EVE Online Geniuses Blow Up Six Years of Game Time

[halfeclipse]

Haha, hilarious!

I love the stories that come out of EVE: I remember reading about a corporation that spent 6 months infiltrating another, getting people in place at every tier in the corp, before finally getting the chance to attack the head of it who had a one-of-a-kind ship and a lot of money. An attack which they launched using a single word or phrase throughout every member of their corporation.

Some people just have too much time on their hands.

I disagree. I've never played it, but that is exactly the kind of thing I look for in a good game. Depth. Being able to choose my own objective, and get there by whatever means I see fit. In most games, you can work hard and make your own fortune, some games you have to kill everything else in the universe to make your fortune, but how many games actually let you subvert your enemies into submission?

This is how BOB was taken down. Goonswarm and BOB were at war for a long time (years) and the guy who managed paying the fees for the corp and alliance registry (money paid each month to keep the alliance alive) got pissed off, and through secret channels contacted Goonswarm. Once terms were worked out, the time came to pay up and money was sent to the guy, who then kept it and didn't update the registry, causing the alliance to laps and all their sovereignty to fail. Thus a massive assault from all of BOBs enemies began and destroyed the alliance.

Haha, hilarious!

I love the stories that come out of EVE: I remember reading about a corporation that spent 6 months infiltrating another, getting people in place at every tier in the corp, before finally getting the chance to attack the head of it who had a one-of-a-kind ship and a lot of money. An attack which they launched using a single word or phrase throughout every member of their corporation.

Some people just have too much time on their hands.

I disagree. I've never played it, but that is exactly the kind of thing I look for in a good game. Depth. Being able to choose my own objective, and get there by whatever means I see fit. In most games, you can work hard and make your own fortune, some games you have to kill everything else in the universe to make your fortune, but how many games actually let you subvert your enemies into submission?

This is how BOB was taken down. Goonswarm and BOB were at war for a long time (years) and the guy who managed paying the fees for the corp and alliance registry (money paid each month to keep the alliance alive) got pissed off, and through secret channels contacted Goonswarm. Once terms were worked out, the time came to pay up and money was sent to the guy, who then kept it and didn't update the registry, causing the alliance to laps and all their sovereignty to fail. Thus a massive assault from all of BOBs enemies began and destroyed the alliance.

Nah, that's (roughly) how GoonSwarm fell. BoB fell because one of the directors defected too GoonSwarm and transfered large amounts of BoB's assets to them and then outright disbanded the alliance. After the GOONS asploded BoB (under a new name) has took back a good chuck of the territory they lost so.

And the developers have earned about $1,300 for doing diddly squat. That's the kind of business deal I like.

A bit of digging suggests that the "geniuses" was at war with the faction the person carrying the loot was in. So essentually, they blew up 22 million ISK from their enemies' account. So, it wasn't that bad for the attackers, either.

Add an extra couple zeros there mate.

 

[Schlagwerk]

While playing EVE is hella boring, I gotta say, the shenanigans that come out of it are hilarious.

 

[GodKlown]

I have never played EVE, but the format did sound interesting. This story, in particular... is just fantastic. So you put all your eggs in one heavily underclassed basket, and then surprised when it gets attacked in an apparently dangerous neighborhood with no protection. I believe Tupac had a song for an occasion like this called "No Vasoline".

From an outside standpoint, it makes sense that if you couldn't loot the ship, it makes just as much sense to completely destroy it and the cargo inside it. Sure, it would have been nice to claim the spoils, but if you can't have it, nobody can. More of a "scorched Earth" mentality to war, but those are the breaks. At least they will know better than to leave their precious cargo sitting out where anyone could blow it the hell up. Should have invested that money in some decent backup instead of... what was it? Oh right, NOTHING!

I just don't get why they are being described as "victims". It was a ship in an unfriendly zone, loaded with precious cargo, and had no protection aside from the hull of said ship. Putting yourself in a position where your ass is up for grabs doesn't really qualify you as a victim so much as a candidate for dumbass of the year. Would have made more sense if they had set the ship up as a trap and then swooped in to kill the attackers after the fact, provided they hadn't had such valuable cargo inside as a teaser. If they can afford to lose that much, then there must be more where that came from. Hopefully they learn from their mistakes before they are doomed to repeat them soon.

