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EVE Evolved: Risk vs. reward in lowsec

Brendan Drain — Sun, 13 May 2012 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Culture, Economy, Game mechanics, Professions, PvP, Opinion, EVE Evolved, Sandbox

In EVE Online's early years, one of its core design philosophies was adherence to a strict risk vs. reward balance scheme. There were riches out there to be found, but to get them, you had to put yourself in the firing line. Police ships patrolled high-security space to keep players safe from piracy, but the only resources available there were low-bounty frigate NPCs and inexpensive ores like Veldspar, Scordite and Omber. In the lawless far-reaches of nullsec, huge NPC bounties and rare ores containing Megacyte and Zydrine tempted hundreds of pilots to head out and make their fortunes.

Nullsec offered absolutely no protection against player attacks, and the only safety to be found was in sheer military force. The biggest and best corporations hoarded these gold mines for themselves, locking down the few entrances into the regions and patrolling the skies for unwanted visitors. Low-security space offered a middle-ground between these two extremes, a place where the everyday pilot could enjoy increased income and pirates were easier to spot. At some time in the past nine years, lowsec lost its place in the game and became simply not worth the effort. But how did that happen, and what can be done to fix it?

In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at why lowsec systems are now ghost towns and suggest an alternative design philosophy that I think could revitalise these under-used areas.

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EVE Evolved: Risk vs. reward in lowsec originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 13 May 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The SOPAbox: Defeating online piracy by destroying the internet

Brendan Drain — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 11:00:00 EST

Filed under: Video, Culture, Events, real-world, MMO industry, News items, Opinion, Legal, The Soapbox, Miscellaneous

Disclaimer: The Soapbox column is entirely the opinion of this week's writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Massively as a whole. If you're afraid of opinions other than your own, you might want to skip this column.

Unless you've been living under a rock, chances are you've heard of SOPA and PIPA. The Stop Online Piracy Act and PROTECT IP Act are two radical pieces of copyright legislation currently being pushed through the US government. Although the stated intent of the new legislation is to provide companies with additional tools with which to combat piracy, the bill's loose wording has raised some serious alarm bells. Opponents to the proposed law say it would give corporations the ability to shut down any almost any website under the guise of protecting copyright infringement.

Gamers will be affected worst of all, as the loose wording of the law makes any website with user-submitted content potentially vulnerable to a shut down order. That could include YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, any blog with a comment section, or even any online game with a chat system. Perhaps the scariest part is that you'll be affected even if you're not in the US, as one of the new law's enforcement mechanisms is to remove a site from the DNS records, a move that assumes the US has jurisdiction over the global Domain Name System. AOL is among many huge companies strongly opposing SOPA, and so naturally Massively opposes it too.

In this week's massive two-page Soapbox, I make the case for why you should be worried about SOPA, and I suggest what can be done to tackle piracy in the games industry. Comments can be left on page two.

Continue reading The SOPAbox: Defeating online piracy by destroying the internet

The SOPAbox: Defeating online piracy by destroying the internet originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 10 Jan 2012 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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FBI raids University of Michigan apartment over possible WoW fraud

Justin Olivetti — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 10:30:00 EST

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Economy, Legal, Miscellaneous

A University of Michigan student apartment became the focus of a recent investigation by the FBI, which conducted a raid on March 30th over "potentially fraudulent sales or purchases of virtual currency that people use to advance in the popular online role-playing game World of Warcraft."

While the FBI did not make any arrests, it did confiscate several items, including computers, video game equipment, and credit cards. The Bureau is checking out whether one or both of the students were involved in a fraudulent scheme to buy or sell virtual gold, and the agency is looking for online transaction records with various online banks and websites.

The two students who share the apartment claim that they do not play WoW and are confident that they are innocent. One of the unnamed students commented: "They thought we were involved in some kind of fraud. I'm pretty sure they have the wrong people, but they took all my stuff."

FBI raids University of Michigan apartment over possible WoW fraud originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 14 Apr 2011 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EVE Evolved: Combat boosters

Brendan Drain — Sun, 03 May 2009 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Culture, Economy, Game mechanics, Professions, PvP, PvE, EVE Evolved

The drug trade has been a part of EVE since the very beginning. Originally, drugs were nothing more than a trading commodity occasionally demanded by agents in low security space. The old drug trade goods still exist in EVE, a non-functional relic of years gone past. A new drug trade has taken its place - the black market for performance-enhancing combat boosters. If you want to push your ship to the absolute limit of its abilities, whether it's for PvE or PvP, you're definitely going to want to get your hands on some combat boosters.

