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I must buy Eve Online (long)
TormentTom
Member Posts: 37
From PC Gamer
Murder Incorporated
A legendary tale: Contract killers devastate a mega-corporation in EVE Online.
At 5 a.m. on April 18, 2005, the CEO of the Ubiqua Seraph corporation (EVE's equivalent of a guild) emerged through a stargate in the Haras system, accompanied by her most trusted lieutenant. She wouldn't leave alive. CEO Mariel didn't know it, but the contract on her life had been signed more than a year ago. Over the past 12 months, agents of the Guiding Hand Social Club (specialty: assassination) had infiltrated every level of Mirial's powerful organization.
The proud CEO was piloting her prize ship, a Battleship-class Navy Apocalypse, worth billions. Her colleague - Arenis Xemdal - flew an Imperial Apocalypse, an unimaginably valuable craft of which only two (in the game) are known to exist. On arriving, CEO Mirial encountered a known Guiding Hand operative named Uuve Savisaalo. And, for the first time, she noticed her colleague Xemdal was acting strangely.
By 6 a.m., it was over. Every Ubiqua Seraph (UQS) office in the galaxy was raided, the contents of every hangar - including the corporate coffers - ransacked. Mirial's ship was destroyed, her escape pod nuked, and her vacuum-frozen corpse scooped into the cargo bay of a Guiding Hand Social Club vessel. This was the only proof its client had requested.
The ambush and galaxy-wide heist inflicted financial damage upward of 30 billion ISK ($16,500 USD), the value of the stolen assets utterly dwarfing the original fee for the job.
"When we signed the contract, we requested 1 billion ISK
," says Guiding Hand CEO Istvaan Shogaatsu, "which was a large sum at the time. We could not have foreseen the gains upon execution.. We found ourselves staring at Fort Knox with the key in our hands."
Back to 5 a.m., April 18, 2005. Months of careful planning were about to bear fruit. Guiding Hand had placed operatives in every level of UGS' corporate organization. Several agents sat on the board of directors, and primary agent Arenis Xemdal says GHSC "rose to a rank sufficient to challenge the CEO's decisions."
"Multiple vector infiltration is a GHSC trademark," says Shogaatsu. "One spy is rarely enough."
It took extraordinary effort, meticulous planning, and one moment of beautifully orchestrated treachery. Xemdal had convinced Mirial - referred to as "the objective" by Guiding Hand ops - to fly her spectacularly valuable Navy Apocalypse alongside his even more valuable Imperial Apocalypse "as show of UQS might."
"The early-morning strike against Mirial's battleship was fraught with concern," Shogaatsu recalls. "One tense moment occured when a pilot belonging to an unaffiliated third party hostile to UQS entered the system where our operatives had set the trap for Mirial. Another problem occured soon after, when GHSC operative Uuve Savisaalo (tasked with assisting in the kill on Mirial) was spotted arriving in-system by an Ubiqua Seraph pilot. These events spooked the objective, who made a short jump before being set upon by Uuve and - in a moment of "Et tu, Brute?" betrayal - Arenis Xemdal's Imperial Apocalypse."
The ambush itself was an unprecedented clash of the titanics. A Navy Apocalypse - despite being one of the most powerful and valuable ships in the galaxy - is vulnerable to swarm attacks by squads of cheaper battleships. But Xemdal executed the assassination with an even more valuable ship, taking an enormous risk. It was an absurd act of bravado, typical of the Guiding Hand's penchant for wild excess, and added to its reputation for theatrical overkill.
The most difficult part, Shogaatsu notes, was to "pod" Mirial. Podding is the spiteful, some say dishonorable, act of destroying a victim's escape pod when you've already destroyed their ship. The pod is no threat, and if it's destroyed, the victim has to revert to an earlier clone identity - usually losing skills that take days to learn, and in this case losing a highly valuable set of cybernetic implants. For this reason, some players - and the GHSC allege that Mirial is one - log out on ship-death in an attempt to avoid their fate. But podding is the only way to acquire the target's corpse, as Xemdal was contractually obliged to do.
As the very moment of attack, the go-word was issued: "Nicole." At this synchronized signal, every double-agent who had infiltrated Ubiqua Seraph loaded the contents of their assigned corp hangar (a communal storage area for trusted corporation members) into their own cargo holds and fled. The assets were replaced by a note in each hangar, marking the theft as the handiwork of the Guiding Hand Social Club.
The hangar notes weren't the final insult. That afternoon, Shogaatsu posted a bragging press release on the Inter-Galactic Summit, a section of the official EVE forums where posters stay in-character and content is monitored by CONCORD, the in-game police.
"Greetings, everyone. The reason I stand here before you is to announce that my mercenary outfit, the Guiding Hand Social Club, has completed its most ambitious contract to date.
Our target was assigned to us many months ago - Mirial of Ubiqua Seraph. Our task was to carry out that which the GHSC has now become known for - to utterly demolish Mirial and bring all who followed her to their knees in one fell swoop. For those many months, we toiled, secreting our operatives among her ranks, steering her organization through a number of insidiously engineered events meant to engender trust and divert their attention from where it should have been.
