Folly and Hypocrisy in PAPI’s Extinction Campaign
The union of PanFam and Legacy Coalition (PAPI) has fought The Imperium for nine months. PAPI leaders have explained their motives in shifting and contradictory ways, with legions of their Reddit warriors furiously pounding fists into keyboards to explain how their contradictions only appear contradictory due to Imperium spin.
TEST leaders progodlegend (PGL) and Vily stated that they are embarking on a “war of extermination” to drive The Imperium’s leader The Mittani and his entire alliance out of the game, and that their ultimate goal is to inherit everything their enemies owned, like an envious younger brother who simply must possess all the things his older sibling once had so that he no longer feels inferior. Vily stated in November 2020 that TEST would abandon its previous territory to live in The Imperium’s regions, but PGL directly contradicted him one month later, saying that TEST would actually keep everything they had before and simply own half of nullsec after the war.
Meanwhile, Gobbins, the de facto leader of PanFam, said four months ago that his only remaining goal in the war was to siege The Imperium’s home system of 1DQ1-A, before later announcing that he actually intends to grind through 26 more Keepstars in Delve before (maybe) getting around to the promised sack of 1DQ1-A. Given the pace of PAPI’s Keepstar kills up to this point, that should only take him another two or three years.
Noraus, leader of Winter Coalition and an ally of PAPI, has predicted that PAPI will be a long-term fixture of nullsec, meaning that PAPI’s nearly perfect “blue donut” – traditionally regarded as the scourge of nullsec stagnation – will not go away after the war as Gobbins previously hinted.
Multiple leaders of the BRAVE alliance admitted in leaked chat-logs that they do not believe the war is in their long-term interest but that they nevertheless deceived their line members with what Dunk Dinkle characterized as “modified spin” to justify sacrificing their longtime home in Catch to help out PGL and Vily with their war in Delve.
Perhaps someone should put the leaders of PAPI in touch with one another.
“Bad for EVE,” “Good for EVE,” “Cultural Differences,” etc.
Every campaign features hyperbole from opposing sides about what’s “bad for EVE” and “good for EVE,” as well as ridiculous exaggerations about “cultural differences” between the opponents. This war is no different in that respect. However, we might observe that PAPI’s plans for nullsec are very curious in light of their conspicuous navel-gazing about what is “good for EVE.”
PAPI currently controls nearly all of conquerable nullsec. Their plan for the war, as expressed by their own alliance leaders, is to decimate The Imperium, eliminate their only significant competitor from the nullsec power equation, and split the map between themselves while (according to Noraus) remaining friends forever with no significant power blocs left to fight.
(A similar scenario emerged in J-Space when Inner Hell, Hard Knocks, and LAZERHAWKS teamed up to form an unconquerable monstrosity that now controls wormhole space so completely that they have nothing else to do besides curb-stomp small alliances out of boredom).
Is that good for EVE? Bad for EVE? Just cultural differences?
Hunting Bison
Bear with me for an analogy. (And yes, those who have followed my articles and comments at INN will note that I frequently ridicule historical analogies for EVE but am now using one myself. Fair criticism. But at least this is not Sun Tzu or WWII).
Between 1800 and 1900, hunters in the United States and Canada reduced the population of American bison from 60,000,000 to 300 through sheer wanton gluttony. They weren’t content to enjoy themselves with the challenge of a good hunt or the sport of demonstrating skill against a worthy opponent. It was, as TEST leaders PGL and Vily would say, a “war of extermination.” And for the next hundred years, all the hunters who might have wanted to have a chance to stalk one of those bison were left standing around and staring at their shoes wondering why there weren’t any bison left to shoot.
The moral of the story is that when The Imperium went to war against Circle of Two (and GOTG for sheltering them) and Northern Coalition in Tribute, we just had our fun and then left our enemies to rebuild so we could come back later for more of the same. We didn’t hunt them to extinction. We didn’t pursue them to Malpais with the intent to destroy literally everything they had. The Cloud Ring and Tribute campaigns featured about 90 days of active strategic fighting. We killed some big things, laughed about it, posted our stupid Reddit memes, and went back home after we’d made our point.
But PAPI is determined to live right on top of The Imperium until we are gone. And what will they hunt at that point? Have they even thought about that? Do they plan to do the J-Space routine of walloping puny opponents with their giant “blue donut” once they’ve finally succeeded in completely obliterating their only significant adversary? Maybe sit around in their Keepstars turning the camera up and down on the titans that no longer have a purpose?
PAPI is a Farce
Despite its frequent wordsmithing about “Imperium spin” and things that are “good for EVE,” PAPI is working hard to promote everything that contradicts its own stated ideals. Even if the goals of Gobbins – so far the most restrained leader within the coalition – come to pass, The Imperium will be effectively done and PAPI will control all of sov nullsec with no competition.
If that’s what PAPI means by “cultural differences,” then I guess I’m glad to be on the other side of those differences.
