50% of the wars on EVE Online are started by 5 groups only

Conflict is the cornerstone of EVE Online, but the way players trigger a war is a serious problem. At present, 50% of all wars on EVE Online are triggered by five companies (the version of the EVE guilds) that exploit the system to sow pain and chaos in the virtual galaxy of New Eden. It became such a problem that at the annual meeting of supporters in Las Vegas, CCP Games announced a series of changes in the way war is declared and conducted in EVE.

To understand the problem, you need to understand how wars work in EVE Online. When you read the huge EVE Online battles that are tearing the server apart, these take place between alliances on territories belonging to players in the Nullsec space where there is no law. Players are free to kill themselves as they please. In the Highsec area, however, a police force orders CONCORD to patrol the skies and punish players who open fire for no reason – unless you bribe CONCORD to look away.

EVE players can buy and publish official war statements from other companies. Whether you like it or not, if someone declares you war, he can find you and kill you anywhere in EVE without consequence. For years, this system has been exploited by a few groups that act as a kind of mafia, destroying much weaker and industrially oriented corporations and forcing them into a war that they have no chance of winning. Although EVE is a sandbox that is supposed to have as few restrictions as possible, being forced to take part in a battle, you have no chance of winning or escaping, it is a kind of game. special hell. Even if the players dissolve their company and start again under a new banner, nothing prevents their aggressors from simply declaring war on them. And even.

That's why creative director Bergur Finnbogason, better known as "CCP Burger" by the players, took the floor to address the problem. During his presentation, Burger revealed that only five companies on the entire EVE Online are responsible for 50% of official war statements. And that these bullies were destroying 105 ships for each lost ship. Not only that, in all these thousands of extortion wars, only 4% of defenders have been able to kill once.

Considering that Highsec players are usually new players or treat EVE much more casually than their hardcore fans, this created a serious imbalance. Burger says his team noticed that when the defense company had its own citadel base, EVE's version of a space fort, its performance was 48 times better than its defenseless peers. Thus, from December, wars can only be declared on companies with a citadel base.

This is only the beginning however. In early 2019, CCP Games will redefine the declaration of war system to eliminate this type of trolling. It's still an interesting niche gaming style in the EVE Online universe, even though these war merchants are basically just big fools.

We are at EVE Vegas all weekend, so stay tuned for more coverage.