Fighting for your Race, or Empire in EVE Online used to mean performing repetitive missions, constantly taking out a ‘dangerous’ Pirate NPC, or annoying Outpost that just doesn’t seem to disappear, no matter how many times you see it explode. Not any more.
CCPs most recent addition to their arsenal of addons - The Empyrean Age - allows players to engage in combat with the enemies of their chosen Empire, by joining with the Militia. This opens up a whole new can of worms with regards to PVP, not only in Low Sec, but also - as enemies of the Empire count as War Targets - in High Sec.
The graph this post is linked to shows the impact The Empyrean Age has had on the number of Pod Pilots killed in Low and High Sec space before, and directly after the introduction of these new features.