I recently read through the Announcement From Gorila thread on the Eve forums and would like to make a post of my own in response. I will add this to the Eve forums if I can, though currently the Eve forums are not accepting new posts, so I am initially posting it here in my blog. My response follows:
Being away for the holidays, I did not get a chance to comment on the recent Announcement From Gorila thread before it was locked. I am therefore making this post, as I feel my viewpoint is important.
I started playing Eve back in early May of 2014, about 8 months ago. To date, I have never been ganked in high security space. That's not what got me into the Anti-gank (AG) community. I learned of ganking and the Anti-ganking channel via someone mentioning buying permits in the rookie help channel. Since that time, I have become very much on the side of the AG community, primarily in opposition to CODE and their backers. Not just because I like to play the good guy -- which I do -- but more so because of what I have seen and heard from both sides over the last 8 months.
Each side has vocal members claiming the other side is "toxic". But what I have personally witnessed over my last 8 months is a lot of arguably toxic activity coming from the CODE side and very little if any coming from the AG side.
I don't have anything against role playing, but I expect players to remain civil and respectful towards others. If tempers flair over "bad guy" activity, I think it is important that the "bad guy" be able to step out of character and attempt to explain and defuse the situation. In my 8 months, I have never seen the "bad guys" step out of character, except in forum posts where the "bad guys" use it as a tool to attempt to paint the AG community in a bad light. When this happens, a person role playing a bad guy becomes indistinguishable from someone who is truly trying to hurt people, albeit through a game. To borrow a quote from a movie, "Deep down you may still be that same great kid you used to be. But it's not who you are underneath, it's what you do that defines you."
Furthermore, this role playing, if that is truly what it is, should not extend outside the context of the game. But an argument can be made that it does. I would argue that the take over of the Anti-ganking channel by CODE in late December went beyond role play into attacking the mechanics of the game that allow players to communicate. That is perhaps debatable, but it's not the only example. There are the blogs. CODE players troll me personally about my Eve blog, which stretches and arguably surpasses what qualifies as role play. The fact that "tear collecting" is a phrase gankers use is also evidence that their intent goes beyond role play into attempts to emotionally attack real people. When the Anti-ganking channel was taken over, before I was muted I suggested that perhaps they had stolen Gorila's account, and my suspicion was met with laughter by members of CODE. Given the severity of what I was suggesting, it would have been a good time for a good person within CODE to step out of character to set the matter straight. That didn't happen. Then there was the whole bonus room fiasco. None of these things by themselves prove anything, but all of these things together start to build a convincing case that it is CODE and their ilk that are the real "toxic" community. It is for this reason that I hold such a dim view of CODE, and the reason I am rather harsh towards Gorila for joining up with CODE and allowing them to vandalize the Anti-ganking channel, even if it was only for a short period of time.
Maybe I've got it all wrong. But CODE has spent the last 8 months convincing me I'm not. It takes time to build trust. Right now, I trust that members of CODE are generally disrespectful towards other players and are a detriment to the Eve community. If that is not really true, it will take at least as long to undo that damage to my perception of them. I know there are likely those within CODE that believe they are good people and that some of the AG community is unjustly biased against them. But perhaps this viewpoint has been taken to the extreme to where general respect has been lost, and it has led them into becoming the very thing they claim not to be.
Believe what you will. I believe that honor trumps all. I may not agree with some of the folks in the AG community on certain issues, but it looks to me that most of the time their hearts are in the right place, even when I think they are wrong. For that, they have honor. It saddens me that I can't say the same for CODE.
I know some CODE members have reported receiving real life threats from members of the AG community. I am not personally aware of any such threats. But I would like to emphasize that I do not condone such activity. Real life threats are never appropriate. If someone feels they have been wronged in a serious way, they need to maintain proper discipline, keep a cool head, mind their tongue, and report it. But always remain respectful.
Well written and very true. Good for you in having the courage to speak out.
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