What's in a Name?

It's was not an easy choice. Even in a game your grow attached to things. I have spent the last two years in the Amarr Militia and it grew on me. I can't help but feel a little sad we may soon be parting ways. It is almost like an era is coming to a close.

Since before Inferno launched a small group has been very vocal about the repercussions of the changes made to Faction War(a few very well known and respected Minmatar included). Many of these people were shouted down and said their doom and gloom predictions would never come to pass. Some predictions have not came to pass. The docking issue is a pain in my ass as an FC but we are able to work around it. The incentive to join the winning side has pulled many more pilots into the Minmatar fold but we still win many of our fights.

While the Amarr has gotten combat pilots, many of them seasoned veterans the Minmatar have pulled a 1,700 pilot lead. They have gotten many PvE pilots, enough to pressure every Amarr held system. The doom and gloom people predicted this. The winning side will keep winning. The availability of easy Isk ensures this. Farming Minmatar LP with an afk alt in a T1 frigate is safer than mining in high sec.

At the start of Inferno I honestly didn't give this too much thought. I figured it would be more for us to kill. After a few weeks the gravity of the situation started to sink in. With so many new and dedicated Minmatar plexers any system we flipped was just a pile of isk for them to flip back. Meanwhile the Amarr Militia had little reason to defensively plex. Hours spent in a system to try and hold it would just increase the Minmatar wallet size.

As the weeks after Inferno's launch turn to months something must be done. A war is expensive. When I ask for a certain ship type for a fleet and people are no longer able to afford those ships or even the potential loss of that ship something is wrong with the system. As the Minmatar printed their own isk for almost a month riding the coat tails of the Goons then control enough systems to coordinate an effort to raise their control level to three or four as they please the Amarr struggle to make any isk at all.

Missions are not viable. LP made from kills and plexing won't pay for much at level one. Capturing systems to see them flipped back a week later and add 20 billion Isk into the enemy’s wallet is not a solution. How do we keep fighting? How can we make the Isk we need to pay for ships and fittings? We turn Caldari!

Susan Black blogged about it, she was wrong, but what else is new? Shalee posted on SovWars the real version of what we plan. We will join the Caldari Militia but stay and fight the Minmatar. We will get Cladari LP for killing Minmatar and capturing their plexes. The Cladari love to plex(god knows why) and have enough systems to reach a higher war zone control level. Why not play the system? Nothing changes but our Militia chat, current war targets will remain war targets. Where we live and fly and fight stays the same. It's a win win for us.

I feel like we were pushed to this point by broken game mechanics. We don't want to leave Amarr Militia. We want to stay and fight but with almost no Isk coming in how long could we pay for our war? There are times in life where you must make difficult choices. Risk losing the war to keep flying under a certain banner or change in name only to keep up the fight?