[MNC]

In a raid called "Burn Jita", thousands of EVE players (Goonswarm) are going to raid a central trading hub and blow shit up and basically, if I understand correctly, reset in-game economy completely to their will.

Basically:

the Goonswarm’s goal is no less than invading the most protected and populated hub of industry in the galaxy and crushing it.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012...-eves-economy/

So, the short version: temporarily banned former Council of Stellar Management boss Alexander “The Mittani” Gianturco is leading a 15,000-strong assault on EVE’s biggest trade hub, Jita. Thousands of players will suicide-attack industrial ships in the “safe” core systems, ruining trading and blockading the main trade hub area. It’s the final, ear-piercing key stroke in a perfectly orchestrated plan involving all sorts of alloy price manipulation before and after the launch of EVE’s recent Inferno expansion. Basically, though, players have stockpiled alloy and will now space-skyrocket space-sale prices in space by, you know, literally murdering trade. And, amazingly (in a good way), CCP’s not planning to lift a finger in opposition. Senior producer Jon Lander explained to Eurogamer: “I tell you what, it’s going to be fucking brilliant. They’re going to do exactly what you’re able to do in the game, and people will have to roll with it. It’ll be great. We want people to be able to do this. If Goonswarm want to do it, we want them to do it and we want them to have a great time doing it… Last night I got an email – Jita was at 2100. Time dilation kicked in at 15 percent. And there were people just watching the shit that was going down. It was brilliant. It was absolutely great.” Meanwhile, lead game designer Kristoffer Touborg’s simply fascinated by the potential outcomes of this absurdly large-scale invasion. At the moment, he sees it as a chance to wipe the slate clean and force players to pull themselves up by their bootstraps again. “The people they’re going to hurt now are people who have quite a lot of security. There’s not a lot of turnaround on ships and goods in Empire. I think it might be healthy if we lose a lot of this industrial power, if they have to go back and save up for their ships again and be a part of the cycle of life everyone else is a part of. I don’t like complete security, and I do like when a large group of players who live in complete security have that pulled away temporarily. It’s going to be healthy.” So, in a word: brilliant. If you’d like to watch the madness unfold, there are roughly a billion livestreams of the galaxy-eclipsing assault. Goodness, though. This is really quite the thing. I may cancel my weekend plans to watch a videogame. What a silly, amazing world we live in.

Another article by PC gamer which makes it a bit more clear in plain English

http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/04/28/no...tic-trade-hub/

Jita is the most populated system in the entire galaxy of EVE Online. It is far from the dangers of null sec, an incredibly safe zone guarded by a deadly NPC police force with impeccable response time. Hundreds of billions of ISK move between players every day as the rich traders and industrial overlords manufacture the goods that fuel the entire game and trade them on the well-protected markets in Jita, the heart of the Empire. That was before last night. Today, Jita is a chaotic mess, trapped in the middle of an anarchistic suicide bombardment months in the making. We talk to members of Goonswarm, the group behind the attack that’s continuing all weekend, to try to find out what the crazy players of EVE Online are up to this time. [...] PCG: Last night, Goonswarm made a strong push into the heart of Empire space. Can you explain what that means and what the significance of that is for those not familiar with EVE? Lazarus Telraven: In EVE there are 3 market hubs: Rens, Amarr, and Jita. Jita is the largest market/player meeting ground in the entire EVE universe, it typically has roughly 1,500 players in the system at any give time. And right now, [we've formed] a Coalition known as the Deklein Coalition that can field roughly 1,500 guys to cram into the Jita, the biggest market hub in the game to kill Freighters, JumpFreighters, Industrial Ships, Faction Battleships, and basically anything else they deem worthy of destroying. [...] PCG: That’s pretty brutal. So what prompted this attack, and what does Goonswarm hope to gain from it? LT: The “Burn Jita” campaign has been in the works for roughly 4-5 months now. The idea originated with a member of Goonswarm directorate that goes by the name Aryth. Aryth is the guy that we in the Goons call a super-economist. His first major manipulation was the Oxygen Isotope collapse in which GSF (Goonswarm Federation) paid its members to kill anyone in EVE that was mining Oxygen isotopes (the most widely used isotope in the game), thereby cutting off the supply and causing the price to rise 5 times over, going from 450 a unit to 1500+ a unit.

I love the economy in EVE Online. It's so vast, it's insane really.

Livestream 1 - http://www.twitch.tv/daopa (OFFLINE CURRENTLY)
Livestream 2 - http://www.twitch.tv/dangerosodavo (NOT BROADCASTING?)
Livestream 3 - http://www.twitch.tv/beforedawn1065
Videos
http://youtu.be/HLvA4D3rdkY

I'll update the OP asap with livestreams I can find.

