My Loot, Your Tears

I'm poking around Taru last night looking for some careless carebears, and up pops a Nightmare, Maelstrom and Raven all in one mission. Boomer2674 is by himself in the first room, slowboating to the next gate. I swipe some loot and off go the pop-pop of 1200mm Arties at me.

A minute later I'm back with my Sacrilege and shortly reduce his Maelstrom to scrap . His friends in the Raven and Nightmare have returned by now. As much as I want a Nightmare kill, I can't tank both it and the Raven, so I go to switch for the Bhaalgorn.

The smack starts up in local:

[ 2011.01.24 03:27:43 ] Boomer2674 > dont run you fucking pussy
[ 2011.01.24 03:28:55 ] Khalia Nestune > lawl
[ 2011.01.24 03:29:02 ] Boomer2674 > keep laughing bitch
[ 2011.01.24 03:29:04 ] Boomer2674 > come get some

The next two minutes are comprised of me warping in, finding them not there, waiting, warping out, warping back in just as they warp out, etc. I kill a few minutes looting Boomer's wreck and waiting for them.


[ 2011.01.24 03:35:05 ] Boomer2674 > come on pussy come get some
[ 2011.01.24 03:35:27 ] Boomer2674 > hahahah markus 3 volleys and your dead try it
[ 2011.01.24 03:35:42 ] Khalia Nestune > well clearly I wasn't gonna leave yo loots there
[ 2011.01.24 03:36:08 ] Boomer2674 > not worried about the loot. u can have it, just come back and get your ass kicked
[ 2011.01.24 03:36:32 ] Shadowsoze > ooh i wanna watch the battle
[ 2011.01.24 03:36:35 ] Shadowsoze > where's it going down
[ 2011.01.24 03:36:45 ] Boomer2674 > it wont go down because he's a bitch
[ 2011.01.24 03:36:57 ] Khalia Nestune > lawl
[ 2011.01.24 03:37:02 ] Khalia Nestune > you leave just as I show up

So finally I encounter the Nightmare pilot - Po Mofo - on the entry gate, but in an Apoc Navy. Boomer is in a Stabber along with the Raven pilot - in the next room.

[ 2011.01.24 03:38:57 ] Boomer2674 > sit your ass down clown
[ 2011.01.24 03:40:15 ] Boomer2674 > hahaha
[ 2011.01.24 03:40:21 ] Boomer2674 > come on pussy lets do this
[ 2011.01.24 03:40:47 ] Boomer2674 > i saw u on the way in, warp to your friend alread
[ 2011.01.24 03:40:50 ] Alcarius > WHERE THE FUCK AT?
[ 2011.01.24 03:41:13 ] Khalia Nestune > your apoc navy friend ain't gonna last
[ 2011.01.24 03:41:48 ] Khalia Nestune > buh-bye

I was thinking it might be a decent fight, but he melts rather rapidly. He tried to engage in a PvE fit faction ship? Hard fail there. Also notice the faction Target Painter (on a laser ship?) and T2 fitting rigs! I got four nice faction pulse lasers out of the deal.

Boomer and Raven-guy finally make it back, but won't engage me, and my agro has run out on them. Boomer cries about me switching ships, and I laugh all the way to the bank.

[ 2011.01.24 03:42:50 ] Khalia Nestune > bring it.
[ 2011.01.24 03:43:17 ] Boomer2674 > ya after you switched ships
[ 2011.01.24 03:43:20 ] Khalia Nestune > any day now
[ 2011.01.24 03:43:33 ] Khalia Nestune > yawn
[ 2011.01.24 03:43:53 ] Khalia Nestune > have fun then
[ 2011.01.24 03:43:54 ] Khalia Nestune > o/

So I had a couple of hours, and felt like ganking a carebear. I logged onto Eve and launched probes, finding a Rokh and two Golems within a minute. Knowing that a marauder would be clearing as it went, I held the Rokh until the end. The first Golem was finishing up and warped away soon after I arrived. The second Golem, flown by Graaatch, shot at me after I looted a couple of small wrecks. I evacuated my Vigil (actually it was Khalia's Vigil, but that's a long story) and retrieved the Sacrilege.

As I arrived, he warped out.

