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Thursday, May 3, 2012

Sigmund Freud on Eve Online

"Sometimes a titan is just a titan."
- Sigmund Freud

Contrary to the popular myth, Sigmund Freud did not believe that sometimes a titan was just a titan.  Just a titan?  The titan is the biggest, baddest ship in New Eden.  Resembling mobile battlestations and armed with a doomsday device and the ability to form jump bridges, these ships are terrors on the battlefield.

Freud was one of the first to try to figure out exactly what makes capsuleers tick. He suggested that the desire to dominate the universe and bad posting on the Eve Online forums originated from unpleasant or traumatic events like mining or reading local in Jita early in a pilot's career that were suppressed or repressed from the conscious mind. He theorized that the unconscious mind communicated repressed thoughts and emotions by means of symbolism. Thus the popularity of titans among many alliances, especially those who do not hold space in null sec.

Through his experience with the life histories of many pilots, Freud came to believe that the primal drive to acquire isk was a powerful influence on unconscious behavior because of the way corporations force new capsuleers to hide their shiniest ships and repress their tears. Freud divided the development of pilots into three phases, the noob, the carebear and the low/null sec pvper. He believed neurotic behavior often reflected a regression to earlier stages of development. There is great irony in the fact that Freud was a titan pilot (a mental fixation on an isk substitute), and rage quit from Eve after his Avatar was bumped out of a POS by Pandemic Legion and destroyed. That said, the phrase "Sometimes a titan is just a titan," is often (perhaps apocryphally) attributed to Freud.



1 comment:

  1. Freud (in this sad attempt) was quite wrong.

    "Freud divided the development of pilots into three phases, the noob, the carebear and the low/null sec pvper"

    This is the viewpoint from the nullbears, only.

    noob-competent-elite, yes - its called skill progression

    play style (industrial, trader, wormholes, null, losec, PVE, PVP) is independent from skill level. Please try again.

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