BoB isn't the largest, but it's probably the strongest single alliance in the game.
It's not just items, but inside information people are concerned about.

The lesser of the two items, the storyline arc leak directly resulted in a corporation receiving a ship worth about $3000 USD if you go by eBay conversion rates. The bigger item is allegedly many hundred times bigger.

One of the five Devs in question was in control of the BoB Capital Fleet. He witnessed fellow BoB members buying Capital Pilot characters on EBay (EULA violation) and was then responsible for managing the training and distribution of those characters to other BoB players, which is again another MAJOR violation of the EULA.

That's without mentioning all the blatant favouritism from CCP towards BoB both in game and on the forums.

This is why I stick to the X-series. Well, this and the fact that EVE is one of the most boring things I've ever "played".

Im a recent addition to the aurora team, we're the guys that deal with the events and things listed above, Unfortunately i cannot release my details due to a legal document i signed. A long term 'joke' by the players is that BoB was run by senior Dev's and ISD vols. We know this too be true and that it is also a known fact that char sales reported to the gm staff were ignored when certain TaCs breaches were known to be done by these people, CCP does indeed seem to be rather too intrested in playing their game rather than producing it as a game company should. Either way i know this will be rubbished by almost all ccp/isd who read it, but as they know themselves you see far too much curious stuff going on in the isd trib channel to not at least think something odd is going on.

This type of activity exists in all games and, in fact, all societies in real life; only exception here is that someone got careless.

I'd simply ignore it if it does not directly affect you. If it does, well your not in the circle, so you really can't do anything about it anyway.

In the end everyone in eve will be eaten by a giant and ugly squid and all this nonsence will pail into the back ground. While some people plague on catching out other peopls paswords via ingame or hacking meens otheres spend the same dedication on looking for a great fight, these are the stories, the big battles that should be up, not some glory huggin mofo who wants a bit of lime light aka (the guy in question trying to hard to get more peoples acount names though his own forums outside of evo), please note though hes trying to put ccp down ect and at the same time hes also asking for in game ships ect... perhaps if he dosnt like it so much he could just leave, then the rest of us could just get on with it

This stinks. The Devs fell for desire to 1337 and crapped all over the integrity of this game.

You can't play in a PVP, zero-sum, sandbox game when one powerful force of cat-assing powergamers is directly assisted by corrupt developers with literal "I win" buttons.

I was a member of ASCN, which was BoB's only serious competitor. We had dug in down in Fortress Feythabolis and had literally months worth of stockpiles of ships, guns, materials, and ammo. My stuff's still down there, and I couldn't care less. I'll never give CCP another cent.

The other thing worth noting is that we'd experience some exceptionally strange lag effects whenever we would fight BoB. Not the normal kind of skript-kiddie hax, but the entire ASCN fleet would drop out and then we'd log back in one-by-one due to the queue system -- and the entire BoB fleet would still be there, picking us off as we logged back in, one-by-one.

ASCN was continually shat upon in the game. During the war with G, we had all of our POS towers, which had been anchored for weeks, mysteriously unanchored **in the presence of a GM** in one of our Outpost systems, which allowed G to take the system and the Outpost station. This was never resolved with CCP.

Our alliance broke down after our leader, CYVOK, who had founded and led the alliance through trials and tribulations for years got fed up with the inaction of the Devs after our Titan was destroyed in some seriously weird circumstances. And that... that was the end of EvE for me as well. I think it's a great game and a great accomplishment by CCP, but the human aspect and the sheer unfairness of making everything we made and then losing it to a collection of poor hacks and bad GMs just sours and tarnishes everything.

The problem is that CCP, while needing devs and GMs to play the game so they keep in touch, doesn't care to institute proper protections against abuse. So they ONLY do something when it blows up in their face.

P.S. Calvin, ASCN vs BoB isn't the issue here. I was in ASCN too and it wasn't magic bob dev powers that lost it for them.

It is a shame that there may be deceit on the part of the Dev team. I think everyone knows the pain of feeling cheated on, especially when you are paying to have potential 'fun'. I think overall the game is fun, and that as players we are continually stretching the limit of what the programming and the hardware can handle. We, as players, have the responsibility to have fun for ourselves. To some this may mean ganking haulers in Jita, to others, sucking rocks for hours and watching ISK grow. If you don't like the way things are going with your alliance, or your corp, you have the option to leave. If you're not having fun, don't play that way. It is a simple equation folks.