Oh well, I guess I'll go on to... wait a minute! Did he just warp to a planet?

I warped to Ruvas I at 0km. There he was.

I was actually a little worried at first. He was tanking me really well, and it was taking both my armor repairers to barely keep up with his damage.

As his tank started to break, I opened a convo with him. I will include the highlights, and give you a pastebin to the entire log at the end of the post.

Paul Clavet > How much is your ship worth to you?
Graaatch > for a rat...nothin...i has more
Paul Clavet > OK then
Paul Clavet > now that you're out of cap
Graaatch > are you planning on lettin me go for less than 50 mill
Paul Clavet > lessee... how much is a golem worth?
Paul Clavet > I'll take 450 mil
Graaatch > is not about how much its worth its about how much i have
Paul Clavet > I guess you don't have rich friends then?
Graaatch > i have no friends thats why im in a free corp
Paul Clavet > If you have an unfitted golem, contract it to me and I'll let this one go
Paul Clavet > or make me an offer
Graaatch > like i said...if you want 50mill or less i can do that but i dont have that kind of money and i dont have another golem...i have more ships like a rohk or orca but nothin like a golem
Paul Clavet > I'd take an orca
Graaatch > well...is fitted and carrying my hulk atm so im not going to give those up
Paul Clavet > your time is about to run out
Paul Clavet > you'd better make me an offer soon

I've gotten ransoms before, but I'd never had someone take me up on my suggestion to contract over assets in lieu of cash.

Paul Clavet > Contract the Orca with Hulk
Paul Clavet > it's worth less than your Golem
Paul Clavet > or you lose your Golem and fittings
Paul Clavet > one minute left
Graaatch > im lookin for it....
Paul Clavet > Found it?
Graaatch > yea but the hulks not in it
Paul Clavet > the orca and 50M then
Paul Clavet > quickly
Graaatch > ok h/o
Graaatch > is up

My contract icon blinks.

o/

Now then, to crack open this pinata and see what falls out...

Paul Clavet > SUDDENLY
Paul Clavet > BETRAYAL

Killmail. That's a solid billion-ISK ship. Shame the Pith B-Type XL Booster didn't drop.

Paul Clavet > Now then
Paul Clavet > what have we learned?
Graaatch > that some people are just douche bags and cant be trusted....that those people play big billy badass in the internet because irl they get picked on by everyone cause they cant do anything worthy of anyone
Paul Clavet > You are right, I do nothing cool IRL
Paul Clavet > Truly thou hast struck a mortal blow
Graaatch > figured
Paul Clavet > but thanks for the orca and faction mods
Graaatch > yea...get bent pizza face...try not to get raped by daddy tonight
Paul Clavet > Your tears are delicious. My cup overfloweth!

Now, I've gotten a few kills since my hiatus, but no quality tears. These are textbook grief-tears!

Graaatch > am i pist off yea....cause i lost my golem...a lil...mostly cause you cant trust people these days
Paul Clavet > Yeah, I mean if you can't trust the CEO of "Honorless Internet Jerks" then who CAN you trust?
Graaatch > idc who you are
Paul Clavet > Obviously not, because you trusted me.

Why do people get the impression that they can trust even their corpmates in Eve, much less some random guy that out-witted them?

Graaatch > me...i know enough....i can go ahead right now and buy a couple plexs and replace the golem and mods
Paul Clavet > I encourage you to do exactly that
Paul Clavet > you've fuelled my playtime for another six weeks
Graaatch > grats question is...can you afford to play without being a leach.....are you a leach on society as well and in EVE
Graaatch > i would imagine you are
Paul Clavet > Yep, I'm a total non-contributor both in eve and IRL. I've never done anything worthwhile in either realm
Graaatch > me....i dont have the time to play games like this all day...i work for a living
Paul Clavet > I would work for a living too if I was that terrible at games
Graaatch > go figure

I resisted the urge to tell him that at that point I had been logged in for 45 minutes out of the past week.

Graaatch > its not cause im terrible at games....its cause i wanna keep the mustang gt and chevy z71 in my driveway full with gas and the roof over my head
Paul Clavet > Go look under the passenger floorboard... you might find an orca to replace the one you gave away!

Ah, the old "my fail here doesn't matter because IRL I make lots of money!" routine.

