The War in the North

The war has been lost.  Try as we might to console ourselves that there is still time—and I admit there is still time, albeit shrinking daily—the truth of the matter is that the war is lost in all but name only.  The attempts by The Mittani to spin the war as a success-in-the-making, that the Fabian Strategy is the most successful option available, and that given time the “Goonhammer” will win is, at this point, nothing but attempts to save face before a declining population.  Before I begin with this TL;DR piece, I’ll provide my statistics for claiming “declining population”, using the current seven-day population statistics for the remaining six members of the Imperium on 28 May 2016, and then again on 01 June 2016, and provide an actual adjustment after each to show statistics between those two dates:

28 May

Goonswarm Federation: -250 (15,656)

The Bastion: -317 (1,748)

Razor Alliance: -11 (1,400)

Tactical Narcotics Team: -25 (1,149)

Get Off My Lawn: -131 (1,137)

Executive Outcomes: -10 (964)

01 June

Goonswarm Federation: -260 (15,546) [Net Movement: -110]

The Bastion: -348 (1,645) [Net Movement: -103]

Razor Alliance: 0 (1,404) [Net Movement: +4]

Tactical Narcotics Team: -24 (1,141) [Net Movement: +1]

Get Off My Lawn: -236 (1,022) [Net Movement: -115]

Executive Outcomes: -2 (965) [Net Movement: +1]

As shown, the populations of these alliances have been declining (exceptions being miniscule gains for RAZOR, TNT, and EXE); this is not speculation, this is fact that can be seen when using an unbiased third-party site (in this case, evewho.com).  Even looking at Dotlan and the metrics used there, it’s easy to see the constantly declining numbers available for all six alliances.  So while the Imperium members might harp on about “declining numbers” in enemy groups like Pandemic Horde, Horde has been gaining members (+270 over the past seven days for a member count of 9,304) while no alliance in the Imperium has seen similar numbers.  One can make the argument that general activity per capita is higher than Horde, but numbers right now do not lie.

Yes, this is a basic explanation, but I like keeping things basic.  If you want a more intimate explanation, I am not your man for that (right now).

Alright, the Disclaimer.

At the moment, I am a member of Tactical Narcotics Team and have been for a few months, now.  I have been a loyal member of the alliance, and have tried to remain positive and upbeat over this war, even writing several pieces for our alliance forums in which I explained the similarities between the current war and battles/wars of the past on Earth.

I say “at the moment” because I have already become disenfranchised with the alliance, and at this point am still in it because I do like many of the people in it.  I firmly believe, however, that TNT as an entity has lost its identity because of the close relationship with Goonswarm.  Coalitions are fine, but you’d expect that there would be attempts to maintain individualism and identity while working towards a common goal.  TNT is regarded as “Goonswarm Lite”, and to quote one director of Goonswarm Federation on Mumble:

“FCON and SMA leaving are expected.  If TNT leaves, then I’ll be worried because we are so fucking similar.”

When The Mittani talked about folding the alliances of the Imperium into Goonswarm to force the best chance of fighting in FozzieSov, TNT was on the fence.  While CEOs in the alliance were hesitant to do so, there were attempts by Goonswarm directors to point out this “special relationship” between the two alliances, a la the “special relationship” between the United States and Great Britain.  This didn’t fully sway the CEOs, thankfully, and I think that was part of the reason the idea fell behind.  The Mittani and his directors couldn’t even convince “Goonswarm Lite” to go with his plan, so how could they possibly convince the rest of the Imperium to do so without significant failcascades?

But while I am annoyed by this, I can’t overlook the fact that I am a loyal member of the alliance, even with these misgivings.  I wouldn’t betray them, I wouldn’t spy on them.  I’ve never done it, and I have wanted to for previous groups.  Normally I just leave at that point.  TNT has been fun, and I want this to be more of a wake-up call piece than a “fuck you bitches” piece.  However, this is a point in the war where morale is low for the Imperium, and being objective and bringing facts to the table that contradict the narrative is routinely seen as treason.  As such, having already been banned from Goonswarm Mumble and the site because I am taking things more neutral than they want, I hold no doubts that this may be the final nail in the coffin and I might see myself removed because of pressure.