[zoukka]

People.

[Tesseract]

should kill some time before tera.

[LiquidMetal14]

Well........

[Lyphen]

Don't post the livestreams, it'll ruin the magic of EVE Online tales.

[Osietra]

Eve never ceases to be endlessly fascinating. I love stuff like this.

[∀ Narayan]

The precursor expansion is called Escalation to Inferno, but I would say the Inferno has already hit. :P

The Mitanni has been un-banned. Jita will burn for days! Glorious.

[Durante]

Eve Online is by far the most interesting sounding MMO, and yet still one I'd never want to play.

[Messypandas]

[Randdalf]

If I ever chose to play an MMO I'd play this because it's actually a massive multiplayer game, and not a co-op games with MMO hubs like nearly every other MMO. What's even better is that this is just a natural part of the game.

[Valnen]

Stuff like this is why I would never be able to get into this game. A game isn't fun if other people can ruin your experience. I would take it quite personally and get angry with the people doing that to me.

[Sethos]

Yes, it all sounds interesting until you play it.

[Kayhan]

His first major manipulation was the Oxygen Isotope collapse in which GSF (Goonswarm Federation) paid its members to kill anyone in EVE that was mining Oxygen isotopes (the most widely used isotope in the game), thereby cutting off the supply and causing the price to rise 5 times over, going from 450 a unit to 1500+ a unit.

Organized crime: the game

[DieH@rd]

We need something that is similar to EVE, but more accessible to the mass public.

CCP's World of Darkness MMORPG :D

[TheSeks]

Stuff like this is why I would never be able to get into this game. A game isn't fun if other people can ruin your experience.

Well, Goonswarm is mostly doing this so people that have played for a long time and basically are "secure" and don't have the "watch their back" mentality that everyone else does... has to watch their back.

But I agree with your sentiment, it's why I can't take Eve seriously. Being ganked as a low level isn't fun, sorry.

[SparkTR]

This is the reason EVE is the best MMO. It's an actual sandbox, actual player-driven emergent gameplay. Pissed about this blockade? Use initiative and find a way to profit off the fucked up economy and confusion.

Also Goonswarm have been planning and manufacturing ships for this attack for a while now. No unorganized riff-raff can come to Jita and do this.

[Slayven]

Well, Goonswarm is mostly doing this so people that have played for a long time and basically are "secure" and don't have the "watch their back" mentality that everyone else does... has to watch their back. But I agree with your sentiment, it's why I can't take Eve seriously. Being ganked as a low level isn't fun, sorry.

I always got the sense that if you are not in the right guild and a big dog you are just cannon fodder or worthless.

[RooMHM]

This is the reason EVE is the best MMO. It's an actual sandboxs, it's player-driven emergent gameplay. Pissed about this blockade? Use initiative and find a way to profit off the fucked up economy and confusion.

Absolutely. Reminds me of overbounces in Q3 and bunny jumping in Half-Life. Those bugs and player decisions that alter game rules are god sent.
This is a REAL #gamechanger.

[Valnen]

Well, Goonswarm is mostly doing this so people that have played for a long time and basically are "secure" and don't have the "watch their back" mentality that everyone else does... has to watch their back. But I agree with your sentiment, it's why I can't take Eve seriously. Being ganked as a low level isn't fun, sorry.

Being able to lose stuff you worked for isn't fun regardless of how much effort you've put into your character, but that's just my opinion. It's why I don't play Diablo hardcore and why I would never play this.

The thing that would make Eve even worse than say, Diablo hardcore for me though is the fact that it's other people ruining my day. Other real human beings actively trying to ruin my game. Just sounds extremely not fun.

[SparkTR]

I always got the sense that if you are not in the right guild and a big dog you are just cannon fodder or worthless.

Almost right. If you're not in a guild you may as well not play the game, but there's a whole variety of guilds offering different things. Just entering the 'largest' doesn't mean it's going to be the best for you. Fending off pirates and negotiating agreements in a small guild was a fantastic experience.

[Durante]

Organized crime: the game

That's what I find so interesting about EVE. Pretty much every other game with PvP is just War: the game or Crime: the game. This is the only one I am aware of where players can really pull off organized crime.

[Blue Ninja]

That could be the basis for an excellent sci-fi story.

The game itself looks kinda boring, though.

[Arksy]

Yes, it all sounds interesting until you play it.

Amen. The fact that you can do literally everything in EVE often meant that i ended up doing nothing....I.e ship spinning in Jita

[Rapstah]

This is the only MMO I am aware of in which this is not only possible, but actually an intended mechanic for how the economy works. Incredible.

