I genuinely enjoy reading interview articles with notable people involved in Eve Online. I have interviewed a number of people myself from Elo Knight, Carneros, Da Winci, Dran and several others. I look at these interviews as rare opportunities to give insight to the readers regarding what some of the most influential people are thinking and doing. When others interview people of note, I do not much care who the writer is or what the platform is. I can even enjoy things written at INN which I admit to reading. So when I saw the Imperium’s silver tongued Arrendis getting a chance to interview TEST’s own Progodlegend (PGL) I trembled with excitement. Arrendis, talented as he is would easily be able to decipher the abstruse and render all curiosities clear and plain for any to see.
Arrendis truly gifted his readers with a deeply inquisitive and thought provoking interview. He seduced the stern PGL with melodic inquiries both rendering him free of his inhibitions and informing the reader. Like a fine red wine, one did not even realize when they’d become intoxicated or where the night had gone. By the end, all who had participated could feel themselves get closer to their own sense of purpose both as an individual and as part of the whole of humanity.
Except almost none of that actually happened. You can read the link above yourself and make your own judgement.
Arrendis’s article had about much tact and taste as a porno set during a fire at a children’s leukemia hospital. Instead of asking any actually interesting questions, Arrendis (or Bill McDonough on INN) spent the opportunity trying to use the death of an Eve player to bait PGL into some kind of confrontation. Arrendis didn’t just ask once, but instead filled the entire interview asking why PGL didn’t attend the vigil, why weren’t stratops cancelled for the day, and if PGL had been aware of the vigils if he would have done something different about it. Nothing interesting is discussed regarding strategy or particular battles or even alternative hypotheticals. It’s just a classless attempt to make PGL look bad using the death of a player. It almost competes with the old Goonswarm Diplomat, Sion Kumitomo and his rant against Endie using Vile Rat’s supposedly bad relationship with him as a cudgel. Endie had been handling Goonswarm’s intelligence agency up until WWB1 when he and others defected from the Imperium. Much like Arrendis today, Sion used tasteless tactics to lash out.
I’m left asking who the editor reading this was and why they thought “yeah…this is totally fine and tasteful and players need to read this.” It signals to me a kind of desperation at INN/Goonswarm propaganda department. There’s not much left to talk about I suppose. How much more can you hurf and blurf about “ackshwalee we’re not exterminated in our single constellation thus despite losing 95 percent of our holdings we’re still winning.” However reading the comments made by the usual Imperium Kool-Aid chuggers reminds me just how culty and group-thinky major coalitions, particularly this one can get.
Right off the bat we have Moonin Amatin with “Piggles was probably busy theory-crafting blarpies. Such trivial matters as the general welfare of line members is something he has expressed disdain for in the past.” Thankfully PGL’s members have the sincere and caring Moomin to concern himself with their general wellbeing instead.
Guilford Australis stated “I agree. The cyno vigils I’ve done over the years have lasted half a day or a whole day, with a gentleman’s agreement that the day would be set aside from the usual slapfights and stratops. It was unseemly, at the very least, for PGL to move ahead with stratops nearly immediately after a 30 minute vigil ended without expressing any sympathy for the death of his own alliance member. Several people in the chats repeatedly express their dismay at the loss, and PGL just responds with more irritated questions about how long the cyno memorial will last. Breach of protocol? Not exactly, I guess. Typical douchy PGL? 100%.” Clearly Guilford is concerned with the passing of the player so much that he’s posting smack talk about a video game in a an article using someone’s death as a tool to score brownie points.
I enjoy Eve wars where there is real rivalry and even an element of animosity. Nobody wants to see all of Eve locking arms in friendship and peace. But maybe, just maybe we don’t make use of dead people in such a manner. This clearly crossed the line into next level cuntery and honestly the kind of stuff that Imperium leadership has engaged in which has motivated the rest of the player base to unite against them in the past.
