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Massive EVE Online Alliance Disbanded

tnt001 writes "In the world of EVE Online, the infamous Band of Brothers alliance has been disbanded. It seems that rival alliance Goonswarm had a spy in the holding corporation, and he stole money as well as capital ships and other assets. The spy then disbanded the alliance. 'One of GoonSwarm's stated motivations from their early days as an alliance was to punish what they viewed as the arrogance of Band of Brothers. If they've held true to that ideal, stealing the alliance out from under BoB effectively means GoonSwarm has accomplished what they set out to do years ago.' As of 11:00 GMT, BoB lost all its sovereignty (its outposts are conquerable now, cyno-jammers are offline, jump bridges are inoperable)."

352 comments

  1. Oh joy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    In other news, I just killed Revolver Ocelot in MGS. It was a really tough fight but I managed to pull it out. Can I get my own Slashdot article too?

    1. Re:Oh joy by plasmacutter · · Score: 3, Funny

      In other news, I just killed Revolver Ocelot in MGS. It was a really tough fight but I managed to pull it out. Can I get my own Slashdot article too?

      Shove over n00b, I just downed hogger!

      --
      VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
    2. Re:Oh joy by Syrente · · Score: 0

      I just liberated City 17; it was really tough and my real mission is still ongoing. Can I also get an article?

    3. Re:Oh joy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      Grasp of social gaming mechanics fail. You alone in a room isnt news,something daft like 50% of eve space was under BOB control. That effectively meant you stood with or against a significant proportion of the player base. Eve is an MMO you know, these things matter.

    4. Re:Oh joy by Bronster · · Score: 1

      No, but you can have a comment if you like...

    5. Re:Oh joy by ^BR · · Score: 4, Insightful

      In other news, I just killed Revolver Ocelot in MGS. It was a really tough fight but I managed to pull it out. Can I get my own Slashdot article too?

      I kinda doubt that it impacted greatly the hobby of 2k+ people, so sorry, no.

    6. Re:Oh joy by noundi · · Score: 2, Informative

      You didn't catch the sarcasm?

      --
      I am the lawn!
    7. Re:Oh joy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ahh so it's only important if it's an MMO.

      My guild just took down Nexona tonight and now we've got a clear shot to empty out VP again.

    8. Re:Oh joy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      The princess was in another castle, but I want my article too!

    9. Re:Oh joy by theghost · · Score: 0

      I'm still alive...and there was cake.

      Article please?

      --
      The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.
    10. Re:Oh joy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In other news, I just killed Revolver Ocelot in MGS. It was a really tough fight but I managed to pull it out. Can I get my own Slashdot article too?

      I kinda doubt that it impacted greatly the hobby of 2k+ people, so sorry, no.

      And even so, the world still goes on....

    11. Re:Oh joy by a_nonamiss · · Score: 5, Interesting

      You know, I fully respect your right not to care about this news, because it has no affect on you. Sort of like how I don't really care about who is the mayor of Palm Springs or whether Grandville High School won the big football game last night, but like it or not, EVE Online has an active playerbase all around the world, and they're the types of people who read Slashdot. If you played EVE, which I understand you don't, you'd understand that this news is epic. In the scope of the game, it's akin to the fall of the Soviet Union. (Two polarized superpowers, and one of them falls.)

      To put in perspective how seriously the people involved (not me) take this stuff, the leaders of the disbanded alliance got on flights at 3am to meet in Washington DC (I believe) so they could pick up the pieces and start getting to work on putting together the alliance. Honestly, I'm surprised it took almost 36 hours for an article to get on Slashdot.

      --
      -Arthur
      Cave ne ante ullas catapultas ambules
    12. Re:Oh joy by dreemernj · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Those 2000+ people signed up for a game where alliances battle rivals through various methods. This didn't impact their hobby, this IS their hobby. What they signed up to is a game where this sort of thing not only can happen, but happens pretty often. If this is the first time something like this happened with an alliance this large, great, they got the high score in their game.

      The only thing interesting about this whole situation is the "news" coverage it is getting.

      It might seem like some sort of big deal because so many people are involved, but this sort of thing is a core element for the higher level play of the game. Maybe if the game didn't focus on this aspect of the gameplay as one of its main selling points to get new players, this would be interesting. This is just a "water is wet" story.

      The real headline could be about how one alliance managed to use sites like Slashdot to wave the flag that their rival's outposts are now conquerable. Going so far as to get pseudo news sites with large followings to function as a communications tool and a rallying cry for a virtual world battle is actually pretty interesting.

      --
      1 (short ton / firkin) = 89.1432354 slugs / keg
    13. Re:Oh joy by Ash-Fox · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Oh dear god no! Don't tell me that someone's hobby was impacted! This is a national fucking emergency!

      You and your kind are exactly the reason I'll never play a MMO again.

      And then later

      Fucking whining losers with no life. "Waaaaah my hobby has been impacted! Whatever shall I do?"

      I have come the conclusion that the people the poster was complaining about and the poster are one and the same.

      Apparently these people post ironic messages on Slashdot after their hobby has been impacted.

      --
      Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
    14. Re:Oh joy by Hognoxious · · Score: 4, Funny

      Apparently these people post ironic messages on Slashdot after their hobby has been impacted.

      Posting ironic messages on slashdot is my hobby, you insensitive clod!

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    15. Re:Oh joy by hab136 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      To put in perspective how seriously the people involved (not me) take this stuff, the leaders of the disbanded alliance got on flights at 3am to meet in Washington DC (I believe) so they could pick up the pieces and start getting to work on putting together the alliance.

      Why? Have they never heard of webcams and videoconferencing? Or just plain telephones?

    16. Re:Oh joy by ThePsion5 · · Score: 1, Informative

      I kinda doubt that it impacted greatly the hobby of 2k+ people, so sorry, no.

      It's had its most*direct impact on about 2500 people, the (ex) members of the Band of Brothers Alliance. But this is not a sharded game like World of Warcraft or Everquest, there is only one shard. Band of Brothers had allies numbering in the thousands, and the Goonswarm alliance likely has double that number, in addition to the opportunist neutral parties who believe that they can profit from the event.

      Even those players aside, the scope of this event is large enough that it could have a significant effect on the market, as it's mostly player-controlled. It'll be months before resources begin flowing from that region again regardless of who will own them.

    17. Re:Oh joy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And yet even WOW, which has sliiightly higher userbase, doesn't get "ZOMG, they conquered Orgrimmar" or similar articles.

    18. Re:Oh joy by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 4, Informative

      An alliance is a guild of guilds.

      In Eve, the stupid missions aren't the game. It's the 90%+ of space that's not controlled by any guards whatsoever. A single guild isn't big enough to control much, so alliances form to hold and control a few stars in an area.

      They set up huge space outposts, with defensive satellites, spaceship warehouses and repair shops, defensive force fields 80km in diameter, oh yeah it's pretty sweet.

      Imagine if WoW or whatever the hell you play (and I used to for 8 months -- had a maxxed out Ranger Cowgirl with Ravager pet who could down anyone except for one other ranger in complete tier whatever purple) except that the PvP areas you laid down your own castles to try to literally own and control the whole zone. You installed automated ballistas and catapults and whatnot. You tried to guard the zone in and one out points.

      Yeah. So go back to doing the lame quests and "raids" and other pointless garbage.

      Massively multiplayer, team-based PvP. That's what the ultimate goal is. And Eve's a lot closer than anyone else.

      Oh, and the bigger ships are persistent and cannot be stored and do not disappear when you log out, and neither do these player space stations ("POS" in Eve lingo, player-owned structures.) So you'd better have some good defense, a big alliance with someone always around to sound the alarm, or be damned good at security-through-obscurity.

      --
      (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
    19. Re:Oh joy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They were lead by an HVAC repairman, so, no, probably not.

    20. Re:Oh joy by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 1

      Nah, they sent each other messages that "I'd love to talk to you. Can you please come to my office to meet me in person?"

      --
      (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
    21. Re:Oh joy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ahahahahahahahahahaha!!! Yes, you said "epic" about the non-news. Awesome...

    22. Re:Oh joy by Sobrique · · Score: 2, Insightful

      That's because you can't change anything meaningful in WOW. And you can't really claim that distinction when there's quite that many instances of your gaming environment.

    23. Re:Oh joy by a_nonamiss · · Score: 4, Informative

      According to this website (far from scientific) the largest guild in WoW is maybe 3600 members. BoB was twice that. I don't believe one of those guilds has ever been compromised in one day through a single act of metagaming. WoW servers are splintered. EVE has a single server, (instance) and everyone who plays EVE plays in a single universe. EVE may have a fraction of the players as WoW, but EVERYONE in EVE knows BoB.

      I would bet this is the largest fall of an online superpower to date. I think that's newsworthy.

      --
      -Arthur
      Cave ne ante ullas catapultas ambules
    24. Re:Oh joy by mweather · · Score: 1

      I kinda doubt that it impacted greatly the hobby of 2k+ people, so sorry, no.

      2k+? Last time I was on EVE there were 45k+ on with me.

    25. Re:Oh joy by mweather · · Score: 1

      If you conquered Orgrimmar on every single WoW server, I'm betting there would be articles written about it.

    26. Re:Oh joy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Straw man arguments are lies.

    27. Re:Oh joy by mollymoo · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Eve is an MMO you know, these things matter.

      Get. A. Life.

      --
      Chernobyl 'not a wildlife haven' - BBC News
    28. Re:Oh joy by _Sprocket_ · · Score: 1

      How has this post impacted that hobby?

    29. Re:Oh joy by _Sprocket_ · · Score: 1

      But you never conquer Orgrimmar. Or Stormwind. Or anywhere. You just kind of thrash around in someone's area for awhile until they kick you out or you get bored. And by "someone's area", I mean people from whatever faction is from that city. Nothing in Classic WoW is ever owned. Nothing in WoW is player built.

    30. Re:Oh joy by iocat · · Score: 1

      News. For. Nerds. Stuff. That. Matters.

      --

      Dude, I think I can see my house from here.

    31. Re:Oh joy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Okay, next goal is: move out of parent's basement.

    32. Re:Oh joy by mrdoogee · · Score: 1

      That's nothing! I just sacrificed my life to start up Project Purity! Where's my Article?

    33. Re:Oh joy by Seakip18 · · Score: 1

      Whateves! I killed psycho mantis without using the controller switch.

      --
      import system.cool.Sig;
    34. Re:Oh joy by iocat · · Score: 2, Insightful

      For sure, it "is" the game -- and listening the (former) BOB guy on the radio feed (RTFA), he seems to take it in stride. But it's sorta cool to see a big piece of game-changing news (from the only MMO that really supports big, game changing news inside the context of the game), get such broad coverage. I don't even play the game, but I listened to the radio interviews because it's kind of an exciting story, and of course, I followed the allegations of BOB getting special access from the Eve developers, so I had some context.

      --

      Dude, I think I can see my house from here.

    35. Re:Oh joy by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Killing the Sleeper was the EQ equivalent.

      a) It was supposed to be impossible by design.

          1) It killed a fully geared toon in 10 seconds.
          2) It had 2 billion hit points
          3) If you did some kind of quest, it woke up, kicked every one's ass in the world and then left the game forever unbeaten.

      b) It was beaten on a PVP server-- every server in the game was getting updates as it progressed.
          1) They had to have security to fend off any griefers who would try to stop it.
          2) They had to prevent anyone from completing the quest
          3) They had a lineup of 30 warriors whose job was to step up, get aggro, die.
          4) They had a support group big enough to raise those warriors, rebuff them, and get them back in rotation within 300 seconds.
          5) It took some ungodly number of *hours* to do this. Every server was getting updates. "7:37pm, Sleeper at 93%" "10:05pm, Sleeper at 52%"
          6) A bug or direct intervention by the Developers prevented them from winning the first attempt-- so they had to do it all, then remotivate everyone and do it again after the Devs got jumped on by all of EQ to give them a fair shot.

      Still that was only about 600 people (with an audience of a few hundred thousand perhaps). The Eve thing sounds bigger.

      --
      She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
    36. Re:Oh joy by niw · · Score: 1

      Oh, and the bigger ships are persistent and cannot be stored and do not disappear when you log out, and neither do these player space stations ("POS" in Eve lingo, player-owned structures.) So you'd better have some good defense, a big alliance with someone always around to sound the alarm, or be damned good at security-through-obscurity.

      No ship is persistent, the super-capitals (titans and mother-ships) can not dock in stations, but when the pilot logs out the ship does do the warp and vanish (eventually, the align takes forever). But as with all ships the aggression timer does apply, so the if the ship was aggressed, the ship itself does not disappear for up to 15 minutes (this is how the first couple of titans were destroyed, pilot logged before the timer was up)..

      That being said the POSes are persistent but they can also defend themselves in a limited fashion.

    37. Re:Oh joy by Daengbo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Ahem. Second WoW Expansion Launched, Conquered We also go the play-by-play when Lich King went live and people were seeing the content. We got notified when Burning Crusade went live.

      This is the Slashdot Games section. The people who play these games care. I don't play them. I don't care. That doesn't mean the news isn't interesting to a lot of nerds.

    38. Re:Oh joy by bigstrat2003 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Massively multiplayer, team-based PvP. That's what the ultimate goal is.

      For you. I can't think of anything I want less in my online gaming. Of course, that's the problem with some PvP fans... they can't understand that the preference of every MMO player in existence doesn't line up with theirs, and then deride those who prefer other methods by talking about "lame quests and raids and other pointless garbage". God forbid we learn to appreciate the fact that other people like different things.

      --
      "16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
    39. Re:Oh joy by niw · · Score: 1

      The only thing interesting about this whole situation is the "news" coverage it is getting.

      It might seem like some sort of big deal because so many people are involved, but this sort of thing is a core element for the higher level play of the game. Maybe if the game didn't focus on this aspect of the gameplay as one of its main selling points to get new players, this would be interesting. This is just a "water is wet" story.

      I doubt it really has much to do with the number of people that it potentially affects. The real reason that this is news in the game is BoB is the enemy of enemies in the game. BoB is the evil empire in the game, especially since the t20 incident (dev spawned stuff for them but apparently they never used it). The players of EvE focus on what BoB, Goonswarm and Red Alliance (or whatever there allaince is called now) are doing because they are the Goliath (BoB) and David.

      The real headline could be about how one alliance managed to use sites like Slashdot to wave the flag that their rival's outposts are now conquerable. Going so far as to get pseudo news sites with large followings to function as a communications tool and a rallying cry for a virtual world battle is actually pretty interesting.

      This is an interesting idea, and I imagine we will see more of this type of stuff in the mainstream media because of the increasing number of people playing. EvE is especially poised for this because there are more and more players playing in one world

    40. Re:Oh joy by ILuvRamen · · Score: 1

      oh you aint got shit on me! lol, I just finished Dream Mentor after borrowing a saradomin sword (the regular, not the godsword) and ate 24/26 mantas. Now that's close! But seriously, call me when some of those Turkish botting douchebag clans get disbanded in SRO.

      --
      Google's Super Secret Search Algorithm: SELECT @search_results FROM internet WHERE @search_results = 'good'
    41. Re:Oh joy by JDAustin · · Score: 4, Informative

      Actually BoB was only about 2800 members, if that. But when you add in pets and allies (the Greater Bob Community), then its well over 10,000.

    42. Re:Oh joy by krenshala · · Score: 1

      The market was hit within hours of BOB being disbanded. There was a huge rush on anything that was produced from, or used products produced from, Delve (the region BOB controlled). I know the prices on at least a few of the items had more than doubled less than twelve hours afterwards. I didn't check yesterday, but I assume that trend has been continuing since then, though I hope a stable price is reached soon (I'm a manufacturer/seller of munitions and small ships in EVE).

      --

      krenshala

    43. Re:Oh joy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Also your numbers are off, game has about 28-32k on at a time.

    44. Re:Oh joy by Reapy · · Score: 1

      I agree fully. I have never played eve online. I just kinda keep up with news stories from it, occasionally read an article or two about whats going on in the game...cause there really is no other MMO like it. I read the summery/article and understood the scope of the news of it within the game immediately. It IS news (for nerds).

      Even with just a small understanding of how the game works and who BoB was/is, I think eve is going to be a VERY interesting place in the next few days. I'm pretty glad there was a story about it.

    45. Re:Oh joy by LordMyren · · Score: 1

      This is really endemic of the difficulty virtual worlds are going to have gaining recognition. To an outsider, its a case of "so what," but to the virtual world people inhabit and dedicate themselves to, its as if the colonial English empire suffered a Babylonian confusion of language and was no longer able to talk or work together. All powers great and small are rushing to fill the power vaccuum left in their wake, to claim the profitable and rich bounds of space this alliance once defended.

      The case is more complex than that; EVE, unlike every other program out there, is a contested world with rich rewards for those holding space. By disbanding the alliance, these people no longer hold space. The space and its wealth of resources are up for grabs and there are suddenly dozens of major parties joining the frey to claim it. Alliances who ship off to the freshly claimable Delve seeking riches fortune and fame are subject to attacks at their homelands.

      EVE had been at a status quo for nearly 3 years: there was an established Northern Coallition, the southern RedSwarm Faction, and BoB. Each group has made attacks, but none have succeeded in storming the others home or ruining the other. Disbanding BoB has destabilized a perfect balance, and instilled a sense of adventure in a lot of people who'd found the universe growing boring and stale.

      In closing, I can only lament how unfortunate it is that this titanic event will go unnoticed and unappreciated for so long. If this were an article about someone beating the newest boss in WoW I'd throw up my hands in disgust, but theres something fundamentally different about the limited and player driven world of EVE: the events in it are shared between all the players of EVE, and this great confusion has thrown a very interesting twist into what had become a rather stalemated game. I hope more games follow EVEs pattern of making rich and authentic universes where actions have consequences and great powers and alliances rise and fall, but I think it will be a long long time before these worlds come to domainate & the populous feels their tremors as readily as they feel the throws of power in the real world.

    46. Re:Oh joy by 0p7imu5_P2im3 · · Score: 1

      I'd have to say this resides firmly in the "News for Nerds," subsection, and not the "Stuff that Matters" subsection. They are, after all, separated by punctuation, indicating a distinctness which is not necessarily mutually exclusive. I'm not knocking that it matters to some people, just pointing out that it doesn't really matter outside those who play it... or make real dollars off of it.

      --
      Resistance is futile. Your technological distinctiveness will be added to our own. You will become one with the morgue
    47. Re:Oh joy by 0p7imu5_P2im3 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Ironically.

      --
      Resistance is futile. Your technological distinctiveness will be added to our own. You will become one with the morgue
    48. Re:Oh joy by MBraynard · · Score: 1

      I wonder where they met. Some of the 24/7 ihops?

    49. Re:Oh joy by SilentChris · · Score: 1

      "That's what the ultimate goal is."

