EVE Online Tournament Rocked by Assassination

[DoctorFinger]

EVE Online has become a success in the MMO world based in large part on it's penchant for the odd, the different and the unexpected. Sometimes even the developers are surprised by some of the twists their game takes, as evidenced by the events in this past weekend's PvP tournament.

During a PvP battle between two Alliances, "The Dead Parrot Shoppe, Inc" and "The Honda Accord", the leader of "The Honda Accord" was assassinated. No big deal, right? Except he was assassinated by someone flying the colors of his own faction, one Happy Joymaker. What follows is a series of betrayals, reprisals and shifting allegiances which can only be described as Machiavellian.

one alliance competitor assassinated his team's captain once the match had begun, and then self-destructed his own ship. The would-be saboteur, ironically named "Happy Joymaker", later announced he had infiltrated the alliance for the express purpose of a public execution of his target.

Happy Joymaker was acting on behalf of the player corporation "The Dead Parrot Shoppe, Inc." and took to the forums to explain the motivation to do this. Following the act itself, Happy Joymaker announced during the match, "Never forget who you insult. Our list is long, our memory is longer, and our patience endless... I am a spy sent to kill Issler in a nice and public way. That is the reason I hit self destruct and tuned [sic] off my hardeners once Denze (aka Issler) was dead. Have a nice day."

The motivation here was vendetta against an individual, not "The Honda Accord" alliance team that both the victim and assassin flew with

This, to put it mildly, probably wouldn't happen in a game like World of Warcraft or City of Heroes/Villains. Even the game's developers, CCP, seem surprised by some of the twists and turns the politics and economy of EVE seem to take. But in this case they're none too happy, and have smacked the digital Benedict Arnold with some richly deserved sanctions as a consequence of his actions.

Oh yeah, and despite the assassination, the Honda Accord still won the battle.

Source - Massively; Eurogamer.

[Ten19]

Just to clarify, the sanctions by the GMs were not a consequence of the assassination, rather, were levied after he tried to warp off and consequently failed to follow GM instructions afterward. There's no rule against shooting your own teammates, they should have done a better background check on him, first

[Goronmon]

According to that thread, the "assassin" didn't even do the majority of the damage, haha.

[Heretic Machine]

Not sure that this really matters anymore than it would in CoH or WoW, though. I mean, assuming he kept his shit up to date, he wouldn't lose much in the way of skills, and his ship would be replaced or the cost would be refunded, wouldn't it? I think the exception would be if he were flying a rare ship, but I don't think many people do that in PVP tournaments (though, I did read a story about a dude losing a unique ship in a PVP battle).

[Shrinn]

Originally Posted by Heretic Machine

Not sure that this really matters anymore than it would in CoH or WoW, though. I mean, assuming he kept his shit up to date, he wouldn't lose much in the way of skills, and his ship would be replaced or the cost would be refunded, wouldn't it? I think the exception would be if he were flying a rare ship, but I don't think many people do that in PVP tournaments (though, I did read a story about a dude losing a unique ship in a PVP battle).

This hurts a lot more than someone ninja'ing a couple epics, though.

Plus, they'll be looking over their shoulders for quite some time, and I'm sure as alliance members they also helped happy with plenty of ISK as well.

Plus, it takes a lot longer to build up that kind of trust. And even if he didn't do the most damage, it might have been enough to overcome the damage soak.

[Telefrog]

Stories like this make EVE really stand out in the MMO space, but they also completely alienate and intimidate me. Stuff like this drives home the fact that should I ever wish to play EVE, I will be so far behind the curve that I'll never catch up and consequently will never be involved in any of these epic tales.

[Ten19]

Originally Posted by Telefrog

Stuff like this drives home the fact that should I ever wish to play EVE, I will be so far behind the curve that I'll never catch up and consequently will never be involved in any of these epic tales.

You couldn't be farther from the truth, my dear frog. You'd be surprised what a new player can get into if they have the motivation to do so, skills notwithstanding

[Telefrog]

Originally Posted by Ten19

You couldn't be farther from the truth, my dear frog. You'd be surprised what a new player can get into if they have the motivation to do so, skills notwithstanding

Uhmmm... Keep in mind that I have played WoW since it came out and have never progressed beyond level 40. I've never participated in a PvP area. I've never grouped with more than five players at a time. I've never joined a guild.

[Deadend]

The thread seems to imply that the assassination thing was a big fail. As it was not done during a big match, the assassin did poor damage and the team still won.

[Ten19]

Originally Posted by Deadend

The thread seems to imply that the assassination thing was a big fail. As it was not done during a big match, the assassin did poor damage and the team still won.

Indeed. Kind of stupid to do it at that point, why not wait until they reached the finals when it would be broadcast on live video?

I don't think a single person thinks that the "spy" got the upper hand here.