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Author Topic: Terms in EVE Lore I wish I could change...  (Read 6917 times)

Gottii

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Re: Terms in EVE Lore I wish I could change...
« Reply #15 on: 23 Feb 2012, 19:16 »

Considering how much it gets used, and how much I love it, the name of our currency irritates me.

We had to add a "K" to a word just to make a pun about Icelandic money? Really? Everyone in the universe is dumb enough to spell it "kredit" just this one time?

This is your inner spirit telling you to give me all your ISK Senn. Just the name upsets you.
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Matariki Rain

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Re: Terms in EVE Lore I wish I could change...
« Reply #16 on: 23 Feb 2012, 21:10 »

Perhaps for PCs, to borrow the term I have seen SF pilots use, captain* or maybe even free-captain.

"Captain" has its uses... enough of them that I find it too ambiguous for our need here. I like "freecaptain", but it has particular connotations in the anarchist sphere: not all pilots want to be addressed as something they find as loaded as "tovarisch", and "free" is a word weighted with significance in EVE. They're both useful, but neither of them is "it".

Minmatar Republic space, Gallente Federation space, Khanid Kingdom space, Ammatar Mandate space, Intaki Syndicate space, etc.  However, as a group, they might all be called space empires.

Depending on your scope, their defining characteristics might be that they're signatories to the Yulai accord, policed by CONCORD, or that we pod pilots can't have claims to their space recognised. Let's see what we can develop.

EDITED TO ADD: How about the Yulai zone, along the lines of the Schengen zone or the euro zone?
« Last Edit: 23 Feb 2012, 23:57 by Matariki Rain »
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Matariki Rain

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Re: Terms in EVE Lore I wish I could change...
« Reply #17 on: 23 Feb 2012, 21:36 »

Quote-instead-of-edit fail from phone.
« Last Edit: 23 Feb 2012, 23:58 by Matariki Rain »
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orange

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Re: Terms in EVE Lore I wish I could change...
« Reply #18 on: 23 Feb 2012, 21:43 »

Apes.  (The last is a nod to Heinlein.)

As someone whose RP includes considering anyone not suitable for the pod a lower form of humanity that are regularly referred to as "cattle" or "apes", screw Heinlein (I've really been meaning to pick up that copy of Stranger in a Strange Land sitting on my bookshelf, but keep getting sidetracked)!

So, you might use something a little less derogatory for another infomorph/immortal (DUST Clones) versus the baselines?
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Senn Typhos

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Re: Terms in EVE Lore I wish I could change...
« Reply #19 on: 23 Feb 2012, 23:22 »

Considering how much it gets used, and how much I love it, the name of our currency irritates me.

We had to add a "K" to a word just to make a pun about Icelandic money? Really? Everyone in the universe is dumb enough to spell it "kredit" just this one time?

This is your inner spirit telling you to give me all your ISK Senn. Just the name upsets you.

I keep telling you, I can hate ISK's name, but she's my baby and we're in a long, tumultuous relationship now-a-days.
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Kiki Truzhari

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Re: Terms in EVE Lore I wish I could change...
« Reply #20 on: 19 Mar 2012, 07:36 »

I've always just referred to highsec as 'the republic' 'the federation' 'the state' and 'the empire' its always worked well for me.

The word Gallentean I really don't have a problem with, it sounds correct to me.

The word caldarian should be buried alive in burning manure.

I think the way to change things is to come up with our own, better terms, and use them noisily, until other people adopt them.
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Desiderya

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Re: Terms in EVE Lore I wish I could change...
« Reply #21 on: 19 Mar 2012, 07:58 »

I think the way to change things is to come up with our own, better terms, and use them noisily, until other people adopt them.

This.
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Seriphyn

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Re: Terms in EVE Lore I wish I could change...
« Reply #22 on: 19 Mar 2012, 08:21 »

"Facepalm" is one...oh...EVE lore, not RP? Right (heh)

I always thought Gallenteans was correct. It's all over the lore, not just from TonyG. Even the Gallente(an) showinfo for a Gallente character. I also like Hamish's "privately-owned starbase" for POS.

I agree empires is also a misleading term. The Caldari State and Minmatar Republic are not empires in the sense they are not expansionist or are truly multi-ethnic (multi-ethnic as in the sense of completely foreign, not native like the seven Minmatar tribes. Achura are hanger-ons and probably like 2% of the State etc.). The Federation is an "empire" though I doubt they'd want to call themselves that because of its negative connotations, though perhaps "superpower" suits, alongside the Amarr Empire.

Capsuleers I wouldn't know about, but I agree that the distinction should be made. Also, yeah, mercenaries is derpery.
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Morwen Lagann

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Re: Terms in EVE Lore I wish I could change...
« Reply #23 on: 19 Mar 2012, 08:56 »

One way to look at it is "empire space" == "CONCORD-monitored space". CONCORD may not do jack shit to capsuleers in lowsec for the most part but they do monitor the goings-on. Also, highsec+lowsec are the "baseliner/human empire", for lack of a better term. Capsuleers don't have control or sovereignty in those systems; we can only take control of nullsec - "Capsuleer space" - and only some of it at that.

