Heads up: This post is going to seem a little out of context unless you read this post by Emergent Patroller. Even then, this response is pretty squarely directed at her but posted here as it was going to be an overly large comment.
EP,
I find it sadly ironic that I only learned you were to be a member of our proposed alliance by reading your post today. I have a tremendous respect for your writing and always look forward to seeing a new post of yours pop up on my radar. Had things gone as planned and our two entities merged, I might never have uncovered that you were flying amongst us. Now I know you're not, and that makes me sad.
From the tone of your post it seems you have a decent read on the situation, though with a few discrepancies. I'd rather not publicly air the laundry, but I can comment on a few things and would like to do so here.
First and foremost, there is a great deal of sadness on the part of the null-sec wing having to part ways with the worm-holers. I certainly can't speak for everyone, but personally I bought into the vision of "unifying" different aspects of New Eden under one roof. It is a beautiful dream and one I have no doubt we will continue laboring to achieve, albeit through different avenues than originally intended. It is with a heavy heart that those of us pursuing our goals in 0.0 move forward alone, but based on the events preceding the schism and the response to those events on BOTH sides of the alliance, moving forward alone has become our only viable option. I can also assure you that NO-ONE is taking this loss harder than the man who worked so hard and gave so much of himself in service of the alliance he created.
I have never lived in wormholes, but I do love vacationing there. The rich content and group-centric game-play wormholes demand appeal to both my love for EVE and my love of the people who play it. And I would absolutely have loved to have spent time with all of you, either in space or on comms or both. I was looking forward to excursions into the deep as well as hosting those of you who would liked to have gotten a taste of sov 0.0.
While I agree that wormholes and nullsec cater to different styles of play, the demands placed upon individual pilots and the organization as a whole don't diverge by as large a degree as you might think. Our challenges are different (I certainly don't envy you your POS management headaches), but the means we rely on to meet these challenges are the same. Both wormholes and 0.0 require a dedicated group of individuals working together to advance the corporate agenda. Both arenas require its devotees to be willing to fight to the end for what they believe to be "their" space. And they are both extremely lucrative and extremely dangerous. And because of these similarities, I still believe the original vision of "two arms, one body" can and will be achieved.
Also, ironically, all of things you are relieved not to have to take part in, sov. politics, CTAs, blobs etc. are aspects of the game the wormholers would not have been expected to take part in. The wormhole branch and the null-sec branch were intended to remain firmly entrenched in their respective corners, the twain never intended to meet. Unless, of course, they chose to.
The emotional response will vary from pilot to pilot. Some of us began our careers with the alliance in wormholes. Others have been recruited with a focus strictly on the nullsec side of things, myself included. Having never met any of you, you'll forgive me if the "break-up" metaphor is a little lost on me. But I know that is not the case for all of us in 0.0. I don't have any firm evidence, but I do believe there are a few pilots from the nullsec branch that will be remaining with the wormholers and vice versa. We've even seen a few members depart from the alliance to remain with our former alliance-mates in Branch.
These comings and goings can and will happen in such a vast universe. From the perspective of this nullsec pilot, while we mourn the loss of company our focus does not waver. Our goals do not change. We are here to achieve sovereignty. And we are doing exactly that.
I can't speak for the alliance, but personally I bear no grudges nor do I wish you ill-fortune on your path forward. To the contrary, I hope you and your mates experience unqualified success now and in the future. To me, all this really means is that if I find you in our space or in yours, my guns will be hot. And regardless of the outcome of that encounter, you'll have a 'gf' in local from me, and an oh-seven as I speed your clone on its way home or the other way around.
Therein lies the beauty of EVE. In any aspect of the game, either in service of our allegiances or in spite of them we're going to play and have fun together. And THAT is really what the vision was all about.
o7, Mate.
Firstly
First of all, let me thank you for the nice compliments. I thought you were reading/commenting my stuff because we were in the same alliance :)
ReplyDeleteI fully understand that the whole backstory is not really evident for someone who has joined the nullsec branch of the alliance from the get-go.
As far as the idea is concerned that the wormhole corps can remain independent, doing their own thing, that might have looked nice on paper, but the reality of it looked a lot different. Due to the massively powerful and very stricty organized nature of the major nullsec alliances and coalitions, their influence was felt even in our isolated solar systems.
We have even suffered from fallout that was not directly caused by any nullsec organization, but indirectly had to do with it.
That is the problem I have with this. It has been said - correctly - that one has to ally with one of the major powers out there, otherwise you get nowhere. That requires making compromises which I - very much in the spirit of my opening quote of song lyrics - am not willing to make, and with me many others of our crews. Some of us actually came from nullsec and wanted to get away from it. Others - like me - are personalities who would not want to submit to the level of regulation nullsec alliances have.
As for the rest, I wish you luck and hope that you wont need too much of it.
... and indeed, in wormhole space everyone is orange who isn't in my fleet, and if we find an exit to your favorite ratting system, you better have a cyno ship that can drop a whole fleet on us if we see you in local ;)
All the best
At least there is no dispute that the important thing is we should be having fun out there. Regardless of whether we are shooting with, or at, each other it's the fun we log into New Eden for.
ReplyDeleteThis weekend was not fun, but that's past us. Let the fun commence :-)
And genuinely, good luck in nullsec guys.