作者：Traceylien

“所有的一切都让我很惊讶”。

Alex “The Mittani” Gianturco是《星战前夜》的长期玩家。在现实生活中，他是一名退休的律师。在《星战前夜》中，他则是一名无情的太空独裁者。在思考着他从一名菜鸟玩家变成游戏中最厉害的人物这一过程，他告诉我这一切都不在自己的计划中。“如果你是在5年前告诉我将主宰Wisconsin并全职运行一个太空王国，我会认为你疯了。”但这却是他现在所做的事。他一天中的大多数时间都是在管理他的太空联盟中的人，并管理自己的电子游戏新闻网站，偶尔还会做做瑜伽。

我之所以会找到Gianturco是因为我想搞清楚这款游戏到底有什么吸引力。不管何时只要《星战前夜》一上头条，Gianturco便有得忙了。只要搜索他的名字你便会知道他曾帮助开始战斗，监视敌人，安排间谍任务并通过领导最大且最坏的玩家群组而被其他玩家所熟知。他在《星战前夜》中的体验充满了戏剧性，足够写一本精彩的回忆录了。

当有人尝试着玩游戏并只因为无聊而多次退出游戏时，我真的非常惊讶。

很少有游戏带有如此矛盾的外在形象。《星战前夜》虽然让人很兴奋，但同时也有人觉得很无聊。《星战前夜》将通过其间谍故事，信任与背叛等等内容吸引玩家的注意，但即使是长期玩家也认为大多数人会在完成教程前便关掉游戏。《星战前夜》可能是你玩过的最有趣的游戏。它有可能把你迷的晕头转向。

但是我想知道自己错过了什么。这款游戏是否只是“太空中的电子表格”，就像许多玩家所开玩笑说的那样？或者像Gianturco这样的玩家是否发现了我未看到的宇宙的其它部分？

Gianturco说道：“《星战前夜》中的乐趣在于大多数玩家会在玩了6个月至1年后才开始获得体验。”所以耐心便是关键。玩家需要花费时间去学习游戏机制和游戏竞技。最重要的是，他们需要花时间去意识到所有的内容都是相连的，不管玩家喜不喜欢。Gianturco说道：“每个人都会掉进同样的银河中。就像被抓住的老鼠一样。”

源自冰岛

在2013年于洛杉矶举办的Electronic Entertainment Expo（E3）上，我在CCP的展台上与《Eve Online》的开发者，同时也是其公司首席执行官Hilmar Petursson见了面。E3上的大多数发行商都有属于自己的明亮展台，经常充斥着各种音乐和闪光灯去吸引人们的注意。但是CCP的展台却隐藏在楼上的一个房间里，远离了主要的展览层。这个房间故意调得很暗，想要仿效太空中的场景。同时他们还利用扬声器创造你在《星战前夜》中的太空船里会听到的声音。

Petursson和我面对面坐在一个封锁的房间里。他的讲话方式非常平静且充满耐性。他带有浓浓的冰岛口音，所以他所讲的每个单词都像在着重强调什么似得。如果他说对你感到失望，你一定会相信的。他告诉我，他刚从与好莱坞执行官的会议回来—-他们在讨论如何将《星战前夜》的故事变成一部电视剧。

我打断了他的话：“关于那些故事。”我告诉他我所听到的事。我告诉他关于间谍故事，巨大的战争，阴谋和间谍活动等等。我告诉他我知道《星战前夜》带有这些故事，但作为驾驶着一艘舰船中飞来飞去的玩家，我不知道它们是源自哪里。

基于游戏术语，《星战前夜》是一款“沙盒”游戏。就像在操场上发现一个沙盒一样，游戏提供给玩家工具和环境去做它们想做的事。这里并不存在可遵循且值得解开的故事。游戏并未提供给玩家一个能够起到帮助作用的好人或者一个需要打击的坏人。每个人都是基于同样的服务器在游戏。

服务器内部是太阳系和各个领域，并且都带有不同的矿物让玩家能够挖掘并用于创造道具。玩家也可以使用游戏内部货币ISK在游戏市场中购买这些道具和资源。

ISK是一种特别的电子游戏货币。举个例子来说，这并不是停滞不前的一种货币。它也会遇到现实货币那样的波动。它同样也具有现实价值，即许多《星战前夜》玩家能够利用的。ISK不能被转变成真钱，但是却能够用于购买名为PLEX的道具。而PLEX有两个用途：能够转换成同等数量的ISK，或者能够用于购买游戏时间。每月订阅的成本大概是15美元，所以PLEX的价格也会在游戏市场中波动着，ISK的现实价值也会波动。这意味着如果有人在游戏中创造了足够多的ISK，他们便能够使用ISK去购买PLEX，并使用PLEX去支付每月的游戏订阅费用。这是很容易理解的。

当你在《星战前夜》中漂浮时，你将会看到远处的星云。你可能也会看到一些太空石。然后还有一些图表。这些图表将告诉你你附近有什么东西，这些东西是否是星门，是否会将你带到其它星系。我是否会觉得这是有趣的？

Petursson笑了。他简单地回答：“不完全是这样”。并从20世纪90年代中期开始说起。

在1997年，他和一群开发者（之后组成了CCP）想出了创造一款更多关于玩家而不是游戏本身的理念。他们决定先发行一款名为《The Danger Game》的桌面游戏而为这个理念筹集资金。这款游戏面向冰岛8万多家庭卖出了1万份。在私人投资者的帮助下，该公司努力筹集到300万美元的资金。

“我们从未制作过计算机游戏，我们甚至不知道谁创造过这类型游戏。但我们已经做了许多事。我们创造过3D内容，我们拥有各种用户，我们创造了一款桌面游戏。然后我们拥有了这一想法，‘我们拥有300万美元，我们拥有30个人，所以我们可以创造一些较小的内容，并确保所做的一切都是有效率的。我们不能只是为游戏创造各种内容，因为这是劳动密集型的做法，这是关于更大的产品。”

“所以我们为游戏世界创造了一个操作系统，这是一个你能够在此创造所有内容并在一个开放市场进行出售的世界。你可以组建一个团体，这些团体可以占领区域并争夺战略主导地位。这听起来就像是可以由30个人完成的系统，而之后加入的人将完成剩下的内容。”

在经过3年的开发以及一些测试后，《星战前夜》最终发行于2003年。

Petursson表示他拥有一些关于人们如何游戏的理论。当人们刚开始时，他们会先尝试攻克领域。但有些人可能在一开始还不够强大，不能战胜计算机控制的海盗，所以他们会请求朋友的帮助，并组建团队。那时候的游戏世界还不如现在这么连贯，所以大多数人会邀请他们在现实世界中所认识的人，这将导致他们按照地理位置竖起一道道巨大的组块。并导致一些不可预见的情况。

Petursson拿了我的笔记本和笔并绘制了四个斜斜歪歪的点。他将它们分别标注为：“R”（俄罗斯人），“S”（北欧人），“A”（美国人），“F和G”（法国人和德国人）。

他说道：“所以在一开始，俄罗斯人声称占领了这一区域。”然后描摹了“R”旁边的点。“北欧人声称占领了这一区域，”同样描摹了“S”旁边的店。“还有法国人和德国人，”他轻敲了“F和G”，“以及美国人”，并轻敲了“A”。“俄罗斯人并不知道为什么他们不能攻克北欧人的领域。这款游戏在俄罗斯非常受欢迎。因为太空和统治世界深得俄罗斯人的心。”

俄罗斯人不断攻击北欧人，但北欧人似乎拥有无限量供应的舰船和武器。俄罗斯人不知道为何在游戏中并不大的群组能够站稳脚步。通过几周的间谍活动，他们将自己的人安插到北欧和美国人的团体中作为间谍，如此俄罗斯人便了解美国正在秘密资助北欧人。

Petursson说道：“北欧人秘密寻求美国人的帮助。没人知道这件事。直到俄罗斯人发现，然后他们联合法国人去攻击美国人，从而破坏了这条供应线。然后俄罗斯人便能够攻占北欧人的区域了。”

