robbery was quick, quiet, & clean, & netted more than 2.2 trillion ISK
April 17, 2023 3:33 PM Subscribe
EVE Online player uses obscure rule to pull off the biggest heist in the game's history [PC Gamer] “Instead of betrayal, this theft was dependent upon learning and exploiting the "shares mechanic" in EVE Online in order to leverage a takeover of Event Horizon Expeditionaries, a 299-member corporation that was part of the Pandemic Horde alliance. Using a "clean account with a character with a little history," Flan_Hill and an unnamed partner applied for membership in the EHEXP corporation. After the account was accepted, Flan_Hill transferred enough of his shares in the corporation to the infiltrator to enable a call for a vote for a new CEO. The conspirators both voted yes, while nobody else in the corporation voted at all. This was vital, because after 72 hours the two "yes" votes carried the day. The infiltrating agent was very suddenly made CEO, which was in turn used to make Flan_Hill an Event Horizon Expeditionaries director, at which point they removed all the other corporate directors and set to emptying the coffers. Counting all stolen assets, including multiple large ships, Flam_Hill estimated the total value of the heist at 2.23 trillion ISK, which works out to more than $22,300 in real money.” [The operation—spelled out in detail in this Reddit post.]
Looks like Flan_Hill is the bain of the Pandemic Horde's existence!
posted by grokus at 3:42 PM on April 17, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by grokus at 3:42 PM on April 17, 2023 [5 favorites]
Don’t boo, vote!
posted by ActingTheGoat at 3:49 PM on April 17, 2023 [6 favorites]
posted by ActingTheGoat at 3:49 PM on April 17, 2023 [6 favorites]
What I find fascinating about Space Accountant, aka EVE Online: it's basically veered from being a science fiction game to being a gradual real-time aquarium showcasing the development of corporate and fiduciary law. Heist by heist, the game evolves to address new forms of embezzlement and fiduciary malfeasance.
It really highlights the absurdity of the libertarian philosophy. A libertarian will just become a neo-feudal plantation capitalist, it just takes them a few extra steps to get there.
posted by LeRoienJaune at 3:52 PM on April 17, 2023 [83 favorites]
It really highlights the absurdity of the libertarian philosophy. A libertarian will just become a neo-feudal plantation capitalist, it just takes them a few extra steps to get there.
posted by LeRoienJaune at 3:52 PM on April 17, 2023 [83 favorites]
A similar sort of share leveraging for voting power is also how some crypto that's run on DAO has been taken over and then looted.
posted by hippybear at 3:58 PM on April 17, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by hippybear at 3:58 PM on April 17, 2023 [4 favorites]
The other way to read this story is "299 people don't play enough Eve anymore to notice a vote that took their corporation away from them".
posted by Nelson at 4:00 PM on April 17, 2023 [30 favorites]
posted by Nelson at 4:00 PM on April 17, 2023 [30 favorites]
Eventually this is going to happen to somebody who doesn't have any other life than the game and they're going to want real-life revenge
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 4:15 PM on April 17, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 4:15 PM on April 17, 2023 [2 favorites]
Eventually this is going to happen to somebody who doesn't have any other life than the game
Ha ha, you think these victims amassed 2.2T isk by having a life outside the game?
posted by ryanrs at 4:28 PM on April 17, 2023 [14 favorites]
Ha ha, you think these victims amassed 2.2T isk by having a life outside the game?
posted by ryanrs at 4:28 PM on April 17, 2023 [14 favorites]
It's been a long time since I've noticed an EVE Online story making it to the blue. Wasn't it before Trump's election?
The other way to read this story is "299 people don't play enough Eve anymore to notice a vote that took their corporation away from them".
This is likely the best take. If quorum is required to vote, then what about when those people don't log in any more? Is the corporation then locked up, unable to do anything?
People lose interest in online games. The very name of the corporation suggests it was created during pandemic lockdown 2020. Like how it's hard for me to find many other people who play Animal Crossing New Horizons anymore, it's possible that there weren't many others in the corporation who were still active now that the people have generally decided to pretend COVID doesn't exist. For comparison: the discord that some MeFites/former MeFites created to talk about ACNH has about 65 members; charitably speaking, it can't have more than five active members now, tops, and I'm one of them. It seems plausible that this ratio applies to a pandemic EVE Online corporation too.
And, how were members notified that an election was going on? Did they have to log in to find out it was happening?
posted by JHarris at 4:40 PM on April 17, 2023 [4 favorites]
The other way to read this story is "299 people don't play enough Eve anymore to notice a vote that took their corporation away from them".
