mikeazariah

“Let’s say this is you. A small corp making a living downing hi-sec POS’s. In your travels you encounter this. A defenceless POS owned by a very famous Eve personality. You make a choice. You decide to be the bad-guy and go after that famous POS.”
If ever a small example of the butterfly effect video was brought to life this might be it.

Epimithius09 (hence forth called Epi) is the leader of the Concord Preservation and Recovery corp (.CPR.). Their corp documents proclaim them to be fighting an ecoguerrilla war against abandoned and offline POS’s that pollute lunar landscapes all across New Eden. For the most part, that is what they have been, a small alt corp eking out a hisec living bringing down the occasional player owned station.

Then there is Chribba. Veldspar ‘God’ who is famous for his honesty and reliability, not to mention his massive holdings such as a hisec mining Dread. (Yes Virginia, there IS a mining Dread). He does not shoot anything except rocks. He does not pvp. He is the host of many eve services on and offline including eve-search, eve offline, eve agents, and Chribbas third party service. He is known to all veteran Eve players, and his services are used by many every day of the year.

Epi sees Chribbas POS and decides it is too damn tempting. He (and his corp) war dec Chribba. In Epis words . . . “Why did we war dec Chribba? Because he had some POS’s that would be easy to kill and make us a nice profit. Also, because it would be fun. Did I know who Chribba was before I placed the war dec? Yes I did. Did this influence my decision? Yes it did. Normally I won’t war dec an alliance as it is too expensive to do. I made an exception here as it was Chribba.”

Chribba takes up the story from there. Asked how he reacted when he saw the wardec. “Pulse rose from 80 to 180, I’m not a pvp person so I was starting to wonder how long I’d have to hide in station I have been randomly decced before but nothing of the serious kind, small 1-member corps.” Chribba decided to post that this war looked serious in the Crime and Punishment thread of Eve forums. I asked if the result was what he had been hoping for. “tbh I didn’t know what I had hoped for, my general insight was more to just let them destroy the towers, wait for the war to end and resume previous life The C&P was more of a notice from my side since it felt like they was actually going to do it compared to the other random 1-man deccs but to my surprise people joined in big numbers and for that I am very thankful, and while still scary for me (even though sitting cloaked watching) it was good for for most based on what I heard.” Chribba in turn referred me to Jonny 101 ” I do suggest you talk to Jonny 101, he was one of the major organizers (on his own) and pretty much ran the show while I was sitting cloaked.” So from one source to the next, I moved on.

Johnny continues the story. “Chribba was attacked, I organised the defence in a shiny ship from his pos, Exalted, Noir and Duty showed up bravely, joined by Repo to guared it in the TZ . Pirates and mercenaries band together in defence of Veldspar. Giving Chribba their services free of charge, the unprecedented event that the cnp pirate community banded together behind these mercs to aid Chribba. Special mention of timaios and Erichk Knaar as the heroes of the day. If anything, I’ve taken this further than Chribba wanted but I like my overkill and people were eager to defend him. Truly it was a cooperation between some of eve’s most respected mercenaries and the cnp community. The battle was short, we had about 50 people repping the pos. Several got shot and so went to change to combat ships, but Erichk Knaar got back first in his rokh. He began opening fire on the enemy, who all shot back at him, Noir’s own gang was remote repairing him and I, and the other FC’s ordered our people to remote shield transfer Erichk as well. This might seem like neutral repping but that is in fact wrong EVERY person boosting erich was flagged to the enemy who were in a pathetic fleet of about 5 very poorly fitted battleships. The fight was no great tactical victory, merely an example. What happens when you’re up against the combined forces of some of eve’s most respected mercenaries, the CnP community and Chribba’s good vibrations. Any one of the four corporations I mentioned above could have soloed this with ease but we want to show the eve community that we hold Chribba highly and time he spends combat fitting pos’s is time he isn’t using making us services.”