所有的这些事都是发生在《星战前夜》发行后的前几个月，即当游戏还只有3万名玩家的时候。而现在这款游戏已经有超过50万名玩家了。

Petursson说道：“我们并未控制玩家或告诉他们游戏故事。这是一款属于玩家的游戏。”

人多势众

玩《星战前夜》并不存在正确或错误的方式。没有什么能够阻止玩家独自跳跃，挖掘矿物，执行任务（游戏邦注：包括到达一个地方，挖掘某些东西，卖掉这些东西，与海盗抗衡，痛打，冲洗，再重复），制造，装舱货物以及操控市场。有些玩家对这些事非常满足。但是也有人对此已经麻木了。

来自《星战前夜》的Council of Stellar Management（由玩家选择出来的与CCP交流如何完善游戏的群组）的Bjorn “Kesper North” Townsend说道：“一切真的开始变得有趣是在玩家能够在特定区域为了资源，身份或某些观点进行战斗。”在现实生活中，Townsend是来自美国新泽西州的一名30岁产品经理。而在《星战前夜》中，他管理着一个拥有超过3400名成员的联盟，负责将他们带到战斗中，并遵守零安全区域中出现的政策。《星战前夜》被划分成三个安全区域：高安全区域（由CCP所维持），低安全区域（缺少监视的区域）以及零安全区域（没有任何安全性的区域，任何事情都有可能发生）。

根据Townsend，因为玩家已经学会如何更有效地游戏，所以游戏变得更巨大且更让人兴奋。与现在相比，早前的俄罗斯人，北欧人，法国人和美国人的活动真的太简单了。

这都是从基本的扩展理念开始。两名玩家在争夺领域。他们能够相互抗衡，或者一名玩家将带来一个好友与对方抗衡，这将提高他的获胜机会。就像其他玩家也可以叫上10名好友去对抗对手。双方将持续抗衡，直至一方获胜。这种类型的扩展在《星战前夜》中更加普遍。如果一个人将独自挖掘矿物，他便需要挖掘矿物，运送矿物，然后加工矿物。如果他邀请了两个朋友，他们之中便可以有人专注于其中的某一步骤。如果他邀请30个人，那么他们在同样时间里所制作的产品数将倍增。

当玩家组成一队时，他们将变成一个团体。这些团体的首领便是CEO。Townsend说道，作为《星战前夜》的CEO其实就像真正的CEO一样。他说道：“你必须处理人力资源问题，安全问题。按需要领导你们联盟中的成员，提供给他们关于该实现什么等策略，并告诉他们你希望他们怎么做。”

“你同时也需要确保你的联盟是有利可图的，因为在《星战前夜》中，为了扩展，发动战争，你就需要能在一开始提供一定的资金。”

关于扩展的层度并没有限制，因为玩家将决定他们自己的目标。有些团体可能只是想要有效地挖掘材料从而制作出更多武器，并与其他玩家进行战斗。还有些团体则只想占领区域。不管目标是什么，肯定人数越多越好。有些团体将会加入一些势力而组成联盟。而有些联盟将会加入一些势力促成更大的联盟。

Townsend说道：“游戏中的每一个主要成就都要求一群人的齐心协力，不管是5个人尝试着穿越敌方空间，还是3000个人尝试着攻克一个区域。你将被迫合作去实现目标，这将能够培养一支团队精神。你将能够对自己的成就感到骄傲，而你的成就也将对游戏本身产生持久的影响。你可以指向一个太空区域并说道，嘿，我和我的同盟们攻下了这片区域，或者我破坏了这艘巨大的飞船，这将成为你之后的生活中不可磨灭的存在。”

可爱的失败者，中间人和黑手党

并不是所有玩《星战前夜》的人都有胜负心。并不是所有人都想要占领区域或发挥优势。

Dennis Gilmore是华盛顿一家制造公司的运营经理，今年45岁。在《星战前夜》中，他被称为Del DelVechio，是两个团体的首领。Gilmore运行着名为Red和Blue的团体。这两个团体经常组织在一起彼此对抗。他们参与了一场永久战。对于Red对抗Blue，这就像是游戏中的游戏一样。

Gilmore在电话上告诉我：“每个人都知道我们是谁。我们是可爱的失败者。我们驾驶着廉价的飞船。我们并未在乎这点。我们只是出于乐趣。如果你出现并杀了我们所有人，我们将会为了获得更多乐趣而再次回来。我们因为做着我们所做的事而被熟知，而这些事只是出面，破坏舰船，玩的愉快。”

Gilmore采用与足球教练训练类似的方法去组织Red与Blue的对抗。玩家将移向任何一支团队，确保团队数接近平衡。每只团队拥有自己的指挥者，将决定采取怎样的策略，驾驶怎样的飞船以及使用什么类型的弹药。

有些玩家对太空飞船战争并不感兴趣。Christer “Chribba” Enberg便是《星战前夜》中最有名的玩家之一。他是在2003年的春天开始游戏，并为自己创造了一些特别的内容，不管是关于他所做的还是他所知名的。

来自立陶宛同时也是Council of Stellar Management中的一员的Kasparas “Chitsa Jason” Jasiukenas说道：“Chribba是你能信赖的人。他是作为两个实体的中间人，如果他们想要交易一些巨大且昂贵的东西的话。人们之所以知道他是因为他是可信赖的。他永远都不会欺骗你，这在《星战前夜》中是很罕见的。”

Enberg是个中间人。事实上，这样的角色在游戏中是不存在的—-而玩家创造出他去满足自己的需求。在像Enberg这样的中间人出现前，玩家将在巨大的交易中轻松地欺骗对方。如果玩家想要出售一搜Titan（游戏邦注：《星战前夜》中最大的舰船之一）给其他玩家，那便没有什么能够阻止买房接受舰船并付钱。同样地，也没有什么能够阻止卖方收钱与交付船只。中间人Cue Enberg将同时收到船只和钱，并确保进行公平交易。在低安全区域中，他会对这笔交易收取3亿ISK，而在零安全区域中收取5亿ISK。尽管ISK的价值是相对的，但如果有人想要出售一件巨大且昂贵的商品，并且他们需要中间人，那么5亿ISK只是零钱而已。Enberg从2007年开始提供这一服务以来便未曾改变价格。

白天，Enberg是一个在瑞典网上赌场工作的员工，今年33岁。当我与他交谈时，他在现实生活中的样子与他在《星战前夜》中所塑造的友好且值得信赖的声誉并没有多大区别。他告诉我自己并未成为任何团体中的一员，因为作为中间人意味着他可以保持中立态度。如果他支持其中的一方，他便不再中立了。他告诉我自己意识到有许多人认为他是个“值得信赖的人”，但他希望自己不是唯一这样的人。他说他本来是个会骗人的人，但现在他没有理由撒谎了，因为现在诚实所带给他的利益远比撒谎多得多。

Chribba的信用在《星战前夜》中是众所周知的。来自Council of Stellar Management的Ellen “Ali” McManis说道：“如果你想要拍摄《星战前夜》，Chribba将会是个英雄而The Mittani将是坏人，尽管他们憎恨彼此并相互战斗。”这两个人经常相互比较去突出利他主义以及对方的独裁。

The Mittani运行着1万个人的Goonswarm Federation联盟，以及名为Clusterfuck Coalition且拥有4万人的更大群组。Enberg主要是独自游戏。Goonswarm和CFC拥有比其它联盟更多主权。Enberg没兴趣占领区域。Goonswarm和CFC经常加入战争。Enberg不喜欢与玩家战斗。

Enberg没有竞争性。他说自己只是喜欢帮助别人。

关于竞争的另一边是Dirt Nap Squad，即带有80多个严谨且极具竞争性的玩家的团体。DNS并非为了争夺太空区域而战斗，但不管它是为什么而战斗，它都都是为了获胜。

