10 KenZoku, 20 BoBR, 30 GOTO 10

[Predator Irl]

According to Dotlan, Band of Brothers Reloaded has Sov 3 in Querious.

http://evemaps.dotlan.net/system/DG-L7S

Just for an example. So it looks like KenZoku no longer exists at all. Given the Sov. change history at the bottom of the page, it looks like the alliance name got changed. Which, as I understand it, is unprecedented.

... and the Goons amongst us will instantly know why this will be their ultimate downfall, BobKenBob changing their alliance name is GREAT news!

[Comstar]

So does this mean any and all corporations can now have their name changed by CCP.

[tazelbain]

Did goonswarm really need another morale booster?

Goons should try to add something to their name just to put CCP in a tough spot.

[Meester]

Who the hell thinks up these terrible names I wonder.

They must have a lot of monkeys with typewriters, hoping for a shakespeare play yet ending up with Band of Brothers, KenZoku and Band of Brothers Reloaded. At least HUN Reloaded is their original name. In a few years time we will see that Band of Brothers Reloaded has been disbanded....

Band of Brothers Reloaded Reloaded will surely not be too far away.

[Jayce]

My guess is the corps running towers that are holding sov in those systems stayed in Kenzoku for now. 

Can anyone in game verify whether the alliance Kenzoku still exists?  The consensus I've seen so far indicates the "batphone" was answered and CCP changed their name for them.

In related news, apparently BOBR is something like "beaver" in Russian.  New alliance nickname spotted.

efb: there's another page?

So it looks like KenZoku no longer exists at all.

Is this confirmed in-game? Or was it supposition?

[Reg]

It's nice to see CCP keeping up it's hard won reputation as the stupidest band of MMOG devs in existence.

[Murgos]

So, uh, Goons who have an alt in BOB just hit the paydirt?  Scamming should be an order of magnitude easier with this change added in to confuse things.

[amiable]

My guess is the corps running towers that are holding sov in those systems stayed in Kenzoku for now. 

Can anyone in game verify whether the alliance Kenzoku still exists?  The consensus I've seen so far indicates the "batphone" was answered and CCP changed their name for them.

In related news, apparently BOBR is something like "beaver" in Russian.  New alliance nickname spotted.

efb: there's another page?

So it looks like KenZoku no longer exists at all.

Is this confirmed in-game? Or was it supposition?

KenZoku is now officially and alt corp. In Goonswarm.

[Jayce]

So it looks like KenZoku no longer exists at all.

Is this confirmed in-game? Or was it supposition?

Answerin' myself: Kenzoku now exists (again), but look at the founder and date.  So it was a simple name change by the now no longer but once again Bob-favoring CCP.  


Once again, efb

http://img.waffleimages.com/1b04b236f0ecb4bf33c3732d0e4848a7512de136/ownege.jpg
(might need to refresh to see it due to referrer stuff)

[kildorn]

CCP really don't think before they do anything.

Even if you wanted to get this done, announce a new paid name change policy with a hefty tag ($50?), and then change the name. It won't be high overhead at that cost (and if it is, woo money for no effort)

But mindlessly continuing the stupid "CCP favors BoB" shit without even a quick smokescreen? What the hell, amateur hour.

[lac]

CCP really don't think before they do anything.

I'd beg to differ.

CCP knows Eve lives and dies by the drama it creates and they had to give BoB and their fanbase something after the humiliating annihilation of their territory and their name, less they unsubscribe en mass in disgust.
So they gave them back their name, their identity and their history.
While that won't change anything in game, it does make the past look less futile.

I'm pretty sure that some time ago a clever CCP marketer noticed how much subscriptions the presumed bob loving/t20 scandal generated.
If generating activity is your goal and you can give one sibling the impression he is the better loved one, it makes sure he does his utmost best to stay at that position.
It also ensures all the other siblings will fight nail over toe to prove both you and the preferred one wrong.

That's one hell of a great business model for a persistent PVP world.

[Arthur_Parker]

If the towers were claiming sov for a corp, then surely all they had to do was get the corp to join the new alliance to get sov 3?

/unfamiliar with sov mechanics

[Fordel]

I was still hoping they went with <Robert> .

[Sparky]

If the towers were claiming sov for a corp, then surely all they had to do was get the corp to join the new alliance to get sov 3?

/unfamiliar with sov mechanics

If they made a new alliance and joined it'd be all reset to sov 1, as happened with Kenguko.

[Phildo]

My result for an in-game search for the alliance Band of Brothers Reloaded had the name Kenzoku cached in the info screen, but the ticker has changed.

