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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)."
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.
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
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?
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!
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?
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Put identity in the browser.
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