Claiming that he'd be launching a venture that would earn returns of 200% on any investment, Dax attracted plenty of interested backers, and was able to "float" his venture on the game's market.

Only thing was, there was no venture. Dax was planning on taking the money and running. The 374 billion he amassed is the equivalent of around USD$14,000, of which he spent 250 billion upgrading his ship and left the rest in cash before quitting the game.

So why'd he do it, then just walk away? Turns out there's a Robin Hood streak in the man, as his pimped-out ship will be going to someone who "worked hard to make EVE a great game, and my riches are going to be a salary for them that is long overdue".

That or he's an asshole and he's lying. Guess we'll never know!

EVE Online Player Pulls Off Massive In-Game IPO Scam [Worlds in Motion]

Edge's webiste has posted the big feature on the game that formed the cornerstone of the mag's latest issue, which gives us our first real details on how the game is going to be worked into the existing EVE experience.

CCP's creative director, Atli Mar Sveinsson, explains how the game's multiplayer combat is a little different. "You're given some interesting choices before the fighting's even started. There are ten vehicle classes, but the commander can only commit five for each battle. We have 15 installation types, and he can only choose five. It's simple, really, like Magic: The Gathering: you prepare your deck and then fight."

Those choices are made by a "commander", either a human player or AI, who literally hovers over the battlefield in a large ship, able to give orders and witness the entire battle at once.

Which is fine, as far as shooters go. But Sveinsson is aware that Dust's real chance to shine is not as a shooter, but as shooter with links to EVE.

"The most ambitious element is the Eve link," he says. "The other stuff has been proven in other games. Running around with a gun is a proven concept: let's just make it really good. It's when Eve comes in that it becomes special. We're sharing the universe: your basic interface to the world in Dust is even through the same star-map as Eve."

"Essentially, the Eve players need to control planets," Sveinsson continues. "Planets give them resources and affect sovereignty. So they can issue contracts to win over territory on their behalf: either open-ended contracts for all to accept, or more direct contracts to specific mercenary corporations. You could almost liken it to the setting of a match: I want this kind of player, this kind of skill level. The difference is that it's being handled by players. It's not game designers or server admins setting games in motion or deciding where things should be, it's actual players in Eve, building up their districts and fortifying their areas."

And when those planets are conquered in Dust, the results will be reflected in EVE. Exciting stuff.

There's plenty more of interest in the piece, from the way Dust will work to how CCP are handling development across two continents, so hit the link below for all that and more.

Enter Planet Dust [Edge]

Dominion is EVE's 12th free expansion, and it's out today.

The J!NX Aion line follows the company's recent journeys into the universe of EVE Online, and while those shirts are certainly attractive enough, they make me think of mining ore and falling asleep at my desk. The Aion shirts, on the other hand, make me want to give up my habit of wearing a button-up shirt over a t-shirt in order to show off my plumage. I have always wanted plumage.

Check out the full J!NX Aion line at the company's website, and be sure to check out the Dungeons & Dragons page as well, because there is nothing as beautiful as a t-shirt that says "Rock Me Asmodeus."

It's not just pretty to the eyes. Listening to this with headphones on, there's some great sound this - although I swear that Warthog-looking thing comes to stop with a Flintstones-car skidding sound at 1:54.

DUST 514 [CCP on YouTube]

This is perhaps the most glorious self-promotional thing I've ever seen a company do. Not only do they have the attitude down, the lyrics are pretty damn inventive too.

Every day is a fight, there's no room for bloopers
Bugs coming at us like in Starship troopers

And just when you think it can't get any better, Techno Viking shows up. I cried real tears.

I've gone ahead and included the full lyrics for the song below. Feel free to sing along, though if you're at work you might want to keep it down a bit - the language gets a bit rough.

Thanks to everyone who directed us to the clip! We owe you more than you will ever know.

Lyrics:
Intro
First off - let me make a short introduction
I'm the space 5.0, keeping EVE from destruction
Guard is the name, Lead master of the game
Top dog in the gamemaster hall of fame

Im chillin at my desk with two girls and one pimp cup
Sippin champagne, reading mails checkin what's up
Isk spamming scum bags disturbing the peace?
WOOP WOOP its the sound of space police!

Every day is a fight, there's no room for bloopers
Bugs coming at us like in Starship troopers
We help when we can, every child, every man
Treat the boogie man to a permanent ban!

CHORUS x2

We're CCP! We march on fearlessly!
Excellent is what we strive to be!