[amiable]

On the name change incident....

The EvE-O forums are pretty hilarious, with pretty much the same dynamic going on that happened during the T20 scandal  i.e. Goons threadnaughting, Bobbits acting like entitled douchebags and throwing gasoline on the fire, random pubbies asking why CCP hasn't commented etc...  I'm curious to see if the gaming press picks up on this as another example of developer malfeasance, even though the issue is not as egregious as the T20 incident.

[Sparky]

On the name change incident....

The EvE-O forums are pretty hilarious, with pretty much the same dynamic going on that happened during the T20 scandal  i.e. Goons threadnaughting, Bobbits acting like entitled douchebags and throwing gasoline on the fire, random pubbies asking why CCP hasn't commented etc...  I'm curious to see if the gaming press picks up on this as another example of developer malfeasance, even though the issue is not as egregious as the T20 incident.

Predicting CCP just quarantines the threadnaughts and pretends nothing happened as goons are too :effort: to really make a fuss this time as BoB are all but dead anyway.

[trevorreznik]

My guess is the corps running towers that are holding sov in those systems stayed in Kenzoku for now. 

According to Dotlan, Band of Brothers Reloaded has Sov 3 in Querious.

http://evemaps.dotlan.net/system/DG-L7S

Just for an example. So it looks like KenZoku no longer exists at all. Given the Sov. change history at the bottom of the page, it looks like the alliance name got changed. Which, as I understand it, is unprecedented.

that's ridiculous, fuck ccp

[lac]

CCP comments on the issue

Yesterday we changed the name of the alliance KenZoku to Band of Brothers Reloaded as the result of a petition by their leadership. It has come to our attention that this was not a popular decision among some of our players and we’d like to take this opportunity to address those issues.

We have previously changed names provided a petition was created within a reasonable timeframe and the situation warranted such action. The leadership of KenZoku/Band of Brothers did petition us immediately after they were disbanded and their name was taken. While we worked on the petition for about two months we do not feel that they should suffer because of that. Having them disband and lose sovereignty again was not deemed appropriate in this case.

This action was limited to changing their name, as we have done before for others - we did not assist them in regaining their sovereignty after the Band of Brothers alliance was disbanded, nor did we assist with that now. Any other corporation or alliance finding themselves in the same situation would get the same treatment.

[Reg]

See? They would have done this same favour for any alliance the Goons were defeating!

[Endie]

Yes, it's ridiculous, yes it's the sort of thing that the CSM was supposed to stop occurring, but actually I'm pretty pleased with it, on reflection.

Partly because bobr are no longer named after a pretty good tv series (let's not pretend that they are named in reference to Henry V's speech in Shakespeare), but are now named after a pretty awful sequel film which was generally considered a pale shadow of the movie it succeeded.

But mainly because now their very name - "Reloaded" - refers to how we destroyed them.  Every time they or anyone else reads, says or refers to it they will be reminding themselves of what happened to BoB (destroyed) and Kenzoku (griefed out of existence).

It helps that the Band of Brothers corp is now even more perfect for scamming with, and that as a result of CCP's own bias it cannot have its misleading name changed!

[amiable]

It's pure win for the goons because it just feeds into the "CCP treats BoB special" meme.  I'm sure The Mittani is delighted.

[kildorn]

I just want a list of renames they'd done to help people out (not offensive name forced renames)

Because last I checked, they'd always told people to disband and reform. If they have some shadow list of helpful renames, rock on. If not, it's the same "we've totally stopped 80 terrorist attacks this month alone, we just can't tell you about any of them!" bullshit.

[Jayce]

While we worked on the petition for about two months we do not feel that they should suffer because of that.

Hey, at least their turnaround time is the same for all alliances.  That's about how long it took for them to respond to the bug that took R2TJ to sov1 for us.

But what were they doing this whole time?

"Should we rename Kenzoku to BoBR?  Allow me cogitate upon the question."
*strokes beard*
*for two months*
*is CCP*

[Comstar]

We have previously changed names provided a petition was created within a reasonable timeframe and the situation warranted such action.

Huh? The rules are quite clear- No name can be changed unless it's offensive. Furthermore, Stain Allience had a mis-spelt name which they refused to fix too. 

[Arthur_Parker]

It's funny, it's almost like CCP hates them.

[Endie]

As someone on GF.com pointed out, GM Grimmi misses the point.  Bobr were not forced to join Kenzoku.  They could have formed another alliance and joined that.  The reason that they are petitioning for this is that they want to avoid the consequences of changing alliance because you dislike something about your current one (loss of sov being the main one).

