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EVE Player Loses $1,200 Worth of Game Time In-Game
An anonymous reader writes "Massively.com has reported that an EVE Online player recently lost over $1,200 worth of in-game items during a pirate attack. The player in question was carrying 74 PLEX in their ship's cargo hold — in-game 'Pilot's License Extensions' that award 30 days of EVE Online time when used on your account. When the ship was blown up by another player, all 74 PLEX were destroyed in the resulting blast, costing $1,200 worth of damage, or over 6 years of EVE subscription time, however you prefer to count it. Ow."
...and nothing of value was lost.
i could live a little longer in this prison
This wasn't a hack. This was a legitimate in game activity (essentially just an in-game PvP attack) which caused the destruction of cargo worth real world money.
"People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
6 years of someones life has just been gained?
Ever play arcade games? Remember how you got free games if you did well enough? This is that, but you can trade your quarters in-game just like you trade any other game item.
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
You can buy PLEX (Pilots license extension) in game. This means that elite players that have spent the time developing the skills to make a lot of in game money no longer have to pay to play the game. It's a good system I think, rewards the hardcore fans.
Anyways, if you buy it in game - it would have to have been sold at a station, and the system is set up that you can't take PLEX outside of a station (or at least thats how it was about 3 months ago).
So - this guy would have actually had to have bought the time codes from an online retailer, activated them while in his ship while in space - and not in the safety of a station where he could have used them. It's likely he wanted to check the best prices in verse for plex and then sell them for massive in game profit - however he activated them before reaching that destination (74 plex codes CAN take a while to enter).
It's all foolishness in my eyes - I don't have any qualms with people who want to pay for in game money - be it ISK or WoW Gold or whatever. Eve at least balances it so that if you WANT to buy in game money, the PLEX is a solid and secure way of doing it, and its pretty steady based on the market of the game, and the real world value of Plex is always constant, whatever CCP says it is ($40 for 2 plexes or whatever?).
However, this idiot basically circumvented every provision designed to stop this from happening. Had he been docked at a station this would have been impossible.
Interesting... it almost sounds like a 'gift card' type situation, in which case there are some fairly decent consumer protection laws depending on the state (ie, in CA they are transferable and never expire). It would be an interesting lawsuit if the player tried to claim they were equivalent and that by allowing them to be permanently "destroyed" the company was cancelling/expiring the certificates (though I doubt any lawyer would take it unless it was common enough that they were able to establish a class action).
This must be what developers mean when they say pirates ruin gaming.
They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it's not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance. - Terry Pratchett
Anyways, if you buy it in game - it would have to have been sold at a station, and the system is set up that you can't take PLEX outside of a station (or at least thats how it was about 3 months ago).
A recent patch a few weeks ago opened up the ability for PLEX to be transported by ship. CCP thought that would be a good idea to allow players more control of their items and I would have to agree with them. It's helpful for those who live deep out in 0.0 and would rather buy PLEX from a corp-mate than have to travel back into the Empire systems.
It wasn't a "pirate attack", it was a sanctioned war in a trade hub where hundreds of players are on at any time and it's difficult to spot war targets in local.
Also the PLEX cards survived, but to stop scavengers that are all over the trade hubs the wreck was immediately destroyed.
Quite the red-letter day.
"Most people, I think, don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?"
This is one of the more condescending and snotty memes out there, like "FTFY" it exists only to mock. Basically it is saying "I militantly don't care about this, and neither should you." Value is a funny thing, by definition it means whatever you want it to mean. There is no 'value' outside of the human mind. In your own mind, you are the absolute master of value, you can place whatever valuation you like on anything you like. So, when you say "Nothing of value was lost" All you are saying is that nothing you value was lost. Which is likely just as true of, oh say, those floods in Pakistan, nothing you value was lost.
But obviously, these PLEX were valuable to quite a few people, not to mention a gaming company.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Seriously, he is an idiot for taking them out of station. EVE only a few weeks ago made the change to allow players to physically move the PLEX between stations, because previously they were treated as a special item, where-in you could only convert a ETC (Extended Time Card), into PLEX (extended pilot license or something like that) in permanent station (i.e. not player controlled, or destroyable by players or other actions), and you could not leave the station if you had the PLEX in your cargo hold. But, EVE really didn't want to have to have all that extra checks to inforce these things, and let everyone know they were taking away the checks against moving of PLEX between stations, but it was at the players own risk.
No one even needs to move the PLEX, you can use them from ANYWHERE (i.e. you do not have to be in the same station as the item, or even in the same region of space, to convert the PLEX into play time on your account). The person moving them was an idiot for doing so. The only reason to move them is so that they are closer to you so you can more easily sell them in the game for in-game money (which is also the main reason to convert them from an ETC to PLEX in the first place).
We were all warned a long time ago that MS products sucked, remember the Magic 8 Ball said, "Outlook not so good"
Yeah, or I could say that WoW is for dull idiots who love to simply click a button endlessly til a virtual candy pops out, while EVE is for those that prefer having a simulation of real-world economies, with all the risks and opportunities it entails, in a virtual world.
In short, don't be so fucking biased with your descriptions, if you couldn't get into EVE it doesn't mean it's just for "griefers" and people who "derive their pleasure from causing pain to others".
Disclaimer: I don't play either of them and prefer Guild Wars instead, its just I've enough common sense not to offend people just because they don't play my favorite game.