This was so impressive that even the offending POS attackers admired the effort. Nara Wolf: “I personally have no issues with Chribba or most of the parties involved. Those of you who banded together in the defense of Chribba without descending into pettiness and hate, bravo, seeing the community work together like that was awesome. The sight of all those Pospreys was awe inspiring, I hope you all had fun blowing us up. We knew what we were doing and don’t mind the wardecs or the smack-talk, just keep in mind it’s a game and enjoy yourselves, I know I will.”

Was this impressive? Hells yes. To see groups of mercs stand for something more than profit was inspiring in and of itself. But I started this with the quote from the Butterfly Effect. It does not stop with the POS defence, no no no. Now the forces that banded together under Chribbas banner have started to go after other corps and alliances. If an alt was in CPR that is reason enough for them to dec whatever corp or alliance the ‘main’ lives in. Jonny 101 has spent 5250 mill of his own cash and 250 mill of donated to wardec the Privateer alliance. Sys-k has dropped IMM since they held another character common to Epi. (Or so it is claimed by the FoC [Forces of Chribba].)

Has this ended? No, In Eve very few things end. The sand shifts and the tides change but there will always be the historical moment when the forces of Crime and Punishment stepped up to defend a pacifist. By Jonny’s measure “Bottom of the barrel “pvp” corp attacks Chribba. The elite of eve’s mercenary community and the worst pirates in the game band together to curbstomp them into the stone-age.”

I asked Epi if this was true. “No. We failed to take down two of the POS but we got one POS. Additionally business will continue there are more POS out there to be removed and they will be taken down. Business will continue as usual : )” When asked if he could go back in time, would he do it again he replied “Of course it was fun and we got a POS out of it : )” Epi had nothing but good things to say about Noir and Chribba and even the pilot who bagged him. He plans on continuing the good work of his corp although he will not repeat the wardec on Chribba ” If he left it offline I might try it it again. But its quite expensive so only if i could do it and get something out of it. This dec showed that he pays attention to war decs so we probably wouldn’t be able to kills a pos before he could defend it.”

In related news another corp had picked up the cause of the War on Chribba and the forces of good are not so swift to leap to the defense seeing the threat as distant and inconsequential. Chribba may not feel the same way about that . . . he did, however mint and give medals to all who participated in the first war. I managed to get something even better, an autographed photo of Chribba for my own corpmate, Mechanoid Kryten that reads “To te Carebear Queen /Chribba” in his best handwriting.

The best thing about Eve is the ability to set your own win parameters. Each side of the above war feels that they won. In my opinion, they all did. Each played the game they wanted to play and interacted with other folks. Each was kind enough to allow me the time to ask 10 questions (a self imposed limit) and I quoted from those interviews for this report. If there is some issue or aspect of Eve you think would make a good story for the Tribune please contact the editors or leave a comment below and we will see if it can be done.

Mike tossed his pad on the table top and turned it o silent as Dierdre joined him. “Ah, you are just what I need, some tranquility and common sense.”

She looked down at the notes he had been making. “Another CSM meeting?”

He nodded. “Each one adds something, both to the universe and to my impressions of the people who were elected . . . and not elected.”

“Not elected? How would the meetings alter . . . oh, the alternative representatives. But they only come into play when someone fails to make a meeting, or must leave early.”

“Yup yup, and so far Helen Highwater has had a chance to speak and vote at every meeting, and has not missed that duty nor, may I add, done a bad job of it. On the other hand, the Elected Representative Trzzblat has failed to show up for another meeting. Those people who voted for that one would have been better served voting for Helen. But in the end it turns out to be the same thing. In spite of that, this meeting went better, and differently.”

“I thought the meetings were set in format, how can one go differently?” She nodded her thanks to the waitress who delivered their drinks. Neither had bothered ordering as they came to this cafe so often it was a given what they would have and the staff did not bother even asking, anymore.

“Well, it seemed smoother and also longer. Smoother because Zastrow also was absent for more than half the meeting. With two goons gone the discussion seemed more . . .efficient.”

