Brave Voices

It's tough to take a stance on a sensitive issue. I knew the moment I said a single word that I'd come under a wee bit of fire. I knew that if I was going to open the door, I'd have to be prepared to defend my position with friends and foes alike. For instance, I like Funky Bacon and follow him on Twitter. That said, he and I heavily traded blows on the topic of Erotica 1. Trust me, I cringed every time I argued with someone on this because I absolutely understood where they were coming from (well, except the trolls).

The Airlock

In case you've been in a hole all day, there's been a bit of an uproar because of current CSM member Ripard Teg's blog post concerning the current culture in the EVE online community. Ripard uses an example - and a prime pick, I might add - to argue his case that we're sorely in need of a change. To rein in the 'evil' perception of the game. The example he used is none other than one of Erotica1's "Bonus Room" soundcloud postings where he and his friends mentally torture another player. Go read the blog, and listen to the recording. I'll wait. I'll go make a sandwich... you'll be at least 2 hours to finish listening to it.

Staying Classy and Being BRAVE

This is a straight follow-up post from my previous one. I had mentioned putting an alt in BNI last fall and subsequently my entire corp re-rolled to join them. So, why did we decide to join them instead of simply getting rich off flipping goods into their market? Well, because, ultimately these folks shocked us. By being classy.

Even their propaganda seemed oddly free of cursing...

From the moment my "extra" alt (a 15 million SP character at the time) got set up in Barleguet and now had a BNI ticker attached to him, it was non stop fun. The Defense Fleet was up almost 24 hours a day with constant threats of small gangs in the home systems. Roams of every kind - from mining ops to null roams to wormhole dives to large warfare - were constantly up. The market in the HQ was amazingly stable and active for such a deep Lowsec pocket. Hundreds of Alliance-only contracts were always available, providing everything from cheap tacklers to doctrine Battle Cruisers. But, most importantly, the culture shock was what sold me. Brave Collective wasn't an alliance that "stayed classy" on the surface for propaganda reasons or simply paid lip service to the phrase. It truly stayed classy in all aspects of the alliance culture.

Classiness is catching on everywhere, btw.

Let me give you an example of what I mean when I say "classy". With a constant stream of players joining, it was common in their comms for someone to drop a bigoted stereotype. You know the kind I mean. The kind of crude attempt at humor that many of us attribute to the comms in Sov Power Blocs or any other large Alliance in EVE. Phrases such as "I'm broke - I'm gonna go j*wing with my Buzzard."; "I just popped this n**ger"; and any number of other more ugly sayings, gifs, and the such. But in Brave, the moment this type of language is uttered it is quickly stomped out. 

Now, let me stop you here and explain something: I was raised in rural Illinois. Cornfield and cow country. After growing up with a red neck among country folk, I'm numb to most stereotyping. I don't agree with it and I find it to be embedded in ignorance. But, I also understand that it's deeply rooted in our history to the point where a person may not believe in the stereotype itself, but doesn't grasp why it is not culturally acceptable to make jokes or ironically use the sensitive terms in a crude fashion. Usually, the person doesn't quite understand the power these words have to anyone who is affected by them, or they are so used to having them in their vocabulary that the deep meaning of the word is completely missing in their mind. Trust me, I get that. And, as someone who took literally years of training to stop using the word 'gay' to mean 'not right' (thanks to my gay childhood friend Aaron for smacking me every time he heard me say it), I am a little sympathetic when someone gets flamed hard for doing what I used to do. Hatred begets hatred and rarely will it correct the problem.

Yah, sort of what I meant, Yoda. 

The first time I can remember hearing it happen in Brave comms was when a player was rambling a story along and said "...and we were just about to kill him when the f*g entered warp". And let me tell you, the moment that word was uttered, comms erupted with exasperated WHOA!'s and HEY!'s. I held my breath to see what would happen as that poor guy has just obviously committed a big no-no. Would they kick the poor bastard? Ream his ass? Mock him?

One voice (with priority speaker to stomp on everyone's transmission) calmly, but authoritatively, said "Hey bud, just a friendly reminder to keep it classy on comms. We don't use that language, okay?" Wait.... what? That's it? He's going to treat this player with polite style and grace? But... this is EVE, right?! How is the guy going to respond I wonder? I held my breath for what seemed an eternity, but was probably two seconds when the player responded with an embarrassed tone "Sorry Lychton, it slipped. My bad." 

