EVE General Discussion

On the eve of another great war in Delve, it's appropriate to take a moment and reflect upon the events that took place five years ago--events that would help determine the course of the EVE galaxy. Join me, won't you?

'Twas the summer of 2007, and the Great War raged. The Band of Brothers alliance and its chief pet, the Mercenary Coalition, were conquering region after region in nullsec. Earlier in the year, the non-BoB powers of EVE had come to the conclusion that BoB was serious when it claimed its ambition was to conquer all of nullsec. Having conquered much of the south and west, BoB announced its intention to move eastward and consume more regions. In a desperate move, the great power of the north, D2, declared war against BoB and moved south. D2 understood that it was better to join some allies in a cataclysmic war against BoB than to just sit around and wait its turn to be destroyed.

The non-BoB powers had another good reason to despise BoB: In one of the greatest video game scandals of all time, it had come to light that the CCP devs had alts in BoB, and they had been actively assisting BoB in its takeover of nullsec. When D2, unbidden, jumped into the fight, it seemed for a brief moment that the nightmare of BoB domination would be prevented.

But that hope turned to horror as the galaxy watched the anti-BoB north get rolled up by the Mercenary Coalition. Led by Seleene, who had no ambition beyond being first among BoB's servants, the Mercenary Coalition shattered D2. With effective resistance at an end, MC began consuming the north.

Meanwhile, BoB itself marched eastward against the final bastion of its enemies. The southeast was home to the "RedSwarm Federation." The RSF was a coalition of three alliances, each of whom lacked the strength to make it on their own in nullsec but were formidable when combined: The Red Alliance, the Tau Ceti Federation, and GoonSwarm. Red and Tau Ceti were comprised, respectively, of Russian and French-speaking players who had few other options at the time but to stick together. They were relatively few in number, and had been pushed across the galaxy by more populous alliances. But they were battle-hardened, experienced, and determined to survive. The Goons complemented their coalition partners: They had a lot of troops but little in the way of equipment or organization.

Previously, the RSF had carved out a home for itself in the southeast, tearing apart an older power, Lotka Volterra. Before D2's invasion from the north, BoB planned to assist Lotka Volterra and turn the tide against the RSF. By the time D2 had been dealt with, Lotka Volterra was destroyed. This turned out to be useful for BoB: As they marched east against the RSF, they could simply conquer Lotka Volterra's old regions for themselves.

BoB and the RSF clashed. The RSF fell back. BoB stepped forward and claimed sovereignty over another region of nullsec. The RSF, the final obstacle in BoB's path toward total control of EVE, was fading. The RSF still had control of a few regions, but they were losing hope: If they couldn't stop BoB from taking one of their regions, how could they stop BoB from taking the rest?

Then came the collapse of the Goons. Remedial, the Goons' founder and long-time leader, decided to quit the game. He was convinced that BoB could not be stopped, and that EVE was essentially over. Remedial transferred leadership of the Goons to The Mittani. But before Remedial left, he gave The Mittani his plan for how the Goons who didn't quit the game might still find some fun: Unanchor all remaining sovereignty-claiming structures, pack their bags, cede the Goon regions to BoB, and move across the galaxy to NPC space to mess around. Remedial even gave The Mittani a script for a State of the Goonion speech announcing this new strategy, which The Mittani delivered.

Had the surrender of the Goon regions taken place, the RSF would have crippled. Combined, the three powers had not been able to stop BoB. Without the Swarm, their chances of continued survival would have gone from bad to zero. And with that, all EVE would belong to BoB.

For those who did not play EVE at the time, it is difficult to fully comprehend just how powerful BoB had become. No other alliance has come close to its dominance of the game. BoB and its pets controlled a majority of the galaxy. Its leadership came from players who had been in EVE from the beginning--some from the Beta. Its core was comprised of the oldest and most successful PvP alliances. It had never lost a war. Ever.

Had the Goons retreated, or had BoB succeeded in its goal of defeating the RSF, it is no exaggeration to say that no one reading this thread would be playing EVE today. BoB's dream of total control of EVE would have been realized, but EVE would have died as a result. And at the time, most agreed that a BoB victory was the most likely outcome of the Great War.

But that didn't happen, now did it?

The death of Shrike provided a much-needed morale boost to the Goons, and to all who hated BoB. The fact remained, however, that although BoB had lost a ship, they had control of most of the galaxy. They had never lost a war. From its inception, the Band of Brothers had been given every advantage imaginable, and total victory was just within reach.

Then there was YACAODI1MAC.

In the golden age of the CAOD subforum, anyone in a non-NPC corp could post. CAOD was the primary source of EVE players' information about nullsec happenings, and there was great temptation for members of various alliances to use alts to make bad posts about things. One day, a mysterious stranger appeared in CAOD, announcing himself as the CEO of "Yet Another CAOD-Inspired 1-Man Alt Corp," or YACAODI1MAC. He claimed that he was not like the others, and that he had something important to share with the people of EVE.

On July 1, 2007, YACAODI1MAC posted "JUNE IN REVIEW: An Objective Analysis of the War Situation," an excoriation of BoB. It wasn't the first time YACAODI1MAC had made a post; earlier in the month, a post entitled "The Mercenary Coalition's Big Decision" began the long process of driving a wedge between MC and BoB, a theme to which YACAODI1MAC frequently returned--until a split between the two powers did occur a few months later.

But "June in Review" was the first to directly address BoB. Not only was BoB not going to win the war and conquer nullsec, the post declared, but BoB was inherently flawed and ultimately doomed to "disappear." This concept would soon find its expression in the better-known (and much longer) "Why is BoB Losing?" saga.

Needless to say, this was not the prevailing wisdom in July 2007. The first reply to the thread was from a pilot who wrote, simply, "End yourself." That seemed to be the attitude of most readers. But there were a few who found the ideas expressed by YACAODI1MAC to be intriguing.

"June in Review" is notable for another reason. Just a few weeks earlier, GoonSwarm appeared ready to Fail Cascade. It had been beaten and bloodied, it was in the process of losing territory, it lost its founder and his replacement almost instantly, it declared its surrender of territories--though it didn't follow through--and CCP was threatening widespread bans due to the threadnought. But YACAODI1MAC uttered this chilling prophecy:

The goon, Romulus and Remus ad infinitum, suckled on the teat of the she-wolf Remedial;
these goons when still babes, almost strangled by BoB in their cradles;
these goons when children, making a snack of Shrike's titan;
these goons when full-grown, devour the world.

Five years ago today.

- 315

I doth tingle

well i didnt read any of that.

the turning point of eve was the introduction of the capital ship class.

see?

i did it in one sentence.

It's official, I finally read an entire James315 post from start to finish. Would actually read again.

I love James threads. As a new player, the history of the universe is all new to me. Thank you for the history lessons.

There are no Goons.

the goons 0.0 dream is over

The turning point in EVE was 5 years ago when I made my first trial account when BoB was in this war.

I sure did give those veld roids what they deserved for taking over my empire space. 5 years later, they're still invading and I'm still at war with them.

War in null with the same recycled players?... *yawn*