“Isn’t Helen a Goon?”

He nodded. “Helen is, but if the fleet starts noticing how reasonable and well thought things have been going they may ban and kick, out of general principles.” He grinned. “Or maybe there is more than one type of Goon and Goon agenda.”

“So what did they talk about?” She asked, smiling at Mike in a way that made him flush slightly.

“um . . .let me see.” He fumbled his notes and flushed deeper as she dimpled at his obvious discomfort. “They have asked that more confirmation steps be implemented in the creation of Alliances. That there be color coding set into mining laser crystals. That a calender system be set up for corporations to schedule more efficiently. They also discussed the concept of censorship in the matter of public discussions. This one was a bit closer to my heart as I have been vaguely threatened while writing for the tribune.”

“Threats are trying to control the news from below. Censorship usually implies it comes from above.” She corrected him.

“Yeah, well trying to skew information from either end is not quite right. Although I suppose what I choose to say and write about is also biased in its own way . . . aaargh . . .anyhow they are taking that up with the major networks to at least slow down the cutting of open discussions.” He looked down at his notes. They also decided the EOS needs some fine tuning and that battle recorders could and should be mountable for large fleet engagements. They decided that Fighters should be tracked in killmails and that destroyers are in dire need of re-tasking and re-assessment. Nobody is quite sure WHAT they are to be used for right now.”

She nodded. “Most of the ones I see come and go are either fitted for small salvage operations . . . or gink?”

“Gank. Out to kiill and be killed in highsec. That got brought up as well but it was one of the issues that proved that the council is growing and adapting. Instead of just voting yes/no now they are thinking deeper and further ahead. They will send smaller groups off to rework proposals and bring them back at future meetings. Suicide ganks, the ability to import export standings, and price ceilings were set as too vague but not bad ideas and so they were not dismissed out of hand but tabled for more work before the vote would be made. They agreed on the general concept of capsulleer security needs to be tightened but did not try to get too deep into the specifics of how.”

“Know what is good, what is bad, and what is not ready to be judged. Book of Issha”

Mike blinked. “Pardon me?”

She looked at him straight on and said. “Finish what you are saying . . . we have time for this later.”

Mike paused for a moment before nodding. “Like I said . . . they took four hours to do this but very little of it was waste time. The alternates T’Amber and Helen did excellent work. It was a near run thing to even make quorum but with alternates like that it is working out fine for the council as a whole. Personalities and motivations are beginning to show through. Krovin is most likely to vote against changes but I think he mainly is worried about the changes being unbalancing to the stabilities that currently exist. Song Li is a very reasonable person who is always trying to make the little things better. He has they eye for the details of things. Teadaze brings a lot of experience to the table and still manages not to be distracted from whatever question is at hand. Elvenlord is excellent at keeping things flowing and on track with very little lost time. Zod isn’t noisy but his comments are usually straight to the point and he stepped forward to help rework some ideas showing he does not have to be loud to be proud.”

“What about Sokratesz?”

Mike scratched his head. I don’t know. Haven’t got a handle on that one, yet. Zastrow showed up in time for 5 issues and I think he was too tired or hung over to be much of a nuisance. Trzz-whatever is a no show. Alekseyev is impressing me the more I learn about him and his organization, NOIR.”

“How so?”

“Just little things are beginning to add up to a better image of him than I had, initially. Turns out sometimes you do have to toss the first impression and be willing to look deeper . . . who knew?”

She reached out and laid her hand on his. “Sometime, though. The first impression is just fine.”

Mike was rescued by the arrival of their food as he had no idea what to say to that.

***********************************

Lessons

The old communication protocols that the CSM has had in place work just fine when a good hand is at the helm.

These folks are working hard (some of them) Drop them a line in game to say thanks, they deserve it. After all, some few of you elected them.
They are coming up on the deadline for what they will take to Iceland. If you have some axe you want them to grind, get to it, Assembly hall forums.