Wait... That was the alliance leader who spoke up? THE ALLIANCE LEADER TOOK THE TIME TO ADDRESS THIS GUY ABOUT THIS AND EVERYONE WAS POLITE AND... AND.... WHAT'S GOING ON WHERE AM I?!?

I mean, this is EVE online we're talking about, after all. Do you know how many times I've hit D-scan in highsec to see a fleet of Hulks all named "Jew Miner"? Or had someone go completely off on another person in Local for really dumb reasons? Or seen a character name that has a name like "Jew Hunter?" Or had chat shitted up with the "girls don't play games" debate? Or found a container on a gate that says "Hang all Ni***rs?" Or had your fleet channel spammed with porn? Or been on various fleet comms to hear someone screaming "Kill that fucking sp*c!?" You don't like it, but you need this particular fleet to accomplish this particular goal, and stopping to ask the FC to not use that language will not go over well. You grit your teeth and bear it. You report the container or the player, but nothing ever seems to get done. It's rampant. It's accepted. It has become the culture we must slog through in order to play.

So, imagine yourself as me, an EVE player sitting in a new Mumble and hearing that exchange of words between Lychton and the Brave member. Now, imagine that you start seeing it everywhere within this alliance. No one names their ships with ugly words. No one even posts their killmails in local to taunt the person they just blew up. There is no taunting at all. You're told to flood local with "GF" or "7o" instead. If the enemy posts your lossmail, trump it by taking your most embarrassing lossmail and put it in local right below the other. A very classy way of telling the enemy "I'm having fun with this. I have the control. What else you got?" You are expected to have fun, but treat everyone you encounter with respect.

Highsec mining isn't a cause for rambling hatred. No, it's an entirely active fleet in this alliance. They have entire divisions of chat channels, alt corps, and guides for doing nothing but training newbies in aspects of PvP, PvE, Industry, PI... my god, they even give away free skill books and ships through the Brave Dojo channel!  Centered around the newbie, the entire alliance was there to encourage each other to "maximize their fun-per-hour", no matter what their play style was.

Jesus! Someone even made a graphic celebrating these guys!

Maybe this doesn't appeal to you dear reader, but by God, I felt like I had found the home I was trying to build within my own corp. It wasn't long before I was convinced that this was for real - Brave had grown up and found a way to keep this culture true to style across the entire alliance. I called for a corp meeting, reported what I found there in Brave, we took a vote, and the rest was history. Thrall Nation was formed and we rolled into Brave Collective. 

You know you wanna.

Back! Sort of!

Wow, it's been a wee bit longer since I've written a post than I actually thought. Time has a way of slipping away from you, I suppose. I think about this blog often, but mostly it's in relation to the reasons I haven't updated it. What I mean is, instead of thinking "Oh, I need to write a post", I mean "I really need to write THAT post on WHY I'm not updating it." Well, this is that post.

First though, I'll do a quick capture on what's happened since I last wrote a post. Let's see, there's the Somer Blink scandal, Rubicon launch, the Halloween War and the battle of B-R5RB, PLEX for Good (I did manage a quick post for that), changes to the scanner and warp speeds, ship re-balances, and, well, too many other things to even begin to catch up on. Instead, I'll focus on the BIG one that effects my little world the most.

Starting back in December 2013 my corp at the time (an Industrial, Markets, & Small Gang PVP-minded corp) was re-rolled into Thrall Nation (.THN.). Thrall Nation was created for one purpose: to join the alliance of the Brave Collective (link to latest Alliance interview), home of Brave Newbies Inc. (BNI).

Thrall Nation [.THN.] was born.

Naturally, most of you have me figured out well enough to know that this was not a snap decision because, well, Coffee doesn't make snap decisions. I prefer "the long play" on big plans and I always weigh the situations before us as best as I can. To that end, I stuck an alt into BNI early last fall. My intent was to spy, but only in the most positive of ways. At the very least I would gather intel that would be mutually beneficial to both parties: market and trade data on what we could leverage during BNI staging, ops, and deployments for Thrall member profit. Of course, at the very best was what ended up happening: If the BNI culture was as good as what I'd heard, we might just say "Hell with this, let's just join with them".

