Trust.
Defined by Merriam-Webster as “1a: assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something b : one in which confidence is placed”
There isn’t a heck of a lot of people you can trust in EvE. There’s been a lot of news lately involving trust issues. Stories of people who have placed their trust in seemingly trustworthy individuals or organizations within EvE and had their trust broken. The latest news comes from the ISD regarding rare ships being stolen from the Kenzoku Alliance by a trusted courier resource. Evidently the courier, who was enlisted to move some assets for Kenzoku, ended up absconding with 3 very rare ships. It was stated in the linked article that the courier had been used before and the betrayal was unexpected.
Another is the EBank scandal perpetrated by Ricdic. Essentially, Ricdic, a trusted high-ranking member of the EBank organization, stole a large amount of funds from the EBank service organization. He then took those funds and engaged in RMT or Real Money Trading. While he got his EvE accounts banned for his efforts, his actions have caused severe financial issues for EBank, and it will take time before EBank is a trusted organization again. It is a shame that Ricdic caused so much mistrust from his single action of theft.
It’s a rare thing in EvE to trust anyone. There are no rules in EvE that enforce theft, save those that extend to real money trading, EvE account hacking, or game exploits. Organizations like EBank are under constant scrutiny for these sorts of actions, as are corporations and alliances who have to put trust in their members to ensure that day-to-day tasks can be handled. The CEO and directors cannot be online 23/7, so they must delegate roles and duties to other members of their group. With this responsibility comes the concern that someday, somehow, assets or ISK might be stolen by a trusted resource. Even directors of corporations and alliances, similar to what caused BoB’s downfall, can become untrustworthy.
Corporations and Alliances can certainly take steps to mitigate these issues, but none of them are completely foolproof. There are organizations within EvE that are dedicated to corporate espionage. It’s part of EvE. These organizations can spend months getting into an organization and then in a few short days can render a corporation broke and without assets in their hangars.
The corporation I first started with had an incident right before I left where we had a member kicked out of the corporation. He was bragging about stealing all the assets from his previous corporation before he joined up with us. So all of his ships and ISK (which was quite substantial) was not originally his by his own hard work, but just ripped from his previous corporation. My CEO at the time wasn’t too keen on having a corp thief around and summarily removed him from our corporation. A few short months after I left that corporation I heard that they had a number of assets stolen from the corporation, including a Rorqual, and a number of other ships and various fittings. I never found out whether it was the same person using an alt, or just a coincidence, but it just proves that you have to be very careful where you place your trust.
I’m glad that the current corporation I’m in has been very small for a while, and is self-sustaining. We have very few members, and we are very picky about who we bring on and what access levels they get when they join. I’m lucky enough to have met my CEO in real-life, and I would trust him with my gear in EvE. He’s earned my trust, and I feel confident that he trusts me too. I don’t invest in player run investment schemes, nor do I hold any player-run bank accounts. I read every contract carefully before I hit the accept button. Yes, I’m not one of those that throw caution to the wind. I’m like that in real life too.
This is not to say I don’t enjoy reading about the exploits of the Guiding Hand Social Club, what happened to the Band of Brothers Alliance, or any of the other political intrigue stories that go on around the EvE Universe. That’s what makes the game exciting. It would suck to happen to me or my corporation, but we all have to accept the fact that it’s part of the game.
In summary, it is possible to place your trust in something in EvE. You just have to look really hard to find it, and accept the possibility that it could be broken at any time.
And some real world advice: Please, keep your EvE account password safe (change it regularly), don’t go to any sites that look suspicious (especially the RMT sites – some are loaded with spyware and potentially keyloggers), and make sure you know what you’re downloading when you download EvE tools that are not CCP created.
4 Comments
Good read. I often wonder about how extreme/infectious this distrust issue could get. There will always be the smaller pockets of trusting friends in corps, but if these larger scale theft/scamming/espionage stories continue, I wouldn’t doubt it could really discourage the morale of the EVE community as a whole. It’s one thing when the stories are so occasional that they add a little flavor and risk to the game, but if it potentially just became the norm, meaning it’s just “too easy” to commit these crimes without repercussion in EVE (which is pretty much is), who’s going to want to invest a ton of time into building anything that can collapse or be taken out from under you in a matter of moments.
It’s one thing to know who a person is in real life, but hiding behind the facade of an avatar, corps just don’t have the tools to truly know who each recruit is.
This also hurts new players a lot, because nobody can know if they aren’t just a new alt, playing “the dumb noob” just to infiltrate the ranks of an enemy. It’s hard enough for new players to get into the game…they shouldn’t be discouraged by paranoid accusations like that.
I’ll always wonder if there could be a solution for an enforceable law/police system that isn’t just NPC based. Even a court system. Sad thing is, they will undoubtedly be as riddled with corruption as the rest of New Eden.
It's interesting on a social experiment level. EvE is to the point where it can mirror real life (albeit without consequences for actions). I definitely agree that it would suck if this sort of thing continued to rise, and it does come up in conversation between myself and my CEO when we are recruiting that we have to be careful who we hire on. I would imagine it has hurt, demoralized, or alienated new players at some point in the game. Even with API background checks and such there is no real way to confirm a person as trustworthy, but again, the same can be said about real life too. It's gotta be tough on the new (or new-ish) players who just want to join a corporation to be subjected to a third degree and have someone rifle through their API key. We don't necessarily go that extreme when recruiting, but we have to take measures to ensure our "stuff" is protected from possible theft.
I sometimes think as the espionage stories come out, that other corporations see that as a challenge to "one-up" each other's "exploits", and it could very well lead to escalation just to beat the last record. Here's to hoping it doesn't become detrimental to the game.
I would love to spend the time studying the political layers of EvE and how it would be affected by player-run court tribunals and enforceable police systems. I also concur that such systems would be subject to the same corruption that real life organizations are, although it would be a nifty additional mechanic to the game.
We can't change human nature. Even in a realistically simulated environment.
If EVE wasn't rife with corruption, intrigue, and the ever-present possibility of scams, theft, and espionage, I would stop playing. I don't indulge in stuff like that myself but they are the spice that makes this game what it is and creates a large percentage of its appeal as far as I'm concerned.
EVE Online: People At Their Most Fascinating Best and Worst … THAT is what I find so compelling about the game overall.
Trust, hmmm…maybe?
If I was a beer drinking dev that could actually influence the game and wanted to do something about the 'trust factor' I would consider the following;
1. Granting roles in a corporation. Totally redo this system. Throw it away and start over. In fact lower the salary of the creator of this system if they still work at CCP. He/she should be made to wear a funny pointed hat when at work as well.
2. Looking into cans from another system. This can help with the trust factor too as currently you can peek into a members hanger but if they have a bunch of cans that are holding what ore their skimming or stolen goods you can't tell. The ability to open cans and view would be handy as for the average player when trying to look for something.
3. Instead of a bounty system that is a total freaking joke currently, how about a pay for posting a comment system that would post a title or comment on a players bio? I know, the rabbits and beer trucks might have to make some room… The paid post can even disappear after a short time maybe. The system could even have a scale where a posted title/warning to the public will remain on their bio for longer but at a greater price. This is important though; the timer for this paid posting should be based on in game time, not real life days. Otherwise they can just log off for six months and play an alt then bring the offender and act like its an active player.
I know, I know CCP, your welcome. You know that saying; "Don't praise me, pay me" I'll be watching my wallet.