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Warfare & Tactics

 
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The real Information Warfare
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Shimaya Khamsi
Doomheim
#1 - 2012-09-12 03:44:52 UTC
The premise is very simple, and it boils down to this: Wars are often won and lost based on the quality of information that pilots, corporations and alliances have available to them. In my (Very limited) experience, this information is hard to come by and is very time consuming to obtain.

My question: Would anyone ever pay/has anyone ever been contracted to provide such information and services to said corporations and alliances, and if so, how would you go about setting up the infrastructure or connections necessary to obtain the information desired by potential clients?

For example, individuals or a corporation specializing in this type of service could...

- Plant spies into the target corp
- Camp gates, etc (Generally just be a nuisance to the target)
- Use locator agents to locate targets
- Set up shop in the target's system and keep an eye on the area
- Conduct other tasks to obtain information on the target
- Assist, to some degree, in attacking high priority or vulnerable targets

I really have no idea what I'm talking about. This is purely speculation, but i find it intriguing and would like to know if any of what I mentioned would be worth paying someone for. obviously this would be labour intensive and would involve a lot of stealthed ships. Ideally, the target would never know someone was there. As such, the fee for services rendered would be high, as the potential consequences would also be large...

Let me know what you think, I'm simply curious. Any information would be helpful.
Garresh
Mackies Raiders
Wild Geese.
#2 - 2012-09-12 05:59:53 UTC
There's an inherent problem with that as a service. See, in eve, isk is everywhere, but trust is nowhere. Trust is, as as commodity, far FAR more valuable than isk. To perform that service requires a large number of players, with a common culture or bond that would allow them to work together. Even most corporations only trust a handful of individuals to any real extent. And to buy that trust? Its not cost effective or applicable.

Intelligence and espionage work is done mostly in house, because of the problems with trusting people in eve. It's pretty much why Goonswarm has the best intelligence network. They have a common culture and are bonded by a means outside of the game. You can't break that bond with isk, and you can't generate a level of trust deep enough on any large scale through typical recruitment efforts. Not to mention most intelligence work is extremely dull, and intel needs to be kept on a need to know basis. Those who gather intel will rarely if ever see how that was used, so they have to simply trust in their superiors and hope they're not wasting their time.

So the answer to that is no, or very VERY rarely.

This Space Intentionally Left Blank
Donnerjack Wolfson
Brutor Tribe
Minmatar Republic
#3 - 2012-09-12 18:30:19 UTC
I know for a fact that I would not pay for such a service.

My alliance (on my main) has it's own intel network (which I head.)

Even without, I would not pay for information. I'm leery enough of information I don't get explicitly myself, as there's always the risk of pilots defecting (low risk in my particular alliance) or missing/misinterpreting data.
AFKish
Doomheim
#4 - 2012-09-12 23:10:14 UTC
In my experience over the last 2 and a half years in highsec wars no one has ever really come to my group and asked for this kind of thing directly. Sure from time to time people ask us to track down certain people or in space assets but these odd jobs are few and far between.

Being involved in highsec wars has made us quite good at intel gathering for example; www.evewho.com is pretty good for getting a list of a corps pilots, using this in conjunction with killboards you can get a fair idea of a corps abilities as well as their areas of operation. using this information you can then track targets as they come online using locator agents and neutral scouts.

As for the whole infiltration side of things if you have the alts to do it and you intend on expending time on a target sure go for it, but we found its easier just to pick on a newer member of the corp and lean on them for information. (a nice trick is asking for a corp mail API key from the guy you turn.)

To answer your question, no there isn’t really a big demand for this kind of thing, add the fact that any corp or alliance that would be willing to exploit any information you could retrieve is generally quite capable of retrieving said information for themselves.

If you are determined to go with this idea i suggest making a post offering your services on the wanted, trades and services forum.

(Apologies for any spelling and grammar mistakes I don’t care enough to proof read Big smile)
RavenPaine
RaVeN Alliance
#5 - 2012-09-13 01:52:36 UTC
First off:
Your concept/speculation is a good idea, and shows you have a general idea of war intel, and what is needed.

That said:
The other posters have pointed out how it really works.
PvP pilots want their own firsthand intel.
They do use all of the tactics you listed. (and more)
Usually there is someone in corp that loves the intel work, and they excell in it.


Most times if someone pays for assistance, it includes a secondary/partner war dec and kills are part of the requirement for the fee.