The Fabian Strategy

When the war began, The Mittani called on the Imperium to take up the “Fabian Strategy” in order to win the war.  The Fabian Strategy revolves around denying decisive large-scale engagements in favor of small skirmishes at best, but normally it involves rapid harrying of logistics, stragglers, and forces that can be encircled, cut off, and removed.  This strategy works best against an invading force, where their logistics train is strewn out, reinforcements can’t necessarily be deployed rapidly, and you have a solid “GTFO” strategy and plan.  More commonly, this is seen today as “guerilla tactics”, and we saw in Afghanistan and Iraq that this can be highly effective.

The Fabian Strategy assumes that the force employing it has time on their side.  Alternatively, it is employed if no other viable strategy presents itself.  Once again, the Muj in Afghanistan used it, because they don’t have a viable alternative, and because Western memories tend to be very short: we know about 9/11, but after fifteen years of war we simply stopped caring, and became tired of the mire we were in.

However, the main problem is that we did not cut off the MBC’s logistics.  Their jump freighters continue to move unhindered and unmolested, bringing in the necessary ships for doctrines, modules, and other sundry necessities.  As such, while the Imperium likes to say eventually our enemies will get bored and tired of no SRP, PL, TEST, and other larger conglomerates can easily replace what has been lost, even supercapitals.  That is part of the reason they aren’t afraid to engage in supercapital fights, and The Mittani knows it: we can no longer easily replace lost supercapitals; replacing basic capitals is a chore as-is.  We have no industry capability anymore.  We risk scams by buying from outside sources.  Meanwhile, I Want ISK is funding the war effort, and easily replaced the supercapitals destroyed by SNUFF in the infamous “backstab” not too long ago.  So while the Imperium may have the largest supercapital fleet available (up for debate), it is not easily replaced, which makes it more dangerous to utilize.  Our assets are locked for the most part; our enemies’ are not.

But our own logistics are harried.  The recent move of pretty much every swinging dick into Saranen has pretty much shut off our ability to bring in jump freighters.  Cynos will be removed post haste, as we have seen over the past few days.  It is safer to light the cyno on another station in-system and warp to our home base at 0 than to jump directly to a cyno on said station.

There are also two key components to the Fabian Strategy that are not being utilized, thus actually making it the worst alternative presented to, and by, The Mittani.  The first is that the force utilizing the strategy is not centralized, and that instead of a large force, you have multiple smaller forces camping out.  This is to prevent that decisive, large-scale battle that the strategy seeks to avoid from happening.  While low-sec might be unconquerable, by consolidating the forces into Saranen—and into one station when three are available, at that!—it serves to weaken the overall objectives stated by The Mittani.  Having hundreds, if not thousands, of players in one system, it actually eases up the enemy’s intelligence services: you can now view that one system as your center of focus, and send a very small amount of scouts out to the systems important to the Imperium: Daras (the system important to Imperium Black Ops), Aunenen (the mid-point between Jita and Saranen for jump bridges), and Tamo (the midpoint between Aunenen and Saranen for other capitals).  The stated goal of this consolidation was to make fleets easier to manage, but what it does is allow the enemy to know when a fleet undocks.  And considering The Mittani and directors of Imperium alliances like to harp on about the MBC not having unified communications, wouldn’t it be smarter to take full advantage of that, and spread the forces out in order to minimize the chance PL, TEST, and TISHU might see the same damn fleet undocking?  If the communication lines for the enemy are truly disgruntled (read: fucked), then it makes sense to force greater hardships on it, not make it so one TISHU, one TEST, and one PL scout can each be in the same system and allow for all three to form up.  The purpose of this strategy is to introduce Mr. Murphy far more readily to the enemy, while also increasing the chance he visits himself upon you as well (Murphy’s Law: Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong, and at the worst possible time).  Compounding problems on the enemy is crucial to the power of the Fabian Strategy, but The Mittani ignores this, because of the following component he ignores.

The Fabian Strategy makes use of small-unit commanders.  Normally, a military would entrust a captain or lieutenant with a company or platoon, but the big decisions would be left up to the major or lieutenant colonel in charge of the battalion, at the lowest.  While the United States military offers the ability for those lieutenants to make command decisions based on a changing tactical situation, overall it’s frowned upon to change entire sections of a plan.  The Fabian Strategy removes such limitations, oftentimes letting the junior officers or senior noncommissioned officers make decisions not normally at their paygrade.  You actually encourage those people to think, make informed judgments, and run things, which can put a lot of pressure on them, but it helps to shape them.  The idea is to turn your forces into makeshift SEALs, Special Air Services, Force Recon, Delta, etc.  They become specialized small-gang fighters, looking to make the enemy bleed in the most efficient way possible.