 

[Baldr]

I think it was all just a ploy for a lawsuit.

 

[Rajin Cajun]

The most badass part of this story is the likelihood that someone cried.

 

[Interference]

Whew, the most opinionated, misleading and disdainful version of this story I've read all day.

 

[MurderousToaster]

Spoiler: A representation of the players after doing this

Problem, EVE online?

You know what the fantastic thing is? They can't be punished because they didn't cheat or anything.

 

[Therumancer]

Speaking for myself I think the entire incident is stupid. I do not think real money should be involved in MMOs like this at all, in any form. Everyone pays the same subscription fee and that is that.

I don't consider this "great" I consider it absolutly ridiculous right down to the very concept of a "Plex" to begin with.

Of course it's obvious many people disagree with me, but this represents exactly what I do not want to see MMORPGs evolving into.

As far as the guy derserving it, all of the scheming in EVE makes me wonder if maybe, just maybe, the guy in the Kestrel did that intentionally. Infighting and payback within his corp? The equvilent of stealing the guild bank and deleting it or something like that.

 

[Death916]

So basically a griefer can now directly attack your playtime? That's a fucking retarded concept.

I have to agree, this is ridiculous. If the owner of that PLEX or Isk or space dollars or whatever keeps playing after this, then he's a shoe-in for the Darwin Awards.

its just in game money used to buy playtime

 

[Death916]

I have never played EVE, but the format did sound interesting. This story, in particular... is just fantastic. So you put all your eggs in one heavily underclassed basket, and then surprised when it gets attacked in an apparently dangerous neighborhood with no protection. I believe Tupac had a song for an occasion like this called "No Vasoline".

From an outside standpoint, it makes sense that if you couldn't loot the ship, it makes just as much sense to completely destroy it and the cargo inside it. Sure, it would have been nice to claim the spoils, but if you can't have it, nobody can. More of a "scorched Earth" mentality to war, but those are the breaks. At least they will know better than to leave their precious cargo sitting out where anyone could blow it the hell up. Should have invested that money in some decent backup instead of... what was it? Oh right, NOTHING!

I just don't get why they are being described as "victims". It was a ship in an unfriendly zone, loaded with precious cargo, and had no protection aside from the hull of said ship. Putting yourself in a position where your ass is up for grabs doesn't really qualify you as a victim so much as a candidate for dumbass of the year. Would have made more sense if they had set the ship up as a trap and then swooped in to kill the attackers after the fact, provided they hadn't had such valuable cargo inside as a teaser. If they can afford to lose that much, then there must be more where that came from. Hopefully they learn from their mistakes before they are doomed to repeat them soon.

not to nitpic. but no vaseline was not by tupac.. its by ice cube it was an eazy e diss.

 

[Headwuend]

I actually appreciate you explaining to everyone how it works because my assumption was that they just blew it. And I think that's pretty typical of EVE, there's always so much intrigue taking place that things are rarely as simple as they seem.

Well, if you're not into proper research that's fine.

 

[Banter]

Note: I don't play EVE, never have.

Confirming I was on voice comms in a different channel when this went down.

Hilarious spin on this. It wasn't their PLEX, it belonged to their enemies, and it's better off destroyed than belonging to them. That's how it goes.

So they stole their enemies' loot and had it intentionally blown up? Am I missing a point here?

Though it does scream to me 'THIS WAS AN INTENTIONAL ACT OF INTENTION' - the kind of thing an alliance member would do just before quitting the alliance and/or the game. Maybe he was affiliated with this other alliance or whatever.

 

[newguy77]

Are there bounty hunters or player made security corps in this game? Not that I'm planning on joining, but that seems like it would be awesome. Also people making mercenary groups would be cool too.

 

[Delusibeta]

Before you get your conspiracy hats on, PLEXs do and have [http://eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=7118520] dropped from blown up ships, although it seems to be a random chance of all getting dropped or all being destroyed: no in betweens.
@newguy77
To quote from the corporation [http://eve-kill.net/?a=corp_detail&crp_id=11367] whose members did the blowing up:

MERCS FOR HIRE:
starting price is 1 billion peer week

So it depends on who you join, really.

