At the time which I'm writing this article, the flight Im currently on has just started its journey to Vilhelmina a town in the north of Sweden. Flying at a marchheigh of 19000 feet.
Far closer to any planet than my alter-ego Ander, a space pirate, adventurer and opportutionist. A character within a massive multiplayer online roleplaying game (MMORPG) called EVE-Online (EVE) set in a galaxy far away in a distant future.
Spaceflight is the basis for commerce and the hyper- economy.
What makes EVE unique is the lack of safe boundaries found in many other MMORPG's harsh universe where people pry on eachother.
There are no fixed safe-guards from being scammed or possibly even murdered in this vast galaxy. People spend their lives in the different systems in EVE, connected by jumpgates to make it possible for travel to occur over vast distances.There is an interstellar security and police department by the name "Concord" who govern all highsecurity systems and entrances. The numbers of the concord ships might be many, but it is still an impossible task to safeguard every system in this huge galaxy. This makes it possible for people who do not want to gather resources through mining, or gather wealth by trading on the market to take other paths to fame and glory.
Piracy is one of those paths. Experienced pilots who spend time tracking down their pray, not very different from how predators in nature hunt. Some are alone, loaded with firepower to cripple their enemy while others go in bigger fleets.
The reasons for turning to piracy may be the money or the fame. Some people dont bother about either of fame or money, but do it for the excitement. In some cases as myself, it's revenge.
I didn't always use to be a pirate, I was one of those miners happily mining an asteroid in deep space. Until one day when our mining corporation was targeted by mercenaries extorting us. The corporation disbanded and I was left to find other means of profit. A pirate gang brought me in and taught me the ropes. Very soon, my hands were stained with blood from my victims. Would I make a psychological evaluation of my character, I'd have to say he's probably suffering from trauma of being a victim himself.
However, I've been thinking alot about what piracy really is. Are we the mindless coldhearted bastards which people think we are? Did we all fail miserably in school and play EVE to make up for our lack of social skills.
A few of us might be the stereotypical geek sitting in the basement of his or her parents house. But many of us are hardworking citizens of the society with jobs, girlfriends or maybe even wife and kids.
Myself, I'm a student at the Swedish Royal academy of science, taking a masters degree in science. I'm also one of the authors and the founder of EVE-PIRATE.COM.
In the lights of my previous publishes articles, many opposers to piracy voice their concerns. Some points I do not disagree with, but other points which are blatant lies I feel compelled to correct.
Such lies are that piracy is easy and there's no work involved with piracy. Other lies such as that all pirates are liars and cheat.
Pirates such as myself like to refeer to these people lying as "carebears". Carebears are people who do not take on to the ways of piracy and battle and look down on those who do. Most of them live their lives in peace mining and trading. Others are filthy rich who make their profits fighting computer controlled characters. Others are even part of gigantic alliances controlling vast territories of space.
There has always been a kind of verbal struggle between the carebears and pirates.
The profession I have taken does take advantage of others. But it takes a lot of work, it takes time to find your pray. Several hours may pass sometimes without a single ship to attack. There is no denying that some pirates lie, but most I have come to know are among the most honest people I have met. Some who I could even entrust my own assets to. They know me, and I know them. Pirating in my eyes, is no worse than mercenary corporations fighting legal wars. Or merchants selling their overpriced wares. It's a mean of business and opportunity. Nothing else.
So to those who claim that pirates are simply scum. Sure, we may be scumbags but we’re more honest than the average carebear.
6 Comments
who are you trying to fool ander? us or yourself? I find it amusing that you open this post by sharing some of your real life with us. Now are we supposed to think better of your social skills because you are studying to become a scientist? Why is it more or less every griefer i meet are studying either maths or science or something equally boring and barren of social interaction.
meh, you are a geek and you probably shake and stutter when confronted by women, you are pathetic.
Hehe. If you sent this comment ingame I'd call it fanmail.
However, I do see your point. Yes, I am a geek (and proud to be one) but I have a beautiful girlfriend whom I only shake and stutter when.. well let the rest be unsaid ;).
The point I tried to make with my post is that the piracy profession is an important part of gameplay. It doesnt make us any less bad people in real life to be playing the "evil" part ingame.
EVE is a game which I highly enjoy, and I believe many of the people who dont conduct piracy do aswell. Im not a griefer, least I dont consider myself to be one. I ransom when the chance is available, but sometimes we accidently kill our pray (miscommunication or overestimating our prays defences etc).
as a proud member of the same corp as ander and one of our more "active" members ;) I'd like to point out that ander is in fact right. in fact I spend more time in the gym, in bars or in bed ;) than I do on eve, yet Im still one of the most prolific killers in the region. ah screw it, Im not justifying myself. I kill people, It amuses me and I love it when y'all open up with the smack talk afterwards so feel free.
I am interested in this pirate lifestyle.
I agree they are an essential part of the game, and certainly don't see them as griefers. Indeed, I have tried to hunt people a few times myself, and am amazed how much fun it is compared to mission grinding.
I wonder how you pick targets Ander? My thing is, I don't want to force new players out of the game, and also recognise they are of little value, but how do you spot a noob alt hauling for his main for instance, or do you shoot first then ask questions?
Anyway, thanks for listening. Feel free to send any advice my way!
Drunken Claptrap.
In responce to the whole "pirates in-game being people too thing..."
That's why I picked Eve because the game lets you have a real life too ie: no grinding, no linear plot, offline skill training...
I'm a 20 year old Marine Reservist. My civilian job at Bennigans, consists of waiting, cooking, coordinating events, and training new employees. I'm currently enrolled in a community college because I'm married and have a newborn to support. Otherwise I'd be at Stetson University by now. I still drive to my parents house to do their yardwork so they don't have to go outside and get overheated in the Floirda sun. I pick up my nephew on Sundays so he can come eat pizza and play football. So you see I live a clean cutt, normal life.
Why am I a pirate in eve? Because when I play eve, I'm taking a two or three hour vacation from my American Posterboy life...
Nah, i don't buy it. It's post-facto rationalisation. Most of your arguments, formally, are classical logical fallacies: for instance, the fact that you are a student at your university is irrelevant to whether you simply gain pleasure from making the lives of others miserable.
PKers (of which pirates are a prime example, much like gankers in pre-Trammel UO) are well studied and their motivations pretty well understood (read Bartle, Mulligan, the Parc studies group's work or a variety of other sources). They pick on those weaker than themselves (as opposed to PvPers who enjoy a fair challenge, and pick on those roughly equal to themselves).
PKers invariably use the same, tired arguments to justify themselves (everything you say has been said a hundred times at F13 by sinij or AW, who are laughed at constantly. It is dreary.
Why not just be honest? Why not say "I am a science geek who likes the lack of consequences in online bullying. If I ever tried this crap in real life I would get a sudden and painful lesson in the non-zero-consequence PvP"?
I would respect such honesty...