Unfortunately, the Imperium has kept things to the “coalition-level FCs”.  Sure, there are individual alliance-based FCs, but if you don’t have the FC tag attached to your name you actually miss out on many of the perks associated with FCing.  You don’t get to do pings unless someone higher-up is willing to do so.  In many instances, your fleet will not be eligible for SRP, and there have been several FCs who have said their fleets have been denied SRP because they aren’t “valid”, despite the fleet running the literal fits and compositions found on Goonfleet.  So the enemy knows DBRB, Asher Elias, Amyclas Amatin and the like are FCs, and to headshot them.  There’s little chance of that happening when other people who have proven leadership traits taking fleets out, because it messes, once again, with the enemy’s ability to gather intelligence!

The more pressing matter is that the Fabian Strategy is pretty much a solid “win” card.  Barring the entire coalition falling apart overnight, eventually the MBC will grow bored, either because of no more fights, or just general apathy.  At that point, The Mittani can claim victory, as he “knew” it would happen.  In essence, there is no way to lose with the Fabian Strategy.

What it boils down to is leaders who have no other options, or who can’t actually strategize and plan, turn to this tactic to save face.  Nothing more.  It offers no actual chance for lower-level commanders and leaders to take initiative and do their own thing.  It is rather like the Soviet doctrines, in which everything was decided by the military leaders in Moscow, and it was expected there would be no deviation at the sub-unit level.  That is that antithesis to the Fabian strategy.

Saranen “Standing Fleet”

24 April 2016: “Firstly, the Saranen Standing fleet which is keeping Saranen clean. The enemy that used to be sitting on the undock having fun is no longer having fun, either because the Standing Fleet docks up and advises nobody else to undock, denying content until hostile forces leave, or increasingly because the Standing Fleet kills the hostiles and fewer of them return. The enemy does not deserve content, they deserve misery, and right now Saranen is a rather discouraging place for them to be.”

15 May 2016: “The standing fleet doesn't work because the enemy is always ready to drop overwhelming force, and because Caracals can't take on carriers. If they're going to camp Saranen, let them camp a station where nothing is happening. Use you own insta-undocks and be smart when undocking. We will deal with their campers by boring them to death and then flash forming occasionally.”

In less than a month, the concept of the “standing fleet” went the way of the dodo.  This concept is routinely used in high sec war decs, where overwhelming force isn’t expected.  One alliance can keep people outside the home station, going suspect or other shenanigans while people do real life stuff.  Once hostiles show up, everyone prepares to fight.  This is effective because high sec prevents neutrals from opening fire unless one side goes suspect.  The real strength is that neutral logistics will go suspect, allowing free fire on them.  Mittani tried to take a high sec tactic and turn it into something in low sec.  It does not work.

The reason for this is simple: the Imperium has preferred staying with cheap fits and doctrines, limiting the power of the fleet itself.  Since it’s so easy to prepare for, and you know exactly where they are, you can camp it all day.  The standing fleet’s purpose was to either pop enemies, or deny them content.  It was easily countered, and people only joined to whore PAP links.  A fleet of 90 would only have about 45 undocked, if they were that lucky.

In short, Mittani expected overwhelming numbers on his side.  However, as he’s constantly said the entirety of EVE is arrayed against us.  While he flaunts a “lack of communication” amongst our enemies, he ignores the fact that you don’t need impressive communication lines in order to stay outside a station and blap anything from the Imperium that undocks.  It was folly to think we’d have the numbers to maintain a round-the-clock standing fleet and maintain numerical superiority, when we simply do not have it.

Once Allies, Now Falling By The Wayside

When SMA and FCON broke ties with the Imperium, I was one of the few saying they should not maintain blue status.  The truth is while this war has been on the minds of many for years, the actions of SMA were the catalyst that caused everything to begin.  As such, it seemed only fair that they should have a part in the defense.  The truth is, SMA was never prepared for this, and hubris on the part of their leadership, and a general belief that the Imperium as a whole would save them, led to their eventual destruction.  It was difficult—nigh on impossible—to fully fight this war on one front, let alone multiple.  As such, bailing means that they had nothing to gain, and their rapidly declining memberbase showed it.

