WAR!!!!!

I have no idea who, if anyone, ever reads this. However, if you're here, there's a good chance you are a gamer, and a pretty good chance you play one ore more of the MMO's I play. Either that, or you're stalking me. 8O

So, if you play MMO's, you know that there are some which are pure carebear, some that dabble in PvP in safe, consensual, nothing lost, and some that encourage you to rape and pillage, knowing full well that when you loot their dead and bloated corpse, you aren't just gaining stuff... you're depriving THEM of stuff!

EVE-Online is one of those games.

Oh, it has a carebear section, and it's cleverly disguised so that many players live out their entire virtual careers without ever risking ship or implant against the evil gankstas of the galaxy. But, as the devs like to remind the carebears, there is no 100% safe place in EVE.

My corp was reminded of this last week. I've played a couple of games with The Old Timers Guild, and they're a good bunch of people. They have a solid presence in EVE, with two corps. OTG, which is the PvP wing, carving out a bit of 0.0 space for themselves and making friends and allies (and enemies!) out there. OTGi is the carebear industrial side of our presence. The majority of folks here are miners, mission runners, people who don't care for PvP, but would rather accumulate wealth.

Last week, we got war decc'd. I've been told this happens about once a year, and generally when it does everyone turtles up until the aggressor gets bored and lets the dec drop. It costs ISK to keep a war going, so unless there's a reason, most people won't do it. Those who want to PvP will often switch to our PvP chapter, those who don't will either sit it out, or drop to an NPC corp until it's over.

In this case though, it looks like our aggressors declared war, not out of boredom, or to see if we'd fight back, but because they had a beef with the OTG chapter in another MMO that we both played, Age of Conan.

Personally, I don't mind that much. I will be dropping my corp badge if the war continues another week, and will probably join the PvP branch just to get my feet wet. I'd considered it anyways, but now's as good a time as any.

It does beg the question though... is this harassment? Should players who bring a grudge based on their treatment in another game be allowed to carry that into a new game? Should it be something you can petition?

*I* don't think so. I think this is part of what makes the game fun. But, what do *you* think?