But also, if PvPing is indeed a profession, and I am indeed able to play the bad guy and be a pirate, then there also needs to be incentives for industrialists to move and/or operate in this space. That’s the part people fail to connect. You can’t just take PvP from High Sec and caps from Low Sec and everyone’s happy. You have to have REAL incentives for industrialists and mission runners to risk something.
It’s not like even I don’t enjoy a GOOD fight. I was all over low-sec back when the climate was more enjoyable for solo pilots and small gangs. Hell, even back when the mission baiting community was robust I can remember winning a 10 v ~30 fleet fight, in High-Sec, that started over having an E-Uni lvl 4 mission runner pointed, and I KNOW everyone had fun because local was LIT afterwards.
But like most PvPers I know, I do not want to fly only cheap ships and as such I have to make my money somewhere. I want to be a REAL pirate and pay for my ships with piracy. I know I will never log in another day when the time comes where I have to do what I would consider HORRIBLY boring PvE content (seriously, have you played POE?) in order to afford to do the only thing that interests me in this game. PvP and piracy.
But you know, I could sink real life money into this game but isn’t that the same pot-hole we keep stepping in? See, when you remove engaging ways for PvPers to make money, the only PvPers that remain are the whales that can sink enough cash into the assets required for the really fun stuff. When they can’t have fun for their isk they’ll either buy it, or leave.
Well just remove the criminal system all together then right? We can all live in a PvE wonderland. Null-sec can rat in their big blue doughnut and remove all PvP from High-Sec, everyone’s happy. You remove caps in Low-Sec but Null-Sec is still filthy rich so the climate in Low-Sec is still horrible. Even if you improve the climate in Low-sec and shake up null do you expect only PvPers to pay for their game time? How much more expensive does plex get when High-Sec players (the largest population) are no longer taking losses? Also, how long will PvPers realistically play if they have to pay for subs AND ships with real money? Not long I’ll tell you that, and what happens when they leave? Don’t the industrialists and PvEers want a player driven economy? You enjoy market PvP too right? It would kind of suck if this game was like WoW where currency becomes all but worthless because nobody loses anything. Oh yea, and don’t forget about those plex prices. How many people do we lose when paying for gametime with isk is reserved to only those that own the most valuable assets in Null-Sec? Do you see yet what I mean when I say “overall health of the game”?
High sec is the only place that piracy is accessible for a majority of the PvPers and I would bet the moves CCP would have to make for it to be otherwise would not be something that most High-Sec PvEers would appreciate. So where do we draw the line? Come April Suicide Ganking and structure bashing (if you can even call that PvP) are all that will be left of what used to be an emergent, player driven criminal system. Pvp is 1 step from being completely gone in High-Sec and we haven’t even started sorting out the climate in Low or Null much less considered how to balance the income once High-Sec PvEers are invulnerable.
Am I wrong when I say the suspect system is much more engaging than getting insta-blapped by 50 catalysts?