CCP gives blessing to EVE Online economy attack

You might think that after building a persistent world with its own complex infrastructure that has been active for 10 years, CCP would frown on players making an overt, planned attempt to wreck EVE Online's economy. You might think that, but you'd be wrong.

It's going to be "absolutely brilliant," senior producer Jon Lander said.

The "Burn Jita" action is scheduled to begin tomorrow, just as The Mittani (player Alexander Gianturco) has his ban lifted, reports Eurogamer. Gianturco was the head of the Council of Stellar Management, and recently endured a suspension for encouraging the community to grief a suicidal player. Some players have reportedly jumped the gun with skirmishes on the region, but 14,000 Thrasher ships are preparing for the Mittani's GoonSwarm assault.

EVE Online

So how does this impact the economy? Jita happens to be the central hub of the in-game economy. Players are nervous about what it may do to their virtual cash, but CCP has promised not to get involved -- other than swapping some servers to make sure Jita can handle the increased workload.

"They're going to do exactly what you're able to do in the game, and people will have to roll with it," said Lander. "The worst thing we could do is to stop it from happening. It would be appalling for the game. It would be against everything we stand for."

Lead game designer Kristoffer Touborg suggests that the move will cause short-term pain, but could actually be good in the long-term. By shaking up the ones who control the industrial power, they'll have to start from the bottom and new power players could emerge. He calls it a "healthy" move for the game.

"Do you want to play a 15-minute match of Call of Duty that you won't remember the next day, or do you want to spend four months manufacturing 14,000 Thrashers to do this?" Touborg said. "It's just so big and awesome."

It's all a virtual currency, but it's a complex economy nonetheless. You might call this an experiment with the extremely open market, so expect to see a few Thrasher ships named after Ron Paul.