Paul Clavet > Never forget that you fired first
Paul Clavet > You were obviously the aggressor
Graaatch > now...if i was TRYING to pvp...i would have been setup w/ a warp stab and a large neut

Wait, what?

Paul Clavet > So maybe you can figure out how much work-time it'll take you to recover the bil or so for the golem... then you can remember while you're at work that you're essentially working for me
Paul Clavet > So stop slacking!
Graaatch > hmm thats good but it will be 1 hr of work for 3x plexs
Paul Clavet > Yep!
Paul Clavet > An hour of work for Paul Clavet
Graaatch > i can deal w/ that
Paul Clavet > Well good, perhaps we can do this again sometime!

I can only hope that at work tomorrow, he remembers what happened here today, and thinks of me. And then gets the hell back to work. The slacker. Honestly, I don't know what I keep him around for.

Graaatch > like i said...i treat folks the way i want to be treated...i know full well the pvp of this game...i spent some time in 0.0....does everyone breat ransoms...no....we never did when i was runnin 0.0 space
Graaatch > break*
Paul Clavet > wait... you're claiming to have knowledge of pvp?
Paul Clavet > Is that why your idea of a PVP fit involves warp stabs?
Paul Clavet > Is that why you warp to zero on a planet then sit still?
Graaatch > do i pvp in high sec....no...when i do...its usually 1 person and a warp stab will get you out....if im runnin in a pack i dont....was i expecting you to follow....no
Paul Clavet > So I guess you DID learn something useful today!
Graaatch > but being in a bs....its a slow boat
Paul Clavet > I will send you a bill tomorrow.
Graaatch > ill be sure to ignore it and wait for your in game supena
Paul Clavet > You misspelled subpoena
Paul Clavet > but what do I know, right?
Graaatch > rofl so your a grammer nazi too
Graaatch > clasic
Paul Clavet > classic*

There was a little more chest-beating by Graaatch in response to my poking, and if you want to read the complete log, you can do so over at pastebin.

It was an hour well-spent in Eve. The Orca was transported by an alt to Jita, where it sold for 350 million ISK. My total take was approximately 475 million.

I've been slowly getting back into Eve. So today I'm logged on and Snipehamster in The Ninja Alliance is having some trouble finding a Raven wreck on d-scan in Balginia. I offer to warp down with my pimp'd covops and scan for him, and he agrees.

I find the raven wreck by finding the nearby drones, and it turns out the Raven pilot, Rediska2, is back in his mission with another Raven. Snipehamster and I warp in and loot his Raven wreck. He then fires on Snipehamster's Vigil.

[ 2010.11.11 20:23:56 ] Rediska2 > get away from here
[ 2010.11.11 20:26:52 ] Johanes Miller > mmm loots
[ 2010.11.11 20:26:54 ] Johanes Miller > thanks dude
[ 2010.11.11 20:27:10 ] Rediska2 > next time i'll hit you
[ 2010.11.11 20:27:23 ] Johanes Miller > sure...

So I warp back to keep an eye on Rediska2 while Snipehamster goes for a PVP cane. He's back in a flash, points Rediska2, and his Raven falls like a rock - the Raven starting with 70% armor damage!

Snipehunter goes for the ransom, but Rediska2 says nothing, and pop goes the Raven - to the rats still shooting him.

[ 2010.11.11 20:36:31 ] Snipehamster > 40 mil or your raven dies.
[ 2010.11.11 20:36:39 ] Snipehamster > 30 seconds.
[ 2010.11.11 20:37:13 ] Rediska2 > mother fucker
[ 2010.11.11 20:37:19 ] Johanes Miller > hahahah
[ 2010.11.11 20:38:06 ] Drak Kron > lol
[ 2010.11.11 20:38:11 ] Drak Kron > well played
[ 2010.11.11 20:39:05 ] Johanes Miller > we let the rats kill him... again

Rediska2 ragelogs, but a local gets all hot and bothered about this, to our general amusement.

