EVE player loses 30 billion ISK

By Fred Dutton Published 11 October, 2010

Scavengers take down $1200 vessel.

A massive coordinated suicide attack has cost one EVE Online player a staggering 30 billion ISK – that's $1200 in real money.

According to the MMORPG's official site, pilots from five different corporations teamed up to take down another player's pimped out Paladin vessel while he was in high-security space.

Apparently they stalked the player, user name Solarius, for two days before moving in for the kill. They then split the proceeds from the loot.

Solarius had kitted out his ship like some kind of intergalactic gin palace. The total value of all his vessel's brass doorknobs added up to 33.5 billion ISK (the in-game currency). If you were to cash that in it would buy you approximately seven years of game time.

Ouch. Insert your own favourite Confucian pride-before-a-fall proverb here.

Solarius did his best to make light of the $1200 loss, saying, "A drop in the ocean! That fit had netted me plenty of ISK durin' the time I had it. I could refit a Paladin to exactly the same spec if I wanted."

Whatever helps you sleep at night, matey.

Developer CCP Games recently unveiled the game's 14th expansion, titled Incursion. It's due out next month on PC.

Picture of Fred.

About Fred Dutton

Fred Dutton is Eurogamer's US news editor, based in Washington DC.

Read more articles from Fred by visiting the Fred Dutton archive page.

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Comments (42) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Vice.Destroyer #1 2 years ago

    I don't either. But I get that someone got severely butt-fucked.

  • mqblank #2 2 years ago

    I have been playing games for many, many years and I didn't understand any of that either.

  • Gl3n #3 2 years ago

    Happened 6 weeks ago as well. The dude basically built him a space ship worth a shit load of money, which was preyed on by suicide players flying vastly cheaper ships but in large numbers.

    Still, interesting news.

  • IronCladChicken #4 2 years ago

    The news stories always make me want to play Eve.
    The gameplay tends to put me off.

  • reelbigkris #5 2 years ago

    How can a virtual vessel cost that much? Very harsh to discover that anything you own in game can be stolen from you.

    Would have loved to see this attack documented with videos and comentary... or would it just be really boring?

  • jonbwfc #6 2 years ago

    33 billion and he still couldn't buy a life.

  • FortysixterUK #7 2 years ago

    You would think that the game maker would not allow players to steal other players hard earned gear.
    Yet another reason not to play the "spreadsheet in space " game methinks.
    If some little scrote in WOW took a sodding green item off one of my low lvl toons I'd be pissed. Looks to me like the victim of this attack has lost his entire game career. I frankly would never go back if I were him.

    PVP servers are the most ridiculous idea/game concept in the world in my opinion, getting ganked is never fun, ever.
    But to lose EVERYTHING as well ? fuck that.

    Play a good game mate, and not on a PVP server :)

    AOC needs good players...come to the dark side....on CROM server ofc, it's a PVE server, where you can't get killed by 13 year old kids with a decked out pally :).....did that sound bitter ? ...oh and of course, you probably wouldn't meet that many 13 year old kids in AOC 'cos :-
    1) It's actually a hard game and 2) it's got an 18 cert. ( probably doesn't stop 'em all though ! ).

    and if you look up in the sky at night in AOC you can still see the stars......

  • Velios #8 2 years ago

    Eh?? This happens all the time - a Titan costs that much to build, and about 20bn more to fit, so what's the big story here?

  • Eraysor #9 2 years ago

    Fortysixter, what the fuck are you on about?

  • Shikasama #10 2 years ago

    Fortysixter - Comparing Eve to WoW is like comparing Gold to Shit.

  • Gambit1977 #11 2 years ago

    Bizarre but interesting.
    What the fuck does it mean?

  • CaptainQuint #12 2 years ago

    I'm always fascinated by stories like this. I'd love to get into EVE, if only I had the time and resources. Plus I imagine a game like this has a pretty steep learning curve, which also puts me right off.

  • Kerome #13 2 years ago

    Why is it interesting though?

    If you think about it, it's only a bunch of kids mass-griefing another player. It happens in lots of other games, but there's no real skill being displayed... The only thing that makes it newsworthy is the value of the virtual asset, and most virtual assets are one way purchases, you often can't liquidate them so the value is dubious...

  • ziggy_played_guitar #14 2 years ago

    What FortysixterUK said makes some sense, I mean getting bullied in a virtual world ? wtf ?!