Early this morning, our hard work bore fruit. Executing a meticulously planned, thoroughly flawless concerto of simultaneous corp-hangar heists, attacks in open space, and facility invasions, the Ubiqua Seraph came to know the wrath of the GHSC first-hand. The result shatters any previous records for sheer scale of such an endeavor:
Our net gain from this massive heist is roughly estimated at over 20 billion ISK.
Hostile assets destroyed:
- One Amaar Navy Apocalypse
- One capsule, belonging to Mirial, known to possess a head full of +4s
- One dream
Total damages inflicted are estimated at close to 30 billion ISK.
Further information pending - stay tuned."
Naturally, the forum thread exploded with reactions. This plot was one of the single most devastatingly hostile acts in EVE history, and is believed to be the largest single in-game theft ever perpetrated. It was an act of such staggering audacity and duplicity that it calls into question the very distinction between gaming and reality. It was "wrong" in the game world, but was it also wrong in the real one? Opinion remains divided between the impressed, the disgusted, and the impressed-but-disgusted. But several posters hinted that Mirial herself has engaged in scams similar to those perpetrated against her -- a few even expressed satisfaction at what they see as deserved revenge.
For the Guiding Hand's part, it has heard similar stories but isn't concerned about their veracity. As Shogaatsu says: "Allegedly, she is herself a corp thief and escrow scammer. This is a large part of why we were hired, although I have not personally verified it - it is simply not my business to."
The Ubiqua Seraph infiltration was an act of despicable brilliance. An operation as cruel as it is astonishing, it serves as a simultaneous testament to both the virtues and the evils of a truly open-ended massive multiplayer game. Players crying for EVE developer CCP to step in and redress the balance miss the point - this is exactly the kind of extraordinary player politics that you can't find anywhere else. Many of the GHSC's operations have caused players to leave the game for good, but there will be many more people who get an irrepressible urge to play EVE Online when they hear all about the fantastic and terrible things it lets you do.
In short:
2 Guilds
CEO of Guiding Hand Social Club (Shogaatsu) is given and accepts a contract to kill CEO of Ubiqua Seraph (Mirial). For an entire YEAR, GHSC infiltrates UQS as new recruits, raising to the top of the corporation. In one case, a single GHSC operative makes it to the top and has enough authority to challenge the leaders of UQS. This player (Arenis), convinces Mirial during the ending hours of the contract kill to fly her incredibly hard to come by ship with his incredibly hard to come by ship to express "UQS might across the galaxy". The trap set, they meet at the designated point and launch an ambush, destroying Mirial's ship and killing her character (in a sort of perma-death way). At the same time, GHSC operatives based at every UQS hangar across the galaxy steal an enormous amount of in game money from the UQS (20 billion ISK). UQS is utterly demolished by the the act of treachery and brilliant planning. There is over 30 billion ISK's in damage and losses from the heist (equalling about $16,500 USD in damage).
*******************************************
Now.........this is what an MMORPG is about. Not screwing people over of course, but having the freedom to do so. I have heard so many great things about Eve Online's freedom and look forward to purchasing it. To me this freedom is the future of MMO's. I feel sorry for that girl 
She got massively screwed.
Comments
Yeah right, agents "infiltrating" Ubiqua Seraph.
It wasn't any sort of "infiltration."
He joined the corp, he spent months being IN the corp, being ON teamspeak, laughing at their jokes, hunting with them, making friends, he got promoted to Director, receiving access to the hangars, then he went hunting with her and killed her, and robbed the corp blind.
ZZZ
umm, that IS infiltrating...
a sleeper agent, spy, whatever.
Ah....but it wasn't just him. It was him and many others of the Corp who took the Client. Fullscale infiltration of a targets corporation. Messed up....but intriguing.
GHSC pulled the biggest corp theft in history of Eve up to date.
May I suggest the "classic" reading about Eve, The Great Scam by Nightfreeze. Don't know if it's true or not but here is the link http://static.circa1984.com/the-big-scam.html. It's long but worth reading it.
You don't view the "freedom to screw someone over" as the main thing that MMORPGs are about unless you plan on screwing over people.
This case, even if it demonstrated (albeit in a negative manner) the free playstyles possible in EVE, still angered me. Why? Because trust is what any higher level of organization in EVE is about. You can't have an organization 300 people strong without some trust invested. The CEO needs to trust his Directors, and the "unwashed masses" need to trust the CEO and/or the Directors, not to sell out the crop. Actions like this theft described undermine that trust needed. Additionally there are no ingame mechanics to search after thiefs. If such a person whishes, he can be completely anonymous, or give the cash to an other character and sell/delete the character that did the original theft. In this case this was not the case since GHSC let it known who they are, but it happens all too often. That is the problem I had with this theft. While some see the "work" GHSC did for this action, I have only disrespect for them.
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Originally posted by Mandolin
Designers need to move away from the old D&D level-based model which was never designed for player vs player combat in the first place.
