178 starbases involved in EVE Online's multi-trillion ISK exploit
by James Egan 
Dec 19th 2008 at 5:30PM
Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Bugs, Events, in-game, Exploits, Game mechanics, News items
The last several days have brought us some news of a rather significant exploit in the sci-fi MMO EVE Online. The game boasts a dynamic virtual economy which is in many ways integral to the game itself. (Inter Stellar Kredits, or ISK, is the currency upon which EVE Online's economy is based.) When rumor broke of a multi-trillion ISK exploit in the game, it raised a few eyebrows. However, when CCP Games themselves confirmed it and announced they would launch an investigation into the matter, it became more serious, as reflected by the economic impact on the market in the game. (Remember kids, internet spaceships are serious business... EVE tends to have more drama than the average massively multiplayer online game.)
CCP Games provided an update on the investigation today, stating that 178 starbases were discovered exploiting the issue and have been destroyed. This is the first time they've been willing or able to put a solid number on how extensive the exploit was, in terms of the scope of the operation. CCP stated: "We have also banned all those we have found directly involved and all accounts we have found to be connected to those players. The investigation is still under way and will take a while to conclude." Also part of the investigation is the Internal Affairs aspect, which some players have been following. CCP Games reports that they haven't found links between any of their own staff (or the Council of Stellar Management, for that matter) and the starbase exploit. See the official announcement from the EVE developers for more details on how the investigation is progressing.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Hugh Bowen said on 4:34PM 12-23-2008
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FarSpace said on 8:53AM 12-24-2008
Personaly I could tell T2 gear was way too hard to make imo, and I just thought CCP wanted it to be so hard. Why, I could not figure it out.
But now I realise CCP was looking at the economy only and not how one player saw it.
the exploiters and non-exploiters evened out the economy I guess.
But the non exploiters just worked at least 2 times as hard for the past 4 yrs.
Some one said it was about 4 trill isk, and that is about $200,000 in Game time cards for CCP?
What else that is wacked out and hard to build by normal players is being exploited maybe?
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