DNS的首领是Bradley “DNSBlack” King，一个来自密歇根，总是说出豪言壮语的园艺师兼摔跤和足球教练。他非常认真地运行着这一团体，他将所有成员都当成体育团队中的一员，他期待着团员们能够受到鼓舞并集中精神。

King邀请我参加DNS通过TeamSpeak进行的声音会议。大多数团体总是有许多方法在游戏外部进行团员间的交流。有些团体拥有自己的论坛，也有些依赖于Jabber，Skype或IRC。对于某些玩家来说，大多数游戏都是发生在《星战前夜》客户端外部。

在我登录TeamSpeak之前，Kind发给我会议议程。有一个关于开场白的标注，即包括像卫星测量和战略货舰等团体项目。他们将提及舰船配件等等内容。然后还有一个点句标注了“Zachary King Wrestling”。King的儿子在学校是名摔跤手。摔跤团队能够四处旅行并与其它学校进行比赛。King在电话中解释，如果DNS中的任何人想要捐助与帮忙，学校便会非常感谢。

King告诉我：“DNS并不是关于一个人或英雄。我们是关于集体与友情。我们是关于游戏的人道主义。”

该团体以彼此间的亲密无间而自豪，并且他们会非常谨慎地选择战斗。King说道：“我知道那些加入DNS的人并不想成为争夺主权中的一份子。他们不想变成‘嘿，我们很重要，看着我们！’。那是我所说的黑手党，即没有基地的组织。我们住在后方，但我们却参与了那些战斗。我们与朋友们一起参与了那些战斗。”

太空中的电子数据表

当我离开DNS会议时，我开始理解为什么会有这么多玩家喜欢《星战前夜》。如果《星战前夜》并不存在的话，DNS的成员有可能会一起玩一款不同的游戏。因为《星战前夜》让他们能够做任何想做的事。他们可以在隔天就改变想法并决定想要与所有人战斗，《星战前夜》也会允许他们这么做的。他们可能想要在游戏中变成最有趣的团体，游戏中的机制也不会阻止他们的。但是在我开始游戏前我一直想到我所听到的一个玩笑：这款游戏就像是在太空中设置电子数据表一样。

我所交流过的所有玩家都未曾提到电子数据表。

Townsend告诉我：“你应该见见Mynnna。他是The Mittani的财务人员。他将会帮助你。”

我找到了Michael “Mynnna” Porter，他是来自科罗拉多的一名27岁的工程师，同时也致力于Council of Stellar Management。他是Goonswarm Federation（由The Mittani所运行的联盟）的成员。他的主要角色便是监管联盟的财务。他同样也管理着Goonswarm Federation的租赁帝国。Porter是Goonswarm Federation中唯一的财务员。The Goons运行着一个平滑的机器。拥有上千名成员，并委派给他们各种任务。有些人管理着联盟的资源。有些人被委任去制造船只和武器。这里也存在HR单位。有一个部门专注于训练新玩家。有一个部门致力于间谍和反情报活动。CCP并未命令玩家必须基于任何特定方式组建团体和联盟。游戏中的玩家可以自己想出这些结构。Porter告诉我，他所做的大多数事都很直接，是的，就是电子数据表。大多数Goonswarm的钱都是来自成员挖掘的矿物。他说道：“月球上的矿物没有什么用，所有你必须通过一系列反应将其变成有用的东西。我们将其出售给想要运行这些反应的团体成员，因为这对于他们来说也是有利的。”

租赁帝国是相对较新的Goonswarm主动权的表现。作为《星战前夜》中最强大的势力之一的联盟拥有许多太空领域。它拥有比需要使用更多的领域。就像许多带有很多房产并追求着更多利益的房东一样，Goonswarm会将多余的领域租给其他联盟成员。他说道：“这就像是管理太空公寓一样，除了玩家可以直接射杀你的租客外。”

基于Goonswarm Federation现在所拥有的太空领域的数量，Porter估计它每个月最多可以赚取7000亿ISK。这在《星战前夜》中能够帮助一名玩家购买大约1000搜战斗舰船。大多数租赁帝国的管理都是游戏外部进行的。如果一个团体想要住在Goon控制的领域中，他只需要给Porter发送邮件便可。

当Porter不再管理Goonswarm Federation的财务时，他可能会为了利益去操控《星战前夜》的市场。我让他举个例子。他说了一个，但不得不解释2遍。因为这很复杂。

大约1年半以前，CCP为了鼓励玩家在PVP战斗中相互对抗而更新了《星战前夜》。基于这次更新，那些获胜的玩家将获得Loyalty Points，也就是另一种货币类型。Loyalty Points奖励数量是根据被摧毁物体的价值而决定。这一价值是基于一个道具的平均价格。这是关于平均价格的估算：每一天，游戏将追踪售出的每一种道具以及它所出售的价格。如此便会创造出每日的平均值。Loyalty Points系统将着眼于一定时期的平均值。而最终数字将觉得被摧毁道具的价值，以及在PVP战斗中玩家每次摧毁道具时获得了多少Loyalty Points。

Porter及其朋友计算出了这一联系并有效地利用它。

他说道：“所以我们选择了一个销量很低同时价格也很低的道具，然后给予非常高的价格和较大的数量对自己出售。”通过这么做，Porter扭曲了道具的平均价格。然后他和朋友会使用这一道具装备自己，在游戏中消灭对方，获取Loyalty Points，并使用它们去购买更多廉价道具，从而创造出巨大的利益。

他说道：“这应该算是我在游戏中做过的最复杂的事。这将与两个没什么关系的系统联系在一起，然后思考如何为了获得意外结果将其作用在一起。”

他认为游戏市场与现实世界的商品市场具有一些交集。一种资源的价值将基于人们需求而波动。有时候这种周期是按周为单位，有时候则是按月，有时候会爆发战争，如此资源的成本将会随着团体对资源的需求增加而增加。他们会一次性购买无数舰船和装备。这又回到了沙盒机制。玩家并不能从虚拟商店中购买无尽的武器。每一种道具都是由任何玩家所制造的。一旦道具被摧毁，也就没了。

The Mittani

在开始玩《星战前夜》时我就听过The Mittani。我所交谈过的每一个玩家都知道这个名字，并且根据不同处境，他们对他也持有不同看法。

Townsend说道：“他是一个非常有策略的思想家。他同样也知道如何把握人性，这是你在一名玩家身上很难找到的。他非常擅于理解并利用人们的动机，对于这点我真的很羡慕。我将他当成朋友，并且从未对他感到失望。”

McManis说道：“The Mittani非常有名，因为他是一名间谍专家，独裁者，同时也是CFC的首领。他摧垮了Band of Brothers联盟（曾是游戏中一大势力）。他运行的组织总是会在任何战斗中获取胜利。”

还有一名匿名玩家认为：“他就是个讨厌鬼。”

如果存在你并不想遇到的集团，那便是Goons。如果《星战前夜》是一款由数字决定势力的游戏，那么Goonswarm Federation和CFC便是最强大的。当有成员加入时，他们将自动给予其战斗舰船。如果他们在战斗中摧毁了舰船，Goonswarm将给他们另外一辆。这是一个非常强大且有钱的联盟，根本就不会吝啬自己的资源。这也是为何会有很多玩家选择Goonswarm Federation的原因：他们发给新玩家的信息是，与我们一起，杀敌，享受乐趣。

Goons是源自Something Awful社区的玩家群组，拥有自己的论坛，漫画，访问和博客。当被问到他们是以什么出名时，除了作为当前《星战前夜》中的超级力量，有个玩家将他们描述为“专业的shit-stirrers”。

