To all those who play EVE Online: Game Over

[Eltargrim]

In what may be the most significant case of in-game espionage in history, one of the largest guild of players in CCP's spaceship MMO EVE Online, Band of Brothers (BoB), was entirely disbanded today when a BoB director defected to the SomethingAwful-derived Goonfleet.

In a story that only EVE Online could spawn, Goonfleet Intelligence Agency (GSA) leader The Mittani and his league of spies managed to "encourage" a Band of Brothers director to turn coat, transferring trillions of BoB's in-game ISK currency to the Goons before nullifying BoB's control over all of its territory.

"A director with full access to BoB alliance controls defected to Goonfleet and The Mittani was happy to accept his conditions," writes Shacknews tipster Frylock, who noted that while BoB can reform, the name "Band of Brothers" is now permanently owned by Goonfleet.
Shacknews readers may remember The Mittani from our 2007 article series on his expansive, fascinating spy network. At the time, Band of Brothers was already the Goons' larger, more powerful arch-rivals. Now the Goons, long the underdogs in their fight for universal dominance, are gloating over a massive victory. Meanwhile, The Mittani himself was the first to deliver the news to EVE Online's official forum.

"Today we destroyed BoB," said The Mittani. "Thanks for the free capfleet towers and isk."

The Mittani added that the defection also produced a copy of the Band of Brothers director forum, which Goonfleet plans to publish in full.

"Tonight was one of the most historic and epic nights in EVE history," added Frylock. "The universe will no longer be the same."

Band of Brothers was the primary target in The Great War, in which many of EVE's larger corporations formed a coalition in order to oust BoB from its territory. After a long and bloody struggle, BoB eventually retained much of its space, with Goonsfleet being the last member of the coalition to eventually withdraw.

I'm honestly very impressed that a) the game allows for such dynamics, and b) they actually pulled it off. I don't have time to actually play EVE, but reading about it is always interesting.