Trust and Friendship

EVE is a “Big Boy” game.  But at what point are you able to trust other people and people that you have grown to know and call “friend”? Do you only Trust your corp. mates cuz your green to them? And then what if one of these friends leaves your corp, and is now a target to you?  Do you err on the side of friendship or do you just move on?  And what if that friend shows his true colors to you and it’s not what you thought.

But, back to the trust part. I can’t speak of life in hi sec cuz I have never really experienced it. But in lowsec you’re constantly watching your back. Every new name in local is either predator or prey. If you live in a certain area for a while you learn who is who, but you never really trust them. As a lowsec pirate your level of trust borders on paranoia. But this is now a survival mechanism to keep you alive. I have left many a ship in low structure or armor, just because of a local spike. And I have lost many a ship for not or not being able to.

 I live by a certain set of rules in game that get me by: Corp/alliance before friends, fleet before fiends, Corp /alliance before fleet. I am a solo pilot, so I find these rules help me keep what moral compass I have left, because I have fleeted with many a Red.  But most FC’s respect that and most others in EVE follow similar or the exact same rules.  But there are those who don’t.  When I first started playing and joined R1FTA I took the corp rules to heart. Honor all 1v1’s and Honor all ransoms.  But what took me forever to realize is that not everyone one lived by these rules.  And it lead to a level of butthurtness. But as I progressed and realized this things got a lot better.

I guess the bottom line to this is simple. TRUST no one.  Don’t expect people to be nice to you because you once flew together other than idle chat in local or pm.  Your corp is your life line and you can trust them, but always expect awoxers and accidents.  And if they are your friends in RL and you know it, they will be your friends after you pod them. If you met them in game, were they ever truly your friend? You met them in a game.  And if you see an ex-corpy or in game friend land on grid, he’s not there to have tea. Chances are he’s gonna whore your kill and try for you., just be prepared.