First Steps of an Aspiring Podcaster

It’s an incredible journey of nerves, trial and error, and dedication. For about the past year, I’ve been running around the idea of doing an Eve Online podcast for several reasons. Firstly, in a creative sense it’s easier for me to get an entertaining format together rather than taking the time to blog. Secondly, I wanted something more to explore some newly-found creativity with audio media. That said, there’s several hurdles that I had to conquer before I could even sit down and record.

Doing a podcast is far from easy. I knew this going in, but I continue to be confident that as I get more experience, it’ll become easier. So, the first hurdle in doing a podcast is yourself. Are you disciplined enough to keep improving yourself? Do you have a unique idea for show content or format? Are you willing to accept failure? Most importantly, are you willing enough to say, “yes I suck at doing this, but I’ll get better.” – aka, humility. Lastly, are you willing to ask for help? I guarantee you that if you’re doing your first podcast, you’ll have a much easier time if you accept help.

The first thing I learned from various podcasting mentors while creating this monstrosity was that my first attempt was going to suck. The quicker I accepted that and tried not to overcompensate for it, the better. This in of itself will cause more people not to even attempt podcasting. They feel they have to come out swinging and knock it out of the park or they’re doomed. This isn’t the case y’all. The Heat Sink probably is a short-lived endeavor at least until it finds it’s own path and eventually gets relabeled because the origins are unrecognizable. In other words, it’s going to eventually fail but in a metamorphic sense.

Personally, I don’t like the sound of my own voice over media, but I’m confident that as I invest in some better equipment, I can tune it better and not sound like I’m talking in a tin can. Once that happens, I’ll probably get more comfortable with it. This is especially true as I compare my recorded voice with that of people like Zendane, Random McNally, and Mike Azariah. I’m not trying to reach Barry White or Morgan Freeman levels of voice quality, but I will continue to work on tone, personality, and tempo to attain a semi-radio quality.

I’m learning to accept constructive criticism and put it to work. I think that was made apparent between episodes 1 and 2. In response to feedback, I toned down the volume on the background tracks, brought in live guests, and worked on not chasing so many squirrels during commentary. The difference between the episodes is astounding to me, but I still see many areas I can improve on:

1 – A more solid closing. In Ep. 2 I didn’t give my own shout-outs.

2 – Didn’t plug myself for iTunes, Stitcher, EvePodcasts.com, or FeedBurner

3 – Didn’t adjust closing music levels once my voice track ended in Audacity.

It’s a work in progress, y’all. 🙂 The commentary and satire is for entertainment. If anyone takes anything I say seriously, you may need to just not listen. LOL

The Heat Sink Podcast – Episode 1

Show Notes:

Intro What I’ve been doing in game lately. – Not a whole hell of a lot.

BRAVE versus Pandemic Legion

Latest TEST and BRAVE propaganda videos:

Parody: Rixx Javix Warp Stab commercial

T3 Destroyer Theorycrafting

Solo kill of the week: https://zkillboard.com/kill/42372352/

Final Word Segment: Podcast PvP

Special message regarding your real life health.

Shoutouts:
Random McNally
High Drag Podcast Crew
Connall Tara and Turtle
Whole bunch of folks.

GROON Link to RMT?

(This is a developing story. Any corroborating accounts and sources have not been verified. Due to the nature of the subject, it is being discussed due to the severity of it’s implications. The evidence presented has not been verified for authenticity or accuracy. All sources and material are to be taken at their own merit.) 

If the provided evidence by Duckslayer is to be proven accurate, a bomb may have just been dropped on the Failheap Challenge forums. Supplying HTML sources and screenshots from the Greater Goon forums, it would appear that “A Rose Pedalar” has been engaging in RMT for some time (as much as over two years) by grinding rats and missions with the aid of 2 PCs running 11 virtual machines.

 

The FHC forum thread can be found HERE.