在我与Alex “The Mittani” Gianturco交谈的时候，这位退休的律师告诉了我他们在2005年最初开始游戏时的故事。

作为团体的领导者之一，他是想出欺骗理念的人之一。在《星战前夜》早期时候，玩家并不能将舰船开到星际之门—-他们只能在15千米以内驾驶。所以在到达一个位置时，玩家不得不进行接下来的15次点击而进入真正的星际之门，从而让自己能够进入太空领域的一个不同地方。玩家尝试着通过书签进行记录，这是帮助他们到达特定之门最精确的坐标。《星战前夜》的玩家拥有上百个书签，即针对于游戏中的每一个区域。这一系统在之后发生了改变，但是在此之前，Gianturco在其中发挥着重要的作用。

其理念便是出售一套书签—-它们将会非常精确，除了一个并未真正的星际之门书签外。Giaturco说道：“它将把你带到我们所设置的玩家所拥有的驻地中的一个可怕陷阱中。所以在早前我们的大多数活动都是围绕着这样的驻地进行设置，我们已经设定了低安全区域并观看着那些购买了这一套书签的玩家掉进陷阱中。然后我们会抢走他们的道具并嘲笑他们。”

“我们是Goons—-我们从一开始便一直在搞破坏。”

Goons并未打算去通知《星战前夜》。实际上，Gianturco表示，是游戏之前的超级势力Band of Brothers将他们带到今天的局面。

在Gianturco的事件版本中，当Goonswarm形成时，它便尝试着作为一个带有好公民的群组。那时候的游戏文化并不能接受间谍，欺骗等行为，所以它尝试着去适应。这一团体并未拥有任何太空领域，只是乘着名为rifters的不惧威胁的舰船飞来飞去。最终，这些rifter变成了更大的舰船，而该团体也开始进入独立的零安全区域。那时候最强大的联盟Band of Brothers认为他们已经拥有足够的Goons了，所以决定开始驱逐他们。

Gianturco说道：“所以在2006年7月，他们宣称要摧毁Goonswarm。我们感到非常生气。Gianturco认为这是关于原则的问题：他相信Goonswarm接受了不公平的待遇，因为他们被当成了外人，因为他们是来自Something Awful。在他的眼中，Goons的行为并不造成任何威胁。”我们花了3年时间进行起诉，并摧毁他们所拥有的一切。“

在这场特别的战斗中，Goons寡不敌众。如果这只是一场基于舰船的战斗，他们是不可能获胜的。Band of Brothers拥有许多联盟。但最终Goons却赢了。所以他们理所当然地将Gianturco当成间谍首脑。

2008年，Band of Brothers中一位首领叛逃到Goons。2009年，即战争的第3年，Gianturco在位于华盛顿的办公室中突然醒悟过来。他意识到可以利用那个叛变的首领解散整个Band of Brothers联盟（只要轻轻点击便可）。

间谍能够撤除来自其它联盟的团体。他可以驱逐所有的团体，抢夺执行团体的所有钱与资产，并最终结束联盟。Gianturco无需登录游戏便能够安排这次的解散。就像《星战前夜》中大多数让人印象深刻的成就一样，这次的计划也是发生在游戏外部。当计划开始时，他只需要告诉叛逃首领“扣动扳机”便可。

Townsend说道：“如果你在Band of Brothers联盟被解散前后着眼于地图，你会发现图上的一个点消失了，并且所有主权也发生了改变。这就像是在《星战前夜》宇宙中引起共鸣的冲击波，尽管在图上看来并不明显—-因为没有巨大的爆炸，但是你可以基于玩家在地图上看到这次事件所带来的影响。”

最终在几次点击后Band of Brothers失去了在太空中的一切。而Goonswarm进驻了Band of Brothers的领域。

根据Gianturco，因为自己的无情，Goons仍掌握着权利。在他首次作为Goonswarm的CEO时，他认为自己是个可怕的领导者，因为他尝试着在团体中创造民主。他说道：“《星战前夜》教会你所有关于人类的可怕性质。但是在《星战前夜》中却从未出现成功的民主。它们要不就是出现内讧要不就是被压倒了。”

他说道：“人们想要被那些强大且勇敢的人所领导。如果他们的领导者是弱者，那么所有的一切便会开始瓦解。”

为了保证Goonswarm Federation的成功，Gianturco决定强权运行联盟。

他说道：“你是如何处理反对者？有很多人在遇到那些认为自己是劣等领导者时会做两件事：他们会在论坛高谈阔论，或者他们会与反对者见面并尝试着听取对方的意见。显然，如果有人持有合理的批评看法，你就应该尝试着去解决问题。但很多时候，人们只是尝试着去激起愤怒。

“所以你真正需要做的只是在没人注意的时候从后面射击他们。你并不能从中获得多大好处。你无需宣告这件事。你只需要在没人注意的时候将反对者消灭便可。”

从那时以来Gianturco便一直掌握着权利。

Band of Brothers

在被解散后，Band of Brother一直尝试着进行重组，但《星战前夜》的规定是玩家必须等待24个小时才能够组建一个新的联盟，而这对他们来说就太迟了。因为等到那时候他们的大多数主权便被占领了。

在Band of Brothers面前，Par “Molle” Molen仍然运行着自己的团体Evolution。Molen是来自美国东海岸的一位46岁的初创企业经理。据他自己承认，它可能是《星战前夜》中最让人讨厌的人之一。

他说道：“我们都很自大。我们不会因为自己的优秀而害羞，我们会不断地践踏所有人。并且不会因此感到羞愧。”

Band of Brothers和Goons之间的争论焦点其实就是个哲学原理。他说道：“欺骗别人，背叛别人并不是我们做事的方法。我们的原理更甚：我们将接近你，扇你巴掌，并且会在做之前让你知道，你将会知道我在做什么以及这么做的目的，我们不会偷偷摸摸地做任何事，我们不会欺骗也不会背叛。”

“这是两周完全不同的原理。我并不想对Goons的原理进行过多评论。”

在Band of Bronthers被解散的那一天，Molen甚至未登陆游戏便知道发生问题了。他进入了联盟的IRC聊天室，那里简直一篇混乱。Molen说他马上就知道问题出在谁身上，因为虽然在Band of Brothers中有很多人带有权利，但却只有一个人在事情发生时在网上。直到今天他仍然未曾与那位叛变的领导者说过话。

回想事情的发生，Molen表示厌烦机制的存在。但却不带有恶意。因为这只是一款游戏。他表示，你可以认真对待你的游戏，你也可以认真对待你的友情，但这只是游戏而已。

在他自己与《星战前夜》的大叙述中，他认为，不管怎样自己还是赢家。他说道：“这是毫无疑问的，因为我通过《星战前夜》认识了我的妻子。所以不管我被其他人打倒几次，我还是赢家。”

真实的

Hilmar Petursson最经常说的便是，他认为《星战前夜》很真实。那是在2003年，即游戏刚刚发行不久，他正处于陪产假期间。他在游戏期间向好友借了一艘舰船去帮助自己的团体挖掘矿物。当他起身去上厕所时，他将自己的舰船设置为自动驾驶状态。但是当他在几分钟后再次回到计算机前时，却发现自己的舰船遭到了海盗的攻击—-只剩下舰船的躯壳，连内容都被掠夺了。

他说道：“我真的很想大叫。我想要将电脑扔出窗外。内心一直在怨恨着，为什么游戏要这么对我？到底发生了什么？”

那时候，作为CCP的首席技术高，Petursson能够通过打出几行代码轻松地创造另一个Thorax。但是他却不能这么做。创造一些本没有的东西感觉就是不对的，特别是当其他玩家还非常努力地挖掘着矿物去制造道具时。他说道：“我就是在那时候才有这种想法。即在《星战前夜》中的道具都是真实的。它们也许没有实体，但却是真正存在的。就像理念，政策，宗教和理论意义，它们都是真实的，即使它们没有实体。”

Townsend说道：“这成为了一种习惯。我并不是说像人们在结束了一天的工作后开始玩《使命召唤》那样的习惯。而是人们花几天，几周，甚至是几个月的时间精心建造木船，铺设铁炉，或学习如何操控飞船的习惯。这是一套复杂的技能，而你拥有一个能够参与其中的社区。”

