I don’t think there’s anything wrong with ganking in Highsec. It’s allowed by the rules. I don’t think there is anything wrong with the permit / extortion racket either, as that’s allowed. Going above and beyond these activities to then attempt to induce anger on the part of the person behind the computer for the purpose of making fun of them on the blog, though? Playing people’s emotions to make them quit the game? Are these things good sportsmanship, metagaming and okay behavior?
I’ll introduce myself briefly. I’m a former CODE. CEO, recruiter and ganker. I was in the New Order for more than 2 years and the CODE. alliance for 6 months or so and recently renounced both. My wake-up call that got me out of the roleplay was admittedly when an alliancemate accepted CEO from a CODE. corp I had founded and given to someone else to run, booting everyone and taking it out of the alliance. I retook the corp with shares and have now disbanded it. So … perhaps I’m salty, disgusted … whatever. But, this all really has got me thinking back on my reasons for doing what I used to do.
I hadn’t been playing Eve lately and had mostly stopped ganking when I originally quit CODE. more than a month ago. For a good two years on and off, though, I was a ganker and have been featured in many minerbumping blog stories. I have a lot of critics in CODE. now, but none can deny that I was, at one time, accomplished in getting salt from people, intimidating carebears and the like.
Thing is, though all us agents always said there is a huge difference between what we do in-game and IRL , it just so happens that I am someone who also has clinical issues with narcissism and some cruel and abusive tendencies IRL. These past two years, I was in a bad position in life - depressed and unemployed. There are normal suicide ganks in Highsec after which it’s understood that it’s just a game and you let it go, but that’s not what we did in the New Order. We’d then proceed to mail the victim and use any and all methods to emotionally manipulate them into giving us material to make fun of them for.
It’s a bit cruel, and when I did these things, it really did fuel my own narcissistic needs and give me a sense of importance I lacked in life. What appealed even more to the narcissist in me was that suicide ganking is actually very risk free. The ships used are cheap and considered ammo, so failing a gank generates very little int he way of measurable loss the way losing more traditional pvp fights does on zkill, etc. Once you learn the basic mechanics of flying around as a -10 and matching up your dps to the target’s EHP, ganking is actually pretty easy and hard to fail at.
Anyway, now that I’ve recently left the indoctrinated mindset of the Code, it really does occur to me that I’ve likely done much messed up stuff to other humans just to feed off them. Not the shooting or the ganking, but there are legitimately people I’ve made quit the game. I can’t really say if others in CODE. are like me (even though I have made claims with some drunken, salty alliance mails recently), but I can honestly say that this was part of what fueled my zest for the New Order.
If what I did was wrong, well, all I can do is apologize for my cruelty and bullying and to at least be honest about how I was very wrong for a long time. In my real life I’ve made many embarassing, public stands against bullying and abuse, and it’s likely I’ve just refused to recognize the same behavior in myself here in New Eden. All I can do is be honest and try to be a better person.
EDIT DEC 20 2019 : For anyone that’s wondering, I’m actually doing much better in the months since this post. I do apologize for putting all my business out there to such extent for those that didn’t want to know all that about me. I get it. Still, I’m leaving it untouched including the careless spelling / typing errors, because much to my surprise, I did and have continued to receive mails here from people who agreed with my message, found it helpful or understood that maybe it was helpful for me to write. Maybe it was.