7o indeed, good sir.

It really was as good as you've heard. But, I digress, that story deserves a post of its own.

So, with all that fun stuff going on, why haven't I kept up on the blogging? Well, partially the move to BRAVE is to blame. As CEO, it's very important to me to be an active leader. With the Corp's move and reorganization, combined with BRAVE's Winter War in Syndicate and the subsequent Burn Catch campaign we are currently in, I typically use up any free time in the game itself. Of course, I'm still attending college (last semester for the AA) and working part time. Plus, you know, the wife wants some time too. I manage to pencil her in every other Tuesday.

But there's a bigger reason than all that. Since last fall, I've known I wanted to move this blog to its own website and expand upon it, so I held off on new blogs and spent that time working on it. Nothing too fancy, but a site where I can also provide informational pieces, guides, and other snippets of information for the player base. There's already fantastic EVE websites and informative blogs out there that I use such as The Mittani, EVE News 24, EVE University, Jester's Trek, and many more. But they can't cover everything in a game as complex as EVE. I don't plan on covering everything, either, but I did plan on posting what's important to me from the get go. After I was settled in and comfortable with the site, I planned on expanding in areas I feel are worth my time or interest. Notice I'm using past tense here when I speak of my plans? Yah, about that.

Soon....

A long, long time ago when I was about 14 (around the summer of 1995 if memory serves me), I taught myself HTML and Javascript using our household computer. I used that knowledge to build a couple of Geocities sites and eventually my own website, and even garnered a little advertising revenue at the time. My mother thought I would be the next big computer genius and told me to keep at it. Moms are funny that way. Fast forward 19 years, and here I am trying to hammer out a website using HTML and Javascript because, well, that's where my learning stopped. Listen to your parents, kids, their advice will save you headaches later in life.

Those of you that know a thing or two about website development are currently shaking your head saying "You poor dumb bastard". It's true - both on the 'poor' and 'dumb' parts. For those that don't know, computer languages and website development have, well, evolved just a little in 19 freaking years time. I figured I could teach myself what I needed to know just like I did all those years ago. That last sentence has those same web devs now laughing their asses off, but I really thought I could. And, for a brief moment there, I did. I learned CSS! MY GOD, CSS IS BLESSED MAGIC SENT FROM UP HIGH!! Good job Coffee - you are now in 1996, you moron.

After learning CSS and playing with it, I moved on. For a couple of months I tried to figure out what these newfangled "databases" were, and this futuristic "PHP" and whatnots, and this "Python" or snake or cobra-kai or whatever the hell these darned kids call it these days. Yah.... it was like smacking face first into a big freaking brick wall. Damnit, I better call Mom and admit she was right about one thing - I should have stuck with it back then. I hate calling her to tell her she was right about something. It keeps happening the older I get, too.

I finally called a buddy of mine that owns his own web dev company and got his honest advice. He knows me well enough to know that a) I don't ask for anything for free, so I wasn't calling to ask him that and b) I have no money to pay for someone to do it for me, so this phone call wasn't that either. After discussing particulars, he pinged me pretty quick on some other stuff and left me with some solid advice on how to proceed. He's confident I can get it done with what he told me. I wish I had his confidence in me, but I'm too stubborn to quit now. So, in the mean time I'm going to keep the occasional post here while working on the site. I promise you - it will be done, AS BOB AS MY WITNESS IT WILL BE DONE!

Sigh. Time to get back at it.

PLEX For Good: Philippines Typhoon Relief

I know I haven't done a blog for a while. I promise, real life is easing up a little and I'll be getting back to it shortly! Even though my time is limited and it is currently 3 am in the morning where I am, I wanted to take the time to spotlight something very important. Namely, the current CCP PLEX For Good campaign.

On November 8th, 2013, the Philippines were struck by Typhoon Haihan leaving a swath of destruction that has rattled entire communities and destroyed many lives. In true EVE Player fashion, many of us took our fingers off the autocannon trigger long enough to ask CCP to do another PFG for those in need. CCP responded to the outpour by pledging $15 to the Red Cross's efforts in the Philipines for every PLEX donated.

