Baiting, tactics, epeens, and hypocrisy

I recently read Rixx's post about playing station games and it got me thinking about the different tactics people use in Eve and reactions to those tactics.  It bothered me a little because Rixx and his crew use very specific tactics to win fights such as baiting on station and then warping in carriers.  Rixx also claims that  "I can honestly and sincerely say that I have never run from a battle and docked up to avoid combat."  No offense to Rixx but I seriously doubt that.  In fact, I was talking with a couple of guys in my alliance who recalled that just the day before, some Lucifer Hammer guys docked up to avoid dying.  And I personally was involved in an engagement when Rixx and another Lucifer pilot was trying to fight us on station in vagabonds.  We were able to get a web on one and started laying into it.  Guess what it did just before it hit structure?  Yep.  It docked up.

So I ask you why is it cowardly to dock up to avoid dying but it isn't to warp in a cap ship?  Or is it only cowardly when it is the other party denying you a kill?

Docking up is a valid tactic when engaged by an obviously superior force and I find it strange for that to be called cowardly. Of course this is just another example of the mindset in Eve that if someone uses a tactic you disapprove of against you, they are blobbers/ECM fags/cowards/noobs and on and on.  However if you actually use that same tactic, you are just fighting smart.  I undocked a Falcon the other night and the other pilot cried in local about how weak that was.  But that pilot had attacked my bait alt with a ship two classes higher than his target.

Why isn't that cowardly if ECM boats are?


The same goes for "blobbing".  If you get engaged without securing an agreed upon 1v1, then you really shouldn't cry when more ships land on your face.  I have seen killmails where a person complains that he thought the other party wanted to solo but instead called for back-up.  Once again, unless you both agreed on a 1v1, why in the world would you assume this and then complain when you got ganked?


Another example is a corp that came down in our space last night.  They had a gang on the other side of the gate with Scorpions, battleships, and a command ship.  We only had four on and we were mostly in BCs.  Well this gang tried so very hard to bait us.  They put a drake on gate but no luck.  They had a cynabal warp in and call us names while dancing around the station.  Then they brought in a BS and tried to get us to engage outside of station.  Of course we knew the gank squad was next door so we didn't take the bait.  Well they got upset and decided to call us all pussies for not engaging and going to a certain death.  I don't begrudge them for baiting but their anger at not being able to provoke a fight was strange because I know they would not have engaged if the odds were reversed.

Then the cynabal pilot started to berate us because we often camp one of the low sec skill book stations in system.  The funny thing is this pilot is usually outside the station in a machariel doing the same thing.  So it is faggy when I kill noobs while flying a cane but it isn't when he uses a faction battleship?  I don't understand the logic.


I guess my point is that  a fair is a place you go to eat cotton candy and step in horse shit.  Fair doesn't really have a place in Eve.  I don't like to lose ships and I tend to engage when the odds are in my favor.  However that's not just me.  Almost everyone does the same thing.  So just play the game you want but don't be a dick when others do the same. Killing noobs on the undock doesn't make you an awesome player but it also doesn't make you an asshole either.  Same goes for baiting, using ECM, and all the other things that everyone bitches about but uses for themselves as well.

Hypocrites suck.  Don't be one.