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[hellgremlin]

Has anyone else noticed... that most of us specifically act fucking clueless to the realities of Eve Online... just because the knowledge we should all have is limited to books and out-of-character experiences?

Look at us. Wrapped up in the trappings of our past lives, our past nations, our past ways. The Amarr capsuleers mostly act Amarr, yay slaves, yay god, yay scripture, yay Jamyl (despite her violating one of Amarr's holiest tenets by merely being alive.) There are a few who differ but most of them can be encapsulated under the "rebel Amarr living among the Minmatar" cliche. Let's be honest, deep down, these are always stories of a white guy going to live with a bunch of black guys.

The Minmatar capsuleers mostly act Minmatar. Raaaargh, we're here for our people! Nevermind that once we rescue them we tend to put them into disease-rife refugee camps, and if any of them happen to still worship the Amarr faith, we'll beat them to death with rocks!

The Caldari. Still sore about that whole "getting kicked off their homeworld" deal. Gotta get that ball of rock back, because it's more important than other rockballs! (I don't think a truly practical civilization, as the Caldari are often painted, would attach sentimental value to a shitty, poorly terraformed planet - if anything, they'd celebrate their ability to settle other worlds as far more important.)

The Gallente. Merely wishing to civilize everyone according to their image. Except their image is hopelessly unprepared for infomorphs and Amarrians and Minmatar and etcetera. They think their way is the best, but their way is just as corrupt and evil as the rest.

We are fully aware, by now, that capsuleers and infomorphs have a terrible interplay, and that we're literally hacking up ghosts from the sleeper civilization in the course of our casual resource gathering. One ran around Jita for a while, and I'm pretty sure it was a sanctioned CCP event.

So my question is this... why isn't everyone freaking out about it? I mean, looking at our world for example, a few people saw strange lights in the skies, and happened to have a camcorder - and from this sprang an entire community of UFO fanatics, hundreds of thousands strong.

What I'm saying is... the Jovians, and their very existence, should be a way bigger deal to everyone. I mean, imagine how today's society would react to the sudden knowledge that there ARE other forms of life out there... except, they're hyper-advanced versions of ourselves, and some of them want to recapture what makes us (and by extension them) tick. They'd freak the fuck out. There'd be entire supermarket tabloids devoted to finding out the secrets of the Jovians.

Thoughts?

(Yes, I'm drunk again.)

[Saede Riordan]

all very true.

[ArtOfLight]

The problem you run into is the absolute stagnation that pursuing the Jovians and/or Sleepers leads to. Playing a Jovian is essentially breaking the rules (thankfully) and since CCP doesn't put PF and lore out consistently and isn't doing much in the way of events anymore, everyone being in awe about the Jovians is kind of a dead end street.

However, feeding off of the history of the nations from which the capsuleers spring, debating ideology, viewpoints and other things creates friction and conflict - which are necessary for quality RP and character motivation.

At least, that's how I see it.

[Graelyn]

I think we're doing all we are able to do.

Which is fuck-all.

[Nmaro Makari]

*Insert bittervet one-liner*

On a more serious note though, I suspect the way the game introduces the 4 empires and the backstory in general to new players via character creator to new players has a big effect on it.

[Matariki Rain]

Our kind of podder has been around for less than ten years.

I haven't seen stats lately, but it used to be that there were always lots of new people just getting their licences, and presumably just exploring this new podder society for the first time.

Those of us who've been around for a while (and I realise I'm a relative newcomer)... are changed by the experience, I'd say. There's a distinct element of choosing what to represent, and sometimes some questioning and soul-searching that might not--I'd almost say "shouldn't"--be visible to the public eye.

[Khloe]

I think like all situations unless it personally affects people's routines (or careers) or if they have a personal interest in the subject Jovians are just background noise. I'd venture to guess they might be perceived as alien by their pictures in media (since most people haven't seen them), but to interpret them as an entirely new species might be delegated to the realm of crackpot conspiracy theories.

Honestly, what I think would impact capsuleers more than anything are wormholes, long dead races found within (where we are getting our latest tech from), and the self-replicating robots that seem to plague a tenth of our star cluster.

[orange]

hellgremlin's drunk postings are awesome.

[Reyd Karris]

So my question is this... why isn't everyone freaking out about it?

Freaking out about what exactly?

Sleepers, Jovians, Rogue Drones, Sansha, Zombie Queens... which threat should people freak out about, and why? How much information is really out there, aside from potentially psychotic ramblings of capsuleers? Capsuleers, known for "capsuleer dementia"? Capsuleers are tearing around space, actively blowing stuff up, with no real ties to any of the Empires. At any moment, a capsuleer can decide to blow up fleets of their allies for literally any reason.

If you want people up in arms, you have to give them something... even if it's a fabrication. Works wonderfully for UFO fanatics. 

[hellgremlin]

You want something to freak out about?

How about the ship description of the Ark j-freighter:

At the end of days when they descend
Watch for the coming of the Ark
For within it
Salvation is carried.

-The Scriptures, Apocalypse Verses 32:6

AAAAAAAH! WHY AREN'T WE ALL PANICKING?!

[Graelyn]

Panicking? Why? My Ark-breaching aparatus is greased and ready.

[Reyd Karris]

You want something to freak out about?

How about the ship description of the Ark j-freighter:

At the end of days when they descend
Watch for the coming of the Ark
For within it
Salvation is carried.

-The Scriptures, Apocalypse Verses 32:6

AAAAAAAH! WHY AREN'T WE ALL PANICKING?!

Or, you know, Arkombine.

First rule of the book (printed in bold letters on the cover): Don't panic. Also, don't forget to bring a towel...

[Silas Vitalia]

Jovians WERE a big deal when they would occasionally, rarely, fly around in those ridiculous death-machines and cause a stir amongst capsuleers.

We're on our own, but the PF hasn't really given us a big 'event' to show that they don't care about us anymore, or what they've been up to, etc etc.

[Esna Pitoojee]

Well, there was the whole thing about the hueg Sanshafleet sitting in the middle of the Jovian home system.

But then Incursions got NPC'ified, and then about when it should have been time for a storyline update regarding all this, :Incarna: :20%:...

[Saede Riordan]

Something I notice is that overall, we as RPers try to play 'realistic' capsuleers. The thing is, we really don't. We play very atypical capsuleers, in that we haven't gone insane with power and ran off to nullsec by and large. I think its a sort of this idea of immersion via insulation. "Its only IC if I say it is" and the like. I think that attitude doesn't exactly help us. When there are facts about the game universe a given player dislikes, they often try to just insulate themselves from it, or not count it. I felt I did that as Kiki when doing FW. I tried to insulate myself from the OOC knowledge of how pointless it was, but things like that lock our characters into actions. We decide what they think about XYZ and thus build ourselves into a corner.

Essentially, we're all capsuleers at the end of the day, maybe more of us ought start really acting the part, and stop trying to ignore the realities of the game mechanics.