Has EVE's most powerful alliance fallen?

by James Egan Jun 18th 2009 at 1:00PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, PvP, Endgame, Politics

Band of Brothers (renamed KenZoku) was once the most powerful alliance in EVE Online with a stated goal, even here at Massively, to control all of the game's New Eden galaxy. Now, KenZoku has reportedly left the contested, lawless frontier of 0.0 space after months of resisting the combined forces of rival alliances.

One of EVE's in-game journalists, Interstellar Correspondent ISD Clarity Brown, reports from the site of KenZoku's last holdout: "GoonSwarm and their allies deployed a camp on KenZoku's sole remaining outpost last night. A joint force of pilots from Pandemic Legion, GoonSwarm, Morsus Mihi, Razor Alliance and KIA deployed 27 titans around the station in a show of force and gave a demonstration of the sheer power embodied in such a gang."

Titans are the game's most expensive weapons of mass destruction, massive ships capable of unleashing 'Doomsday' area-of-effect attacks that melt fleets caught in the blast. To unleash 27 Doomsday blasts at once is... quite a sight, as the video footage demonstrates.

Band of Brothers was dealt a crippling blow back in February when a well-placed member of their own alliance defected to GoonSwarm, but on his way out, used his access privileges to disband the Band of Brothers with one click of a mouse. BoB reformed under a new moniker, KenZoku, but had lost some of their strategic advantages in the war, given the game mechanics of sovereignty (system control) in EVE. The struggle between KenZoku and their allied enemies has lasted months, but with this week's announcement of KenZoku's retreat, some say that the largest virtual conflict ever waged in the game has ended.

What KenZoku's next move will be is uncertain, but it's doubtful that players who have held the reigns of power in alliance warfare throughout the history of EVE will simply give up. We're curious about what will happen next, and if EVE Online could be entering a new era in player politics. Time will tell.

Tags: 0.0, alliance-warfare, band-of-brothers, bob, clarity-brown, endgame, eve, eve-online, game-mechanics, goonfleet, goonswarm, isd-clarity-brown, kenzoku, kia, morsus-mihi, pandemic-legion, player-politics, politics, pvp, razor-alliance, sci-fi, sovereignty, titan, titans

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

UltimateQ said on 1:33PM 6-18-2009

It's that stuff that makes me want to play eve. Man that sounds awesome. Keep us updated on this! Even though I don't play it, the politics and warfare interest me greatly!

Rozo said on 1:36PM 6-18-2009

wait, they let off 27 DD's at once!? did the game crash?

Tim said on 2:03PM 6-18-2009

No, but it did kill a friendly carrier, apparently

fester said on 7:05PM 6-18-2009

BoB is the best corp in Goonfleet. Kenny, on the other hand, won't be missed.

ScytheNoire said on 1:57PM 6-18-2009

Every MMO should strive to do what EVE does, which is create a game world where the PLAYERS shape it, not the developers.

This is why I'm excited for CCP's World of Darkness. If they have a skill based system where the players shape the world of Vampires, Werewolves and Mages, it will absolutely rock. And they can do it, the background story allows it, the game design is made for it, and CCP has the skill to do it.

ethereal.wolf said on 12:56AM 6-19-2009

definately alot of potential there.

Rozo said on 2:05PM 6-18-2009

hm, i'd go back to that game but starting a new character once you've seen the end stuff is no bueno. I honestly don't think the new player experience changes helped it at all.

Arkanaloth said on 2:48PM 6-18-2009

Ouch.. to be broken.. so completely. Course can such an alliance with the likes of Goon really survive long after they have no common enemy as a catalyst for solidarity?

Brian! said on 3:30PM 6-18-2009

Very interesting read. Articles like this have inspired me to try Eve again, and this time I actually paid attention to the tutorials and I am having way more fun.

I would still like to see better in-game guides to help you down the path you want and updated interface improvements here and there, but all in all it is seeming to be a very cool game.

Also, it would be great if it were a little more obvious what a newbie can do to add to the bigger picture. WAR sort of does this well. When you are part of T2 you can help out T3 by locking your zones, then T4 benefits from the work of T2 and T3, each tier adds bonuses to the greater ones. A minor example, but something to help players who don't have years worth of skill points know how to become members of the community.

Oh, and as for MMOs, Eve fills so full. It may have a fraction of the players WoW has, but I always notice how many people are around, even in the newbie zones, as opposed to WoW which feels like an empty world except for the top level city at the time and the flavor-of-the-month instance hub area.

Cyron said on 4:55PM 6-18-2009

You say it's full "even in newbie zones". Those are the areas that are most full, because most players hang around near where they start. This is especially the case in Caldari space. But if you move around to other areas of high sec, you'll find less people. And if you move out to low or null sec, you'll find many systems that are completely empty. Eve is far from full, it just tends to get people collecting together in to large crowds

Brian! said on 12:00AM 6-19-2009

Interesting. Does the market start falling apart as you go deeper into the universe then? Can you go so far that you can create your own empire in some remote corner of the galaxy?

Brendan Drain said on 5:25AM 6-19-2009

Pretty much, Brian. There are regions of Amarr space, for example, where the markets are bare and there aren't many players about. You could set up shop there and build your own corporate empire around the area. Recruit members into your corp, build up the markets etc. The real frontier empire-building work is probably with 0.0 alliances who have recently acquired an outpost. In a large territorial alliance, administration of a particular outpost is usually given to one corp. Getting into that position can take a while though and as this article shows, every alliance can be crushed and lose their space so it's a risky move.

Venekor said on 5:32PM 6-18-2009

Why I quit EVE because it's just become Capital ships Online where the group with the most capital ships wins and these old corps are so rich these days they can just keep throwing them at you.

I wish they made Battlegrounds like the alliance tournament cause thats the best kinda PVP in EVE, the world PVP is just shit and all about the money, not the skill.

Brendan Drain said on 6:03PM 6-18-2009

One of the nice things about EVE is that the developers give you the tools to do stuff like this yourself. EVE doesn't have battlegrounds but you could set up your own tournament events and many have. You can arrange people in 1v1 or 2v2 matches or whatever you like by using the theft flagging mechanics. Each person jettisons a container with a few ammo in it and each enemy takes from that container. Then everyone will be flagged to their respective enemies and the fight can begin.

You can limit the sizes of ship and even use a ship scanner to make sure everyone is complying to limitations on quality of equipment allowed. People run Tech 1 destruction derbies in EVE all the time, usually with isk rewards adn entrance fees. It's great fun and people who spend their time organising them are doing a great service.

Xiphos said on 5:51PM 6-18-2009

If KenZoku has called it quits, so ends an era. Goon is now the undisputed number one alliance in EVE and it will be very interesting to see where they go from here. Exciting!

Rich said on 6:50PM 6-18-2009

Almost makes me want to play again

Zach said on 6:56PM 6-18-2009

Well I beg to differ on the whole capital ships online thing. Being in one of the major alliances in the Northern Coaltion we do a different play style. And get kills. To be honest to think that its all about capitals you need to find a new alliance/corp.