EVE Online can get pretty intense. From battles that cost $US300,000 ($396,368) in damages to histories so complex that a book was written about them, the long running MMO can get very serious. Now, a personal disagreement has led to a hefty bounty.
In a Reddit post, user holder2k has offered $US75,000 ($99,092) for the eviction of Hard Knocks Inc. from their home star system lovingly called Rage. The money will be paid through Paypal and will be split between the number of participants in the operation if it is successful.
Which is a big “if”. Hard Knocks owns a devastating Keepstar citadel, a huge space station with a massive laser weapon that can turn entire fleets into scrap. Keepstars are valued at around $US15,000 ($19,818). Destroying Hard Knocks’ holdings would do a lot of damage to their chequebooks, but it seems like a flat out suicide mission given their defences.
A comprehensive post at PC Gamer helps to outline the situation further. It notes that holder2k’s efforts appear to violate the game’s terms of service wherein players agree not to market services or goods directly for cash.
The source of the conflict seems to arise from a series of chat logs between a member of Hard Knocks named “NoobMan” and another player “HeWhoShallNotBe Named”. The latter was banned from the Hard Knocks public channel and gave NoobMan his contact information so they could sort the matter out, later alleging that his phone number was distributed to other Hard Knocks members who then called to harass him.
“That number was a work number for a large global bank where I’m International Legal Council,” HeWhoShallNotBe Named claimed. “The bank has now turned it over to the federal authorities to investigate.”
Regardless of the veracity of this statement, the visible spat between players and threat of possible legal action has already led to much grief. Hard Knocks struck back against against HeWhoShallNotBe Named’s corporation, swiftly evicting them from their star systems in retaliation for the bounty. All of this is complicated by the fact that no one knows for certain if holder2k and HeWhoShallNotBe Named are the same person.
Basically, it’s a giant and expensive clusterfuck at this point. Or as they call it in EVE: “Tuesday.”
Comments
8 responses to “Enraged EVE Online Player Offers $99,000 Bounty On Enemy Corporation”
These stories always make EVE sound way more exciting than it is
I love reading EVE stories. The people that play EVE are a special psychopathic breed that’s for sure.
Yeah, same, I love reading the stories. It’s just the game play thats the issue haha, tried getting into it a couple times over the years, it’s incredibly dull
Yep. Eve is a game I tried and quit 3 times due to boredom.
My last attempt I quit when I realized I was logging in to sit there and read a book whilst waiting for things to happen.
“You sold me to slave traders!”
http://images2.fanpop.com/image/polls/379000/379328_1266277383059_full.jpg?v=1266277414
Now this is interesting, because up until this point, I was of the impression that the valuation on the various conflicts in EVE is calculated based on the comparison between the ingame credit/game time and game-time/money (subscription) rate, and that the monetary value is entirely abstract…
This is the only instance I recall where a real sum of money is been involved.
Am I correct in this or am I missing something?
This is a great question. I would also like to know this.
Almost every number posted above [as in every article about eve] is referring to the value in $ should you have purchased that much in-game currency. [Something which is a one-way transaction, btw, you cant get money back out]. So, that’s always cool as a form of click-bait, I suppose.
This one actually seems to be the exception, though. The $ value given for the bounty [USD 75K] is actually in real $. Whether the guy actually has that or not is yet to be seen. But it is certainly an interesting situation.
Jimmies have been rustled.