If you're going to follow us to the top

HARDEN THE FUCK UP!

You best watch out bitch if you're an exploiting scammer
Guard will gank you in the face with his big ban hammer
Remove all your Isk , throw your ass in the slammer
Make you share a cell with a manic ISK spammer

Like a never ending spam thread on racist biking
This song has something for everyone's liking
Holy shit I see local spiking

...ladies and gents, its techno Viking!

Chorus x2

Ever flowing - never standing still
We roll with the punches, move in for the kill
The competition ends up six feet in the ground
With fists full of awesome we go round after round

United we stand never ever growing weary
We cannot fall cause gravity is just a theory
We reach higher than the giants in operations
Patience soon well be crip walking in stations

We're more agile than a president dodging a shoe
We need three continents for our massive crew
From Atlanta to Shanghai to the Icelandic nation
Throw your hands up for World Domination!

Chorus

Why have an amazing time in a foreign land when you can sit at your computer desk, staring at a screen for hours? EVE TV will begin streaming from this year's EVE Fanfest on Saturday at 12:00GMT, broadcasting the finals of the 2009 PVP tournament live on stage. That will be followed up with a replay of Torfi Frans Ólafsson's keynote on EVE's next expansion, Dominion, wrapping up with Saturday's keynote on the future of EVE Online and CCP's new console shooter, DUST514.

I begged to be allowed to go this year, but since the cosplayers are mostly spaceships we ultimately decided to pass.

EVE TV [2009 EVE Fanfest via Voodoo Extreme]

People walking about in vinyl clothing; barely dressed women writhing about on stage; and men performing the art of fire poi for screaming women in the audience - this is what I saw during my brief visit to CCP's Succubus Club party last night at the Heavens night club in downtown Seattle. After standing in a rather long line for a good half hour I was allowed to enter the dark, smoky depths. So smoky and strangely-lighted that the few pictures I managed to shoot look like they were taken in a smoky, strangely-lighted club. Go figure.

After snapping off a few shots and avoiding the crowd at the bar, I found a quiet corner in the back room where the DJ was playing The Sisters of Mercy's "Temple of Love." Singing along quietly to myself it struck me - I had been here before. Sure, the smoke was cloves back then and not a smoke machine and I had more hair and a penchant for mascara, but otherwise this was pretty much a normal day for me a decade and a half ago.

And that's why didn't I stay longer. For some visitors to The Succubus, last night was a brief, tantalizing glimpse at a deliciously dark and bizarre lifestyle. For me it was ages 19 through 23, and then 27 through 29.

While work continues on the eagerly anticipated Walking in Stations update for EVE Online that will introduce avatars to the mix (recently renamed Incarna), EVE's 11th free update will be the newly announced Dominion. Dominion is all about the end game, or as CCP puts it, "Dominion is all about ownership-how you conquer and hold space, how you hold sway over fellow capsuleers and how you wage war against any who stand in your way. How do you make a name for yourself in a universe of 300,000 other players?"

The update will feature a more dynamic alliance combat system, allowing for more tactical strategy to be utilized in combat, a direct result of player feedback on the current state of the game.

Dominion will also bring enhanced social networking features to EVE Online to help foster social interaction, epic pirate mission arcs (arrrrr!), and more updates to the graphics engine, doing for planets what Apocrypha did for asteroids.

CCP promises to reveal much more about the expansion in the coming months. For now, keep your eyes on the official EVE Online: Dominion website.

Hilmar Pétursson drew a familiar analogy - EVE Online players are the air force; DUST 514 players are the (wait for it) marines. Space marines! Pétursson went on to say that while EVE inhabitants are "different people," focused on operating spacecraft. a character in DUST "would rather run around, blow shit up. That is his skill."

You see, EVE players talk like this and DUST 514 players talk like this.

Pétursson says the game have persistency elements of its own, as well as ones from the EVE universe. He made no announcement or hint of when this will be available, other than CCP's been working on it for three years.

More DUST 514 Info Revealed in Video Interview with CCP Games CEO [Massively]

EBank, the institution in question, was also hit by a naked fraud scheme earlier this year, in which an embezzler stole 200bn kredits and resold it all for real world cash. The episode caused an actual run on the virtual bank. Now its new chairman has admitted the bank's rampant mismanagement without following rules, safeguards and controls, has led to a 380 billion ISK shortfall.

