10 Times Players Broke MMORPGs
8. Guiding Hand Social Club Heist - EVE Online
EVE Online remains a special case of an MMO where its world is somehow far less detached from the real world than most. Making money, if you don’t want to trade real world currency for the game’s ISK, takes time or ingenuity.
Rather than create a business buying and trading wares, some players instead decided to take a more antisocial approach by turning into contracted killers. After all, there was nothing to stop them.
In 2004, The Guiding Hand Social Club were hired by another player to take out a player by the name of Mirial, who was CEO of their own corporation Ubiqua Seraph. In order to infiltrate however, Guiding Hand’s players had to take things slow and steady.
They worked from the ground up by literally getting jobs at Ubiqua Seraph and rose through the ranks to plot their attack. One became Mirial’s right hand and after 10 months of work finally the ambush could be set in motion.
Guiding Hand’s attack went exactly as they planned. They killed Mirial and took their body on board, destroyed their prized ship and acquired resources worth more than they’d been paid. It was over instantly.
Best of all, they hadn’t broken any rules to pull it off. Morally dubious decisions perhaps, but for a moment EVE Online truly became the new wild west.