I remember the days before organized mercs were an -official- thing. However, I don't doubt that people selling leveled fodder on the AH has been around since the birth of the site. But rather the popularization and expectancy of mercs suck to me. Mercs "force" the battling flights to jump out of their ass and accommodate to the prices they set because, as someone already mentioned, if YOU dont buy it, the OTHER flight will. When mercs became a more recognized thing that's when I -personally- realized that dom fights became less about just two flights beating the shit out of each other for pride and fun, and more just about how much other people can profit off of it. Whether there's an actual correlation in the timeline or not, I dont give a fuck, thats just the moment that dom was killed to me. It was the number 1 reason I was on the site to begin with. It put the wind out of my sails. Mercing forces a weird, unfun shift that the battling flights can not control.
And before anyone bitches at me: I know that not everyone is into dom, some people just want profit to fuel their aesthetics, others want to see how far up the fodder floor goes up for funsies, etc etc. All of these play styles are super valid! Hell, power to the dom people now who dont mind mercs at all! Especially to the people who were around before organized mercs were a thing. You are a stronger person than I and I respect that. But the overwhelming expectancy of people wanting to profit off of dom has made dom in general not fun anymore and I bunch that up with the rise of population of mercs. Also disclaimer: NO, theyre not the sole reason why dom is in a weird place now.
I'd like to point out though that I dont entirely blame this behavior especially if the battling flights don't match up with the fodder floor since not every user on the site agreed to there being a dom battle to begin with and battles tend to suck up the cheap fodder. Some people were perfectly fine with their 6.5k fodder floors before the battle bumped it up to 9kT and making it more of a pain in the ass to upkeep profit goals for that week. I don't expect everyone to play along just because two flights are battling, they want money and they're going to get it.
I hope this post provides some perspective onto why some people don't like mercs. For the record, no, I was never a merc and I never sold leveled fodder onto the AH either.
TL;DR: I understand why mercs are a thing and understand that people have different play styles but I hate how dom culture is now adays and wish we'd go back to just flights punching each other for the sake of winning the battle and not just a competition of how much oofers can profit off of them. I know they will never go away, but sometimes i wish there was a way that battling flights could just ignore them and leveled fodder on the AH and see what happens.
Re: Not gonna lie
And before anyone bitches at me: I know that not everyone is into dom, some people just want profit to fuel their aesthetics, others want to see how far up the fodder floor goes up for funsies, etc etc. All of these play styles are super valid! Hell, power to the dom people now who dont mind mercs at all! Especially to the people who were around before organized mercs were a thing. You are a stronger person than I and I respect that. But the overwhelming expectancy of people wanting to profit off of dom has made dom in general not fun anymore and I bunch that up with the rise of population of mercs. Also disclaimer: NO, theyre not the sole reason why dom is in a weird place now.
I'd like to point out though that I dont entirely blame this behavior especially if the battling flights don't match up with the fodder floor since not every user on the site agreed to there being a dom battle to begin with and battles tend to suck up the cheap fodder. Some people were perfectly fine with their 6.5k fodder floors before the battle bumped it up to 9kT and making it more of a pain in the ass to upkeep profit goals for that week. I don't expect everyone to play along just because two flights are battling, they want money and they're going to get it.
I hope this post provides some perspective onto why some people don't like mercs. For the record, no, I was never a merc and I never sold leveled fodder onto the AH either.
TL;DR: I understand why mercs are a thing and understand that people have different play styles but I hate how dom culture is now adays and wish we'd go back to just flights punching each other for the sake of winning the battle and not just a competition of how much oofers can profit off of them. I know they will never go away, but sometimes i wish there was a way that battling flights could just ignore them and leveled fodder on the AH and see what happens.