To donate, contract one or more PLEX to the "CCP PLEX for GOOD" character on a 14-day item exchange contract. The contract will be accepted within a 24-hr period. Take the time to make sure you are contracting it to the correct toon - If you find anyone attempting to scam this effort, REPORT THEM.

(c) CCP Games

If helping others by chipping in fake internet money (i.e., ISK) isn't enough of an incentive to help your fellow men and women in dire need, CCP is giving something back to every player that donates: two limited edition Sisters of EVE Food Relief "Humanitarian T-shirt YC-115" t-shirts (one for each gender) that your characters can proudly wear. CCP Bro will also be announcing on November 27th "a surprise that will hopefully make this the most successful PLEX for GOOD drive to date". The tinfoil hattery has already begun, and speculation is that it is another gift for those that donate or perhaps a drawing for a special edition ship.

Regardless, I hope you'll take the time to donate. I will be logging in sometime today and hopefully making my way to Amarr to donate one of my PLEX - hope to see you there doing the same!

IRL: Coffee's 9-11 Speech to Hartnell College

Today is the 12th anniversary of the attacks on September 11, 2001, by members of Al-Qaeda. A week ago, I was asked by one of the staff at Hartnell College if I would speak for a few moments in the capacity as a military veteran and a student during the remembrance ceremony. I considered it for a moment, and then agreed that I would. If you've ever broached the subject of world politics, U.S. foreign policy, or the War on Terror with me on Teamspeak, you know that my opinions surrounding these subjects are complicated at best. I am a proud veteran of the U.S. Coast Guard, where I have earned multiple awards for emergency environmental response and management, investigations, and federal law enforcement. That said, people mistakenly believe that I would be a self-loving uber-patriot who orgasms every time I see a picture of George Bush simply because I took my job in the military seriously.

George Bush actually orgasms when he sees my pic. True story.

Sorry to disappoint, but I'm a firm believer that a true American patriot is one who critically questions every government's actions to ensure the best decisions and intentions are respected - especially the United States' over all others. My opinions are formed by looking over all the evidence, asking questions when there is a gap in my understanding, and reaching a reasonable conclusion based on all the facts (and common sense). My opinions are neither right or left, liberal or conservative - they are what they are. For these reasons, I lost a little sleep last night wondering just what I wanted to say.

In the end, what I said today is posted below. I almost lost my composure when I was finishing the third paragraph, and when I finished a few people were sobbing. I guess that means I did an alright job (or it was just that horrible of a speech). Before I leave you with the speech, let me say "Thank You" to all my fellow military, veterans and first responders out there.

Delivered during the Remembrance Ceremony today at 1230 hours at Hartnell College, Salinas, CA:

"Hello, my name is Joshua McAtee. I am the President of the Hartnell Veterans Club and a US Coast Guard veteran. First, thank you to Dr. Lewallen and the staff of Hartnell College for organizing this event and bringing us together. A special thank you to Berta for inviting me to speak, and I apologize if I'm a bit nervous.

I was 19 years old on 9-11. I was getting ready to go to work that morning. I remember walking through the kitchen while tying my tie, and the TV was on some random channel. At some point, I realized something important was suddenly going on and I turned the volume up. I’ll never forget what I witnessed.  I’ll never forget what I felt. 

There was the horror. Horror at the fires, the explosions. I saw on live TV as the second plane hit the towers. The totality of what was happening set in. I watched rescue workers and good Samaritans pour into the buildings to help. I watched as someone’s daughter, someone’s wife, someone’s mother… I watched her body hit the ground after she had leapt from the towers in panic. And then another body fell. And another. And another. Then I watched the towers fall into waves of dust and death. 

Horror gave way to sorrow. And the sorrow gave way to anger, and rage, and hate at those that would commit such an act of evil. That’s what we all saw that day – evil, in its most brutal form. It is an evil that every society has endured, and that many governments (including our own) are guilty of. It is an evil that rages in parts of the world right this moment, and it will be felt again in the future.

