by Cody Bye on Feb 20, 2009
In last week's In the
Trenches, Ten Ton Hammer's Cody "Micajah" Bye took a long,
hard look at the interesting developments that were occurring in the
online gaming marketplace.In particular,
style="font-style: italic;">EVE Online displace
a major player run event, where a corporation actually forcefully
disbanded another alliance. With so much at stake in
style="font-style: italic;"> EVE Online, we
wanted to get to the bottom of the event, and I think we've
accomplished this feat in this week's article, which features the
commentary from the famous
EVE Online corporation, GoonSwarm.
Ten Ton Hammer: Was
everything that occurred perfectly legitimate in the game world?
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The Mittani: Yep,
though there have been hilarious rationalizations from the former BoB
camp. Accusations of hacking, suggestions that Haargoth wasn't actually
himself because he didn't have a microphone in the teamspeak recording
I linked above, etc. It was impossible for the loyalists to believe
that any of the flaws in their organization would result in someone
defecting.
The whole hilarious nonsense was put to rest many days ago by this
petition response from CCP:
Ten Ton Hammer: Can BoB
recover from this sort of attack? Will the alliance reform itself under
another name? Can BoB regain the power and prestige it once held?
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The Mittani: They're
calling themselves KenZoku now and they're getting curbstomped thus
far. BoB's apex was the ASCN war; since that time their reputation and
power has declined to becoming the butt of a thousand jokes. To
summarize briefly, since that time they suffered the loss of half their
space in the first Great War, combined with the t20 corruption scandal,
the failure of the 'MAX DAMAGE' campaign, and a recruitment policy
which resulted in mass hirings of subpar yet sycophantic players.
Disbanding their alliance was an act of mercy.
Ten Ton Hammer: How did
the BoB vs. Goon conflict arise in the first place? The hatred for both
organizations seems pretty intense on both sides. Why is their so much
ferocity in a universe that's only part of a game?
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The Mittani:
In June of 2006 a BoB member found a forum signature of one of our
members, Tetsujin, which they misconstrued as mocking a dead player who
was somewhat well known in the early days of EVE. This sparked an
'invasion' of Syndicate, where GS lived; the invasion lasted two and a
half weeks before BoB declared extremely loud victory and left. Since
you cannot 'conquer' NPC space, and 2.5 weeks is an extremely short
war, the whole thing was a dizzying display of sanctimony, hypocrisy,
and hubris.
GS remained in Syndicate for another 3 months and then commenced
allying with Red Alliance and Tau Ceti Fedaration, forming the Red
Swarm Federation in the process. We commenced exterminating the BoB
allies in the Southern Coalition and have been working our way from the
northeast of the galaxy down towards the southwest, annihilating their
renters and quislings on the way.
Up until the BoB invasion, we were fairly innocent in the ways of EVE.
We wanted to be a 'respected 0.0 alliance' and maybe hold a region. 2.5
weeks of idiocy later, we became the 'cancer of EVE', an alliance of
'monsters and sociopaths'. As Sir Molle said when he announced the July
2006 invasion of Syndicate, 'There are no goons. This is as personal as
it will ever get'; we are pleased to see that, like all his
proclamations (or one of his titans), this one has blown up in his face
spectacularly.
Ten Ton Hammer: In my
article "In the Trenches: How Socialization in EVE Online Killed BoB",
I make the argument that the charisma of the GoonSwarm is really what
ended up putting the axe to BoB. Do you think this is true? Why or why
not?
The Mittani: I
think that any 'silver bullet' analysis of what results in an
interaction between tens of thousands of players is inherently flawed
(no offense, mind you, because I liked the article). One of the core
concepts of the failure cascade (the term we use to describe what sends
an alliance splintering into breakup and failure) is that a whole
interplay of factors cause groups to shatter: military failures, a lack
of a shared culture, a shift or a removal of identity, or social
humiliation.
In this case, Haargoth was ready to defect even before he was
'recruited'. He offered his director access to us out of the blue, as
the chatlogs in Tamir Lenk's eve-online thread which I linked above
show. It wasn't that Tamir seduced Haargoth, or that I seduced Haargoth
(which is what your article suggests, ultimate power in the hands of
one charismatic goon); Haargoth was fed up with the cultural failings
and intellectual hypocrisies of BoB and did what is called, in
espionage lingo, a 'walk in'. Hey man, I'm a BoB director, f**k those
guys, let me help you.
While I dispute the 'one man, one theory' analysis in your account, I
do think that what has occurred could be called a 'cultural victory', a
la Civilization, as well as an espionage victory. Haargoth defected
because the BoB culture in the leadership was toxic, and in GS we had
the insight to not merely steal a bunch of stuff or offline a system,
but to disband the whole alliance - an act which had, heretofore, never
been conceived of and followed through on. It's a chain of luck and
circumstance; he had the access, GS happens to have the most ruthless
and experienced spy group in the game.
Ten Ton Hammer: Do you
think BoB made a mistake in allowing their directors so much access to
important alliance tools? Should alliances and corps be run be single
individuals? Or should there always be a separation of power?
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The Mittani: They
made a mistake in having a toxic culture and no core identity besides
being 'the best'. They also made a mistake in not auditing their roles
adequately. Other alliances have directors devoted entirely to roles
audits and security. Haargoth has been inactive for some months, and
had no legitimate reason to have the roles int he executor corp (Tin
Foil) that he had, but for a failing of oversight and due diligence on
BoB's part.
