Coconuts!

Three Daredevils, a handful of Atrons (I lost count in the end), a Wolf, a Jaguar and two Caldari Navy Hookbills. It should read like a good morning report of good fights and heroic tales from the beacons. But no, this is a list of ships that decided it was much better to indeed run away from a potential fight with an Incursus. Fair enough, each to their own and I would be lying if I said that I've never run from a potential fight but it is the manner of the escape acts that leaves a sour taste in the mouth.



It is becoming a common theme, certainly not an overnight thing as it has been brewing now for some time. As other areas of low-sec are turned into ghost towns and communities dissolve due to questionable and some would say catastrophic decision making, more and more people are drawn into the darklands of the faction warfare regions.

But is the balance there? Is the golden beacon of good fights waiting for them? I fear not.

What other games out there reward players for playing their game in such a detrimental manner? Cloaked, stabbed and half-fitted ships. An almost fresh out-of-the-box toon can begin his life as a risk-averse loyalty point farmer with minimal time investment. The rewards are handsome. Billions of ISK to be made. Nothing much to lose. So why all the running away? Driven to heady levels of greed perhaps? Fear of having to half fit up another ship?

Herding everyone who wants to PvP in low-sec towards the faction warfare fields is not the fix that so many claim it is. It's the brutal death of low-sec. Slow and painful but still a death. There is no fixing going on here, there is only dying and the stench of it is getting stronger.

Let's imagine some random game that none of us have ever played. Here's the pitch. I am going to try and sell it to you as a great game where PvP is plentiful like ripe coconuts on a tropical island. PvP is there to be plucked from those lush branches whenever you crave it. There is a little snag in the marketing of this game however and I am not going to reveal it in my presentation. Who would really want to visit my tropical island paradise to eat the coconuts if I told them that the coconuts had legs and were ALWAYS given a head start? Sometimes if you did catch them they mysteriously disappeared in a huge puff of smoke. Hmm, yes, not many.



"Hey what the hell man come on you told me there would be coconuts!?"

And then some of the coconuts you did manage to catch, when you crack them open ... are all rotten inside. Not at all like a normal coconut.

"Hey this isn't coconut milk it is battery acid!!"

Spit!

Then there's some older guys sat in the corner with long beards, they haven't eaten for months and they are telling stories of a lost place ... where people would meet and there would be trees full of coconuts that would openly drop from the branches ... wanting you to crack them open for the goodness inside. People would fight over them and it was great, life was good. This was a special place, entire communities were built up around these coconut trees. The trees weren't designed in this way but the people adapted and made it into the go-to coconut island.

Then one day a dark cloud loomed overhead and overnight the trees were gone. Just like that, no warning, no need for discussion, nothing. This island was stripped of its fruit-bearing goodness and now there was no PvP--no more coconuts. Apparently the locals were having too much fun and some of them were even accused of farming the resources! The outrage.

The trees are gone, those who lived there have moved on and now not a lot remains.

A few bearded old men keep the stories of their old home alive in exchange for one more coconut with its legs removed. The new crowd just laugh at them as they farm their own trees.


MB.