Random Blatherings

An old alliance mate of mine from Systematic Chaos, Manasi, posted an entry the other day that I have to give props to. It really does, in my opinion, sketch out the various differences between high sec, low sec, and null sec.

One of the questions that were raised in his comments though was one I KNEW would probably be asked at least once. He stated in his chart that high sec has low risk, low sec has high risk, and null sec has almost no risk.

Wait a minute…..what?!?! Null sec has almost no risk?!? That certainly can’t be true!! I mean…its Null sec!! There’s no Concord to protect me!!

Well…at first, and especially to those who have never lived there, that’s exactly how it could be seen. But the truth of the matter is that it’s quite the opposite. I was actually just touching a bit on this the other evening with the roommate. We were talking about whether or not a new player could survive in Nullsec. This is something that has been discussed a few times in the blogosphere as well and so far, most are saying they are of the opinion they could. In some respects I agree with that. In others, I completely disagree. I do not agree that a brand new player, fresh out of the academy and having just finished his/her initial tutorial missions, should be heading out to nullsec. Well…let me rephrase that, I agree that a new player, fresh out of the academy could IN THEORY survive, but the reality is the opposite and for one major reason, lack of piloting skill.

As any experienced PVP pilot will tell you, or for that matter any experienced combat pilot in general will tell you, it’s not always about how many skillpoints you have or what ship you’re in. It’s about knowing how to fit and fly your ship properly.

And all this newbie talk brings me to my next line of thought.

In an effort to sort of mold my associate industrialist into the Eve world, I’d recently had him apply and get accepted into a claimed full fledged industrial corp. Original intent was to learn a bit from more experienced industrialist pilots. Unfortunately the info about the corp by the recruiter turned out to be rather false. One is that, so far, the oldest member I’ve seen has had their pilot’s license for only 8 or 9 months. My industrialist has been a pilot for 5 months. So I guess in their eyes, 3 months more than my associate made them experts? Oh, and little do they know that the 5 month old industrialist is related to a pilot who is as old as I am. Mind you, I’m not laying claim that I am that old or even that a person’s time spent in Eve makes any relevant difference. I AM however claiming that I definitely feel far more knowledgeable and experienced than they are.

Two, they are not industrialists. Carebears yes, but not the industrialists I was looking for. Pretty much what they are is PVE’ers. Very little other conversation takes place other than who has what mission and what ship to bring and how to fit said ship for that mission.

Third, I don’t have that much of a knowledge base in terms of POS design and operation, but it appears none of them have even done any sort of prior research as I have. They were telling my associate about their intent to set up a POS when he first discussed joining. Yet after joining, I’ve recognized that they were still almost completely clueless about how to do it. They didn’t even know WHERE they would be able to set one up. I mean seriously, I think I’m going to have permanent scars on my tongue from the number of times I’ve had to bite it, just to maintain this naive persona I’ve been portraying. Oh, and I think the only reason they did start discussing the idea of putting up a POS was because I’d brought it up in the interview.

So my associate stepped up a bit and in essence gave them the low-down, as well as some links to some of the numerous POS guides available on the web. It was also suggested that instead of grinding up the standing as they were talking about doing, (while continuously accepting new recruits…), that they should consider purchasing one of the premade corps offered in the trade forums, get the POS setup, and then create an alliance with that corp. From what I understand, the only people you would actually have to keep in the corp would be a holder alt. Instead, the CEO of the corp shot this idea down with absolutely no second thought.

Well that just didn’t work for me since one of the main reasons I looked into getting my associate into a corp was the possibility to use a POS for BPO research. With the likely chance of that not happening, at least not anytime in the near future, nor anyone that could help me develop his trade, then I see no reason to keep him in that corp. And for this reason, I’m intending to have him join up with me in the corp that I will likely be applying to later this evening.

As a side note, I am not a griefer or a scammer and have never had any intentions of robbing or harming them in any way shape or form. Although it is felt that the recruiter lied prior to joining them, that will still not be reason enough for me to rob them, given my associate lied to them by not making it clear his relationships. Besides, I’m not sure they would have anything substantial enough to rob them of and potentially lose my credibility over.