The bank's board of directors report that it faces a deficit of about 1.2 trillion ISK, which increases about 12 billion ISK a month. According to the bank chief, "withdrawals will be allowed once the bank achieves a maintainable equity status of 90% (1.8t currently); they will be stopped again should that fall below 80%."

See? Aren't MMOs fun? You can escape from the global economic collapse to roleplay manage - a galactic economic collapse!

Virtual Bank in EVE Freezes Accounts Due to Deficit [Ars Technica]

This is an example of what could happen if you find yourself flying the sometimes friendly skies in EVE Online, CCP's massively-multiplayer online space sim. I've never had an experience like this personally, having spent most of my time watching my ship auto-pilot itself from sector to sector. I'm sure if I did get a chance to stop, and was lucky enough to see a freighter being attacked by pirates, I'd be far too surprised to do anything even remotely helpful.

I'll get there eventually. Baby steps!

My beef was that a lot of massively multiplayer online game developers claim that their combat is somehow fundamentally different than the usual system of point, click, cool down, then click again established in MMOs like EverQuest II and World of Warcraft. I said Cryptic's claim about Champions Online's action-oriented combat was no different and admitted that the question would need more hands-on time than I had had to really determine if Champions' combat is different or just looks different.

Never one to shy from skepticism, Cryptic Studios stepped up with a second hands-on for me so I could get a better feel for the combat. Here's what happened.

What Is It?
Champions Online is a superhero themed MMO developed by Cryptic Studios for PC and eventually Xbox 360. Combat in the game takes place both between superheroes and villains and in arena style player versus player fights between superheroes. The primary controls for combat with the keyboard configuration are the number keys 1 through 7 and on 360 controller, it's the face buttons and face buttons plus left trigger – although the exact controls haven't been finalized yet.

What We Saw
I played through the beginning and the boss fight of what's called a "lair" in Champions both with a ranged character and with a melee character. It's an instanced dungeon where a group of players face off against and/or rescue non-playable characters. This particular layer involved a mastermind villain taking over a prison and (full disclosure) was partially developed by Kevin Stocker, a guy I know outside of work who knows a thing or two about the movie Aliens.

How Far Along Is It?
Champions Online goes live September 1. The 360 version is still a long ways off, according to creative director Jack Emmert.

What Needs Improvement?
Targeting Gets Tricky: You can change between targets on PC by just left-clicking a target with the mouse and on the controller, you tap the left bumper. However, the frenetic pace of combat makes these simple controls tricky, especially on PC if you're holding down the left mouse button to adjust the camera while running to one side to avoid an attack. I'm hoping that on the controller scheme they work it out to where you could tap the left bumper repeatedly to change targets among a mob – that would really smooth things over.

The Picky May Not Be Pleased: There are things you can do in Champions Online combat that single-MMO players may not be used to; however MMO connoisseurs probably won't be surprised – or impressed. For example, a WoW devotee may not be used to the idea that you can dodge any attack (even spells) by moving out of range and an Age of Conan fan might not be used to the idea that bosses and mini bosses have specific tells that require you to block or dodge, depending on which attack they're signaling. If you've played both of those games plus a dozen other MMOs besides, however, none of this will sound especially new, different or special and you'll probably stay skeptical while the less picky players are enthralled.

Still Feels Like A Cool Down: Technically, the spells in Champions don't need cool down periods after you cast them. However, you can't cast higher level spells without building up endurance with low-level attacks. It's a little bit less boring to mash the X button over and over than just sitting there and watching the timer on your best area-effect spell expire; but it still feels like a cool down period just the same.

Ranged Combat Is Cheap: This is actually a plus for a jerk like me – but I think it's cause for complaint. Emmert says that the tradeoff between a ranged superhero who can just spam a single fireball attack while flying around in a circle is that a melee superhero's attacks are more powerful. He says that this makes it more rewarding for the melee character if he or she can just get to that fireball-spamming jerk and execute an attack. But if the jerk is me, I'm telling you right now, you'll never catch me. You'll die cursing me for the cheap jerk I am.

What Should Stay The Same?
There's Always Something To Do: To quote Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw's review of Eve Online, MMO combat works like this: "You click on an enemy and start kicking his shins. He then starts kicking your shins. Then you take it in turns kicking until one of you falls over." Champions Online shakes that up a bit by giving the player more to do than just stand there and kick. At any one point during combat you could be kicking someone's shins, raining fire down on them from the air while you hover overhead with your fiery fairy wings, dodging an attack with a well-timed mashing on the A or S button, or waiting for a command to pop up and tell you to mash a button to collect an item drop or escape an enemy attack or hold. You're always moving in Champions, always changing targets and never not mashing on an a button once combat gets going. Big plus.