This is likely the best take. If quorum is required to vote, then what about when those people don't log in any more? Is the corporation then locked up, unable to do anything?
People lose interest in online games. The very name of the corporation suggests it was created during pandemic lockdown 2020. Like how it's hard for me to find many other people who play Animal Crossing New Horizons anymore, it's possible that there weren't many others in the corporation who were still active now that the people have generally decided to pretend COVID doesn't exist. For comparison: the discord that some MeFites/former MeFites created to talk about ACNH has about 65 members; charitably speaking, it can't have more than five active members now, tops, and I'm one of them. It seems plausible that this ratio applies to a pandemic EVE Online corporation too.
And, how were members notified that an election was going on? Did they have to log in to find out it was happening?
posted by JHarris at 4:40 PM on April 17, 2023 [4 favorites]
The very name of the corporation suggests it was created during pandemic lockdown 2020.
Oof. That name is much older than COVID.
This is a feeder corp affiliated with one of the oldest, most powerful groups in the game. You don't have to feel bad for them, sheesh.
posted by ryanrs at 4:54 PM on April 17, 2023 [1 favorite]
Oof. That name is much older than COVID.
This is a feeder corp affiliated with one of the oldest, most powerful groups in the game. You don't have to feel bad for them, sheesh.
posted by ryanrs at 4:54 PM on April 17, 2023 [1 favorite]
Oh, I don't. But if most of them have fallen away from EVE Online over time then many of them may not even feel bad for themselves.
posted by JHarris at 4:56 PM on April 17, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by JHarris at 4:56 PM on April 17, 2023 [4 favorites]
The very name of the corporation suggests it was created during pandemic lockdown 2020.
So, in a bit of RTFA, this organization was created well before the pandemic. The creator of it, who also is the person who did this heist, bowed out of EVE Online in 2018 citing burnout. He came back to the game and found this corporation that used to be a big thing was a hollow shell. He mentions there being people from Back Then still involved, but they didn't want to talk to him. I don't know if this was an outright snub or just they aren't online anymore.
The upshot of it is, if you do read to the end, this guy created this corporation, it was big and mighty, he left for a while, he came back and found it sitting basically abandoned and he found a way to claim all its assets for his new thing that he's doing in the game.
It's theft, yes, but in some ways it feels a bit like justice.
posted by hippybear at 4:57 PM on April 17, 2023 [21 favorites]
So, in a bit of RTFA, this organization was created well before the pandemic. The creator of it, who also is the person who did this heist, bowed out of EVE Online in 2018 citing burnout. He came back to the game and found this corporation that used to be a big thing was a hollow shell. He mentions there being people from Back Then still involved, but they didn't want to talk to him. I don't know if this was an outright snub or just they aren't online anymore.
The upshot of it is, if you do read to the end, this guy created this corporation, it was big and mighty, he left for a while, he came back and found it sitting basically abandoned and he found a way to claim all its assets for his new thing that he's doing in the game.
It's theft, yes, but in some ways it feels a bit like justice.
posted by hippybear at 4:57 PM on April 17, 2023 [21 favorites]
Ultimately, EVE is a bad game, and CCP has managed it very poorly. You're seeing fewer stories because not much interesting is/will happen. This is the twilight of EVE.
I mean, CCP Games launched some new blockchain game investment bullshit four weeks ago. They are very dumb.
posted by ryanrs at 5:03 PM on April 17, 2023 [13 favorites]
I mean, CCP Games launched some new blockchain game investment bullshit four weeks ago. They are very dumb.
posted by ryanrs at 5:03 PM on April 17, 2023 [13 favorites]
I never want to play EVE, but I always enjoy reading about the nonsense that goes on.
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:26 PM on April 17, 2023 [48 favorites]
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:26 PM on April 17, 2023 [48 favorites]
I mean, CCP Games launched some new blockchain game investment bullshit four weeks ago. They are very dumb.
Oh man, there's a terrible idea that I've never considered for some reason. That's like the last thing EVE needs. Imagine if they had launched some form of NFT or blockchain thing like 5-10 years ago when there was still hype juice and greater fools left, and imagine if Elon Musk went all in on it as a joke instead of Doge and...
...
...wait this is a FANTASTIC idea. I really need to finish my time machine.
posted by loquacious at 5:46 PM on April 17, 2023 [6 favorites]
Oh man, there's a terrible idea that I've never considered for some reason. That's like the last thing EVE needs. Imagine if they had launched some form of NFT or blockchain thing like 5-10 years ago when there was still hype juice and greater fools left, and imagine if Elon Musk went all in on it as a joke instead of Doge and...
...
