Tobold wrote about something really important. He said that it's not a good time to start an MMO blog. The topic is discussed to the death. There isn't anything to write that haven't been written down, except for personal fluffs and feelings that no one cares about. In the scientific sense, he is correct. I doubt that there is a sane question one can come up in the MMO world that you can't google up an answer. Everything that you could say is repetition (or irrelevant rant). Why bother?
When I started EVE, I was worried about things like that. I was a newbie trying to talk about something that others are doing for almost a decade. Why should anyone read my posts? Will I write anything worthy? And above all: will I do anything worth mentioning or will I be noob_mining_veldspar_#548154?
The answer for both is pretty clear. My blog visits were constantly declining along with the subscribers to WoW. In 2011 Aug I had 178K visits, in 2012 Feb, only 137K. Then I started writing about EVE and got 155K in March and 153K in April (April is 30 days, if I'd be 31 like March, it would be 158K). But the stunning thing was my income in EVE. In only in my third month of playing I reached the income worth 1 PLEX (E15 in the item shop) every day. Few players have achieved it after years. I'm already in the top 10% earners of the EVE players, probably in top 1%. My ideas about making money in these game indeed work.
How? How can a new player outdo most veterans? The same way as the Goons managed to shoot down anyone in their Jita gank event, despite it's been on the blogs and forums for a month: most players are terribly uninformed. If I'd have to guess, I'd say 80% of the MMO players are virgin land for bloggers. Someone to inform. Someone to write to. "OK, if he'll ever be interested about reading something he'll Google it up, you aren't needed" - Tobold would say. He is wrong, because people are not like him. Not nearly as smart and not at all rational. They have average logic and they are socials. Both statements open fields for you to blog.
"Average logic" means "unable to follow abstractly proven points". Let me give an example. Two months ago I wrote that the proper way of transporting small but valuable items in EVE is in a small, fragile but fast ships. I explained that the pirates have very little time to click on them, scan them to evaluate if they worth attacking and perform the attack. For me, this data and the logical conclusions were enough to determine it's the proper way. But look at the comment section: 95% wrote that it's extremely dangerous and plain nonsense and you shall use a huge battleship. They also linked examples where people lost their small ships with expensive cargo. And these are the published comments, this post received extreme amount of trolls with variations of "lol 1mo n00b talking nonsense" and "ur ass will be ownd if u do this shit".
Two months passed. Most of my profit is made by interceptors carrying 1-2B worth of cargo around. For smaller loads (below 100M) I am too lazy to relog and my main carries it in the same T1 frigate I used back then. My main was targeted some times, probably because I'm somewhat famous. My alts, never. Obviously I lost no cargo to pirates. I also googled up the "examples" that prove I'm wrong. Every one of them were autopiloting (very slow) or wardecced (police don't help him). I also figured out why no pirate even tries to catch me: because the time needed to identify my interceptor alts, figure out when they are full and when empty and waiting for them to actually show up (as I play in pretty random schedule) simply don't worth it. In the same time he can catch a dozen idiots who autopilot on the Perimiter gate with 500M+ in the hold and less than 10K EHP.
My post isn't any more true than it was when I published it. The logic and reasoning is the same. One could Google that post up, why to write it down again? Because people with average logic wouldn't believe it. It doesn't feel right to carry value in something so small. Also, "most people" disagree, so it's surely wrong. Now I can say "I have huge income from it and never been ganked. It works." It's simple proof. They are capable to accept this. If you do the same experiment, you can provide proof to your readers. They don't want theories and logic what Google can find, since it's abstract and debated. They want simple proof.
Them being socials opens another important field for you to blog. While evaluating a statement on its own is one of the most basic steps of rational thinking, most people are incapable to do so. Socials value a statement after the speaker. The internet is full of ad hominem attacks and reductio ad Hitlerum because it works on socials. If the social views a person "evil" or "wortless" he doesn't believe his statement, regardless of its value. On the other hand he is ready to believe the most ridiculous nonsense if he likes and values the speaker.
In the scientific world repetition is pointless or even plagiarism. It's already written, anyone can find it. But out here, in the World littered with partially civilized apes, repetition is extremely important. If you are a good writer and get a readerbase, they will accept truth from you that they wouldn't from me or Tobold or some random guy Google threw up.
Is the time to write something new and shocking about MMOs have passed? Probably. Is it passed to teach the general public? Never. If you can write, you are needed. If you write in my field, send me a link in comment after having a dozen or so posts. If they are good, I'll link it. That's probably a couple hundred redirected visitors.
