This post could also have been entitled “How much does your hobby cost?”

I’m writing OOC, or “Out Of Character” today to those of you who might happen to read my blog but not be aware or interested in EVE Online. Please, read this one.

EVE Online is fascinating. It’s the most often written about MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online game) outside of the gaming industry. Real life CEOs have written about famous EVE corporate espionage tactics; marketing specialists applaud the EVE Online market mechanics as a tool for learning trading; ; the strength and vocal unity of the game’s 400k plus players when advocating a cause is well known; the notoriety and legend of some EVE players has left its stamp forever on the face of New Eden, the proper name of the universe where EVE Online is played.

Add to that, what has come to be called Titanomachy.

Titanomachy was such a massive, expensive battle, that CCP (Crowd Control Productions) Games, the makers of EVE Online, decided to erect a permanent monument to mark the player driven event. See screenshot above.

What do I mean player driven? I mean, like everything else in EVE Online, this battle was all instigated, and escalated by players. New Eden is a pseudo-living backdrop but it is the capsuleers (players) of New Eden that write its history on a daily basis.

How expensive was this battle? Estimates of the total losses incurred by players during the height of the battle range from $300,000 to $330,000 USD, most of that coming from the wreckage of massive “Titan” spaceships, which cost between $3,000 and $3,500  USD a piece in real money. (Exchange rates vary in EVE.)

The Stats from CCP Games themselves:

• Titans – 75 (74 in system, one on its way to the fight) N3/PL lost 59 titans and CFC/DTF lost 16 titans
• Titan losses by type: Gallente Erebus – 37, Amarr Avatar – 25, Minmatar Ragnarok – 13, Caldari Leviathan – 0
• Supercarriers – 13 (12 in system, one as it tried to escape the system)
• Dreadnaughts – 370 (356 in system, 14 in connected skirmishes as both sides attempted to stop the other from bringing reinforcements)
• Carriers – 123 (109 in system, 14 in connected skirmishes as both sides attempted to stop the other from bringing reinforcements)
• And lots more smaller ships and probably a bajilion drones and fighters

In comparison, the previous record for largest single battle Titan losses was a tie between battles in O2O and Uemon, with 12 total Titans destroyed in each.

Approximately 775 doomsdays were fired (the weapon of mass destruction every Titan possesses), which is about 24% of all the doomsdays fired in the last two years inclusive. The Battle for HED-GP, which preceeded this one in the Halloween War, had about 200 doomsdays.

This work out to the equivalent of 11 TRILLION ISK. According to some PLEX (Pilot License EXtensions, or real money for game time) conversions that could equate to approximately $300,000-$330,000 USD.

It’s mind staggering when you really let it sink in. Moreso if you consider the entire war was started because in the early hours of January 27th, 2014 CONCORD, the NPC (Non Player Character) police force, came to collect the sovereignty bill for a deadend system in the Immensea region called B-R5RB.

Why does it all matter to me?

1. I am a part of this crazy wonderful community.
2. I fly frigates mostly, the most opposite of a Titan you can imagine. A Rifter class frigate (what I fly), is approximately the size of a 747 commercial jet. Got that in your head? Good. Now picture a Titan which is roughly the size of a city like New York. See picture below and imagine the caption Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh shit!
3. Even in the midst of the greatest war in all of New Eden’s history, all I can do is sit back and admire how simply gorgeous EVE Online is.

 

 

In the image below, each of those red dots represents a player controlled enemy vessel.

Thankfully, the war is over. For now. This is EVE Online after all.