Slashdotted...

[kugutsumen]

We were slashdotted yesterday and that's why the forum was irresponsive.

http://games.slashdot.org/games/07/01/31/1822226.shtml

"Eve Online is famous for hosting the world's first virtual IPO, and also for its Byzantine 'meta game', in which players create fake characters and accounts to infiltrate each other's organisations for intelligence, theft or sabotage. More recently the game has seen the rise of Kugutsumen an intel blog whose creator has been accused of using real-world hacks to obtain secret information from other player forums and private messages. Some players are up in arms at the use of such out-of-game tactics. On the other hand, Kugutsumen claims these techniques have uncovered evidence of corruption. Quite aside from the legal ramifications of attacking other people's web forums, should game companies tolerate forms of 'play' that involve out of game illegality? Should they attempt to monitor and punish these kinds of activity using sanctions in-game, where the company writes the rules? This ties right back in to the discussion of Real Money Transfer we've been having over the past week. Where does the line between 'play' and 'cheating' lie?"

Some of the "interesting" or funny comments:

My Eve Corporation's greatest enemy is a player named "Achomemnon".

Currently he's in the trunk of my car.

What? Its all just part of the game people!

Devs will never, ever win against such spies. There's simply no way they can monitor all out-of-game communications.

An MMO is left with three options: promote this sort of activity because it further "involves" players in the game's happenings (this option is probably best for hardcore MMOs); take a neutral stance on the issue; design the game in such a way that out-of-game spying and intel-sharing is ineffective at changing the course of the game. This last option is the most difficult, of course, but it's the only way I can see of combating spies and saboteurs. Examples might include instanced gameplay elements that are impossible to predict or, in the case of a military game, an emphasis on small battles so that spies could never uncover a single masterstroke battle plan and spoil the fun.

One of the reasons that a warfare MMO/FPS/strategy game would be difficult to implement is because there's no way to secure all forms of communication. The game would not be fun if the enemy knew operational details because of a mole in command. This might very well be realistic, but try explaining that to all the players who just got owned upon launching their attack.

In PlanetSide, players would IM commanders in the opposing Empires and give them a heads up before we launched a huge raid. Even so, we would still have an advantage because it takes several minutes - if not an hour - for the other team to trickle to the battle.

I've been a regular EvE player for over a year now, and I've been following these discussions in the EvE-Online forums with some interest.
The character Kugutsumen is the head of an in-game intelligence-gathering organization that has been doing these types of things for some time now, involving multiple corporations and alliances, usually under contract from their enemies, other times for his own personal gain.
His methods (which include bribing, forum infiltration, TS/Vent spying, etc) have been used in the past by some of the largest alliances, specifically the (arguably) most powerful one in game, named Band of Brothers (BoB), yet no one has made as big a deal out of these events in the past as now, because of one major issue: developer involvement to tip the scales in the favor of specific in-game alliances.
To sum it up, Kugutsumen has posted a number of logs obtained from 'private' BoB forums which point to one or more developers being members of BoB, and providing intel regarding future game event locations, war target information, and most of all, giving Tech2 blueprints to corporations in BoB.

This is a big problem, because normally Tech2 blueprints are used to build 'rare/epic'-type weapons/ships/equipment, and can be highly profitable and provide a distinct advantage not only to those that possess them, but also to those who use said items.

These blueprints are handed out in a lottery fashion, where everyone can have a chance at owning one, but in this case, someone from CCP (the company that created EvE), possibly a developer or GM, has apparently given multiple blueprints to BoB, which is a enourmous slap in the face to the rest of the community which is constantly asking for the Tech2 blueprint distribution system to be balanced.

Some of the other logs also seem to point to high-ranking members of BoB giving access to special areas of their space to Ebay currency sellers in exchange for a cut of the profits, character accounts being traded or sold between members, and other things which are strictly forbidden by EvE's EULA.

This is why there is such a large reaction on the forums. BoB is trying very hard to throw off the focus of the discussion to the methods in which this information was obtained, because their very existence as an alliance is being put in jeopardy by the allegations that CCP's development or GM team members have engaged in actions that benefited them. This is not the first time that CCP staff have abused their status; last summer, a 'rookie' GM spawned a rare ship completely fitted with high-end rare items, which was blown up by 'accident' by a BoB-allied corporation member and some of its items looted. The GM was fired for this, but the story was never completely explained to the general community (CCP reserves the right to control how much information is disclosed about investigations such as these).

So there you have it. The most powerful alliance in EvE is accused of cheating with the help of CCP employees, and now the rest of the player-base wants to know what is going on. Only because Kugutsumen and a number of the SomethingAwful Goons made a number of posts in the EvE-Online forums did this become such a huge issue, forcing CCP to address it publicly (http://myeve.eve-online.com/ingameboard.asp?a=top ic&threadID=468189) and now we're hoping that something will be done.