From the forum HTML that appears to have active links to current information, it would seem that operations were on a temporary hiatus due to someone fumbling the ball about the codeword used to discuss the ill-gotten PLEX. Ironically, the codeword is the same used by escorts – Roses.

 

Verification from either parties or by CCP is not available at this time. However, the heated discussions of why this suddenly came out now rather than then is a subject of much discussion going on in the failheap thread. Speculation or discussions regarding the specific details can be found there.

(More on this story as it develops)

Normally, I don’t do news. As I said in my preface, the only reason I post this is so we can get to the bottom of it. We don’t need another Somerblink ragefest full of drama that hurts our community. I ask that we give the matter due diligence and not jump to conclusions. This is a CCP matter and should be investigated accordingly. Thank you all.

~Proto

Let’s conduct an experiment, shall we?

Well, I certainly got a lot more than I bargained for when I talked about the need to clarify RMT, especially when it comes to out of game activities like Twitch streaming. In the preceding article, Don’t Blink  I offered up an argument for RMT based on a solid argument given by the crew of the High Drag Podcast. It struck me as a curious and powerful argument despite the fact that I LOVE Twitch streamers like Fintarue who inspire me.

I thought the point was just a little more powerful than Ashterothi realized. Setting out to answer the question of Twitch streamers giving in-game prizes to subscribers and it’s relation to the Somerblink Pt. 3 scandal, I blogged about it and hoped to get a few nibbles. Next day, I discovered traffic from Reddit so I set out to see what was being said.

Firstly, I’d like to thank “SeriousSpaceships” for the linkup. This also appeared to be a first poster, so take that with a grain of salt. That said, the title of the linked post on Reddit was a bit out of context. In my fascination to get the topic out, perhaps I came across as accusatory. Let me assure everyone that this was definitely not the case. Again, I support our communities out of game (with notable exceptions because of content or drama). But out of the haze of typical Reddit crap posts, some nuggets of enlightenment and understanding of the context were starting to surface on the gold pan. I decided to take control of the Reddit thread and try to steer the helm on topic, despite it’s rocky start.

Now, I’m not saying that Reddit is a be-all-end-all definitive source of information and scientific accuracy, but some of the responses honestly took me aback. The people who raged about the post were just sick of the RMT issue and didn’t want to hear any more tinfoil (and honestly, I don’t blame them). But the few who were actually trying to help me defend and give reasoning against Ashterothi’s argument just made absolutely no sense to me:

“The whole thing has to be extremely repetitive and consequential. If a guy gives me ISK which he expects to be repayed at a time and place, sometime in the future, maybe, if i want to, in IRL money… That’s not RMT.”

“But it isn’t “for every X ISK I give away I gain Y $” the giveaways, contests and the like hopefully attract viewers and subscribers however they do not promise either. The Somer RMT plot was based on “buy this item from the dude who pays me, I will give you X amount of ISK for the item you used $ to pay for.” thus direct ISK to $.”

“Yeah because lowtax is swimming in money from Goonwaffe J4Gs, and J4Gs are unequivocally accepted into Goonwaffe.”

So the reasoning that we were given depended greatly on circumstances such as:

1. Amount of revenue
2. Frequency of revenue
3. The inherent stability of the revenue stream.

Overall, at about a 50% margin throughout the day, people seem to be divided among the responders to the thread. The Reddit topic floated all day from +5 to -3 and stabilized by tonight at a +1 51% rating. That tells me that despite the typical Reddit flak cannons, this does seem to be a concern of a random sample of people about just how far CCP COULD feasibly go if it chose to take up this subject as an RMT issue. Again, this is totally NOT scientific in the least, but the results are fascinating to me.

Now. Do I think CCP would ever get involved in Twitch revenue? Hell no. Then again, I didn’t think Obama would get a second term so there you go. I want to thank Ashterothi and the crew of the High Drag Podcast again for the inspiration of this little social experiment. Fintarue and all you other Twitch streamers: Keep doing what you’re doing. Give those prizes, make some pocket cash, and may you always have targets to publicly blow up. Thank you all for participating and we’ll see you next time!