[ 2010.11.11 20:39:56 ] el toppolino > i take it you killed a guy in mission and got aggro ?
[ 2010.11.11 20:40:35 ] Johanes Miller > his raven was hilarity fit
[ 2010.11.11 20:40:50 ] el toppolino > he is young
[ 2010.11.11 20:40:54 ] Johanes Miller > Neutron blaster on a raven, lol
[ 2010.11.11 20:40:56 ] el toppolino > and had no intention to pvp
[ 2010.11.11 20:41:08 ] el toppolino > try real pvp
[ 2010.11.11 20:41:15 ] Johanes Miller > he shot, that's usually intent to pvp =)
[ 2010.11.11 20:41:17 ] el toppolino > killing noobs is so 90s
[ 2010.11.11 20:41:24 ] el toppolino > and needs no skills
[ 2010.11.11 20:41:50 ] Johanes Miller > but tears are juicy and sweet
[ 2010.11.11 20:42:00 ] el toppolino > i prefer thrill and good fights
[ 2010.11.11 20:42:04 ] el toppolino > then i am proud
[ 2010.11.11 20:42:07 ] Drak Kron > thats what your mom said
[ 2010.11.11 20:42:37 ] Snipehamster > Thrill? You mean like dodging battleship fire in a tankless frigate?
[ 2010.11.11 20:42:41 ] Snipehamster > :V
[ 2010.11.11 20:42:43 ] el toppolino > those kids today
[ 2010.11.11 20:43:03 ] el toppolino > they fear real pvp in lowsec wars or 0.0
[ 2010.11.11 20:43:05 ] Johanes Miller > oh man, he ragelogged
[ 2010.11.11 20:43:10 ] el toppolino > and are happy to kill noobs
[ 2010.11.11 20:43:47 ] Johanes Miller > they make nice crunchy sounds and kick and scream
[ 2010.11.11 20:44:06 ] Snipehamster > He fired first (at a vigil with less than 900 ehp) - I don't think either of us was looking for a fair fight
[ 2010.11.11 20:44:19 ] el toppolino > we all know why he fired
[ 2010.11.11 20:44:35 ] Snipehamster > Because I looted the wreck of the last raven he lost. :V
[ 2010.11.11 20:44:36 ] el toppolino > cheap tricks to get aggro
[ 2010.11.11 20:44:43 ] Johanes Miller > exactly
[ 2010.11.11 20:44:55 ] Snipehamster > looting a wreck is a cheap trick? since when?
[ 2010.11.11 20:44:57 ] Johanes Miller > we scanned down his drones to get the old wreck, we didn't think he'd be there
[ 2010.11.11 20:45:25 ] el toppolino > i couldnt be proud to kill a noob who isnt able to spell raven really
[ 2010.11.11 20:45:45 ] Johanes Miller > proud? I'm in it for the lolz
[ 2010.11.11 20:45:59 ] el toppolino > you sound proud dont you
[ 2010.11.11 20:46:09 ] Snipehamster > I'm less than 2 months old, and this was my first BS kill. Pride is pretty accurate tbh
[ 2010.11.11 20:46:14 ] el toppolino > else you wouldnt tell your story here
[ 2010.11.11 20:46:26 ] Johanes Miller > proud is what I do in real life, the game is fun and lolz
[ 2010.11.11 20:46:42 ] el toppolino > its the same
[ 2010.11.11 20:46:53 ] Johanes Miller > the game is real life?
[ 2010.11.11 20:46:56 ] el toppolino > try stealing from your corp
[ 2010.11.11 20:47:04 ] el toppolino > it will hunt you your whole eve life
[ 2010.11.11 20:47:36 ] Johanes Miller > wonders if he should mention that he is actually the alt of a well known corp infiltrator
[ 2010.11.11 20:47:51 ] Snipehamster > wonders how you steal from an NPC corp
[ 2010.11.11 20:48:26 ] el toppolino > see it has nothing to do with fun its your personality
[ 2010.11.11 20:48:31 ] Johanes Miller > yeah
[ 2010.11.11 20:48:35 ] Johanes Miller > I'm a jerk
[ 2010.11.11 20:48:37 ] Johanes Miller > and proud of it
[ 2010.11.11 20:48:38 ] Johanes Miller > :D
[ 2010.11.11 20:48:45 ] el toppolino > now you got it
[ 2010.11.11 20:48:48 ] el toppolino > no friends
[ 2010.11.11 20:48:50 ] el toppolino > fat
[ 2010.11.11 20:48:53 ] Johanes Miller > HAHA
[ 2010.11.11 20:49:09 ] Johanes Miller > tell me more about how miserable my life is
[ 2010.11.11 20:49:21 ] Snipehamster > Aww yeah, playground insults. Someone's running out of ideas :3
[ 2010.11.11 20:49:49 ] el toppolino > i dont see any insults...
[ 2010.11.11 20:49:57 ] Nete > hahah
[ 2010.11.11 20:50:04 ] Snipehamster > >.>
[ 2010.11.11 20:50:10 ] el toppolino > try to be like me
[ 2010.11.11 20:50:23 ] el toppolino > work your way up in an alliance
[ 2010.11.11 20:50:26 ] el toppolino > fc
[ 2010.11.11 20:50:34 ] el toppolino > get a name in eve
[ 2010.11.11 20:50:47 ] el toppolino > you wont get that for killing noobs
[ 2010.11.11 20:50:47 ] Johanes Miller > I've never heard of you
[ 2010.11.11 20:51:05 ] Johanes Miller > Snipe, you heard of this guy?
[ 2010.11.11 20:51:06 ] Nete > i've never heard of EVE... what's that?
[ 2010.11.11 20:51:31 ] Snipehamster > nope. His shiny blue allcaps bio makes him look pretty hard though. I wouldn't mess with this guy tbh
[ 2010.11.11 20:52:22 ] Johanes Miller > anyone with 'el' in the name must be cool, amirite?
[ 2010.11.11 20:52:30 ] Drak Kron > ^^