It is in no small part that this evil caused me to join the Coast Guard, just as many of my friends joined other branches of the military. We did so not with vengeance in our hearts, but to defend all that we loved and held dear. My time in the Coast Guard taught me valuable lessons, most of which was a lesser known Coast Guard motto: “We do the right thing because it’s the right thing, every time”. That motto is meant to make you pause and reflect on your every decision and every choice. It makes you question the ethics and morals that are reflected in your actions. It makes you choose to be a better person even when it’s the hardest of the choices presented to you. It reminds you when it’s truly right to unsheathe the sword or raise the shield. This simple motto was a reminder that malice and revenge are easy, but they are always the wrong choice. Sacrifice, honor, respect and love are harder – sometimes they seem like the impossible choices - but they are always worth it. 

In the months that followed 9-11, it was not an inconvenience to call your grandmother to say hi and just talk. It was okay to tell your best guy friend that you loved him. You bought the homeless dinner and filled their change cup. You took the time to feel the sun on your face and listen to the life around you. You passed up chances to criticize one another, but never missed a chance to offer a helping hand to a total stranger. We learned something we had forgotten the importance of - to love our neighbors unconditionally, and to hold their lives as dearly as we hold our own. 

All I can ask of you, my friends and neighbors, now that so much time has passed is to not remember that day as just one full of horror and hatred, but as the day you were reminded what is truly important in your life.  Remember to stop and reflect on why you do the things you do. Ask yourself if you are doing them for the right reasons and in the right way. And, above all else, remember to say the following often and without shame:

I love you, all."

IRL: Best. Uncle. Ever.

I have about eleven different blogs started that need finishing, and at least as many comics. But, since real-life is a bitch of a mistress that insists on me doing crazy, mundane tasks like "paying the electric bill" and "eating", I have only been able to retreat to world of gaming in short bursts lately. The majority of that has been in EVE Online (of course), but that had recently taken on the dreaded 'part-time job' status as I worked my alliance diplomat role for the past month (that spurned a couple of blogs coming soon, too). Along with full-time classes and a veteran's club to run I feel a tad overwhelmed. But, things are beginning to wind themselves down and I'm looking forward to getting things off my plate.

Speaking of getting rid of things, I was a little shocked to get a text message from my 15 year old nephew Billy this morning asking if he could buy my old Xbox. You see, when my wife and I moved out to California a couple of years ago, I dropped off my Xbox and my old games at my mother's house so that the grandkids would have something to do while when they get dumped at Grandma and Grandpa's. I didn't play it much anymore - Steam had corrupted me and I rarely touch consoles anymore - and I figured it would get some use there than if I hauled it to CA with me. Since then, I'd gathered that it rarely got touched since the only two big gamers in the herd of nieces and nephews were my nephews Jake and Billy (both 15 now, and cousins). When they were there together, they'd sometimes pop in Grand Theft Auto and slaughter waves of non-suspecting hookers (which always bugged me - you'd think the prostitute community would have started an information campaign once their murder rate jumped 4567 percent in a single afternoon), but mostly it was left alone. Except for when Billy was over. He'd discovered a little game called The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. He'd never really played anything besides FPS because, well, that's what his dad plays. My brother actually refers to anything that is RPG or Fantasy as "games for losers" (he'll spend hours fragging his kids toons in Call of Duty, though), so Billy has never had a chance to play much else. EVE is even outside his reach - the kids in the house aren't allowed to 'play' on the one computer in the house. Once Billy had discovered Morrowind and began playing it, he was looking for every excuse to go to Grandma's just so he could continue unraveling the prophecies of The Nerevarine. I had commented once that the game would get laggy and that he must have think the graphics seem archaic. His response? "Yah, but it's all about the gameplay." Sniff.... I've never been so proud.

I texted to tell him he could have it for free. His response was "Best. Uncle. Ever." Yah, that's worth giving it away.

He also texted back that he couldn't wait to play Knights of the Old Republic 1 and 2 on it. Again, only because he understands and appreciates that a great storyline arc and immersive environments are more important to him than anything else. My brother might be an FPS jock, but he definitely did something right raising Billy.

EDIT (KOTOR SPOILER ALERT): 9/12/2013 - I just wanted to add that Billy texted the following to me the other day: "HOLY SHIT!! I'M REVAN!! MIND BLOWN!!" I was wondering when he'd get to that part :)

Just wait till I introduce that kid to games like Chrono Trigger, The Last of Us, and a few select Legend of Zelda titles.