General Discussion

MMORPG.com EVE Online Correspondent Richard Morris writes this new article talking about the benefits of pirating in CCP's space-based sandbox game.

Pirates are notoriously known to pillage, loot and disobey authorities. In EVE this is just the same, only... space-like. The general EVE world mould breaks down into security sections. Pirates are only safe in low security areas that are .4 and below. Normal players are only safe from player pirate attacks with higher security levels that are .6 and above. With these security levels in place it makes it both easier to start and harder to progress. But never fear! The concord will assist you whenever possible. Well... that is assuming you're not a pirate yourself. In which case they will leave you for death (my current sources say that death likes fresh meat). Do not worry though, being pod-killed is not so bad when you have a decent clone.

Pirating is often known to be the ultimate risk in EVE. Though NPCs can be pirates and cause just as much trouble in some situations, another player is unpredictable. This makes player versus player that much more exciting.

Read the whole thing here.

Sorry to be critical, but this is just not a good article.  It does not describe what pirating in Eve is at all.  I get the feeling from the article that the author has spent a month or so in Eve pirating and thinks he understands the game.  Not even close.

First off, he combines low-sec (.4 - .1 security) with the no security area 0.0 which are two very different entities and then sprinkles titans throughout his diatribe.  Sorry again, titans and doomsday weapons are not allowed in low-sec.  Pirates operate very carefully in 0.0 as there are big corporations there that do not like them.  As to besieging a station in 0.0, there are very few pirate corps that would even have the ships to do that and I doubt they would bother.

I don't pirate, but I know a lot more about the subject than the author.  The big difference between pirates and their prey, the pirate is usually fitted for pvp while the prey is most probably fitted for pve.  Makes a big difference in a fight.   Unless a pirate is in a well known pirate corp, most players won't pay a ransom because there are too many disreputable pirates out there who will kill you for sport after you pay it.   He does not even mention why players would pay a ransom.  Some players have expensive implants which will be lost if they are podded and have to go to a clone.

He talks about ore in a ore ship being valuable which it is usually not.   A pirate needs a transport along to haul the ore and I don't see many pirate fleets escorting a transport.  The valuable things in a ship are the fittings of which a good portion are destroyed when you blow it up.

Secondly there is another player on the other side controlling the ship being pirated.  While it is a game, the other player has spent significant time building or purchasing their ship and outfitting it.   The article completely ignores the fact that the pirate always has overwhelming ods on their prey and you are essencially ruining the other players day.    Because of that there are NO pirates that have any respect in the game.  

He also mentions the bounty system, which is majorly broken.  Hence there are no bounty hunters in this game as it just is not an enterprise that pays anything. 

Sorry this article contains lots of incomplete information.  If you are going to write an article on something you should at least know your subject first.

I have to agree with Ozmodan, this aritcle reads like someone with little real play time. I have a few specifics areas of mis or incomplete information to touch on:

Pirates are only safe in low security areas that are .4 and below. Normal players are only safe from player pirate attacks with higher security levels that are .6 and above.

This is a huge and grossly wrong statement at so many levels. First pirates can and do frequently attack in high sec. Suicide kills are unfortunately a fact of life in high sec space. The pirate will quick kill a ship and then concord of course will kill him. However his buds are waiting close by to scoopu up the loot. Also there is the ever present grief dec, oops I mean war dec.  Here the pirate and his group issue a war dec on an industrial group. This then allows them free riegn to attack the industrials in any sec level of space.

you will find yourself getting more loot from bigger ships if you search for ships in security ranges from 0.0 to 0.4.

This is not piracy but PVE play, true piracy is PVP. As such what you have described here is not relevent. In fact the odds are from a piracy view point you will get less haul in low sec as people there are more cautious, tend to carry less valuable material and use less expensive ships to keep loses under control.

I will refrain from the entire comment of earning gold as this just shows not having a good knowledge of the subject matter or just careless writing.

Finally as for respect, I have only met one or two pirate groups I would bother to give respect to. That was becuase they actually play as real pirates, they do not want to kill your skil or you, they want your loot. They do not attack armed combat ships but look for cargo ships and miners. These are RARE pirate groups.

Most so called pirate groups are basically griefers that get their jollies off of killing other players. They have no real gain in mind, they just want a kill for the kill board.

This entire artilce as I stated just comes across as incomplete and the author not really understanding the subject matter. I suggest no one bother to use this information to know what pirating really is in EVE.