Moron of the day was sent by Garak the Tailor:
EVE Business report: Thursday morning 18.2B (2 PLEX behind for second account, 0.3B spent on Titan project)
Remember that you can participate in our EVE conversations on the "goblinworks" channel (60-80 people on peak time) and your UI suggestions are welcomed.
When I started EVE, I was worried about things like that. I was a newbie trying to talk about something that others are doing for almost a decade. Why should anyone read my posts? Will I write anything worthy? And above all: will I do anything worth mentioning or will I be noob_mining_veldspar_#548154?
The answer for both is pretty clear. My blog visits were constantly declining along with the subscribers to WoW. In 2011 Aug I had 178K visits, in 2012 Feb, only 137K. Then I started writing about EVE and got 155K in March and 153K in April (April is 30 days, if I'd be 31 like March, it would be 158K). But the stunning thing was my income in EVE. In only in my third month of playing I reached the income worth 1 PLEX (E15 in the item shop) every day. Few players have achieved it after years. I'm already in the top 10% earners of the EVE players, probably in top 1%. My ideas about making money in these game indeed work.
How? How can a new player outdo most veterans? The same way as the Goons managed to shoot down anyone in their Jita gank event, despite it's been on the blogs and forums for a month: most players are terribly uninformed. If I'd have to guess, I'd say 80% of the MMO players are virgin land for bloggers. Someone to inform. Someone to write to. "OK, if he'll ever be interested about reading something he'll Google it up, you aren't needed" - Tobold would say. He is wrong, because people are not like him. Not nearly as smart and not at all rational. They have average logic and they are socials. Both statements open fields for you to blog.
"Average logic" means "unable to follow abstractly proven points". Let me give an example. Two months ago I wrote that the proper way of transporting small but valuable items in EVE is in a small, fragile but fast ships. I explained that the pirates have very little time to click on them, scan them to evaluate if they worth attacking and perform the attack. For me, this data and the logical conclusions were enough to determine it's the proper way. But look at the comment section: 95% wrote that it's extremely dangerous and plain nonsense and you shall use a huge battleship. They also linked examples where people lost their small ships with expensive cargo. And these are the published comments, this post received extreme amount of trolls with variations of "lol 1mo n00b talking nonsense" and "ur ass will be ownd if u do this shit".
Two months passed. Most of my profit is made by interceptors carrying 1-2B worth of cargo around. For smaller loads (below 100M) I am too lazy to relog and my main carries it in the same T1 frigate I used back then. My main was targeted some times, probably because I'm somewhat famous. My alts, never. Obviously I lost no cargo to pirates. I also googled up the "examples" that prove I'm wrong. Every one of them were autopiloting (very slow) or wardecced (police don't help him). I also figured out why no pirate even tries to catch me: because the time needed to identify my interceptor alts, figure out when they are full and when empty and waiting for them to actually show up (as I play in pretty random schedule) simply don't worth it. In the same time he can catch a dozen idiots who autopilot on the Perimiter gate with 500M+ in the hold and less than 10K EHP.
My post isn't any more true than it was when I published it. The logic and reasoning is the same. One could Google that post up, why to write it down again? Because people with average logic wouldn't believe it. It doesn't feel right to carry value in something so small. Also, "most people" disagree, so it's surely wrong. Now I can say "I have huge income from it and never been ganked. It works." It's simple proof. They are capable to accept this. If you do the same experiment, you can provide proof to your readers. They don't want theories and logic what Google can find, since it's abstract and debated. They want simple proof.
Them being socials opens another important field for you to blog. While evaluating a statement on its own is one of the most basic steps of rational thinking, most people are incapable to do so. Socials value a statement after the speaker. The internet is full of ad hominem attacks and reductio ad Hitlerum because it works on socials. If the social views a person "evil" or "wortless" he doesn't believe his statement, regardless of its value. On the other hand he is ready to believe the most ridiculous nonsense if he likes and values the speaker.
In the scientific world repetition is pointless or even plagiarism. It's already written, anyone can find it. But out here, in the World littered with partially civilized apes, repetition is extremely important. If you are a good writer and get a readerbase, they will accept truth from you that they wouldn't from me or Tobold or some random guy Google threw up.
Is the time to write something new and shocking about MMOs have passed? Probably. Is it passed to teach the general public? Never. If you can write, you are needed. If you write in my field, send me a link in comment after having a dozen or so posts. If they are good, I'll link it. That's probably a couple hundred redirected visitors.
Moron of the day was sent by Garak the Tailor:
EVE Business report: Thursday morning 18.2B (2 PLEX behind for second account, 0.3B spent on Titan project)
Remember that you can participate in our EVE conversations on the "goblinworks" channel (60-80 people on peak time) and your UI suggestions are welcomed.
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