[BLACK BOX]

slashdot sucks

[icorion]

WALL OF TEXT

slashdot sucks

[Alt]

slashdot su...

ah crap it, too late

there isnt nearly enuff dbp, anyway

[Lamebot]

/me strokes neckbeard.

[Treylis]

I can't believe I used to post on Slashdot, ugh.

[icorion]

I can't believe I used to post on Slashdot, ugh.

i can

[Starbucks]

i can

[Alt]

i can

[Gibmundur]

The thing about bob allowing ebay sellers into there space is something ive noticed alot in fountain now, its fucking full of those fuckers. The Xelas alliance has turned into some chinese macro npcing front, all the talk some bob dudes said about when the horde got kicked out partly cause they had alot of macro npcers. Mostly all of them have now returned to Xelas. And new ones also. The corp Dark Nebula Gallente division has the most, but it seems to be spread all out in Xelas.

[foozzee]

The thing about bob allowing ebay sellers into there space is something ive noticed alot in fountain now, its fucking full of those fuckers. The Xelas alliance has turned into some chinese macro npcing front, all the talk some bob dudes said about when the horde got kicked out partly cause they had alot of macro npcers. Mostly all of them have now returned to Xelas. And new ones also. The corp Dark Nebula Gallente division has the most, but it seems to be spread all out in Xelas.

bob themselves seemes to have no problems with doing ebay business themselves.

remember when they were beating on RA about ebaying wich they btw could never prove in anyway.

kettle, pot, buttcrack, whatever.

[Raste]

/. taught me that people are overreacting to the so-called "scandal":

In Eve, which has always been notoriously cut-throat you can even hire assassins in-game to "pod" other players (destroy their ships and "kill" them). So, this sort of thing is hardly anything new.

[foozzee]

/. taught me that people are overreacting to the so-called "scandal":

how can it be overreacting?

you know there is a reason to why employees of the national lotteries are not allowed to participate.

[Nekumi]

how can it be overreacting?

you know there is a reason to why employees of the national lotteries are not allowed to participate.

There has been overreaction. There has been so much mouth breathing retardation over this it's unbelievable and it has come from both sides.

Having said that, without this sort of noise, I really do think this whole thing would have been brushed aside. That's still a possibility but the more disquiet out there the less likely that'll happen.

CCP should be wondering, how many people are actually prepared to leave the game if some of these things do turn out to be true? I'm not talking about the BoB hypocrisy either because chances are that if it has happened in BoB then similar has happened in any other corp/alliance with a CCP employee as a member.

[Raste]

how can it be overreacting?

you know there is a reason to why employees of the national lotteries are not allowed to participate.

because read post:

In Eve, which has always been notoriously cut-throat you can even hire assassins in-game to "pod" other players (destroy their ships and "kill" them). So, this sort of thing is hardly anything new.

You see, in eve you can shoot other players, so dev intervention is nothing new. QED.

[goonygoon]

another one of those bob alt isk selling whatever corps is dark design

they basically perma-camp complexes it's dumb as shit

[Raste]

another one of those bob alt isk selling whatever corps is dark design

they basically perma-camp complexes it's dumb as shit

is that the one in OR?

[Nekumi]

is that the one in OR?

yup

http://myeve.eve-online.com/ingamebo...hreadID=468821

[Starbucks]

CCP has to play the game to make sure that things are working correctly and as a sort of "unofficial" grass roots "how are things" way.

Now, the problem comes when they abuse the "powers" they have to do things in the character they are playing or it's alliances favour, this is where there needs to be repurcussions.

I could easilly setup all friends and myself to have free 40MBit broadband but I do not, same reason why CCP should not do any of the things which they are so-say being accused of.

I guess there is always the "It is just a game" card

[Nekumi]

CCP has to play the game to make sure that things are working correctly and as a sort of "unofficial" grass roots "how are things" way.

Now, the problem comes when they abuse the "powers" they have to do things in the character they are playing or it's alliances favour, this is where there needs to be repurcussions.

I could easilly setup all friends and myself to have free 40MBit broadband but I do not, same reason why CCP should not do any of the things which they are so-say being accused of.

I guess there is always the "It is just a game" card

They have no reason whatsoever of any kind in any way a necessity to occupy high positions in active poliltical corporations for any other reason than to play the game for their own enjoyment. There is no development/work reason that they need to be in such a position, absolutely none.

Being in such a position presents a conflict of interest and as such should either be monitored so closely that it cannot be abused or failing that stopped completely.