EVE vets claim newer players are afraid to go into zero or low sec space. But, I tell you, from personal experience, pirates are what keep peope out of those areas. In the month I played EVE, I was never able to get into zero space on my own. No matter which avenue I tried, gates leading into zero space were always camped by asshats called pirates. It ruined the game for me. Yeah, I know join a corp blah blah blah but that's the problem with EVE. It is rare someone who can play the game solo. Everybody else: join a corp.

I must agree, this article contains some inaccuracies and also misses the mark in terms of what a pirate's life in EVE is like. But hey...it does draw attention to our "noble" profession.

If you really want to learn what an EVE pirate's life is like, read their blogs. Flashfresh, a notorious EVE pirate and all around cool guy, has posted links to several of them right here...it's a great start for anyone who wants to know what us pirates REALLY do and think. You'll see that there are as many flavors of pirating in EVE as there are flavors in the other career paths you can choose there.

Borko: You're playing an online game.  The point is to play with other people.  I can't take pity on your here, if you want to play solo, go play a single-player game.  People PAY to play an ONLINE game to play WITH other people.  The only MMO I've ever found that can be at all rewarding for a lone wolf is WoW, and even then only if the only thing you care about is enlarging your e-penis by bragging about how spiffy your character and its gear is.

Mopar: As far as refering to the currency as gold, I couldn't say whether it's through habit on his part (I've been known to call money in any game gil or isk, depending on which I've been playing more of lately, EVE or FFXI), or simply because saying "gold" is understandable to anyone, regardless of their knowledge of the game in question.  If you say "gold" everyone knows you're talking about money.  It's that simple.

Ozmo: One of the risks you take in going into unexplored (that's the concept behind 0.0, it's new territory, the wild west, as it were) is that of running into criminals.  If you are afraid of this, stay in high sec with the other carebears.  Or join an anti-pirate corp.  Then you can have fun with PvP, help protect the carebears, and get to feel self-righteous at the same time; it's a win-win for you.  I will, however, say that griefing does exist, though sometimes it's justified.  I remember when some corporation decided to come into OUR territory and gank one of our guys.  We proceeded to infiltrate their corporation, find out they're building a dreadnaught, and then had the balls to move it through OUR territory without even having the money to insure it or fit it out properly (honestly, I don't think their dreadnought pilot even had the skills to fit it properly, didn't even have a siege module).  We took out their dreadnaught and a few dozen of their battleships.  Over the next week or two, we destroyed nearly all of their assets.  If I remember the USD-ISK exchange rate at the time, it worked out to something like $2000.  Their corporation fell apart, some of their players quit the game.  We sat back, satisfied with the knowledge that a lesson had been learned about biting off more than you can chew.  As far as war decs, keep in mind that it takes money to keep those running.  More often than not, if someone war decs your corp, you did something to piss them off.  I've never seen a war dec for the sole purpose of free reign to kill and loot for profit, it just doesn't happen (closest thing to an exception is a mercenary corporation, in which case you pissed someone ELSE off enough to hire the mercs to take your corp down).

Author: Here's another thing you got completely wrong.  YOU CANNOT SURVIVE AGAINST CONCORD.  After The Yulai Incident it became a TOS violation to survive against Concord ships.  If you enter a high sec system and your personal security rating is too low, factional police vessels will engage you, and you CAN kill, tank, or flee from these ships.  However, if you agress someone in high sec Concord will show up, and while you're free to kill the person you agressed (and anyone else you can take before you go down), you WILL be killed by Concord, and this is enforced by the TOS.  If you find some way of surviving an actual Concord attack, you are violating those TOS.

i always found pirates to be interesting, i remeber mining in low sec in a bestower before mining barges where introduced when i just started playing and that was the most fun i ever had getting ganked. CCP put low sec and 0.0 in just so that there would be people doing that!

Oh and for the person maon about not being able to solo, i did it for a year and had great fun but the game is better in a corp because its a social game!

p.s. never been a pirate, but pirate dodging should be an olympic sport!

p.p.s. i thought the article, while not accurate, did make me want to get back into eve so well done for that!!

"I've never seen a war dec for the sole purpose of free reign to kill and loot for profit, it just doesn't happen"

Actually will have to disagree with you there.  It is pretty common for people to wardec new player corps and FW corps because it is a given they most probably can't fight back. Why do you think CCP is looking at the Wardec process again?  Certainly not because it is being used benovalently.

As to the guy rambling about 0.0, excuse me I have lived there for over two years, there are other things to do in 0.0 besides just pvping all the time.