The Butterfly Effect, Part 1

Several years ago, CCP created a trailer for EVE called EVE Online: The Butterfly Effect. It highlights the way a player's choices can have an impact on many other EVE players. The residents of highsec know this lesson well: Many wonderful things have happened to them due to the influence of a single heroic individual. I am, of course, referring to myself. But although the transformation of highsec began with the intervention of its Saviour, it doesn't end there.

Each individual Agent of the New Order has the power to start a chain-reaction that echoes across highsec. If you recruit another Agent, for instance, and that Agent recruits other Agents, you can potentially affect the gameplay of thousands of players. Consider the gank of Charlie Jacobson. He was flying a Retriever which was semi-tanked, but he lacked a permit. Agents Brain Less and Euel Perne killed him.

Charlie was too gallant to whine about being ganked. Instead, he did what a ganked miner should do: He paid it forward by ganking another miner. In this case, the miner he ganked was a fellow named stephen Kalkoken.

stephen went to the in-game "Mining" channel and requested help from his fellow miners. He told everyone that he had been wardecced by a CODEdot "nut job" named Murdoch Luther. You might be asking yourself, "Who's Murdoch? He didn't gank stephen. Nor is Murdoch even a member of the CODEdot alliance. What gives?" To find out what gives, we need to ask Murdoch for the rest of the story.

After stephen was ganked by the former gank victim, stephen made a scene in local chat. This attracted the attention of Murdoch, a neutral party. Murdoch didn't appreciate the undignified manner in which stephen was comporting himself, so he wardecced the miner. stephen got confused and assumed the wardeccer was the same guy who'd ganked him. He also assumed Murdoch must be tied to the CODEdot alliance because, well, the New Order is responsible for all who live in highsec.

Got everything straight? Long story short, this sequence of events led stephen Kalkoken to the Mining channel, where he thought he would find someone to rescue him from the wardec.

...Because highsec miners are such helpful people.

Unfortunately for stephen, he discovered in a few minutes why the carebears don't "rise up" against the New Order.

stephen's cry for help then attracted the attention of Agent Tisiphone Dira, an actual member of CODEdot (and part-time calendar model). As soon as Tisiphone appeared, miners in the channel expressed their support for the New Order. Pro-Code sentiment in the Mining channel? Further evidence that we're winning hearts and minds.

stephen explained that he didn't want the miners to do all the work; he was willing to fly a PvP ship. He just needed some help.

And at the very moment stephen was winding up the clichéd "I've been playing for years but I took time off so I'm a noob" routine, he interrupted himself to report a spy in the channel. It's a good thing Tisiphone announced her presence a few moments before, or else she might never have gotten caught.

stephen hadn't been ganked by an actual member of CODEdot, but seeing Tisiphone sent him into a rage. This alienated the Mining channel population, sending them another step toward the New Order camp.

However, some pockets of anti-Order resistance remained.

stephen saw a kindred spirit in Mike the Miner. Before the two could become better acquainted, Agent loyalanon arrived. He sized up the situation and immediately invited stephen into a private chat.

Now stephen was in a welcoming, safe environment. But would it be enough to set him on the right path? Would he turn from mining to ganking as his own ganker, Charlie Jacobson, had done? Or would stephen prove to be too much of a Goofus?

To be continued...