Oh, it's not even that. Folks like TheMittani sees things like this as a part of the meta game, and you had best take full advantage of it. It's also part of the reason he is the easiest source to reach by any member of the press looking for an EVE player to explain major events such as BR-. What better way to subtly spread propaganda than to make yourself the go to person for all information regarding the goings on of the game.

@turambar: Man, I forgot how much real life politics pretty much plays into the metagame.

o7

This was amazing. Thanks for sharing.

Every time I read one of these, I'm tempted to jump into EVE.

It's events like this that make me really want to get into this game. I just can't ever seem to understand it well enough to feel comfortable with it.

@earlessshrimp: I tried to get into Eve some years ago and bounced off but thanks to Kite Corp. and BRAVE I'm sinking right in now - tons of people ready to help & explain. Tons of in-game classes always getting hosted for new people to learn the finer points, plenty of players willing to help out with ISK and equipment. This game blows wide open when you get involved in a team. It's not for everyone but I'd definitely recommend people give it another taste.

@gaggle64: I'll have to try it, any places you'd recommend to brush up and get up to speed a bit before going in-game? I'm assuming EVE is still on sale for a new subscription

@earlessshrimp: I don't know if there's a sale but they've got their usual 2-week trial. Jump in, do enough of the tutorial to get acquainted and join either Kite Corp via the sticky thread here or Brave Newbies in-game as soon as you can. BRAVE is a fun, newbie friendly alliance that doesn't take things too seriously and we've got newbies up the whazoo right now. You'll be learning alongside tons of others and there'll plenty of people answering questions and guiding you through.

You're not expected to understand everything or even a majority of it any time soon. I've been playing for weeks now and I'm barely scratching the surface. If you want some reading there's tons of wikis, how-to guides and videos everywhere (literally type "how to eve" into youtube and see what you get) you can peruse for a flavour first.

If after 2 weeks Eve still isn't for you you can walk away without any judgment. Honestly the game isn't designed to suck people in like WoW, it wouldn't be able to support it. But if it gets you it won't let go.

I really like eve in concept, but every time I go back, I end up spending my weeks mining because i get shy and don't want to bother anyone for help and mining high sec belts is easy and simple. Might just jump in for another month and see what happens

@earlessshrimp: Check out videos and such is the best way before playing. Most of us have buddy links like so:

https://secure.eveonline.com/trial/?invc=0251b039-b9b4-4eab-a5cb-27d8d3b1ea4d&action=buddy

Which provide a 21 day extended trial, and if you sign up(any way except with a PLEX) teh buddy gets a PLEX as a reward. And most of us, like myself, sill plit the PLEX ISK with you if you sign up.

@slyspider: Join KiteCo and BRAVE, take the plunge into the deep end of NullSec. Then you can mine rocks with 50+ members of a standing fleet while hostile roams occasionally try to gank you in BUZ-DB!

@mikelemmer: Am I to believe there's a social aspect to this?! *deep wheezing* I don't know if I'm ready for that.

Dude that is awesome.

Boy do I love reading this stuff. Congrats to HERO and thanks for sharing these awesome stories!

@earlessshrimp: Deep social aspect. WoW ain't got nothing on this. We got our corporation KiteCo, which has 5-10 active members on most of the day. We're part of the BRAVE alliance, which has 10k+ members total, although most of those are probably casuals & abandoned accounts; average active count seems to be about 500-700 people during primetime. In addition, BRAVE is part of the HERO coalition, which includes the TEST, SOUND, NAGA, Bloodline, and Samurai alliances, which aren't as big as BRAVE is but still decent-sized (about 20-50 active members each). And the HERO coalition has a huge roster of people in leadership positions: Fleet Commanders, Military Directors, Spymasters, Diplomats, Trainers, IT personnel, industry magnates, outpost managers, newbro representatives, etc. I have at least 20 people on my contact list solely for BRAVE leadership.

In addition to that, BRAVE has relationships & diplomatic ties to nearly every other coalition in the game: the Goonswarm/CFC, the Northern Coalition, various renters underneath the Northern Coalition, the Russian alliances, Pandemic Legion, Black Legion, the Phoebe Freeport Republic, etc. Our own brawls with Pandemic Legion are one of the smaller wars raging across EVE; currently the Northern Coalition is invading CFC's space, the Russians are trying to take over the Wicked Creek region of space after we kicked them out of Catch this spring, a new coalition from LowSec took advantage of the patch's changes to capitals to grab its own little piece of NullSec, etc etc. A large part of what happens to us is determined by these other wars; if the Russians lose Wicked Creek, they'd probably try to invade us again, while Pandemic Legion might leave us alone and head towards CFC space if the Northern Coalition starts losing its war against the Goons.

