Force me once, force me twice.. count me out

It's been a while since I blogged here. I wanted to comment on a blog, but since the proprietor of that blog doesn't allow comments, I'll have to dig up this here old thing and publish my thoughts here.

I was reading Namamai's blog and happened upon this quote:

My suspicion is that wardecs (and the peacedec/minedec/tradedec ideas) are offensive to people not because they’re asymmetric, or even because that they force you into a different play-style.  They are offensive to people because they are inherently competitive, and not everyone enjoys competition — of any kind.

He may have a point, for all I know. Miners are often pretty peaceful, minding their own business, sometimes banding together for the sake of Orca boosts. But to me, the issue with wardecs/peacedecs and to some extent griefing, afk cloaking and such isn't the competitiveness, but indeed 'that they force you into a different play style'.

From experience I know that Eve has a diverse population. Some pilots are still in school, college or university, while others have a day job and a family. Yet others are retired: pensioners flying spaceships! Pilot ages vary from 8 to 72 I'd wager.

I fall into the '40 something guy, employed, with a family' cohort. And in these turbulent economic times, having a mortgage and a family to support isn't exactly a stress free exercise. At my work, reorganizations and layoffs seem to be the rule lately, rather than the exception; it's been ongoing for over a year and is set to last until 2016 at least.

So when I log in at night - one of those increasingly rare nights when I find the time and energy to actually do so - I really could do without 'being forced into a different play style'. My stress levels are already too high, and all I want to do is relax and have a good time with my corp mates. If there's PVP, I will probably join (and I don't mind losing a ship), but if there's nothing going on I might shoot red crosses for a bit, while admiring the work of the Eve art team. But I don't want to spend my gaming time being someone else's content.

Ripard once pointed out that CCP is in the business of selling fun. I am their customer, I am paying to relax and enjoy myself. If I can't get that (reliably) in Eve, I'll have to look somewhere else.