September 17th, 2007

Eve Online – The Red Alliance Story

I always wanted to get an interview with a top Eve Online player and have a chat about the fine workings of the end game, but I never got the chance to turn my idea into reality. Just the other day I was reading this intriguing story on ShackNews and I must say Nick Breckon did such a magnificent job that my words would never do it justice. Following a series of events that culminated with a large fleet clash where the Red Alliance repelled a massive Lotka Volterra attack, Nick had a nice chat with UAxDeath, one of the prime movers of the Red Alliance. The Red Alliance is an old school alliance which is comprised mostly by Russian players and has been singled out as one of the most resilient organizations in all of Eve Online. On the other hand Lotka Volterra comes in as a very powerful superpower both in terms of economical superiority, pilot numbers as well as tactical prowess. Some of its victories have been short of legendary, adding depth to the ever growing Eve Online lore.

Known as the "Siege of C-J6," the battle would rally most the 10000 strong Lotka Volterra forces in a coordinated effort to gain control of several Red Alliance space stations. The fight raged on and on for almost a month and finally the Red Alliance repelled the attacks through their indomitable will while being outnumbered to a great extent by the Lotka Volterra. You can find out more about the forming of the Red Alliance, their defeat and resurrection, guerilla tactics and even some real world historical snippets about Russian determination through history, all in a well written and long incursion in the amazing reality of Eve Online life. There are more interesting stories to be told, since Eve thrives on conflict, as one poster wrote: “How about how IAC grew from humble beginnings to stand alongside other great 0.0 powers, or FIX's mixed history, or the CVA/UK war, or the collapse of the old G & Iron empires, or MC's rise as a mercenary superpower that many don't think is a mercenary at all.”

Playing games is one of the best ways to escape the everyday reality and bring some extra spark into your mind, but with multiplayer games competition often rises to another level. When you throw in the online factor, the plot thickens and things have the potential to grow out of control. MMORPGs are the kind of games that can swallow your life whole if you’re not paying attention, but while most of us may want to regard games only as that, a way to pass time, there are some dedicated gamers which would rather put their online existence before the real life one. Eve Online is one such environment; possibly home of the most hardcore gamers I ever had the pleasure of meeting, largely due to the mind crushing resemblance to the real life model. Basically Eve is an interactive Sci-Fi movie where your weapons are photon cannons as well as trickery, deceit, betrayal, surveillance, finance, trade, mining and huge production facilities. While wars are usually dictated by a clash of two egos, you can only see an end once thousands of players have shed blood and got their ships wrecked, for war is expensive and Eve Online players know it too well.