No problem is insoluble in all conceivable circumstances.
I find it fun because there is "real" risk. If I fight that guy, and he kills me, I just lost my ship. I have to get a new one, I don't just respawn with on consequences. I got sick of arenas and battlegrounds in WoW where nothing I did mattered in any way to anyone else but myself and there was no real risk. In EVE I can affect the world around me, even if only in small ways. That's a lot more fun than a game where nothing you do has any consequence.
Not a sentence!
This is not a game for pussies.
This is not a game for you to play so don't try to change it so it is.
People keep writing this. Let me get this straight. EVE is not a game for pussies. So it's a game for toughguys? Given the choice between categorizing players of a sci-fi MMO as toughguys or pussies, I'm forced to go with pussies. You're playing an MMO for crying out loud, you're not engaging in street fighting.
I think the term you EVE toughguys are looking for is "casual player" not "pussy". But whatever makes you feel tough about playing a SCI-FI MMO. From what I hear, EVE is for pussies and UO or Lineage are for toughguys. You see what I did there?
1. He could have contracted the item to be couriered and put a collateral of isk that was worth more than what the item was worth. If the courier loses it he loses nothing.
2. He couriered something while he was at war with another corporation.
3. He did not set up an instant warp bookmark for exiting the station.
4. He did not put a cloak on this ship.
5. He was in Jita. The biggest trade hub in the game. He did not have to pick up plex there.
6. There is no six (Monty Python and Eve University reference).
open source sub sim. I might start coding again for this. http://dangerdeep.sourceforge.net/contribute/
We like a challenge. When I take my favorite ship into combat there's a substantial risk of losing it. Higher risks make the rewards of victory that much sweeter.
Yawn. If you really thought there was a 'substantial risk of losing it' you wouldn't take it out, unless you already had a backup that was nearly as good, if not better, or enough isks lying around that you could afford to lose it.
Higher risks make the rewards of victory that much sweeter.
Indeed. I'm no stranger to risk, I've played EVE, I played Diablo2 online "Hardcore" (permadeath) with level 85+ characters in Hell (and not just safe hillz runs) and I lost them time and again, along with piles of difficult/impossible to replace sets, uniques, and rares.
I played Everquest on Rallos Zek - with open PVP and the ability to loot opponents. I played Asheron's call on DarkTide with open PVP and opponent looting. I'm certainly no 'pussy' when it comes to risk.
In all of these games, when there is conflict, its almost always extremely one-sided. Few combats are between remotely balanced forces. And most of the time group-A knows it can't lose, while group-B knows it can't win and just wants to escape... and if its stuck around to fight its because it CAN'T escape. Nearly all combat in EVE falls into this category.
The trouble with EVE is that despite this potential adrenalin shot... EVE is still 99% tediously and drearily dull spreadsheet reading with a terrible UI and a lousying colour scheme and font. Interesting combat is rare.
Real competition is hard to find... if you want to go get blown up, that's easy, just wander off alone. But if you want to have a good fight? Good luck finding it in eve... anybody worth fighting will run if you outmatch them, or your group will flee from a group that outmatches you. Close-fights? Sure they happen... but its rare.
All the EVE advcotes will boast about how they aren't pussies, and how they love risk and a challenge. But they only love risk and challenge when they are heavily favored to win. What do they do when a stronger force shows up? They run away. God forbid they actually fight something that might beat them. Of course, this is the 'intelligent' thing to do in EVE, so you can't fault them.
IF anything it just shows how stupid eve is. Its called a greifer paradise because that's what the mechanics have dictated it must be. The game rewards preying on the weak, and brutally punishes standing up for yourself when outmatched. And a fair fight? Best to avoid those as much as possible too, as the risk of losing is great.
Get involved in 4 or 5 fair fights and there is an overwhelming chance you'll lose at least once. And you only need to lose once to wipe out any profit you might have made from the other 4.
Eve is a tediously slow game, punctuated by the occasional one-sided combat. Now and again you'll come away victorious from a difficult fight... or perhaps just escape a fight you shouldn't have, and this 'victory' will sustain you through the next patch of tedium.
I normally love games with risk and consequence. I still think eve is a waste of time.
He's absolutely right, though. I've played WoW before and I've played many other games. I play Starcraft 2 (and have throughout the Beta). No other game has ever gotten my heart racing like Eve. No other game has ever gotten my adrenaline and fight-or-flight instincts so pumped up like Eve. In Eve, I jump from one system to another, I could be killed on sight. Maybe there's nothing there. Maybe some absolutely irresistable target will be just sitting there waiting for me. Maybe that irresistable target will be a trap. Will the fleet I'm in fly to this player-owned station and destroy it? Or will there be a fleet three times our size sitting there waiting for us when we get there? Will our trap work to kill off enemy targets? Or will they flood ships in where we only have seconds to try and escape? Will I play my part correctly? Or will my mishap kill off a dozen friends?
When actual, serious loss is involved (as opposed to simply re-appearing elsewhere fully or mostly intact), and you actually care about what you could be losing, it's easy to find a physiological rush coming over you in dangerous situations. That risk, that uncertainty, causing adrenaline jolts to surge through you makes it more worth the subscription cost than anything else.
I can get excited about a new game like Starcraft 2. I can be happy about playing it. But I'll never never have the rushes and highs of Eve while playing a game with a 'reset' button.
-- "Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."