[Respawn]

How far we've come Eve. I still remember when you allowed me to play in your beta.

[jet1911]

I expect amazingly epic space battle, am I wrong?

[Ether_Snake]

What I like about EVE is the persistent online world where everyone plays together, it makes it much more like a real RPG should be.

I hope we'll see more of this in the future.

[Derrick01]

Sandbox MMOs are the best but god damn if they're not the most intimidating. I really hate losing anything due to player interference.

They're fascinating to read about at least.

[Anno]

Neat. I love EVE stories. I've failed to get into this game probably 5 times but I'm always interested in the latest stuff going on around the galaxy.

[Chinner]

goonsquad make this game interesting. i still remember reading about when they disbanded BOB using spies and shit.

[SparkTR]

I expect amazingly epic space battle, am I wrong?

It isn't really a battle, more like one side obliterating everything that moves around the gate. The interesting part of this is how it'll effect the economy. Trillions of ISK (which is worth hundreds of thousands of actual dollars) is trapped inside Jita, the largest trading hub in the game.

[oneils]

I expect amazingly epic space battle, am I wrong?

Probably just going to be a bunch of T1 ships setting off smart bombs. Then, the lag fest and QQ will ensue.

[Noshino]

That's what I find so interesting about EVE. Pretty much every other game with PvP is just War: the game or Crime: the game. This is the only one I am aware of where players can really pull off organized crime.

While nowhere near the same size as this, I have seen pretty insane stuff in other games. Back in RO, I remember that some powerful guilds united and, to take down the most powerful guild in the server, sent a girl to make the guild master fall in love with her. The whole thing went pretty far, I think she even moved in with him and stuff. She broke up with him and the guy went into depression and disbanded the guild. It was insane.

MMOs are serious business, heh

[Slayven]

Best Sandbox MMO was Original Star Wars Galaxy, anyone that says otherwise is a liar.

[Santiako]

While nowhere near the same size as this, I have seen pretty insane stuff in other games. Back in RO, I remember that some powerful guilds united and, to take down the most powerful guild in the server, sent a girl to make the guild master fall in love with her. The whole thing went pretty far, I think she even moved in with him and stuff. She broke up with him and the guy went into depression and disbanded the guild. It was insane. MMOs are serious business, heh

wat

WAT

[Valnen]

While nowhere near the same size as this, I have seen pretty insane stuff in other games. Back in RO, I remember that some powerful guilds united and, to take down the most powerful guild in the server, sent a girl to make the guild master fall in love with her. The whole thing went pretty far, I think she even moved in with him and stuff. She broke up with him and the guy went into depression and disbanded the guild. It was insane. MMOs are serious business, heh

That sounds awful. What a bitch to screw with a guy's life like that =/.

[lastplayed]

It isn't really a battle, more like one side obliterating everything that moves around the gate. The interesting part of this is how it'll effect the economy. Trillions of ISK (which is worth hundreds of thousands of actual dollars) is trapped inside Jita, the largest trading hub in the game.

Can't people just sit in space stations and transfer isk to other players and/or alts?

[Red Arremer]

I recently tried EVE. It's just so fucking huge and mindblowingly detailed. I had no clue what the fuck was going on. I don't think I'll ever play it again, especially after what I constantly hear from EVE players, and stuff like this, it really scares me off, additionally to having no idea what to do and how to do it, lol. Nevertheless, I'm always amazed by the game stories like this one. Funny how articles about what's going on in an MMO can be more exciting than the MMO itself. :P

While nowhere near the same size as this, I have seen pretty insane stuff in other games. Back in RO, I remember that some powerful guilds united and, to take down the most powerful guild in the server, sent a girl to make the guild master fall in love with her. The whole thing went pretty far, I think she even moved in with him and stuff. She broke up with him and the guy went into depression and disbanded the guild. It was insane.

That's just sad. :[

[INDIGO_CYCLOPS]

We need something that is similar to EVE, but more accessible to the mass public. CCP's World of Darkness MMORPG :D

They're working on it.

This shit is why I love EVE, not to mention the fact that CCP isn't going to do fuck-all about it. Brilliant.

[SparkTR]

Can't people just sit in space stations and transfer isk to other players and/or alts?

Assets and goods have to be physically moved. Even without the danger of being blown out of the sky, planning something like that would be massive.

[Chunky]

Eve stories are the best. I'm fuzzy on the details, bt I remember this guy swindled thousands of real dollars, got in a big-ass ship and just took off.