7o

Don’t Blink

Proto

I was never good at these things anyway to be perfectly honest. I’ll admit I blew a good PLEX worth of isk of more playing the micro lotteries offered by SomerBlink. This is surprising to me because I haven’t dropped a dime on other sites like Evebet or some other out of game site. Yes, and I did so after the first Somer fiasco. Sue me. I just never saw the big deal.

So this time the argument about SomerBlink boiled down to the fact that Somer was giving in-game isk benefits through their PLEX buyback program if you bought the time codes through Markee Dragon, thereby giving Somer a few real life bucks for the referral. Offer a good buyout price on the PLEX after they were converted from time codes and people will use you for all their cash for isk needs. Brilliant.

In simple terms:

1) You bought time codes from Markee through Somer’s referral link.

2) Somer received their share of the referral revenue from Markee.

3) Somer gave you an extra few million isk for your PLEX if you used the referral.

So this basically translated into RMT because Somer gave you something in game to use them as your PLEX megastore. Hmmm… so you’re not allowed to give an in-game item for real life monetary gain. Interesting. Because I’m pretty sure that Twitch streamers have been doing that for some time – getting subscriber revenue by giving away ships and PLEX on their channels in return for the real life revenue they generate through subscribers.

Now I know this sounds just argumentative on the surface, but if we’re going to call RMT every time someone makes a buck by giving out stuff in game, the circumstance that I just explained must be taken into consideration. This is why CCP needs an iron-clad RMT policy to explain why one form of in game prizes for real life revenue is okay, but another isn’t. Don’t misunderstand me, I support people who stream games on Twitch. They’re entertaining and bring people into the game. I think they SHOULD be monetarily rewarded for their efforts. But if I’m going to stay objective, I have to bring all possibilities under the same scrutiny.

This isn’t going to be a popular argument. Then again, my opinions are usually pretty contestable. I’m curious to know what the community thinks.

 

7o

Ghost In The Game

I want to apologize to everyone. It’s taken me a very long time to come to grips with the reality that I couldn’t handle the present-day society in Eve. In essence, I rage quit; but not because of some in-game plans that went awry. It wasn’t due to a substantial lossmail, corp drama, real life interference, or interactions with certain players.

I quit out of disappointment.

I was disappointed in the current state of the community and the decisiveness the Erotica1 scandal caused and the gasoline poured on the fire by trusted voices of the community out to make a name for themselves. I did submit a final article into the team at Crossing Zebras, but I did not expect it to get ran. As a matter of fact, I hoped it wouldn’t get published. It was a tirade of broken feelings, hurt, and shock at what we had become.

So I gave up. I left without saying a word. I let a few people down in the process, and I’m sorry.

I’ll spare you my last submission to Xander and Jeg. It’s of no relevance as the incident is long past us. I don’t know if I’ll be returning to the game, but I am continuing to keep my ear to the floor in the community through podcasters and bloggers when news breaks. Just think of this as an “I’m still thinking about you all” letter. Hopefully, when I do return, I can save some face and get back to business as usual.

7o Gang

Setting the Record Straight

(What you are about to read is the raw and uncut story that took place on Twitter on February 12, 2014 between myself and Eve Radio. This is merely to provide the back story and the context to those who are wondering why the events with Big Country’s show struck such a chord with me. Furthermore, this blog post is not to be construed as attacking, slandering, or otherwise promoting that everyone should share the same feelings I have regarding Eve Radio, DJ Wiggles, or Big Country. This opinion piece does not represent the opinions of Crossing Zebras, its staff, or its editors. I’ll try to make every effort to keep from personalizing this incident.)

Protovarious

Okay. Where to begin? Let’s just dive right into some back story.

Our tale begins back on September 19th, 2013. DJ Wiggles goes on a little tryst about his opinions regarding Podside, its format, guests, and obvious bias. It all started with this one tweet:

Surprisingly, FrFrmPukin took the high ground and stayed out of the Twitter conversation. It boiled over until he finally reached his breaking point on Episiode 141 of Podside.

