Believe the Ganker

In the early days of the New Order, miners would often claim that they had no idea the Code existed. When informed of the Code, the rebellious miners would deny the Code's existence and its legitimacy. Silly carebears still do these things, but for the most part, they recognize that the Code is a fact of life. More and more, non-compliant miners now claim that they were wrongfully ganked--that they were falsely accused of violating the Code.

It's a predictable symptom of highsec's shift toward being completely under the control of the New Order. Similarly, most real-world criminals don't pretend that the law doesn't exist; they argue that they didn't break the law. Yet the number of carebears who claim innocence these days is striking. There were several such examples just in the most recent edition of the Highsec Miner Grab Bag.

It's clear, then, that as time goes on, the New Order and its Agents will increasingly be called upon to deal with this issue. It's a new era, one that requires an extra measure of wisdom. What is the intelligent, responsible way to handle situations where an Agent accuses a miner of violating the Code, and the miner denies it?

To begin with, we must turn to the Code. The Code set forth the principles upon which our highsec civilization is based. We don't need to suffer from an identity crisis at each new challenge. The Code tells us who we are and what we're about. Thank goodness for the Code.

As the Code says, gankers contribute something valuable to EVE Online. Gankers are content creators. They're vital to the game. EVE players should not be discouraged from creating content; the game would not exist without it. Emergent gameplay of the kind that the Code and its enforcers have created must be cultivated, nurtured, and preserved.

And so we understand that when a ganker accuses a miner of violating the Code, the ganker has a right to be heard, and a right to be believed. The miner, of course, will claim that he is innocent. He wants to get his Retriever reimbursed and go right back to his illegal mining. He'll swear up and down that he was at his keyboard, that he "would've bought a permit if someone asked", and so on. Lies come naturally to the carebear. History tells us so.

By contrast, a ganker has no incentive to lie. What would be the motive? Indeed, ganking is an act of extraordinary courage and heroism--and sacrifice. The ganker knows that he is going to lose a ship to CONCORD. (Several ships, if he's multiboxing.) The ganker knows, too, that by killing a Code violator, he will bring upon himself the carebear's rage. Miners have been known to cast all sorts of vile insults and aspersions upon those who bring them to justice. Gankers are frequently subjected to death threats. And yet, in spite of it all, the ganker boldly strides forward and shoots the AFK miner. Who wouldn't be inspired by that?

Incredibly, the Anti-Gankers and their theme parkist allies are unmoved. They claim that mining permits are worthless and that the Code is merely a smokescreen for random acts of spaceship violence (a bad thing, in their telling). "They don't honour the permits. They'll gank you even if you're following the Code. Buy a Skiff instead--they can't gank those." To listen to our enemies, you would think innocent miners are constant victims of false accusations. But the statistics say otherwise: According to the best data available, the percentage of wrongfully ganked miners is an astonishing zero percent. It doesn't happen. There's no reason for it to happen.

Over the past several years of MinerBumping articles, we've heard from countless Agents who shared their field reports about dealing with non-compliant carebears. The Agents all share something in common: They come across as honest, intelligent, dedicated professionals who care deeply about defending highsec. Their reports are highly credible and persuasive. The miners, on the other hand, act like a bunch of Goofuses.

The time has come for the anti-Code rebels and "wrongfully accused" miners to acknowledge the righteousness of the Code--and to accept their own guilt. Miners, whenever a Code enforcer destroys your ship and you feel tempted to claim innocence, do the decent thing instead: Believe the ganker. You need a permit. Obey the Code.

Always!