Kiritsubo told me to update my blog, so I did. Don't ever say that I never did anything for my readers.

With the recent completion of the 3rd installment of the Hulkageddon last month, @CyberinEVE, author of Hands Off, My Loots!, asks: “Griefing is a very big part of EVE. Ninja Salvaging, Suicide Ganking, Trolling, and Scamming are all a very large part of the game. What do you think about all these things? You can talk about one, or all…but just let us know your overall opinion on Griefing, and any recommendations you may have to change it if you think it’s needed.”

Now, normally I don't do the Blog Banter competitions, because, well, I'm lazy. However, seeing as I'm one of the "public faces" of the hi-sec Griefer scene, I've gotten about a dozen requests for my thoughts on this.

Most of the responses I've read to this Blog Banter have actually ignored the question entirely. Instead of posting their opinions on Ninja Salvaging, Suicide Ganking, Trolling, and Scamming, they've posted pages of text about how none of these activities are "Griefing".

So I'm going to do something similar and ignore the actual question. Instead, let's talk about words and what they mean. I'm thinking of a particular word: Piracy.

When an Eve player self-identifies as a Pirate, you know EXACTLY what he's talking about: A player who hangs out in lowsec, looking for "good fights" against other "Pirates". Sure, once in a while a foolish carebear stumbles into their domain, but for the most part Pirates are merely engaging with consensual PvP with other players of the same class. I'm not knocking it because I know it can be fun, but piracy it ain't.

Being a pirate means preying on the unsuspecting, the weak, or the foolhardy. It seems to me that Ninja Salvaging, Suicide Ganking, and Scamming would fall neatly into the definition, while e-honor "good fight!" piracy would not.

So we call ourselves Griefers because our actions cause grief, not just as a byproduct but often as a primary objective. The truth of the matter is that a better term for us would be pirates, but that term was hijacked by low-security PvPers who had no real reason to use it. Folks are trying to deny us the title "Griefer" because our actions are within the intended mechanics of the game. This is missing the point entirely.

I understand the confusion, since in most MMOs, ruining someone else's game is out of the question due both to rules and the game mechanics. In Eve, the universe is such a cold and unforgiving place that such behavior is not only allowed, but is required by a certain segment of the population in order for successes in the game by the law-abiding to have any meaning.

We're Griefers. If you come up with a better title for those who prey on the weak in Eve, I'd love to hear it.

Carebear loses a CNR to aggro extension from a ninja. Carebear admits that he saw the aggro timer and undocked anyway, but still petitions his loss. A senior GM gives him his ship back.

Since aggro extension has been a valid mechanic for some time, I petitioned to see if it was now considered an exploit.

