EVE Online at Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMOG Gamers to the Next Level!

It was 4/4/09, the prophesied day of reckoning for Goonswarm. After weeks of stalemate, the counteroffensive led by Against All Authorities (-A-) to restore KenZoku (RKZ) to the status of a spaceholding alliance was finally bearing fruit; sovereignty of the 49-U6U system flipped from Swarm control to KenZoku. After months of strained silence during the fall of RKZ's home regions, Delve and Querious, SirMolle, leader of KenZoku (nee Band of Brothers Reloaded, nee Band of Brothers), went to the EVE forums launch a salvo in an oft-scorned yet strategically vital area of alliance combat: the propaganda war.

"Silence!" he demanded, and proceeded to berate his enemies . "2 months has passed. 2 months since apparant (sic) flaws in a gamemechanic no one knew existed got abused, and we lost our name, all our sov, and the mad rush for Delve began... No sov levels, no POS-spam, no strontmanaging, no blobs can stop us. We are after your blood. We *will* kill you." Stirring stuff for the intended audience, his own troops; with the membership of KenZoku steadily declining since losing all their territory, this new thread and the chestbeating within it could rally his pilots and pave the way for future conquest. Whenever a forum offensive is launched, it is usually announced to the membership of the alliance, who are then inspired to join the bandwagon and drum up support.

But then, something went wrong. Less than three hours after SirMolle posted his thread, a spy in RKZ helped set up a 'hotdrop' on the KenZoku capital fleet as it was engaging a tower in the 9CG system. Nearly one hundred capital ships cynojumped on top of the KenZoku dreadnoughts and proceeded to exterminate them, destroying 47 and forcing SirMolle himself (who was leading the RKZ group at the time) to order his remaining pilots to log out of the game and hope that their ships were not destroyed in time - a serious no-no, in e-honor circles. The loss easily amounted to more than two dead Titans in isk value alone, and the military impact was dramatic, but the propaganda backlash was even more catastrophic. What had once been a showcase for their recent success became a 15+ page public relations disaster, instantly linked around the game as an example of out of control hubris, spawning parody threads and flatlining KenZoku morale. A thread which had once been a flag to rally around had become an icon of humiliation, within a matter of hours Kenzoku pilots went from morale-boosting chestbeating to complete silence - never a good sign in a propaganda war.