EVE Online Politics: A spy just screwed a few thousand players, years of work.

[Kevvers]

Somebody blew up the Death Star.

 

[KeyMaster45]

Has it been considered that maybe his account got hacked in some way. Its a rather far-fetched idea, but it seems unlikly someone would spend years in planning just piss in someone's cheerios on an mmo. And even if he got turned, what did the opposing faction offer him that was so good he would betray people he's been with for years.

 

[Archaeology Hat]

Yay! Go goons!

 

[AnimalAl]

See the map...

http://go-dl1.eve-files.com/media/corp/Verite/influence.png

"I feel a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced..."

 

[RetiarySword]

THAT IS AMAZING! BoB FELL?! I never knew it was possible! Well done! I only wish I was ingame to enjoy it...

 

[Hyoscine]

And that, kids, is why you don't centralize your corporate infrastructure.

Nice one!

People that play; is this a bigger thing than that infiltration/assassination [http://eve.klaki.net/heist/] thing that happened a while back?

 

[Majere613]

If I had to guess, I'd be inclined to think the guy in question was bought with real-world money. Either that, or he got really, really bored of either EVE itself, or just of being top dog. It's certainly hard to imagine that someone who's guilty of betrayal on such a truly epic scale would ever be trusted by anyone with half a brain again- I mean, if you were in GS would you give him a position of responsibility?

Personally I got out of MMOs a while ago because I got tired both of people who were just useless and ruined groups for everyone else, and of so-called 'pros' who took the whole thing way too seriously. This story seems to have enough of both flavours of deviant in it to convince me to stay a very, very long way away from EVE.

(Except of course for watching the next Clear Skies- I know Sol IRL, he namedropped)

 

[NDWolfwood5268]

And that, kids, is why you don't centralize your corporate infrastructure.

Nice one!

People that play; is this a bigger thing than that infiltration/assassination [http://eve.klaki.net/heist/] thing that happened a while back?

Popularity wise, yet to be seen, socially, I'd say yes. That corp that was jacked back then no one really cared about, at least not nearly like BoB. This situation will reshape the political landscape and create a vacuum of power as well as a land grab by all major players. I can see conflicts escalating, economy boosting, mercenaries hired out. This one moment may cause a year or more of fast paced movement economically, politically, and quite possibly socially as more subscribers are urged to join by their friends talking about it lol.

 

[mokes310]

Damn, that's a kick in the shorts. Oh well, all's fair in love and gaming!

 

[Virgil]

Seems very interesting form a social and V.R. studies point of view. But also like really fucking stupid game design, why should one man be able to disband an entire structure like this?

Based on what I'm reading, the reason he was able to is because everyone trusted him enough to have sole responsibility to do something.

Think of it like nobody realizing a CEO has bankrupted the company until all their checks bounce and the taxes haven't been paid. If someone had been keeping an eye on them, or able to, it would have been noticed and fixable before everything went to hell. I've actually been in this situation in a previous job before - it can happen.

 

[Asehujiko]

Wow.

As epic as that sounds, if I really think about it, it's no more than extremely brutal trolling. Still incredibly interesting how an MMO actually has politics however.

No, its a military victory. They have defeated Band of Brothers. Thats like saying that NATO trolled Afghanistan in 2001.

A correct analogy would be that bush, the day before obama took over, ordered the launch of all nuclear weapons that survived the cold war on his own industrial and commercial centers and then went to a pub with bin laden.

 

[tendo82]

Actually there are a lot of real world analogies that we could make to this incident. I'm sure something about Wall Street and ponzi schemes would fit nicely.

Congratulations Eve! You're at least as difficult and unfair as real life.

 

[Zac_Dai]

Although I'll never go back again this is why I loved EVE in the first place, this to me is what a sandbox truly means.

Also I'm enjoying spotting the Carebears in this thread.

 

[Steelfists]

Wow.

As epic as that sounds, if I really think about it, it's no more than extremely brutal trolling. Still incredibly interesting how an MMO actually has politics however.

No, its a military victory. They have defeated Band of Brothers. Thats like saying that NATO trolled Afghanistan in 2001.

