Then I will try to do the impossible, have a rant while eating breakfast and try to collect my thoughts at the same time.
My views expressed here are based on my experiences, EVE is a big enough sandbox nowadays that someone can have a completely opposite experiences through their playing career and their view is completely valid. This is not a competition about who is right or who is wrong, just an exchange of experiences.
I started off as a basic carebear who joined the Empire because as a player I perceived it to be the only Empire that was not blatantly lying to its population, and to the other empires, about what they were up to and what their motivations were.
I used to trash slaves, I used to collect Pax Amarria and spiced wine, I used to preach peace and happiness between the races on the old Amarr channel that was IC.
At that point I was doing the Drizzt Do'Urden bit, I was thinking that slavery was a barbaric practice and Reclaiming should be accomplished through peaceful means of mining and talking on IC channels.
Then I came across PIE, it was connected to the Jovian Body part event, where I donated the body parts to PIE (I think Ethi was drunk when I talked to him in the station and gave him the stuff I had collected) and was congratulated for being a loyal Amarrian. (I had waded through the PF while mining, slowly to get an Omen for mining and I was currently working my way up to an Armageddon, for mining of course.)
The Tal-Romon cathedral event for me was the straw that broke the camels back for me, Admiral Golan Trevize came to the Amarr channel, encouraging loyal Amarrians to run the missions for the transporting of the stones of the cathedral to Amarr Prime.
I thought it was cool.
As I was running the missions I was offered 20 million for one set of stones I was carrying by a collector (I think I had 1,8mil on my account at the time) and I refused. Because of the convictions of my character, not because of the choices of the player. I think at that point Lall took a life of her own.
I joined PIE, made my way through the ranks.
Saw more Amarrians fighting against the loyalists than actual loyalists, for years and years I came across the stereotype of an Amarrian that disapproved of slavery and/or the Empire while the loyalists were constantly the underdogs. (Ever since me joining PIE, CVA always had less pilots than the Freedom Fighters.)
I read IGS (it was mandatory for PIE pilots then) and posted there a few times.
Went to a few IC channels with the PIE mob (I think Kaleigh still remembers fondly the Gallentean cumguzzler comment.)
Anyhoos, I've had a lot of mileage in my corner of New Eden on which I base my experiences on the people that play EVE.
Which pretty much boils down to a few stereotypes that are around.
RP-lite folk, that want to join an established RP corp where they can do RP when they feel like it and have the privilege of learning from the experiences of older pilots. Its usually 50/50 with these folks if they will stay around in the loyalist crowd.
RP-noobs, that have discovered RP side of EVE after playing for a while (2 weeks to 3 years in my experience) and hunger for PF on the faction that they are a part of and hunger for examples on how to represent the faction that they have joined. Its usually 20/80 chance that they actually join loyalists and not actually join some other faction that may or may not fight against the folks they actually got the encouragement to head out to do their own thing.
Actual roleplayers, that have built their character into a real person living in the world of New Eden that reacts to things happening in the world of New Eden in a way that the player perceives a real person would react in the world of New Eden. They are the quiet ones, that tend not to make big numbers out of themselves. It's hard to generalize them in any way because finding them is pretty hard and those I have come across have been loyalists and stick to it to the bitter end.
ADD folk, basically they have to try everything and anything with their character(s), there is no red string to follow, there is just the latest news and how can they get themselves involved into it. There is a certain degree of Dramallamaism involved with IGS posts, blogs and being loud on IC channels about their latest great new thing. They usually last about a year with a thing (max) and then they have made their way into the next shiny thing in the horizon. Probably at one point, or another, one of the characters of an ADD person will be a loyalist, in all of the Factions.
Dramallamas, everything is BIG, explosions of emotions and events flying out of the yingyang of the Joves to entertain the player behind the character. Loads of blogs, IGS posts and general ego massage of the player. Usually the whole thing screams of lookatme, lookatme, LOOKATME, which leads to a lot of meh.
Drizzt Do'Urdens, special snowflakes, Mary Sues also are very entertaining, but stereotypes because anyone that has been part of the RP community for more than a year can see same patterns emerging time and time again.
'I have this great idea about a revolutionizing mcguffin that will be a great idea all around and everyone will be filled with awe from perceiving my awesome intellect for spotting this brand new angle of RP in New Eden.'
After you have seen it a hundred times it grows old and into a stereotype.
When you see it happening everywhere and all the time,
You are a bitter vet.
Meh, I think my plan shot itself in the leg, better head off to enjoy the summer a bit.
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Topic: Is the back & forth fun? (Read 12573 times)