      Of what, exactly? Team-based MMO PVP is one small subset of a genre of gaming (like many other small subsets of genres). While some may be into it, there's a huge number of people that are not. Your use of the word "goal" implies a destination everyone is trying to reach. That's not the case here.

    50. Re:Oh joy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      hey your insecurity complex is showing.

    51. Re:Oh joy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is just a "water is wet" story.

      Woah... back up a minute... what's this about water being wet??

    52. Re:Oh joy by brkello · · Score: 1

      1) They are called corporations, not guilds.

      2) They are called Hunters, not Rangers.

      Do you even play the game? Or are you a manager type and just have people play the game for you?

      --
      Support a great indie game: http://www.abaddon360.com
    53. Re:Oh joy by mapsjanhere · · Score: 1

      oh yes, the good old times. BTW, 12 expansions and 8 years later the sleeper was found hiding in a cave temple and killed.

      --
      I'm aging rapidly, I bought a new game and had no idea if my machine was good for it.
    54. Re:Oh joy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Or I can play a game where taking a break for a couple weeks won't cause me to lose all my shit, and where it's ok to join a crappy/underdog guild of friends without being completely screwed, or where I can pvp when I choose to instead of being griefed, or where there's a skill-based pvp system in place instead of "whoever has the most players online at the time".

      Different strokes for different folks.

    55. Re:Oh joy by ildon · · Score: 1

      He may be a dick but it's pretty obvious he was using the term "guild" because corporations are analogous to guilds from other games, so WoW players would know what he was talking about, and that he used "Ranger Cowgirl" as a sarcastic and derisive term to try and insult people who play WoW.

      Your reading comprehension needs some work.

    56. Re:Oh joy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Really? did it take years of work? planning? Spying? Theft, manipulation, and risk? How many people from across the world did you work with to accomplish this feat?

      disclaimer: I played eve online for a few months a couple years ago, but I was unable to put the amount of time and effort it takes to excel in that game

    57. Re:Oh joy by Troed · · Score: 1

      I hope more games follow EVEs pattern of making rich and authentic universes where actions have consequences and great powers and alliances rise and fall

      You're playing one right now. We call it "life".

      Seriously. It's the best explanation out there.

    58. Re:Oh joy by mgblst · · Score: 1

      You might as well play single player games, and there is nothing wrong with that.

    59. Re:Oh joy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      they don't vanish

    60. Re:Oh joy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      the mayor of palm spring affects more than 2000 people.... We don't care about your gaydar jammed coming offline. Try logging into real life now.

    61. Re:Oh joy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You might as well play single player games

      Why? PVP and single-player aren't the only types of gameplay.

    62. Re:Oh joy by thelandp · · Score: 1

      With that attitude, yet you're posting on Slashdot? If nerd culture means anything, it means abandoning any pressure on trying to "Get a Life" whatever that means. It means instead to do what you instinctively feel, matters. Embrace your nerdness. One of us, one of us ...

      --

      -- the only thing we have to fear is really scary things
    63. Re:Oh joy by LordMyren · · Score: 1

      Life unfortunately has all the directedness and continuity of Flux.

    64. Re:Oh joy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Goons got their wires tapped, and homes under put under surveillance...

    65. Re:Oh joy by duckInferno · · Score: 1

      That whistling sound is the joke flying at several hundred AU/s over your head.

      --
      Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, watch it -- I'm huge!
    66. Re:Oh joy by duckInferno · · Score: 1

      Or even over... 9000?

      /flee

      --
      Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, watch it -- I'm huge!
  2. Ex Eve Player here by Dyinobal · · Score: 1

    Wow, this is quite the news. Still though it's all metagame stuff. They will be disbanded for how ever long it takes to reform the alliance. Disbanded game mechanics wise doesn't mean they are out of touch and shooting at each other. They lose sovereignty and some other stuff but in the end they will likely get it back unless goonswarm and friends had a major offensive planned for this occasion.

    1. Re:Ex Eve Player here by varcher · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's a bit more than that. With sovereignty, you lose a large chunk of your internal economy and logistics. A lot of that will not have to be re-acquired, it will have to be rebuilt, from the ground up.
       
      The reason BoB was able to hold on its central Delve systems was that sovereign systems are easy to defend. You have cynos, you have jumpbridges, you have reserves of capitals and super-capitals ready to reinforce. And it helped that Delve was a very rich sector, making it a perfect logistics base.
       
      Those advantages are gone. They have to be rebuilt - and most ennemy corps will not stand idle while BoB regroup. Look at the influence map: BoB has started to reassert sovereignty in pieces, but there's already huge chunks of territory carved. Getting them back... is going to take months. Or a year. Or two.

    2. Re:Ex Eve Player here by Rakshasa+Taisab · · Score: 5, Informative

      The whole region is already seeing everyone and their mothers moving in to loot and pillage. More than just a strategic loss, they now have to deal with a large number of enemies and random neutrals coming to play in their space.

      Also, the Band of Brothers name was claimed by the Goons, so they can't reform under it.

      --
      - These characters were randomly selected.
    3. Re:Ex Eve Player here by Hognoxious · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I don't play the game, but is what they did realistic within that universe?

      I suppose a spy/saboteur/traitor is certainly possible, but in [alternate] reality could he have got away with what he did without putting himself physically at risk? Would not ships' crews, garrissons etc have some autonomous decision making such that thay might disobey strange orders?

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    4. Re:Ex Eve Player here by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 1

      Well if he sat as a mole, climbing the ranks for years, until he was high enough he could disband the alliance, then there wouldn't be any real physical risk.

      Yes, they may come after him, if they can find him. But the damage is done. You respawn like in other games*. But your ships do not. They're junk to be looted and pooted.

      And, by the way, almost anything you can get away with under the game mechanics is fair game, including stuff like this, griefing, camping stargates, trapping an expensive ship and demanding a ransom and possibly blowing it up anyway, though the "good will" of letting it go makes getting more ransom money more likely.

      * Not quite. You better have insurance on your "XP", or you lose almost all of it.

      --
      (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
    5. Re:Ex Eve Player here by mweather · · Score: 5, Informative

      In Eve guilds and alliances are like corporations, complete with stocks. This was like a hostile takeover, with the victor liquidating BoB's assets.

    6. Re:Ex Eve Player here by jythie · · Score: 1

      If I had mod points.....
       
      Though to take the example a bit further, I wouldn't even call this a hostile takeover, more like one exec secretly doing the paperwork to transfer the corp to another owner without telling the rest of the board.

    7. Re:Ex Eve Player here by EonBlueTooL · · Score: 1

      It wasn't a spy, it was a high level bob director who decided to leave and isntead of just leaving he decided to have as much fun with it as possible, so he went to the goon "spymaster" mittens and basically offered to do anything with his account.

      It is still not known whether the bob director's account was stolen from him or not and what goonswarm did was try to make it seem like this is what happened with his account info.

      To answer your question, yeah, despite the fact that you can't really do anything in eve without a 24 hour timer (kicking members from corp/unlocking assets etc.) it is surprising that you can dissolve an alliance with a couple right clicks and the correct permissions.

      But yeah despite the fact that goons did virtually nothing to actually make this happen and it was solely a director inflicting as much damage as possible before he left, it is a testament to their ability as a propaganda organization that this story is so wrong and on slashdot, but blatantly slanted and often wrong stories are the norm here. (but hey, at least its not digg)

    8. Re:Ex Eve Player here by strikethree · · Score: 1

      "Also, the Band of Brothers name was claimed by the Goons, so they can't reform under it."

      That is correct. They are called KenZoku now. It is apparently supposed to mean Family or somesuch.

      strike

      --
      "Someone needs to talk to the tree of liberty about its ghoulish drinking problem." by ohnocitizen
  3. Hello from Meatspace! by Bruce+Perens · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Wow, some people must be really heavily into that gamespace. It always amazes me to see articles where nothing in the summary connects to the real world at all.

    1. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by X0563511 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      As a former player, I can attest.

      The game really has it's own politics.

      --
      For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
    2. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by tehmorph · · Score: 1

      Absolutely. It's one of the best things about the game- it really is a virtual world, a different league altogether from other MMORPGs.

      --
      Could not open .sig for reading- sanity error
    3. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      At such rate, this stuff will be posted in the Politics section. ;)

    4. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by qw0ntum · · Score: 5, Informative

      As someone who has never played EVE before, I found this recording that explains what happened to be interesting. http://go-dl.eve-files.com/media/0902/mittani.mp3 (fyi: mildly nsfw)

      My first instinct is to laugh at all this, but it is amazing how seriously so many people take this. The internet never ceases to amaze me.

      --
      'Every story, if continued long enough, ends in death.' --Ernest Hemingway
    5. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by tibman · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I'll translate it into a semi-realworld (fictional) scenario to help out...

      "In the world of Business-Politics, the infamous Apple company has been dissolved. It seems that rival Company Microsoft had a [director level] spy in the holding corporation, and he stole money as well as Super-Computers and other assets. The spy then dissolved the company. 'One of Microsoft's stated motivations from their early days as a company was to punish what they viewed as the arrogance of Apple. If they've held true to that ideal, stealing the marketplace out from under Apple effectively means Microsoft has accomplished what they set out to do years ago.' As of 11:00 GMT, Apple lost all its Intellectual Property. (its patents are void now, trademarks are pointless, copyrights are invalid)."

      Now if you can imagine the majority of Apple employees were living in their work cubicals when they found out. The next morning all apple employees were then promptly all shoved out into the street with little more than the clothes on their back. Linux and Microsoft gangs bum rushed into the area to quickly rob every apple employee as possible and quickly convert former-apple assets into new workstations and easy cash.

      It's probably the biggest zerozero political upheaval in EVE's history.

      --
      http://soylentnews.org/~tibman
    6. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by Harik · · Score: 4, Informative

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nvwk4QncSG4 -- eve-files will melt under a slashdotting, it's been put on youtube. I should hope google can handle the load.

    7. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by Faldgan · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I know what you mean. Here I am stationed in Iraq, I've got people going out every day who are possibly going to get really killed. We find explosives, get shot at, you name it. It's all VERY real. But there are enough people who are so totally insulated from this sort of thing that the EVE Online game is vastly more important to them.

      On the other hand, this should spur someone from Darfur to post about the genocide there. Or one of the congo nations where life is so horrible.

      What does it say about us as a species that there is such a range of lifestyles? On one end is the people where EVE Online takeovers might be the most important thing to happen to them all year. At the other end are refugees who get killed by the thousands and would have been starving and diseased anyway.

      Is this disparity good or bad? Is there any limit to how much disparity is good? Would we be better off if everybody had similar worries and we were all about the same level on Maslow's hierarchy of needs?

      --
      Nathan Brazil?
    8. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by Jurily · · Score: 2, Funny

      nothing in the summary connects to the real world at all.

      It's always been like that. But this time, neither does TFA.

    9. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by tibman · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It IS a game and it's enjoyable to participate in. There is probably a happy medium for how serious people should take games. On my last deployment I didn't have access to internet (or phones, or tv) so we played frisbee or came up with stupid pranks.

      I think a lot of vets feel the way you do. They get back and go wtf is wrong with you people, arguing over childish things? Probably why so many vets become unsync'd with the society they grew up in. But it's probably better this way. Try to keep the innocent.. innocent. No need for my family to REALLY know how shitty the world truely is, eh?

      --
      http://soylentnews.org/~tibman
    10. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by Yvanhoe · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It might sound stupid to say that about a video game, but really, it is about choosing one's meaning of life. I know some immigrants here who work in shitty job but who will enjoy their retirement in their home village as wealthy people. Apocalypse Now was about a man who chose to become a god among primitives instead of a soldier among soldiers. Some people prefer to be mercenary bosses, pirates kings or wide corporations CEO in a virtual world instead of a pawn in real life. I can't really blame them.

      Should everyone have this opportunity ? Hell yes ! But there is no blame to put on people who have a high lifestyle. They can feel guilty if they wish, they can help if they wish, but they set a goal. Having a goal is a good way to start making progress.

      --
      The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
    11. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by u38cg · · Score: 1
      A very valid question, and given your situation, one that you can hardly be blamed for asking.

      To answer your question, no, of course the disparities that exist across the globe are wrong and unjustifiable. Of course, from experience we know that we can't remove disparity altogether; apart from anything else, not all humans are equally hardworking, intelligent, or physically capable and from that point of view it seems unreasonable that someone that works twice as hard should receive the same as someone sitting on his ass posting on slashdot when he should be working.

      The question then is how to have a system that allows for disparity but which is still equitable. The American philosopher John Rawls came up with a concept for dealing with this he called "the veil of ignorance". The idea is pretty simple: you can design your utopian society however you like, but the only proviso is that your place in it will be randomly assigned. You might be a slave, a serf, a worker, a soldier, whatever. Most people would say that under such a system the disparities are less important themselves than your opportunities to escape your position. Some societies come closer to this than others, perhaps America's most of all. Globally of course...well, maybe one, day, and then those of us who don't have aclue about this story can rest assured that if that's what they really wanted, they could have it.

      --
      [FUCK BETA]
    12. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There's over 6 billion people in the world. Call it disparity or diversity, what's really amazing is that so many people now are actually aware of the huge variety of what others do.

      As for the blame in some of these posts... What? So some people are enjoying a game together. Okay that's not as altruistic as fighting bad people in a war zone, but it's a hell of lot more altruistic than being bad people who create war zones. Let's use some perspective here. This is no big deal. It's managed to get a minor news post on a niche forum. That's certainly much less weird than the media extravaganza over some game called Superbowl.

    13. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Im sorry, but arent you out there fighting for those people? so they dont have to worry about more than their online personas.

      If every person in the world would have to worry about the bad things in this world, we would all be miserable. But then again, maybe it would force us to do something about it.

      anyway, I appreciate what you and the troops are doing over there.

    14. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're an invader. Of course you'll get shot at.
      What do you think would happen if I went to your hometown and started shooting up the place? Do you expect the locals would give me flowers?

      Also, you signed up of your own free will. It's the army, what did you expect? Not going to war?

    15. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by jayhawk88 · · Score: 1

      You know I have to admit, finding out that there is an MMO out there that supports this level of cooperation, strategy, and espionage is almost shocking. If I was heavily into games like I was a few years back I would definitely be checking this game out.

    16. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by plasmacutter · · Score: 1

      Is this disparity good or bad? Is there any limit to how much disparity is good? Would we be better off if everybody had similar worries

      without diversity creativity dies.

      I do, however, agree that the level of human depravity you witness overseas should not be subjected to anyone.

      --
      VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
    17. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Who on earth would voluntarily go to Iraq to defend people against nothing other than the oil-greed of the US?

      I couldn't care less who's there or not, actually if it doesn't affect me I ignore it, simple as. Way to many selfrighteous pricks in the military thinking they are actually in Iraq and afghanistan to void terror and not US political and economical interests...

    18. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by RobotRunAmok · · Score: 4, Funny

      Most people I know who play Eve are fascinated by how into Real Life so many others are.

    19. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by meringuoid · · Score: 1
      Im sorry, but arent you out there fighting for those people? so they dont have to worry about more than their online personas.

      He said Iraq. I'm not sure exactly what the purpose of that was - something about weapons of mass destruction that we knew where they were and that could be launched against British bases in Cyprus within 45 minutes, wasn't it? - but I'm pretty sure that whatever Saddam Hussein's evil plans were, messing with EVE Online wasn't high on his list of priorities. The troops in Iraq could all sod off to Amsterdam and get high and shag hookers for all the difference it would make to events in MMORPGs.

      --
      Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
    20. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Faldgan,

      I'm right with you. A friend lost her son in Iraq. I may not know what it's like there but I've seen the effects here.

      The world is messed up and most people care more about themselves than others. Rampant materialism has led to the belief that we 'choose our own meaning' when that really leads to no meaning whatsoever.

    21. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by Dun+Malg · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I know what you mean. Here I am stationed in Iraq, I've got people going out every day who are possibly going to get really killed. We find explosives, get shot at, you name it. It's all VERY real. But there are enough people who are so totally insulated from this sort of thing that the EVE Online game is vastly more important to them.

      On the other hand, this should spur someone from Darfur to post about the genocide there. Or one of the congo nations where life is so horrible.

      I slogged through two tours in Afghanistan. It was five years ago, and I still don't really like to see news much. After 8 years of Army service deployed four times to such wonderful places (e.g. Bosnia), I feel like I've used up my capacity for dealing with brutal realities. I think it's good that some people have their silly little games to occupy them. Most people can't handle the shit you and I have had to see.

      --
      If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
    22. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by Dun+Malg · · Score: 1

      I'm right with you. A friend lost her son in Iraq. I may not know what it's like there but I've seen the effects here. The world is messed up and most people care more about themselves than others. Rampant materialism has led to the belief that we 'choose our own meaning' when that really leads to no meaning whatsoever.

      As much as people wish there was some "higher nobility to humanity capable of dealing with the troubles of the world if we only set our minds to it, etc."--- the sad reality is that there just isn't. When I came back from Afghanistan, people were interested in what I saw, but only in the most general way. Very few wanted to hear about the horrible things I saw, like interpreters I worked with having their families attacked, or being killed themselves for cooperating with us. Those that claimed to be interested in that stuff pretty much just used it as a springboard to launch into abstract political rants (both lefties and righties!). I've come to realize that not being able to easily take on the suffering of other "third hand" like that is actually a human survival trait. People can only barely handle the tragedies in their own lives, much less bear the burden of every tragedy the damned news media pushes in their face. I say let them have their lives of quiet desperation if they choose.

      --
      If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
    23. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by a_nonamiss · · Score: 1

      First, thank you for your sacrifice and service to our country. Second, you can't apply this logic so broadly. Compared to real danger, real death and real destruction, NOTHING is important. Games, movies, politics, the economy. It's all just window dressing compared to disarming live ordinance.

      --
      -Arthur
      Cave ne ante ullas catapultas ambules
    24. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by east+coast · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Maybe I'm taking you wrong but I'd like to think that the vast majority of EVE players, myself included, would never see real harm come to someone else over our game. BUT... It's still a game. Your post would be just as relevent about 99.98% of all articles on Slashdot, why wait to choose EVE to be the punching bag of what you feel is misguided interest? Why not instead shout down all the fans who paid thousands of dollars to see the latest Superbowl? Or perhaps the millions who paid more attention to what Michelle Obama was wearing during Inaguration Day instead of what the platform of the new administration was?

      What do you think the average EVE player should be doing about the global situation?

      Ultimatly, I'm sure everyone reading this and posting here is well aware that there are bad things going on all over the world. But we are who we are. Everyone produces in their own way and everyone takes something from the system on what some unfortunate souls in the Congo would consider a selfish way. By some people's standards even you are living a better life than they are.

      So what exactly do you want from us? Do you want every thought on our mind to be about how horrible the world can be? Do you want every article on Slashdot to be about what you feel is most important in the world? I honor your work and sacrifice but I think it's out of line when you say stuff like "But there are enough people who are so totally insulated from this sort of thing that the EVE Online game is vastly more important to them."

