EVE New Citizens Q&A

"It's dead Jim" so to speak. And by dead I mean the original start date was early 2012 and no peep from the organizers so far. Might have something to do with goons being partners in this, so if they have serious business fighting going on, taking part in hulkageddon isn't going to be a priority for them(this is pure speculation though). That said, if it ever begins, it's going to be hard to miss for any forum reader.

Everyone everywhere commits mass genocide of miners in Hulks and other exhumers/mining barges.

In otherwords, if you mine, you die

As if an excuse was necessary. ;)

Suicide ganking has many purposes:

1.) To Collect the tears. To make the comparison with Civilization players: some build combat units all the time and focus on war, on the opposite side, some build city improvements, national wonders, and just try to make a happy, rich, and "advanced" empire. Suicide ganking (and events like Hulkageddon), are EvE's tools for war-oriented players to harass civ-building players. Civ-builders respond to this unprovoked agression with tears and complaints....

2.) To fight mining bots. Bots are a plague in EvE. High-sec mining bots are stupid, and since ccp is very slow to identify them, suicide gankers are a player-oriented mechanic to stop the botting. Truthfully, this is a secondary reason, and while many claim this is their noble goal, reason #1 is far more prevalent.

3.) Profit. Most high-sec miners feel entitled to fit their ships for maximum ore yield, rarely fitting anything but a token tank. This makes their expensive ships easily destroyable by cheap-fit destroyers and cruisers. The loot dropped by miners is often worth more than the suicided attack vessels, making this activity a sustainable game-play lifestyle. This is even more-true for hauler gankers.

4.) Metagaming. If you chose to "claim" a high-sec belt for you and yours, the ONLY way to effectively stop mining there is to continually suicide gank anyone that flies their ship into the belt. Goons limited the mining of Gallente Ice Products by suicide ganking anyone caught in those ice belts. The current wardec mechanics are broken, players can hide in NPC corps, and so suicide ganking is pretty much the ONLY means to enforce high-sec territorial claims.

In most games, suicide ganking would be considered a form of griefing. However, in EvE, it is NOT griefing as long as your motive is not specifically directed at a particular person. Focusing on a corporation, location, profit, or metagame event is completely acceptable. Hulkageddon further legitimizes suicide ganking by creating a metagame contest with a large prizepool.

The truth is, a hulk can be fit with a tank to make it "unprofitable" to kill. To do so, one must chose to fit tanking mods rather than mining upgrades and cargo expanders. Also, the game has many tools available for miner's to defend themselves beyond simply tanking. However, maintaining the level of vigilance required to thwart random suicide attacks is almost contradictory to the extremely passive nature inherent to mining.

I wrote a guide to fighting hulkageddon in conjuction with Griefer Geddon (a resistance movement to counter hulkageddon)

I think the EULA says something like this, but in practice it doesn't happen. People fight each other over minor personal things that don't affect anyone all the time.

In practice, GMs only ever seem to knock people for griefing if they're canbaiting in starter systems.

I'm curiuos, how to identify a bot miner and distinguish him from AFK miner? I mean in game, just by observing the barge. If there is no solid method for that, then "to fight mining bots" reason makes not much sense. It just looks like a convenient excuse to wreak havoc in hisec with easy targets. Note: I'm not saying it's wrong.

That whole post is quite good, but I'll light out this part and add to it.

Miners CHOOSE a game play style that's inherently passive and doesn't necessarily require them to learn much about the game at all, therefore they CHOOSE to be victims. Some miners and mining corps do it right, they know game mechanics, they know what to expect and how to counter problems it and those survive just fine out there, even during Hulkageddon. The non-effort, uninformed ones become targets, which is what EVE is about: It's a PVP focussed game where the prepared win from the uninformed, as it should be. High sec or miners are no exception.

I kinda forgot to add a "me too"...

^^this is pretty much the only answer.

The most common way suicide gankers determine "bot or not," is to blow up the mining barger and/or hauler, and see if the pod continues acting like the mining/hauling ship.