[bigdaddygamebot]

Oh shit...there's SO much more to this than the Goons being Goons.

My brother plays EVE...like...he plays the hell out of EVE with four multi-boxes etc.

Anyway...this might appear to be the Goonsquad doing this for LoLs but it goes deeper than that and it makes a great argument for CCP reeling in some of the freedom they give the players. It sucks because that freedom is part of what makes EVE compelling but the Goonsquad are acting like eight year old bullies with this one.

My brother has told me it ties into (and my memory is foggy) the Goonsquad leader who is also the president of the player government ( or WAS the president) as it had been stripped from him due to him doing dodgy shit. This is retaliation for that.

Also...it's all about mining and market manipulation.

Very cool but it's resulted in things like this. Dozens and dozens of nobs hanging out by space stations and gates, vaporizing you the moment you appear for the "LoLs"

Those are interesting quotes from devs because in the end, the Goonsquad are kinda fucking it up for everyone. Cool for the Goonsquad, not so cool for everyone else.

[Derrick01]

While nowhere near the same size as this, I have seen pretty insane stuff in other games. Back in RO, I remember that some powerful guilds united and, to take down the most powerful guild in the server, sent a girl to make the guild master fall in love with her. The whole thing went pretty far, I think she even moved in with him and stuff. She broke up with him and the guy went into depression and disbanded the guild. It was insane. MMOs are serious business, heh

Damn that is some hardcore evil shit.

[Seguin]

Oh shit...there's SO much more to this than the Goons being Goons. My brother plays EVE...like...he plays the hell out of EVE with four multi-boxes etc. Anyway...this might appear to be the Goonsquad doing this for LoLs but it goes deeper than that and it makes a great argument for CCP reeling in some of the freedom they give the players. It sucks because that freedom is part of what makes EVE compelling but the Goonsquad are acting like eight year old bullies with this one. My brother has told me it ties into (and my memory is foggy) the Goonsquad leader who is also the president of the player government ( or WAS the president) as it had been stripped from him due to him doing dodgy shit. This is retaliation for that. Also...it's all about mining and market manipulation. Very cool but it's resulted in things like this. Dozens and dozens of nobs hanging out by space stations and gates, vaporizing you the moment you appear for the "LoLs" Those are interesting quotes from devs because in the end, the Goonsquad are kinda fucking it up for everyone. Cool for the Goonsquad, not so cool for everyone else.

I don't play EVE, but if you don't like what Goonsquad is doing, isn't it possible to launch a counterattack? And why wasn't such an important trading hub more protected?

[Darryl]

amazing that the game design allows them to do stuff like this. i have no faith in CCP to continue letting this happen after they manage to juice all of the free publicity they can out of it.

[lastplayed]

Very cool but it's resulted in things like this. Dozens and dozens of nobs hanging out by space stations and gates, vaporizing you the moment you appear for the "LoLs"

That and price fixing caused me to quit about 6 years ago. I'm amazed people still put up with that shit. Just wasn't the game for me I guess.

[BigDug13]

This game sounds awesome but I found the learning curve and scope to be way too intimidating and I saw the massive timesink coming and I already endured that with Everquest.

But damn. This is like real life Empire shit but using suicide bombers instead of a Death Star. Really awesome that there is a game out there where legit planning, organizing, and execution can net these universe-changing results.

Question: does the game lend itself to a "rebellion" force organizing and using guerilla tactics to strike back, rally support, and eventually topple the regime? Because if so, that probably makes this game the greatest online universe ever conceived.

[Tacitus_]

EVE is only interesting when the Goons are fucking up everything. Their war on BOB a while ago was awesome to read through.

The Second Great War is inarguably the single most catastrophic event in the history of New Eden. It is the largest war in EVE, with more than 30,000 pilots directly involved. It is the most destructive, with more assets destroyed, trapped, or ruined in the last few months than in any other conflict - and the sheer concentration of that devastation in time and space, the density of the carnage, defies description. It is a war with more regional scope than any other; the major players are powerblocs from every sector of the galaxy, with fronts and brushfire wars in the North, South, and East. Not even the normally peaceable Empire regions are immune to the war's influence, as the market disruption caused by so many assets changing hands has thrown the economy into a dizzying, scarcity-induced spike. Immense fortunes have been won and lost, notoriety achieved, reputations ruined.

[Red Arremer]

Question: does the game lend itself to a "rebellion" force organizing and using guerilla tactics to strike back, rally support, and eventually topple the regime? Because if so, that probably makes this game the greatest online universe ever conceived.

That is possible, yes.

[RyougaSaotome]

Reading about EVE Online seriously never gets old. So fascinating.