      --
      Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
    25. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You comment from the field points out an even more heinous tactic at work: the powers that be have tried to keep the *real* news and developments from the American people. Why? Two intertwined reasons: 1) to stop from losing all public support, and 2) to stop open, mass activism against the police action and the powers that be. They learned from Vietnam what to do and not do.

      Think about? What images of the Iraq police action come to mind? Abu Grahib? Men in Humvees? Long-distance shots of missile strikes? Where are the horrors of war? The American people don't even really get to see those soldiers who are already home and trying to rebuild their lives. There is a news blackout against the American people and it was done on purpose.

      This is the reason why an event on EVE can seem like real news... something has to take up the space in the vacuum of substantive information.

    26. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by buffer-overflowed · · Score: 1

      I've come to realize that not being able to easily take on the suffering of other "third hand" like that is actually a human survival trait. People can only barely handle the tragedies in their own lives, much less bear the burden of every tragedy the damned news media pushes in their face. I say let them have their lives of quiet desperation if they choose.

      There's an old(well, relatively) article that was published in the Chicago Reader and excerpted on "This American Life" a long time ago sort of about this as it relates to war called "Losing the War". Lee Sandlin tried to figure out what his father's actual war experience was like(in of course World War 2) and that chronicles it. It's not one of those "you had to be there" type things and it's pretty long, and touches on some other stuff(like propoganda usage, yada yada), but in short, you're right.

      --
      The key to the enjoyment of pop music is to replace any instance of "love" with "C.H.U.D."
    27. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That wasn't his point at all. The "segue" was an example. Your preconceived notions hamper your ability to understand what you're reading. His point is "To me, the most important thing is that me and all my friends don't die today. Tomorrow it will be that we don't die today. The day after that, probably the same. To some people, the most important thing that happens to them all year is in a video game. Isn't that dichotomy weird?" It's not a troll, it's an anecdote rather than an irrelevant segue, and you should probably consider learning to read.

    28. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by Jedi+Alec · · Score: 1

      What do you think the average EVE player should be doing about the global situation?

      Actually, from my experience, EVE has a disproportionately high amount of players that serve in either the military or in law enforcement. Nothing quite like being in a fleet FC'd by a rl drill-sergeant ;-)

      --

      People replying to my sig annoy me. That's why I change it all the time.
    29. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by ServerIrv · · Score: 1

      Some people prefer to be mercenary bosses, pirates kings or wide corporations CEO in a virtual world instead of a pawn in real life.

      My main problem with your argument is the phrase choice, "instead of". OK, great, they are all powerful in a virtual world, but this may be "while being" a pawn in real life. Or, this may be "while being" a powerful person in real life. As great as games are for escaping the mundane, you cannot escape real life forever. This is not a binary "instead of" situation.

      I play games, but I don't let them interfere with my real life. I choose to make my life better. Do I disagree with your premise that people shouldn't deny themselves of this high lifestyle wish, no. I just disagree with the escapist mentality.

    30. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by skeeto · · Score: 1
    31. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Replace EVE Online with the Superbowl. Or American Idol. Or any other distraction. The fact of the matter is that there are global issues and there are local issues, there are mass issues and there are personal issues. The biggest thing that happened to me this year was separating from my wife. But that's nothing compared to being tortured in Guantanamo, say, or blown up in the middle East. Yes, I worry about Sudan, but I also worry about my cat.

      Now I know that your point might be that people don't pay enough attention to the big issues, and on that I would agree with you - we're losing human rights, people are dying in their millions to curable diseases and pointless wars and we're wrecking the planet for generations to come. But at the same time, you've got to keep the minutia in balance - or else you get to wondering how you can buy yourself a coffee when someone is starving to death and could be fed with that same money.

      This can be a big deal to some people, just as the Steelers beating Arizona was a big deal to some people. That, to me isn't the issue, and that doesn't make them bad people. What really sucks is that we don't consider the other large issues too. The problem with the go-out-and-fix-it people is that they demand all your time, all your efforts, when in fact a small yet significant effort from a larger group of people would go much further to solving the problem. The problem isn't that EVE Online (or anything else) is too big of a deal for these people, it's that Dafur (for example) isn't big enough of a deal for enough people.

    32. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by Sobrique · · Score: 1

      And yet, you're the one that's killing real people, and EVE players aren't.

    33. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by buffer-overflowed · · Score: 2, Insightful

      This is going to be meta as fuck -- but the only preconcieved notions I brought to that post were; that the gist of his complaint(and thus post) applies to just about everything(which a later reply addressed) both on this site and within western cultur, that Iraq is a contentious topic(confirmed by some of the replies), that bringing up your own US military service invariably will send any conversation down certain lines(also confirmed by the replies - thank you for your service, what were you expecting, yada yada), and that as a poster with an ID that low, he knew all of these things and thus knew what he was doing. And of course what is implied by the fact that both darfur, and Rwanda 2, child of rwanda, aka the congo were brought into it as well.

      It was utterly irrelevant to the article(or rather only as relevant to this topic as to any other topic), only sort of relevant to the person he was replying to, and not productive except to create a derail, which it did. That's a troll -- oh, and the purpose of a troll is to generate conversation, not necessarily in a bad way. I know that definition has gone out of vogue, but sorry it's the one drilled into my brain.

      --
      The key to the enjoyment of pop music is to replace any instance of "love" with "C.H.U.D."
    34. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by bjorniac · · Score: 2, Insightful

      First off, let me state that I'm a pacifist, and have absolutely no love for the violence and war-porn that infests our society. I've never served in the armed forces, and never intend to. I've met vets whom I've made great friendships with, and I've met vets whom I wish I'd never had the displeasure of meeting - they're human beings, good and bad, just like the rest of us. But I cannot let you attack the soldiers like this so unfairly without offering a different perspective.

      They are there because they signed up to serve their country and protect it. They are there because they were ordered to be there to do this. If you have an issue with what the troops are doing then you have an issue with their commander in chief (actually, probably now the ex-CiC) and the politicians who sent them there. The soldiers themselves do not get to choose the battles or the issues they fight for, the politicians do, and in democracies populations choose politicians. (Yeah, broadly speaking, no need to nit-pick/supreme court me here, I know all that crap).

      Yes, I think it's a tragedy that so many people have died (hundreds of thousands of civilians, thousands of soldiers) as a result of this exercise in futility. I think the war in Iraq is a mistake, and protested before its beginning, and that the war in Afghanistan has been so badly mis-handled that no good has come of it. But I will never hold that against someone who signed up to serve his country and protect his family. The "selfrighteous pricks" are the ones who sold us the lies behind all this, who squandered our most valuable resources all to further their own personal agendas. The soldiers put their trust in their leaders, offered their sweat, tears, and sadly also blood to serve.

      Now I know that this might bring up the usual 'just following orders isn't an excuse' argument. But really, do you think that a soldier has time to sit down and review the evidence in of yellow-cake, to weigh the pros and cons of fighting an insurgency? Yes, you should disobey obviously bad orders (eg 'Shoot that innocent civilian in the head') but for the larger issues like this there is no practical way for that to be possible. And thus I lay the blame at the feet of the leaders, not the soldiers, and I think that's really where you would want to place it too.

    35. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by EmperorKagato · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I slogged through two tours in Afghanistan. It was five years ago, and I still don't really like to see news much. After 8 years of Army service deployed four times to such wonderful places (e.g. Bosnia), I feel like I've used up my capacity for dealing with brutal realities. I think it's good that some people have their silly little games to occupy them. Most people can't handle the shit you and I have had to see.

      I think your perception about the game is not very clear.

      Just think of it as a gambler's dream. They've spent all this money and time to improve their virtual character and can finally take advantage of a situation that is so rare that it actually makes Slashdot news. There is also a long history of corruption within this organization which seem to take out most of the air in enjoying this game.
       
      This is our nightlife, our hobby, our hour of fun. And you're right we can't handle the shit that you've seen. We're not professionals in armed combat and field work
       
      Some of us fight the fight back at home in our spare time and play EVE.

      --
      ----- You know you have ego issues when you register a domain in your name.
    36. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're missing something here.

      Take this comment:

      The whole region is already seeing everyone and their mothers moving in to loot and pillage. More than just a strategic loss, they now have to deal with a large number of enemies and random neutrals coming to play in their space.
      Also, the Band of Brothers name was claimed by the Goons, so they can't reform under it.

      If you replace "Band of Brothers" with "Iraq" and "Goons" with "Shias", it would read like the real-life news from 2003.

      This is game modeling on a macro-economic and geo-political scale. The disconnect you mention is between the soldier and the general, and that disconnect has been around forever.

    37. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thank you for your service. It is your sacrifice that allows us to discuss and debate trivial, pointless stuff like this.

      Indeed, the whole point of your sacrifice is to allow an environment where ignorance and innocence like this can bloom. In the end, what is civilization but a series of trivial, insignificant events punctuated by immense brutality?

      I salute you, sir, and I hope that the disparity does not break you. People have limited viewpoints for a reason; I pray your much-widened view of the world does not harm you when you come back from the battlefield.

      Stay safe.

    38. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by mweather · · Score: 1

      There's no reason not to try it out now. As hardcore as it sounds, you don't need to actually play to keep improving your skills. They train over time, even if you are not logged in. You never fall behind your friends, except economically. But you can give other people money, you can't give skills.

    39. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by mweather · · Score: 1

      I play games, but I don't let them interfere with my real life. I choose to make my life better.

      Games do make my real life better, because it adds fun to my real life. Maybe if you stopped trying to make your life better and tried to enjoy it you'd find your life is, in fact, better because of it.

    40. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      To all the people bitching about this getting "news". This is Slashdot.org. Not foxnews or the BBC. There is no "Wars, Disease, and Killing" sections. This news is posted under the "Games" section. This IS big game news. If you want to read about the atrocities in Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, starving children in Africa. Then I suggest other big news sites that DO report on those things. I'm NOT trying to downplay, degrade or otherwise belittle those sorts of news. However, don't belittle this news because its' not as horrific as what you've seen or want to see. And don't take offense that this is being report on either. Eve Online is a worldwide game... This is affects at least 50% of the players of that game... Get over it.

    41. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      To me, the most important thing is that me and all my friends don't die today. Tomorrow it will be that we don't die today. The day after that, probably the same.

      Simple solution: go home.

    42. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by _Sprocket_ · · Score: 1

      I know what you mean. Here I am stationed in Iraq, I've got people going out every day who are possibly going to get really killed. We find explosives, get shot at, you name it. It's all VERY real. But there are enough people who are so totally insulated from this sort of thing that the EVE Online game is vastly more important to them.

      If all the Eve players involved found themselves in a melt-down of their country's society, they'd likely find the mechanisms of the game suddenly a lot less important / interesting. They would adjust to what's going on around them. But thankfully for them, they're not in Iraq or a situation like it. And so for them, life goes on. Conflict is simulated; emulated stress to feed whatever wiring that makes us crave these things while living our safe lives.

      It's all a matter of perspective.

      During my deployment in Kuwait, we had steaks every Wed. Steak Night. We got out our self-made BBQ grills. The NCOs kicked out the TCN cooks and did the honors themselves. If you wanted A-1 sauce, you came early. But everyone got a steak.

      We counted how many weeks we had left in our tour by Steak Nights. When MLK Day fell on a Steak Night and the Chaplin announced a special meal of fried chicken (kid you not) - there was a feeling of mutiny. The Squadron Commander addressed us the following Friday to assure us that never again would we miss a Steak Night as long as steaks were available. There was cheering.

      Back in the real world, I realized that the steaks weren't all that good. And while I still like a good steak on occasion - my life doesn't revolve around them.

    43. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by Yvanhoe · · Score: 1

      Well to each his choice. I am not that of an escapist either, but I can understand the choise : if it looks easier to improve one's virtual condition instead of one's real condition and if it brings the same amount of retribution, why is that an invalid choice ?

      Sure, you are still a pawn during 8 hours a day at your day work. You are a king during 8 hours of free time plus weekend. You have real people (other players) who respect you and your skills. What is to criticize in that lifestyle ? The denial ? The denial of what, exactly ?

      Living for a game is not dumber than living for any given hobby or sport. Ultimately it all boils down about your expectations in life.

      Personally IRL is still my prefered MMORPG, but that is because I'm a graphics freak. I don't see what really makes real life obviously preferrable to a virtual world once your basic survival is guaranteed.

      --
      The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
    44. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by tnk1 · · Score: 1

      Well, as a person who plays Eve, I'd argue that Eve players most certainly care about Iraq and Darfur. Posting about Eve is not mutually exclusive with caring about the real world.

      I mean, we can't all go to Iraq or the Sudan or Afghanistan, and even if we could, I doubt that most of us have skills that are remotely useful in many crisis situations.

      I'll grant that I am not currently a hardcore player in the sense of the people in those two alliances, but there's no reason that they can't care.

      Something like this is enormous for the people in this game. In games where player generated content is not possible, it would be similar to a minor to moderate content patch. A huge section of previously locked-down space is now up for grabs. It just so happens that player politics made this happen.

      Anything that real humans put real time into has some sort of value. In the end, that *is* the very definition of value: effort + time + resources. In this case, it is simply entertainment value, but given that there is a gigantic entertainment industry out there, its not so difficult to see how people can feel strongly about it.

    45. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I know what you mean. Here I am stationed in Iraq, I've got people going out every day who are possibly going to get really killed. We find explosives, get shot at, you name it. It's all VERY real. But there are enough people who are so totally insulated from this sort of thing that the EVE Online game is vastly more important to them.

      On the other hand, this should spur someone from Darfur to post about the genocide there. Or one of the congo nations where life is so horrible.

      What does it say about us as a species that there is such a range of lifestyles? On one end is the people where EVE Online takeovers might be the most important thing to happen to them all year. At the other end are refugees who get killed by the thousands and would have been starving and diseased anyway.

      If you were at home, Iraq's reality would be less different than yours.

    46. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by Ryvar · · Score: 1

      Actually, given the relative power of the two factions over time and BoB's level of entrenchment in very rich, very central parts of the gamespace, a better analogy might be Google taking down Microsoft through the same methods. I stopped playing EVE three years ago and even I had to pick my jaw up off the floor when I read this news. BoB was *THE* all-pervading massive enclave of successful assholes in the game, and despite recent losses were still the largest power. Unbelievable.

    47. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by Krishnoid · · Score: 1

      I know what you mean. Here I am stationed in Iraq, I've got people going out every day who are possibly going to get really killed. We find explosives, get shot at, you name it. It's all VERY real. But there are enough people who are so totally insulated from this sort of thing that the EVE Online game is vastly more important to them.

      Everybody growing up in the US is in for a culture shock when they go to a foreign country; and you were in for a shock when you first experienced war, and more when you experienced death, experienced death of someone before their time, and another yet when that happens in a violent manner, and more I'm missing because I haven't experienced it myself.

      I think the insulation goes so far for most of us that it's only the more curious who seek out the experience in a modified form such as EVE, to get some simulation of it, but don't experience the VERY real experience for a variety of reasons. So my take on it is that these people are insulated, and so is everybody else who doesn't experience what you have first-hand. The simulation players stand out because of the parallels, and (really stretching here) maybe they have some tiny amount of common ground that could be used to move towards learning what war is really like. Many, though, have probably been exposed to it solely as a game.

      P.S. *THANK YOU* for your service.

    48. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by AugstWest · · Score: 2, Interesting

      People are bitching up a storm about this, because it is basically an exploit of game mechanics. It takes you 24 hours to leave a corporation that you're in, it takes 24 hours for a vote and then 24 hours of notification before you can go to war, but you can apparently disband an entire alliance in an instant.

      At the same time, one of the many sub-games in Eve is spying. A lot of people call it meta-gaming, in that a lot of it takes place outside the Eve client. It's a fact of life when playing the game, and to almost everyone it adds another whole element to the political structure.

      Basically, Mittani is considered to be Eve's premier spy, and this just proves it. While not really an end-game move, since there is no end-game in Eve, it's about as close as you can get.

      So really, this is the boldest use of in-game spy networks ever. People complain that it just took a disgruntled director to bring it down, but at the same time, consider this:

      Mittani's spy network had enough knowledge of the upper echelons of BoB's structure to know exactly *who* to contact. If they had just made a blanket offer to BoB's leaders, they would have been discovered and failed. But they didn't, they knew who their targets were, they identified the weakest link, and went after it.

      That's no simple task. So while it's weak that a game mechanic allowed this to happen, it's also a really impressive feat. I can't settle on one side or the other.

      (And also, for some context, a Goonswarm director defected last week as well, stealing piles of assets as well as a Titan, and a coupel of weeks before that another Goonswarm director was contacted and defected in a very similar manner, but in that case they only gave up sovereignty of a single solar system, not an entire alliance's holdings)

    49. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      wow. just wow. -1: Fuckhead

    50. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by krenshala · · Score: 1

      I haven't done much PvP in EVE, but I've noticed that too. I think it makes the game more fun to be working with/for someone that has a clue how to organize stuff.

      Its like the group I was part of back when PlanetSide was new (before I got sick of the bugs and quit). We had about 6 marines and another 3 to 5 army infantry to give us tactics and strategy. We always took our objectives in game, and usually with very little injury to our squads. ;)

      --

      krenshala

    51. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by Fjandr · · Score: 1

      I would see the disparity as something good so long as the disparity is not borne directly on the backs of the most unfortunate. It provides insulation for those who are not cut out to seek ways to engage and dismantle the things that hold others down. For many (perhaps most), it serves no useful purpose to cause a forceful confrontation with human suffering that they are not equipped to do anything about. It just serves to create emotional conflict and guilt over extremes that are not really "real" in terms of their worldview.

      Shake people up a bit, get them to think outside their little box? I'm all for that. Shake people up with examples that are in proportion to their worldview. Using such extremes to do it only causes more suffering. For your average person who's having a shit day and complaining about it, I could come up and say, "Hey, suck it up. I've got cancer and I'm not complaining." It'll likely shut them up, but it also makes me an ass since they can't actually do anything about the fact that I have cancer. Their concerns are insignificant compared to the concerns of others, but they are no less important to the individual in question. Treating them as such only serves to make them feel unnecessarily bad because of something they have no direct power to rectify.

    52. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by khallow · · Score: 1

      I know what you mean. Here I am sitting in an air-conditioned office. I write pages of math every day. I find theorems, read papers, drink coffee, you name it. It's all VERY real. But there are enough people who are so totally insulated from this sort of thing that the EVE Online game is vastly more important to them.

      What does it say about us as a species that there is such a range of lifestyles? On one end is the people where EVE Online takeovers might be the most important thing to happen to them all year. At the other end are refugees who get killed by the thousands and would have been starving and diseased anyway.

