Cafeteria Style Identity


To be a spy, I had to create a whole new identity - a new email, new usernames, a new set of passwords, more importantly, and I must decide what personal details will I try to lie about, and what will I try and leave as genuine ME stuff.


Building a cafeteria-style version of yourself is an odd experience. Anything I divulge on target-corp’s comms is something I can’t talk about on home-corp’s comms. (Since there’s spies in just about every corporation.) If a particular Spongebob meme gets posted in home-corp’s forum, I can’t share that on target-corp’s Slack without risking getting outed. So I’m picking and choosing from my own personality what my target-corp’s identity will be, a little bit of [thing]


There’s this weird feeling when you’re trying to switch personas. “Wait, can I reply to this thread with my sweet, sweet cultural reference? Who am I right now, and would I know about that thing? “ Lots of careful risk-reward management. Is it worth the little bit of community-building that I’ll get from that joke if it makes other folks a little suspicious? How advanced is target-corp’s counter-intel group? These are all things I have NO idea on, since it’s vastly above my head at the moment. I ended up making a list of stuff I’m that I’ve discussed on target-corp’s comms, as to not overlap too much with my real personality, or if I end-up creating a new spy account within the same target-corp. I need to carefully evaluate if my interest in board-games is common enough to not blow my cover. (I decided that one was probably safe. Probably.)


It felt very odd to NOT try and help new players in the rookie-help channel. I’m the rookie now. I don’t know what ship-type comes after cruiser. I’m clueless as to ore-values or if CONCORD will help you in a 0.3 security system. I’m the one who’s supposed to be asking the dumb questions.


EVE slang is an issue too - I’ve been around the block a few times, so I can talk the talk pretty well. I’m not supposed to know about dirty krabbers, or what blue-balling* means in EVE context. Needing to play the role of a newbie pilot (not to mention avoiding using home-corp’s slang) takes WORK. Happily, much of the interaction is over text, so I can think before I hit enter.




*Blue balling - when one group threatens to fight, but ultimately chooses not to engage, meaning one or both sides 'formed-up' into a fleet and neither side gets 'content'. Given that EVE is a very PvP focused game, 'getting a fight' is often fun, even if your side loses.

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