In this article, I take a look at the drug trade in EVE and the different kinds of performance-enhancing combat boosters that are available.

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EVE Evolved: Combat boosters originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 03 May 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Drugs aren't bad in EVE, m'kay?

James Egan — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 17:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Game mechanics, Guides, Crafting

One of the interesting features of EVE Online is that it has a drug trade in which players are actively engaged. Rather than merely being an illegal commodity, drugs -- called boosters -- enhance the performance of EVE's pilots, albeit with some potential side effects.

To understand boosters though, we'll need to look into the game's setting a bit first. The thing to remember is that as a player, you're a capsuleer. You're not standing on the bridge of your ship barking orders at subordinates. Rather, you're floating inside a metallic capsule deep within your ship. Your mind is interfaced with the ship you pilot via neural implants, thus your vessel is an extension of your body and its senses; you regulate the ship's activities merely by thinking about them. Not all people in EVE's setting of New Eden have the raw potential to become a capsuleer, making your character one of the elite. However, when faced with others of your caliber in combat, every possible edge you can gain over rival capsuleers helps. That's where boosters come in... they're your edge. Boosters augment aspects of your mental processes and thus provide certain bonuses when piloting your ship.

Continue reading Drugs aren't bad in EVE, m'kay?

Drugs aren't bad in EVE, m'kay? originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 02 Sep 2008 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NCsoft fights back against software piracy

Shawn Schuster — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 13:00:00 EST

Filed under: Real life, Lineage 2, Legal

NCsoft certainly doesn't mess around when it comes to combating the use of illegal servers and copies of their games. Dating back to 2006, the company has a proven record of fighting those companies and individuals who insist on stealing their intellectual properties. Many of these cases, in cooperation with the FBI, have led to the shut-down of companies such as L2extreme which claimed to run as many as 50,000 fraudulent Lineage II users on their servers.

Currently, NCsoft Europe is taking action against many Eastern European corporations which are deemed to be in breach of international copyright laws. This includes a recent court order against the Greek company e-Global following several raids unveiling illegal software usage on their net cafe servers.

NCsoft fights back against software piracy originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 12 Apr 2008 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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RuneScape dev: buying MMO gold is like funding prostitution

Mike Schramm — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 21:00:00 EST

Filed under: Game mechanics, MMO industry, Making money, PvE, Opinion, RuneScape

And not just because somebody gets screwed. No, RuneScape's Imre Jele tells Eurogamer that gold trading is like prostitution because the worst part of it isn't necessarily the problem itself (most games can deal with gold trading in their economy), but all the other problems that come along with it-- gold farmers, illegal purchases, and so on. Jele says that stolen credit cards are often used to buy gold, and we've all heard of the working conditions and pay of many gold farmers out there.

Jele also says that he's taken steps to stop the gold trading by making unbalanced trades illegal in his game, and has called out other industry players to do the same. But finally, he lands on the real matter at the heart of the problem-- we have to aim at the reason players want to cheat in the first place. If you make games fun, says Jele, players won't need to cheat at all. We're not quite sure exactly how the prostitution metaphor holds up in there, but he has a point.

[Via gamesindustry.biz]

RuneScape dev: buying MMO gold is like funding prostitution originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 06 Feb 2008 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mabinogi hacked by a 16-year-old for $325K of virtual currency

Mike Schramm — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 17:30:00 EST

Filed under: Economy, Events, real-world, Making money, Free-to-play, Mabinogi

A sixteen-year old boy allegedly hacked the website of Nexon Japan, and made off with about $325k worth of game points for Mabinogi, a free-to-play MMO that's inspired by Celtic mythology (and on its way to North America soon). He reportedly was able to obtain the password of a former Nexon employee, and then used that info to log on to the game servers and load himself up with virtual cash.

Some of which apparently then turned into real cash, as he was able to sell it (as least that's what it seems like) for "web money," which he used to buy books and other software. The bottom line here seems to be not that the kid is a genius, but that the company and/or its employee made a dumb mistake, allowing the password to get nabbed by simple hacking software.

No word on what punishment, if any, the kid faces, but Nexon claims they've "re-evaluated" their security software, and created a "24-hour monitoring system." Well that's good -- when they get hacked again, at least they'll be able to monitor it.

Mabinogi hacked by a 16-year-old for $325K of virtual currency originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 29 Jan 2008 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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