for those aspects of our personalities that need an outlet, which are generally forbidden in normal day-to-day life.

So go express yourself.

You need to be comfortable with your PvP before you join Agony, and I wasn’t there yet. Agony is a place to grow and learn new tactics and strategies, and try out new ideas, but you really need to be grounded in PvP when you go there. I was too much a PvP noob. So, I stepped back and will look to get more confidence and experience before considering Agony again. I’m planning to try Agony again, but when I can contribute at a higher level.

I’m getting back into RvB with my alt. I think RvB is a good choice to gain experience in fleet warfare, and to learn some leadership skills. One thing I took from my time in Agony is a desire to develop FC skills. Let’s see how that goes.

We were on a roam not too far from our new home in Providence, trying out a new fleet tactic. I was scouting 1 system ahead. The scout role is one I’ve done before, but I’m still pretty newb at it. I moved my Stiletto into 4B-NQN from 9UY4-H right into a Paxton Federation camp. A bubble was up with about 20 PXF pilots (including several from m3 corp, who I flew with briefly last year) in a fleet of BCs, logistics, HACs, recons, interdictor, cruisers, and inties.  After the grid loads I see the bubble effect in my face, and plenty of red in local and on overview. Pfft… all my practised recon reporting vanished and nerves took over. How do I get out of this one?

Well you don’t, unless you’re really lucky. And when you’re scouting for a fleet, that shouldn’t be the first thought in your head. The first thought should be to get your recon done. Your fleet needs to know what you’ve run into. You’ve got 30 seconds before your gate cloak breaks, use it just as if you’d entered a system without a camp – read local, do a 360 directional, and read your overview. Then give your report, clearly and concisely. Then worry about getting out.

And if you haven’t guessed it yet, I didn’t get a good recon report out. My FC didn’t realize the opposing fleet was as big as it was, nor did he gain a good idea of it’s composition. As a result he engaged in 9UY and our fleet went down. If he’d had accurate intel he likely would have made a different choice and either avoided the confrontation entirely, or set up to engage on better terms.

It was a good fight, at least as best as I could tell from the clone vat. I don’t show in the main battle, I guess because I went down on the other side of the gate and the KB didn’t connect my loss to the main battle. GF to Paxton – Paxton has an excellent and deserved reputation for their PvP. I look forward to facing them again.

I was impressed with the response from my fleet after it was over. My fail was pointed out to me, but it was done in a very constructive way. Guys lost some expensive ships, and I’ve seen players get really upset about things like that in the past. But Agony is different. They express their opinions and comments in a very constructive manner with the view to helping each other learn and improve. Now it’s up to me to do better next time, because there will be a next time.

For the budding scouts out there, take a lesson here. Some day you’ll jump into a camp like I did. When you do, take a deep breath, and do your recon report. Sort your overview so you can read off the ship types quickly and easily, and have an overview tab set up that excludes pretty well everything except opposing ships (excluding drones too). Give your FC as much intel as possible – if you wind up losing your ship but the intel you give helps win the battle or avoid a slaughter, you’ve done your job well.

Time to go practice….

Since my PvP skills were rusty (to say the least), I wanted to polish them up. So when Wensley announced a scholarship to the Agony Unleashed PVP University Basic course, and a course came open, I jumped at it. Good decision! The course was informative, eye-opening, and fun. They have just switched to a 2-day format from 1-day format. The 2-day format gives you one day of class time (with some in-space time for demonstrations of concepts and techniques), and one day of roaming in a large T1 frigate fleet where you go in search of a good fight. The experience was exciting and fun – a rush like I hadn’t had in a good long time.

The experience had me primed for more, and I promptly signed up for the following course: Wolfpacks. During these two courses I was exposed to Agony Unleashed and their philosophy and attitude to the game, and I was very impressed. Agony Unleashed’s stance on attitude, respect, honor, friendship, and common sense describe the kind of environment I was looking for. It was similar to what I’d experienced in my first corp (Strife Mercenaries), which had been a very positive experience. And since I felt I brought the personal qualities that they were looking for, I applied to join. Another good decision!

I’ve been accepted to Agony Unleashed as a trial member (the normal process), and I’m enjoying the experience. Agony walks their talk – which is to say that what they say they are about is how they play. They are serious about participation, contribution, and standing on your own two feet, but they don’t leave you hanging. They support each other whether that’s through a pat on the back, or a constructive comment or suggestion. I’m very much looking forward to enjoying my Eve time with these people and being an active contributor.

Somewhat ironically, I’m in Providence, not too far from where M3 is. Agony Unleashed is taking space in Providence, but the difference is that Agony is not in CVA, and role-play will not apply. PvP fun will.

Canadians have a reputation for not having a lot of national pride. I think we have reason to be proud today. I am proud of our Olympic team. They did what some thought they couldn’t do (but their fans believed they could). We’ve had a program in place leading up to these games called “Own the Podium”. It was a plan to train and prepare our athletes to be the best team at the games. The plan set a goal of winning the most medals, with numbers of 30 or more being predicted. While our team didn’t win the most, and was short of the target of 30, they did own the top rung of the podium.

Our team had a slow start. The first week we had some of our top-ranked athletes did not make the podium as expected. After that first week the critics in the media were already lining up to take shots at the Own the Podium program and some of the athletes supported by the program. They were premature. Some were saying that setting such lofty goals was unreasonable and unfair to the athletes. I disagree. The athletes at these games have set goals for themselves to win a medal. To be the best. Why should the whole team not set goals to be the best. Only 3 competitors can medal, the others will come up short. Do we tell the rest that they set unreasonable goals? No. We commend them (or we should) for going out there and putting it all on the line in pursuit of their goal. So I commend the Own the Podium program.