Also, regarding facepalming: it may have been turned into a stupidly common/overused meme, but at its core, it is nothing more than a single word used to describe an action: putting your own hand(s) to your face in an expression of dismay/exhasperation/etc., so I really see nothing wrong with it. (tl;dr, Hipster Morlag says "I facepalmed IRL back before it was a meme.")
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Z.Sinraali

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Re: Terms in EVE Lore I wish I could change...
« Reply #24 on: 19 Mar 2012, 17:53 »

I palm other people's faces, is that passé too?
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hellgremlin

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Re: Terms in EVE Lore I wish I could change...
« Reply #25 on: 26 Mar 2012, 19:47 »

Considering how much it gets used, and how much I love it, the name of our currency irritates me.

We had to add a "K" to a word just to make a pun about Icelandic money? Really? Everyone in the universe is dumb enough to spell it "kredit" just this one time?

Mea culpa. I'm the guilty party. As far as I know, I was the first to start using the term "InterStellar Kredit" in my fiction, it spread from there. :P
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Shae Tiann

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Re: Terms in EVE Lore I wish I could change...
« Reply #26 on: 26 Mar 2012, 21:55 »

There's only one term I'd ditch, if I could.

"Baseliners".

What. The fuck.  :|
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Mizhara

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Re: Terms in EVE Lore I wish I could change...
« Reply #27 on: 27 Mar 2012, 03:01 »

I like 'baseliners'. It's got the implications of average, ordinary, boring, thirteen to the dozen, faceless masses and so on and so forth. It's a damn near perfect word to describe the greatest majority in New Eden from the vantage point of the evolutionary elite. It dehumanizes them quite nicely, making the millions that die by capsuleer hands (or F1 keys, whatever) just mere statistics.

All this and you can say it to someone's face without being derogatory. How awesome is that?

When it comes to capsuleers, I tend to say capsuleers since there's just no real alternatives that I've come up with. Infomorphs get too clunky. Captains and Freecaptains carry implications none of my characters care for. What you'd care to call them would have to depend on your character, really. Beyond capsuleer which is nicely neutral, I don't think there are any terms that are universal enough for everyone to adopt.

"Soulless" would work for two of my characters I guess, since they believe the act of cloning "killed" them and the soul is already gone. Some characters might find that working. "NextGen" or "NGs" is something I saw and liked, implying that capsuleers are the next step in human evolution, which also implies that humanity is now actively guiding it's own evolution instead of just relying on random mutation. You can make similar terms that also implies superiority by default, for the characters that prefers that kind of status.

Hell. "Gods" for the right kind of character.

Beyond capsuleer, I don't think there are any words that can be universally applied to players.
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lallara zhuul

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Re: Terms in EVE Lore I wish I could change...
« Reply #28 on: 27 Mar 2012, 03:18 »

There is nothing guided about the genetic flaw that creates capsuleers.

It's just regular evolution.

The fact that the flaw is actually something that is viable in New Eden at this time and age is just a very, very big coincidence.

I see the term baseliner as just another mean by the empires to control the capsuleer population by giving them the false sense of elitism.

The fact that the capsuleers are so rare, the usage of the term is so limited in any kind of media, outside of the media that is specifically targeted to the capsuleers, that in the scope of things it has no meaning to others than those that choose to use it.

If you would meet a regular person and call them a baseliner, in all likelihood they would have no idea what you are talking about.

Try it, talk to a person on the street about anything EVE and they will just smile and nod, thinking you're a nutter.

We've all done that faus pax in a social situation once or twice :D
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Shae Tiann

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Re: Terms in EVE Lore I wish I could change...
« Reply #29 on: 27 Mar 2012, 11:24 »

Actually pick the word apart. "Base-liner."

"Base" refers to the bottom of a structure; a support, if you will. It could also refer to our more animalistic nature, and forgive me for saying so, but in that respect podders are no better than unadulterated humans, if not worse: a bunch of futureshocked monkeys with the power to destroy planets.

A "baseline" is a measurement standard for quality. Used in reference to a normal human by a capsuleer, it's a misnomer and an expression of extreme hubris. Which I suppose wouldn't be too out of place, all things considered: podders aren't known for their humility, after all.

But then you add the "-er" onto the end, and it sounds like gibberish. It sounds like a drug habit. "Yeah, dude, I'm just gonna baseline this crash." It suggests something one does willingly; and as we all know, the ability to become a capsuleer is not a choice but something an EVE citizen is born into.

As a capsuleer, the general citizenry refer to you as a "podder": you control a ship through a pod with tubes up your orifices willingly. Soldiers and people who never leave planets are commonly referred to as "ground-pounders". Non-capsuleers who live in space are referred to as "spacers" throughout science fiction; if they choose to live on a station, they could be referred to additionally as "platformers".

There are a million better terms than "baseliners" for humans who haven't fucked up their genome to live as clones. If anything, "baseliner" ought to be a derogatory term and not used casually in PF except where a capsuleer's personal viewpoint is being expressed.
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