How the Grinch Stole Christmas EVE

Heh heh. I just started a 14 day trial of EVE yesterday.

It's pretty. I was sort of having fun learning the game despite the clunky controls.

I have to say, if some of the pro-EVE comments here are indicative what I can expect in the game then it's definitely not for me.

I don't spend my time with jerks in the real world. Why should I spend my time and money to do it in a virtual one?

It's a role playing game..The role he chose is one of a scam artist.. If you believe this has any impact on the real world you're probably the type that believes D&D is the devil's tool!!!


It's a game and those that play EVE realize it's just a game.

just had a chance to read over all the comments. It's obvious that EVE is a magnet for players with some serious personality flaws.

The best opponent is a human opponent, and if they happen to be a bad person in RL like this asshole is, it makes the game even better. This is what makes EVE great but also is its downfall.

For those that defend him and say, "It's just a game," or "they were stupid to invest with him" I feel sad for you. You can loose your ISK, or your ship, but integrity is the only thing that no one can take...you can only give it away. I feel sad for people like Timalee because they will never know what it is to feel honor or to be part of something bigger than themselves.

I enjoy myself in EVE but the game has a long way to go. As some of the posters said, it's almost impossible to even fleet up in game unless you have known your shipmates for a month or so.

One griefer also has the ability to hold down a corporations of 100s because of the game mechanics that allows station games.

I love Brian's idea about banning players from section of space. I would like to see the council have the ability to banish players to 0.0 space, issue fines or to be able to remove skill points with a majority vote.

I wonder if there's a matching demographic between the average EvE player and people who buy lottery tickets and actually think they'll hit big.

I play Eve and this doesn't even bother me. It's just another amusing function of the game. I don't get all the whining and crap. This is all with in the rules of the game. If people are stupid enough give money away in real life to some Nigerian prince who will send them x amount back they will do the same in a game. People love to relate this to modern time but it far closer to the old west or even the age of pirates and the new world. The rules are simple, basic, and enforced strictly. If it's outside of the rules laid down it up to the players to strike back and seek vengeance. The only problem really is the entire meta game of closing the account and move the money to an unknown new or in this likely case older account.
CCP should implement a stock exchange with a npc run SEC corp that can track down the path money takes to players when it turns into a scam for a fee. Kinda like locator agents.
Since right now there is no risk to scammers like this since they can meta game it all to a new account with no risk for all the reward. Of course you ahve to add in the ability to launder the money but ti would have to be time consuming yet worth it.

The wardec that we have issues with are the small 5-20 man corporations. I've learned how to put them on friends list but the issue remains that one guy can hold down a large part of the corporation by just staying online and hanging out in a station.

The way the tactic goes is that they will be in some sort of tank like ship that can take a lot of damage. You say 100 can quickly burn through them. Well, those that are good at this tactic will stay in the station until the corporation gets bored of just sitting there outside the station. Once the number of ships gets to a point he can handle him, he will pop out, take out the weak, then wait for the timer to expire, then pop back in the station.

I understand you tactics to counter this. My argument is that it really sucks as far as PvP. If your idea of fun is sitting outside a station for 3-10 hours, working some sort of blockade - then that is all great and dandy. I think it sucks. It's boring and crappy gameplay. Realistic to some extent but if they want realism, they wouldn't let the enemy player do that to your home starstation.

What really sucks is that it is such an easy fix. I enjoy the harsh aspect of PvP, what I do not like are things like station games that hinders game play.

I think giving the council some power would do a few things. One, it would increase participation and voter turnout. Two, you want sandbox...I can't think of a better way to do that. Real power by the council would have EVE highlighted in MASSIVE daily with all the political drama. Three, power in EVE should not only be determined by fleet size alone. Political power would add a great element to the game.

No democracy is perfect. The key to success would be a check on the council's power. Off hand, not sure how to do that but I'm sure something creative is possible.

While guys like Drew like to forum bait (which he successfully did with me) - the real question goes back to the scammer. I think it's a real problem in EVE. There is a large group of players who think it should be a part of gameplay. I still am not sure what to think of it. A part of me thinks that it really does have a negative impact on a majority of players. If scamming should be a part of the EVE universe, there should be some sort of penaltys or real risk that the player should run into. I disagree strongly that with the "Buyer beware" attitude many players take. That attitude doesn't work in the stock market, and it doesn't work in game. You have to have some sort of framework of laws for the market to work properly.