This has come to my attention:
http://stabbedup.blogspot.com/2010/08/eve-exchange-of-views-with-ccp.html
A missionrunner undocked with aggro from a ninja salvager, lost his CNR, petitioned it, and got it back. Is extending aggro now considered an exploit? Will my future targets now be reimbursed after I kill them? It is very important for me to know if carebears are getting unequal treatment: It may well determine the future of my subscription.

Hi,
At this point in time we will not take any action against anyone using this. Please be aware however that we reserve the right to change our policy on this in the future should we deem it necessary.
Best regards,
GM Kaliastra
The EVE Online Customer Support Team

Hey there,
I do appreciate your swift response, but it does not answer my question. Is it now policy to reimburse ships lost due to ignorance? Will my targets have their losses replaced by GMs?

Hi, senior GM Spiral here.
We are currently not taking action against anyone doing this at the current time although this is not an advertised nor supported feature. We at CCP do reserve the right to adjust this policy at any given time in the future should the situation warrant it.
Customer Support does consider this something that may be reimbursed for pending an investigation into the situation of a given incident.
If you have any further questions or concerns regarding this then please do not hesitate to ask.
Best regards,
Senior GM Spiral
EVE Online Customer Support Team

So the summary is that CCP is giving ships back to players for losses that are not due to exploits.

On the Stabbed Up blog, "Reasoned Discourse" has broken out, and the author in question has started deleting all but the sympathetic comments. As an aside, note that we have not and will never squash comments from those who disagree with us, provided those comments are on-topic and don't break any laws in our jurisdiction.

CCP: If I wanted to play a game where my actions in PvP had no consequences, I would go play WoW. If aggro extension is an exploit, then call it such and fix it. If it's not an exploit, then don't coddle players who fall victim to it. If in this case the ninja had lost his ship due to combat derived from aggro extension, I have trouble believing that you would have been so sympathetic. I play this game because actions are meaningful. If you remove the meaning, I will take the money from my subscriptions and go do something better with my time.

Related links: Crime and Punishment Thread - Likely to be locked. Note plenty of carebears calling it an exploit, which CCP has explicitly denied. Also note the "tears" accusation, which is true. When one sees that his successes are being invalidated and his failures are being allowed to stand, there will be tears. Why should I risk ships that won't be reimbursed to kill ships that will be replaced by a GM?

By way of my own insignificant protest, I will not be ninja salvaging/ganking until either aggro extension is called an exploit or I receive assurances from CCP that my victims won't get their mistakes reversed by CCP. I'll still work my infiltration alts and wardecs, but I have no motivation to continue my primary profession when it's so likely that the work will mean nothing.

Today when I logged on in Ruvas to look for carebear targets, I saw some strange purple chat in local. Further investigation revealed that this was a pirate invasion live event. I grabbed an interceptor from my Orca and went to look.

I was pretty much immediately popped. Well then.

As I sat there in my pod, I saw an Amarr battleship suffer a similar fate. An idea sprang into my head. I warped back to the Orca, grabbed a salvage Vigil, warped back at 100km, and burned away from the fight until I had a tactical bookmark about 200k off the event.

I saw a Drake pop. I warped to it. T2 loot. Dropped it off at the Orca and warped back to my tac spot.

As I arrived, I saw an Elite Caldari Cruiser wreck. Yes! I warped to it. Faction loot! I dropped it off and set up again.

Another Drake popped. I wasn't super hopeful, but T2 loot is still money in the bank. Only this Drake also had a faction BCU. Score!

After that, most of the loot was just T2 and best named stuff. After a few minutes some big fleets showed up with logistics and got the situation under control, meaning that fewer ships died horribly.

Then the pirate carrier spawned. Not thinking, I warped to zero to get whatever loot it dropped.

Carriers have smartbombs. My client lagged and my mailbox blinked. I wasn't sure what had happened until my screen went dark and I woke up in a clone vat in Vylade. There goes about 200M worth of implants. Oh well.

I took my Orca alt the three short jumps from Ruvas to Jita and counted up my loot:

Two Caldari Navy Ballistic Control Units: 160 million
Republic Fleet 10MN Afterburner: 50 million
Gist A-type EM shield hardener: 120 million
Caldari Navy Shield Boost Amp: 100 million
Pithum C-type Medium Shield Booster: 300 million (!!!)

