Once again Destiny wants to take things in the direction of “people are weak, PvPers are strong”. You can see the element of “PvP makes me better than you” all through the forums from Gix, Aiko, Destiny, Solstice and many of the other PvP cheerleaders. It seems the whole reason they’re emotionally invested in EVE is specifically because it gives them a hook to hang their “I’m better than you” needs on.
Here’s some actual facts to counter the obvious foolishness of the above quotes: by far the largest part of the gaming market is composed of action/adventure, shooter, MOBA type games. By far the largest portion of the movie market is made of action/thriller/suspense/horror type movies. People go out of their way to experience exactly those kinds of vicarious adrenaline bursts.
But one thing that’s wired harder into people, biologically, evolutionarily, right down into your genes and emotional hindbrain, is to avoid risk and increase your ‘value’. Whether it’s your physical resources, or respect among your peer group, or your feeling of self-worth, people are inherently wired to increase their value across a broad spectrum of metrics and not to decrease it.
That’s why production outweighs destruction in EVE. That’s why people do the math and choose not to PvP. It’s because, unless you feel a need to prove your self-worth by ganking/ambushing/ trapping another person, EVE PvP isn’t a ‘growth’ activity. (Barring some gank-for-profit situations)
People in general aren’t wired to be dog-eat-dog bandits. They’re wired to be social producers and climbers. EVE has a number of design issues that directly fly against most peoples natural inclinations, and all the exhortations of “players just need to play differently for different reasons” won’t fix that.
It’s CCPs’ main problem: that they keep flailing about trying to change the game mechanics to force people to play according to CCP’s plan. It would be wiser to adapt the game mechanics to benefit from the motivations that are already natural to the players.