I was fearful that with his month layoff from EVE Online, The Mittani, off doing other things -- like wining and dining his wife, walking his dog, creating gourmet meals at home, watching playoff hockey -- that he might not find the will to return to New Eden.
I had nothing to fear.
If anything, the dude is more invigorated about the game, or at least stressing the game, than he ever was before. With the CSM shackles off, he's no longer content with the King of Space moniker. Hell, he's going all out, wanting the Emperor of Space robes and crown.
The Mittani does make this game interesting. He does not think small. Cowboy up or get off the horse.
There are only three things worth talking about from the Mittens update:
OTEC
This is fantastic. It's of course a play on OPEC -- the petroleum cartel that controls 79% of the earth's crude oil reserves. In EVE Online's version, OTEC controls New Eden's Technetium supplies (I would imagine in the neighbourhood of 90% of Technetium production.)
This is going to be a difficult task, getting the parties to agree on quotas and the like. It should be easy enough for Mittens to control the CFC pets (those that don't tow the line, will find themselves reset and out the door). But what of those alliances in Tribute and Vale of the Silent? ISK always gets in the way of good sense.
What will Mittens do if those in Tribute and Vale of the Silent decide to break from the pact? The obvious answer would be for the CFC to go to war, subsume those regions. I don't think it's quite that simple. If the CFC ends up controlling 90% of Technetium production, that will definitely pit Goonswarm and friends against all of space. That's an onslaught I don't think Goonswarm can overcome. They'd be BoBing themselves.
Death Squads
This announcement is super hilarious. All that Stalinesque imagery in their recent propaganda posters makes sense now.
Speak out against Goonswarm? Expect to hit the naughty list. And the new head of the Death Squads, Warr Akini, will be checking it twice.
What happens when you're on the naughty list? Theoretically, hunted and podded, until you either slap on the kneepads, or quit the game. Whether the Death Squads will have the manpower to track and hunt so many naysayers is up in the air. But the idea is hilarious.
CCP
Other than attempting to control the game, to some degree, I think the main motivation here is to force CCP's hand as quickly as possible. Basically, The Mittani is asking Hilmar "What do want this game to be in five years? Do you want this game to continue to be hard? Or do you plan to soften it up to attract the run-of-the-mill risk-averse MMO player?"
The screaming and whining that is going to result from these actions? Reverberation enough to snuff out a sun. CCP will be forced to respond, and how they respond is what most interests The Mittani. It is what most interests me.
I disagree with your conclusion. CCP does not have to respond to anything Goonswarm or The Mittani do, as long as it does not violate TOS/EULA topics. And based on the recent Lost In Conversation podcast, it sounds like nothing is exactly what CCP has to say about the CFC and Jita and all the hoopla.
ReplyDeleteGiven CCP's desire to "grow up", no response may be exactly the message they hope to convey. It may be time for the fearless Icelanders to fearlessly ignore the space opera playing out in the terrarium (spacearium?).
I think no matter what CCP does, they are responding to the activities of the game. No response, in affect, is a response. No response would be letting the game continue down it's "sandbox" roots.
DeleteI think all the talk of "tech nerf" or changes in moon gu as a whole is a response to the CFC. If the tech was equally distributed (by controlling group, not necessarily by region) then I don't think there would be a big uproar. Instead, tech is more or less controlled by one identity (the CFC and now this OTEC.) Therefore, it is being addressed because of the massive wealth one group can accumulate while those outside of that group do not have a way (albeit moon gu or some other form) to compete for wealth accumulation on the same scale.
No response would leave the game to it's own course. The concern, with such a large group of players flying under the CFC banner, is how can you keep the game playable and enjoyable for all. Many are against change because it's different. How would those in control of tech feel if the price plummeted from a "reasonable" 100k per to say 15k per? How do you balance what ever changes that may come?
I'm excited to see the route CCP goes. Sandbox is fun, but when only one side of the box has sand, what does the other side get?
So this is a bit old, but thought I'd drop this here:
Deletehttp://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-04-27-ccp-players-attempt-to-destroy-eve-online-economy-is-f-ing-brilliant
http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/04/28/nowhere-is-safe-in-eve-online-as-goonswarm-suicide-bombs-galactic-trade-hub/
CCP did respond. And they support the Goons' right to gank in highsec and ruin Jita for everyone.
Death Squad member checking in...
ReplyDeleteExpect the hijinks to begin shortly!
@Marc Oh, that's right, you left The Tuskers. I see Arydanika dragged you into Goonswarm.
ReplyDeleteI think the bigger story is the highsec players banding together to deal with Goonswarm rather than waiting on CCP to get involved. :)
ReplyDelete@Pinky I'm not talking about Burn Jita. That's a two/three day thing. Short-term. A quick twister, versus a sustained storm.
DeleteI would love to see a stranglehold on tech. As it stands, I feel like I see far too many t2 ships. I would love to see a resurgence of t1 ships out there. I hate how common vagabonds and falcons are. Maybe it will significantly change the PvP meta that currently exists.