游戏以及在游戏中所形成的关系似乎是紧密维系在一起的。大多数玩家理解游戏只是游戏而已，他们应该带着这些想法认真游戏（就像Molen所说的：“让游戏就做为游戏。我将在游戏中射击你。结束游戏后我会请你喝啤酒。”）。但是他们的游戏体验中却存在某种真实元素。那时候他们便会觉得游戏就是真实的。而游戏带给他们的影响也是持久的。他们所创造的故事将反射到游戏以外的世界。

我回到了黑手党般的DNS会议，在TeamSpeak频道中的每一个人都是彼此的朋友，他们会一起聊天，打斗，大笑，做计划，也会一起驾驶飞船在银河间穿梭。我想起了Goons，即那个会无情战斗并执行铁腕统治的人，因为没人告诉Goon他们不喜欢他这么做。我想到我所交谈过的每一个《星战前夜》的玩家，他们都表示在与其他人一起玩游戏后都真正爱上了这款游戏。

所以我决定再次尝试《星战前夜》。我驾驶着护卫舰离开主屏幕并驶向云层，注视着远处的势头以及星际之门。在这个宇宙中有无数人是相互联系着的。这点真的让我大吃一惊。

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转功，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

EVE: THE MOST THRILLING BORING GAME IN THE UNIVERSE

By TraceyLien

“All of it surprises me.”

Alex “The Mittani” Gianturco is a long-time Eve Online player. In real life, he’s a retired DC attorney. In Eve, he’s a ruthless space dictator. Thinking about his journey from fresh-faced player to being arguably the most powerful person in the game, he tells me none of it was planned. “If you were to tell me five years ago I’d be living in Wisconsin and running a space empire full time, I’d think you were crazy.” But that’s what he now does. Most of his days are spent managing people in his space alliance, running his own video game news website and doing yoga.

I’ve sought out Gianturco because I want to understand the draw of the game. Whenever Eve Online makes headlines, there’s a good chance Gianturco has had something to do with it. A quick search of his name reveals that he’s helped start wars, spied on enemies, orchestrated espionage missions and made a name for himself by leading the biggest and baddest group of players in the game. His experience with Eve has been so full of drama, back-stabbing and deception, there’s enough juicy fodder for a tell-all memoir.

As someone who has tried to play the game and quit multiple times out of sheer boredom, all of this surprises me.

Few games have such a conflicting outward image. Eve Online is famously exciting, but also notoriously dull. Eve Online will lure in players with its stories of spying, trust and betrayal, but even long-time players will say that most people tune out before they even get past the tutorial. Eve Online is the most fun you’ll ever have in a game. Eve Online will put you into a coma.

I want to know what I’m missing. Is the game really just “spreadsheets in space,” as many players have joked? Or have players like Gianturco found the key to another part of the universe that I’ve not yet seen?

“The fun stuff in Eve is something that most players don’t get to experience until they’ve played the game for six months to a year,” Gianturco says. Patience is key. It takes time to learn the game’s mechanics. It takes time to learn the game’s economy. Most importantly, it takes time to realize everything is connected, whether the players like it or not. “Everyone is trapped in the same galaxy,” Gianturco says, “like rats in a cage.”

Origins in Iceland

I meet with the developer of Eve Online, CCP CEO Hilmar Pétursson at the company’s exhibition space during the 2013 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles. Most publishers at E3 have brightly-lit booths, often accompanied by loud, thumping music and strobe lights to draw attention. CCP’s booth is tucked away in a room upstairs, far from the main show floor. The room is deliberately dark — an attempt to mimic the sensation of being in space. Speakers play the sound you hear when you’re sitting in your ship in Eve Online (think: the hum of a hardworking air-conditioner).

Pétursson takes a seat opposite me in a cordoned-off room. There’s a calmness and patience to the way he speaks and carries himself. He has a thick Icelandic accent that makes his words sound like they’re underlined. If he told you he was disappointed in you, you’d believe it. He tells me he just came from a meeting with Hollywood executives — they were having talks about turning the stories from Eve Online into a television series.

“About those stories,” I say, interrupting him. I tell him what I’ve heard. I tell him about the stories of spying, of huge battles, of intrigue and espionage. I tell him I know that Eve Online has these stories, but as someone who has flown around in one of its little spaceship myself, I have no idea where they’re coming from.

Eve Online is, in gaming terms, a “sandbox” game. Like a sandbox found in a playground, the game has provided players with the tools and environment to make and do what they want. There’s no story to follow and unravel. The game doesn’t give players a good guy to help or a bad guy to defeat. Everyone plays on the same server.

Within the server are solar systems and regions, each with different minerals that players can mine and use to craft items. These items and resources can be bought and sold on the in-game marketplace using the in-game currency, ISK.

ISK is an unusual video game currency. For one, it’s not stagnant. It fluctuates like real-world currencies do. It also has a real-world value, which many Eve players take advantage of. ISK can’t be converted into real-world money, but it can be used to buy an item called PLEX. PLEX can be used for two things: it can be converted back into a sizable chunk of ISK, or it can be used to buy game time. The cost of a monthly subscription to Eve is approximately $15, so as the price of PLEX fluctuates on the in-game market, the real-world value of ISK also fluctuates. This means if someone makes enough ISK in the game, they can use that ISK to buy PLEX, and use that PLEX to pay for their monthly Eve subscription. That’s the simple side of it, at least.

When you’re floating in Eve space, you’ll see clouds of space dust in the distance. You might see some space rocks. And then there are tables and charts. These charts tell you what is within your vicinity, whether those things are stargates that will transport you to other solar systems, other players or moons from which you can mine things. Am I meant to find this fun and exciting?

Pétursson laughs. The short answer, he says, is “Not quite.” The long answer starts in the mid-1990s.

In 1997, and he and a group of developers (who would later form CCP) had an idea to make a game that was more about the players than the game itself. They decided to raise money for it by first releasing a board game called The Danger Game. The game sold more than 10,000 copies to Iceland’s 80,000 or so households. With the help of private investors, the company managed to raise something to the tune of $3 million.

“We had never made a computer game, and we didn’t even know anyone who had made a computer game,” Pétursson says. “But we had done a lot of things. We’d done 3-D, we’d done multi-user, we’d done a board game. Then we came up with this thesis of, ‘OK, we have $3 million, we have 30 people, so we have to do as little as possible and be very effective in what we do. We can’t just create a lot of content for the game because that is labor-intensive, and it’s a much bigger production.’

“So we basically built an operating system for a world, and it’s a world where you can make all the things in it and sell them on an open market. You can form corporations, and those corporations can claim territory and vie for strategic dominance. That sounds like a system that can be done by 30 people, and then the people who join the game after that, they will do the rest.”

After three years of development and some time in alpha and beta, Eve Online launched in 2003.

Pétursson says he had some theories about how people might play. When people first started, they would try to conquer territory. But many would not be strong enough to defeat the game’s computer-controlled pirates at first, so they would call in their friends and team up with each other. The world wasn’t as connected then as it is now, so most players would call on friends they knew in the real world, which led to huge blocks forming over geographic locations. This led to something unexpected.

“The game was very popular in Russia. There’s something about space and world domination — it was very inherently deep in the Russian psyche.”

Pétursson takes my notepad and pen and draws four squiggly blobs. He labels them: “R” (Russians), “S” (Scandinavians), “A” (Americans), “F & G” (French and German).

“So in the beginning, this region was claimed by the Russians,” he says, tracing the blob next to the “R.” “This region was claimed by the Scandinavians,” he says, doing the same for the Scandinavian blob. “Then there were the French and Germans,” he says, tapping at the “F & G,” “and the Americans,” tapping at the “A.” “The Russians couldn’t figure out why they couldn’t conquer the regions from the Scandinavians. The game was very popular in Russia. There’s something about space and world domination — it was very inherently deep in the Russian psyche.”