A correct analogy would be that bush, the day before obama took over, ordered the launch of all nuclear weapons that survived the cold war on his own industrial and commercial centers and then went to a pub with bin laden.

After pissing in his front garden.

 

[Lunar Shadow]

I haven't seen it yet so I think I am obligated to say it.


THERE'S A SPAH SAPPIN MAH ALLIANCE!

Wiith that outta my system I have to sa this kinda stuff drew me to EVE.

 

[Hyoscine]

People that play; is this a bigger thing than that infiltration/assassination [http://eve.klaki.net/heist/] thing that happened a while back?

Popularity wise, yet to be seen, socially, I'd say yes. That corp that was jacked back then no one really cared about, at least not nearly like BoB. This situation will reshape the political landscape and create a vacuum of power as well as a land grab by all major players. I can see conflicts escalating, economy boosting, mercenaries hired out. This one moment may cause a year or more of fast paced movement economically, politically, and quite possibly socially as more subscribers are urged to join by their friends talking about it lol.

Thanks man, that's a nice summation.

I'll do some quests in WoW, get told I'm awesome, and start to feel drawn into the (occasionally good) story a little, then I'll run past a guy I killed in some epic struggle a while back, and it takes a huge amount of will not to feel completely disconnected from what's going on. I'm not that into Eve, but this approach to narrative, basically just building a framework and letting things happen, has to be the future for MMOs. I really hope that in five years time I'm not still looking for NPCs with exclamation marks over their heads.

 

[Theo Samaritan]

And that, kids, is why you don't centralize your corporate infrastructure.

Nice one!

People that play; is this a bigger thing than that infiltration/assassination [http://eve.klaki.net/heist/] thing that happened a while back?

More people are effected now than were actually playing eve in TOTAL when that GHSC thing happened.

Any company that charges EU more than US for no reason (we pay more than 15 euro - VAT), and favorise UK over other countries (even ones that won't use euro for another 3 years or more) won't get my money.

I'm looking at you too, Valve.

Actually if you do it the official way, UK has to pay in Euros as well. A few of us just decide to do it another way which allows it to be paid in dollars. A way that is open to you if the exchange rate allows it.

 

[Yuriatayde]

I'm kinda surprised at how many people see this story in a positive light. I don't disagree, but when I re-read it, all I can do is assume it was started by a mood-swing. If this was pre-meditated, then I wonder what he walked away with. Otherwise, it's a classic example of internet leader getting fed up with responsibility and going off his angst medication... A situation that happens far too often.

I heard a story of such a mood-swing-induced wreckingball resulting in a lawsuit, he got sued. I really don't think anything of the sort should happen here, though, because this sorta thing happens and people needa learn to get over it. Maybe they could add a failsafe to keep it from happening in the future though. Oddly entertaining story, I have no idea why I'm so fascinated by this.

 

[Eipok Kruden]

Okay, in case some of you guys still aren't quite getting it, I have a map outlining the current Alliance division of power.

Spoiler: EVE Alliance Map

First of all, take notice of that massive list of names along the left side of the map. Three-fourths of the names of that list claim to be part of the Band of Brothers. That's what's left of the Alliance. Small cells of resistance that will probably be destroyed one by one.

Now, looking at the map itself trace your finger from a green chunk of space under the list owned by an Alliance called Suns of Tangra, which is in the middle of the map on the left edge. Draw an imaginary line from that Alliance to an orange one called Curatores Veritatis Alliance down to the right. Now look at the shape of the borders the Alliances below it have in relation to the empty space to it's left. Before this fall last night Band of Brothers owned that entire region of space. Skunk Works and Executive Operations didn't use to be there, they were just the first to take advantage of the situation and immediately conquered what used to be the core of BoB territory.

Is the scale of this starting to sink in now, people?

Here's yesterday's sovereignty map, it makes it easier to do before and after:

Spoiler: Yesterday's Sovereignty Map

 

[Yorgmiester]

Dang, i wanna play Eve now. Just the fact that this kinda thing can happen proves that it is indeed a deep game. Sounds exactly like the kinda game i would love.