I can agree that this freedom is a part of makes EVE a very interesting game. But it also demonstrates a problem with ALT chars in this game. How do you do a background check on an ALT, it looks like a new char when it's not.
The problem with this, and why you get upset is because there are no ramification or danger to the action. And I can believe that this hurt the real person very hard and that's why it's imoral.
If you're going to let 2 isolated examples of corp theft keep you away from the game, then you have bigger things to worry about, like flying, or driving. What if it just so happens that today is the day your plane explodes mid-air or you get run over by a big rig? My point is, it's not like it's a widespread issue, people are just making mountains out of an anthill.
Make a difference!
I played EVE for a couple months, but the hypocrisy of some of the players was staggering. Pirates complaining when people wouldnt pay ransoms. The pirates would then say that those who refused to pay were ruining the game, as if players are obligated to pay the extortionists.
So its wrong for "carebears" to earn money thru PVE but its okay for lazy griefers to steal it thru PVP? Most MMOG players dont like beggers (Ill usually do a /laugh at a beggar) . So its wrong to ask other players for money but its ok to steal it? 
Lastly, the raiding of guild banks is not unique. Happens in MMOGs all the time. EVE simply sanctions it.
True. However, you will find that each side of the fence will usually have an equal number of complainers. It is my opinion that if all sides complain in equal proportions, you have achieved balance. You can't make everyone happy.
On the note of infiltration not being unique to EVE, when this has occurred in other MMOs, how many times was the heist role-played (as much as it could be)? How many times did the major players not use alts but their main characters? I think for those very reasons was the event tolerated by the EVE community. In other MMOs I would expect that alts were used, and afterwards, the money/items laundered and characters deleted.
Mirial deserved what was coming to her.
There was a reason GHSC was hired and that reason came from Mirial's own long history of scams and misdeeds.
She was thrown out of my alliance (the CVA) a long time before this incident for fraudulent behaviour - which included selling Omen (cruisers) renamed as Armageddons (battleships) to fool the unwary and newbs.
This was only one small example of her general untrustworthyness and 'evilness'. I felt sorry that many innocent people in her corporation also got hurt by this theft through their misguided loyalty to Mirial - but overall I thought the whole incident demonstrated one gigantic example of karma.
Amarr Victor
Thats because you are thinking of it as a personal offense to you.
Your character is not you, everybody is an ACTOR and eve is the stage.
Miners eat ore, pirates eat miners, hunters eat pirates, its a FOOD CHAIN.
If you think piracy is so easy then go do it, go live in lowsec and not be able to come out, cant leave to buy ship or ammo, always at risk of being attacked by vigilantes, alliances, other pirates and miners with teeth, you will constantly be broke and hunted, people will instadock when they see you enter the system, the only people who will not instadock are those who can kick your butt, you will spend hours and days trying to find a victim, and when you finally find that lazy miner watching TV and not even paying attention, you will try to ransom him.
His ship will cost 15 mil with fittings you will ransom him for 5m and he will say "no screw you I will eat the loss."
So instead of paying you 5m for being a high-class pirate and not blowing him up, which he would make up with 45 minutes of mining half afk, he chooses to lose 15m, his pod, his implants, and he gets to spend the next 3 hours shopping for a ship, fittings etc and flying somewhere else to mine.
Then he sends you e-mail that he is going to hunt you down in Real Life and murder your whole family with an axe.
That's what we call the "piracy" profession.
I think you should take a walk in a pirate's shoes sometime and see what a hard life it is first before you denigrate it.
If there was no danger, the game would be so boring, you would just mine risk free in 0.0, mine all the bistot you want, to build ships that nobody will need to buy because the ships wouldn't get destroyed anymore.
Pirates and PVP create the ship loss that drives mineral sale. Miners need pirate as much as pirates need miners.
Pirates keep carebears from getting too rich. End of story. If you want easy isk, you need to take some big risks.
I havent played EVE before but i have played a few other mmo's. After reading that very enlightning story I must say this.
I HAVE GOT TO GET THIS GAME!!!!!
None of the other games that i have played have given me the freedom to do anything close to that.
How should i say it...
WHERE DO I SIGN!
And to the people who do not like PVP or believe that PVP has no place in a game, go play a single player game and leave the mmo industry alone, 90% of all interaction taking place online is PVP in some form or another, wether its directly attacking the person or simply selling something a little cheaper so you get profit and they dont.
PVP-Player VS Player
If you play any game that has more than one non NPC character you will at some point in time face that player. If he is selling what you are selling and his is cheaper he has taken the market from you, be happy it wasnt your life, from the sound of things it can be costly to rebuild a dead char so i would say be happy that he didnt kill you, I however (provided i knew what i was doing) would have killed you no questions asked just for being in my space. But thats me.
lol i still got this issue of pc gamer and what an amazing story , i love this article .
next eve party hogs head pub leciester square london 8th april around 18.00 cya there .
PHANTOMMENACE
Then he sends you e-mail that he is going to hunt you down in Real Life and murder your whole family with an axe.
I love to get fan mail
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience"
CS Lewis