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EVE players abuse faction warfare to produce trillions of ISK
If there's one constant in the EVE Online universe, it's that the players can never be underestimated and every care must be taken to make sure systems can't be abused in unintended ways. In 2009, a handful of players figured out how to artificially boost the number of valuable faction warfare loyalty points rewarded for completing missions and farmed enough ISK to build a titan. That record was completely blown out of the water today as five EVE players revealed how they'd generated five trillion ISK using game mechanics introduced in the Inferno expansion. Inferno added a new reward system for faction warfare that gave players loyalty points for enemy ship kills based on the value of the destroyed ship and cargo. A bug was found that rewarded players for both the destroyed and surviving cargo, even though surviving cargo could be recovered. GoonWaffe pilot Aryth and four friends began destroying their own freighters full of minerals to cash the minerals out into loyalty points, which were then used to buy items for sale. When CCP discovered this bug and fixed it, the group manipulated the market price of one of the game's least-purchased items up to a huge number. When the price index for the value of that item updated, the players began destroying haulers full of them to generate billions of loyalty points for almost nothing. The points were cashed out into items for sale on the market, producing a total profit of over five trillion ISK. The abuse has not yet been declared an exploit, but CCP has fixed the issue and is still investigating it. At current market prices, five trillion ISK is enough to buy around 10,000 30-day game time codes worth a total of $175,000 US.
EVE Evolved: Hulk hunting in highsec
As it's a sandbox game, a big part of what makes EVE Online special is the interesting things players make and do within the game world that developers didn't anticipate. It's ultimately the players who collectively shape the game world, in extreme cases even overturning some of the developed game mechanics. Most players think of high-security space as a safe place to mine and run missions, with CONCORD police keeping a watchful eye on players and destroying any ship that breaks the law. But in EVE you're never truly safe anywhere but inside a station. With the right ship setup, it's possible to kill a target in the few seconds before the police ships arrive to turn you into a smoking wreck. In 2008, GoonSwarm alliance launched its infamous JihadSwarm campaign aiming to suicide gank every mining barge in high-security space. The imaginary safety bubble that miners had lived in for years burst, and highsec mining temporarily became one of the game's most dangerous professions. When Helicity Boson later kicked off the first Hulkageddon event, pirates competed to see who could destroy the most mining barges, and miners in high-security space were prime targets. Hulkageddon went on to become a regular event, with achievements to be won and billions of ISK in sponsored prizes. Recently, Hulkageddon V took an interesting turn when Goonswarm Federation pledged to keep the event running permanently by paying players 100 million ISK for every 10 tech 2 mining barges they kill. In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at Hulkageddon from both sides of the fence, with tips on how to suicide gank mining barges and how to stay safe when mining.
The Soapbox: Why we grief - a therapy session
Disclaimer: The Soapbox column is entirely the opinion of this week's writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Massively as a whole. If you're afraid of opinions other than your own, you might want to skip this column. Welcome to the Massively Psychiatric Center for Gamers, Griefers, and Greater Internet F-wads (link NSFW). I'm Dr. Reahard, and while I'm most definitely an armchair psychologist, psychiatrist, and MMOlogist, pay no attention to any of that. I'm more than qualified to help you determine whether or not you're a bleep (sorry, a griefer). So please, have a seat, make yourself comfortable, and let's talk about you. Tell me about yourself. Do you relish that feeling of power you get when messing with another human being? Is there a certain sense of being alive, a rush if you will, that only comes around when you bleep with another person? Does said bleeping happen exclusively in video games where your actions carry no perceivable repercussions? Are you secretly frustrated with a banal and disturbingly meaningless white-collar existence? Does releasing your inner bleep in a (theoretically) anonymous online environment scratch the itches made manifest by a minivan, 2.3 kids, and the otherwise inescapable confines of suburbia?
One Shots: We can't stop here
While we normally hear about Goons in EVE Online, the group has an enormous presence that spans many, many different games. And when it comes to doing crazy things purely for their own enjoyment, that's absolutely in the Squad's nature. Today, we have a great visual treat from Final Fantasy XIV due to two intrepid Goon Squad adventurers -- Drinkfist and Goth -- who decided to set out on a long, strange trip. Since their note is lengthy, I'll simply say if you'd like to take part in One Shots, send in your screenshot, name, and story to us here at oneshots@massively.com. With that said, on with the letter: "This is the end result of our three hour hike through the amazing scenic MMO, Final Fantasy XIV. We set out from the island city Limsa Lominsa and landed in a desert that spanned quite some distance. After dropping off the kids at Ul'dah in the desert, we headed north for Gridania, only to have to navigate the labyrinth that is the Black Shroud to reach the city. After changing our Nikes, we set out for a more dangerous zone to the west called Mor Dhona, which looked like a god smote the zone due to all the destruction and insane-looking mobs. Discovering that Evil Eyes are in fact evil, we fled north to Coerthas. Rather than being relieved to see such a cool looking mountain range, my friend had to open his mouth and ask about the tower labeled on the map 15 malms (clicks) to the north. We raced each other to it, setting death checkpoints at Aetheral Gates and camps -- even the deer of the zone didn't appreciate our presence. (They hit for 4000 when we only have a max hp of 800.) Finally, we reached the spot on the map and bore witness to a locked city that could only be called one of the coolest castles I have seen in a game. That image is what you see here. Now all that's left is exploring the actual zones we just walked straight though. (:sigh:) Lots of area to cover." %Gallery-85937%
Goon Squad downs Tirion Fordring
Perennial pariahs Goon Squad, Horde-side on Mal'Ganis-US, have really carved out a niche for themselves in the World of Warcraft. Well, two niches. The first is a rock-solid reputation of being the foremost trolls and griefers in the MMO market, period -- a reputation perpetuated by a community that operates mostly on word-of-mouth and lovingly crafted by the guild itself. The second is providing some of the best and most hilarious WoW videos on the internet. This one is no exception -- they managed to score a victory for the Lich King by defeating the dread paladin Fordring. It's a rare ability, possessed by Goon Squad and a few other community figures, to be able to take the building blocks of the game experience provided by Blizzard -- strictly compartmentalized and defined by sets of incontrovertible rules -- and then cobble together something wholly new and, frankly, ridiculous out of them. You're not supposed to be able to bring together two often-'shipped faction leaders for an impromptu date. You're not supposed to be able to blow the Wintergrasp fortress wall to smithereens in a minute's time. You're certainly not supposed to be able to kill the head of the Argent Crusade who, by the way, should learn to cast Consecrate.