See you in 0.0

-Adri

>I'd simply ignore it if it does not directly affect you.

The problem, however, is that the group that received the assistance of developers has made a point of flexing their muscle at every opportunity, and against as many people as possible. The long and short of it is that the group in question has made a point of directly effecting as many people in the game as possible, both through direct actions, and through threats.

"In the end everyone in eve will be eaten by a giant and ugly squid and all this nonsence will pail into the back ground. While some people plague on catching out other peopls paswords via ingame or hacking meens otheres spend the same dedication on looking for a great fight, these are the stories, the big battles that should be up, not some glory huggin mofo who wants a bit of lime light aka (the guy in question trying to hard to get more peoples acount names though his own forums outside of evo), please note though hes trying to put ccp down ect and at the same time hes also asking for in game ships ect... perhaps if he dosnt like it so much he could just leave, then the rest of us could just get on with it"

Savant, your blind trust in authority and desire to ignore blatant favouritism and unfairness in the game suggests a very feeble personality indeed.

Of all the stances people take towards this recent drama, the "I don't want to hear about it why are you questioning CCP they can do no wrong" is the single most retarded. Authority must always be questioned lest it become corrupt; unfortunately in this case it required an illegal infiltration of a forum to discover just how deep the rot went.

The highest positions of power in CCP have been linked with players in the same powerful alliance. Now not only is the developer's actions being questioned, but also if any investigation into such actions will really be carried out objectively.

No one argues that Devs cant play the game, they should, but when you start abusing the game to make your side win is just wrong.

0.0 is a dangerous place to live, but Dev handouts to BoB are just unnaceptable.

i think this is weak... have some respect for ALL the people that are paying for your product. if you're going to pull some **** like that, spread it out. dont single one group in. you could even play it into the story... if you have a massive alliance that just dominates everyone, your going to lose players.

crap i mean you're

Milio: No, you're right, but it is *part* of the issue. It's a part of the issue that caused a lot of players to leave, and it's a part of the issue that illustrates how "strange things" happened around BoB.

The facts remain:

CCP dont care.
CCP will sweep it under the map.
Nothing will change.
BoB will continue to retain the unfair advantages it has.

This kind of crap happens all too often to these guys

Not surprised by this one bit. This company bought WW games, who was notorious in its online "chat" based games for GMs cheating in New Bremen and its Sword and Sorcery site.

Dirty birds flock together after all.

EVE owners no doubt bought WW to get the IP of Vampire so that they can create a massive online vampire game... so that developers from both companies can screw the players and make the players pay for the opportunity to get hosed.

The Suck's all on You.

Just proves the original poster has no idea what he is talking about.

BoB isn't and has never been the largest alliance in the game. The other alliance referred to in the article had almost 5000 members, BoB currently only has 1900, and rank about 6th or 7th in terms of size.

Pure flamebait, posted by people who dont really know anything.

Renard dont bullshit, large could mean a number of things:

-BoB have the msot regions in the game
-BoB are the 'biggest' (as in most talked about) alliance
-BoB are the most powerful alliance.

Large doesnt just mean membercounts.

BoB has actually been on the decline recently. While they used to be the largest and strongest...that's fallen somewhat into Goonswarm's shadow. So even if they do have devs helping them, it's not doing quite what they had hoped. Besides, Goons don't fear nobody.

So, I've never played EVE but have played Star Wars Galaxies - do you think instead of using ebay to buy items and then meeting up with the other player you could use Kushcash.com, especially through your mobile? Then you could pay another player instantly while you're with him and receive your item right then and there, maybe?

if the dev team needs someone playing the game in order to have feedback about what works and what doesn't they should have a team of non-dev players that gives them the feedback they need. This team should in no way be involved in the inner workings of the game, should have no previous knowledge of future game events and should have advantage whatsoever over other players. They'd be hired (or volunteers or whatever) to play normally and answer whatever questions the dev team might have (as well as provide aditional info they thought the devs would find usefull). Kinda like the people who go to movie screenings.