730 million ISK for being in the right place at the right time. If you're going to do this yourself, my advice is to get to the event as soon after it starts as possible. This takes advantage of the local carebears who have no idea what they're dealing with and warp in with their faction-fit mission boats.

CCP: Thank you. Eve needs more unpredictable and terrible ways to lose more than you intended to risk. I speak both of the faction BearBoats getting popped and of my own podding at the hands of a GM. Eve is better than WoW simply because there is actual risk involved in everything you do. Keep it up.

Ruvas doesn't have many bears, but the ones that do live there are fat and stupid. Nitnargimmi shoots, I score. I had a chance to make this a Golem+CNR kill, but I got spooked by some logistical issues and underplayed my hand. Still, if you can't be happy about a 1.4 Billion ISK kill, what can you be happy about?

Be sure you up the quality to 720p and fullscreen that sucker!

I'm pretty happy with this video. The new computer has made recording these things much more reasonable, and I think I'm getting the knack for the video editing and encoding software, so the quality should be excellent. The songs are "Long Road to Ruin" by Foo Fighters and "Supermassive Black Hole" by Muse. I hope you enjoyed everything.

I know I keep bouncing around on video hosting services. Vimeo was awesome but I noticed yesterday that their rules do not allow video game footage. The downside of YouTube is that you're limited to 15 minutes (used to be 10 minutes) and they sometimes screw with your music selection for people viewing outside the US. If you know of a better service that offers 720p video playback, let me know.

Scene: I've warped into Tokhein's World's Collide and salvaged a few wrecks out from under his CNR in the first room. Moonshots is there in a Hurricane. They both warp off.

Tokhein > bye bye paul, not stealing my shit
Paul Clavet > I'm going to return and steal your mission objective, Tokhein. You'd better hurry and get to it before I do.
Moonshots > good luck
Moonshots > with that
Cyberin > uh oh, alt?
Moonshots > paul
Paul Clavet > Wanna make it more interesting Moonshots? Maybe a small ISK bet?
Tokhein > fuck off u damn thief
Paul Clavet > lol
Tokhein > how bout u give me isk, and then u can have my loot
Paul Clavet > Your rage is kinda funny
Tokhein > that sounds good
Paul Clavet > How about I take your loot and laugh at you?
Cyberin > i like option b
Tokhein > not going to happen
Paul Clavet > uhm, already happened
Tokhein > not really
Exodusbandar > sigh, why can't we all just gank...er...get along?
Tokhein > i never get along with thieves
Cyberin > because the bears don't have the balls to shoot...
Tokhein > they are retardly gay
Paul Clavet > I get along great with carebears... the loot from their missions keeps me in the kind of lifestyle I've come to expect

I've retrieved JerkTengu and started rushing through the Serpentis room to blitz the mission. Most folks don't know that the gates to the Research Outpost in this mission are completely unlocked. You may have to kill a couple of webbing frigs, but if you've got a serious tank you can waltz right into the last room. When you get to the last room, target the six ships immediately around the Damaged Heron. When you kill them, the Ship's Crew will be unlocked. I can rush a WC to completion and steal the objective in under five minutes.

Tokhein loses sight of all prudence and begins hurling racist and homophobic slurs. I'll never understand why some folks do this in Eve, where there's NO WAY TO TELL what race a player really is. It's why I love the internet in general... If I'm going to love you or hate you, I can love you or hate you for your mind.

Tokhein's mind fails him.

