Listen. Like every consumer culture, gaming culture is heavily influenced by marketing. What that means … what I mean by that … is that many of the views, values, ideas, etc. held by gaming culture are actually the result of marketers repeating the same thing over and over again.
The first game to go into development in the Post-World of Warcraft era was “AGE OF CONAN.” In order to sell itself to gamers, the developers of “Age of Conan” began advertising that their game would ‘Fix’ everything that was wrong with World of Warcraft. and the problem with World of Warcraft according to this game studio was its STORY. Its lack of story and the fact that every character and player was just the same. “Age of Conan” promised “story driven content” and “unique character stories.” This “marketing” became so ingrained in player’s minds that it was picked up by other developers and World of Warcraft began responding to it.
Again, if you reread the OP of this thread Why does High-Sec Exist? and you try to read it with some understanding, what you will see is actual evidence that when EVE Online was released it marketed itself in the very manner that it will eventually come to criticize. Because that’s how powerful the snowball set in motion by “Age of Conan” has become. When EVE Online was released it told potential players that they would save all of humanity throughout the entire universe! And without the blink of an eye, or any scruples, CCP Falcon tells you that EVE Online has never done that at all!
Please don’t lose sight of the context. We are NOT talking about “tab targeting”, we are talking about your statements about “everybody is doing the same thing” and “everybody is supposed to be a unique hero.”
Is it “factually true”???
It is an Interpretation. It is the interpretation of Marketers trying to get you to be dissatisfied with one product enough to try their product. And it is powerful because to people with limited education it appears to be “true.” But if we were to speak philosophically, it is the very thing that more than 2000 years of philosophy has striven to teach you NOT to do!
A Painting is a sufficient example to disprove its “Truth.”
You cannot enter a painting. The medium has limitations. A mature, rational, modern adult would recognize and respect those limitations. Therefore, this particular criticism can NOT be derived from YOUR experience (do we all understand what I mean by the word “your”?)
You are being taught to hate World of Warcraft.
You are being taught to hate World of Warcraft by unscrupulous marketers who want you to try their much inferior product.
(Rather than launch into a litany of all the failed systems of EVE Online, I simply say …)
EVE Online is a collection of half-developed, failed systems.