Confidence and Experience

 A bit of nostalgia, along with an experience in Eve today got me thinking...


 Today my corp attempted to engage another corporation. We brought 3 Abbadons, and 3 Domnix. They had 2 Abbadon Navy Issue, a Mega, a Machariel, a Drake, 2 Guardians, an Oneiros, and a Chimera... They would not engage... Why?

 Recently I was also looking back to some of my funnest days in Eve with the alliance Cry Havoc. This was the best alliance I have ever been in and probably will ever be in during my time with Eve. Cry Havoc had a very serious work ethic and high expectations of their pilots. At the same time everyone was friendly and easy to be around. CH did some crazy things in their time. It was common place for us to engage 50 enemy pilots with half their numbers... and win. We would take on our even numbers plus multiple carriers and multiple supers and win -really crazy fun times. Ultimately no one would engage CH without utterly overwhelming numbers. Why?


 In Eve, I think 99% of all players will not get in a fight unless they see a clear and usually obvious path to victory. When any group of players can prove to their enemies that through experience, skill, and success what would normally seem like an obvious win may actually not be so, those enemies react in the only way they know how: To never ever fight you unless they can be absolutely certain of a win. And for most players that absolute certainty lies solely in massive numbers advantages.

 What ultimately killed CH was the release of Super Carriers and Titan changes which made it clear CCP (for a time, at least) wholeheartedly embraced the idea that massive numbers and massive ships should dominate in all scenarios. With the game growing worse and worse, and no end in sight all of the leadership, and many of the original core membership simply stopped playing Eve -and who could blame them?


 Well, luckily times have changed. CCP seems to be acting like they pulled their head out of their proverbial ass and things are much better then they been in a long time. While some parts of the game are still completely and utterly broken, it is possible through ingenuity, planning, practice, and most importantly perseverance to simply outplay opponents and win in situations that seem impossible.

 So I guess the point of all this is: If you take the time to practice, learn the engagement scenarios, and understand the risks you can do some crazy things. I hope more high and low sec dwellers get a little less risk and loss averse, and go through the tough learning curve required to improve their PvP game. There really is a whole other world waiting for you right through that gate.