      It tells me that we aren't omniscient or omnipotent. You can't know everything or be in control all the time. And frankly, I don't see an urgent need to make sure everyone is living a meaningful, productive life. If someone thinks playing internet spaceships is the most important thing ever, that's still a hell of a lot better than the slime you guys have to deal with.

      Is this disparity good or bad? Is there any limit to how much disparity is good? Would we be better off if everybody had similar worries and we were all about the same level on Maslow's hierarchy of needs?

      No, I don't think the disparity is good. But I think there's a certain amount of greed and incompetence that's going to happen no matter what. I'll help someone who had a string of bad luck. I won't help a professional parasite or someone who refuses to fix a bad situation. Frankly, obsessed gamers just don't strike me as being a cause of problems in the world and they do help things through working and playing. Hence, I see no reason to change who they are.

    53. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by cowscows · · Score: 1

      Mittani is pretty good at what he does, but to be fair, this more than anything was just a lucky opportunity that fell into his lap. It wasn't the culmination of a master plan or targeted persuasion. From what he's said, they didn't choose a guy and target him and convince him to switch sides, the guy made the decision on his own. But once that had happened, Mittani did a good job of quickly realizing the extent of the opportunities that were presenting themselves, and organizing quickly to make it happen.

      In the larger sense, it was a victory that Goonfleet to some degree earned, by creating a situation where a veteran player was having more fun as a rank-and-file member of the GoonSwarm alliance than he had been having as a high-level director in EvE's long-standing "top-dog" alliance. Mittani referred to it as being like a "cultural victory" in the game Civilization.

      Also, there are ways within the game's mechanics that BoB could have structured their alliance set up that would have made this action much harder to do. As a group of players that prides itself on being able to adapt and squeeze the most benefit possible out of the way the game works, they really dropped the ball on this one.

      --

      One time I threw a brick at a duck.

    54. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I respect your service and the service of everyone in the military, but isn't one of the reasons you fight for freedom so that people can be free? so that people don't have to worry about genocide and can live their life, and get involved in their hobbies?

    55. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by EonBlueTooL · · Score: 1

      I don't think anyone really considers mittens to be the premier spy, and the bob director contacted goons, goons did not contact them. To pretend this is anything but the greatest stroke of luck in a video game that anyone has ever had is a bit ludacris.

    56. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      a bit ludacris

      Much like your spelling.

    57. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by Dravik · · Score: 1

      Most soldiers like it that way. My wife doesn't need to see what really happened. My son doesn't need to watch it on TV. I believe I'm doing the right thing when I go over and I want to succeed. I believe that I'm improving both the long term security of the US and improving the lives of the locals and I don't want some activist taking a bunch of shocking photos with no context or discussion of the hundreds of risk assessment decisions made by everyone involved that led up to the shocking photo. I don't need some jackass sobbing over a dead "civilian"(If there are no weapons laying on the ground when the photographer gets there, hours later, then the dead guy must be an civilian) that was firing mortars or shooting at me when he died.

      --
      The purpose of language is communication, If the idea is clear the grammar ain't important
    58. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by elizabeth.pl · · Score: 1

      The other posts from military people didn't irritate me. I found them insightful. Yours with your silly little games comment irritated me. I think it's because you assume that people who haven't been in the military can't be embattled. You don't know the kind of life I had. You don't know why it is that I sometimes prefer the world of fantasy over real life. You don't know weather or not EVE players are from Afghanistan themselves trying to get away from their embattled lives. Any game, book, tv show, magazine, conversation about the weather is a kind of escape from the day to day. Weather your day to day is 9-5, war, or a family filled with alcoholics and nutjobs. Humans need to find enjoyment or happiness where they can or how they can.
      You should find some too.
      Elizabeth
      PS Most people can't handle the shit I've seen, and I've never been in the military.

    59. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by Sj0 · · Score: 1

      I can't help but wonder how your attitude would be different if the Chinese were invading and it was your homeland you're fighting in.

      Not rhetoric, I just wonder. I'm not a warrior, I don't know.

      --
      It's been a long time.
    60. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by Sj0 · · Score: 1

      I agree with you in abstract, but not with respect to MMOs.

      Most MMOs I've tried are really just horribly boring job simulators. You get home from your real job, then you go kill slimes for 8 hours for crap pay and a remote chance at gaining a level.

      My real life is more interesting than the MMOs I've tried. In-game, I'm a faceless sword killing nameless creatures for tiny rewards with the promise that after months or years of work I might someday become a L80 of my class. In real life, by contrast, when I do something, it has a real, lasting impact on the world. When I design a new control system, it affects the production capacity of the industrial plant, as well as how the plant is operated. Further, my skill increases.

      By contrast, I've got a L11 Paladin Dwarf in WoW. Why do I care?

      Most games don't make this mistake, so you CAN be a corporate giant or a king or a god. Then you CAN suspend reality and pretend you're something greater than you are.

      --
      It's been a long time.
    61. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by Sj0 · · Score: 1

      AC was actually posting from Afghanistan. He's an Al Qaeda recruiter, and business is great thanks to Iraq!

      --
      It's been a long time.
    62. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by Dun+Malg · · Score: 1

      Excellent article. Took me three days to get through it. Kept having to walk away and think of other things. Never saw anyone go fey, but I sure did see a few go berserker. Amazingly insightful article. Thanks for the link.

      --
      If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
    63. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by duckInferno · · Score: 1

      Humans operate in a local environment and require themselves to go out of their way to view the global environment. Anything that doesn't affect the local environment is often ignored. It's perfectly natural and complaining about human nature won't do much.

      If you're feeling particularly open minded, you could imagine EVE Online players wondering why the hell you don't care about this massive event.

      --
      Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, watch it -- I'm huge!
    64. Re:Hello from Meatspace! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      i wonder how your going to feel when a faggot arab has a gun in your back forcing you to bow to allah. you'll be taking sheik dicks in the ass and praying five times a day. your little insults won't be so funny on that day. faggot.

  4. Praise BoB! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Praise BoB!

  5. *gasp* by NonSequor · · Score: 5, Funny

    As of 11:00 GMT, BoB lost all its sovereignty (its outposts are conquerable now, cyno-jammers are offline, jump bridges are inoperable)."

    God have mercy on our souls.

    --
    My only political goal is to see to it that no political party achieves its goals.
    1. Re:*gasp* by RuBLed · · Score: 1

      I agree that we need mercy, I heard that a group named Band of Barbies are rallying their ex-territories now.

    2. Re:*gasp* by noundi · · Score: 1

      You mean their "Sex"-territories? Hehe, I feel like Austin Powers.

      --
      I am the lawn!
    3. Re:*gasp* by Yvanhoe · · Score: 3, Informative

      To explain what it means... Cyno fields are special (and expensive) devices that create a wormhole in any place of the EVE universe. This is usually used to allow an attack force to bypass a heavily guarded point. If you want to create a decently secure place, you have to buy cyno-jammers in order to prevent this sapper work to be possible. BoB claimed a large part of territory and had several cyno-jammers in their presumably strategical positions. Cyno jammers offline means that a single ship avoiding detection could possibly open an access to an arbitrary large army anywhere inside their territory.

      --
      The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
    4. Re:*gasp* by tnk1 · · Score: 3, Informative

      More importantly, cyno fields are the only way to move capital ships, since they don't fit through jump gates. If your cyno jammers are down, your enemies can jump in their Dreadnoughts, Carriers and Titans to put a hurting on your player-owned stations and other assets. They can also jump ships in to say, disrupt a large, but not so well defended mining operation that you used to run in very safe space. If the Goons planned this properly, this could devastate the economy of the former BoB corps.

      In other words, if you have enemies with a large number of capital and other jump capable ships, losing your jammers means that you are very close to having your family jewels squeezed very hard. If I was the executor or one of the directors who spend the time to manage such a huge alliance, I would be feeling distinctly unwell right now.

    5. Re:*gasp* by garylian · · Score: 0

      Did you miss the simple beauty of his sarcasm, that you had to reply with a serious post about the ramifications?

      Better check your scalp for fungus. This one just ran all over your head, so you could have Athlete's Scalp.

    6. Re:*gasp* by bar-agent · · Score: 1

      Oh behave, baby, yeah!

      --
      i'd hit it so hard, if you pulled me out you'd be the king of britain [bash.org]
  6. It wasn't a 'spy'... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    GoonSwarm basically had this PR coup handed to them on a silver platter, they had done nothing themselves to make this happen.

    What is known to have happened is that a player with full director access to the BoB holding corporation, Tinfoil, defected and asked GoonSwarm if they wanted full director access. They obviously replied in the positive, and eventually realized they now had access to the proverbial nuke button on their sworn enemies.

    Speculation is rampant in the EvE community, though hard facts are hard to come by. Suggestions include that either this is a case of a hacked account, as the owner was supposedly on some form of military duty when this happened a few days ago. Another, less vocal, minority considers this to be a possible case of someone 'cracking' psychologically, possibly due to the player's military background.

    Also, some people feel this event may be due to broken game mechanics, as it seem odd you can just nuke a large alliance into bedrock with a few mouse clicks and 2 minutes of work. Usually it takes either a director vote, or at least a 24 hour grace period, to perform drastic changes to corp policies and organization.

    Summary: Not a spy, not GoonSwarm's work. Just a single unhappy defector undoing 4 years of work by some 3000 players in a few seconds.

    Disclaimer: I play EvE Online, but am not a member of any of the major alliances in the game.

    1. Re:It wasn't a 'spy'... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      undoing 4 years of work by some 3000 players in a few seconds.

      Shows them what their "work" is really worth.

    2. Re:It wasn't a 'spy'... by mseeger · · Score: 1
      Also, some people feel this event may be due to broken game mechanics, as it seem odd you can just nuke a large alliance into bedrock with a few mouse clicks and 2 minutes of work.

      I think this is politics. Several carreers and even nations were ruined in less time in real life....

      Yours, Martin

    3. Re:It wasn't a 'spy'... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      It was assuredly NOT a hacked account. The guy that did it has posted numerous times now confirming that he 'did the deed'.

    4. Re:It wasn't a 'spy'... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      "Summary: Not a spy, not GoonSwarm's work. Just a single unhappy defector undoing 4 years of work by some 3000 players in a few seconds."

      Sounds like a balancing issue to me, or maybe that guy is just OP.

    5. Re:It wasn't a 'spy'... by mewsenews · · Score: 3, Insightful

      GoonSwarm basically had this PR coup handed to them on a silver platter, they had done nothing themselves to make this happen.

      When Kim Philby defected, do you think the media at the time focused on how little effort the Soviets expended to get him on their side?

      A coup is a coup.

    6. Re:It wasn't a 'spy'... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      GoonSwarm basically had this PR coup handed to them on a silver platter, they had done nothing themselves to make this happen.

      What is known to have happened is that a player with full director access to the BoB holding corporation, Tinfoil, defected and asked GoonSwarm if they wanted full director access. They obviously replied in the positive, and eventually realized they now had access to the proverbial nuke button on their sworn enemies.

      You conveniently left off a few points

      • The turncoat was about to be corp scammed. Goonfleet makes it perfectly clear that they do not publicly recruit and anyone who stupid enough to join anyway is subject to this corp scam. It involves having the target pay X amount of isk for admittance into the corp, waiting for them to move all their assets down to goon space, and then kicking them out of the corp which makes them lose everything. If the person who ran the corp scam had laughed it off as a ploy to try and stay in Goonfleet, the entire thing would not have happened.
      • The 'alliance dissolve' makes this way more than a simple smash and grab. If you handed this off to your average corporation or alliance, chances are they would simply steal assets and leave it at that. Mittens not only disbanded the alliance but had forum ripping software ready to go in case of this eventuality to demoralize them even further.
      • The stated reason for the turncoat going rogue is because he found Goons way more friendly, funny and easier to fly with. He had director level access to one of the self-proclaimed biggest entities in EVE and he threw it all away to be in Goonswarm. In Civilization, they call this a cultural victory.

      So yes, there are many different ways this plan could have gone cock-eyed or simply resulted in simple corp theft. To deny the magnitude of this accomplishment is foolish.

      Speculation is rampant in the EvE community, though hard facts are hard to come by. Suggestions include that either this is a case of a hacked account, as the owner was supposedly on some form of military duty when this happened a few days ago.

      Speculation is rampant amongst BoB and BoB pets in order to save face. The truth is that the turncoat had access to BoB's secure IRC channel, BoB's ingame channels, and many other things that required different passwords, and he accessed them from a few different computers. If he had been away on military duty, there is no way in hell any of those would have been comprimised.

    7. Re:It wasn't a 'spy'... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You could say the same for almost anybody's hard work. Sculptors, painters, etc.

    8. Re:It wasn't a 'spy'... by Bieeanda · · Score: 3, Informative
      It wasn't a spy, it was a defector. Goonsquad's recruitment comes 100% from within the Something Awful forums, with registration-date requirements and other security measures to weed out all but the most dedicated moles. They do however run recruitment scams from time to time: set up a sub-corporation, get people to give them time, in-game money and materials in return for recruiting them with the promise of full Goonswarm membership at a later date, and proceed to bilk them until they're no longer useful. Or at least, that's how it's supposed to go behind the scenes.

      This guy joined up as a spy, and decided to stay around because the Swarm was actually nice to him. People were friendly and helpful, unlike BoB where he barely got a 'hello' upon recruitment. He got tired of BoB's 'Serious Business' attitude and under-appreciation, and put the screws to them.

    9. Re:It wasn't a 'spy'... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Yeah, I'm glad that the US Financial system can't be turned upside down by bad decision making and a few con men.

    10. Re:It wasn't a 'spy'... by krenshala · · Score: 1

      Here's that new batch of ink you ordered ...

      --

      krenshala

    11. Re:It wasn't a 'spy'... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't know how his old friends will respond. But I'd do something like this.

      Every day use npc locator agents to check on him. If in area, hunt him, if not in area, go to him and hunt him. Every day till he quits the game. Every alt his ex friends know he has, hunt till they stop being played on too. Use spies in GoonSwarm to find out any new alts he makes. And hunt them.

      Basically make his life so miserable in game, within allowed game mechanics, he quits and use it as a lesson of what happens when you give the finger to a major alliance.

    12. Re:It wasn't a 'spy'... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And your biased against the hard work of Goons... You sir are pathetic. You were probably a member of a small allegiance to BoB.

      Disclaimer: Get a life before delving into the soap-world of EVE rumors.
       

  7. Defector would be more fitting by zergl · · Score: 4, Informative

    This whole incident has nothing to do with Goonswarm infiltrating BoB with spies.

    The person responsible was "just" a disgruntled BNC director that wanted to go out with a huge bang and GoonsFleet (The Mittani, to be precise) just gave him advice on how to maximize the damage he'd inflict on his way out.

  8. The awesomeness of EVE. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is why I love EVE Online. The game mechanics themselves are boring as all shit, but the intrigue and dickery that can be had in the game is delightful. The fact that Goons just struck a major blow against BoB is just a delicious icing on the cake.

    Go little bees!

    1. Re:The awesomeness of EVE. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Agreed. This aspect of the game totally rocks.

      It wouldn't hurt if CCP added a bit more "game" to the mix though. For those that do play games for fun game mechanics rather than politics.

  9. I didn't understand half of that by Card · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This story is rather incomprehensible to the rest of us. Could an EVE player explain some terms like sovereignty, ISK reserves, cyno-jammers and capfleet towers, please? Good thing that territorial control was explained...

    The article also says

    Once assured a place within GoonSwarm, Agamar proceeded to disband the Band of Brothers alliance using his director level access.

    ...but what powers does the director level access give you, exactly?

    1. Re:I didn't understand half of that by adamkennedy · · Score: 2, Informative

      In a word, sudo

    2. Re:I didn't understand half of that by Mycroft_VIII · · Score: 1

      ISK is the in-game money.
          Cynosural fields: http://support.eve-online.com/Pages/KB/Article.aspx?id=343
          sovereignty: http://support.eve-online.com/Pages/KB/Article.aspx?id=343

      That's a starter, hope it helps.

      Mycroft

      --
      https://signup.leagueoflegends.com/?ref=4c3ed6600b6ea
    3. Re:I didn't understand half of that by shannara256 · · Score: 5, Informative

      This story is rather incomprehensible to the rest of us. Could an EVE player explain some terms like sovereignty, ISK reserves, cyno-jammers and capfleet towers, please? Good thing that territorial control was explained...

      The article also says

      Once assured a place within GoonSwarm, Agamar proceeded to disband the Band of Brothers alliance using his director level access.

      ...but what powers does the director level access give you, exactly?

      Sovereignty is a game mechanic which allows several other things to work. It's built by holding a solar system or constellation for a certain period of time, up to a month. Losing it means all of the things which rely on it to stop working (see below).

      ISK is the currency in EVE (read gold). ISK reserves, therefore, would be money set aside for later - in this case I believe it was set aside for upkeep fees.

      A cyno-jammer prevents cynosural fields from forming in the system. A cynosural field allows capital ships to move between systems, as capital ships are too large to use the stargates normal, smaller ships use. It's an important defensive structure - one of the main purposes of capital ships are to attack Player Operated Stations (POSs), which are used (among other things) to claim sovereignty.

      "Capfleet tower" is a little ambiguous, but given the context I believe they're referring to the assembly arrays required to build capital ships. Due to their size, they can't be manufactured in the same places other ships are built - they require a special module, anchored at a POS (the hub of which is called a tower). The capital ship assembly array also requires sovereignty to work. Losing sovereignty means that all the capital ships that were being constructed have been put on hold. If sovereignty can be rebuilt, then those manufacturing jobs would resume, but that will be difficult because the systems are so hotly contested right now - it's likely that the assembly arrays will be attacked and destroyed.

      A corporation director has very nearly all the abilities of a CEO - basically a guild leader with full access. Normally that means that one can expel other corporation members, directly manipulate the wallet (where all the corporation's money is kept), and so on. In this case, because the defector had director access in the executor corp (sort of the leader corporation of the alliance), he also had access to all the alliance management options - including kicking member corporations out of the alliance, and then closing the alliance.

      I hope that helps clear things up.

    4. Re:I didn't understand half of that by zergl · · Score: 1

      Sovereignty: Control level for a given solar system. Comes in levels 1-4 with levels 1-3 taking each a week to kick in and sov 4 being constellation sovereignty, which I won't try to explain for sake of the mental health of all of us. Sovereignty 3 is needed for Cynojammers and Jump Bridges (which, in a nutshell, allow for faster travel by bypassing the stargate network and getting friendly capital ships into cynojammed systems).

      ISK reserves: ISK = Ingame money (InterStellar Kredits), which coincidentially has the same abbreviation as the Icelandic currency (where CCP is based).

      cyno-jammers: Capital ships cannot use the ordinary stargates, but have their own jumpdrives that need to calibrate to what military experts call a Cynosural Field. Cyno-Jammers prevent creating cyno fields, effectively making a system immune to surprise visits by hostile capital ships.

      capfleet towers: Where's that mentioned?

      director level access: The other comment sums it up well, sudo. ;o)

    5. Re:I didn't understand half of that by TheThiefMaster · · Score: 1

      sovereignty - ownership of solar systems
      ISK - in-game currency
      cyno-jammers - stops enemy capital ships jumping in to the system
      director - has full access to everything about the corporation/alliance. Only the owner is above.