The term MMO often gets tossed about for online games where you only interact with 30 or so guildmates, but EVE Online is the only MMO I've played that truly feels massive.

EVE, DAYZ, Arma3 the stories are so far beyond the mainstream its sick. And probably why those groups that are involved dont give 2 shits about a GOTY award.

@mikelemmer: This is the kind of thing that fascinates me about EVE. I always feel overwhelmed every time I looked at it, I might have to give it another shot. What's to lose!

I never have nor ever will play EVE but I love hearing the stories that come out of it.

@earlessshrimp: The key is realizing nearly everyone is overwhelmed, and everyone has their own theories about what exactly's happening, and if anyone tells you they know what's going to happen in the next week & why, let alone the next few months, they're lying or arrogant. It'll be boring and mundane shit for several days and then bam, you get supers invading your home system. Or an enemy corp defects to your coalition. Or the leader of a friendly alliance's sov-holding corp throws a hissy-fit and their sov drops, causing an extended 6-hour stratop where everyone scrambles to capture the now-unaligned systems. Or you get alerted your coalition tackled a Titan just before you go to sleep.

Gutted I missed this!

Eve is the best and the worst thing ever, I got way involved a few years after it came out and then gave everything I had away when several Dev’s were caught fiddling the economy and nothing was done to them.

@justkamtoo:

the T20 scandal was a long time ago. a lot has changed.

some of those old BoB/IT corps joined other alliances but a lot of the players in them don't play the game anymore (women ruined EVE) and every year a handful of CCP devs end up leaving for Riot Games.

Remember how you'd get annoyed if you were ganged up on by 3 guys in a MP game? Imagine getting ganked by 300.

@white: Basically, but then again everyone does that in Eve. "If you get into a fair fight, you screwed up."

@mikelemmer: By screwed up meaning this is going to go on for hours?

@gaspower: Nah, the good fights go on for an hour or two. If you really screw up, you get welped in a half-hour or less.

Wow, that's fantastic!

@mikelemmer: Welp, I jumped back in and worked on some of the training missions. I snagged it while it was still 5 bucks on steam, but I was confused and accidentally set up a free account instead of using my steam account for a day... So I had to restart with my full version account (that had game time on it). I'm back to killing pirates and doing those training missions! Ynniv Humbleskeep is the name!

Join the "giantbombing" chat channel, and someone should be able to help answer any questions you may have.

Live breaking: HERO has engaged PL in latest contest for control of HED-GP, a battle I've just come from (it's now 4:30am for me and I NEED TO STOP). The fleets engaged right outside the gate to SV5 where PL were prepared for HERO's fleet. The early round has gone very much in HERO's favour with electronic warfare frigates suppressing PL's major ships and eliminating their sub-capital ships. PL's fleet have now been herded into a series of warp bubbles where they've been dropping multiple capitals in attempts to rescue the situation. It's now at a stalemate with their capital fleet being surrounded by superior numbers that lack the power to quickly destroy them. This could go on for a while.

Livestream here.

Or without commentary here.

@renahzor: Thanks for the buddy link, im just getting into the game and should be subbing soon

@jayhala: The sooner you sub, the better; EVE tacks on the remainder of your trial time onto your subscription, so you can get up to 20 days of free subscription off it.

Well, I blame this thread for me reactivating. I'll have to figure out how to join Kiteco if I'm not already there (its been close to 2 years or something)

If you're not already in corp, just join the "giantbombing" chat channel, and someone should be able to help you out.

@mikelemmer: Thanks. Yea, i just got some starter pack off amazon for $5. Not sure if that counts as "subscribing" for the buddy plex. Looking to give this a serious try this time.

That doesn't provide a PLEX, but that's ok! Just remember to head over to "giantbombing" once you're and and we'll help out however we can.

That is super awesome, thank you for sharing it, I love hearing crazy EVE stories.

I loved my time with Eve, but back then the GB community for it was just a chatroom of half a dozen people, it's awesome that there's a solid GB group in it now, makes me want to go back!

Glorious. Such an amazing living breathing ecosystem that I never want to be a part of but also never tire of hearing about.

Grats HERO. We talk about you lots in E-Uni.

Miss you too duder. Been a while since I had time to think about playing the game or visiting the websites. :D Seen ya once or twice. Kept the lights on as long as I could. Didn't raid the pantry too much.

I'm moving on with my own EVE meta right now. If you'd like to resume some adventures I'm sure we overlap somewhere. Might even rejoin KiteCo on an appropriate toon like Spacemerica Jones. ;)

I'll say what I think whebever reading these kinds of stories: I should play EVE