Russia, Once Proud

 

3 Years and 62 Billion ISK

 The Sunk Cost Fallacy:
Throwing Good Money After Bad

For context, see here.

EDIT: It has come to my attention that Gualu is upset, and trying to get me banned for "harassment". So, for the sake of laughs, here is the archive of his massive babyrage post on the forums, calling on the community to "share their experience" of my "psychogames" and petition CCP to get rid of me.

UPDATE 01/10/2024: Gualu is now claiming that the "discussion has been falsified" simply because some posts were eddited to provide additional evidence of his psychogames and abuse of other players; as if adding more evidence and more truth is "falsification". Such are the desperate psychogames Gualu plays; he doesn't want anyone to read the updated commentary, with all the proof against him, so he posted a link to an older archive of the thread. As such I have removed the link to the original post to keep attention focused where it needs to be.

Of particular note, literally no one sided with Gualu in the thread. He was literally laughed at and told to stop stop crying like a baby.

On March 06, 2021, a most fateful event happened: The Tatara belonging to Galaxy Lords Holding was destroyed by the combined forces of <STFU> and assorted random pilots. A couple of short months later, on May 22, 2021, the Athanor that <STFU> had put in the Tatara's place was itself destroyed by <WHBOO>, whom had plans to anchor their own refinery in that same, fateful spot as part of their takeover of Solitude. See, nobody liked <STFU>, and over time it became increasingly difficult for <STFU> to operate in the region. So they left - or rather, were shown the door - and a round table was held. It was determined that <WHBOO> would fill the power vacuum left behind by <STFU>, taking ownership of their major infrastructure and acquiring all moons previously held by <STFU>.

It was what everyone in Solitude had agreed was best: everyone, that is, except Galaxy Lords Newbies [GLN], who had absented themselves from the round table, and as such, were unaware that the moon in Vevelonel was claimed by <WHBOO>. Thus, when [GLN] began anchoring an Athanor, it was promptly destroyed and replaced by <WBHOO>'s. [GLN] was appraised of the situation, but disagreed, and claimed that it was [GLN]'s moon.

And so began a 2+ year private war between [GLN] and <WHBOO>. [GLN] held <WBHOO> responsible not only for [GLN]'s Athanor, but also the original Tatara and a Raitaru that was anchored nearby: a total of 30b. [GLN] asserted that they would not rest and would not stop until <WHBOO> not only transfered the Athanor to [GLN], but also sent a 30 billion ISK payment.

Now that <WHBOO> has moved to Placid and abandoned Solitude, for reasons completely unrelated to the conflict with [GLN], what did the conflict cost [GLN]? Or rather, what has the total cost of [GLN]'s investment in a single R64 in LowSec?

For this reckoning, I have excluded kills that [GLN] participated in, but were not responsible for, and would have taken place regardless. In other words, I excluded killmail whoring.

[GLN] has directly lost a total of 32 billion ISK to <WHBOO> and Solar Winds as a result of the conflict [GLN] started. <WHBOO>, on the other hand, has lost about 22 billion ISK as a direct result of [GLN] actions. But, keep in mind, these losses are in light of the fact that [GLN] had no appreciable income streams, while <WHBOO> held every valuable moon in Solitude. So, in the grand scheme of things, <WHBOO>'s losses were either inconsequential, or neutral, in the face of their vast income. [GLN]'s losses, however, broke into their savings - or their real life bank account, in all probability.

It gets worse, however: since [GLN] holds <WHBOO> responsible for the original Tatara and Raitaru, that would put the tally against [GLN] at 62 billion ISK.

That's right: [GLN] has spent a total of 62 billion ISK and three years trying to hold a single moon in LowSec. During those three years, [GLN] has mined at most 5 billion ISK off that moon. At the beginning of the conflict, [GLN] had several different pilots. But during the conflict, they began to leave in descending order; those with the most sense and sanity left first...

The Final, Unrecoverable Loss

And the final, most crushing cost to [GLN]? [GLN], after finally getting to own an Athanor in Vevelonel since <WHBOO> moved to Placid... is now permanently camped by members of <WHBOO> and Solar Winds. [GLN] should have known this was going to happen, since warnings were issued. It is unfortunate that, rather than heeding said warnings and coming to the peace table with reasonable expectations... [GLN] had everyone blocked.

And so, even if they have an Athanor, and spend ISK on fuel... they don't get to mine the moon anyway.

At this point, [GLN] has become a source of nothing more than amusement and... intellectual curiosity:

[GLN], understandably if not hypocritically, did get pretty angry about being camped on a daily basis in Vevelonel, as well as the embarassing and devastating loss of a cloaky railgun Tengu which they bragged was "uncatchable". The Tengu was deployed against Solar Winds mining vessels, in enforcement of [GLN]'s unrecognized and illegal claim to the Ratillose system:

As of this writing, the Athanor in Ratillose is permanently camped, and [GLN] has opted not to resume drilling...

Unable to deal with the shame of constant, daily defeat, [GLN] - in a fit of babyrage - decided to try to annoy <WHBOO> by once again creating structure pings. The result?

[GLN] fucked around, and found out. In fact, [GLN] has fucked around a lot for the past few years, and will be doing a lot of finding out. Perhaps they should find a new home? Why don't they?

Sunk Cost Fallacy: the phenomenon whereby a person is reluctant to abandon a strategy or course of action because they have invested heavily in it, even when it is clear that abandonment would be more beneficial.

Any sensible person would have abandoned trying to own a single moon after losing a few billion ISK. Maybe some people would require an additional loss or two to cement the reality in their minds. But [GLN], suffering badly from Sunk Cost Fallacy, has instead invested over 60 billion ISK and almost a dozen structures, none of which they were able to mine any appreciable amount with, all of which have been destroyed.

Any sensible person would have abandoned a guerilla campaign when, after a few months, it was clear they were having no effect on their enemy. But [GLN], suffering badly from Sunk Cost Fallacy, has spent over 2 years fighting, spending almost 20 hours out of every 24 hour day creating structures pings, spewing garbage in Local, camping, and trying to whore on killboards. 

[GLN] really should move on, and write their investment off. The "war" is over. [GLN] lost, and has nothing left to leverage: having left Solitude, <WHBOO> has no interests and nothing to lose in the region, and the only tactic [GLN] has left is to create structure pings, which will result in more Athanor losses. And it costs Solar Winds absolutely nothing to camp [GLN], since Solar Winds lives next door.

For their own sakes, I pray that [GLN] leadership can find the courage to move on with their lives. Maybe close [GLN], give up their dreams of running a LowSec industrial moon mining corp, and maybe join a corporation that will take care of the Athanors and moons for them. Then, finally, maybe, Gualu can get more than 4 hours of sleep each night.

Until next time
This is Space Cat Xuixien
The Scorpion of Solitude
... signing off.