Staying Classy

Our alliance has few actual rules, but the most important rule is “Stay Classy”.  This is even more important as a member of Incredible as you’re meant to be in an elite PvP corporation that has a good reputation.  Our members’ attitudes reflect on the corp and vice versa.

Staying classy is easy, it’s about being positive rather than negative in your interaction with those outside of the corporation.  That means in local chat, DMs, evemails and any other form of in-game communication.  It also extends to any form of Eve related external communication including Slack, Discord, Reddit etc.

As a member of Incredible you’re going to to be involved in PvP fights where expensive ships are going to die, or you or your enemy are going to be disappointed with the outcome. Its easy to start throwing insults following a fight especially when the adrenaline is flowing, and indeed you will receive more than a few.  This is especially true for solo or small gang PvP.

Bear in mind that once a fight is over it shouldn’t continue in local, you either beat your enemy,  or they beat you, or one or more withdrew from the fight and got away from the threat or either side escalated and more people joined in and tipped the balance in their favour.  Sometimes a fight will be mutual, you’re both tring to kill each, other times it will be a complete suprise for you or them and someone has been caught out. These all valid PvP,  expected gameplay and what Eve Online is about.

Now, the difference between a classy player and a dick is how you handle it when things don’t go your way, or how you deal with someone when things don’t go their way.  There are some putdowns, comebacks and comments that are acceptable, and there are far more that are not.  When you want to say something, the words you use make a big difference, so think before you press enter.  Also remember that text communcation doesn’t convey tone so others may not perceive HOW you are saying something.

There are some things that are never acceptable not matter how they are worded: homophobia, racism, sexism, xenophobia, threats to someone in real life (whether feasible or not), harassment or stalking,  attacks on their real life character and extreme  insults.  These are all likely to get you in trouble with the Alliance or Incredible whether they’re reported or spotted.

So, that’s all easy to say and not so easy to do.  To simplify, generally anything that’s not acceptable if it was coming at you shouldn’t be coming FROM you, regardless of what the other person is saying. Rise above it, be the mature adult and use wit and intelligence in your communication rather than giving in to base instincts.  Avoid swearing / cursing unless it is in the correct context “Fuck man, you got me there” is entirely different “Fuck you asshole!”, or “Shit, your friends jumping in caught me off guard” is loads better than “You couldn’t fucking win without your gay friends you dick.”

Wining and losing fights with grace, wit and accepting when and even commenting that your oponent(s) got the better of you will set you on the path to being a legend. 

It’s a long path to becoming a legend, but a very short one to becoming a dick.