FCON has engaged the Imperium.

The Bastion no longer sees itself as part of the Imperium.

Only TNT, EXE., and RAZOR remain at this point.  And to be frank, given talks lately that I have been privy to, at least two of those alliances are talking about evac’ing the war zone.  Maybe not cutting ties, but moving on to “rebuild”.

So, Is The War Lost?

Right now, the war is lost for the Imperium in everything but name only.  I want to make that clear: there is a chance to pull victory out of this, but it would require a complete restructuring of leadership, and an openness to new tactics and strategies.  It would require humility, which The Mittani lacks.  In fact, I would argue the entire Goonswarm Federation leadership lacks it.  They simply believe that what they are doing now is the only right way to achieve success.

The Mittani’s many claims have never been validated by evidence he claims to have.  In fact, each and every time he’s asked for evidence, it’s never provided.  He’s always said, “we’ve seen”, but the average member hasn’t seen these cracks forming in the MBC.  The average member hasn’t seen Pandemic Horde being decimated and farmed by other MBC groups.  The average member can only see massaged numbers claiming proof of Horde inactivity, and they have to take the promises of this war being “won” by the Goonswarm leadership as gospel.  In fact, on the Fireside Chats, he readily admitted he doesn’t have a “ready list”.  Okay, The Mittani might not have a list right now, but why hasn’t be provided one since?  Why don’t we have video of all these amazing things happening to help us win the war?

It took less than two months to make Goonswarm Federation and the rest of the Imperium a non-sov-holding entity.  This isn’t the first time anyone in the Imperium has lost their sov, but it is the first time it’s happened since the new sov changes came to pass.  In time, yes the MBC will lose interest in the war, and they will go to do their own things.  At that time, the Imperium may rise again and reclaim sov.  But for the foreseeable future, without a severe change in tactics, strategies, and in general a change in thinking, the Imperium will likely continue to be camped into Saranen station, until such time as it falls apart.

Assault on Free Speech...again!

I’m currently in the process of writing up a piece about “World War Bee”, the massive, multi-faceted war taking place in EVE Online, and it’s taking a bit longer than expected, because quite frankly there’s more involved than I intended.  However, this came to my attention on my newsfeed.  Please keep in mind, this is not necessarily game related, but it’s something we all use in our everyday lives, so it’s relevant.  I’ll also come out fully in this, I am anti-SJW (Social Justice ‘Warrior’).  I don’t subscribe to the millennial views on ‘safe spaces’, ‘hate speech’, ‘third-wave feminism’, ‘Black Lives Matter’, and the like.  I’m a libertarian, albeit one that subscribes to having a military that can beat the shit out of people who need it.  After all, we’ve seen what happens when the US doesn’t have a well-funded and well-established military, though eventually we became BACK TO BACK WORLD WAR CHAMPIONS AW YISS!

According to Bloomberg Technology, Google, Twitter, Microsoft, and Facebook want to go beyond the criminal laws established for freedom of speech and freedom of expression and clamp down on “hate speech” in less than 24-hours of being notified.

Now, this is being said to the European Commission, and it’s not hard to expect them to try to push for this in the United States.  And if it makes it to the States, the history of the government trying to pass SOPA and PIPPA will come to the fore again.  After all, the government will try sleight of hand: “Facebook now does it, why not make everything safer and let the government do it?”  Believe me, any censorship on the internet is bad, and it opens a whole bunch of doors that should stay shut.  However, over on the Continent (and in England) it is far easier to curtail speech of others, labeling something hate speech just because you disagree with someone.  In fact, in Canada a man by the name of Gregory Alan Elliott was arrested by Toronto police in November 2012 amid allegation he harassed two third-wave feminists over the course of several months through Twitter.  He was acquitted after two years, but during that time he couldn’t use a computer, among other stupid limitations placed on him.

In the United States we take freedom of speech for granted.  However, such things are not the same in Europe.  Facebook has been working with Germany to censor posts critical of Islamic immigration, labeling it as ‘hate speech’ even if the person isn’t saying anything particularly hateful.  Voicing concerns in Germany is now hate speech?  Of course, it’s understandable about that.  Germans, after all, are still really sore about killing over six-million people just because of their birth status.

