The State of the Order

I'm writing this post to provide a general update and status report on MinerBumping and the New Order. Today is the three month anniversary of MinerBumping, but that's not the primary reason I felt a State of the Order address was called for.

As most of you know, a couple weeks ago the New Order took a vacation trip to Tolle, located in Gallente highsec. The trip was timed to coincide with the Goons' planned Gallente Ice Interdiction. Though Goons & Friends blew up plenty of miners, they had to cut short their fun for various reasons and did not put into place the kind of embargo that we saw in Gallente highsec in late 2011. No matter. The New Order's temporary move to Tolle and surrounding ice field systems had some very interesting results, and that's the focus of today's post.

Not too long after our vacation in Tolle began, I wrote about the marked rise of angst among rebel miners on the official EVE forums. The New Order began to get a lot of attention during this period, and the increased buzz about us became the subject of an additional post.

Our increased presence in the psyche of the EVE community was matched by a dramatic increase in the number of New Order Agents. MinerBumping also continued to see increases in daily traffic, though traffic has been continually rising since MinerBumping went live in early August. Indeed, MinerBumping's meteoric rise has been very impressive. In its short lifespan, MinerBumping has already grown enough to take its place among the top couple of EVE blogs in daily traffic. Who would have imagined a blog about bumping highsec miners out of range would become the object of such fascination?

These developments are worthy of reflection. Why has our trip to Tolle had such an impact? There are a few key reasons. First, by moving to a completely different area of highsec, we were able to reach a new group of people. The people we encountered in Gallente highsec were previously almost untouched by the New Order's influence. That's the most obvious reason, but it only begins to explain what happened.

By hitting a new area, the New Order sent a shockwave across all highsec. Before, the New Order's influence was almost entirely confined to New Order territories. By making such a splash on the other side of highsec, we introduced the possibility of New Order domination occurring elsewhere. We do not yet have enough Agents to cover all highsec simultaneously. However, though we can't be everywhere, we could be anywhere. The average miner is forced to consider that we may end up on his doorstep next.

There was one more important development. By moving all of our Agents to Tolle and the neighboring ice field systems, we brought the New Order community into closer contact with itself. Before, Agents floated across the various New Order territories, as well as their own home territories. When we fleeted up and concentrated nearly all of the bumpers into one place, Agents got the chance to work together. There were far more opportunities for multiple Agents to share an ice field and teach the rebel miners that they're fighting an empire of bumpers, not some random outlier.

The effect was a "culture" of bumping in the areas we occupied. The presence of bumpers became the norm. Vast numbers of ice miners were forced to either move away or pay up. And a lot more miners did end up paying to join the New Order than we normally see. I vividly recall one visit to the Aydoteaux system, a neighbor of Tolle with two ice fields. Before our arrival, it was thick with bot-aspirant ice miners. But when I visited recently, I was amazed and delighted to see it filled with Code-compliant miners. The number of miners was down, but the quality of the miners was way up!

The lessons from this experience should be clear: There is much to be gained from occasionally breaking out of our habits, striking unexpectedly into previously untouched territory, and working as a team.

I suspect many Agents share my wish to go to Halaima, where the local miners will be thrilled to see us return in greater numbers. However, before we do that, there will be one more vacation to take. I have a very special location in mind, and I'm confident all of our Agents will take great pleasure in making a certain highsec system our own. Expect more information on that in the very near future. Prepare yourselves! The miners of this system may be very distraught when they see our arrival. They will need to be reassured that it's for the best.

We are only just beginning to see the New Order's potential to impose positive change on highsec. If the trend continues, our ultimate victory is guaranteed. All the miners of highsec will join us and obey the Code whether they initially like it or not.

Glory to the New Order!