This is microculture news, but too bizarre and delicious not to click on. Band of Brothers, a massive, longstanding, malevolent alliance within EVE — a game I don’t play, but which is, for my money, the most beautiful game in existence — was abruptly hacked apart this week by a double agent from the rival alliance GoonSwarm. Its assets were dissolved, its members scattered. Read the story here.
The wise and just Dave “Fargo” Kosak breaks down the meaning of it all here in terms even I can understand. I just can’t decide if this is a massive victory for player-generated universe-wide events, proving the robustness of the EVE ecosystem, or a huge victory for griefers everywhere, proving its irreversible brokenness.
What do I know? I’m playing Prince of Persia. The whole no-death scheme, coupled with the Prince’s unnatural litheness, combine to give you a sense of total invulnerability. Sure, that busted column is pretty far away … but I can just run across the ceiling to get there. The way they’ve animated it, it almost looks plausible.
And if I really screw up, a pretty lady will swoop down and catch me.