Jester’s Trek: My Face When…

The other “reaction of the week” I’d like to address is the Worlds Within a World monument to be erected in Iceland in honor of EVE Online players in April.

I myself wrote a thing (assisted by several other members of CSM8) in praise of the monument and what I felt it meant to CCP and EVE Online players. This is something that we had been asked to do at the Winter Summit and I think I speak for the entire CSM when I say we were happy that CCP was keeping this important promise made to players at Fanfest 2013 and pleased to be asked to participate. We were briefed on the unveiling plan and were again pleased by it. It featured a little bit of anticipation on the Community site and a few other fun promises that will become public in due course.

The unveiling date was only ten days away so I settled in to watch the reaction from players.

You know, there are times when EVE players or the CSM feel like they have to — no, we are required to — face-palm over the actions of CCP. But there are also times when CCP has the right to face-palm right back. This is one of those times.

The thread on the EVE-O forums is 18 pages as I write this, but just on the front two pages…

• Awesome proof of how shallow CCP has become.
• I think this boring and featureless statue symbolize EVE expansions.
• Underwhelming. Please do not use timers for this kind of stuff, would have thought it was cooler if I wasn’t disappointed.
• I can’t really imagine anyone caring.
• what a giant waste of money typical ccp wasting money on things not related to eve in any way even when the game is broken
• Giant waste of money
• Did you HONESTLY think we would be so excited about this complete crap that you had to put a ******* countdown up for a week?
• Meanwhile we are still waiting for CCP to produce real content.
• It’s two people banging their heads against a wall. It’s perfect!
• A monument.. or tombstone?

The vast overwhelming response from those players on the forums and on my blog here was overwhelmingly negative both about the monument itself and about the unveiling. Negative about the cost. Negative about the perception. Negative about just about everything.

Some of us really are bitter, aren’t we? Shame on you. Seriously. Shame on you.

Let’s address the two basest, meanest, crudest, most cynical criticisms first. And I can destroy both of them in just a few words:

• If this monument causes only a few hundred old unsubbed players to spend a PLEX… and they see all of the changes that have made EVE a better game over the last few years, and they resub, stick around, and start playing again, the money spent on the monument will have been worth it.
• If this monument causes only a single EVE developer to look out over the Reykjavik harbor and see the permanent representation of the stories, aspirations, and fun EVE stands for, and that moment of good feeling inspires him to design and develop a better game for the rest of a single day, the money spent on the monument will have been worth it!

And for you EVE players out there whose thinking is that low or that petty, those two thoughts alone really ought to be enough to make you understand what this monument really means. That really ought to be enough.

But myself, I aim a bit higher than that.

Do the people who feel this way about the monument really have no higher, no more noble aspirations than a few bucks? Are they really missing the real importance of this decade-old social experiment? Do they really dismiss so easily this virtual construct that really is — when you get down to it — unique on this planet? Is all of that really not worth taking five minutes and a few bucks to celebrate… even if for a few minutes?

Do you really have that low of an opinion of what we’re all doing in New Eden?

This game brought all of us together and the years that I have spent playing it have brought me friendships and relationships that I’m going to treasure for the rest of my life. To me, that alone is worth celebrating and a permanent monument is a wonderful, representative way to do that. That CCP has chosen to honor all of us and what we’ve brought to their game with this permanent monument that anyone can see and learn about us from should be a source of pride and accomplishment for all of us. I said it in the thing I wrote: this monument isn’t about CCP. It’s about the people and the relationships and the stories that make up this universe that we’ve built together. That’s worthy of recognition. It’s getting that.

And if I’m in the minority of players — even the vast minority — for thinking that, then I’m happy to be there and I’m not bitter at all.

– Ripard Teg

If you would like to read more we invite you to visit his blog here.