Let me start off by saying this post isn't about complaining. It's not about being griefed or not being able to EVE the way I want. This is about what I don't understand about the nature of Hi-Sec PvP.
As a little background, my corp has recently joined an alliance of like minded people. This alliance also enjoys doing a bit of white knighting and fighting those who prey on those that cannot fight. So, we decided to wardecc a fairly major Hi-Sec PvP alliance. We knew it would be a tough fight but the idea of fighting the good fight and maybe bloodying the nose of a "grief corp" is an appealing one. Being the good guy in EvE is hard and often times unrewarding in game but can be rather rewarding in an out of game sense.
Now to the part I don't understand. Why do people engage in the style of play on a regular basis. Why do so many people belong to the alliance we wardecced? Nearly every fight has been on a station and so every fight has involved playing station games. Our opponents are much better at this than we are and it shows but that isn't what I am getting at.
If you are a "PvP" player, why would you want to play station games? The end result tends to be both parties doing pretty much no fighting. Our opponents undock and if they don't have a 100% chance of winning they dock up as soon as we fire. It's certainly the smart thing. Our opponents also tend to fly rather effective but expensive ships. Better ships are very good but the risk of losing one is not to be discounted. Unless, of course you know you can tank the incoming damage for a minute to de-aggress and dock back up.
So, showing up in force hasn't gotten us fights as they will just dock up until we leave. Baiting them out with single ship hasn't worked since as soon as they see the local spike of the rest of the fleet coming in from a nearby system they de-agress and they dock up. Our losses haven't really been from actual PvP. They've been largely due to people DCing during fights and a couple people being silly trying to move around alone without scouts during wartime. Other than the one pitched battle we were able to get outside of dodixie our combat losses have been largely tackle.
So, here is the part I don't understand. Why play as a "PvPer" if you are not looking for fights but rather only kills. I support people doing what they think is fun but I just can't wrap my head around what is fun regarding the Hi-Sec PvP playstyle. It doesn't seem to lead to anything other than easy kills or ship spinning when a challenge actually comes along.
That just doesn't seem like engaging gameplay to me.