Massively explores Age of Conan's guild cities
The construction of guild cities has been one of Age of Conan's main features since release. One such city on the Fury PvP server is Goonrushalem, home to the Thulsa Goons guild. Nestled in the foothills of Stygia's Purple Lotus Swamp, the city of Goonrushalem was once one of the largest player-built cities on the server. Originally intended to be built up into a functional battlekeep for siege warfare, other guilds have since taken the lead and beaten Thulsa Goons to that goal.Join me as I take a visual tour of the great Goon complex, and discuss the uses of the various buildings it contains.%Gallery-29270%
Age of Conan's guilds encouraged not to PvP in groups?
PVP-enabled servers are dangerous places in massively mutliplayer games. The possibility of being ganked is ever-present, including in newly-released the Age of Conan. According to a post to the Goonheim boards, Funcom has no problem with the ganking. That's fine, and an anticipated part of gameplay. The Goon post instead offers the apparent view that Funcom isn't happy with guild members attacking other players in a group.Goonheim is, of course, the Conan wing of the infamous Something Awful forums. Best known for their exploits in EVE Online as the Goon Squad, the group has a certain reputation. With that in mind, this transcript should be taken with a grain of salt. Still, it raises a few interesting questions about Funcom's attitude towards PvP play; isn't grouping up part of the point of an MMO? We'll be sure to pass on further information if official word comes down from the folks at Funcom.Update: Vipper points out a response from the developers on this issue; this essentially boils down to an individual GM giving out his opinion on a persistent griefing problem.
The Goons are building an Age of Conan city
In a show of devotion to either Age of Conan or Something Awful (we are unsure which), the SA Goons and their guild, the Hordes of Goonheim, have begun construction on the first user city on a PvP server. It's also possibly the first user city in the game. In a post on NeoGAF, a Goon going by Justin relates how they got the city started and the celebration-by-trampling over their accomplishment. Hats off to those devoted Goons willing to sacrifice their time, money, and most importantly, social life to build an Age of Conan city.One can only wonder, though, that what would happen if the Goons dedicated more time to philanthropic causes than building cities and running EVE Online alliances. The Katrina fund was just one example of the power of good that goons can do when prompted (even though it was shut down by PayPal). What if they spent more time volunteering than playing Age of Conan?[Via JoBildo]
GoonSwarm takes on the Beatles with the "Little Bees" video
Ahh, the Goons. As an entity, they are arguably the largest gaming collective in MMO history, with presences in Second Life, World of Warcraft, and EVE Online, with doubtless many other MMOs inhabited. EVE, in particular, is home to the GoonSwarm, or GoonFleet, which is infamous for its combat tactic of harassing larger ships with a rush of smaller, less-powerful vehicles. Cheap? Maybe. Effective? Definitely.In a testament to the power of its alliance, they've created a music video that's sure to stir the hearts of Goon-loving forces everywhere. Entitled 'Little Bees', based on the Beatles song 'Let It Be', and featuring lyrics like 'And when the system's laggy/You could lay the blame on CCP', it's got our vote for Best New Artist Video of the Year. [Thanks, Hortinstein!]
Wired chronicles pan-MMO griefing by Goons
As a general principle, it's not our focus here at Massively to highlight the exploits the griefers. We don't want to encourage bad behavior for one thing, but also most of the time the griefing that goes on is just so... pedestrian. That's why we're willing to make an exception for this cultural piece in Wired which turns the spotlight on the curious gaming sub-culture of Something Awful. Known collectively as Goons, members of Something Awful have developed smaller sub-communities of players in nearly every modern MMO, and while they have managed to get along peacefully in certain cases, in some games they gain a reputation for being, well... goons.The Wired article focuses specifically on their shenanigans in EVE Online and Second Life. Anybody whose played EVE Online in the past two years has no doubt become familiar with their style of play, as the aptly named Goonswarm Alliance makes up the most populous faction in the game, and they use their numbers to great effect in waging war. To give you an idea of their shtick, last year they launched a massive assault on and destroyed a massive Titan-class ship worth the real-world equivalent of $10,000 for no other reason than because it would demoralized their enemies, with the hope that they'd quit the game all together. Similarly, the exploits of another group of Goons in Second Life was so prolific, so persistent, and so offensive, that one SL mogul is quoted as calling them "terrorists."The article is a bit incomplete for my taste, as it doesn't include other Goon foibles like their prolific Star Wars: Galaxies presence nor does it really expound on the real consequences of the Goons' actions in Second Life, but the descriptions and characterizations the author does manage to bring together for EVE and SL are so bizzare, they're worth reading for a laugh, if nothing else.