Tokhein > do i sound like a carebear to you faggot?
Cyberin > yes, you do
Tokhein > lol i hate too lmuch to be a carebear
Tokhein > eve is too full of niggers stealing shit for me to care
Cyberin > doing a mission, crying in local about ninjas, no balls, sounds pretty carebearish to me...
Cyberin > nice, racial slurs :D
Exodusbandar > watch the language or you'll get banned
Cyberin > that'll help your situation...
Tokhein > lol
Tokhein > then don't steal
Paul Clavet > Petitioned for racist language Tokhein, enjoy your temporary ban
Cyberin > you too? :D lol
Paul Clavet > Now I will take your Ship's Crew
Exodusbandar > ah metagaming at its finest
Tokhein > nigs are theives that simple
Paul Clavet > heh
Paul Clavet > as a person who is not white, I take a mite bit of offense to that
Paul Clavet > but no matter, CCP will take care of it
Tokhein > im not scared of ccp
Paul Clavet > Can I have your stuff then?
Paul Clavet > when you get banned
Tokhein > fuck off
Tokhein > thats what u can do
Ap0ll00 > lol
Paul Clavet > Nope, I'm gonna rush through here and take your mission objective now
Paul Clavet > because you're a racist bastard
Tokhein > yes i am
Tokhein > and u have to deal with it
Ap0ll00 > lol
Paul Clavet > I am dealing with it... you will fail this mission
Cyberin > you need help in that mission there paul? lol "
Cyberin > that's a lot of tears to haul yourself...
Tokhein > no, i wont
Exodusbandar > how do you play this game with that white pointy hood over your head??
Tokhein > it has eye holes
Tokhein > how do theives play while i burn crosses in their yards
Cyberin > because we are inside at the computer, not really looking at the yard

I got his ship's crew. He was too much of a coward to try to stop me.

It's been far too long. For a while there I had quit salvaging and was thinking about a long break from Eve altogether.

Talking to Khalia the other day, I decided to just grit my teeth and salvage until I got a kill, to see if the taste of CareBlood would return me to my Jerk ways.

It did. Meet Qhuashimides. He was running Worlds Collide in Ruvas in his faction-fit Golem when I popped in to say hello. He fired at me.

It's been too long. I was about to cloud up and rain all over this guy.

He stayed put while I went to grab JerkTengu and return. He never checked his directional scanner as I burned 30km to the gate and warped into the Guristas room where he awaited his doom.

When he saw me, however, he apparently mashed Control-Q in an effort to get away.

This didn't work. I had him locked and pointed before his very expensive CareBoat could CareAlign and CareGTFO. He soon logged back in and started firing back, but JerkTengu easily tanked his oversized Torpedoes. With a neut sucking on his capacitor and max-SP HAMs pouring into his shields, his tank broke before long.

Since he was now unmistakably online, I tried for another conversation.

Paul Clavet > o/
Paul Clavet > So how much is the ship worth to you?
Qhuashimides > i am listening
Qhuashimides > how much do you want?
Paul Clavet > Let's say... 600M to let the ship go
Paul Clavet > I figure it's worth that
Qhuashimides > ok
Paul Clavet > 30S to pay

He was trying to stall for time.

Paul Clavet > I'm not going to wait for you to call in help
Qhuashimides > no
Qhuashimides > i am not
Paul Clavet > then pay up, you're running out of time
Qhuashimides > you wqant how much
Paul Clavet > 600 million

A long pause. I know what he's thinking.

Qhuashimides > and how i know you will no t pop me?
Paul Clavet > 20 seconds
Paul Clavet > this is how I make my living
Paul Clavet > if I dishonor a ransom, nobody else will pay

Carebears always ask me this, I always lie through my teeth, and they always believe me. Thank you, e-honour pirates, for perpetuating the myth that people who caught you once can be trusted afterward.

Qhuashimides > wait
Qhuashimides > i wont call anyone
Paul Clavet > I'm giving you another 10 seconds
Paul Clavet > then you die
Qhuashimides > ok?
Paul Clavet > Paying or not?
Qhuashimides > i payed you mate

No, he didn't. Or did he? I check my wallet and see a 600,000 payment. Nice try. I click my HAM launcher group once, then again, sending a single volley to knock out a quarter of his structure. That seems to get his attention.

Qhuashimides > sorry
Qhuashimides > my mistake
Paul Clavet > 600k?
Paul Clavet > try again
Paul Clavet > last chance dude

Cha-ching. 600M appears in my wallet. I begin firing again.

Paul Clavet > SUDDENLY
Paul Clavet > BETRAYAL
Qhuashimides > ok
Qhuashimides > nice
Paul Clavet > yup
Paul Clavet > So then
Paul Clavet > what have we learned?

He is already offline again when his ship pops.

And here's the killmail. Faction loot, but only about 100 million of it actually drops.

Edited to add: Oh yeah, I also got his Ship's Crew.