They’re blaming the terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels (and conveniently leave out San Bernadino) for the need to curb this type of speech.  However, this won’t stop it.  Terrorism experts (and military experts) agree that radicalization is only made easier via social media, but it’s been happening for decades before Facebook and MySpace.  In a joint statement made by the conglomerates, they stated that activity needs to be “expeditiously reviewed by online intermediaries and social media platforms, upon receipt of a valid notification, in an appropriate time-frame”.

That, by the way, means 24-hours or less.

This comes on the heels of several well-known anti-SJW pages being taken down because of bot reporting (a lone person using hundreds of bots to report posts on a page, leading to it being removed).  This isn’t a hard thing to do.  Several military-themed pages I follow are on their 27^th incarnation, or more!  Some page organizers just became tired of dealing with having to constantly remake the page.

And please keep in mind, there are legitimate pages out there calling for attacks on people.  There’s a whole multitude of pages calling for attacks on Donald Trump, just as there were pages calling for attacks on George Zimmerman, Officer Darren Wilson, and many others on the “wrong” side of the “social justice debate”.  Many of them aren’t found to be in violation of Facebook’s Terms of Service until the national media gets involved.  But the minute you question mass Islamic immigration, enjoy a 24-hour post ban!

This all comes on the heels of Twitter removing the “verified” status of Milo Yiannopolous, a prominent Conservative speaker, and on the heels of the revelation that Facebook censors the news stories you see and the pages that appear in your feed.  Don’t get me wrong, as a private entity Facebook has that right, but to tell people, “No, we don’t do that” is the problem.

They want to be labeled Social Justice Warriors.  But can you be a warrior when you cry for safe spaces so your feelings aren’t hurt, and shout down prominent feminists who disagree with your brand of feminism, like spoiled children?  Looking at you, Trigglypuff.

And yes, this is chilling to free speech on the whole, ladies and gents.

I've asked for comment from several pages I follow that have been on the receiving end of Facebook's bullshittery, and will update when they get back to me.

Wook Nation: Honestly I think many Americans have become weak and too damn sensitive. If someone makes a statement that doesn't agree [with] their opinion, immediately it becomes an issue. [Facebook] is the worst at trying to suppress freedom of speech. They won't take down liberals, Black Lives Matter or Muslims hatred but you say anything derogatory about any of these groups and you're [sic] post is removed and you're banned. Anything anyone says can be defined as "hate speech" if the person hearing or reading is opposed or offended.
America is breeding spineless children. It's like the 60s again. Peace, love and happiness. They have the freedom feel that way and act foolish spreading their brand of freedom. They fail to realize freedom is not free. There's a price that brave men and women have paid with their lives. Children don't learn about [w]ars past. They learn nothing of The Holocaust. They couldn't even tell you about Pearl Harbor or DDay. Why? Because our education systems are failing [our] youth and parents do nothing. Everyone wants to paint a pretty picture of everyone living peacefully. That is the biggest crock of shit out there. It's never going to happen. Our children can't say the Pledge of Allegiance in school because it offends some people. I guess that's "hate speech" in some peoples bubble. They can't have a moment of silence but Muslims can pray so they aren't offended. My own daughter and her friends in Middle School were called an Infidel by a young Muslim boy who's father was from the Middle East. That was 7 years ago. Where did an 11 year old kid get that knowledge. Yet I was called radical for going to school and discussing it with the principal. The Father wouldn't even attend the meeting because I had spoke at a Veteran's Day assembly and he knew who I was and that I was prior military. I was told that my bringing light to the situation was being a bigot and showed intolerance. I will not go into to what I told the principal to do with his intolerance, but you know me well enough to figure it out. In short, Americans have become soft. We are no longer allowed to be Americans. We can't be proud of our heritage and we are supposed to forget the past that made us a Nation. If you're not with those people you're against them. As far as the page, we have toned it down because redoing the page over and over is exhausting. We have no reach because FB has stifled that. What happened to if you don't like something simply don't read it and move on? Aren't these folks that attack us just as guilty of posting "hate speech" in their comments to us? In the end its perception of the individual. Do we push the edge? Sure we do. It's just words, but these days words will get you locked up for verbal assault. What have we allowed to happen?