Four months later on January 17, 2014 DJ Wiggles then offered up some “constructive feedback” for FrFrmPukin at Podside. The entire thread conversation that took place can be found here:

Now. Although DJ Wiggles certainly has a right to his opinion, I do agree with Pukin that Wiggles should have exercised some professional courtesy and kept any creative criticism off of Twitter. I would have to venture to say that if I was in Pukin’s place, it would’ve been extremely difficult not to take this personally. Eve Radio has been an entertainment force almost since day one. Podcasters, especially FrFrmPukin and Podside, actually lift up Eve Radio as one of, if not THE, ambassadors of the game community and it’s eclectic culture.

I’m not going to bother pasting up all of the conversation. You can click the link above and view it yourself. I’m not out to twist the facts or take anyone’s words out of context. That said, there’s one tweet in particular that I want you to pay attention to:

While Wiggles may genuinely believe that he can distance his opinions from that of Eve Radio, unfortunately he has two things working against this theory in my opinion. First is that his Twitter @ name contains GRN – Gaming Radio Network. Therefore, as long as he wears that title as his ID, he represents GRN. To my mind, this is the equivalent of sending out “unofficial” correspondence on a company letterhead. Secondly, he also administrates the Eve Radio Twitter account also under GRN. Identifying himself to the community of Eve Online as a representative of GRN on both accounts makes his voice that of GRN, no matter the case. In any event, this time Pukin directly confronted Wiggles on Twitter.

Now, with that in mind let’s get into the meat and potatoes of the events that unfolded a couple of days ago.

Through Eve Radio’s Rewind, you can listen to Big Country’s show on the 12th of February. The material I call into question comes in the last 20 minutes of the show. Now, I would take issue with the “interview” that came before, but that’s just Big Country. In particular, his remarks and tone seem to downplay podcasting as a “lesser” form of media entertainment for his various reasons. You’re free to take his comments how ever you’d like and make your own choice. As for me, it set off warning bells as we now have two members representing GRN publicly criticizing podcasting. So in my mind, the score is now 2 – 0. I had had enough at this point:

Honestly, I expected to just leave that out there. I had no idea of the shitstorm that was about to follow. The conversation came in multiple parts. But once again Wiggles is trying to distance their opinions from that of the radio station at GRN:

Now comes the part where I got a little more than perturbed:

You mean give Wiggles the same courtesy that he refused to give to Pukin? No, I’m sorry. I felt that it was time to call him out on this hypocrisy. As GRN staff have made their opinions known publicly, I was free to do the same. Professional courtesy went out the window and I went both guns blazing. Did I handle this in the ideal way? In retrospect, perhaps not. However, as my sixth grade teacher taught me, I said what I meant and I meant what I said.

As I also said on Twitter, I love this community. I have NO desire whatsoever to see game media compete with one another. This goes for bloggers, podcasts, radio, and forum warriors alike. I feel there is a serious lack of professional courtesy coming from GRN and its staff that threatens to start animosity between us and I won’t stand idly by as the very fabric of the relationships we have in the out of game communities go by the wayside. EVERYONE puts forth their heart and souls into what they do. You don’t have to like the content, but you’d better respect the time and effort that went into creating it in the first place.

To DJ Wiggles: I have nothing but respect for GRN and it’s continuing efforts to remain a self funded source of entertainment for this entire community. I thoroughly enjoy quite a bit of programming while I’m on the road every day. FreightTrain, Dunewolf, Sarge, and FunkyBacon are my favorites. But until I see improvements in professionalism between your staff and the community, I hold to my opinion. I won’t be tuning in or urging support for GRN or Eve Radio specifically.

The Art of Tears – The Meta of Mean

A lone miner sits in high sec staring at his screen watching the pulsing of lasers play with the asteroids before him. It’s a 0.5 system so there is somewhat a sense of alertness, but not enough to distract him from his coffee and perhaps nudging his cat playing at his feet amongst the tangled web of cords that run behind the desk. While he looks down, a lone Catalyst destroyer warps into the belt and very slowly, non-threateningly, seems to be scouring about the belt.