The Russians kept attacking the Scandinavians, but the Scandinavians seemed to have an endless supply of ships and weaponry. The Russians couldn’t figure out how a group that wasn’t even that big within the game was able to stand its ground so well. Through weeks of espionage and sending their own people into Scandinavian and American corporations as spies, the Russians learned that the Americans were secretly funding the Scandinavians through huge supply lines.

“The Scandinavians were asking the Americans for help, and it was secret,” Pétursson says. “Nobody knew. It wasn’t until the Russians found this out that they got the French to attack the Americans, breaking the supply line. Then the Russians were able to conquer Scandinavian territory.”

This all happened within the first few months of Eve’s launch when the game only had 30,000 players. The game now has more than 500,000 players.

“We’re not controlling them or telling the story of the game,” Pétursson says, handing my notepad and pen back to me. “The game is the players.”

Power in numbers

There is no right or wrong way to play Eve Online. There is nothing to stop a player from jumping in solo, mining for minerals, running missions (many of which involve going to a place, mining a thing, selling the thing, fighting a pirate, lathering, rinsing, repeating), manufacturing, holding cargo and manipulating the market. Some players are completely content to do this. Others find it mind numbing.

“Where things really become interesting is having conflicts with players over territory, over resources and even over identity or philosophy,” says Bjorn “Kesper North” Townsend, who is on Eve’s Council of Stellar Management, a player-elected group that communicates with CCP about ways to improve the game. In real life, Townsend is a product manager in his 30s from New Jersey. In Eve, he runs an alliance of more than 3,400 members, takes them into battles and is knee-deep in the politics that have emerged in Null-Sec in the years following the game’s launch. Eve is divided into three security zones: High-Sec (an area policed by CCP), Low-Sec (a less surveilled area) and Null-Sec (an area with no security where anything goes).

According to Townsend, the game has gotten as big and exciting as it has because players have learned how to be more efficient and effective. The early activities of the Russians, Scandinavians, French and Americans are a cakewalk compared to how big and complicated the conflicts and factions have become.

It all starts with the basic idea of escalation. Two players are vying for space. They could fight each other one on one, or one player could bring in a friend to fight with them, which increases their chance of victory. Seeing this, the other player calls upon 10 friends to fight alongside them. Both sides continue to one-up each other until someone wins. This kind of escalation can also be seen in the more mundane tasks in Eve. If a person were to mine for moon minerals on their own, they would have to mine them, transport them, and process them. If they rope in two friends, they can have one person focusing on each step of the process. If they rope in 30 people, they’re now producing 10 times the amount of resources in the same amount of time.

When players team up together, they’ll often form a corporation. The head of the corporation is the CEO. Townsend says being a CEO in Eve Online is a lot like being a real CEO. “You have to deal with human resources issues,” he says. “You have to deal with security issues. You have to provide leadership to the people within your alliance, giving them the strategy for what you’d like to achieve and telling the narrative of how you want to go about it.

“You also have to ensure that your alliance is profitable because in Eve, in order to expand, wage war, have a conflict, you need to be able to fund it financially in the first place.”

There are no limits to the level of escalation because players determine their own goals. Some corporations might just want to mine resources efficiently so they can manufacture weapons and go out to pick fights with other players. Others might want to own territory, and a lot of it at that. Whatever it is, it’s power in numbers. Some corporations will join forces to form alliances. Some alliances will then join forces to form coalitions.

“Every single major achievement in the game absolutely requires the concerted effort of a group of people, whether it’s five people trying to make it through hostage space together, or 3,000 people trying to conquer a region,” Townsend says. “You’re forced to work together to achieve goals, and that fosters a strong sense of teamwork and community. You’re able to take pride in your accomplishments, and your accomplishments are very tangible and have a lasting impact on the game itself. You can point to an area of space and say, hey, I conquered this space with my alliance, or I destroyed this massive titanic ship here, and that gives you a history and friendship that you bond over for the rest of your life.”

Loveable losers, the broker and the mafia

Not everyone who plays Eve Online has ambitions to win the war of sovereignty. Not everyone wants to own space and exert their dominance.

Dennis Gilmore is a 45-year-old operations manager for a manufacturing company in Washington. In Eve, he’s better known as Del DelVechio, the head of two corporations that perhaps exemplify the Eve sandbox. Gilmore runs a corporation named Red and another named Blue. The two corporations regularly come together to fight each other. They’re engaged in a perpetual war. For Red versus Blue, this is a game within a game.

“Everybody knows what we are,” Gilmore tells me over the phone. “We’re kind of the loveable losers. We fly cheap ships. We’re not serious about it. We’re in it for the fun. If you show up and slaughter us all, we’ll just come back for more. We’re known for doing what we do, which is just going out, destroying ships, and having a good time.”

Gilmore organizes Red versus Blue in the same way a football coach might organize two teams at training. Players move into either team, ensuring the numbers are close to even. Each team has its own fleet commanders who decide what the tactics will be, what kind of ships they will fly and what types of ammunition they will use — and off they go.

Some players aren’t even interested in spaceship battles. Christer “Chribba” Enberg is one of the most well-known players in Eve Online. He started playing in the spring of 2003 and has carved out something of a niche for himself, both in terms of what he does and what he is known for.

“Chribba — he is the guy you can trust,” says Kasparas “Chitsa Jason” Jasiukenas, a member of the Council of Stellar Management from Lithuania. “He acts as a third party between two entities if they want to trade something really big and expensive. People know him because you can trust him. He will never cheat you, which is kind of a rare thing in Eve.”

Enberg is a broker. Mechanically, such a role doesn’t exist in the game — the players invented it themselves to meet their own needs. Before brokers like Enberg came along, players could easily scam each other in large trades. If a player wanted to sell a Titan — one of the biggest ships in Eve Online — to another player, there was nothing to stop the buyer from taking the ship and never paying. Similarly, there was nothing to stop the seller from taking the money and never handing over the ship. Cue Enberg, a middleman who takes both the ship and money and ensures that a fair trade is made. He charges 300 million ISK for deals made in Low-Sec and 500 million ISK for deals made in Null-Sec. While the value of ISK is relative, if someone is in a position to trade an item so big and expensive that they require a broker, 500 million ISK is loose change. Enberg hasn’t changed his rates since he first began offering the service in 2007.

By day, Enberg is a 33-year-old who works at an online casino in Sweden. When I speak to him, his real-world persona is not too far from the friendly and trustworthy reputation he’s developed in Eve. He tells me he’s not part of any corporation because part of being a broker means he has to remain neutral. He would not be neutral if he was flying somebody else’s flag. He tells me he realizes that a lot of people see him as the “The Man You Can Trust,” but he hopes he is not the only one. He tells me that he could have scammed people, but it’s just not in his personality to do so. “At this point, I have no reason to scam at all, because whatever I would scam now would be far less than what I’ve earned by being honest,” he says.

Chribba’s trustworthiness is known throughout Eve. “If you were to cast Eve Online, Chribba would be the hero and The Mittani would be the villain, even though they don’t hate each other or fight each other,” says Ellen “Ali” McManis of the Council of Stellar Management. The two are often compared to each other to highlight the altruism of one and the dictatorial nature of the other.

The Mittani runs the Goonswarm Federation alliance of 10,000 and an even bigger group called the Clusterfuck Coalition of 40,000. Enberg mostly plays the game solo. Goonswarm and the CFC have more sovereignty than any other coalition. Enberg has no interest in owning space. Goonswarm and the CFC frequently engage in the headline-making wars. Enberg has no interest in fighting other players.

Enberg isn’t competitive. He says he just likes helping people.

DNS doesn’t fight for space, but whatever it does fight for, it fights to win.

On the other side of the competitive spectrum is the Dirt Nap Squad, a corporation of 80 or so close-knit, hyper-competitive players. DNS doesn’t fight for space, but whatever it does fight for, it fights to win.