+++++

United States Meme Corps: And that's where political correctness has ruined society. People are so scared of hurting someone's feelings that they aren't even telling the truth anymore. It is leading to the destruction of society. When you silence the masses for fear of hurting the few you will eventually lose all creativity and honesty.
Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-31/tech-giants-vow-to-tackle-online-hate-speech-within-24-hours

Goblin's Fairy Tales

So I ended up reading Gevlon's blog post, with his “very lenient peace terms”.  It’s almost sad, how self-deluded he is, that he’s some amazing EVE Online player, and yet he doesn’t seem to engage in PvP.  He pays others to do it for him.  His killboard is a joke: 12 kills, 4 losses.  He’s been in an NPC corporation since he started the game in 2012.  He’s made ISK in-game, sure, but where does it all go?  Well, into the pockets of people he has do all his work for him!  There’s no risk to him while he stays docked in station, though I’m fairly confident he has a PvP character elsewhere, cleverly disguised so as to not be traceable.  Plausible deniability.  Hell, he’s probably in Goonswarm itself!

The verbiage leads one to believe he has a severely narcissistic personality, much as many self-important.  The constant reminder that he is paying people to kill Goon ships in high sec, to fight them in null, to do X and Y, but never actually giving a neutral viewpoint.  Oftentimes this is a good indication that the opposite side of the coin is something that frightens him.  But we’re not going back years to explain killboards, ISK efficiency, shifting battle lines because of gameplay changes, or the like.  What we are looking at is the claims made.

First, we look at Sov changes.  When “Fozzie Sov” was introduced, almost every null-sec group agreed that this would change the outlook of sov-holding alliances, and that it would be better to foxus on smaller groups holding areas of sov, all under the protective umbrella of the larger alliances.  This changed the names on some areas, but overall didn’t change much, because even though several groups hold areas in Tribute, Pure Blind, etc., they’re also falling into the sphere of influence of Goonswarm, and other groups.  More alliances also means it allows those groups to take care of their own sov issues: they can hunt down and defend their IHubs, TCUs, and command nodes, and request reinforcements from other groups rather than force those groups to do so all over the area.  For example, even though Goonswarm today was looking to defend their sov space, Tactical Narcotics Team did the same, and it allowed for multiple groups to do the same thing, work together, and keep their sphere intact.  This is similar to how combat operations after an invasion happens: decisions and operations are planned out and carried out at the regimental or battalion level, which is how one should look at alliances.  The larger division or corps might decide the objectives, but how those objectives are achieved can be left at the smaller group levels.  This allows for a rapid change in a fluid combat environment, which Imperium is capable of doing.

Goonswarm wasn’t alone in this outlook: as stated previously, almost every other null-sec entity said that this would be the better way to run sov after the changes, so it’s no surprise that much of the space around Deklein is held by other entities: Circle-of-Two, Tactical Narcotics Team, SpaceMonkey’s Alliance, and Fidelas Constans all own space around them, offering not just a buffer, but allies if required.

More to the point, the attacks going on right now don’t hit Goonswarm-held space.  The attacks are focused on the other alliances with-in the Imperium, in the hopes of fracturing and destroying the coalition brick by brick.  Mordus Angels continue to attacks SMA and TNT holdings, and even attempt to damage the IHubs of CONDI systems, but the bulk of the fighting is aimed at the other alliances in the Imperium.  It would be impossible right now to try to take sov from Goonswarm, and the hope is that enough small chips will force Goons to pick and choose who to help, and thus cause the ones who aren’t aided to view it as a betrayal and splinter off.  This hasn’t worked, though, and the Imperium (to include Goons proper) have come to the aid of each other.  While people tout successes at hitting SMA, for example, they ignore the utter failings of engaging and dismantling of their fleets when the rest of the Imperium shows up.  It could be argued that SMA’s loss of numbers is a direct consequence of this focused effect, but the truth is no one has bothered to ask the CEOs of those corporations why they left. Not even me.  And I’ll admit that I have feelers out to get the reasons why they left, which may be between “we can’t rat and make money” to “we are tired of losing our damn Jackdaws”.

Is it possible that this is a direct result of attacks on Goonswarm?  Absolutely.  The more poignant and relevant question is, is this likely?  Not by a long shot.  Changes in game mechanics require changes in how the players play and act; and while Gevlon will gladly tell you how much MoA and TISHU have destroyed, he conveniently leaves out how much they have lost.  He makes no distinction between kills of GSF members that have only those members on it: as long as one person is on the kill—whoring or otherwise—it counts.  If the same metric were used, there’s a good chance the opposite would be true.  But we’re not here to debate years of killboard statistics, because that would require time to go through individual killmails since 2014.  It simply shows the lack of specificity in his claims (this is a trend of Gevlon’s).

