Never the twain shall meet

This just by way of a quick follow up on the previous post where your author went ganking...

I promised Agent Liek DarZ I would run the post by him for comment.  I convo'd him in game and asked him to take a look at the preview.  Unfortunately he was a bit busy and did not get around to it until the post went live (unintended - I played around with schedules and failed...).  There goes all my professional journalistic integrity...

I screwed up and seeing that he paid me the courtesy of replying to my email with the important things he considers omitted, I feel it is only right that I post them - even if he insists that I do not have to:

"Found it went live anyway already ;-), but just my short impression:
almost looks flattering, kind of, as it is often about me, but that is probably because of the close, personal perspective. 

Something I would not consider an omission, as we did not talk about it, but you mentioned it yourself - the treatment of gankees/other players (even before being ganked). There is no need for you to add it, as, like I said, it did not come up really during our conversation, but just to state it towards you:

I never dig for tears, and will gladly explain all the mechanics of ganking (and thus also how to avoid them) to whoever is interested. Especially new players often are open to that part - as they are still learning and probably do not take "This is mine" as a given. 

Yet, of course once people start to threaten me with non-consensual intercourse into inappropriate orifices of mine, they lose all of my sympathy, and yes, I start collecting their rage then. If they make a choice of (mis)treating an individual (me) like that, they are in it by themselves. 

OTOH, in the rare cases I kill true newbies, I will gladly throw some millions their way and tell them to pick a Procurer, for the saviour's sake. It is all about what they WANT to learn, or if they rather insist on getting a safe theme park game where EVE is not designed that way.  

Take away from me personally - I have developed a routine, and I do not have any sympathy when being raged on, but I am not a cold-hearted killer ;-) As you saw, I explained everything to you that may have interested you. 

All the best, and have a nice EVE, 

Liek.

Now personally I find I am too much of a softie to be a successful ganker.  My conscience bothers me.  So I have to confess that my sympathies probably slant towards the "gankees"

As Turamarth Elrandir pointed out in the comments section yesterday - miners and industrialists have a point. He clearly doesn't care much for the narrative of CODE, or gankers in general.

His is very much a live and let live mentality viz a viz the philosophy of playing EVE.  Playing the way you want to, and NOT being forced to play according to another players' vision or imposition.

Have a look at the blog roll to the left - CODE is listed under role playing and as far as I can tell that is accurate.  This is an important point to remember - EVE is a game.

Liek in this respect raised some valid points of his own - one theme is that gankers are people too.  Most of them happen to be nice guys.  Threats of real life violence, comments about one's mother and so on are just not on - even if you were ganked.

What is clear though is that ganking is a very sensitive subject - emotions stir up in a way I have rarely seen - just have a look at the comments section of any post on the Miner Bumping site.

Even guys like Turamarth who as far as I can tell, are very inclusive (and has not been a victim of CODE to my knowledge) get plenty riled up:

"Well, anyone with guns, knives and bats can beat the piss out of anyone who is unarmed and cannot fight back... and as your friend said, ...He ship scans his targets beforehand to ensure that he brings enough dps to guarantee a kill... So yeah, not something I'd ever do and feel even a trace of pride in."

In the end I have no solution as to what is right and what is wrong - and in truth this debate has raged longer than your author cares to remember.  The cases of both sides presented by people far smarter than himself.

In the end one can only change what you yourself do within the game as it is.

Despite misgivings by Turamarth likening my action to tilting at the windmills - in an ill considered attempt to "...bring justice to the world, under the name Don Quixote." - I will take up Liek DarZ' offer and do a follow up on some advice on how to avoid a gank - inclusive of your authors' own dastardly twists on it, that probably does more harm than good....