 

[poiuppx]

See, this is why I love the idea of EVE, I love the elements of EVE, I love the designs for EVE, but I view it not as a game, but as a spectator sport. Better to let some other shmucks invest their time and no small ammount of money, have something befall them, and then I can chuckle to myself at the funny stories that arise from it.

 

[Loonerinoes]

EVE has always fascinated me, because on the one hand I agree with Yahtzee that the four words coming to mind about it are bored, bored, bored and eyestrain (after watching my brother play it himself and explain a bit of it to me), but on the other hand there's this incredibly devious community that inhabits this place that makes it all interesting and dynamic in a way not found in other MMOs.

It's funny, because while the overall community seems to be very elitist as a whole and unnaccepting, it actually has the gameplay mechanics at their disposal to take this form of trolling to heights not seen before. I mean, what other game lets you blow up virtual representations of real-life monetary investments and make your opponents FFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUU as a result?!

 

[Atmos Duality]

Really?
This is beyond pathetic. When you can lose upwards of 10 dollars (never mind 1200) of real money to gameplay mechanics, you have officially crossed the line into "REALLY STUPID GAME".
If that happened to me, I'd fucking sue.

 

[GodKlown]

I have never played EVE, but the format did sound interesting. This story, in particular... is just fantastic. So you put all your eggs in one heavily underclassed basket, and then surprised when it gets attacked in an apparently dangerous neighborhood with no protection. I believe Tupac had a song for an occasion like this called "No Vasoline".

From an outside standpoint, it makes sense that if you couldn't loot the ship, it makes just as much sense to completely destroy it and the cargo inside it. Sure, it would have been nice to claim the spoils, but if you can't have it, nobody can. More of a "scorched Earth" mentality to war, but those are the breaks. At least they will know better than to leave their precious cargo sitting out where anyone could blow it the hell up. Should have invested that money in some decent backup instead of... what was it? Oh right, NOTHING!

I just don't get why they are being described as "victims". It was a ship in an unfriendly zone, loaded with precious cargo, and had no protection aside from the hull of said ship. Putting yourself in a position where your ass is up for grabs doesn't really qualify you as a victim so much as a candidate for dumbass of the year. Would have made more sense if they had set the ship up as a trap and then swooped in to kill the attackers after the fact, provided they hadn't had such valuable cargo inside as a teaser. If they can afford to lose that much, then there must be more where that came from. Hopefully they learn from their mistakes before they are doomed to repeat them soon.

not to nitpic. but no vaseline was not by tupac.. its by ice cube it was an eazy e diss.

Church, DeathSnipa, thanks for correcting me. I thought that didn't quite sound right, but it has been a while since I've heard that song.

 

[sosolidshoe]

it might be better next time to do a quick Google search for loot drop rules in EVE.

... seriously? You want me to learn about loot drop rules in EVE so I can be sure I'm zinging the right people?

Keep making suggestions like that and I'll start making fun of you.

Most of us don't play EVE and we're not sufficiently interested to care about how things specifically work or who is responsible for one particular kind of silliness or another. From an outsider's perspective, these guys took a shot at a shitload of PLEX (I just about called it FLEX again) and came out with the short end of the stick. Maybe it's not entirely their fault but it's an amusing story and the "nice shooting" is nothing more than an amusing zing to cap it off.

I actually appreciate you explaining to everyone how it works because my assumption was that they just blew it. And I think that's pretty typical of EVE, there's always so much intrigue taking place that things are rarely as simple as they seem.

Yeah, here's the thing though chief, if you're going to bother posting a news article on a website that purports to deliver gaming news, you should probably research the news your posting. Saying "yeah I dun play that game so details are whatever" doesn't really cut it. I don't like the Tories, but if I posted an article about them with incorrect info and when asked to correct it said "yeah I dun like Tories so fuck it", I'd catch a bit of flack.

I know it's "only" games, but journalism is serious business