The MMORPG EVE Online is known for grandiose stories and a universe that can be massively influenced by its players. One has now pulled through an absolutely absurd plan and thus captured an unimaginable fortune. We at MeinMMO summarize the situation.
What exactly was stolen? Reddit user Flam_Hill detailed his ingeniously absurd “Operation yours is mine” plan on the platform. He managed to steal an incredible amount of money from one of the largest alliances in the game and proves it in the thread with the corresponding screenshots.
In total, he stole 2,230 trillion ISK, EVE’s in-game currency, from the Pandemic Horde Corporation in currency, ships and materials. You can’t exchange these for real money one-to-one, but you can use them to buy Plex, the MMORPG’s “real-money currency”.
How is the monetary value determined? 2,230 trillion ISK corresponds to 446,190 Plex, which in turn is worth an incredible 20,420 euros. The thief Flam_Hill and an unnamed accomplice enriched themselves with this sum.
Together they pulled off what was, according to website PCGamer, the biggest heist in EVE Online history. But how did they do it? The story is as incredible as the sum itself.
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How do stocks work in EVE? The raid on the Alliance took place just as nerdy as Excel’s new integration into the space MMORPG suggests. However, in order to understand what happened there, one has to understand how “guilds” work in EVE. They are companies or corporations there and as such can also distribute shares to enable members to earn money from the group.
Members of the respective corp holding more than 5% of the shares may then start voting to establish or change rules in the group. It is also important that both of these criteria must be met independently of one another. A player can also hold more than 5% of the shares, but not do much with it as long as he is not a member of the corporation.
How many shares there are in a corp, how they are distributed and more is determined when the company is created. There, however, you can make some mistakes that, among other things, made the robbery possible. These mistakes were made by the founder of the “Event Horizon Expeditionaries”, a corp that is a member of the Pandemic Horde alliance and became the target of the attack.
How did the robbery start? The player simply bought 1,000 shares of the corp that was to be attacked. Then, along with his accomplice, he began simply observing the members of the company for a long time.
They collected information about when and for how long which members of the guild were active. Especially about where the corp had important positions and expensive assets. They noticed that the leader of the group is not very active, which ultimately initiated the plan.
New CEO invalidates previous owners – because nobody notices the vote
What did the robbers do? Both created fresh and new accounts, with “clean names and little history”. With these accounts, they leveled the Corporation Management skill to level 1, a skill that is usually overlooked and rarely needed.
They then made a request to join the Event Horizon Expeditionaries. After some security checks and a lot of waiting due to the inactivity of those in power, they actually managed to join the corp as new members.
From his main account, the thief then transferred the 1,000 shares of the guild to his new account, which was a member of the corp. Then, suddenly and largely unnoticed, both requirements were met to start a decisive vote in the corporation.
Vote goes down, thief becomes new CEO: After observing the guild’s activities for a long time, the thieves chose the perfect time to start a new poll. This should make the robber’s fresh account the new boss of the corporation.
He and his accomplice voted yes. Now it was time to worry and wait, because the vote will remain online for 72 hours and requires at least 50% “yes” votes. After all, there were only two of them in the 299-strong Corp.
But her plan actually worked and none of the other members noticed the vote. With only 2 votes, and both for yes, the thief became the new CEO of the corp. The first thing he did was fire and depose all previous leaders and soon set about looting all of the Corp’s accounts, ships and materials.
Thus, without a fight or a single ship destroyed, the two thieves made off on March 30, 2023 with 2,230 trillion ISK.
Community reacts skeptically and impressed
What do the fans say about this? After Flam_Hill shared his story on reddit, many people quickly gathered in the thread commenting on the absurd story. One of the biggest points that has people skeptical is how Flam_Hill originally got 1,000 shares of the guild, an unusually high value.
That being said, the story is entirely possible and plausible, and for the thread creator, as well as many commenters, is what makes EVE so great. However, where he actually got the shares from poses a problem for many.
While some fans think the Corp’s founder must have made mistakes when creating it, other people have a strong counter-theory.
This states that the thief himself would theoretically have to be the original founder of the corp, who then left the group. That would explain why he had so many shares left in the guild and was able to set up a second account in the corp relatively easily. Flam_Hill has not yet commented on the theory.
What do you think of the story? Have you ever experienced something similar in an MMORPG? Write it to us in the comments here at MeinMMO.
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