In the SF MMORPG EVE Online, developer CCP has come up with something special to curb the bot problem: Players are allowed to specifically massacre bots. While this doesn’t achieve much, it boosts morale.
The fight against bots mostly takes place behind the scenes of MMORPGs through bans. However, in EVE Online, bot populations are now decimated publicly through executions.
GM Week at EVE: Last week, EVE held “GM Week”. During this event, the Game Masters of EVE host a series of in-game and social media events. According to PCGamesN, one GM has something special planned for the week.
Bots open for hunting: CCP teleported botters to the Yula High-Sec area and marked them as “Suspects”. This means they are fair game, and anyone can take them down. NPCs attacked the botters, and of course, players did as well. It was said to be a massive massacre.
Here in the video, you can see and hear how a pilot is just realizing what’s happening and is pleased about it:
Reddit applauds: In the corresponding thread on reddit, “CCP_Falcon” dryly comments with “Ah, fun times.”
Most fans are pleased with the action. They consider it one of the better events during GM Week.
One player even says: “You could actually do this every Monday. I would never get bored of it.”
Why is EVE doing this? EVE has had a bot problem for some time now. This is particularly critical in EVE because the economy is so important. Honest players felt like fools when others were visibly cheating and profiting from it. This significantly lowered motivation.
In recent months, CCP has promised to take a tougher stance against bots. While simple bans of the botters would suffice, they are not as visually impactful. The public execution and hands-on massacring serve as a frustration vent for players and a source of general amusement.
After the kill, came the ban: The bots were also banned after the massacre, by the way. CCP_Falcon (via reddit) commented a day later: “In our excitement, we forgot to ban the bots we killed yesterday. Sometimes we can be a bit foolish.” But they have now taken care of that.