“Could he be looking for rats? What’s he doing? Can’t he see that there’s nobody here but me?”

Okay, so we all know how this goes down. Destroyer locks miner; destroyer kills miner; miner is podded before Concord blows the griefer into space dust. What follows is usually one of two events – nothing but silence or nothing but tears. When the why’s and public conversation starts, most high-sec gankers usually use this opportune moment to teach the victim about why he got ganked and how he can avoid it in the future. But for some, ganking is a trollfest of “QQ more, noob!” and “HTFU”. But when the attacks on the griefer get personal, that’s usually when things go very badly for the victim. Tentron (for those who remember the videos) was a master at extracting tears to an unreal level. In case you don’t remember:

Fatal Legalese

During my time in Fatal Ascension, I read about the story of SETC’s infamous robbery of over 250 billion from FA. The ensuing hilarity that followed was of false legal claims because FA promptly (and justifiably) blacklisted SETC. The Mittani.com article on this subject back in 2012 contains the information straight to Fatal Ascension’s message boards. The disastrous attempt at bluffing through fictitious legal jargon destroyed many a keyboard with the eruptions of beverages that were spewed uncontrollably.

Recently, we had yet another example of what happens when you take the game, the smack talk, and the meta way too seriously. For months there’s been an uneasy tension on the Podside podcast between Red and the other guests of the show. Now to what degree Red is at fault here is up for debate based on your point of view, but I think for the most part the general consensus was that things were taken a bit too seriously causing Red to fly off the handle at the end of Episode 172. The ensuing rage spilled over to the after show where Red supposedly made a personal attack on Spear and his wife causing Bronya to stop playing nice go back on the offensive. A very inebriated Harri then had enough of the conversation and basically called for the dropping of the ban hammer, which was shortly leveled.

So what have we learned?

Griefers will always be around. The psychological reasons are irrelevant as far as I’m concerned. Whether you participate in it or are the victim of it, you will always come out the laughing stock if you try to play the game on the griefer’s level. If someone ganks you and you spend time trying to extract revenge, griefer claims victory – they altered your gameplay whether you were successful or not. If said griefer simply scams you out of isk and you take to the forums, griefer claims victory – you now look like a gullible crybaby. If you are easily agitated to the point of yelling and screaming, griefer doesn’t have to claim victory – you’re pretty much going to make yourself look like an idiot who probably deserved what he got.

Now, I don’t fancy myself as someone who’d enjoy griefing or piracy. It’s just not in my nature. I do however, revel in the stories of fantastic tears harvested from the eyes of the dirty varmint who probably would just as soon unsub from the game before ever partaking in any kind of PvP. Don’t be deceived: griefing is PvP on, what feels like, a more personal level. It’s personal because you allowed yourself to be put in a situation where not only were you caught off guard, but taken advantage of. That’s what the tear farmer feeds upon, the personal nature of griefing his mark. It may sound inherently evil, but taking advantage of a sucker is just how the world’s always worked. It’s only through the pseudo anonymity of the internet that seems to manifest more people willing to take from someone just because they can without real consequences.

So, how do you win against griefing tactics and scammers? THANK THEM! Seriously.

Show appreciation for their efforts. They may have detoured your gameplay for a few minutes and cost you some isk, but they probably spent HOURS trying to find just the right target. None of this is personal. To them, you are pixels on a screen, isk in their wallet, or an easy target of personal trolling. If your personality is of a sensitive nature and you are prone to being offended easily, this is NOT the game for you. If you exercise just a little restraint to prevent yourself from going overboard, you’ll find that you can have fun at your own expense.

