Eve-online, a CCP owned game, consisting of countless thousands of players all around the world, paying monthly subscriptions are being denied the ability to play the game as advertised, by the very people they trust in delivering the game they want to play.
CCP, being a responsible Icelandic company, have invested heavily in mechanisms to promote sound reliable game play, knitting together many cultures around the world, with many languages, and then they promote how good and wholesome the game is, and how they are going to make it possible for anyone else to take what is digitally yours and laugh with glee as you complain about people using the very tactics CCP reported that they were unhappy with, in 2008.
A report was published written by CCP Fear, where it was reported they were looking into suicide ganking and other overall security standing issues. CCP wrote “We are not happy with the current ease of suicide ganking and the relative “no hassle” it has become. In many cases, unsuspecting victims have no chance of escape, nor any help from CONCORDE. We want to change this.”
At the time of writing 2011, the website promoting Hulkageddon IV, shows that 1,587 ships have been killed by way of suicide ganking in the last three days, a financial loss of 122.28 Billion Isks with once simple underlying tone, every ship destroyed by these suicide ganking capsuleers, is unarmed, heavy and slow.
To understand the method, we need to look at how it happens. In the game, if some one shoots at you, you have every right to shoot back. It is acceptable and a much enjoyed mechanism.
However, the Suicide jocky, loads his cheap ship in such a way that it will deliver an incredible amount of damage in a short time.
The suicide ganker has between five and 25 seconds to deal enough killing damage to the victim before Concorde police turn up (spawns) and interferes with the gankers progress.
If the ganker has armed his ship well, the victim will be in no shape to survive when CONCORDE does interfere. The victim is an unarmed hauler, mining barge, Freighter or salvager, carries no ability to use weapons and apart from shields, has no defense.
The suicide ganker is destroyed by Concorde and often, a willing but detached accomplice scoops up anything worth salvaging from the wreckage. The Suicide Ganker loses a few points on his security and a cheap simply armed ship. The victim loses an exceptionally expensive ship, its contents and any adaptations he is using to maximise his ability in the game. All in All, the victim loses an incredible amount, while the attacker gets a slap on the wrist.
This mechanism is exploited by a group of players who have formed a twice yearly competition to see who can kill the most ships in the given time of the event, about nine days. They have a score board advertising the suicide gankers successes and the victim’s failures. Other players sponsor large prizes to encourage suicide gankers to kill more and more ships in a frenzied attempt to outdo previous Hulkageddon events.
The name being based around a Mining Barge called a ‘Hulk’. Now the competing players are encouraged to include a variety of other defenceless unarmed ships that are simply going about their business within the game.
Reflecting upon CCP Fear’s words, how CCP were unhappy with the ease in which Suicide Gankers could ply their trade, I can only suggest that as it is now a supported event, and by that, I mean that CCP do not seem to be doing anything to interrupt the flow of carnage caused by the loss of over 1500 ships in three days and are permitting the event to continue unabated.
So when they promised they would do something about it, they have, they have made it easier and are now supporting it with supportive entries on their front page.
Quoting CCP’s Blog from 2008, “But what for the future?”, a taskforce (named TaskForce Doughnut!) is dedicated to looking over these changes and proposing plans for the future. All I can say is Doughnut is pronounced ‘Do Nought’, CCP seems to be encouraging suicide gankers to bravely destroy unarmed ships in the pursuit of large prizes and the promises for the activity to be curtailed, prove to be as empty as the clearest blue sky that ever there was.
Fly Safe.
References:
www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&bid=577
flying-in-a-tincan.blogspot.com/2011/02/empty-promises-from-game-devs-in.html
hulkageddon4.machine9.net/killboard
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