Why you need us

The other day my low sec connection was to a 1-system low sec pocket deep in Minmatar high sec. With roaming being a non-starter, I took advantage of my virtual high sec connection to shift about 500 million ISK of PI product to market.

I have accumulated about 400 million ISK of data/relic loot, which I plan to bring to market on the weekend, along with whatever PI I've generated in the interim. Assuming I get it all to market safely, I'll have made back my starting investment (including skill injector) in Vanaheim.

Not bad for two week's work.

Still, it was a long chain of jumps through high sec, and I don't afk my haulers. So as I sat behind the keyboard, I browsed the internet, including the Eve forums, where I came upon another whine post. Carebear claims to quit because of high sec ganking, etc. Wants to be left alone to mine in peace. Nothing we haven't seen many times before.

Like most Eve players, I ignore most such posts. This is not a game for everyone, and even dedicated Eve players often drift away for a spell, before being pulled back in. That's not actually a problem.

But on this occasion I had time on my hands, and I felt like posting something. So this is a message to all the high sec industrialists out there.

You need us.

The activities that you enjoy have no intrinsic value. The value of whatever resource you are gathering, or whatever module you are making, is determined by the level of need for that resource on the part of your fellow players. In economics, this need is called 'demand'.

Because it doesn't actually take very long for a player to obtain all the ships they want to fly (skilling up for those ships typically takes longer than scraping together the ISK), the demand for your product would be very, very low except for the fact that ships keep getting blown up.

That's right! Our non-consensual pvp is the main reason you are able to mine profitably in the first place!

Ultimately, every industrialist in New Eden is a war profiteer who makes their blood money from the losses of thousands of ships every month. To complain when the weapons that you build are occasionally turned on you is the hight of hypocrisy.

Most Eve industrialists understand this. But the few of you that don't give the rest a bad name.

Oh, and when you leave, can I have your stuff?