In some cases, I’ve even heard about the victim turning the tables who convo’ed the attacker, smothered them with kindness, then actually made the ganker upset because he wasted all this time and isk…for a compliment? A few years ago, I got blapped pretty hard trying to move some stuff out of null. Lack of due diligence on my part cost me a load of BPCs and a Dramiel. Now since this was back before killboards distinquished between BPC and BPO, the isk loss calculated still haunts my stats to this day. Since then, it’s affected every aspect of my gameplay from a defensive standpoint. I just don’t take those kind of risks anymore.

So never any tears shall be shed from these eyes. Gankers taught me more than I ever learned from playing without PvP. Thank you to all who participate in this meta. May your tear harvest be plentiful…and don’t be afraid to share the stories!

Confessions of a High Drag Podcast Contest Loser

Protovarious

Beginning of December. I finish my inspection of the truck and just before I take off from Texas to California, Random McNally and the rest of the High Drag crew drop the bomb about an introduction contest. Ideas began to flood my head as I headed west. All night, I kept thinking of music backgrounds, the way I wanted to format it, etc.

Did I want it to be funny?

Did I want it Dramatic?

God…WHAT MUSIC DO I USE?????

Taking my break in El Paso, I broke out my older laptop, downloaded an open-source sound editor as well as several back episodes of High Drag then got to work. Like most people, I don’t like the sound of my own voice at times, so what do? Ah, how about an open source reader to go with the software I’m downloading! At the break-neck speed of a truck stop wi-fi connection, data streamed through at the pace of a sleeping snail nailed to a two-by-four. Coming back from eating some dinner and taking a shower, I set off to work.

Funny. Yes, it had to be somewhat of a parody. All of the moments about the podcasts that I remember were hilarious moments done at the drop of a hat. I snipped a few clips of each of the panelists and thought about a theme. I imagined a clone bay coming to life then set the narration to do the introduction of each member of the podcast as if they were rising from their suspended animation.

“Clearance request for incoming transmission: Granted…Clone bay accessed…”

It just began to fall together. Doom music in the background, I set out to create something both epic and funny. “Genious!” I thought to myself. This is going to be great!

Then, just before the holidays, the rules changed. No longer was this for a Plex and a Daredevil…but FOUR Plex and THREE Daredevils. Now, understanding that I’m Eve poor, this now officially turned into a “Oh, that’d be nice.” to “ZOMG I’m gonna be SPACE RICH!!!11!”. But alas…I was the only entry thus far. I didn’t want to win by freaking DEFAULT! So I set to the boards, Twitter, and spread as much word as I could.

Judgement day. Another night at a truckstop back in Amarillo, Texas patiently waiting for Fintarue to start his twitch stream. Bandwidth was better tonight. The video was choppy, but I could hear the crew doing their preshow preparation in the background. It was kinda cheating, but I did hear Random read off the results to get confirmation from Fintarue, Asherothi, and Zealot that these were the agreed upon results. They confirmed it and the recording began.

Eight minutes of intros, hellos, and updates from each of the panelists. I knew where I placed, I just wanted to hear the other two competitor’s submissions. This was freaking killing me. What beat me? What didn’t I think of? Was I off base with what the panel wanted to hear?

Then the playbacks began, first that of the third place winner; who’s introduction, while clear and according to the rules, was a bit slow for me. Nothing really jumped out and grabbed me. Sorta felt like I was going to be listening to a Deaf Poetry Jam podcast. It was good, but I could understand why the panel didn’t select it. Next was mine. Fin really liked the music set to it and Random seemed to really appreciate the clips I used…

Come on…play the freaking winner already!!!!

Epic music sets in. Clips from mission control in Apollo 13 cue up with self intros from the panel followed by, “This…is High Draaaag”. It was good. Damn, it was good. The cutting was seamless and the volumes were spot on. I had to comment in channel that it was good. Better than mine. This seemed to be the story of Goldilocks and the Eve Bears. First one too cold, the second too hot, with the third juuuuuust riiiight.

In the end, I came out with the Plex and Daredevil that I participated for in the first place so to me I won either way. 🙂 Congratulations to the winner of the High Drag Intro Contest!