    6. Re:I didn't understand half of that by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      sovereignty - territory under control of the alliance, through player owned structures in the controlled systems; there are several levels based on the amount of time the system is held for that allow different structures to be anchored; structures become capturable once an alliance is disbanded

      ISK reserves - liquid assets within the corporate members of the alliance

      cyno-jammers - structures (requiring sovereignty - at least 28 days) that prevent ship-based cynosural fields from being created in the system they are anchored in, preventing capital ships from jumping into the system without the use of a structure-based cynosural field generator (also requires sovereignty - at least 14 days)

      jump bridges - structures that allow ships to jump between fairly distant sovereign systems (28 day sov.)

      -

      Agamar had director level access within the executor corporation within the alliance (the corporation assigned to managed the alliance).
      The CEO and directors of this corporation have the ability to kick any other corporations from the alliance and immediately disband it.

    7. Re:I didn't understand half of that by tibman · · Score: 1

      Ok, so 0.0(zero zero) space is basically lawless solar systems that players can do whatever they want in. This is where the game of EVE gets intense. Sovereignty is recognized by whomever has the controlling number of Starbases in the system. Starbases are structures you can anchor in the Orbit of moons. They are the first steps to living in 0.0 space. This is where your corporation will build from and use as a safe place until you can build/conquer an Outpost. They constantly burn fuel so your corporation will have to mine and refine Ice to get Isotopes the Tower can burn.

      Capital Ships are massive (and expensive) tools to support your fleet and tear down enemy Starbases. These ships are so massive they cannot use the normal Stargates to travel between solarsystems. They rely on their own FTL drives that need a Beacon to jump to. So before you can jump a Dreadnought into a system, you need someone to pop a Cyno field.

      With a certain level of Sovereignty an alliance can anchor a system-wide CynoJammer to prevent any capital ship from entering the system. They can also establish their own JumpBridges between Starbases. JumpBridges are very important logistical tools for alliances. It creates a safe travel network for industrials and event combat fleets to use.

      What the BoB alliance has built up over several years now has been wiped out. Every system is open to attack and their JumpBridge networks are down.

      The Sov map is a pretty neat tool to see what's going on. Each dot is an entire solarsytem.. filled with asteroid belts, planets, moons, and plenty of resources to exploit.

      --
      http://soylentnews.org/~tibman
    8. Re:I didn't understand half of that by DingerX · · Score: 1

      Okay, so that hole in the bottom-left was "band of brothers", huh?

    9. Re:I didn't understand half of that by LordKazan · · Score: 1

      yes - the regions of Delve, Querious, and about 2/3rds of Period Basis were controlled by Band of Brothers - in some systems Sov was gained by an ally of theirs who also had atleast 1 starbase in the system when BoB's ability to claim sov was destroyed by being disbanded.

      All of member corporations of the former alliance BoB are still there and their assets are - they're just no longer effectively invincible. BoB had created such and effective network of defense using super-capitals, cyno jammers, and jump bridges that attacking any system in Delve was effectively suicide.

      By destroying their Sov that invincibility has just been destroyed.

      --
      If you cannot keep politics out of your moderation remove yourself from the Mod Lottery.. NOW!
    10. Re:I didn't understand half of that by Andy+Dodd · · Score: 1

      That's kind of oversimplifying things.

      A lot of things require a vote of all who have director-level access...

      But for some things, yeah it's basically sudo.

      Or more precisely, being in /etc/sudoers

      --
      retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
    11. Re:I didn't understand half of that by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ...And immediately disbanding a corp makes infrastructure automatically shut down?

      That would be like a corporation's office building instantly collapsing the moment the corporation files for bankruptcy.

    12. Re:I didn't understand half of that by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In this case, because the defector had director access in the executor corp (sort of the leader corporation of the alliance), he also had access to all the alliance management options - including kicking member corporations out of the alliance, and then closing the alliance.

      Actually, as I understand it, the directors don't have the 'disband alliance' option the CEO has. But they can kick corporations, and if you kick all the corporations out that disbands the alliance. From what I gather, this is what happened here.

      It's questionable as to whether it was intended directors could disband an alliance by doing this (if so, why not just give them the 'disband alliance' ability?), but the alliance mechanics in general aren't exactly a shining example of brilliant design. There's loads of odd inconsistencies in it.

    13. Re:I didn't understand half of that by TheGeniusIsOut · · Score: 1

      As I understand it, the "Disband Alliance" command takes 24 hours to complete, and possibly requires a shareholder vote from the member corporations as well. Kicking member corporations out of the alliance can be done instantly, and if all are kicked out, the alliance collapses. Usually, there would be multiple directors around to see the change in status of their alliance and be able to react before the deed can be completed, but this was either not the case for BoB, or the spy was smart enough to kick the corps with online directors first. From the rumblings I've seen on various forums, a number of ex-BoB players were dissatisfied with the way things were being run, so a defection/social engineering/corporate espionage was likely to take place sooner or later.

      What I do know is that these last 24 hours have been very profitable for those of use who are selling modules/ships/fuel/ammo needed for the war effort.

      --
      Ignorance is Bliss -- And the Opposite is True -- Genius is Madness
    14. Re:I didn't understand half of that by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Losing sovereignty, which can only be held by an Alliance, caused the facilities to be shut down. It is similar losing your license to handle hazardous materials, you must shut down any facilities that are doing so until you can regain that license. In this case, the shutdown is automated so noone can cheat by running without a license. Your facility itself still exists, but is now vulnerable to takeover. All your corporate rivals react to the loss of your license by immediately attempting to wrest control of your facilities for their own usage, since their licenses are in order. You also have any number of individual competitors salvaging whatever they can from the rubble, or capturing facilities they have no hope of maintaining in the long run for the opportunity to sell them off to someone who can.

  10. One reason... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I play games for fun, not to be screwed over by other players, and people wonder why EVE doesn't interest me enough...

    1. Re:One reason... by rokknroll · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I think the /. i grew up with is dead. This is a huge political upheaval in a Virtual World. The old /. would lap up the meta-game consequences. The old /. would wax lyrical about the shifting social paradigms that would make this a headline. The old /. would figure out how to get the premium client running on a toaster. The new /. is like a youtube comments page, nothing but vitriol and hate, smart-arse comments by half-wits. I cite the Boron article yesterday, about 4 million "jokes" using variations on "Boring". I mean...COME ON! People had to then ask for clarification, in the old days people would have searched 1st, asked later. Not now, now its all hate and entitlement culture. Worst of all, no one even knows what the HURD is anymore. Goodbye /.

      --
      billy pilgrim *has* become unstuck in time!
    2. Re:One reason... by plasmacutter · · Score: 1

      I play games for fun, not to be screwed over by other players, and people wonder why EVE doesn't interest me enough...

      Since the advent of g-banks, you can be screwed in the same way by a disgruntled officer in "safe" games like world of warcraft.

      In fact, it happened once on my server about 6 months ago.

      --
      VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
    3. Re:One reason... by ^BR · · Score: 1

      EvE if for people who find fun to screw over people. In no other game I played the loss was so harsh. And it is what makes victories all the sweeter.

    4. Re:One reason... by N1AK · · Score: 1

      Well this certainly made a change from the normal posts saying that /. is dumbing down to popular news even though its readers want "nfnstm".

      I think you may have a point though, as there is more negative response to articles within geeky/scientific niches than in earlier days. It's a shame because personally I see /. as a source of alternative news to that found on Digg and the BBC etc, which is why a lot of semi-recent content which is very much mass market disappoints me. The fact that I can actually see some Tech stories on the BBC before a /. thread starts on it shows just how far behind the curve it has gotten.

    5. Re:One reason... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Could I get some clarification on what the HURD is?

    6. Re:One reason... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The HURD? Isn't that the OS that Duke Nukem Forever is written for?

    7. Re:One reason... by Sobrique · · Score: 1

      Oh damn those players for competing with you. It's outrageous that there I am when playing chess, trying to make neato patterns on the chessboard, and then some fink comes and captures my queen! My pretty patterns are ruined, and they're totally only doing it to screw me over.

    8. Re:One reason... by Sobrique · · Score: 2, Insightful
      EVE is a strategy game. It's not quite obvious, but it is. There's resource management - isks, minerals, logistics, pilot, skills, morale. Fleet/command dynamics, intelligence gathering, diplomacy, politics and ... well, a whole load of stuff really.

      It's not 'screwing you over' when I blow up your ACU in Supreme Commander. Nor is it griefing to try and trash your mass economy. The control perspective is unique - you're a 'unit' with a possibility to become a commander at various tactical levels, based on how good you are at it, and how well you can 'lead'.

      That's why I like EVE.

    9. Re:One reason... by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      EvE has a certain elitist air about it. Losing hurts, as you said. It takes days, if not weeks, to recover from a decisive defeat. Running EvE corporations isn't just running a clan, where you slap together a homepage and organize a raid or two per week. Planning in EvE means that you have your next few weeks pretty much laid down instead of considering that you may have time for some raid in a few days.

      I just don't have the time anymore to play. "Playing" something like this is much more fun in real life. And much more profitable, too. :)

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    10. Re:One reason... by meringuoid · · Score: 3, Interesting
      I think the /. i grew up with is dead. This is a huge political upheaval in a Virtual World. The old /. would lap up the meta-game consequences. The old /. would wax lyrical about the shifting social paradigms that would make this a headline.

      Yes, but that was in 1998. Virtual worlds were new; anything more sophisticated than a MUD was pure Snow Crash stuff. Events like this were news because it was a virgin territory. Nobody knew what kind of culture would emerge, what kind of unwritten rules and social norms would become established in the new cyberspace communities.

      Was Mr Bungle a rapist? Seems quite quaint now, doesn't it? It was a big deal at the time. Yet what he did was small beer compared to what anonymous trolls from ebaumsworld do every day. We know now what people will do in a virtual world given unlimited freedom to create as they see fit. They'll scrawl goatse on every available surface, and code up swarms of flying penises to molest furries. They'll swarm in a hundred Samuel L Jackson lookalikes and block off the exits from the swimming pool. It's just griefing, move on.

      Events in-game like this one aren't interesting any more. Been there, done that, bored now. What gets /.'s interest nowadays is the interface between the game world and reality. The economics of gold farming, for instance. Or, player A buys a +5 Sword of Smiting with real money from player B. Player C kills player A in-game and takes the sword. Is player C a real-world thief? Having gained an item worth real-world money, is he liable for tax on it? That's where the unknown is now, where we don't really know the rules, so that's what's interesting.

      As for the HURD - again, it's been too long, and we've mostly lost interest. We have a kernel of our own, thanks.

      --
      Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
    11. Re:One reason... by fitten · · Score: 1

      The logistics of running a 00 corp/alliance have no comparison to other MMOs. As you said... simply slapping up a homepage and running a raid a night is trivial. Try keeping POSs fueled, minerals/materials moving around to where they need to go to build stuff, defense of your territory, any offensive maneuvers you happen to be involved in, etc... Alliances in EVE (the big ones) are many thousands of players, too... imagine a WoW guild of 3000+ people... heh... are there even that many people on a single WoW server?

    12. Re:One reason... by jack2000 · · Score: 1

      So we are basically training our invasion/colonization forces on EVE? That's it people! We are one step closer to kicking some major alien butt!

    13. Re:One reason... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Worst of all, no one even knows what the HURD is anymore.

      We would if they would just stabilize and ship the thing so non-kernel-hackers could use it. But they're too busy proving that the perfect is the enemy of the good.

    14. Re:One reason... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Meridian 59 came out in '96 or '97. Ultima Online was '97. So, yes, they were new, but they weren't that new.

    15. Re:One reason... by DarkAce911 · · Score: 1

      I think one of the Titan's costs about $50K in real money if you pieced everything out. This is want I loved and hated about Eve. I may have to get back on-line, BOB ran me out of 0.0 about 3 times. This couldn't have happened to a nicer bunch of people(Sarcasm).

    16. Re:One reason... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There's a damn good reason nobody knows what the HURD is.
      It's of no relevance whatsoever to anyone. There, I said it.

    17. Re:One reason... by 19thNervousBreakdown · · Score: 1

      What, $50? No, it's about 50B in raw mineral costs (not including BPOs, about a month of build time, the tower to build it at, the sovereignty to be able to plant the tower, the fuel to power the tower, etc, etc.) Currently you can sell a 60d timecard ($35) for about 650m ISK. So, raw costs, if they already have all the infrastructure in place, is around $2,700.00. Keep in mind, the (ISK) price of timecards has exploded since they got rid of the 30d cards. Even a few months ago it was more like $10,000.

      --
      <xml><I><am><so><damn>Web 2.0</damn></so></am></I></xml>
    18. Re:One reason... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's a group of GNUs.

    19. Re:One reason... by Jedi+Alec · · Score: 2, Informative

      EvE has a certain elitist air about it. Losing hurts, as you said. It takes days, if not weeks, to recover from a decisive defeat. Running EvE corporations isn't just running a clan, where you slap together a homepage and organize a raid or two per week. Planning in EvE means that you have your next few weeks pretty much laid down instead of considering that you may have time for some raid in a few days.

      That's the biggest load of bull. Yes, you can play that way, but there's tons of players that just log in for a few hours to have a bit of fun before going off to the in-laws.

      And yes, I am CEO of a corporation and executor of an alliance.

      --

      People replying to my sig annoy me. That's why I change it all the time.
    20. Re:One reason... by Steveaux · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Probably the old /. is dead. However EVE is amazing game with social aspects unlike any other MMO on the market and has had fascinating scandals in the past. Unlike other MMO's where the big news is expansions driven by the DEVs, EVE's content aside from the world and game mechanics is driven by the players. What you are reading about is some of that drama/content.

    21. Re:One reason... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Can I have your stuff?

    22. Re:One reason... by Joe+U · · Score: 1

      I think the /. i grew up with is dead. ..... Worst of all, no one even knows what the HURD is anymore. Goodbye /.

      Freaking GNU/Linux newbie trolls.

      I think the /. I grew up with is dead. I never see articles on routing IPX over the Arpanet using a Commodore 64 anymore. Worst of all, no one even knows what SPX is.
      sys64738 /.

    23. Re:One reason... by Qubit · · Score: 1

      I think the /. i grew up with is dead.

      Or it's just lurking in the shadows? It's great when low uids come out en masse in a thread...

      The new /. is like a youtube comments page, nothing but vitriol and hate, smart-arse comments by half-wits.

      You forgot grate spelings. and good punctuations.

      This is a huge political upheaval in a Virtual World.

      True enough. The first thought I had was: what are the ramifications in the real world? If participants in BoB are invested enough to hop on planes in the Real World and try to re-form the alliance, the in-game environment is obviously having a tremendous effect on the Real World. If activities like camping and ransom are acceptable in-game, what happens when a powerful player in the game decides to stop playing?

      In the Real World there's no way that you can "stop playing" -- if you decide to do something like rob a bank or steal a car, you're going to have to live with the ramifications of that action for the rest of your life. If you decide to participate in a virtual world, especially if you become highly invested in that world, other players will certainly become reliant upon your presence in-game. So what happens if your character in-game decides to do something really big -- like defect to the enemy -- and then you decide to "stop playing" ?

      Is it reasonable to expect that someone's virtual world actions will have Real World consequences? If people who play characters in the game came to an in-game defector's Real World address and asked for an explanation, some kind of closure to the defector's actions, or even tried to seek retribution, how would a court interpret that?

      What if the setting is an environment that has currency that can be exchanged for real money, such as Second Life? When does a game stop being just a game?

      --

      coding is life /* the rest is */
    24. Re:One reason... by dswensen · · Score: 1

      Yeah, I miss the coolly intellectual days of hot grits and petrified Natalie Portman.

    25. Re:One reason... by MaWeiTao · · Score: 1

      It the greater scheme of things MMOs are in their infancy. Most offer little in the way of truth depth and substance. Although I have little desire to play a game like Eve Online, I can appreciate it for what the developer has managed to pull off with the game. I think it's closer to the future of MMOs than anything else out there, with it's truly dynamic experience. Perhaps someone will find a way to provide such an experience but make day-to-day gameplay more exciting, but that's beside the point.

      The problem is that people today have the attention span of a house fly. Everything has to be cutting edge. This reminds me of reading some blog recently where they called a game barely 10 years old ancient. But then, it seems like nerd has been redefined in recent years to mean someone with a gadget fetish for anything shiny and new and occasionally pretending to show an interest in science.

    26. Re:One reason... by Loundry · · Score: 1

      I pine for the days of /. having exactly 4143 members. It was cool as long as n==4143. It was all downhill after that.

      That was ten years ago. The internet is weird.

      --
      I don't make the rules. I just make fun of them.
    27. Re:One reason... by balbord · · Score: 1

      I hear you...

      --
      "If I have been able to see so far, It is because I went out and bought a damn binoculars" - Ze da Esquina
    28. Re:One reason... by Lord+Kestrel · · Score: 1

      All the low UIDs died off. There are maybe a dozen or two under 1000 that are actually active anymore.

    29. Re:One reason... by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Yes, of course you can play EvE as a game. I.e. spend a few hours a week, mining a bit, running a mission or two. That's pretty much what I did in the end when time got a rare commodity. But what's considered "top level" playing, i.e. what is meant by running a few raids a week in other MMOs, is anything but a game anymore. That's basically a 10+ hours a day job.

      Dunno why people play a game like that, but EvE certainly makes it possible.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    30. Re:One reason... by MBraynard · · Score: 0, Troll

      you forgot the old /. had stupid John Katz articles that probably made you jizz your pants, grandpa.

    31. Re:One reason... by krenshala · · Score: 1

      I remember, Joe. But does anyone even use SPX anymore?

      --

      krenshala

    32. Re:One reason... by krenshala · · Score: 1

      We need something else to train the ground troops, but if the commanders can put up with all the hopping around, I think the Counter Strike folks could fill that role (as long as they don't have working microphones, that is).

      --

      krenshala

    33. Re:One reason... by Joe+U · · Score: 1

      Hopefully not.

    34. Re:One reason... by TeknoMage · · Score: 1

      hehehe, been reading since chips n bits, got a chuckle out of that.

    35. Re:One reason... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      PS: Get off this guy's lawn.

    36. Re:One reason... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I feel ashamed for understanding every word of that post. I've been online too long.

    37. Re:One reason... by Specter · · Score: 1

      _LOW_ UID's? I wouldn't consider 677118 to be particularly low.

      Now get off my lawn!

    38. Re:One reason... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Slashdot covers too many areas. Now there are better forums to address the questions you're talking about - especially from a virtual world perspective.