This whole mess is what you get when there's "promiscuity" between devs+GMs and players. There will always be the danger that some Dev or GM's actions in EVE will influence the balance of power between "real" players in the game.

let's not forget that the ccp devs designed this game as their personal playground. their own backstory says as much and relishes in the fact that the majority of them were pvp pirate wannabes, designing a world to suit their tastes. the problem is, they didn't stop playing.

i don't believe ccp has ever taken this problem the least bit seriously. all they have done in the 4 years i've played (off and on) is go from devs blatantly running the most powerful organizations in the game, to devs surreptitiously running the most powerful organizations in the game.

this behavior, while inexcusable and corrupt, is so ingrained in ccp's corporate culture that the only event capable of dislodging their heads from their asses (and is looming ever closer...) will occur when they can no longer pay the bill for their supercomputing playground. and even then, i wouldn't put it past them to run ccp into the ground before they give up their fun. it's called arrogance... plain and simple.

I have been playing EVE for 3 years now. In that time i witnessed many strange going ons, for example obvious forum moderator preference for some people, the reimbursement of large sums of isk (the game currency) to some people that had lost the isk in normaly non-reimburseable ways, etc.

I chose to ignore what I saw. I like the game and I want to trust CCP.

The current scandal I took lightly in the beginning. Then I did some more indepth research myself. To all those that think there is no proof of wrongdoing I seriously recommend to do some indepth research on the matter themselves.

The question for me now is do I want to continue to play a game that (to me) is clearly an unlevel playing field?

I am not sure. But CCPs behaviour on the matter will play a decisive role.

Devs should play... on the test servers! Thats right they have two of them one in house and another live to players to help with patch testing. There isn't any reason they should have ever been allowed onto the production server. "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely" -Lord Acton

unfortuantly this action opens up all kinds of questions about past "gliches" that acsn had suffered the accual act that has been admitted to isnt the main problem its the loss of trust between players and the gms. hopefully ccp as a company tightens down on their staff and can restore that trust. ill keep playing and see but i havent had many of these "gliches" happen to me yet.

Joanna, that comment is wrong. It better reads 'power attracts the corruptible'.

As for BoB having Dev-hacks for actual combat, I get the feeling that it would be considerably more complicated then folks think. Also, BoB is hardly the only group in EvE to have that accusation thrown at them. Just about every other alliance has been accused of it, some even of having Dev favoritism.

Time will tell, of course.

I've fought against BoB for most of my EVE career -- I was in Fountain Alliance when they first showed up in Delve and kicked us out. I was in the corp whose POS they infiltrated and offlined (metagaming for the win!) when they were removing us from Fountain.

Here is some info, pro and con to the current events, from my point of view:

First off, the "he posted personal info" thing I don't agree with. Sir Molle, the leader of BoB, posted something to the effect of "Hey [first name], is it snowing in (country?)" on the official EVE Online forums, this was right as Kugutsumen (the hacker who "broke the story") was first starting to go public with his findings. Kugutsumen posted info on who Molle was (or maybe who some developer was?), on his own forum I believe, not the E-O forums. Molle apparently also tried to get folks to call Kugutsumen's place of employment to get him fired, but this too was on another forum, not CCP's. I can't blame him on some level, I'd post some irrational stuff if my forums just got hacked, guilty or not. I honestly think anyone trying to get Molle banned over that is just grasping at straws, trying to get a prominent member of BoB banned. Is Molle guilty of wrongdoing? Dunno, but there is no [b]Evidence[/b] that he truly broke EULA and should be banned. However, the listed reason why Kugutsumen was banned was that he posted personal info of Molle or a dev or some such (I have not seen said post, and believe it was on his own forum, not CCP's.) Regardless, Kugutsumen was banned for reasons other than those being quoted, and I am not sure I can blame CCP for doing it, even though some accusations have proven true.

Now, there are a slew of allegations going around. The T2 prints from the dev character T20 (FYI, T20 apparently created the "T2 lottery system" but I could be wrong on that?) are just one of many allegations that the EVE player community is in an uproar about.