It's Console-Oriented: What makes Champions feel action-y to me is the fact that everyone is moving all of the time and you're frantically pounding on attack keys to keep up. It's more like Marvel Ultimate Alliance than WoW, and that's exactly the feel that Cryptic was going for, according to Emmert. He says that the future of MMOs lies in consoles, so their goal was to get an action RPG experience inside ofa persistent, well-populated MMO world that worked just as well on console as on PC. To that end, Champions was planned with consoles in mind all along, with none of the built-in "latency" of other MMOs where you have to wait for a spell to cool down simply because the technology on which the MMO is built cannot handle a bazillion particle effects at once.

Final Thoughts
After the much-longer hands-on, I've changed my mind. Combat in Champions Online does feel different than combat WoW because of how fast everything moves – including you. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's a revolution in MMO gameplay, but the quick combat is going to go a long way toward making the jump to console smoother and more fun. My only conflict now is deciding whether or not to wait for the 360 version.

Oh, here're a couple of other tidbits of interest that came up during my extended hands-on:
—They're already planning out a secret identity system for DLC
—The 360 controller will work at launch, but it won't be "supported" technically until a deal on the 360 version is reached with Microsoft
—The biggest criticism Emmert fears hearing is from superhero players who want a purely solo masked avenger experience. That's just not what Cryptic is out to do with Champions Online – so if any potential reviewers are reading this, think Justice League instead of Dark Knight going into it.
ETA: Cryptic Studios clarifies that "You can play solo in Champions as much as you like; you don't have to team up to enjoy the game. However, this is a Massively Multiplayer Online Game, with the emphasis on Multiplayer. Other players will affect the world of Champions Online. You'll see them running off to stop a bank robbery, while you're on your way to rescue hostages. This isn't a game for players who want to be the only superhero in town."

Few though have had to tell a story in a universe almost completely controlled by the gamers themselves, the very people most likely to read those novels.

That's what confront the authors of Eve Online's novelized fiction. And the way the deal with it can have some surprising consequences.

The virtual universe of online computer game Eve Online is a thriving, thrilling place of starship fights, rampant piracy, militant corporations and financial espionage.

The game's hundreds of thousands of players assume the roles of characters who fill every need in the game, controlling miner, trader, pirate and CEO. More interesting, though, the players have almost total control over the lifeblood of the game: Its economy.

The result is a sometimes vicious environment of intrigue, racketeering and politics. And it's up to the developer's creative writing team to at times turn this unordered chaos into a living space opera. Two among the team have also used it to craft novels.

Tony Gonzales' Eve Online: The Empyrean Age was released in 2008 and Hjalti Danielsson's Eve Online: The Burning Life is due out this fall. And the authors took very different approaches to their work.

The Empyrean Age was used to tell the story of major events that took place in the game's universe as part of an update released for the game at the same time.

"My task was to tell the story about how this great war comes to pass-describing what was happening behind the scenes, and the choices that leaders of nations faced before committing to such a grave undertaking," Gonzales told Kotaku.

Gonzales said that early on publisher CCP Games decided not to include any of the many influential players or their character creations in the novel.

"Though tempting, the fact is that doing so would have been an unnecessary risk and thus inappropriate for the (game's) first foray beyond gaming into the greater science fiction community.," he said. "The main reason is because EVE Online has incredibly competitive gameplay. Player actions of a scale considered momentous enough to build a novel plot around tend to happen at a direct and often unpleasant cost to other players. "

And the history of conflict, in both the real world and the fictional, always has at least two sides: The victor's is the one most commonly told, he said.

So instead, The Empyrean Age took the "golden path."

"We can, for example, speak of aggregate player actions in broad strokes.," he said. "We just need to find a way to tell that story accurately and fairly, and more importantly establish that there's an audience eager to read about it."

Gonzeles' The Empyrean Age used broad strokes to tell a game-changing story that launched a war between the game's two main empires. But Danielsson's The Burning Life strives to convey a sense of what it's like to be a regular inhabitant in the universe of Eve Online

Danielsson said that to narrow the focus of the book he made lists of everything he wanted to use from the game and prioritized them.