      Strictly speaking for Eve to be significant, it needs to be an influencer and not a relic.

      Incidentally was it covered and hashed over in Slashdot when Earth and Beyond died? That was a space MMO that was started around the same time as Eve.

    39. Re:One reason... by cbhacking · · Score: 1

      The old /. would figure out how to get the premium client running on a toaster.

      Welllll... NetBSD has been run on a toaster, and Wine can run on NetBSD, and the Premium client can run (for the most part) on Wine... so all you need is a toaster running a x86 processor with enough clock speed and RAM, plus a video card capable of Premium graphics (Direct3D 9c equivalent).

      I, for one, welcome our new open-source-powered gaming toasters!

      --
      There's no place I could be, since I've found Serenity...
    40. Re:One reason... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Heh, 11099 isn't that low either.
      (Almost nobody is going to get this)

  11. Re:Anonymous Awesomeo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Well it matters more than "some city's sports team won vs. another city's sports team". That makes news on non-tech news sites. So hey, why not?

  12. Slow news day. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And it appears kdawson is on vacation, so they can't pad the front page out with "news stories" about Australia.

    Instead timothy is valiantly trying to fill the void with his usual cavalcade of "news stories" about the UK.

    Remember when Slashdotters used to bitch about the US-centric flavor of this site? Those almost seem like the good old days now...

  13. Re: Wondering People by some+guy+I+know · · Score: 5, Funny

    I play games for fun, not to be screwed over by other players, and people wonder why EVE doesn't interest me enough

    Wow, people wonder that?
    That's amazing.
    I can just picture them gathered around the water cooler, chatting.
    One of them says, "You know, I wonder why EVE doesn't interest Larry enough.".
    Another one replies, "Yes, I was discussing this with my inflatable girlfriend last night, and both of us were wondering why EVE doesn't interest Larry enough.".
    And then a third person says, "Maybe it's because he plays games for fun, not to be screwed over by other players."

    Yes, I can imagine people wondering why EVE doesn't interest you enough.
    People who have even less of a life than people who take EVE seriously enough to submit lame articles about it to Slashdot.
    Or Slashdot editors who post them.
    Or people who anonymously comment about them.
    Or respond to anonymous comments about them.

    --
    Those who sacrifice security to condemn liberty deserve to repeat history or something. - Benjamin Santayana
  14. Terrible gameplay? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    As someone that doesn't play EVE this sounds terrible and makes me really not want to play the game even more.

    That one disgruntled player can completely ruin the game for so many people is totally shocking, some degree of realism should be enforced at a game level (What's that disgruntled player X you want to disband this group and turn off all these systems? Well that's a bit crazy, you'll need the support of 25% of the board members of your group to do that.)

    1. Re:Terrible gameplay? by jjohnson · · Score: 1

      For most members of BoB, the game isn't ruined. There's been a dramatic shift in the landscape, but it won't impact their daily lives unless they want it to (i.e., by going to Delve and fighting for it). For people who aren't in Bob or Goonswarm, there's virtually no change at all.

      At the corporate politics level, this is a gigantic setback, but those people play the metagame, and just had the equivalent of their cherished Titan blown up. A big setback, but nothing game ending, and indeed, the fact that something like this can happen is exactly why those intense, high level metagamers play it.

      --
      Anyone who loves or hates any language, platform, or manufacturer, doesn't know what they're talking about.
    2. Re:Terrible gameplay? by slycer · · Score: 1

      As someone that doesn't play EVE this sounds incredible and makes me really want to play the game.

      That players can have such an effect on a game, including as it relates to other people is completely shocking and intriguing to me. I have 0 interest in playing a game, especially an MMO, where things are regulated/scripted to prevent change.

    3. Re:Terrible gameplay? by jslee · · Score: 1

      you have 9 interest in playing a game and your reading the gaming section of /.?? doesn't really make sense.. but EVE is completely player driven.. which makes EVE different to carebear MMO like WOW..

  15. The softest and funniest introduction to EVE by ^BR · · Score: 1

    Is the 0.0 experiment, travel log of a noob taking off for the wild 0.0 space http://00experiment.blogspot.com/

    1. Re:The softest and funniest introduction to EVE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      oh yeah nothing more interesting than reading screenshots of someone's chatlog with non-funny narrative prose intermixed.

  16. Re:Anonymous Awesomeo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Well it matters more than "some city's sports team won vs. another city's sports team".

    More? Seriously??

    Professional sports teams have millions of fans. Does the total number of EVE Online players even equal the number of fans of one professional sports team? I doubt it.

  17. Yeah, never heard of a sysadmin sabotaging by ^BR · · Score: 3, Interesting

    BoB got betrayed by one of its most trusted members, it's not unlike a RL CFO running with some company funds.

    Individual players lost nothing, but will have a hard time rebuilding under the pressure they'll be under. Everyone is very excited, the big war (about 2 years now) has been a stalemate with both sides deeply entrenched, now there's some hope of a conclusion at last.

    And at the very least, lots of boat violence(*).

    * EVE meme made famous after a Chinese ISK farmer whose spaceship got caught by players said "Please do not violence my boat"

    1. Re:Yeah, never heard of a sysadmin sabotaging by goodmanj · · Score: 1

      it's not unlike a RL CFO running with some company funds.

      No, it's not unlike a RL CFO running with some company funds, firing everyone, and dynamiting the corporate headquarters along with every factory, warehouse, and substation owned by the company.

      You can argue about whether this game mechanic is fun or not, but you can't argue that it has anything to do with the real world.

    2. Re:Yeah, never heard of a sysadmin sabotaging by ^BR · · Score: 1

      He didn't destroy anything. He stole unused stuff and cash. The real hurt is not is stolen and destroyed items but in the loss of the alliance (just a legal shell) and the associated loss of sovereignty, of which I cannot find a good RL equivalent. BNC still got lots of hardware and his in fighting condition despite the setback.

    3. Re:Yeah, never heard of a sysadmin sabotaging by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, it's more like a law mandating that every corporation have explosives in their corporate HQ and assets so that the exact moment the corporation is dissolved the assets explode with it.

    4. Re:Yeah, never heard of a sysadmin sabotaging by FishWithAHammer · · Score: 1

      Shut the hell up with your bad analogies and make with the car analogies!

      --
      "You can either have software quality or you can have pointer arithmetic, but you cannot have both at the same time."
    5. Re:Yeah, never heard of a sysadmin sabotaging by krenshala · · Score: 1

      I think the RL equivalent would be he empties the corporate coffers of cash, set up the shipping office to ship some expensive, highly useful equipment to the competition, and then phones up the appropriate government body to say, "Hi, I'm a director here at Company X, Inc. I was calling to let you know I've just emailed out the paperwork to legally show our corporation is now officially dissolved. Yeah, that's all I needed. Thank you." >click And then walking out the door whistling.

      --

      krenshala

    6. Re:Yeah, never heard of a sysadmin sabotaging by coretx · · Score: 1

      I call bullshit on this. I am a RL ( RiseingForce ) member for years now, and we never ever got a traitor or fraud within our corp.

  18. Actually, it seems tamer on WoW by Moraelin · · Score: 1

    Actually, I think it would be tamer. _All_ that a guild on WoW has is a few items in the guild banks. There is no equivalent of "sovereignty" or any holdings, etc.

    I've actually been in 2 WoW guilds which split, exploded or imploded when half a dozen characters reached level 60 (it was the top back then), and greed kicked in. As in, "OMG, my preciouss epic stuff is all that matters, let's kick out everyone who doesn't/can't grind me my preciouss epic gear." People who had founded that guild got kicked out because they couldn't grind some instance every fucking day.

    (Sometimes I wonder if games actually help make people psychopaths after all, or they were psychopaths to start with. Because that level of lack of empathy and judging other people only by how they fit towards gaining your personal status symbols is either psychopathy or an amazing virtual-world simulation thereof. If the impersonality of being behind a screen that makes some people give that little a shit about others, or it's just the medium where they can drop the mask and act as they really are? But I digress.)

    Big fucking deal. Most of the affected people just formed another guild which was aimed at casual play and where "epic" was officially a forbidden word. Life went on like before.

    Adding guild vaults didn't have changed all that much, I think. Most of the equipment there is at most blue quality (_very_ few people donate purple stuff), the funds can be recovered in a couple of days of grinding daily quests, and... um, actually there's nothing else. There is no estate to lose or anything.

    The summary makes it at least sound like it's a much bigger problem for BoB on Eve.

    --
    A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
    1. Re:Actually, it seems tamer on WoW by plasmacutter · · Score: 1

      You've never been in a heavy raiding guild.

      I've seen several large guilds "0wn3d" in this manner, and it's not pretty.

      tens of thousands of gold and/or tens of thousands in enchanting mats, rare recipes, epic pieces all go up in smoke.

      Guilds at that level of raiding are generally cellular in nature, with various cliques which get together to play. They don't recover when the roll is stripped, the gbank emptied, and the guild disbanded.

      --
      VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
    2. Re:Actually, it seems tamer on WoW by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      WoW is no comparison to EVE in intensity. If WoW turned PVP on for every server, allowed PVP in all areas, removed instancing (so you could be running your favorite raid and have another group come in and PVP you while you're busy), put every player on one server, and allowed players who killed other players in the game to loot the defeated player's corpses (all things on the corpse are subject to being taken... purples, bound items, etc.) and allowed guilds to 'own' various areas (The Barrens, for example), then you'd start getting close to EVE.

    3. Re:Actually, it seems tamer on WoW by buffer-overflowed · · Score: 1

      First off it's still a game, meaning entertainment, meaning it's supposed to be fun - and anyone who takes it that seriously is an incredibly sad individual.

      Secondly, really, WoW isn't comparable. It's cute that you think WoW anecdotes are relevant, but they really aren't. The mechanics do not allow stuff on this scale(or even anything really directly comparable) because it is a player versus shell script game, not a sandbox game like EVE/old UO/etc.. The closest thing to an appropriate analogue I can think of is that this is like someone not only stealing everything from the guild bank, but also causing a situation that engenders a huge likelihood of all the people in the guild losing all of their personal epics and gold, setting them back to stock level 60s(70s/80s, whatever the cap is) with absolutely NO recourse available.

      --
      The key to the enjoyment of pop music is to replace any instance of "love" with "C.H.U.D."
    4. Re:Actually, it seems tamer on WoW by illumin8 · · Score: 1

      The closest thing to an appropriate analogue I can think of is that this is like someone not only stealing everything from the guild bank, but also causing a situation that engenders a huge likelihood of all the people in the guild losing all of their personal epics and gold, setting them back to stock level 60s(70s/80s, whatever the cap is) with absolutely NO recourse available.

      That's a good way to describe it to your average WoW player. Now, I can tell you that I play MMOs quite a bit (maybe more than I should), and that's exactly the reason why I won't play EVE. This is also the reason why EVE will never be much more than a "niche" game.

      I love PvP, and I like killing other players, but I draw a line at hacking their guild bank, sharding their purples and /gkicking their entire guild. EVE is a game that not only allows this, but encourages it.

      With the rampant account theft by keylogging gold farmers, Blizzard probably would have lost the #1 MMO crown a long time ago if they allowed anything approaching what happens in EVE to happen to their players.

      --
      "When the president does it, that means it's not illegal." - Richard M. Nixon
    5. Re:Actually, it seems tamer on WoW by krenshala · · Score: 1

      While tens of thousands in gold and equipment is a lot in WoW, the person that defected from BOB looted almost 8.5 billion (yes, that starts with a B) ISK, plus a bunch of ships and items for sale (I haven't seen a price on that part of the haul). The smallest capital ships cost at least a few hundred million each, not counting fitted equipment, with titans costing in the billions. I would not be surprised if the total loses were in rage of 20+ billion isk.

      --

      krenshala

  19. Re:Anonymous Awesomeo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    He means for "him". Apparently egocentrism is a virtue.

  20. Re:Anonymous Awesomeo by phlegmboy · · Score: 1

    Clearly you are not a gaming nerd

  21. Oh noes! by Aladrin · · Score: 1

    Everyone is acting like this spy has done a horrible thing. I say what they did was neither good nor bad.

    It was just playing the game!

    BoB had apparently stalled. They had become complacent and just had way too much stuff. So now they are forced to play the game again to try to regain their ground.

    It's amazing how much this is like real life, with each side hating the other and thinking the other is wrong to the point that they do things that -could- be considered 'evil'. At least, if it wasn't a game.

    I broke my MMO addiction years ago, so I can see more of this than the people in it. I understand the addictiveness, the possessiveness... The pain from having things taken that you think are rightfully yours.

    But I also see that it's just a game, and games are to have fun, not to 'win'. Anybody that joined BoB because they wanted to be on the winning side joined for the wrong reason. They're now learning a valuable lesson.

    As an aside, I still yearn to play a couple of the games I used to be addicted to, but I realize I'll only have fun for a week or 2, and then I'll just be wasting my money again. So I don't go back. It really is much like a physical addiction in that sense. Thankfully, it's much easier to break again if you slip.

    --
    "If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
    1. Re:Oh noes! by vecctor · · Score: 1

      It's amazing how much this is like real life, with each side hating the other and thinking the other is wrong to the point that they do things that -could- be considered 'evil'. At least, if it wasn't a game.

      And quite unlike real life, one person was able to disband an entire government/corporation in one mouse-click. /laugh

      Talk about game mechanics failure.

      --
      Why, yes I have been touched by His noodly appendage. And I plan to sue.
  22. Re:Anonymous Awesomeo by Opportunist · · Score: 5, Insightful

    My first reaction was, too, "that's news? How's that relevant? Did something change in the tech world because of it?"

    Then I realized that the "real" news are filled with sports reports and celeb weddings, and I realized that this is basically the nerd equivalent thereof.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  23. I've been reading the forums.. the alliance"stale" by plasmacutter · · Score: 3, Insightful

    As someone who plays more traditional and structured MMO's, I find the idea that so much work can be reduced to ruins by one putz to be horrifying, especially given that games are supposed to be a way to escape the real-world.

    I investigated further, like someone who just saw a massive train wreck, by reading the forums.

    Goons seemed to have been given admin access to and archived the BoB forums as well, and have been posting juicier tidbits.

    Having administered a "guild gone stale" in WoW, I can recognize the tone and content of the post. My conclusion is band of brothers had outgrown its purpose and was now as adrift and stale as GM.

    The euthenasia of this massive organization will breathe new life into the game, but it may also drive a large number of these people who were screwed out of the game, making a huge dent in the userbase.

    --
    VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
  24. Whose fault? by argent · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm wondering whose fault it was that one member of the alliance had that much power.

    If there are mechanisms in-game for shared responsibility for assets and BoB didn't take advantage of them, that's BoB's problem.

    If the game forced them to structure their alliance so one person COULD take them down, that's EVE's fault.

    1. Re:Whose fault? by goodmanj · · Score: 1

      I haven't played EVE, but in most MMOs, the in-game political structure is *very* authoritarian, with all leaders able to act on their own.

      This makes administration a lot easier: it's a pain to have your entire group shut down because your leadership can't get quorum for a vote. But in most games, you're utterly doomed if you're betrayed by a leader. I'm guessing EVE is no exception.

    2. Re:Whose fault? by krenshala · · Score: 1

      With a few exceptions, EVE is no exception. :)

      --

      krenshala

    3. Re:Whose fault? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually, an alliance has full control over to whom it gives trust/rights/roles. BoB was just set up with an inherent weakness of which the Goons took advantage.

  25. Re:I've been reading the forums.. the alliance"sta by LordKazan · · Score: 1

    indeed it will... as BoB and basically become invulnerable in their core space - loosing sov breaks that

    --
    If you cannot keep politics out of your moderation remove yourself from the Mod Lottery.. NOW!
  26. BOB had it coming by WCMI92 · · Score: 1

    Disclaimer: I am not a member of Goonswarm, but I live in 0.0 and am in an alliance that is part of their coalition

    BOB should have been disbanded by CCP back when they were caught red handed with CCP Devs in their leadership handing them stuff like candy (the infamous T20 scandal). As has been proven by information "liberated" from their message boards, BOB leadership was WELL aware of what was going on.

    Also, BOB was the king of metagaming, account hacking, etc, and to see them fall as a result of it is deserved.

    --
    Corporatism != Free Market
    1. Re:BOB had it coming by kinsoa · · Score: 1

      Out-of-the-game and year-'s old stupid propaganda ? Die.

    2. Re:BOB had it coming by Sobrique · · Score: 1
      Handing out like candy? Hmm, no. More like spawned himself a couple of BPOs, and handed them over to others months later when he left.

      And as for metagaming, sorry BoB ain't the kings of that - Goons are just as frequently doing that kind of thing.

  27. There is a reason no one plays EVE by 0xdeadbeef · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    A game that supposedly about space combat and empire building is really about playground social engineering and back-stabbing.

    1. Re:There is a reason no one plays EVE by xch13fx · · Score: 1

      that is empire building

    2. Re:There is a reason no one plays EVE by Carfiend · · Score: 1

      That can be attributed to the fact that it is easier to spy and steal to defeat your enemies in EVE than it is to do it the honourable way due to how strong defenses can be made for the space you hold compared to the options your enemies have to attack. The alliance in question were able to defend their home region from many times their own numbers due to the advantages of having the defense systems like Cyno Jammers and being able to move fleets about Jump Bridge networks. Now these have been taken away for at least four weeks the game will become more about spaceships and less about metagaming. For the time being at least.

      --
      Uh, perhaps you can help me? I'm looking for a love-potion aerosol, that I can spray on a certain Penthouse Pet, to obta
    3. Re:There is a reason no one plays EVE by DaveV1.0 · · Score: 0

      Oh, you mean there is no war in politics?

      Here is a suggestion: Read the Art of War

      --
      There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
    4. Re:There is a reason no one plays EVE by MadUndergrad · · Score: 2, Insightful

      What part of empire building do you not understand?

    5. Re:There is a reason no one plays EVE by 0xdeadbeef · · Score: 1

      Oh, dear, I hadn't realized that empires have been undone by a few mouse clicks. Indeed, in real life, all it takes is one lieutenant to get the keys to the briefcase with the button, and suddenly everyone follows his orders without question.

    6. Re:There is a reason no one plays EVE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, yeah. Apparently the company that runs it, CCP, has encouraged "metagaming" like this for years. Their game about space combat and empire building has always been primarily about playground social engineering.

      By all accounts the disbanded alliance was both a master of metagaming and the alliance most favored by the actual game developers (some developers are members and they were once caught directed helping it). Perhaps metagaming will actually become a problem now that the developers themselves have been burned by it. Anarcho-capitalism is only fun as long as you're the one with the money and power.

    7. Re:There is a reason no one plays EVE by ThePsion5 · · Score: 0

      Oh, dear, I hadn't realized that empires have been undone by a few mouse clicks. Indeed, in real life, all it takes is one lieutenant to get the keys to the briefcase with the button, and suddenly everyone follows his orders without question.

