Not that scandals are anything new to EVE Online, but this one is a big sucker that is sure to impact every major player in the game. Short version; about four years ago, some folks figured out a bug that would cough up mining materials from thin air. They reported it, the company that runs EVE, CCP, ignored the report. So these fine folks continued their activities. And expanded them. Since everything built in the EVE Online universe is made from material mined by other players, pretty much anything that flies has some of these magical exploit materials in it.

There is some evidence CCP knew about the bug, but kept quiet for reasons of their own. The only reason we’re hearing about it is because someone CCP can’t banhammer into silence released a report that suggests the bug exists, while other people who have quit the game have stepped forward to confirm the report’s findings.

Forced to respond, CCP performed the only sort of damage control they know how to do, and banned 70 accounts at last check. Along the way, they also deleted a slew of in-game ships, equipment, and space stations that may or may not be linked to the exploit. Although one of the largest guilds in the game, Band of Brothers, has been confirmed to control over twenty space stations set up in configurations that match the details of the exploit, none of the known bannings or deletions have struck BoB holdings. One can only speculate why.

Early numbers on the amount of exploited material floating around in the EVE Online economy suggests that the exploit more or less was the EVE economy. Given the present carnage, a total collapse of the construction business in EVE isn’t out of the question.

Now, the long version.

One of the most profitable things you can get up to in EVE is called moon mining. You set up a space station near a moon, suck raw ore and minerals out of the moon, and process the stuff through your station. This is both expensive to set up, and terribly vulnerable to attack, so only the most powerful guilds can pull it off. A bug was discovered that allowed people to siphon off ores that didn’t exist in the moon, and turn them into building material without all that expensive processing. This material is then sold on the open market. Phat happy spacebux from nowhere.

Spacebux in EVE Online have real-world value because you can trade them in for game time cards. CCP provides legal and protected means of doing this. In general, about 150-million spacebux are worth about $15 in real money.

The exploit has been carried on for four years, if reports are to be believed, over hundreds of moon mining stations owned by at least two of the major guilds in the game. One of the people who admitted to exploiting the bug put his profits in the thousands of billions of spacebux, which translates into enough real-world money to buy a private island and a small army of hookers to populate it. If other, larger guilds have been exploiting the bug on this scale, the potential in both spacebux and dollars is staggering.

Either way, EVE Online has come a long way from those simpler days of covering up for devs duping items for their favourite guilds. Once again, CCP has done a noble job of proving EVE drama is the best drama.

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