And the program was successful. We’re first in gold medals, and third in total medals. That’s a gold and a bronze in medal counts.

Congratulations to all our Canadian athletes, medalists and non-medalists. You have given us reason to be proud.

I say thank-you to all the athletes who participated in these games and left it all out there striving for one of those three medals. It’s your drive and determination, all the hours, days, months, and years of dedication and commitment to excel at your sport that makes games like these possible and successful.

Thanks to VANOC and the staff and volunteers who did the work to put on the events and make it all happen. How you plan and organize such an undertaking amazes me, including 25,000 volunteers. You did it!

And I say thank-you to all the fans who cheered for their respective teams, but especially to our Canadian fans who were behind our athletes through it all, who waved the flags and wore the colours. Who packed venues all across this country, and overseas as far as Afghanistan to watch and root for our athletes. Thanks for your unwavering support even when the media and pundits were cranking up the criticisms and questioning the commitment of some of our athletes and the effectiveness of “Own the Podium” that slow first week.

It was fabulous to see the fans in the stands and in other venues packed in tight to watch and cheer. At the final event yesterday, the gold medal game in men’s hockey, did you see the views of people packed standing shoulder to shoulder in venues from Robson Square to Whistler to Gretzky’s bar in Toronto, for three hours it took to play that game? I could feel their excitement through the TV in front of me. And to see the replays of the fan reaction when that winning goal went in – even with all the electronics and miles and time zones in between, you could feel the joy almost like you were there.

I felt such pride to hear our anthem sung, not in the ho-hum fashion you may hear at the start of a regular season hockey game, but with energy, vigour, and pride. Not just the 20,000 people at the arena for that final game, but at all the venues, and even the spontaneous renditions that broke out in the stands during the competitions. The athletes gave us the reason to cheer and sing, but the fans took it to the next level.

The fans Pwnd the Podium, too.

You know that bit that Canadians lack national pride? We just put that to bed. Permanently!

So out of curiosity, I warped to the station, just in time to see reaper after reaper launching from the station. I thought it might be some corp organized activity for new players, but they mostly warped off in different directions. I checked the info on a dozen or so and all of them were Pator Tech School corpies, and 10 were less than a day old. They all had different names (not the kind you’d see auto generated), and different avatars.

I watched for a while more and saw more noob ships launch, and some return to station, and many of them were also less than a day old, too. There was no obvious coordination between them, which you’d likely see if they were participating in an organized activity. And I doubt they’d be alts of experienced players – they’re not likely to stay in a 1.0 system flying noob ships. I finally decided that these were simply new players in the game, likely out running tutorial missions.

Now I’m not sure how typical it is to see that many newbies all that young all logged on in one system in the same half hour period. But if this is typical for a Sunday afternoon, and if it happens to a similar degree in other capsuleer birthplace systems (what do you call them? maternity wards? hatcheries?   ) and if a decent percentage of these new players stick with the game, then I think that’s a good sign for the health of the game.

To all the new players, Welcome to New Eden!

(I’m not a pirate, but I did wonder what the reaction would be if I were to scan one down and gank it. But a trader alt in a shuttle is not the right combo for that kind of mischief. )

I’m neither a carebear nor a pirate. I have 2 toons, one of which dabbles in industry and trading, mostly to generate isk for my main, whose is a PVP character, but hasn’t done any piracy. So I sit on the outside looking in on this whole pirate vs carebear thing. Both are valid roles in the game, yet there are those on each side that show unreasonable intolerance of the other. I see some on each side pointing fingers at each other, and getting all bent out of shape by the actions of the other.

I find the whole carebear vs pirate thing reflective of our planet in some ways. There are those (not all) on each side that can’t/won’t accept the other. There are parallels out there – political intolerance, religious intolerance, cultural intolerance that happen because some have the view “you don’t do it my way, so I hate you”. This is in Helicity’s post too: on one hand he says “I don’t understand these people, I can’t understand why someone would mine all day, I need to know.”, but this is after he’s said things like “I mean I really, really hate the carebear.” and “He is diligent, he is productive, he is fucking boring as shit.” He admits he doesn’t understand the carebear, but he’s passing judgment on them anyway.

Helicity wrote “The carebear does not play the game I do, …”. So true, but this is not wrong. The carebear doesn’t play EVE the same as the pirate, but the game is designed to support both styles of play, and others as well. Both styles of play, and the others, are what give Eve it’s depth and complexity, and a lot of it’s entertainment value. Both sides enjoy playing the game the way they do, and that’s good. But some just can’t understand the other side’s point of view. Well deal with it. It’s a game – accept that there are other ways to play than your favorite, so if you can’t fathom how the guy on the other side could possibly enjoy what he’s doing in the game, just accept that he does and move on.

Some on the piracy side use the argument that its all just pixels on the screen. I don’t subscribe to that argument. Carebear players spend time and energy arranging those pixels, so it’s to be expected that they won’t be happy when their work is undone by an uninvited guest. Some venting ought to be expected. Only the most masochistic would say “hey thanks, thanks, that was fun” when ganked. I’ve been caught is gate camps where the numbers are so high that there’s no chance to get out – and I don’t enjoy that at all, however it’s part of EVE, so I deal with it. It’s natural for anyone with an ounce of competitive instinct to dislike losing a ship, but it’s part of playing the game, so we deal with it (or should), but we should also understand when someone might get upset at the outcome.

So to both sides I say “get over it”. To the carebear who got ganked, deal with it – it’s part of the game. To the pirate who doesn’t like the name calling, or other smack talk from their victim, you deal with it too. And if you do subscribe to the argument that it’s just pixels on a screen, remember that all that smack talk in local/evemail/chat is just pixels on a screen too.