This map of Eve space is interesting for what’s not in it: namely a Corporation called Band of Brothers (BoB). BoB was previously one of the biggest Corps in the game, controlling the majority of what is now shown as unclaimed space. Stories here and here.

The guild was essentially destroyed by social engineering and betrayal: the GoonSquad (Eve arm of SomethingAwful) found a disgruntled Director of BoB, who apparently had more power than he should have. He proceeded to disband Corp elements he could disband, and transfer assets he could transfer. Most of the individual assets are still floating around that huge void in space, but most defenses have been disabled. Unfortunately for BoB, a new Corp cannot be formed for 24 hours, which means that one should expect a huge land rush by all the also-rans to try to sieze some of that lightly-controlled space. (Note: someone who plays Eve may want to correct my very light understanding of their rules).

Audio explanation of the incident from GoonFleet here. As an added bit of hilarity, the betraying person was recruited by GoonSquad as part of a recruitment scam (recruit someone, take some of their stuff, then say ‘it’s not working out’), and the player offered access to BoB’s inner workings in hopes he could stay.

The question is: is this good? It’s definitely audacious and breathtaking. It totally appeals to me as an observer, and Eve players definitely have more control over their fate than in WoW. But in this instance, the work of thousands of players was essentially undone by the betrayal of a single guy. How many people will quit because of this incident? Will this be offset by the people attracted to the possibilities the incident will bring to light in EvE?

Original comments thread is here.