Was this player even banned?

These scams are partly what got me interested in EVE in the first place.

Eve is easily the best MMO I have ever played. Steep learning curve, but that's part of the charm, as it builds communities and encourages greater interaction and co-operation between players.

Ultimately, this is a big-ass sandbox that you can play any way you want. Be a businessman, be an industrialist, be a pirate! Whatever you want, it's here for you.

And don't feel too bad for those dudes that got rooked by Curzon. You can always recover in Eve. They would not have dropped 6 billion ISK on this guy in the first place if that wasn't true.

Hands-down the best game on the market, and getting better every year...

@MpDivo: "If scamming should be a part of the EVE universe, there should be some sort of penaltys or real risk that the player should run into. I disagree strongly that with the "Buyer beware" attitude many players take. That attitude doesn't work in the stock market, and it doesn't work in game. You have to have some sort of framework of laws for the market to work properly."

"Was this player even banned? "

No EULA violation, no ban.

The "cost" to Curzon is that the public will ever trust him again in business. He cashed in his notoriety and fame and turned it into a very large pile of ISK.

Of course, that's not really a punishment to this particular player, since he was leaving the game for real (so he says). But if he'd wanted to stay and do this again, he would have to create a fresh character and built up all that social currency again, without anyone publicly connecting his old char back to his previous incarnation.

Given the importance of social networking in EVE, I'd think maintaining the necessary secrecy that would itself need a fair bit of care along with the effort of grinding up the real business dealings necessary to go back to Market Discussions with enough credibility for a fresh heist. There is a "cost" but it is of social equity.

IPO Fraud is essentially a game of wits on the EVE MD subforum. At least three different groups of people seem to compete for attention, credibility and ISK. Players with genuine business deals and the ability to make a good return. Other players with genuine deals, but who lack necessary business skills and will lose all the ISK unintentionally. And the players presenting a good deal but intending to run away with the ISK.

Telling the difference between the three seems to be the key to making money from MD investments. Everyone engaging in it should be aware of risks - the forum is awash with healthy scepticism alongside the wishful thinking. "They may be lying to me" should be just one of the things a player takes into account when investing ISK.

@SgtBaker: I played EvE for a couple months, fairly hardcore, and for most of that time was in a corp that went out pvping in a large group pretty much every night. Everyone was really helpful and eager to get new players into the game. The officers went out of their way to show the noobs a lot of cool stuff we wouldn't usually get to see. We camped gates, looked for fights in .0, and won an empire war against some losers who decced us. Nevertheless, after a couple months I was thoroughly sick of the game.

To pvp you need a lot of isk, even if you are only using cruisers and bcs with mostly best named t1 mods. The grind to earn isk in eve is incredibly boring and soul-crushing. I spent most of my time ratting in .0, and even with the excitement of occasional pvp it was probably the most boring thing I've done in an MMO. Give me the WoW quest grinds any day.

Corp-sponsored isk making activities were even more boring -- WH runs took forever for a return that was not much better than ratting. I mostly steered clear of mining ops, but those were also terrible. There is just no way to make isk that is any fun, unless you've been playing for years and have enough skills/high level mods to win consistently at pvp. Well, I guess making isk might be fun if you scam it like Dax did.

At first I was really taken with the idea of players creating the story, exploring player-owned spaces, pvping and having fun with the corp. But the game is just too empty and devoid of interesting content. Gang fights were often fun, but there was always a ton of waiting around before you could find a good fight.

In the end I burned out hard and unsubbed. I couldn't stand to waste another night staring at the terrible Eve interface, searching for a good fight, or warping to belt after belt as I chained them. I turned to the glut of single-player games released right around the holidays, which were amazingly less repetitive and more rewarding. Until I quit Eve, I never realized how bored I'd really been.

I've talked to this guy a while back in local, good guy. Brilliant scam. I love how so many people trusted him.

Also good parody songs he's made. Can't be bothered linking them myself, think the article did though.