It's happened a couple of times with big guilds on my old WoW server. Vault emptying and everything.

Here's the thing; if you're not actually playing the game to a significant degree, no one's gonna fuck with you. Small things may happen, but people probably aren't gonna try and clean you out. Once you try to become part of the big leagues though, you're more or less agreeing to play hardball. The 2007 article referenced in this one has the Spy Master of the Goons (Mittani) say something similar. "EVE is considered by many to be a 'sandbox' MMO, and in such a place, only the ruthless survive."

And Mannix, from what I've heard this game is a horrible one to jump into. Because of aforementioned AFK leveling, there's no real way to catch up in this game. Unless you want to become a spy. Do you want to become a spy?

That makes a lot more sense then but in that case I don't get why they're talking about "destroyed" when really they just bought out another company.

It is kinda cool that the game lets you do hostile acquisitions and I'd be interesting in knowing the nitty-gritty of how the whole deal went down.

I'm given to understand the main appeal of the game is 1. as a quasi-interactive space-themed screensaver and 2. the chance to perpetrate shamelss corporate dickery against your "friends".

Well, one thing I like about the Goonfleet is that they used hundreds of starter ships and new players to swarm and destroy one of the rarest and most powerful ships to exist in the game. You don't necessarily need to "catch up" if you have a specific goal/role in mind and are able to use good tactics, etc. Most of the game occurs at the relatively low level - frigates and cruisers instead of death stars. Of course having higher level skills helps but a "high level" frigate or cruiser isn't unstoppable, especially in solo/small group pvp situations. Superior numbers/organization are often more effective than superior firepower. Or so I've gathered.

I guess the question is how you want to be an aspect in the game. Usually one plays to have a certain amount of wealth to themselves, so that they have more to bring to the table when the time comes. I mean, you can build a lot of power and have fun solely off influence, but you'll always be a step behind in terms of wealth.

Also, the spies and crap seemed to be made up of secondary, expendable accounts. Just saying that people may not be living off of this low level star cruisers. However, this is just what I'm gathering from reading articles.

Right, and I intend to approach this casually anyway until another mmo comes along. Conan and Warhammer left me kind of flat and at least this is interesting for the time being.

I had a good laugh the day this happened. I'm just waiting for all the details to come out. Looks epic, though.

Or, you can play and not have to worry about starting from scratch unless you make a really huge mistake: Not updating your clone. And by playing you make Iskies/friends/etc that help you quite a bit. I mean, yeah, afk leveling is awesome when you can't make it to the computer, but if you can be there and be doing stuff, there's no reason not to be (unless you just don't like playing the game...but then...don't pay for it?).

Being behind on skill points from everyone else doesn't make you worthless unless your a spy, either. The game just requires a different way of thinking about things.

I apologize if my implication was that it meant you were useless. My point was more that this game depends on time played = wealth moreso than other games, ergo you're at a larger disadvantage for starting late in terms of wealth. Just because you lack wealth doesn't make you useless, however. As I said, it's a tool that you will lack, and some people might not like starting out with the odds stacked against them.

Then again, others relish in it.

And of course if you're casual, none of this matters.

From everything I've ever read about this game, the best way to have a real presence is to start playing about a week before it went beta.

I once played EVE, as one of BoB's haters. Its good to see that the Goons have gone and done it again. They always impressed me by playing the game like chess, by risking the expensive Capital class ships like any pawn-like fighter. Now, I get to smile even as I miss out on the game due to not have the bandwidth to support it. The thought of some one being a thorn in BoB's side while I'm away encourages me to find an excuse to log back in and go back to high piracy on the outskirts of BoB space as (Character Name Undisclosed).