BoB has always "done whatever it takes" to win. EVE is a complex game, and folks take it seriously enough to infiltrate their rival corps with spies, steal all their stuff (get a spy in, get access to corp hangars, take stuff, leave corp), hack or infiltrate Teamspeak servers, etc. Any dirty trick was fair game for them, they were proud of it, but adamantly denied they had devs in their alliance or that they cheated. The list in this paragraph is just the things they have admitted to, and are all "within the rules" per CCP.

However, now T20 has admitted to creating the BPO's, lending credibility to the cries over the last 2 years of how BoB was cheating. Allegations they "crashed nodes" were ignored by EVE GM's, suspicious coincidences of GM events happening during player battles or teamspeak servers crashing as BoB fleets engaged were written off as "tin-foil-hattery." BoB were not the only alliance accused of such activities, just that they were #1 and hence a bigger target to the "They're cheating!" crowd. Now, I'm not so sure -- yes, that is right up until this scandal broke I really didn't think BoB cheated, and thought CCP would be retarded to have a dev playing amongst the #1 alliance (just for the [i]appearance[/i] of impropriety.)

There have been reports of "ISD" staff (the ones who run storyline events, kinda "junior GM's") saving Lotka Volterra carriers from certain death, the rumor that Lotka Volterra got info on an ISD event and were able to unfairly win a mothership. There were hundreds of reports of BoB purposely crashing nodes [i](naughty)[/i] and using a well-known [i]legitimate[/i] method to log back on before their foes (and even an explanation of how they did it) that went unpunished. Rumors of rigged tournaments as the dev who runs them is [i]supposedly[/i] a member of BoB or a BoB-friendly organization. Rumors of GM's playing favorites in regards to petitions for ships lost due to lag or exploits. Rumors of CCP staff not responding to accusations of BoB shooting through POS shields (an exploit for sure, supposedly bannable, yet no BoB have been banned even though hundreds witnessed and attested to their actions.)

I don't want this to all be about BoB, but they really do have a cloud of stink around them right now since at least one of Kugutsumen's accusations has proven true, lending credit to the belief that more could be going on.

CCP is still completely ignoring the real questions and not addressing the concerns of the playerbase. They think they can just muffle this until it washes over and then be fine, sans a few hundred accounts.

I hope we can prove that this will not be silenced until they address the issues openly and honestly and the community is assured that cheating characters have been removed.

Tell me, Players of EVE - Have you never wished you could just go in and tweak a training skill up a notch. Just wish you could drop a line of code and have that faction rig. I'm a player and a database developer. I know what I could do if given a few hours to play inside the EVE tables. Would I?... Would You? Sure is tempting if I could. Back off the Devs a little. I think we all have an ounce of larceny in us...if given just that little bit.

Anyone spamming this link in Jita??

They've banned people for posting any links in-game that point to articles like this.

I'm playing again for the first time in years because a friend asked me to come back, but I've known the devs and GMs were corrupt for years--that's one of the reasons I quit playing in the first place--and I'm only playing now because that friend asked me to (and I'm using isk to get game time cards--CCP's never going to see another dime from me, personally).

Their response has been weak and insufficient, and if their internal auditor ever posts anything ever again about more corruption, I'll be shocked. It's not that it's there--it's all over--it's just that I think they already know it and they're doing their best to hide it.

FREE Kugutsumen !!!!!!

All devs and GM's should be fired on the spot for being involved in in game alliance politics....

Now
EVE
Game-Masters
Are
Banning
Outright
Non
BoB
Alliance
Members
Buying
ISK

All Coalition forces accounts have come under increased scrutiny for ISK purchases related to fighting the BoB forces duel to developer interference.

This is an entirely new development in the North vs. South war that is raging across EVE Online. The southern forces controlled by BoB (Band of Brothers) with their well documented connections to EVE developers are taking the war to new heights by enlisting the help of neutral GMs. While the GMs are sworn to uphold neutrality it seems that some of the potential rewards of ALT membership in the “Winning Side” have swayed their neutrality towards seeing Issues within the game toward purchasing ISK (in-game money) bias toward penalizing Coalition forces instead of BoB forces equality. More to follow soon as this story develops further this week.