The head of DNS is Bradley “DNSBlack” King, a tough-talking horticulturalist and wrestling and football coach from Michigan. He runs his corporation seriously (“There’s a role for everybody in Eve to be part of a great victory or a great loss”), he treats its members like they’re on a sports team (“There’s always gotta be grunts, there’s always gotta be the water guy or the equipment guy”), and he expects his members to be driven and focused (“They’re out there working hard for the team”).

King invites me to one of DNS’ meetings over the voice communication service TeamSpeak. Most corporations have ways of communicating with their members outside of Eve. Some have their own forums, while others rely on Jabber, Skype or IRC. For some players, most of the game happens outside the Eve client.

Before I log into TeamSpeak, King sends me the meeting’s agenda. There’s a bullet point for opening statements, one that covers corporation projects like moon surveying and a jump freighter service. There’s mention of ship fittings, a siphon initiative, and something about scratching a pole. Then there’s a bullet point titled “Zachary King Wrestling.” King’s son is a wrestler at school. The wrestling team is fundraising so it can travel and compete against other schools. King explains in the call that if anyone in DNS wants to chip in and help out, the school would really appreciate it.

“DNS is not about the ones and zeroes,” King tells me. “We’re about the people and the friendships. We’re about the human side of the game.”

The corporation prides itself on being a tight-knit and focused group that picks its battles carefully. “I know the people who join DNS, and they don’t want to be part of the whole sovereignty grind,” King says. “They don’t want to be part of the whole, ‘Hey we’re important, look at us!” thing. That’s the mafia, no-base organization I’m talking about. We live in the back alleys, but we get involved in those fights. We get involved in those fights with our friends.”

Spreadsheets in space

As I leave the DNS meeting, I begin to understand why so many players enjoy Eve. If Eve didn’t exist, the members of DNS would likely play a different game together. It just so happens that Eve gives them the wriggle room to do what they want, whatever flavor that may be that day, week or month. They could change their minds tomorrow and decide they want to fight everyone, and Eve would allow them to do that. They could decide they want to become the wealthiest corporation in the game, and the mechanics in Eve wouldn’t stop them. But I keep coming back to the joke I was told before I started playing: that the game is a bunch of spreadsheets in space.

None of the players I’ve spoken to have even mentioned spreadsheets.

“You should talk to Mynnna,” Townsend tells me. “He’s The Mittani’s finance guy. He’ll be able to help you.”

I track down Michael “Mynnna” Porter, a 27-year-old engineer from Colorado who is also on the Council of Stellar Management. He’s a member of the Goonswarm Federation, the alliance run by The Mittani. His primary role is being a director of finance for the alliance. He also manages Goonswarm Federation’s rental empire. Porter is only one of several finance directors in Goonswarm Federation. The Goons run a well-oiled machine. With thousands of members, tasks are delegated. There are people who manage the alliance’s resources. There are people assigned to manufacture ships and weapons. There’s an HR unit. There’s a division that focuses on training new players. There’s a department devoted to espionage and counter-intelligence. CCP didn’t dictate that players had to structure their corporations and alliances in any particular way. The game’s players came up with these structures themselves. Porter tells me most of what he does is fairly straightforward, and yes, it does involve spreadsheets. Most of Goonswarm’s money comes from minerals its members have mined. “The moon minerals in and of themselves are not useful, so you have to run them through a series of reactions to turn them into something useful,” he says. “We sell them to corporation members who want to run those reactions, because it’s profitable for them to do so.”

The rental empire is a relatively new Goonswarm initiative. The alliance — being one of the most powerful in Eve — owns a lot of space. It owns more space than it can use. Like any landlord with too much property and an eye for profit, Goonswarm rents it out to its alliance members. “It’s like managing a space apartment, except people can freely shoot at your tenants,” he says.

With the amount of space Goonswarm Federation currently holds, Porter estimates it has a maximum earning potential of 700 billion ISK per month. For context, that would buy a player about 1,000 warfare ships in Eve. Most of the rental empire is managed outside of the game. If a corporation wants to reside in Goon-controlled territory, it knows to email Porter.

When he’s not managing Goonswarm Federation’s finances, Porter likes to manipulate the Eve marketplace for profit. I ask for an example. He gives me one. He has to explain it twice. It’s complicated.

About a year and a half ago, CCP updated Eve Online to encourage players to fight each other in player versus player combat. Under this update, the player who won a fight obtained Loyalty Points, which is an alternate type of currency. The amount of Loyalty Points awarded was based on the value of what was destroyed. This value was based on the average price of an item. This is how the average price was calculated: Each day, the game keeps track of every item sold and the price at which it was sold. From this, it generates a daily average. The Loyalty Points system looks at the average of that average over a period of time. That final figure determines the value of a destroyed item, and how many Loyalty Points a player earns by destroying it in PvP combat.

Porter and his friends figured out this connection and took advantage of it.

“So we took an item with both very low quantity sold and a very low price, and then went and sold a large quantity at a very high price to ourselves,” he says. By doing this, Porter distorted the average price of the item. He and his friends would then kit themselves out with the item, kill each other in the game, reap the Loyalty Points, and use them to buy more of the cheap items, resulting in an enormous profit.

“That ranks up there as one of the most complex things I’ve done in the game,” he says. “It took associating these two barely related systems, and then figuring out how to make them play off each other for unintended consequences.”

Playing the market also has some parallels to real-world commodities markets, he says. The value of a resource fluctuates depending on the demand for it. Sometimes the cycles are weekly, sometimes they’re monthly, sometimes a war will break out and the cost of resources will skyrocket as corporations scramble to ramp up their forces. They’ll buy dozens or hundreds of ships and pieces of equipment all at once. It all comes back to the sandbox. There isn’t an infinite supply of weapons that players can just buy from a virtual store. Every item is made by someone. Once that item is destroyed, it’s gone.

The Mittani

I hear about The Mittani before I even start playing Eve. Every player I speak to knows the name and, depending on which side they fight for, has a different opinion of him.

“He is a very deep, strategic thinker,” Townsend says. “He also has a fine grasp of human nature, which is something you don’t often find in a gamer. He is very good at understanding the motivations of people and exploiting them to his own ends, which I say with considerable admiration. I consider him a friend and have never been disappointed by backing his plays.”

“The Mittani is famous because he is a spy master, a dictator, and head of the CFC,” McManis says. “He engineered the downfall of the Band of Brothers alliance, which was the previous superpower in the game. He runs an organization which ruthlessly and efficiently wins at most of the things it tries.”

“He’s a douche bag,” says a player who asks not to be named.

If there’s a faction you don’t want to cross, it’s the Goons. If Eve is a game where powers lie in the numbers, then Goonswarm Federation and the CFC are arguably the most powerful. When members join, they are automatically given a combat ship. If they go out and destroy that ship in battle, Goonswarm will give them another. The alliance is powerful and wealthy enough to not be precious about its resources. It’s one of the reasons so many players flock to Goonswarm Federation: The message they send to new players is come with us, kill some enemies, have some fun.

The Goons are a group of players who came from the Something Awful community, a comedy website with its own forums, comics, reviews and blogs. When asked what they were known for, aside from being the current superpower in Eve, one player described them as “professional shit-stirrers.”

During my chat with Alex “The Mittani” Gianturco, the retired attorney regales me with tales of the mischief he and and his teammates got into when they first started playing in 2005.

One of the leaders of the corporation he was part of came up with an idea for a scam. In the early days of Eve, players couldn’t warp their ships to a stargate — they could only warp themselves within 15 kilometers of one. So after warping to a location, players would have to spend the next 15 clicks getting themselves to the actual stargate so they could enter a different part of space. Players tried to circumvent this through bookmarks, which are the precise coordinates that would get them to a specific gate. Eve players would have hundreds of bookmarks, one for each region in the game. This system would later change, but before it did, Gianturco took part in a bookmark scam.