ReplyDeleteIn reference to the leak terminology, I'm pretty sure anything that might be somewhat interesting is called a leak to drum up additional drama.
Even Mittens has made it clear via podcast that he strongly doubts CCP has any problems with Goons doing this sort of stuff. I think his motivation for doing it is more a) to just do it b) run a cartel in EVE because he isn't in RL c) the money. It's not as if he or the CFC need a reason even beyond the first to do such a thing, oftentimes the romance of the idea is enough to set the plans in motion. Given these, I think you've overthought why he's making OTEC. To assume that his first thought for doing this was to strike a blow at CCP and force a response is similar to saying that OPEC was formed to force a response from world superpowers, when it's far more likely that it was just formed for the money.
Just as a side thought, it's also a military strategy: by restricting tech, they can keep it all in house, essentially asserting dominance on the cheap. If all t2 relies on tech, and none if it makes it out of the CFC, things will definitely change. Makes you wonder if another null-sec coalition has some vital moon goo that, if they restrict that, will it bring another coalition to its knees a similar if different fashion?
I think you WAY overestimate the power of the Goons and especially the Death Squad. That idea is a total disaster. There are 5K systems out there. Finding someone who don't want to be found is like seeking a needle in haystack. Also, remember that the Goons are mostly fun-loving kids and not disciplined soldiers. Blowing up hulks? Yes. Spending hours scanning systems for death list players, doing it days over days, weeks over weeks with 1-2 hits/week? They will get bored of it in before weekend. And the death list members will win simply by being alive. They can stand out and say "look the goons are so fail that they couldn't catch me"!
ReplyDeleteummmm locator agents are a thing. Finding people (especially high profile people) is very simple.
Deletelol at Gevlon as usual >.<
Delete@gevlon LOL ... you have no understanding of the organization ... "fun loving kids" and "disciplined soldiers" are not mutually exclusive. Every single goon loves laughing their ass off at DRBR antics but they do shoot the primary.
DeleteDid you already pay the 500 Million fee to join the goons?
ReplyDeleteDeath Squad my arse. Can they hunt and kill whole eve player base if people start posting anonymously? :) :P
ReplyDeleteThis guy really has a strange dictator/fascist dream going on. But I am pretty confident "Burn Jita" will turn out to be quite a disaster for them. Fuck Goons.
ReplyDeleteYou and Mittens said the OTEC issue is all about ISK. There are more ways to manipulate prices than supply and demand. He doesn't have to convince anyone to meet a production cap...only to jointly raise prices. Remember, this isn't real life, so there is no law against price fixing. If 60% of tech prices are raised, the lowest priced stuff gets sold out the higher priced stuff still gets sold. Of course, the lower priced sellers not participating in OTEC would probably raise prices also once they saw stuff still selling at a higher price point. The only question is if demand would drop significantly once the price started increasing. Temporarily, yes--while people wait to see if the high prices will hold; long term, life goes on and people adjust to the new price point...as the current mineral price increases have already shown.
ReplyDeleteWe are cursed to live in interesting times indeed!
ReplyDeleteCCP is in a no win situation, if Mittens crushes the 'pubbies' under Goonswarms boot heels and CCP intervenes Mitten reaps a whirlwind of political capital at thier expense. If CCP stands aside (like they should) and let Mittens kick over everyones sand castles then the 'pubbies' will scream bloody murder. If anyone thinks that Mittens isn't all about forcing this Devil's Choice on CCP then they haven't been paying attention.
Mittens Realpolitik is entertaining and terrifying at the same time. I applaud the man's ambition and the way he is using CCP's game against CCP to further a in game and real life agenda.
Im not actually sure that CCP will feel it has to respond. Partly because I think people are overestimating the impact the "burn jita" thing is going to have. I can't say why particularly. I guess it just seems unlikely that "burn jita" (which may indeed result in many many freighter and other kills, and shut jita down for a couple days) is going to have further-reaching impacts than hulkageddon does. And I have a hard time believing that in terms of total ISK loss and general grief burn jita will be a bigger deal. More concentrated and visible perhaps, but ultimately less disruptive.
ReplyDeleteMeh. Whatever.
Depending on how the Death Squad thing actually operates, I could actually see that being called a breach of EULA. Though the devil is in the details.
ReplyDeleteTest is resetting members of the CFC in <24 hours and the only reason we know of so far is a honeybadger.jpg
ReplyDeleteNot that this will stem our participation in Burn Jita. We (TEST) have something like 1k tornadoes waiting for us there already. :)
I would be funny if Test turned around in Jita and started ganking Goons :)
ReplyDeleteF Mittani, and F Goon, and while your at it, F TEST just because it has the worst name in history.
ReplyDeleteEve is heading down a dirt road all because of the cry babies and loud mouth jerks. Just shut up, play the darn game, let ccp do their job, and for god sakes grow up.
You mad? Oh he mad y'all.
Delete