Footnote: purchasing ISK via outside mechanisms is strictly prohibited against the EVE Online EULA (End User License Agreement)

ppl are still getting their posts removed, siped and banned for mentioning kugutsumen or the gms and devs. i got a 3 day ban for it.

Whats a negabon bambi?

well as far as I am concerned by the banning and not keeping this opened they are admitting guilt more than anything the hole system should be wiped out and bring in new people and have another group watching them. I pay for my account and I feel robbed.
in the old days if you fixed a game and was found out you got shot.
well shoot the involved people and start fresh.
and it boiled down to this band of brothers are only in power in that system because of what's going on.
not because there good at what they do because if they where this wouldn't be going on a pathetic joke.

Personally as soon as Startrek Online or Gateworld gets going whichever one I like better I'll be selling my eve account and leaving.

Walking along the road you see $50.00 bucks lying in the gutter...no one's around you tell me what you do. Everyone has larceny in them. If the dev's and GM's, really wish to rule EVE , do you think they would not have total control by now? No matter what allliance they used? c'mon ppl your pissed off because you didn't get the chance to do it. Look inside we are all the same

Although you cant say that all instances which have involved you 'loosing' your nice ship etc are of direct consequence and due to Game Hacks or GM malpractice or intervening, you 'can' turn it into the excuse or excuses for which you have lost your ship and mods or your alliance has lost a fight or some shit like that, i have 5 accounts in eve online and i 'do' experience lag when pvpin 'but i have never assumed it was due to a 'dev' or CCP personnel having a 'outside' part to play that would directly effect the outcome(s) of an engagement(s) lag happens, nodes can only handle so many multi connections downloading from it (after all) everything has its limits. Someone mentioned on BoB being able to shoot through the POS shields too.. this would be because they managed to obtain the password for the POS (enabling them to bypass the shields) In terms of this kugutsumen well i read his post a good while ago now but i remember part of what he was saying about CCP corruption 'basically' although i believe people can quickly get tired fed up pissed off and finally bored due to lack of interest or the 'novelty' of playing a game set in space wares off people tend to make excuses and/or blame something else other than themselves or agree with the very facts before there crying eyes 'its either due to game mechanics and/or 'basically' your just shit at pvp' or it just wasnt your day.

In saying this though..
one has got to think twice about the very weird and denying fact of 'WHy, is CCP desiring to Hush all this under the Carpet'??

It maybe for 2 possible plausible reasons:

CCP do not want to engage in debate with the player base due to the likelihood of them 'Knowing' the possibility and repercussions for doing so may very much and unequivocally (compared to them admitting anything of the above statements/comments/accustations)
may destroy completely the confidence within the game so much so that it would obliterate EvE Online thus Killing the game altogether being takin offline and all player accounts etc being closed and the game MMO being shutdown.

OR

CCP Are all corrupt all its employees 'in direct contact with the game' and they are milking it for the real and believe me it is A L O T of $$$ for the buying and selling of ISK (Ingame Currency) i am talking Millions and Millions of Sterling Euro Dollars and Yen, this is only a possibility ofc and a completely unproven and probably unprovable theory.
After all BoB link to ISK selling sites and other sites, this could all be more massive than we could ever amagine or it could just be all someones carefully drawn up plan to attack CCP for what ever reason and if so its proving in fact its proven very very... effective, as CCP's player base has taken a Direct hit due to it thus there pockets have grown smaller.

All i can finish on saying is.

All through human history there have been corruptions and violations and unfair gains and losses in every conceivable way that any of us could possibly think of 'because it is called' >Human Nature< to

Scorn
Hate
Mistrust
Lie
Speculate
Deceive
Glorify
favor
and Corrupt

So, all we are left with now is,

How can it not possibly have ever been Not Corrupt?

What Would you do if you played this game and where also a GM or even bigger a DEV?

I know what would enter into my mind if i was a DEV and' also playing this highly addictive game of
what i could do certainly.

What would YOU do?

now you've found your answer.

Regards
-Sean

Sean...

Tossing FUD at the corruption, claiming we all would do it if we had a chance...shows you are lost, and are just another CCP drone type...readyto sell their grandmothers dentures for a fix, just because you can and think every one else would too...

CCP deserves to be shut down and their ass(ets) seized.