Having drunk from the cup of tiger's blood the last week (cocaine is a hell of a drug) I'll drop some of the affectations.
But if you find that silly, I'm not really certain what to say. I mean... If I might be a little frank, are you sure you actually like MMO roleplaying, such as it is? Do you enjoy the community? Are you having fun, here?
I would not describe myself as a roleplayer, no. The entire concept behind writing what Veik wrote was to take a jab at the concept of mutual validation I see as inherent with roleplayers, and in fact it would have not been written, if in the first since what was initially attacked was the validation process as regards Odelya and Constantin. Yet, they are not unique to me in any way, they are simply symptomatic of roleplayers in general.
I can see it coming out also with the following thoughts here:
There is no way to substantiate that “Pyre Falcon Defence Combine is the Secure Commerce Commission registered conglomerate of subsidiary private military corporations acting in the interests of Kaalakiota. Wiyrkomi and Lai Dai Corporations” etc. etc. But what is the basis of rp then?
So what are we going to make out of this? Shall we start a game like this:
“You are not a duchess/subsidary of Lai Dai, because you can’t prove it”
“Look it up in the book of records/at the secure commerce commission”
“I did, but I didn’t find you”
“You took the wrong book of records/secure commerce commission”
“No, I didn’t, you are a lier!”
“No, you are, you are!”
As a consequence I think Veikitamo Gesakaarin’s posting is little different from what she is criticising, it is basically doing the same, but on a meta level. The big difference however is that those “unsubstantiated claims” are enriching our rp and stories, while the critique is basically destroying the foundations of it.
I have nothing against a bashing of Odelya—but please in way Nicoletta, Rodj and Anabella did it.
Actually I rather like it. It is good to see that some RP organizations continue to be acknowledged by CCP in some way for what they do, like PIE, PYRE, I-RED, CVA, EM, UK, etc.
What seems to have been fundamentally misunderstood here is that I don't play this game for the validation of others. I'm not some easy lay at a dive bar that needs to be told how great my tits are before getting propositioned with, "Hey babe, are you DTF?" I don't play for the recognition game that appears to drive so many roleplayers, I didn't ask CCP for a gold star written in yellow text, nor do I need the approval of others to do what I wish in Eve.
How I immerse myself in the world I have been given is to utilize rationalization, contextualization, and perspective which can be seen simply in the Pyre Falcon info:
It's an in-game corporation, what is an in-game corporation? Well, I guess it's a corporation that operates under CONCORD jurisdiction which taken further is probably the SCC because they manage all this economic shit, so they'd probably handle matters of incorporation and securities for freelance capsuleers.
Well it's an alliance. What is a corporate alliance? Well it could also be a corporate conglomerate, hence why it's defined as a, "Combine".
Well what does it do? Well it works in the -interests- of Kaalakiota, Wiyrkomi, and Lai Dai. Since it is in effect independent and SCC registered this is represented at a base level by it doing mission work for those corps in-game, framing its actions in that context, and simply put it doesn't mean explaining shit to anyone because at the end of the day as a deniable asset company having a non-concrete, nebulous relationship makes sense.
So no, I'm not interested in playing the roleplay game of just making whatever shit up I want, then getting into mind-numbing discussion trying to justify it to other roleplayers so they can validate the existence of my little imaginary sandcastles I've created for myself. This just leads, in my view, to the rather hilarious circumstance of roleplay essentially becoming the most mediocre of popularity contests that drives people forever in the search of others to validate and endorse their crap.
Why would I want to participate in that? If I wanted to play the game roleplayers seem to be playing I'd:
- Go play a tabletop RP
- Go play the Sims2 for all the faux relationship stuff
- Go play Second Life
But I'm playing Eve, so how I immerse myself in the world is by first and foremost valuing its interactions and ability to affect the world through in-game action. This differs in my mind to what roleplayers seem to do in which the focus is on changing the world through writing about it -- yet if everyone just ignored what was written by roleplayers (which most do) nothing really actually changes does it? In effect it's a system of rather hilarious delusions, which is how my own characters treats what most roleplayers do -- a bunch of apparently delusional capsuleers taking each others claims seriously to hilarious effect. I mean damn, most roleplayers' come off as the type who'd probably take the National Enquirer or any other tabloid press seriously and think Bigfoot is going to molest them the way my own character sees it from an in-game perspective.
Also, I'd say roleplayers and their characters actually add to my own sense of immersion. After all, it's hardly realistic to me to have a world where there doesn't exist people who are always seeking the validation and approval of others: whether out of a need for fame, popularity, recognition or just good old vanity now is it?
Oddly this is the most mind-blowing/disruptive piece of PF for me ever. I don't hate it... it just really changes my view of the EVEverse.
What do you think it means if CCP says that barely any capsuleers ever choose to interact with baseliners, and I would say 80% of RP'ers RP as at least intermittently doing so? Are the members of the Summit unusually sociable? Particularly sane?
It has been a long-running pseudo-joke that this is the case, yes. Your average (non-RPing) player is typically portrayed or referred to in a similar fashion to the 'villain' capsuleer from the Burning Life - being a capsuleer is little more than a game to them.
Effectively, roleplayers (in the sense that we consider ourselves roleplayers and the average EVE player not a roleplayer) are as much a minority in the playerbase as the characters we usually portray are among the population of 'unbound' capsuleers (ie, player characters).
Well, we have a winner as to just how I'm "roleplaying" the capsuleer known as Veikitamo Gesakaarin.
No no no. You're doing it wrong.
You roll 1d6 to determine if you get to light it or not. The 1d20 is for how much of the ten-minute cycle you last before getting blapped.
Then you roll an additional 2d20 to see how many ships come through the cyno. If you get two ones, your titan jumps instead of bridging.
*A wild Morlag appears in the forest
*Refers to character sheet
*Selects and casts "Power Word: Orgasm"
*Rolls d20. 20! Critical success.
*Wild Morlag is incapacitated for 1d4+1 hours due to overwhelming sense of pleasure.