Every alliance has full directors; these roles are rare and precious.
If you hand them out willy-nilly and don't keep track of them, bad
things happen.
I personally don't have a stake in the game design argument, despite
conceiving of the disbanding. I suspect the outcry will result in the
mechanics being changed; my focus is really only on ruining our enemies
in as unpleasant a fashion as possible so they will not try to impact
the security or integrity of the Swarm.
Ten Ton Hammer: Does this
event affect the way you look at EVE Online? Are you hesitant to risk
so much effort in an online game from this point forward?
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The Mittani:
Hesitant? This is the single biggest espionage coup in MMO history, and
we pulled it off. Mostly I'm being smug - or I would be smug, but for
the fact that we're invading Delve and wrecking the remains of BoB on a
daily basis, and that has required a lot of focus from the whole of the
Swarm and our allies. Yesterday, we killed a titan, at least one
confirmed baby titan in a CSAA, a mothership, 10 or so carriers, and a
bunch of towers.
It was possibly the largest single amount of damage done to an alliance
in one day in the history of eve - between 200b and 500b isk of damage,
depending on how you quantify the contents of the 3 CSAAs we destroyed.
In the aftermath of the disbanding, our collective level of effort put
forth has increased to levels previous unimaginable. We've abruptly
abandoned something like 7 regions of territory, evacuated our assets,
simultaneously invaded Delve and commenced to live there... it's chaos.
I love it.
Ten Ton Hammer:
Competition always drives individuals to extremes. Do you think the
competition in EVE Online has created a better play atmosphere for the
game, or is everyone to busy looking over their shoulders to enjoy the
players around them?
The Mittani:
Different games for different people. You don't have to be competitive
in EVE - that's what Empire is for, after all. 0.0 is extremely
competitive and it's not for everyone. I like it, because it makes the
PvP meaningful. You don't get interviewed by multiple media outlets
when you win a raid in World of Warcraft, or when you whack someone in
Counterstrike. The player-driven nature of EVE, and the ruthlessness it
fosters, makes it fascinating.
Ten Ton Hammer: How
important is socializing with other players in EVE Online? Does true
power in EVE come from being trusted by the widest variety of people?
Or is that just a secondary portion to the true power of having the
biggest, baddest ships?
The Mittani: This
question is flawed. There's no such thing as 'true power'. People have
power for a variety of reasons and power is often purely situational.
Power can stem from having a reputation of power; we've often fought
'amazing elite pvp' alliances which turned out to have reputations
based entirely on rumor and a good forum presence. Power can stem from
raw intellect, being about to outsmart the other guy and predict his
moves. Power can stem from espionage, having more intelligence than
your opponent and using that to neutralize his advantages. Power can
come from lots of expensive ships. Power can come from having gobs of
isk. Power can come from having a better logistics operation. Power
could come from being friendly and well trusted, I suppose.
For me personally, power comes from espionage, intellect, and outright
ruthlessness. But then, as a 'spy guy', what else would my choices be?
Goonswarm had to make do with nothing in our early days - no isk, no
skillpoints, no capital fleet, no 0.0 space, no allies. We survived
because of our common culture, we neutralized our enemies' vast
military advantages through espionage, and also by being quite possibly
the meanest people in the game to our enemies. We treat our friends
very well, but our capacity for cruelty is something that is highly
developed and well known. When pressed to make a terrible nerd analogy,
I often end up comparing Goonswarm to the Reavers in Firefly, except we
make more dick jokes.
Ten Ton Hammer: My "In
the Trenches" column is all about competition and beating the crap out
of your opponent. If there was one strategy in EVE Online that you
would point out to players for them to be successful, what would it be?
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The Mittani: I'd
point to one of the paths to power suggested in the previous question.
Success is judged in a sandbox game by the individual; are you a spy, a
merchant, a warrior, etc?
The one universal piece of advice I can give, regardless of one's
goals, is to learn every aspect of the game mechanics and ascend the
learning curve. EVE is the most complicated game that I have ever
encountered, and the vast majority of players know only a tiny portion
of the rules. They get a narrow understanding of one aspect of the game
- ratting, mining, production, 0.0 combat, lowsec combat, etc, and then
they stay in that rut. Play around on the test server, learn how to
parse fact from fiction, and learn how every aspect of the game works.
Two other axioms: Trust no one; Be meaner than the other guy.
Ten Ton Hammer: Do you
think the remnants of BoB will go after GoonSwarm looking for revenge?
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The Mittani: They'd
have to muster a significant fleet, stop losing supercapitals, and pry
us out of Delve. It's entirely possible that we'll lose big in Delve in
the end; spectacular failure is always a possibility. But at this point
the 'remnants of BoB' consist of the failed pets we slaughtered in the
first Great War (Lotka Volterra, RISE, EXE, CoRM, etc) who were
mass-recruited into the 'elite PVP' alliance formerly known as BoB. If
they were a force to be reckoned with, you'd think they'd have audited
their director roles.
Ten Ton Hammer: Is there
anything else you'd like to tell Ten Ton Hammer readers and EVE Online
fans?
The Mittani:
Goonswarm is a Christian organization and we take the accusations of
griefing that we have been confronted with over the last week very
seriously. We will be praying for BoB and Sir Molle in particular, and
will be holding a bake sale after church on Sunday to help him raise
funds for his fifth Titan.