  • scottycam #15 2 years ago

    Obviously a lot of people commenting here have no idea how PvP in Eve works. He was in a sector of space that allows for anyone to attack anyone. Pirates are a part of the way Eve can be played. To have that much money and that level ship means that he knew the risks. No one was bullied, it's part of the game!

  • MikeP #16 2 years ago

    It's game with consequences, that's for sure.

    To him this might be about as much bother as Christiano Ronaldo stacking another Ferrari. Maybe he's been playing the game for years and runs an industrial corp, raking in a ton of ISK, perhaps he's a trader controlling a lucrative market.

    Or, he might be putting a brave face on the fact that he put all his eggs in one basket and now someone's taken it away from him.

    Either way, it's only a game, but it's a game that keeps you on your toes. It also has the best in-game community I've come across. I know some people think it's a care home for neckbeards, but in my experience it's nothing of the sort.

  • The_Inquisitor #17 2 years ago

    All's fair in love and war, this being war I assume. It's cool how art imitates life in the way that when you have someone with money, there'll always be people prepared to steal it... in this case space pirates.

  • CaoSlayer #18 2 years ago

    He can be proud of being the first player controlled raid boss.

  • Vyggo #19 2 years ago

    "Obviously a lot of people commenting here have no idea how PvP in Eve works. He was in a sector of space that allows for anyone to attack anyone. "

    The article said he was in high security space, that's why they suicide attacked him. The attackers are getting killed by the "space police" but still get some hits in. In low sec you can kill without repurcussions, but not in high sec. And I don't even play Eve..

  • a8a #20 2 years ago

    If you think about it, it's only a bunch of kids mass-griefing another player. It happens in lots of other games, but there's no real skill being displayed...

    Actually, its quite different to how you see it. The eve universe is based on retaining as much realism as possible with regard to it's social and economic aspects. There are systems in place, as in the real world, to discourage anti-social behaviour - but there is no meta-rule banning it. Piracy is not just griefing in Eve, it is a career choice.

    And as for skill, there was actually considerable skill and imagination involved. It was no impulse decision to gank a lowbie - there was all the trademarks of a movie-style heist. Days of scanning for a suitable target, coming up with a plan, assembling a team, tracking the target, and finally executing the job before the fuzz arrived.

    As for noteworthy elements, there are two points of significance here - one was the exceptionally high value of the target, for a solo non-capital ship. The second was the fact that this was not a battle for sovereignity of some system in zero security space - it was a small group of pirates executing a heist in high-security space, where traditionally this kind of piracy does not occur.

    While I agree that this news piece is of limited interest (ie: just to people who play the game), I do think it is both newsworthy within the context of the game, and interesting simply due to the fact that it contextualises Eve as a MMO universe where interesting player-driven things CAN happen. It is this kind of news piece that got me involved in Eve in the first place.

    People who are trying to put this into perspective using their experiences in other MMOs need to understand that EVE is not like WOW, at all.

    EDIT: Oh, and as for the comment about kids, well - of all the (relatively modern) MMOs, I would be reasonably confident that EVE has the fewest children playing.
    Edited by a8a at 11/10/10 @ 19:01

  • TOOTR #21 2 years ago

    Great post a8a.

  • RandomTerrain #22 2 years ago

    If there's any MMO I really want to play it's this one. Sounds like something I'd enjoy getting my teeth into. But alas, I only have a PS3. Probably for the best I suppose. Apparently I'm already really anti-social, lol.

  • mingster #23 2 years ago

    Well done ScottyCam for reading the article completely wrong.
    He was in Hi-Sec not not Low-sec.
    It's noteworthy as he should have been completely safe. With protection from EVE police (Concorde).
    It's the equivalent of killing someone on a non-pvp server in WOW. Without accepting a duel.

  • RandyKleen #24 2 years ago

    I find these events amusing.

  • CouldntResist #25 2 years ago

    Seems like a bit of a dick move taking out someones pride and joy like that. I'd be pissed!

  • Xeaon #26 2 years ago

    That's the whole point of the game really, it's about the fun of risk.

  • telboy007 #27 2 years ago

    I would cry if my Loki got suicide 'ploded, but you know.. it is all part of the game. No where is safe. Well, unless you're spinning a ship in a station - then you're perfectly safe.

  • r3n #28 2 years ago

    I'd love to play EVE if I had a second life and a lot of patience. Sadly I have neither :(

  • darkmorgado #29 2 years ago

    You would think that the game maker would not allow players to steal other players hard earned gear.
    Yet another reason not to play the "spreadsheet in space " game methinks.
    If some little scrote in WOW took a sodding green item off one of my low lvl toons I'd be pissed. Looks to me like the victim of this attack has lost his entire game career. I frankly would never go back if I were him.