      Really? There have been no instances in history where the betrayal of a single individual with a great amount of power has crippled an empire?

    8. Re:There is a reason no one plays EVE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There's empire building, and there's empire building, though.

      I don't know any details here, and I really couldn't care less about EVE Online in general, but if what some people have said about a) hacked accounts or b) disgruntled insiders deciding to go out with a bang when leaving the game is true, then that IS a reason why the game would be less fun to most.

      I mean - take boxing. Boxing's about fighting, right, but that doesn't mean you can sneak into your opponent's dressing room and lace his drink with rohypnol to knock him out, or pad your boxing glove with barbed wire, or whatever; and if you do it, you'll be rightfully disqualified, and no amount of "what part of fighting to you not understand" would save you.

      It's similar for computer games, I think. The goal is not to get an advantage using absolutely any and every tactic you could possibly use - at least not once you start talking about the metagame. Do whatever you want and can in-game, but if you start hacking accounts, for instance, I'm sorry, that doesn't fall under acceptable "empire building" anymore.

    9. Re:There is a reason no one plays EVE by random+coward · · Score: 1

      It wasn't a hacked account. It was a coup-de-tat. It is part of the intended game mechanics, and thus within the rules.

      The reason people don't want to play eve is that it doesn't have a learning curve. It has a learning cliff. This is apparent by the number of people that don't understand that the game is really this big. It isn't just a space ship sim. Its also a massive real time strategy game, with actual people controlling each unit on the field(at the level of the BoB/Goon war). It is also a market game where you can make billions buying and selling stuff. Its a social game where your reputation really matters. The player that did the deed on BoB will never be trusted with any corporate leadership ever again in that game.

      One thing to think about. The person who did this was a BoB player. If he was this bored and upset with the situation that BoB was in, then there were many others in BoB that were as well. Pulling the plug in affect shuffled the deck for the players and broke the stalemate. Most of them are actually happy about it and having fun again.

    10. Re:There is a reason no one plays EVE by mrdoogee · · Score: 2, Funny

      You never heard how Nero clicked as Rome.exe crashed?

    11. Re:There is a reason no one plays EVE by xappax · · Score: 1

      Well, what the spy destroyed wasn't the chain of command. Just as in real life, that's a social construct. All the member of the corporation are still where they are, with the same ships and standing orders, etc. The only difference is that the technical structure of the corporation has been severely disrupted. It's more like if someone had completely infiltrated the computer systems of a RL corporation and secretly emptied key bank accounts, sold tons of stock, published all IP and cryto keys, and blanked all corporate databases and backups. The physical buildings would still be there, the employees would still show up for work in the morning and look to their boss for direction, but with no payroll database and no corporate resources, things would fall apart pretty much instantly. While it might take more than a single click to orchestrate those things, the point is it could probably be done by one infiltrator, in a rapid, automated way, given enough access.

    12. Re:There is a reason no one plays EVE by 0xdeadbeef · · Score: 1

      It wasn't a hacked account. It was a coup-de-tat. It is part of the intended game mechanics, and thus within the rules.

      EVE Online: If you don't have guild drama, then you're not playing it right.

  28. Re:I've been reading the forums.. the alliance"sta by fitten · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The euthenasia of this massive organization will breathe new life into the game, but it may also drive a large number of these people who were screwed out of the game, making a huge dent in the userbase.

    You get a gold star! ;) Seriously... you 'get' it. Yes... BoB controlled a very large, very rich, area of the game universe. This activity has made a huge 'hole' in space... the richest part of space. Before, all of claimable space had been claimed and had become fairly stable. This 'hole' has opened up a very rich region for land grabbing and the like... and with that, there will be squabbles, fights, and all sorts of new fun!

    There will probably be a few who quit over this, true, but I doubt many will... life in EVE is like that... BoB has a bunch of very dedicated and extremely skilled players in it... I'm betting they will regroup and try to take back their space... which will stir up all kinds of drama in itself.

    EVE lives for drama. The game *IS* made by the players. 99% of the game content is made by the players... who is fighting who? what regions are 'hot'? who just screwed over someone else? The leader of BoB said, and it was true, that BoB has been providing the game with content since they formed and first took space. Missions and all the PVE stuff is just the ISK printing press to fund the "real" part of the game by supplying money to players to buy stuff. The production (crafting) part of EVE is massive and an integral part of the game. If you're flying a ship, it was made by a player (and you're always flying a ship). If you fit tech2 equipment onto your ship, it was made by a player. And yeah, you have to have miners to get minerals, people to tend moon stations to harvest 'rare' minerals, and someone to take all those things and manufacture stuff.

    There's really no other game with the complexity and depth of EVE.

  29. Re:I've been reading the forums.. the alliance"sta by synthesizerpatel · · Score: 3, Funny

    >> here's really no other game with the complexity and depth of EVE.

    Except "Go".

    A minute to learn.

    A _lifetime_ to master.

  30. Wintergrasp Keep FINALLY flipping? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Compare this to WOW:

    Imagine there was just one realm, but with only about 200.000 players.

    Imagine Alliance had held Wintergrasp Keep for 2 years solid.

    Imagine suddenly all walls collapsing at the same time.

    That's why it's epic: There's gonna be slaughter all week long and it's by no means sure whether Horde or Alliance will hold Wintergrasp Keep at the end of week.

  31. This WHY we play EVE by kinsoa · · Score: 1

    Space combat, Empire building, social engineering, people griefing, making idiots suffer, etc. EVE is really a great game.

  32. Re:Anonymous Awesomeo by Ash-Fox · · Score: 5, Funny

    Then I realized that the "real" news are filled with sports reports and celeb weddings, and I realized that this is basically the nerd equivalent thereof.

    Some of the "real" news is pretty hilarious though:

    "The group of vigilante men came to report that while they were on patrol they saw some hoodlums attempting to rob a car. They pursued them. However one of them escaped while the other turned into a goat," Kwara state police spokesman Tunde Mohammed told Reuters by telephone.

    "We cannot confirm the story, but the goat is in our custody. We cannot base our information on something mystical. It is something that has to be proved scientifically, that a human being turned into a goat," he said.

    Source: Reuters

    --
    Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
  33. Re:I've been reading the forums.. the alliance"sta by fitten · · Score: 1

    Well... I meant MMO ;) (Yes, I've played Go as well)

  34. And now the fun begins! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Well in the end it simplifies things for bob. Now we don't really have to stare at POS for countless hours while our cowardly enemies decide to avoid fighting. Now the fight is on our terms, so this will be REEAAAAAAALLY interesting and finally will be fun.

    I'll be enjoying seeing enemy wrecks around :D

  35. For the Freedom of Others Re:Hello from Meatspace! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Here I am stationed in Iraq, I've got people going out every day who are possibly going to get really killed. We find explosives, get shot at, you name it. It's all VERY real. But there are enough people who are so totally insulated from this sort of thing that the EVE Online game is vastly more important to them.

    Last summer during training we were regularly confronted with the site of civilians out enjoying the sun and relaxing by the river. While some of the troops looked at that and thought about what they'd rather be doing, the Sgt. Major saw it and used it to boost the troops morale. His words were along the lines of, "This is why you do what you do. Your sacrifice gives those civilians the freedom to be able to enjoy their day at the beach."

    In the same way, your sacrifice in Iraq (or Afghanistan, or Africa, or wherever it be needed) is not only about protecting the lifestyles of the innocents back home, but is also about bringing freedom to those who have less of it. The world will never be a utopia. However, by doing the work you do, hopefully those who live in the lowest conditions will have a better day tomorrow than they did today.

    On behalf of those who you are helping directly, and those you indirectly defend, thank you for your sacrifice.

    ---------------------

    I wish I could be as simple as that, we both know that Iraq and Afghanistan are not really about freedom and wmds. However, the above still applies and sometimes is forgotten in the rest of it.

    ---------------------
    And my captcha word for this post: duties.

  36. Interviews with player CEO's by Wizard+of+rhythm · · Score: 2, Informative

    Eve-Radio.com did an interview with the respective alliance ceo's of the now disbanded "Banded of Brothers" who I am member of and The Mittani of Goonfleet http://funkybacon.eve-radio.com/dianabolic.mp3 http://funkybacon.eve-radio.com/mittani.mp3 Both interviews offer some insight into the whole story, even if know nothing about eve there is some insight into the mechanics of what happened.

  37. Looks like crappy game mechanics from here... by goodmanj · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I don't play EVE. But without commenting on its politics, it seems to me as an outsider that this sort of coup shouldn't be possible in any game designed to have interesting and engaging politics.

    The game mechanics (sovereignty allowing construction of major infrastructure) is a proxy for a large government/business bureaucracy who maintains and runs the infrastructure. These guys are abstracted out of the game because they're boring.

    In any real human political/business organization, if a leader turned traitor and demanded the immediate destruction of all infrastructure in his control, the people behind the scenes who actually *run* the stuff would say "hell no!"

    Imagine if Joe Biden sold out to the Russians and demanded that every U.S. embassy and military base be demolished. Imagine that Steve Ballmer demanded that Microsoft's entire Redmond campus be put to the torch. Not gonna happen. But in EVE, it's done in a microsecond.

    Virtual world politics doesn't have to work the same way as the real world, but it does have to be A) fun, and B) functional. The ability for a single leader to nuke his entire nation with a mouseclick is neither.

    1. Re:Looks like crappy game mechanics from here... by jjohnson · · Score: 3, Insightful

      On the contrary, the fact that coups like this *are* possible is exactly what attracts that level of meta-gamer who bothers to spend years of their life building a corp/alliance. If things like this weren't possible, large old alliances like BoB would be fixtures in the game, immovable and unconquerable.

      As it was, BoB nearly was invincible due to the network of alliance level infrastructure they built up. The ongoing war between goonfleet and BoB had taken on the character of WWI: static lines that don't move much. That's boring. It's like you and your PvP opponent have both got your tier 8 gear and are no longer capable of killing each other, so you don't bother to fight anymore.

      No infrastructure was destroyed; but by disbanding the alliance, they lost sovereignty; by losing sovereignty, they lost infrastructure features that require sovereignty. BoB's core territory in Delve is now conquerable. That doesn't mean conquered--see the post above from a BoB member who's excited about the impending action. What'll happen now is that BoB's core support will have to man the Delve systems continuously and defend them long enough for sovereignty to reassert (about three month). It'll be a long battle where they'll actually have to fight, rather than sit behind their cyno-jammers.

      This isn't a glitch. This is exactly why those serious players play Eve, because stuff like this happens.

      If you want a real-world analogy, don't think of gov't, think of Enron, where a few key executives were able to build a house of cards that almost overnight put 55,000 people out of work when it all collapsed. It's large-scale, player-driven reversals like this that make Eve interesting for those people.

      Not to me, though :) After running some lvl 4 missions in my new Raven, I got bored, and didn't want to get into the politics of it.

      --
      Anyone who loves or hates any language, platform, or manufacturer, doesn't know what they're talking about.
    2. Re:Looks like crappy game mechanics from here... by Absimiliard · · Score: 1

      Bear in mind that in EVE almost everything that isn't a player is robotic.

      Ships don't have crew, at least not the sort of ships player's fly. POS's (Player Owned Stations) are not staffed or crewed, they just operate.

      People in EVE are largely confined to planets and NPC stations. The odd exception being cargo that you can haul that consists of people, like slaves or exotic dancers.

      So this isn't someone convincing a bureaucracy to defect, as you assert. This is someone getting the control codes to Skynet and telling it wipe out humanity.

      -abs

    3. Re:Looks like crappy game mechanics from here... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you want a real-world analogy, don't think of gov't, think of Enron, where a few key executives were able to build a house of cards that almost overnight put 55,000 people out of work when it all collapsed. It's large-scale, player-driven reversals like this that make Eve interesting for those people.

      Ok, by using this this analogy you are either implying that this BoB thing is bad, or that the Enron Debacle was good. Do you really mean either of these? While the majority of peope want a certain amount of excitement in their lives, I think most still wouldn't want their RL jobs to evaporate overnight like in Enron, or the investment banks that failed last fall, etc...

    4. Re:Looks like crappy game mechanics from here... by krenshala · · Score: 1

      Imagine if Joe Biden sold out to the Russians and demanded that every U.S. embassy and military base be demolished.

      This was more like Joe Biden suddenly turned off the communications capabilities that tied all those embassies and bases together. The bases are still there, but they can't (easily) talk to each other and a number of their capabilities are now inoperable. It can all be fixed, but it will take time.

      --

      krenshala

    5. Re:Looks like crappy game mechanics from here... by jjohnson · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I was merely responding to your point that there's no analogy in RL to a single key individual causing a ton of grief for a large institution. No, Enron wasn't good, but for proof that what happened to BoB was good in meta-game terms, read this subthread from a BoB member:

      I am a member of Band of Brothers and the only thing this has caused is a renewed interest on the part of the Alliance.

      If you believe him, this is a minor hiccup that's caused some need for a bit more active play on their parts while they re-establish their alliance-level infrastructure.

      See? It's a big reversal that's made Eve exciting for everyone involved. Longstanding static lines have been thrown into chaos. A lot of Bob players think this is an exciting, active phase of the war with goonfleet.

      --
      Anyone who loves or hates any language, platform, or manufacturer, doesn't know what they're talking about.
    6. Re:Looks like crappy game mechanics from here... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      See? It's a big reversal that's made Eve exciting for everyone involved. Longstanding static lines have been thrown into chaos. A lot of Bob players think this is an exciting, active phase of the war with goonfleet.

      I can understand and agree with that, in a game like having too much stability leads to boredum. My point was that your chosen analogy appeared flawed (to me at least) because it involved very different emotional contexts. It might be much adieu about nothing, but (again to me at least) an analogy that has the possibility to increase confusion, rather than reduce it, is conter-productive.

    7. Re:Looks like crappy game mechanics from here... by goodmanj · · Score: 1

      If things like this weren't possible, large old alliances like BoB would be fixtures in the game, immovable and unconquerable.

      Of course empires should be conquerable. But not like this.

      The fact that BoB was nearly invincible reeks of bad game design. The fact that BoB was done in by a single mouseclick is also bad game design.

  38. i'd like to make a meta comment by circletimessquare · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    on your meta comment about the shifting metadynamics of the meta comments that you have come to know and love in a meta sort of way no longer concerning themselves with the meta commentary in this meta way anymore, and instead taking on a new meta flavor that your meta psychology does not meta grok with

    in short, who cares

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
  39. Band of Brothers by t00le · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I am a member of Band of Brothers and the only thing this has caused is a renewed interest on the part of the Alliance.

    For them to remove us they will need to remove all of our moon mining and sovereignty towers. We have hundreds of capital ships and around 2k people waiting for the morons to come running into the chainsaw.

    All of this is a pain, but sovereignty is already ticking to regain control. They have a little over two months to destroy us, before we get sovereignty three to re-acitvate our jammers, bridges and whatnot.

    Considering we have war supplies and motivation, they will not be successful and their chest beating is simply propaganda.

    In the last 24 hours almost all of BoB and their allies have fallen back to Delve to get ready for the fight. Before we mobilized they were tooting their horns about taking stations and anchoring pos's, but when push came to shove they didn't wish to engage.

    This is not newsworthy, but a "Blue Falcon" act by a friend of BoB.

    --
    When the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail
    1. Re:Band of Brothers by Reapman · · Score: 1

      Never played Eve, probably never will.. but I'm honestly quite intrigued by what's going on.

      Sounds pretty kick ass.

    2. Re:Band of Brothers by jjohnson · · Score: 1

      If BoB makes it back from this, it will be a truly impressive feat. I'm highly sceptical, but it would be amazing. Good luck.

      --
      Anyone who loves or hates any language, platform, or manufacturer, doesn't know what they're talking about.
    3. Re:Band of Brothers by t00le · · Score: 1

      All we lost was sovereignty, so we still have hundreds of pos's and a large amount of resources. The only thing this achieved was the removal of the alliance name, nothing more and nothing less. All of the valuable items were in personal hangars and the small amount of isk that was stolen was simply for consumable expenses.

      The only thing this honestly did is cause a bunch of old BoB members to resub and get interested again the game. In the next two months while we hold onto Delve we will have thousands of GBC pilots fighting the rest of the game. The opposition only has two months to remove all of our towers and.or place their own.

      http://dl.eve-files.com/media/corp/Verite/influence.png

      That map shows that we now have Sov 1 in all of our systems, minus a couple. In two weeks we will have Sov 2 and then two weeks after that we will have Sov 3. If they can not remove us from Delve in twenty seven downtimes (sov is based on morning dt's) than they have accomplished nothing outside of a huge PR campaign.

      Internally there are several members that are convinced this was an intended act by BoB to get everyone to focus on Delve while we have allies pounding our enemies home system. The on true thing it has accomplished is getting everyone interested in all of the fights the next two months will bring.

      --
      When the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail
    4. Re:Band of Brothers by harperska · · Score: 1

      And true to form, a BoB member misunderstands the aim of the goons. The goons are first and foremost griefers. That is where they derive enjoyment from the game. So seeing their enemy suddenly collapse from the ultimate griefing and watching everybody run around in the aftermath was as much a goal as any territorial gains they might make afterwards.

    5. Re:Band of Brothers by t00le · · Score: 1

      There is no collapse, so apparently the griefing they are feeding from is self perceived? :) A name is a name and we will all continue to march through this problem into the next.

      We will also motivate the Something Awful forums to find some other way to get their kicks. No emorage, quitting or crying was seen on behalf of the BoB corporations. Surely, this was not the desired grief that was sought. Granted, people were shocked and all, but it's business in usual in Delve.

      The circle jerk will be over shortly and Goons will run back with their tails between their legs, again.

      Rinse, lather, repeat as necessary.

      --
      When the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail
    6. Re:Band of Brothers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I am a member of GoonFleet, and I can say without a doubt that your alliance is all but finished.

      Your morale is broken. You lost your entire cap fleet. We doubled the size of our capfleet in return. The ships we will now kill you with are the very ships you lost.

      Morons running into a chain saw? Hardly. The last two weeks, you have sent fleet after fleet into our gate/pos camps, and we have destroyed you. We laughed over comms because you made decisions that we would not make. Crazy, disaster-filled decisions. Your atrophy shows.

      Oh, yes. We know you are rebuilding. We know that you are not gone. We also know that you will never be at the same strength... too many people are fleeing your ranks for greener pastures, too many people are tired of the fight.

      And while you wait for SOV, know this: it might take you a couple months to get your full claim to a few choice systems, but it will take you at least a year to rebuild your ranks.

      You see, little BoBber... you are broken. We will wipe you from the map. We will control Delve and beyond. You will lament while we bring the Jihad of the Swarm to your last remaining fleets.

      You may beg for NAP. You may cry foul. We are beyond this. Only your pain will satisfy us now.

