Jester in his newfound support for gank victims wrote "I think there's room in EVE for all types of EVE play. Even people who insist on being high-sec lurker enablers. You know them as solo high-sec miners and missioners." I don't argue with the "they have room" part. I argue with the "enabler" part. Enablers are people who do background work that make other people able to do their thing. For example the guy who fuels the jump bridge allows the alliance fleet to respond quickly. Or the JF pilot who hauls for contract from Jita to the nullsec HQ.
People tend to look miners, missioners this way. I add traders too, exactly to include myself into this bunch. They see themselves enablers too, "without miners you'd have no ships" is a field in the miner bingo, the collection of the standard replies of ganked/bumped miners.
The error comes from a wrong real life analogy. If you give something useful to everyone, you are great, as you increased the well-being of every people. If you give something useful to everyone in a game, you just nerfed the game and no one is better off. In-game items are worthless pixels. They gain only value by comparison to other players. It is very easy to see in MMOs where itemlevel is elevated every patch. The sword of uberness which makes the wielder envied will be random crap next patch when the first murlock gives better. Also game developers are capable of giving everyone everything, but I don't think that anyone (except morons and slackers) would be happier if everyone would get 1T ISK, a billion units of every minerals and 10 titans after next downtime in EVE.
The highsec missioner, miner and trader indeed participates in the game economy, supplying various things. But if they would be replaced by an NPC, no one would notice, exactly because their minerals, LP items and smaller Jita margins are available to everyone. It gives exactly as much help to a Nulli guy as the Solar guy gets from them.
The real enablers aren't neutral. They enable one group against the other. The Solar tower-fueling guy makes Solar stronger relative to Nulli. You can't replace him with an NPC since the developers can't take sides. By running warehouses I'm an enabler for the New Order. The Red Frog guy who hauls the Catalysts to the warehouse on the other hand is not an enabler for us, as he transports Skiffs to miners just as happily. From the point of view of AFK miners vs New Order, the Red Frog guy acts as a hauling nerf. Neither of us need to haul, we just have to pay a small sum and in a day or two our items arrive to their destination. A CCP given "magic transport" tool would be just as good.
Of course this "enabler" nonsense came from the very entitled position of the average EVE player. Jester - similarly to the "without us you'd have no ships" miner - tries to convince the PvP-ers that "carebears" have a purpose in the game. This entitlement is crystal clear in Corelin: "I am perfectly OK with people playing in highsec. What I really want them doing is creating content for ME. A highsec player who does nothing but accumulate isk running missions, mining, doing whatever, doesn’t really add value to MY experience. A griefer potentially does. Alts have mains, who potentially do. A carebear? Meh. His replacement is a dime a dozen. The ore he mines will rapidly be acquired by someone else and my prices will stabilize The isk injected by that mission runner who got horribly ganked will be replaced by another mission runner and the prices will stabilize. Again I don’t care what you do much, or where you do it. I care that you bring something to the table, that you contribute to this game, to this community, to me. If you can do it by moving, great, if you can do it by blogging, great. If you can do it by doing what you are doing, fantastic, but if you aren’t doing anything for me, why should I give a rats ass about you?"
Jester tries to make understanding between the ones who feel entitled to others providing content to them and those who feel entitled to be left alone in an MMO. There cannot be such understanding. These groups can't coexist. The MMO side could go on with miners being NPCs, and the PvE could go on if PvP-ers would be replaced by NPC buy orders. The developers must make their decision how much they cater to these groups.
Please note that I didn't say that either group is worthless. I said that they are worthless in the eyes of the other group and there cannot be peace and understanding between them.
People tend to look miners, missioners this way. I add traders too, exactly to include myself into this bunch. They see themselves enablers too, "without miners you'd have no ships" is a field in the miner bingo, the collection of the standard replies of ganked/bumped miners.
The error comes from a wrong real life analogy. If you give something useful to everyone, you are great, as you increased the well-being of every people. If you give something useful to everyone in a game, you just nerfed the game and no one is better off. In-game items are worthless pixels. They gain only value by comparison to other players. It is very easy to see in MMOs where itemlevel is elevated every patch. The sword of uberness which makes the wielder envied will be random crap next patch when the first murlock gives better. Also game developers are capable of giving everyone everything, but I don't think that anyone (except morons and slackers) would be happier if everyone would get 1T ISK, a billion units of every minerals and 10 titans after next downtime in EVE.
The highsec missioner, miner and trader indeed participates in the game economy, supplying various things. But if they would be replaced by an NPC, no one would notice, exactly because their minerals, LP items and smaller Jita margins are available to everyone. It gives exactly as much help to a Nulli guy as the Solar guy gets from them.
The real enablers aren't neutral. They enable one group against the other. The Solar tower-fueling guy makes Solar stronger relative to Nulli. You can't replace him with an NPC since the developers can't take sides. By running warehouses I'm an enabler for the New Order. The Red Frog guy who hauls the Catalysts to the warehouse on the other hand is not an enabler for us, as he transports Skiffs to miners just as happily. From the point of view of AFK miners vs New Order, the Red Frog guy acts as a hauling nerf. Neither of us need to haul, we just have to pay a small sum and in a day or two our items arrive to their destination. A CCP given "magic transport" tool would be just as good.
Of course this "enabler" nonsense came from the very entitled position of the average EVE player. Jester - similarly to the "without us you'd have no ships" miner - tries to convince the PvP-ers that "carebears" have a purpose in the game. This entitlement is crystal clear in Corelin: "I am perfectly OK with people playing in highsec. What I really want them doing is creating content for ME. A highsec player who does nothing but accumulate isk running missions, mining, doing whatever, doesn’t really add value to MY experience. A griefer potentially does. Alts have mains, who potentially do. A carebear? Meh. His replacement is a dime a dozen. The ore he mines will rapidly be acquired by someone else and my prices will stabilize The isk injected by that mission runner who got horribly ganked will be replaced by another mission runner and the prices will stabilize. Again I don’t care what you do much, or where you do it. I care that you bring something to the table, that you contribute to this game, to this community, to me. If you can do it by moving, great, if you can do it by blogging, great. If you can do it by doing what you are doing, fantastic, but if you aren’t doing anything for me, why should I give a rats ass about you?"
Jester tries to make understanding between the ones who feel entitled to others providing content to them and those who feel entitled to be left alone in an MMO. There cannot be such understanding. These groups can't coexist. The MMO side could go on with miners being NPCs, and the PvE could go on if PvP-ers would be replaced by NPC buy orders. The developers must make their decision how much they cater to these groups.
Please note that I didn't say that either group is worthless. I said that they are worthless in the eyes of the other group and there cannot be peace and understanding between them.
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