"There was no way I could pick just one setting and one story to tell," he told Kotaku. "Instead, I had my characters go on a journey through the EVE cluster, encountering people with very different backgrounds and attitudes along the way, and chronicling the life in all those places."

And while Danielsson, like Gonzales, didn't overtly use any player history or actions in his book, he said it's hard to avoid.

"There is the lore that we create and the lore the players create, and a myriad of overlaps between the two," he said. "There is a feed there, back and forth, that the novel plugs into. "

Creating fiction in a fictional world not totally controlled by the author can have its challenges, Danielsson said.

"It's immensely challenging," he said. "A novel is static and can only reflect the game world at a certain specific point - and parts of EVE go through some pretty big changes at times, but it must nonetheless be timeless enough that it can be enjoyed a year later, three years later, and so on."

With the emergent storytelling that naturally sprouts from games like Eve Online it begs the question, when will game-based novels write themselves?

"Novelizing direct player actions would be almost exclusively historical and investigative reporting," Gonzales points out. "In fact, a novel probably isn't the best way to tell their story. But a dedicated history of player actions, especially if it included all the interesting externalities and accompanying social dynamics, might be a compelling tale on its own without any author-added role-playing elements to turn it into space opera. "

"If we can prove that the audience for this is there, we're definitely willing to pursue it."

Well Played is a weekly news and opinion column about the big stories of the week in the gaming industry and its bigger impact on things to come. Feel free to join in the discussion.

No, griefers from Something Awful are not claiming responsibility. Not that any of them would have the patience to play nice long enough to become a controller for EBank. User Ricdic was, and then he took the dough and sold it off, he says in order to place a down payment on a house and pay medical bills.

The heist dwarfs the earlier 100 billion ISK embezzled by an in-game investments manager. But 250 billion ISK was just 8 percent of the bank's 2.8 trillion held in deposits. Still a tidy sum, but hardly the whole kitty. That didn't stop EVE Ebankers from rushing the teller windows once word passed of Ricdic's dirty deeds.

He has since been kicked out of EVE, as selling in-game currency for real-world value is a no-no according to the TOS. Had he kept the ISK in-game, he would not have been sanctioned - by CCP anyway. In-game depositors may have had something to say and/or do about it.

Billions Stolen in Online Robbery [BBC]

The 400-page Eve: The Burning Life hits this November for $15 and that's about all we know about the book so far. No mention of the plot other than the fact that it will "stand on it's own", meaning you won't have to be privy to the vast living back story of the massively multiplayer online game.

"Though the player-driven drama unfolding daily in EVE Online is the essence of our virtual world, CCP firmly believes that EVE can transcend the boundaries of a single medium to offer new ways of experiencing its richness" said Thor Gunnarsson, VP of Business Development at CCP. "We are thrilled to collaborate with the incredibly talented team at Tor Books to bring a taste of the EVE universe to sci-fi readers around the world."

The book will be written by Hjalti Daníelsson, CCP Games main create writer for the game.

"EVE is a phenomenal SF offering," said Eric Raab, Tor Editor. "The game is beyond awe-inspiring, and its intricacies deserve stories. Hjalti's storytelling skills shine in-game and in his short fiction. We at Tor are truly excited for his first foray into the novel form."

It's unclear if the novel will have any connection with Eve: The Empyrean Age which hit Amazon last summer.

What fascinates me about these Eve novels is the concept of creating fiction in a universe that continues to grow and be essentially written by the fan base. The idea of trying to tell a story across a massive bit of living fanfic is a neat new concept that flips the tradition of professionally written fiction on its head.

While other massively multiplayer online games have drawn huge numbers and then struggled to retain them, CCP's EVE Online has spent the past six years growing. So far 2009 has been very good to the game, with the concurrent user record being broken three separate times so far, with a standing record of 53,850 online at one time in one universe. The launch of the latest expansion, Apocrypha, has drawn even more players to the game, with active subscribers passing the 300K mark in the past week. Having started off the year with approximately 244,000, that's a 22% growth - for a six year-old game.

Along with the announcement, CCP sent along this picture of the celebration cake they enjoyed at their North American headquarters in Atlanta. I'd congratulate them, but they know I live in Atlanta and neglected to invite me over for gamecake, a transgression I'm afraid I can never forgive. Check out their full announcement below, while I curl up on the couch with a Little Debbie Swiss cake roll and cry.

Happy Birthday EVE Online!

