I'll be the first one to say it: the Great War is over. What once began as a campaign of conquest has become something none of the original participants could have conceived in their wildest imaginations. Anyone who has had any real exposure to EVE will know who the major players are; the GBC, or Greater BoB (Band of Brothers) coalition and their allies on one side, and RSF or Red Swarm -- most commonly called Goonswarm -- the "Something Awful" forumites on the other.

Now that BoB has beaten back the RSF's invasion, a sense of calm and serenity has come to New Eden. Along with it, there is a renewal of an older form of hostility. Small scale alliance warfare is springing up, which makes this peace tenuous at best.

The bonds made out of necessity during the Great War are now dissolving and a different type of peace is materializing. The peaceful shooting of one's neighbor. The universe is still at war, but the sides have blurred, everyone is involved in a great melee that in EVE is the only true peace. While it's possible, even likely, that most of the major powers that formed The Coalition (RSF) will remain as players in the broader galactic conflict, things will never truly be the same.

To exasperate matters, the North -- to quote a popular post from the official EVE message boards -- is "on fire." Wary players watch the Triumvirate's recent escalation of hostilities, which if the forums are to be believed, are drawing a lot of parallels to the ignition of the BoB/Goon war. Combine that with a growing destabilization due to the anticipated all out Mercenary Coalition / BoB conflict. (Most of the player-base has assumed this will occur since MC overtly back-stabbed BoB in their moment of need.) War once again threatens to engulf EVE, and who will win is anyone's guess.

Everyone vs Everyone Online: The End is Nigh originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 17 Apr 2008 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.