      I hope my message and meaning is clear. You will not survive.

      FOFOFO!

    7. Re:Band of Brothers by Lord+Kestrel · · Score: 1

      The next week should be interesting. Seeing as how I live in Fountain, it's a quick hop over to Delve for shooting. GBC stopped coming to play a month ago, and it's gotten boring. I'm hoping that BoB will give us some fights in NOL, because the pets sure as hell won't.

    8. Re:Band of Brothers by t00le · · Score: 1

      Anonymously cowardly,

      Good luck, hopefully you will have a home to return to after you lose. We have no ranks to fill since numerous people are resubbing, so meh.

      I am not a pubbie btw. :)

      You have crap for logistics, you have crap for fc's and your simply looking for an exit to go into your next game and get your griefing giggles.

      Enjoy the ride, we are looking forward to keeping our chainsaws oiled. :)

      --
      When the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail
    9. Re:Band of Brothers by Xelios · · Score: 1

      They'll make it back from this. BoB is nothing if not resilient, and their enemies are nothing if not disorganized. I'm more interested to see what BoB will do after they stabilize everything again, this fiasco should get them excited enough to start some large scale pvp ops again.

      --
      Murphey's fighting Occam, and we're in the stands.
    10. Re:Band of Brothers by jjohnson · · Score: 1

      The only thing this achieved was the removal of the alliance name, nothing more and nothing less.

      That's all? You didn't lose your jump points and cyno-jammers? I thought that Delve was impregnable because of those alliance level infrastructure features--they kept cap ships out and allowed BoB to jump cap ships in easily.

      I know BoB wasn't destroyed by this, but you're being a bit blasé about what you lost here, aren't you? You're going to have to fight to keep Delve now, especially if someone organizes a real assault on it.

      --
      Anyone who loves or hates any language, platform, or manufacturer, doesn't know what they're talking about.
    11. Re:Band of Brothers by t00le · · Score: 1

      Read the first post:

      All of this is a pain, but sovereignty is already ticking to regain control. They have a little over two months to destroy us, before we get sovereignty three to re-acitvate our jammers, bridges and whatnot.

      It just means this time the eve community can't cry that Titans are over-powered, dev hacks, etc. I didn't point it out since I referenced in some degree in the original post.

      This time around there is no MC, RA and the handful of larger alliances with the first Delve war. This war will be a blast and the general morale of Bob/GBC is "excitement" since we have been sieging towers for the last seven months. Now we get to be on the defensive and have some fun.

      The Goon Coalition has a small window to have success, but while they are in Delve they will be losing their sov 4 systems in Detroid while hoping to destroy BoB, which won't happen. They will ultimately have no home to return to, but maybe the Northern Coalition can find a nice cozy system from the dregs of the internet to fofofof in. :)

      We are looking forward to it for the fights and fun, while the Goonies are doing it to prove a point and spread grief. Win or lose, it will be a fun time the next two-three months. We do not "failscade" and will not give up our home systems. We have build friendships over the last few years that will last a lifetime, so there is true comradeship and not smackfriends from Something Awful. :)

      We are the bullies of Eve since we like fighting, which has made us unpopular with a good portion of Eve.

      Hate us or love us, we always bring it. This time around it's personal.

      --
      When the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail
    12. Re:Band of Brothers by khallow · · Score: 1

      The disinformation potential of the Goonswarm alliance is awesome. I mean you have the trolling power of the entire planet piled into a single alliance on an internet spaceships game. Future generations will tremble at the memory of what has been wrought there.

    13. Re:Band of Brothers by nutshell42 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Ladies and Gentlemen, this conflict now has its own official Baghdad BoB.

      --
      Don't think of it as a flame---it's more like an argument that does 3d6 fire damage
    14. Re:Band of Brothers by t00le · · Score: 1

      Check this post in twenty seven days and we will validate our perspectives. :)

      --
      When the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail
    15. Re:Band of Brothers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You = Whinny Bizch

      Have fun fading into obscurity. And you not a member of BOB any more, your a member of whatever you call yourselves now lol.

    16. Re:Band of Brothers by nutshell42 · · Score: 1
      It was just a joke. Because of BoB's nice acronym and because your post read that way.

      I don't play Eve and I'm not involved enough into the intricacies of gameplay to decide whether you're right or not. Unlike a lot of other ppl here I love reading about Eve's huge scams, backstabbings and defections, though. If I'm ever gonna play a MMOG Eve's definitely at the top of my list. =)

      --
      Don't think of it as a flame---it's more like an argument that does 3d6 fire damage
  40. Re: Wondering People by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Now now, to be fair some of us Anons are simply too lazy to sign up.

  41. Memorrieeeesss! by MrPerfekt · · Score: 1

    Sounds vaguely reminiscent of the double-crosses that would happen in TradeWars 2002. Granted, your BBS'ing community was much smaller, but I wager that TW2002 might be more fun still than EVE Online.

    Go Text! It's Best!

    --
    I just wasted your mod points! HA!
    1. Re:Memorrieeeesss! by jythie · · Score: 1

      I could actually see someone picking up tradewars at some point and building a modern on-line game based off of it. Even something on the level of Pardus would get players and probably would be quite a bit of fun.

  42. Mod parent up - it's always this.... by vecctor · · Score: 1

    Every one of these stories I've seen regarding "big deals" in Eve has reeked of bad game mechanics. This is no exception and the parent articulates why.

    If you were able to do shit like this in any other game, people would cry foul. But in Eve it is considered "oh so realistic and cool player-driven action!!111"

    --
    Why, yes I have been touched by His noodly appendage. And I plan to sue.
  43. One word..... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    NERDS.

  44. Random Observation by Greyfox · · Score: 3, Interesting

    One EvE ISK is worth more than one Zimbabwe dollar.

    --

    I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?

    1. Re:Random Observation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Pretty soon it will be worth more than the majority of the worlds currencies.

      Note to self - Invest in teh MMO Monies.

    2. Re:Random Observation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mods, that's not interesting. That's insightful.

      300,000,000 ISK == 30 day game time at current EVE prices.

      That's $15

      Saturday, February 7, 2009
      1 US Dollar = 37,456,777 Zimbabwe Dollar

      That's *after* they've removed lots and lots of zeros few weeks ago. And this rate is not the blackmarket rate, which is higher.

      Zimbabwe is broke and has been screwed over by Mugabe for years. But I guess I'm just an eve player that knows these things. Too bad the people more "in touch with real life" don't even know where Zimbabwe is.

      So, at current rates, 1 eve ISK > 1 Zimbabwe Dollar. Zimbabweans are getting shafted more than any BOB player.

    3. Re:Random Observation by Zibblsnrt · · Score: 1

      So's one hydrogen atom these days.

      --
      "All that is necessary for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke
    4. Re:Random Observation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      One EvE ISK is worth more than one Zimbabwe dollar.

      The way the Icelandic economy is tanking, one EvE ISK will soon be worth more than one Icelandic ISK

  45. Spy! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Spy is sappin' mah alliance!

    1. Re:Spy! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      'at TinFoil's ah spy!

  46. Re:Anonymous Awesomeo by religious+freak · · Score: 1

    I don't know about that. I don't play EvE, I've never played EvE (nor any other MMO for that matter), and I've never even seen EvE, outside of a few screenshots on stories like this. But, it is still fascinating to me how a virtual world can create its own narrative like this. It illustrates the increasing complexity in online interaction and how seriously people take their online activities.

    If nothing else, it's interesting because the immersion in online worlds has a very rapid upward tragectory. As a reader of Vinge, Stephenson, etc I am interested and I think those that stopped to think about the future implications of this would probably be more interested then they appear to be. If this is where we're at now, where will we be in 10 to 20 years when graphics and inputdev vastly better than what they are now?

    News for nerds... I think this is indisputable - stuff that matters ... I'd argue, yes.

    --
    If you can read this... 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100111 01100101 01100101 01101011
  47. Oh great by citylivin · · Score: 1

    Now something awful will supplant bob as most dickish alliance. Nothing changes. I am loving to see bob fall, but nothings going to change.

    --
    As a potential lottery winner, I totally support tax cuts for the wealthy
    1. Re:Oh great by cowscows · · Score: 1

      There is definitely a cultural difference

      Goons take some pride in the fact that they prosper in spite of the fact that they're just a bunch of morons being led by giant video game nerds. But they fully realize that they're all huge nerds, and that greater success in EvE is just greater proof of what dorks they all are.

      BoB liked to pretend that they prospered because they were badasses. They act like their accomplishments in EvE made them better than all the EvE rabble. That somehow they transcended the nerdiness and became cool.

      --

      One time I threw a brick at a duck.

  48. Can't believe this was missed... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    All your base are belong to us!

    Booyah!!!

  49. Re:I've been reading the forums.. the alliance"sta by khallow · · Score: 1

    What about "Go"? I've never been excited by its economics model. And Russian griefing is so much better than Japanese griefing.

  50. GM corruption makes this all pointless by silentsentinel · · Score: 1

    This entire article is pointless. BoB will simply gain back whatever is needed to begin rebuilding itself from the army of corrupt CCP employed GMs who have their [b]own[/b] characters in a [i]"player ran" organization[/i]. The entire game is ripe with corruption from all angles and leaves little to no room for an honest player or group of players to get anywhere without direct GM assistance.

    1. Re:GM corruption makes this all pointless by ThePsion5 · · Score: 0

      The event you're referring to occurred over two years ago, and since then CCP has created an entire division around policing their players. Both CSM councils that talked with this division and saw their day-to-day operations were satisfied that they were sufficient to keep what happened back then from happening again.

      I'm sure you'll just respond that the CSM are clearly just CCP lapdogs, at which point I would bring up that two of the nine CSM delegates are high-level members of Goonswarm responsible for many day-to-day operations of the alliance.

      But your statement suggests a conspiracy theorist bent, so I'm gonna go ahead and come up with your responses:

      1. Those members of Goonswarm are clearly corrupt and are no longer interested in the alliance, just a free trip to Iceland
      2. The two members were clearly paid off by CCP with more in-game items so they would not reveal said corruption
      3. The internal affairs division is obviously lying to them, if it even exists as anything more than a name

      At this point I realize that you are not at all reasonable and there is no point risking further negative karma (virtual and real) by engaging you in any attempt at rational discussion. As a parting blow, however, I would note that one of the most successful alliances in the game right now is actually Goonswarm, the alliance supposedly hated by the developers (as they're all corrupt and pro-BoB). You would just ignore this comment and go back to desperately searching satellite images of Iceland for mind-control devices.

      I just saved both of us a bunch of time, you can thank me later

  51. heh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    as a former member of goonswarm, I'm getting a kick..

    1. Re:heh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hopefully squarely in the mouth....

  52. Re:Anonymous Awesomeo by MBraynard · · Score: 1

    Really, though, as a non-eve player, does this not make you want to play the game? Everytime I hear about one of these stories I am tempted to boot up an account.

  53. Re:Anonymous Awesomeo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Since value is entirely relative, egocentrism is very applicable in this instance.

  54. Not an EvE player but by SupremoMan · · Score: 1

    I'm happy to hear this. It's hard not to hear what goes on in that game, and over the years I got the impression that BoB was strangling the life out of the game. I hope this fosters in new era for people who enjoy this game.

  55. GOONGOONGOONGOON by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Another victory by my fellow goonsters! We salute you and may BoB cry like the little girls they are!

  56. a little justice, I guess by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    BOB got into trouble a couple of years ago for collusion with one of the game company developers to manipulate the game and mechanics in BOBs favor. They both got little more than a slap on the wrist from the company and BOB had taken over half the universe because of it. Ever since BOB has been in the cross-hairs of the rest of the alliances. They've been eroding BOB ever since. Given the game companies' lack of ethics I wouldn't be surprised if it was engineered by this same game company to free the space up for paying players and get rid of a no longer useful alliance.

  57. BoB GONE!!! by Stanzig · · Score: 1

    Mitanni wasnt a spy he was a High End Director in the executor corp that controls the whole BoB alliance. He was tired of getting bullied and pushed around, so he did the next best thing and turned his back on the alliance and gave it to Goonswarm, they now own BoB. God I love this game, its gonna be a whole lot better with BoB gone :)

  58. Holy Shit! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is huge!!

    And I don't even play EVE Online...

  59. Re:I've been reading the forums.. the alliance"sta by tehdaemon · · Score: 1

    Eve

    Months to learn

    Impossible to master

    try again

    --
    Laws are horrible moral guides, moral guides make even worse laws.
  60. Cool by shiftless · · Score: 1

    I have heard of EVE before but didn't know what it was about. Just figured it was yet another fanstary MMORPG. Man, I wish I had discovered this game sooner.

    Reading this article summary took me straight back to the good ole days, the early to mid 90s, when I was dialing up BBSs and playing Trade Wars 2002. In that game, you start out with a basic little merchant ship which you can use to trade between different starports to make money. There were a number of avenues you could take to advance in money and power in the game, limited only by your imagination, skill, and cunning. You could claim planets, buy starships, mine and fortify sectors, build ports, build 'citadels' on the planets to defend them, etc.

    If you were playing against any sort of real competition, you were pretty much required to create or join a corporation so that you could have a hope of surviving and conquering your enemies. There is a real need for teamwork, but also real reasons to distrust teammates. Any member of your corporation could easily betray you and leave your corp in ruin, by claiming all your assets as his own then blowing up everyone's ships while you were out of the game. You could somewhat guard against this by keeping some hidden personal assets off in a corner somewhere, but of course this has trade-offs as well.

    So the game consists of strategy, tactics, ship to ship combat, invasion, defense, economy and finance, politics, everything you can possibly imagine. Easy to learn, difficult to master, full of depth, exciting, and a hell of a lot of fun. It seems EVE is pretty much a modern version of this game.

    For those of you saying that people will probably quit the game because of this recent development, you are wrong and you don't understand the game. If anything, this will reinvigorate everything. Now there are thousands of little guys flying around out there who suddenly see real opportunity to go out and seize control of something and gain some power. The BoB guys know that even if they lose everything, they can always build their empire back up, through great cunning, strategy, blood, sweat, and tears, and emerge even more glorious than ever. It's exciting.

  61. y0h BoB by doomicon · · Score: 1

    (for those that play or have played eve you will understand)

    OMFG ROTFFLMMFAO!!!!!!!!!
    HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

    YOU GOT OWNED!

    (only played eve for three months, cool game, quit during the dev cheating scandal)

    --

    Awesome!
  62. Re:I've been reading the forums.. the alliance"sta by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Except RL

  63. Re:Anonymous Awesomeo by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    I was/am an EvE player (currently mostly just upping skills, lacking time). Basically this would have interested me about a decade ago. Today, I guess, I'm too old to care too much about online politics. I'm busy enough trying to keep politics out of my real life, when I come home and want to relax with a game, I don't want to do what I hate doing at work already.

    But I'm pretty sure this could be very intersting for some people who want to engage in something like that.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  64. Re:I've been reading the forums.. the alliance"sta by LParks · · Score: 1

    This is actually a very interesting event. I wonder if the aftermath will mirror real world events where such a large vacuum was created after the fall of a superpower, or if BoB will simply be able to rebuild in a few months.

    Since GoonSwarm is now supposedly a lone superpower, it will be interesting to see if they can destroy the remnants of BoB and any other opportunistic alliances.

    If they complete the hegemony and essentially control the entire EVE universe, what will happen then? Will they all lose interest, will they subdivide into warring factions, or will they simply weep without any more worlds to conquer?

  65. Re:I've been reading the forums.. the alliance"sta by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's the same with Go. You should've interpreted that line less literally.

  66. The worst by The+Fat+Bastid · · Score: 1

    Eve is the worst game in the world because it brings out the worst in people.

  67. Always nice to see another BoB alive .. or euuh .. by freaker_TuC · · Score: 1

    On WOW there is a guild having the same name and same meaning "Band of Brothers" ...

    We used to have a domain bobguildof as joke ; which was ran by the previous guildmaster ..

    --
    --- I am known for the ones who want to find me on the net. Is that a privacy risk or a privilege? One might wonder..
  68. Re:I've been reading the forums.. the alliance"sta by Zibblsnrt · · Score: 1

    The euthenasia of this massive organization will breathe new life into the game, but it may also drive a large number of these people who were screwed out of the game, making a huge dent in the userbase.

    I got the impression that quite a few people were either signing up or returning because, well, the euthanasia of that massive organization breathed new life into the game.

    It's like an in-character collapse of Rome in space or something. The sheer amount of disorder and fluidity that this set off provides all sorts of opportunity for players to do a variety of interesting things before the dust settles. I don't play Eve myself - MMOs give me soul cancer - but I tend to look over friends' shoulders a lot who do play this particular game, and the stuff going on in the last few days has gotten me closer to considering signing up than, well, pretty much anything else.

    (Also, "Alliance" does not map to "Guild" in the WoW sense at all. You're underestimating the scope of the organization that got taken down, I think.)

    --
    "All that is necessary for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke
  69. NO CONFUSION by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    !!!JUST SO EVERYONE GETS IT CLEAR!!!

    GoonSwarm did NOT infiltrate Band of Brothers or the Holding Corporation, what happened was Haargoth Agamar, the man who disbanded it, had joined a Alt Account into a goonswarm Corporation, but was kicked as a spy. he then revealed that he was a Director in the Black Nova Corp, and he gave The Mittani(GoonSwarm spy) login details to the forums. he let Haargoth stay, and then he revealed that he had a director alt in Tin Foil, the holding corp.

    Before Haargoth Agamar left Black Nova Corp, he emptied the wallet (about 15 Billion dollars worth of ISK) stole their capital fleet (about 15 fully fitted and rigged Dreadnoughts) and stole several other various items, like POS Fuel and Strontium Clathrates(Dreadnought "Siege" Fuel) before kicking whoever he could from Black Nova Corp, and closing the Alliance. Haargoth and his alt, who he originally intended to join Igneous Auctorita, are now in GoonFleet.

    with Band of Brothers disbanded, the Sovreignty they once held is gone, and they have reformed under the flag of "KenZoku" which from what im told means "Sword Family" or "Brotherhood of the Sword". KenZoku has recalled all friendly forces in the Greater BOB Community, or GBC, to defend their space, which has been invaded by everyone in EVE, from Morsus Mihi, Razor Alliance, Legion of xXDEATHXx, Red Alliance, GoonSwarm, Pandemic Legion, and everyone who wanted space and has enough money to lay down a POS.

    the forces defending bob are doing a rather stoic job in my opinion (im neutral in this, so dont accuse me of being biased) and the Forces defending Delve, Querious, and parts of Period Basis are: Executive Outcomes, KenZoku, Southern Cross Alliance, Axiom Empire, x13, G00DFELLA's, Skunk-Works, Beach Boys, and other small alliances.

    chat logs can be found here
    http://myeve.eve-online.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=991219

    -TerranRaida (i forgot my password and cant retrieve it right now..)