So I know /r/eve hates for the subreddit to get clogged up with posts from bloggers, but there are so many good memes out there right now with World War Bee going on, and I just can’t resist contributing to the war of words. I’m the type that needs to throw down a few paragraphs, though, so I hope you guys will indulge me. In my last post (not linked to the reddit!) I talked about my decision to join Pandemic Horde and take part in the war. That post was just me talking about my own situation. With this one I want to talk about the Goons and the CFC and their role in my decision. Also in my last post I stated that most of my Grr Goon sentiment from the old days had evaporated. With this one I had really intended to write a pretty level headed post about why the CFC needs to die, but I delayed a couple of days in writing and now have the pleasure of following this hilarious CEO update that the Goons published on TMC. I’m afraid it will be difficult to avoid getting a little saucy after reading that comedy.

Starting off down to earth, though, I’ll begin by stating one of the things that I like about the Northern Coalition. that I didn’t mention there but saved for this post. You might be surprised, but actually one of the things that I really respect about that alliance is that they lost N3. Their alliance membership declined by just about zero. When you’ve really taken the hardest blow you can take, and then you’ve dusted yourself off to find yourself basically unscathed and ready for the next round, there really isn’t anything anybody can do to you. You may win battles and lose battles, but from that point on, you know nobody is going to take you down. TEST also has my respect for that. What I’d like to say here in this post is that Goonswarm really doesn’t have that strength. From their beginnings Goonswarm began their tenure of greatness through betrayal in the destruction of BoB, which makes all their hollering about backstabbing in this CEO update all the more unbelievable. They came to this game large, and after their initial rise have been able to benefit from a reputation of being the biggest and best alliance in the game. When a new player joins Eve, he asks around who the biggest and best alliance is, hears about Goonswarm, and tries to join, only to be betrayed by a jump freighter scam or an application deposit scam. Those who join do so through the Something Awful Forums (or KarmaFleet, lately), but the situation remains that the new Goon is there because the Goons are the biggest and baddest alliance out there. This makes for a culture of fair weather friends. I’d like to wager that the Goonswarm, and really the CFC, is a house of cards that will fold. They haven’t earned the stripes that NC. and TEST have, and therefore have to preach about their resolve through this ridiculous line of spin that we’ve all been making such tremendous fun of in all the media channels and hope their own guys believe it.

Really, when reading things like this CEO update I almost can’t resist mailing Mittens some tissue for the tears. In general it was just a rabid attack on anything and everything. They are going so far as to attack CCP on their choice of name for the war, fearful that their spin has not been adopted by the player base at large. All the talk of betrayal is just mind boggling, since they are pretty much the arch traitors of our game. This is obviously a seed planted to keep FCON, Lawn, and Bastion in line as their meat shields. Also, the update attacks new players in general, claiming that they are incapable of the resolve needed to defeat them. Now I personally try to avoid groups where the members log in just so they can play League of Legends or those groups from the generation of players who think Eve is about being the biggest dick imaginable. Most of the fun I’ve had in Eve has been as a highsec CEO training new players, flying with Brave, a new player group, and now with Horde, a really fantastic bunch of new players. From what I see, the player who sticks with Eve is going to have an understanding of the type of hard work that Eve involves. I can’t help but laugh at this feeble attempt by Mittens to calm quaking meat shields by saying that new players won’t be able to get the job done. Finally, the ranting continues with a litany of extremely unpleasant tactics that the Goons will employ against their attackers. I say unpleasant for the Goons. They seem to fail to realize that their enemies are already set up with their strongholds in lowsec, in the south, in the east, and in the west. These systems being taken are means of wrecking the CFC and not really much more. Who ends up with them after the CFC is gone and what they do with them remains completely to be seen. All this bluster about all these miserable attacks on MoneyBadger systems reeks of pure delusion. Sure, some work will be done to raise some ADMs. Ratting makes iskies. But jeez, all this talk of eviction of a coalition that is basing from lowsec and on deployment far from their bases is just a flight of fancy from someone who has no tactical sense and is just huffing and puffing in order to be impressive to a member base that they are afraid will bail on them, and with good reason.

