In a particularly damning post on reddit, the man behind Space Pope Max Singularity, Charles White, detailed the attack on a Sotiyo in Basgerin by Snuffed Out. White is one of the more prominent members of the EVE Online community and a co-founder of the Sixth Empire (6E) alliance. According to their website, “Sixth Empire is a conceptual organization of people that gather together to care for our fellow players of EVE Online”. They are known for their stalwart support of the Broadcast 4 Reps (#B4R) organization, a player-run organization designed to help with mental health issues.
Throughout the post, White details the goal of 6E in New Eden is “to provide a place for players to have home in-game while they may be changing alliances, going to college, military service, or whatever their life challenges face them.” This goal, while admirable, is apparently not enough to prevent Snuffed Out from putting the screws to the alliance. White goes on to explain that the alliance itself does not have a defense fleet and that their allies are currently heavily engaged in World War Bee 2 and that this Sotiyo may end up being the first in a line of dominos to fall at a perfectly convenient time for the attackers.
What may not prove to be as convenient for the attackers are the likely hundreds of capsuleers, alliances, and corporations that have lined up to “Fight for the Space Pope”. Through more than 300 comments on the original post and another post encouraging people to show up and fight for the Pope, most have been supporting the good folks of 6E. One redditor even went as far as to tell a little of his story in dealing with this group:
Another structure, called the Vatican, provides the same types of services to citizens in the area. Though this Keepstar has not yet been reinforced, Mr. White encourages folks that may have assets in the Keepstar to start looking at alternative options while “Snuffed Out does their thing.” The amount of resistance on the Sotiyo timer will likely determine how much the attackers actually accomplish in their mission of destruction so we’ll be keeping a close eye on that moving forward.
Though the motives for the attack remain unclear, it does bring to mind an interesting question of whether groups like this should be protected from attack. Obviously game mechanics would not be an option as nothing in space should be invincible. But should attacking groups like these that intend to serve the denizens of New Eden rather than profit off them be looked down upon? Or is it just simply another source of content? Let us know in the comments!
For those interested in defending (or attacking) the timer of the Sotiyo expires at 22:39 on this Thursday the 21st of January.
My mercenary mindset is fairly well established at this point, but there are some jobs you just don’t take.
It couldn’t be defended. Not whilst this war is going on.
The event turned into a free for all, with various groups of various repute shooting their way through everything.
There wasn’t anything that could save that structure. Not when the Titans and Carriers bunched up like that.