[Arthur_Parker]

All they need to do now is get CCP to rename Empire to "Delve Reloaded" and everything will be back to normal.

[tmp]

Meh, would've called it Rebob instead. Then people could be hating on Canadian cartoons for a change...

[Thrawn]

In other news regarding the BoBR alliance name....  Supposedly (I didn't check myself) their new name is longer then the maximum characters for an alliance name and their ticker is the only one in game thats been able to have a lower case character. 

[Dallan]

In other news regarding the BoBR alliance name....  Supposedly (I didn't check myself) their new name is longer then the maximum characters for an alliance name

False - look at Curatores Veritatis Alliance or Confederation of Independent Corporations, for example. Lord WarATron (ex-BNC) decided to troll the EVE-O thread and got a critical mass of people to believe him - nicely done on his part.

and their ticker is the only one in game thats been able to have a lower case character. 

This part's true, as far as anyone can tell.

[gryeyes]

Given the past controversy and impropriety by CCP in regards to Bob what the fuck are they thinking?

[Sir T]

Interesting post by 'Count Bolton'

CCP has a long history of corruption and favoritism since day 1, even before BoB existed. It started with the 'Old Boys Club' of m0o, Evolution and RKK back during Castor years

Internal QA knowledge of PvP exploits. Knowledge of market shifting patch changes before public release. Massive insider knowledge of the T2 BPO lottery and Aurora events flowed freely between these corporations.

BoB crashing the nodes to win fleet battles wasn't just from their UK location. They exploited a flaw in how clients logged into the Tranquility server. It involved having a second game client open and filled, waiting on standby to forcibly disconnect your current client from the server. There were other methods involved, but it's an example how BoB had a *deep* understanding of eve's server mechanics and node balancing, as with other parts of the game.

I used to work in ISD as a Bug Hunter, so I witnessed some of this corruption first-hand. The chaos server(original test server, before singularity existed) was a breeding ground for exploitation and insider knowledge. While I worked on squashing bugs, I would see other ISD members scouting out moons and enemy stations from the latest game backup. Some people also had '/spawn' privileges, and used it to gather insider knowledge on new equipment, game mechanics, and even exploits. I tried to report these problems myself, but they got swept under the rug by certain GMs and QA members. I remember Nebulai, the old Aurora lead calling me a liar, even after I caught some of his event staff cheating during an event(with slash commands), unfairly destroying other player's ships and property.

I think the public opening of singularity server has been a large help in making EVE a level playing field. Everyone has equal rights to limitless equipment on the test server, and can tinker around with new patches and game changes. I also think transparency with the new ISD and event teams has gone a long way to remove favoritism and free giveaways of officer loot.

Even though the impact of ISD, GM and developer corruption has been greatly reduced, I feel that CCP still doesn't take this kind of cheating seriously. Eve Online iron-clad naming policy has screwed over countless other people in the past due to its *bitter* fairness, and yet everything is waved for just *one* alliance. Not just any alliance; It's the same alliance that gets their hand caught in the cookie jar, every time. Aurora event scandals. 10/10 complexes with farmable overseers, exploiting aggro timers, bugged trade routes using titan portals, shooting players though starbase shields, crashing nodes down to a science, etc. The list is very, very long.

For those that do not understand, this isn't about a simple name change. BoB used an already-existing 'alternate' alliance to fall back into after being disbanded, to immediately reclaim their sovereignty. The downside is they're stuck with using the alt-alliance, and must disband to create a more 'official' one. Using GM intervention, however, they are having their cake and eating it too. This is after the GM's told everyone else the cake was a lie.

The widespread corruption is hard to quantify, as many players who went through it have already quit the game in disgust. I think the current player base will mainly cite the t20 scandal as their oldest memory, even though the free BPO's were trash and insignificant compared to t20's knowledge on how to control the lottery itself.

I have also quit the game in disgust and no longer play EVE. I use this free account(gifted to me by kieron) to poke around and check out the new expansions every now and then. I thought the t20 scandal and creation of internal affairs would be the last time BoB was given any kind of favoritism by the higher powers. It saddens me that I was wrong.

It should also be mentioned that Lord Zap, Leader of Moo, was actually Helmar, who owns/runs CCP.

Never forget.

[Gets]

The MoO who used to grief by spamming the grid with containers to create so much gridlag everyone who warped in were dead before they would even load anything?

[Pax]

The MoO who used to tank CONCORD and made a high sec gate their own Rancer?