Yes folks, back by popular demand is Hulkageddon II! The properly named EVE Online contest sponsored by renowned pirate Helicity Boson of the Python Cartel has begun January 7th, 2010 and is running until January 14th, 2010.
The rules are simple: Kill any and all mining ships on sight, podkill the owners, rinse twice and repeat. The rinsing is optional. Are you competing? Then you can track your progress here.
Prizes are worth well over several billion ISK and there will be 2nd and 3rd prizes to the most pirates killing exumers and mining barges. There are also achievements to be awarded such as “Nobody Expects the Inquisition” – Most kills in Amarr Empire space. And my favorite, “In W-Space no one can hear you scream” – For the most kills of mining and mining related vessels and their pods in wormhole space. And that’s where I live, great.
The first Hulkageddon that ran in 2009 yielded carnage of over 66 Exhumers, 22 mining barges and 27 pods. Already 2010 numbers are overwhelming last years contest with a death tally at 982 Exhumers, 238 Mining Barges and 199 capsules!
You might ask, “Doesn’t an attack in High Security space bring the wrath of concord?” The answer is yes, but the trick that worked so brilliantly in Hulkageddon 2009 was to fit a small fleet of catalysts with 8 smartbombs and blast away. If they lose a catalyst, big deal, they get it back in insurance and loot. All for the greater good!
The short term effect: the price of Hulks, being the best mining exhumer in the game, has quadrupled. The price of ore and minerals has gone up, as expected since the amount of quantity supplied has tapered off a small bit. And it has become generally unsafe to mine, ANYWHERE, Muhahahaaa.
The long term effects: In my opinion this isn’t the last we are going to see of Helicity’s Hulkageddon. There might be a III or IV even a Hulkageddon V in your future. Much like the SAW series of movies, some people get their kicks off of watching someone die.
This is going to turn mining into a contact sport and raise the prices of mining ships, blueprints and eventually send the price of minerals through the roof.
The good thing is that EVE Online is the only, THE ONLY game that can support this type of creativity and PvP element in an MMO. I can recall reading a post where the author said that EVE was not a PvP game … now where did I put that link…
There is one part of this article I really agree with,
“EVE Online is the only, THE ONLY game that can support this type of creativity and PvP element in an MMO”
I completely agree with this statement, however I also believe that this is a sad statement.
Eve should NOT be the only game where something like this is possible. I believe this is what is really missing in the MMO Industry. The ability to create your own free form events and really interact with the community. The level of attachment an event like this adds to the game cannot be measured in my opinion.
It’s definitely time to form a terrorist corp that can strike back against the hulk-hunters and make their eve-life a boring hell of continous pod-kills and all the hazzle of replacing ships and mods.. . .. . ;)
The purchases I make are entirely based on these artleics.