EVE Online celebrates its 6th year of existence today—May 6th. That's six strong years of continuous growth thanks to tireless integration of user feedback into game design and pushing to release around two major free expansions per year. Our single-shard world, where everyone plays on the same shared server, has seen tremendous benefit from having each player able to interact and affect each other player in a persistent manner. From massive fleet battles to individual bonds of trust, every pilot in EVE has the potential to rock the ship of hundreds of thousands of others by their actions.

At one population milestone we saw agreements form between alliances. At another we were able to fully turn over the economy to the players. As the population of New Eden has grown, so have the instances of emergent behaviors of its pilots. A 6 year persistant history. A living history where truly brilliant strategies have unfolded. Truly terrible betrayals unveiled. We are excited to see what will happen next.

This year has been very successful for EVE Online, thanks in large part to our latest free expansion EVE Online: Apocrypha and a return to retail. We started out the year with around 244,000 subscribers and in five short months we've had a 22% growth in subscribers. In the past couple days we surpassed the impressive milestone of 300,000 active subscribers. That doesn't include trial accounts. We've broken our peak concurrent user record 3 times this year alone, standing now at an impressive 53,850 in the same universe. That is exponential growth. We couldn't think of a better birthday present than having more people playing EVE Online than ever before. It is another sweet reminder of EVE's boundless potential.

As always, we encourage you to bring your friends, family and even enemies to New Eden by visiting www.eveonline.com and downloading a free trial or by heading to your local retailer and purchasing a copy of EVE Online, which includes 60 days of game time.

The recession hasn't been kind to online game developers, with companies like Mythic, Nexon America, Funcom, and NCsoft all experiencing job cuts and studio closings over the past few months, yet EVE Online creator CCP is growing strong. Mike Tinney explains that it's all a matter of self-sufficiency.

While all these other companies are doing layoffs and scaling back, because we're pretty self-contained - we're not a developer beholden to a publisher; we're not a publisher waiting for a developer. We self-publish EVE Online and support it in its entirety, so we have a lot more ability to react as the world economy shifts, and that's allowed us to retool focus on the core drivers for our business, and steadily grow while a lot of other companies are shrinking.

Growing while other companies are shrinking also gives CCP the benefit of a rather large pool of talented individuals who suddenly find themselves looking for work, as well as developers who are employed, but losing confidence in the way their employees are handling the harsh economic times.

It's given us an opportunity to go into a rapidly filling job market and open up new positions at all three of our locations and start looking for the next round of industry like-minded professionals.

Between EVE Online's steady growth and the development of the World of Darkness online title with its built-in audience of dedicated fans of White Wolf's Vampire role-playing game, CCP has all the pieces in place to continue its growth well into the next decade.

Tuesday marks the official launch of EVE Online's Apocrypha expansion, and it will indeed change the way both new and old players survive in the online game. New players are being treated to epic mission arcs that actually guide them through the factions of EVE Online, making the game more new-player friendly than ever before. Meanwhile, veteran players venturing through the newly appearing wormholes will find riches and enemies unlike anything they've ever encountered. Enemies that change tactics based on player performance, calling in backup, changing targets, and strategically using debuffs to keep the players on their toes.

EVE has been steadily expanding since it was launched, and Apocrypha stands poised to up those numbers even more. Check out the official expansion website for full details on the new features in EVE's latest free expansion.

Speaking with MTV, Noah Ward, from developers CCP, reveals that after the latest user-induced meltdown to hit the game - in the form of the disbandment of the largest player alliance via treachery - people didn't really seem to mind. Prepared for a backlash of users leaving the game in their droves, Ward & CCP actually found that:

The largest alliance in the game was broken up by a trader on the inside and when this happened we were really worried at first because we were like, "Oh no! Everyone's going to quit!" And it was really horrible for us.

That was in the morning, but a couple hours later the buzz on the forums was crazy, subscriber numbers were growing, and everybody was really excited. Because everyone was becoming complacent and bored with being the biggest alliance, and then all of a sudden now there's war and turmoil. People who used to be in the alliance were re-subscribing and everyone was really excited about it so it's not necessarily always a bad thing when this sort of stuff happens.

Gotta say, despite MMOs as a whole never really grabbing my attention, it's this kind of thing that has me leaning towards giving EVE a good, hard look. You just don't find that kind of real-world intrigue in other games.

‘EVE Online' Designer: Players Actually Like In-Game Scandals, Corruption [MTV]