The idea was to sell a set of bookmarks — they would be completely accurate, except for one which wasn’t actually a bookmark for a gate. “What it did was it sent you into a horrible death trap at this player-owned station we’d set up, which was covered in guns,” Giaturco says. “So most of our activities in the early days was sitting around this station we had set up in Low-Sec and watching people who had bought this bookmark set just splatter into it like a bug on a windshield. We’d then loot their stuff and laugh at them.

“We’re Goons — we’ve pretty much always been griefers from the start.”

The Goons didn’t set out to rule Eve Online as ruthlessly as they have. In fact, Gianturco says the game’s previous superpower, Band of Brothers, provoked them into being what they are today.

In Gianturco’s version of events, when Goonswarm formed, it tried to be a group of good citizens. Spying, scamming and smack-talking were disapproved by the culture at the time, so it tried to fit in. The corporation didn’t own any space and flew around in non-threatening ships called rifters. Eventually, those rifters became bigger ships, and the corporation started taking its first steps into sovereign Null-Sec. Band of Brothers, the most powerful alliance at the time, decided it had had enough of the Goons and began forcing them out.

“So this was July 2006,” Gianturco says. “They declared Goonswarm must be destroyed. After that, we got nasty.” Gianturco says it’s about the principle: He believes Goonswarm was unfairly targeted because they were seen as outsiders, because they came from Something Awful. In his eyes, the Goons had done nothing to warrant this treatment. The gloves came off. “We spent the next three years prosecuting, burning everything they had and salting the earth.”

In this particular war, the Goons were outnumbered. If this was a war fought solely with ships, it is unlikely they would have won. Band of Brothers had too many allies on their side. But the Goons did win. They don’t call Gianturco a spymaster for no reason.

A member of Band of Brothers in a director’s position secretly defected to the Goons in 2008. In 2009, some three years into the war, Gianturco had a realization while sitting at his desk job in DC. In a moment that he describes being like “a brick to the head,” he realized the defected director was in a position to disband the entire Band of Brothers alliance in a matter of clicks.

The spy had the delegated ability to remove other corporations from the alliance. He could kick out all the corporations, steal all the money and assets from the executor corporation and finally, when the alliance was empty, close the alliance. And that’s exactly what happened. Gianturco didn’t even have to log in to the game to orchestrate the disbandment. Like most of the impressive feats achieved in Eve Online, the plotting and scheming took place outside the game. When the plan was in place, all he had to do was tell the director to pull the trigger.

Band of Brothers lost everything in the space of a few clicks.

“If you looked at the map before and after the Band of Brothers alliance was disbanded, you can see at one point the picture just snaps and all that sovereignty changes,” Townsend says. “It was like a shockwave that resonated throughout the Eve universe because, while it wasn’t graphically impressive — there was no big explosion, no titanic detonation — you could see the effects that were felt on the map of the game in terms of the big players.”

Band of Brothers lost everything in the space of a few clicks. Goonswarm moved in.

According to Gianturco, the Goons have remained in power in part due to his ruthlessness. In his first tenure as CEO of Goonswarm, he says he was a terrible leader because he tried to create a democracy within the corporation. “Eve teaches you all sorts of horrible things about people,” he says. “There has never been a successful democracy in Eve Online. They either implode or they get steamrolled.”

“People want to be led by someone who’s strong and someone who’s bold,” he says. “If they see weakness, then everything begins to collapse.”

To ensure the success of Goonswarm Federation, Gianturco runs the alliance with an iron fist.

“How do you deal with dissenters?” he says. “A lot of people, when they encounter someone who says they’re a shitty leader, they will do the two most common things: They will have a big screaming drama on the forums, or meet with the dissenter and try to listen to them. Obviously if someone has a valid criticism, you should try to fix those. But a lot of the time, people just try to stir shit.

“So what you actually do is quietly shoot them in the back of the head when no one is looking. You don’t make a big deal out of it. You don’t announce it. When nobody’s looking, just remove them. No man, no problem.”

Gianturco has been in power ever since.

Band of Brothers

Band of Brothers tried to reform after the disbandment, but a mechanic in Eve that requires players to wait 24 hours before they can form a new alliance meant they were too slow. Most of their sovereignty was gone. The alliance flew under the name Kenzoku for a few months before the corporations went their separate ways.

The face of Band of Brothers, Par “Molle” Molen, still runs his own corporation, Evolution. Molen is a 46-year-old start-up manager who lives on the East Coast of the U.S. By his own admission, he was probably one of the most hated people in Eve.

“We were very arrogant,” he says. “We were not shy about the fact that we were good and we could stomp on everybody. We were not shy about it at all.”

The point of contention between Band of Brothers and the Goons was a philosophical one. “Scamming people, betraying people … that was definitely not our way of doing things,” he says. “Our philosophy was more: OK, I’m going to come up to you; I’m going to punch you in the face; I’m going to let you know I’m punching you in the face before I do it; you will know that I am doing it and you will know the intention I’m doing it with; I won’t do anything backhanded; I won’t scam, I won’t betray.

“It’s two totally different philosophies. Goons are … I just won’t comment too much.”

The day Band of Brothers was disbanded, Molen didn’t even have to log in to Eve to know that something was wrong. He signed in to the alliance’s IRC chat room — there was complete chaos. Molen says he immediately knew who was responsible, because only so many people in Band of Brothers had that power, and only one of those people was online the time it happened. To this day, he still hasn’t spoken to the director who did it.

Thinking back on what happened, Molen says he is mostly annoyed that the mechanic existed at all. But there’s no ill will. It’s a game. You can be serious about your game, you can be serious about your friendships, but it’s a game, he says.

In his own grand narrative of Eve Online, he believes he’s won, anyway. “There’s no question about it,” he says, “because I met my wife through Eve. So I’ve won no matter how many times people shoot me down.”

It’s real

There’s a story Hilmar Pétursson often tells about the moment he realized Eve Online was “real.” It was 2003, the game had just launched, and he was on paternity leave. While playing the game, he borrowed a friend’s ship to help his corporation mine minerals. As he got up to use the restroom, he set his ship on autopilot. When he returned to his computer minutes later, the ship had been attacked by pirates — all that was left of the ship was its shell, its contents looted.

“I wanted to scream,” he says. “I wanted to throw my computer out the window. I was sweating. It was like, why is the game doing this to me? What’s going on?”

As chief technical officer of CCP at the time, Pétursson could have easily created another Thorax by typing in a few lines of code. But he couldn’t bring himself to do it. It felt wrong to create something from nothing, especially when every other player in the game was working so hard to mine minerals to manufacture everything they had from scratch. “And that’s when I felt it,” he says. “The items in Eve Online are real things. They might not be physical things, but they are real things. Like ideas and politics and religion and theories, they are real things, even if they are not physical things.”

“It becomes a hobby,” Townsend says. “And I don’t mean a hobby in the way that people like to unwind after a long day at work by playing Call of Duty. It’s a hobby more in a way that people spend days, weeks, months meticulously building wooden boats or model train sets or learning to fly airplanes. It’s a complex set of skills, and you have a community that you become involved with.”

The game and the relationships formed in Eve seem inextricably tied together. Most players understand the game is just a game, and they should only take it so seriously (“Let the game be a game,” Molen says, “I’ll shoot you in the game. I’ll buy you a beer on the side”). But there is something real about their experiences. The time they put into the game is real. The impact they have on the game is lasting. And the stories they create echo far beyond the world of Eve.

I’m brought back to the mafia-like DNS meeting, where every person in the TeamSpeak channel was friends, who chatted as they fought and laughed as they schemed and bonded as they flew through the galaxy as a kind of space mafia. I’m reminded of the Goons, who fought ruthlessly and rule with an iron fist because no one tells a Goon they’re not welcome. I think of every Eve player I’ve spoken to, who discovered their love for the game after playing with other people.

I decide to give Eve Online one more try. I undock my dinky frigate from the home screen and drift through clouds of space dust, eying the rocks in the distance and the complex tables with stargates. Hundreds of thousands of people are connected by this one universe. All of it surprises me.(source:polygon)