...wait this is a FANTASTIC idea. I really need to finish my time machine.
posted by loquacious at 5:46 PM on April 17, 2023 [6 favorites]
"...biggest heist in the game's history."
So far.
posted by porpoise at 5:47 PM on April 17, 2023 [4 favorites]
So far.
posted by porpoise at 5:47 PM on April 17, 2023 [4 favorites]
I once shared an airport shuttle with this guy, who noted my interest in computers but took pains to make sure I didn't know much about EVE. Then he handed me this book, which he was apparently hand-delivering from one country to another, which contained the upcoming rule changes for the game. He seemed to take some delight in letting this unassuming young lady handle something that players would have been VERY interested to peek into.
Not very professional, but hey... these weren't state secrets he was carrying.
posted by tigrrrlily at 7:23 PM on April 17, 2023 [5 favorites]
Not very professional, but hey... these weren't state secrets he was carrying.
posted by tigrrrlily at 7:23 PM on April 17, 2023 [5 favorites]
Imagine if they had launched some form of NFT or blockchain thing like 5-10 years ago when there was still hype juice and greater fools left
Well they scammed $40M out of Andreessen Horowitz with this dumb idea, so there's at least one greater fool still dumping money into crypto shit.
posted by ryanrs at 7:36 PM on April 17, 2023 [7 favorites]
Well they scammed $40M out of Andreessen Horowitz with this dumb idea, so there's at least one greater fool still dumping money into crypto shit.
posted by ryanrs at 7:36 PM on April 17, 2023 [7 favorites]
I don't play EVE Online and never have, but I'll give this guy fifty forty bucks for his 2.23 trillion ISK.
posted by AlSweigart at 8:47 PM on April 17, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by AlSweigart at 8:47 PM on April 17, 2023 [1 favorite]
I'll deliver the cash in a tote bag, which they can also keep.
posted by AlSweigart at 8:48 PM on April 17, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by AlSweigart at 8:48 PM on April 17, 2023 [4 favorites]
I have tried too many times to get into EVE and every time I do, I feel like I'm at a job I'm not qualified for, drowning in numbers. I love that others love it and that they love it so much. And these stories are always interesting and hilarious to me, but it is absolutely a game I've just completely written off as not being for me.
*goes back to playing Stardew Valley*
posted by Fizz at 5:58 AM on April 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
*goes back to playing Stardew Valley*
posted by Fizz at 5:58 AM on April 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
They got in, they got out, nobody got hurt.
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:51 AM on April 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:51 AM on April 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
"Hi, um, nerds? Corporations have been around for like 650 years. This is a solved problem. You don't have to start from scratch."
Yeah, the problem is this is a game. Guilds going dead with enough of their leadership never online anymore to lock up all the guild resources is also a solved problem, and it's basically solved by not requiring a quorum. This is a fun story in the classic "EVE Online white-collar crime" vein, but it... isn't a crime. It doesn't look like even the smallest rule was broken. This is how the mechanic works - it's how resources don't disappear from the economy because the handful of guild officers with the keys to the vault don't log in any more. Sucks for whoever was still in the corp and didn't happen to log in on the right day but that is in fact how things work.
posted by restless_nomad at 7:17 AM on April 18, 2023 [13 favorites]
Yeah, the problem is this is a game. Guilds going dead with enough of their leadership never online anymore to lock up all the guild resources is also a solved problem, and it's basically solved by not requiring a quorum. This is a fun story in the classic "EVE Online white-collar crime" vein, but it... isn't a crime. It doesn't look like even the smallest rule was broken. This is how the mechanic works - it's how resources don't disappear from the economy because the handful of guild officers with the keys to the vault don't log in any more. Sucks for whoever was still in the corp and didn't happen to log in on the right day but that is in fact how things work.
posted by restless_nomad at 7:17 AM on April 18, 2023 [13 favorites]
people's quest to turn phtons into "money" then steal it is as old as the sun.
posted by clavdivs at 8:29 AM on April 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by clavdivs at 8:29 AM on April 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
"I'll deliver the cash in a tote bag, "
A TOTE bag, you say?
I fund your ideas intriguing and would like to subscribe to your newsletter....
posted by Floydd at 6:58 PM on April 18, 2023
A TOTE bag, you say?
I fund your ideas intriguing and would like to subscribe to your newsletter....
posted by Floydd at 6:58 PM on April 18, 2023
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The default option is that there is no quorum requirement. Astonishing.
"Hi, um, nerds? Corporations have been around for like 650 years. This is a solved problem. You don't have to start from scratch."
posted by The Bellman at 3:41 PM on April 17, 2023 [34 favorites]