Mittenz and his pout . .

     I don't like Alex.  That's not much of a news flash.  Whether he's pretending to be one of his Eve alter egos or not, at his core, he's like he is in Eve.  He just can't do it in reality, like I said.  I guess hiding in a virtual world and being a sociopath is better than being one in real life.  What I do respect is his charisma.  His ability to project his will and ideas, to manipulate people and to get things done.  I have no doubt that he has lent that charismatic force to getting things done on the CSM.  How much of an effect that has had, would only be commented on by perhaps the more honest and objective CSM members, and or CCP itself.

     So, about the pouting.  Alex is pissed.  His ego was bent, by his own doing, and he's looking for revenge on CCP for "throwing him under the bus" when they made him account for it, with a measly 30 day ban.  First order of business?  Fuck with as many trade hubs as he can.  He calls for/claims 1800 glass cannon BCs to camp Jita, and it is like only a majority that hasn't heard about Mittens, the goons, the plan, or one of them, to be concerned that blowing up freighters/transports is going to happen.  Now whether the Mittenz's little wanna-be friends/alliances/partners help out by harassing the other trade hubs, that's likely more tentative.  Still, there is the threat and the market speculation that it will cause.  Just the threat alone is good enough to throw a speed wobble into the markets, and with some clever economic strategies, one can likely make a nice pile 'o isk out of it.  With a little planning, the trade hub gank fests should be pretty easy to avoid and/or work around.  The point is, this is about revenge, directed at CCP, by lil Alex, because they banned his arrogant ass for 30 days.  But wait, there's more!  :)

     Hulkageddon is not an unknown term to most Eve players, even new ones.  Mining is an easy way to get some initial cash in the game.  It's what I did, and many others have done too.  Certainly more money than can be earned by running missions.  Anyway, the week long gank fests, run twice a year, have been accepted as the way things are.  Mittenz and the goons were planning to involve themselves by reimbursing gankers, the cost of their ships once blown up by Concord.  As many will know, rules have changed and gankers/griefers getting Concorded, don't get insurance payouts for their ships.  So, this effectively takes a big piece of the isk penalty out of the equation (pretty much completely so if they pay for the ship and mods).  Now that Alex is pissed and wants revenge on CCP, he's decided that it's going to be run for a month, and the goons will cough up 100 misk for every 10 miner kills with a taunting tears email.

     Now, while lil Alex might have the emotional maturity of a disconnected 12 year old raised on the morals of the internet by lazy/clueless parents, he's far smarter than one.  Camping Jita (and the rest of the trade hubs)  along with sponsoring an extended month long miner griefing event are both aimed at revenge.  So, how hard does CCP toe the line in a vaunted sandbox environment, where these events can be claimed as part of the sandbox game, even though anyone with 10 seconds of thought can easily see they are intentional griefing events aimed at the CCP developers via the proxy of the paying customers.  The point, this is direct revenge against the game developers, by a player, in a manner that will have broader effects than just having the GMs have to deal with carbear tears.  So what broader effects?

     Well, regardless what the little griefers might preach, people play games teh way they like to play games, and if they can't play that way, or are forced to play a different way, they will stop playing.  Money is quite likely going to be short for many players due to the fact that most manufactured things, especially ships, are going up in price.  Come the end of April, with the higher cost of ships, fewer module drops with high mineral content, no more drone alloys, and incursion payouts being nerfed, people are going to have to do other things for isk.  Especially people who pay for their accounts with plex.  With a month long hulkageddon, prices of pretty much everything are going to go up even more, minerals are going to be ludicrously expensive and I will be very interested to see what happens to the number of accounts.  Maybe people will reship and start running missions for a month.  Maybe plex prices will tank as no one has the isk to buy plexes at 500 misk.  Maybe the plex prices will drop even more as there is a glut of them on the market due to both available funds issues, and the fact that players will be pissed off at a month long hulkageddon and say "fuck Eve and fuck CCP for allowing hulkageddon in the first place".  People will also be less likely to risk getting blown up, not just for ship replacement, but for losing implants too.  Maybe there will be a glut of implants and prices on those will drop as well.  Now, like any sweeping market change or game update, prices are going to spike and then slowly reach an equilibrium, but how long AFTER teh month of May will that take to happen?  So, we have hub ganking, big loot changes, and then a month long hulkageddon.  Is CCP going to sit back and risk their flagship game tanking?

     So CCP steps in and changes things enough to halt or limit hulkageddon, and then all the loser griefers whine and the biggest losers of that bunch unsub.  CCP doesn't step in, and the market changes and prices are magnified by hulkageddon for a month, and all the other players, the ones that just like flying virtual spaceships are pissed off enough for a bunch of them to unsub.  CCP steps in, makes teh game cater to other than griefers, and more people are apt to try the game.  CCP doesn't step in, and the game gets an ever low public perception as the percentage of griefers and assholes is increased as "pubbies" and "carebears" leave.  Interesting times ahead.  The best, will be when angry lil Alex forces CCP's hand, and they institute more carebear friendly rules, and then all the other griefers will be pissed.  So, for all the other angry little losers in Eve, they need to be paying attention to how Mittenz is going to fuck the game for them too, by pushing the "sandbox" to the point where the real world income of CCP gets kicked in the ballz.

     That is the smarts that I'm talking about with lil Alex.  He's a clever cat.  He has stated multiple times that he has no respect for the Eve community.  He is only interested in "tight communities" that are based on external communities that jump from game to game like a swarm of retard-locust.  He is interested in his style of play, where he plays, and is interested in keeping all the mindless little losers around him that kiss his e-peen and do his bidding.  Even if Mittenz' account was banned, that still wouldn't stop him from fucking with Eve from the outside as long as he has enough sychophants in the game, still willing to do his bidding.  If he had to leave Eve, or Eve changes enough where assholes like him can't get their lolz anymore, I could just about guarantee that they would go into massive overheat mode trying to fuck with Eve to the max before they (aka the goon knobs) leave.  Imagine the high 5's from Alex and his little herd of droolers to be able to claim they killed a multi-million dollar online game?  Whether he can do that as directly as possible, or whether by his revenge, he manages to get CCP to lock down a lot of game play and indirectly cause other griefers to leave, I think Mittenz will be happy with either result.

     Interesting times ahead, especially with Dust coming out, and Sony going in the hole a few billion bucks.  interesting indeed.  :)