…I’ll be back!

Listen to the Intro (right click to save)

“Meta” or “Made Up”?

Protovarious

So, here we have it. The CSM minutes are finally out and the tears not only continue, but the whole faucet has exploded off the pipe and the geyser of  Ol’ Tearful  is flooding the house and threatening to drown us all.

Alright, maybe that is a bit of an overstatement, but I deliberately put my opening in that kind of “sky is falling” context to illustrate what we’re going to discuss today.  When Eve spin doctors become so overly-dramatized in an effort to either gain followers, promote their corporation or alliance, influence changes on the game, or just generally being drama queen attention whores, the real out of game war begins.  For most players, they disregard anything they don’t agree with and carry about their daily existence in-game because it’s not worth their time.

Unfortunately for the spin doctors, I am not one of these people. (Begins singing ‘Two Princes’) Ahem, my bad.  So since there is so much we could cover, let’s try to keep it TL;DR in an attempt to dry a few eyes.

When you’re reading any kind of article regarding Eve Online (Yes, even this one) there are several questions I suggest that you ask yourself:

1. Is this a biased source that will stand to gain an unfair or unjustified advantage by proposing this point of view?
2. Are the proposals or opinions contained in said article helpful or hurtful to the game or community?
3. Has there been ample discussion on the topic, or does it warrant further examination?
4. Is there a CCP conclusion to the argument?
5. Is the opinion or idea expressed backed up by fact, a conjecture of loose facts, or emotion?
6. Finally, what is the best course of action for CCP to take in the interests of their BUSINESS?

I emphasize business because as players, we often neglect the delicate balance between what the players may want versus what’s in the game’s best interest as a business. Sometimes, ideas for improving CCP’s business by changing things about the game are difficult to swallow (cough, Ripard Teg). But we’ll take more about how game changes directly impact the business in another article. For now, let’s focus on the importance of proper analysis of data when it’s used in a debate or argument about the game or it’s mechanics.

Examples:

• The sentry drone argument exalted by Dabigredboat HERE and the subsequent obliteration of that article by Grath HERE, while good to eat popcorn by, is an example of “Made Up”. While loosely based on scattered data, DBRB conjoined the information in a way that on the surface SEEMED convincing, but lacked the ability to stand up to real scrutiny.  Grath did an excellent job.  If the argument was reversed, I would be applauding DBRB. I always appreciate the ability to scrutinize with fact regardless if it’s biased or not. Also, this was not a subject that would have any significant measurable amount on the number of subscribers. I don’t care how many people sided with DBRB and threatened to rage quit if CCP didn’t nerf Archons or sentries. If Grath hadn’t taken the time he did, DBRB’s article would’ve been allowed to stand an potentially taken as gospel. I’m of the belief that this was a calculated risk based on the assumption that nobody would take the time or effort to debunk the article on TMC, a clear attempt at gaining a meta advantage through deceit.
• Ship doctrines, deployments (or lack thereof), ALODs, strategic escalations, talks of “failscades”, smack talk, adapting to new game mechanics, and other general propaganda are classified under the “Meta”. For example: I could be said that the CFC’s reluctance to escalate fights to a capital level against N3/PL is either a sign that they’re incompetent/incapable in that area, or the CFC is holding their cards close to their chest and waiting for the right opportunity. Whichever way proves to be true in time, one thing that the CFC can be counted on is sticking to a type of “Deadly Ground” standard of warfare as CFC (particularly Goonswarm) forces are rarely engaged on a large level that they don’t want to be. When the CFC have brought capitals to any situation, there is usually a calculated reason to do so.

Alright, I’m not going to delve into the who’s or why’s on either of the above topics. I just wanted to use them as an illustration of the identifying the differences between “Meta” and “Made Up”. Use fact to disseminate between the two before jumping to conjecture and demanding changes be made to the game because someone has an upper hand at the moment. The offline game can be just as important to the online game if facts and opinions are not kept in check.

That’s it for today.