Second, Sion being banned from the CSM: no, that hasn’t happened.  At worst, he’s been ostracized, but that isn’t the same as being banned.  More to the point, it call into question CCP’s commitment to the players, because it seems anyone who has a disagreement with CCP’s decisions is similarly ostracized, with CCP even blatantly saying the CSM was not the “normal channels” for communication with developers, despite that being one of the core reasons for having the CSM, especially in lieu of the Incarna debacle.

Okay, now on to the loveable claims made by Gevlon, about TMC losing views.  What metric does he use for that?  What site does he base this on?  Well, his post on 18 November 2015 linked to Alexa, which showed a decline in visits, absolutely.  However, checking that site 23 February 2016 shows that they haven’t kept track of the site’s traffic at all since October! (Source).  However, a different source shows only a slight downtrend beginning 01 August 2015 and ending 01 January 2016, 640,000 hits to 630,000 hits, for those respective dates. (Source).  So while a general viewership loss of 10,000 might be a loss, it’s really nothing in the scheme of things, especially when you consider that the numbers seem to fluctuate depending on the month.  01 November 2015, for example, saw 520,000 visits, so obviously those numbers continue to go up.

So the claims are either fabrications, untruths, or impossible to quantify and qualify because of missing information.  In any of the three possibilities, it shows the bias and the blinders being worn by Gevlon.  Is he getting his money’s worth?  The return seems to be saying he is.  But is the end game being achieved?  Not likely.  What is being lost is a pittance in the grand scheme of things, and the facts Goons continue to run strong two years after this began speaks volumes towards this point.

Now, let’s look at his demands, which are laughable, at the very least.

First, he demands a complete stoppage of suicide ganking by Imperium members.  That isn’t going to happen, and he knows it.  There’s a lot of ISK made with Burn Jita, a lot of tears generated.  It actually helps the economy.  Also, what’s to stop those people who engage in it from dropping to NPC corporations, or dropping to CODE. and continuing the fun and games?  He knows there’s ways around it.  What’s he going to do, complain some more?  Blow more ISK to kill a bunch of -10 pilots?  He essentially wants high sec to become safer, when it is already incredibly safe.  If anything, right now high sec space is safer today than when it was when I started playing in 2009!  People don’t want to watch their monitors when hauling through Niarja and Uedama, let them pay the price for complacency.  Suicide ganking has a plethora of punishments already attached.  Just because you don’t like them doesn’t mean that it isn’t something that is valid, and CCP has said this multiple times.

Second, he demands that Goonswarm make the Imperium five alliances instead of the current 11.  He demands Mittani pick and choose who to keep in the coalition, which means if you’re not chosen, there will be hurt feelings.  When Gevlon expects is that if a group is kicked, they’ll be required to hand their sov to other Imperium members, and then Gevlon can go to those alliances and say, “You were slighted, you should totally join me in disbanding Goons!”  It’s a clever metagame, but it’s easy to spot.  More to the point, earlier in this post he said that Goons already tell people what to do, that autonomy in the coalition is impossible to gain.  He claims Goons run the show, and he doesn’t like it.  But he’s okay just this once if Mittens flexes his muscle and tells people what to do here.  It falls into his metagame.

Finally, he demands an apology to Mordus Angels, among others.  That’s not gonna’ happen, again.  He claims they are the “best PvPers” around, but the truth is that in an engagement of similar numbers and similar ship types, Imperium forces usually come out on top.  Mordus Angels and Psychotic Tendancies. tend to run from fights in which they do not control the field via numbers or larger, more expensive, and/or better ships.  That’s fine, no one wants to risk their ship and pod if they aren’t going to get some kills.  But what comes out at the end of the day is the self-delusion of Gevlon.  If anything, the fact people are upset over words said on forums, on Reddit, and over propaganda and have seen fit to generate content over it should be commended, because that is what null sec needs: more fights, whether good or not.

Gevlon reminds me of those people in World of Warcraft, who talk a big game, but when push comes to shove there’s no real consequences.  You can be an ass all you want, but there’s safety in those games, there’s no fear of losing what you have earned.  As I said, maybe he has a PvP character outside of his character that is in no way affiliated, but who knows?  He is no different than the people he tries to vilify, and is guilty of projecting his own shortcomings on others.