Top Five: More EVE Online Stories

• A word of warning: I don't follow EVE Online all that closely. So these five stories are just the ones that got big enough for me to see them. So if I missed something really cool, it's because I had no idea what I was looking at. Let me know in the comments and maybe they'll make it into the next post. My original Top Five post of EVE Online stories can be found here.


• 2006.12.11 - First Titan Built, First Titan Killed - Having been built less than three months before by Cyvok of Celestial Horizons, the Avatar class titan name "Steve" was brought down by Band of Brothers. It was both the first titan built on the Tranquility server, as well as the first titan destroyed. A memorial currently resides in the system, C9N-CC, where Steve met its fate.


• 2007.02.09 - T20 Scandal - Like any good MMO developer, CCP employees actually play the game that they work on. Unfortunately, one such employee took the situation too far when he granted several Blue Print Originals (BPOs) to his corporation. It was one of the first scandals that eroded confidence in CCP, leading in turn to the formation of the Council of Stellar Management (CSM).


• 2009.06.22 - Unholy Rage - Like most MMOs, EVE Online had an issue with external Real Money Trading. Bots and ISK farmers were ruining the game's economy. In June 2009, CCP launched an initiative to ban bots and other RMT related accounts. According to their reports, closing about 3000 accounts had an immediate effect not only on the economy but also on the servers disproportionally taxed by the botters.


• 2011.06.23 - Incarna meltdown - After the launch of the Incarna expansion, the EVE player base revolted in the forums and in the game itself. With so much displeasure being voiced, CCP called an emergency summit of the CSM and eventually changed the course of the game. With their next expansion, Crucible, CCP showed that they had renewed their focus on the Flying In Space systems. If you need a snarkier version of these events, go read Scott Jennings' post where he reminds us why he was once called Lum the Mad.


• 2012.03.27 - The Mittani Banned, Steps Down From CSM - In the wake of questionable comments made during a panel at the 2012 Fanfest, Alexander "The Mittani" Gianturco, after having made an apology and resigned the chairmanship of the CSM, received a thirty day ban and was removed from his position in CSM7. Almost as interesting as the main story is abysmal quality of copy-and-paste journalism about the incident.