Mike slumped down into the seat and grunted his thanks as the waitress brought him a beer. Scotty, already seated looked at him and grinned. “Hard day at the office?”

“I am trying to decide if I am just suffering from sour grapes or not.” Mike sipped the beer and sighed. “I just finished going through the logs of the first CSM meeting.”

“And?”

“Well on the good side, Teadaze is phenomenal. He got said logs out and available so fast it made my head spin. I doubt most folks are even looking for it, yet. On the bad side . . . ”

Scotty reached over and topped up Mikes glass. “You know the drill, start at the beginning and keep going till you get to the end.”

“I would, but the beginning is where some of it is ’secret’. I understand that the CSM has a policy of nondisclosure on some features but there was just enough said to indicate that things are happening in the background that could change what I believed the CSM to be.”

Scotty frowned. “How so?”

Pulling out a comm pad mike tapped it and brought 2 pages of text. “I read both the raw feed (slightly edited for security reasons) and Teadaze’s summary. It is something about an email reminding the members of the CSM to, and I quote, ‘Additionally, I want to reiterate the point I made in the email about us wanting to emphasize more on ‘larger’ issues and less on the ’smaller’ topics’ A couple of the members asked for clarification of that but I still don’t quite get what they mean. I think there is going to be some more give and take on that but it sounds almost like the council is getting less able to deal with specifics.”

“And you think that is bad?”

“In a way, yes. Some things are grand sweeping changes that are easy to ask for but hard to prove when they have been delivered. Small specific things are easier to measure completion on. If the CSM asked for a ‘Launch Drones’ button, for example. You can say ‘yes they succeeded’ or ‘they didn’t get that wish’. But if you ask for an improvement of the UI control schema of our ships it is too vague to say whether a simple font change warrants calling the job done and a victorious outcome.” Mike took a gulp of beer and continued. “It was like that in the election. Some folks focused on specifics, others were just quoting ‘mom and apple pie generalities.’”

“And some folks didn’t even bother campaigning.”

“And were elected just the same. Which was the second frustrating thing for me. One member of the CSM did not make the meeting so the first alternate had to step in. Oddly enough, both were Goons. The third Goon, Zastrow, showed up late and was pretty much a disruptive entity through the entire meeting. But he was elected and I was not, so is it just me being a whiner?”

A glass slid across the table from Scotty to Mike. “Collect the tears in there, I can sell them to some folks later on. Nah, late and disruptive slows meetings down.”

“So the rest of the meeting was fairly straight forward except when it got derailed by arguing about communication protocols. They confirmed Elvenlord as chair, elected Zod as Vice-chair. Teadaze was made Secretary (the hardest job on the council in many peoples opinion) and Zastrow was made vice secretary.”

Scotty sprayed beer out of his nose. “WHAT?”

“Yeah, was pretty much my reaction as well. I Just hope Teadaze stays healthy. Then they discussed when the next meeting is and called it a day.”

“So it was nice and short, eh?”

“I wish. All of that took one and a half hours to accomplish. A simple election of three officers. Now how long is it going to take when they start to discuss the controversial subjects? I mean the ‘wish list’ is long and growing every day.” Mike finished his beer and rose from the table. “I ran for the CSM and I am not going to drop it, just because I lost horribly.” He grinned. “I am too stubborn to quit, even when I have lost. I think there are some good people in there and the word needs to get out about what is being done and how. Maybe next time more folks will show up for the election.”

“In knowledge there is power.”

“In a good Battleship there is power, in Motherships there are frustrated pilots. Bah. I have places to be, things to blow up, maybe that will make me feel better.”

********

Lessons

There is a reason for communications protocols like Roberts Rules of Order. If you have ever tried to run a meeting with more than four people, you know why.
There is always someone who thinks the meeting is a joke and they are the comedian telling it.
I will try to keep up with the CSM doings and keep you updated as the information comes out.

mike