DIsclaimer: This is an opinion piece. It is a biased perspective from my views and my experiences in Eve. Obviously the way I see things will be different than the readers of this article. I am also a relatively unknown player. I am not a famous person, and the average player would not have a clue who I am. This article expresses my views specifically, not those of EN24.
I have been around Eve for roughly a decade. In that period of time I have seen and done many different activities. I have lived in a wormhole, low sec, high sec, and null sec. I have lead corporations and an alliance. In that time, I have flown with many different groups in Eve. Each group had their own narrative, their own goals, and their own unique culture.
There’s no place like home. After my last adventure in Eve ended in a ball of fire (Diplomatic Immunity. Alliance), I was looking for something new. I put up forum posts describing what I wanted, turned to both WarptoZero and Reddit trying to find the perfect match. It didn’t exist. There was no perfect alliance. Every alliance is the terrible evil bad guy to someone else. Instead I opted to look for a good corporation, and not care which alliance or entity they belonged to.
Since my choice, I have taken a crazy amount of flak from disgruntled people who decided I “sold out” since I joined a bigger entity. But everyone in Eve is the bad guy. Running my own alliance put me in contact with various groups around Eve. Each of them has ruined Eve according to a different group. Eve has some of the most biased player groups in any gaming community ever.
So when I was looking for a new home, I was trying to figure out where to go. I was looking through the major powers in Eve. Every group has their fan clubs, and their haters. Pandemic Legion, Imperium, ProviBlock, Black Legion, Red Menace, StainWagon, ESC, GemiCo, and the countless other entities out there. Every group is the world’s worst evil group in the game. Russians are evil renters, Goons are ruining Eve, Pandemic Legion is cancer that ruins fights, and Proviblock is crazy drama.
It does not matter which group a player chooses to fly with. There will be a large selection of players who will hate a person simply because of it. This hatred rarely stems from actual fact though. I have flown with N3 when they existed, I saw their culture and how they worked. I flew in Black Legion for a little while and Red Menace coalition. Each group is drastically different and has different ways of doing things.
I was very “Grrr Goons” when I first started Eve because at the time, the Eve forums were heavily used. A constant flow of childish spam and immaturity drove me nuts so I went towards the Pro-Bob elitist attitude back then. As Eve grew, and I grew, cultures slightly shifted. Goons grew up, and now have one of the arguably largest and most powerful coalitions in the game. They are quite hated by the rest of Eve for “ruining” the game. There are some pretty die-hard “Goons must die” people in Eve. I was actually one of them. I still agree with many of the Grr Goons sentiments.
However, I am now in an alliance in The Imperium. I spent forever hating them , and am now seeing how they work from the inside. I joined because of the corporation, not the alliance. I am surprisingly having fun though on the evil side of the house. The organization and way they handle boredom is actually halfway decent.
Each group does what is necessary to survive and maintain what they have taken. This was proven time and again. Imperium going out of their way to maintain their space and control. Triumvirate bent down and kissed the ring to hold onto what they took. Solar Fleet and xXDeathXx ended their war that had spanned for years. Human nature is to hold tight to what you have and take more.
Every group is the bane of someone else’s existence in Eve. From the horrible carebears of high sec, to the evil PvPers of null sec, someone will hate whatever group you are associated with. Eve is about conflict and imposing your will on someone else. No matter who you are in Eve, someone hates you. It helps keep Eve unique.
At the end of the day, Eve is a game. As a player driven sandbox, narrative is used to hold attention. The unique dynamic of having player driven groups hating each other brings about a different environment than most other games. There are always grudge matches, but not as “to the pain” as it is in Eve. I encourage people who hate a specific group, join them. You will do one of two things. Enjoy it, or work to take them down from the inside. Keep the narrative alive and going, it’s what generates content.
Maybe one day that perfect fit will come along that has every qualification I want in an alliance. I tried making it myself, and learned I am not great at being a hands off leader. I also fell victim to the trappings of needing friends to make stuff happen and joining a bigger group instead of staying independent which I originally wanted. Eve is a fun past time. It can be frustrating, aggravating, and anger inducing at times. It can cause the adrenaline to kick in, or those salty tears people claim to love the taste of. Enjoy it. Fuel the fires, keep content burning, and spread the chaos.