Returning to a point I alluded to in my last post, I’ll say that my decision to fight against the Goons is not really borne by some grand Grr Goon, but rather that it’s just time for them to go. PL’s attack on Nulli was really that alliance’s statement that the big blue donut and the cold war that had been killing the game for over a year was really not the way to play Eve. As the powers that be figured out the ISK flow, a natural consequence was for everybody to blue up and rat. Eve should be about reward being commensurate to risk, but with Code (and Goons) active in highsec, if you really wanted to be safe you needed to go to nullsec because everybody was blue and refusing to fight. This is really the environment in which the CFC was created. I mean when was the last time anybody heard of any really audacious campaign or exciting move pulled by the Bastion or Lawn or FCON? I mean we all took off our hats and applauded when FCON mustered 450 souls to defend their capital. That’s what Eve should really be made of. What I’d like to say to Lawn and Bastion and FCON is that if you really want to keep your space and do some good, hard fighting for the benefit of the game, switch sides. Don’t listen to all the talk of betrayal. You’re being betrayed right now by an alliance that will do anything or say anything to keep its outdated mode of Eve going so Alex can keep bread on the table by keeping his meat shields under lock and key, keeping the entirety of the north all blued up and populated by players looking for a safe place to rat.

I saw a pretty cool comment on twitter recently that said, “MoneyBadger vs. Imperium will be fun, but MoneyBadger vs. MoneyBadger in the north after the Imperium is gone will be REALLY fun.” I am totally behind that statement. There is no cowardice or betrayal in throwing in the towel on the CFC. You’ll keep your space, and there will be Goons to kill. After that’s done, the last half of the blue donut will be gone, and Eve will be as it should be, with smaller coalitions and alliances staking smaller chunks of space, and more fun and content to be had for everyone.

Now if you ask the MoneyBadgers why they are fighting, you are going to get one of three answers, each of which has four words: “someone is paying us,” “we hate the Goons,” or “the content is here.” If you ask the Goons, you get some frenzied longwinded wall of words about betrayal, and CCP hating them, and crushing enemies and all that. The reason for the over the top and completely implausible spin is because they know they are a house of cards. They know they need their blue donut if Alex is going to make his house payment by whoring his players out to H1Z1. If you stick with these guys, you’re being duped into fighting a losing war. Did you notice all those tactics mentioned in the CEO update? Right after claiming that new players don’t have the resolve to take space, they mention all these tactics that are just going to be miserable for them, and for their meat shields. I say let the Goons go through all that crap in their efforts to prolong their end. The only people who will be screaming betrayal are the Goons, who have been and will continue to do so in order to keep their troops in line. But if you ask me, you’ll be doing Eve a favor by dismantling the last mega coalition and saying goodbye to the abominable blue donut, returning New Eden to its proper state.

Really, that’s why I signed up for the fight. The CFC was borne out of a particular business model. It was a ratting zone. The Goons are bloated. Some of the other CFC alliances are bloated. This business model has been bad for the game. Generations of Eve players think of Eve as a game that you play while watching TV, AFK ratting in your Chimera. This new generation that the Goons seem to have such distain for has a different idea, though. They are not players that have no stomach for work and no resolve to accomplish the mission, though. Quite the opposite in fact. Everyone who plays this game knows that it is very meticulous and requires dedication. However, Eve is a game that is meant to be played and enjoyed. It is my hope that FCON and Lawn and the Bastion want to attract members that really want to play, rather than just AFK carrier rat. So I advocate dismantling the CFC and trimming the fat because it’s just time for the CFC to be done. We did the big mega coalition blue donut thing in 2014. It wasn’t any fun. So if you’re reading this and want to know where to get into the fight, dreddit is recruiting. For the brand spanking newbean, Horde is waiting. Brave is in the fight too. We’re all up north getting rid of a style of Eve that just isn’t cool. If you’re an alliance leader who is reading this, be on the right side of Eve history and put the CFC to bed. The only people who will be blathering about betrayal will be the Goons, and they’ve been ranting so much that everyone is already calling their nonsense the delusion that it is. Don’t be a meat shield. Heal the game and take down the CFC.