    PVP servers are the most ridiculous idea/game concept in the world in my opinion, getting ganked is never fun, ever.
    But to lose EVERYTHING as well ? fuck that.

    a) You need to go back and re-read the article. It clearly says the player in question isn't bothered and has shit-loads more ISK where that came from

    b) You show a massive lack of understanding of the principles of EVE
    Edited by darkmorgado at 11/10/10 @ 20:41

  • Ajay #30 2 years ago

    "It's noteworthy as he should have been completely safe. With protection from EVE police (Concorde).
    It's the equivalent of killing someone on a non-pvp server in WOW. Without accepting a duel."

    That's not true - if Concord was meant to prevent this sort of thing in High Sec completely they would appear immediately and neutralise the aggressor with no delay. Instead, there's a scale of how rapidly they respond as the security of a system increases above 0.5 - it's not meant as absolute protection for a victim, but as an inevitable consequence for the attacker.

    To the majority of ships it won't be an issue, but one consequence of getting yourself noticed by flying the fanciest ship in the cluster is that you become a target - as anyone who's flying a 30bil ship will be aware.
    Edited by Ajay at 11/10/10 @ 20:43

  • Stompy #31 2 years ago

    Post deleted at 23:13:35 17-04-2012

  • Stompy #32 2 years ago

    Post deleted at 23:13:35 17-04-2012

  • Sevens #33 2 years ago

    Interesting (in-game) dynamics.

  • ResidentKnievel #34 2 years ago

    There is only one server in EVE, and that's the PVP server.

    Your ship isn't safe wherever you undock and your isk isn't safe wherever there's a market/contracts.

    The guy in the article would have been playing long enough to fully understand what EVE is all about, I doubt he would have bothered gathering all that ISK if there weren't any risk (fun) involved. The Risk of losing everything you have, and the chance to take everything from someone else, is what we long term EVE players find fun.
    Edited by ResidentKnievel at 11/10/10 @ 23:28

  • unacomn #35 2 years ago

    EVE Online: Gank someone and be in the news.

  • TheElfishGene #36 2 years ago

    Can't you insure yourself in EvE in case this kind of thing happens? in my brief foray into the game i seem to remember you could insure your ships before leaving dock.

  • Cosquae #37 2 years ago

    @Elfish.

    Yes, you can insure you ship but it's a minimal cover. It simply reimburses you for the cost of the materials used to make the ship. It doesn't cover the cost of the ship itself and -none- of the costs of the equipment fitted (which in this case was 99% of the 30bn lost). I think if he was insured in this case he would have been lucky to get 30m back.

  • edhe #38 2 years ago

    Can someone please make a p2p networked console game that plays like freelancer/privateer but has clan support and lets you build an economy and a fleet with cap ships and lets you make interesting stories like this in a GAME THAT IS EASY & FUN TO PLAY ?

    pleasekthanks.

  • Jacksie66 #39 2 years ago

    Uber gay...

  • memeroot #40 2 years ago

    sometimes I wish I was unemployed and could rule the world

  • FooAtari #41 2 years ago

    Quite a few people seem to miss the point of Eve.

    Just because you don't find it fun, plenty of other people enjoy it. Different strokes for different folks you know. Amazes me how much people do not get this simple concept in life. Not everything is tailored for you, and because you don't like something, doesn't make it shit.

  • swisstony #42 2 years ago

    I'm sure the guy knew the risks, and I'm inclined to believe he could refit a ship again, not that he hasn't lost a lot of money.

    I'm reminded of Siege Perilous, and old skool UO, where basically everyone went around in cheap armour and only a handful of magic reagents (for spells).

    The ridiculous thing was, all the supreme silver katanas of vanquishing (showing my age here) and other amazing armour and weapons never left your bank vault because you could lose them.

    Thus these items were effectively useless, and I found it pointless trying to acquire better gear because I knew I'd never wear it.

    What would be the point of having a 30 billion isk ship you couldn't fly (if you worried about losing it).

    The pvp takes away a great deal of interest in acquiring shiny things in MMOs. I find it a bit depressing, but not necessarily a bad thing.

    You go out with what you can afford to lose. If he didn't know that, that's unfortunate, if he did, I expect he's cool. I for one would have congratulated the guys on the tracking and heisting, that shows good teamwork and risk taking.

    If they were cool about it, rather than 'LAMER' this and that, it would make it a lot more palatable.