CCP's War On Bots: Enter The Mittani

While The Mittani's emergency Goonion address about the situation in Tribute and concerning White Noise is now two weeks old, I feel it is potentially an important event in the War On Bots™ occurring in Eve Online.  Here is the portion that I feel is newsworthy in the present context:

"What we're fighting against here is a business model.  There was the initial investment in buying the supercapital fleet or acquiring the isk to buy that and put their FCs on payrolls. That what we suspect but this is not confirmed and we are investigating it is that they are hoping to take the North, live in the North and seed the North with renters such as Raiden(dot) who is going to be installed in Vale of the Silent.  From Tribute they can control and project power through all of the [unintelligible] holding areas of the North.  And it is just a tremendous amount of real world money.  It is a massive amount of profit that is potentially to be had.  If they are able to do it they can recoup their initial investment in supercapitals very easily.


"This is why Dekelin is under threat if Tribute falls.  Because Tribute is centrally located it is essentially the key to the North.  And if Tribute and Morsus Mihi and thus the North falls we are going to be faced with a rapacious business which isn't going to be just satisfied with just sitting there saying "we have enough."  Goonswarm's expansion eventually stopped because we had enough to clothe and feed our people, as it were, in Maelstroms and titans and what-have-you.  Businesses have no such level of contentment.


"We are trying to source which of the RMT storefronts are associated with White Noise.  As you know, we do not police RMT.  I am not CCP's cop even though I am chairman of the CSM, or whatever.  I don't chase down botters; I don't chase down RMTers.  In this case however it appears that some RMTers are coming to threaten us personally, which means we have to start caring.  So if you happen to have any information about White Noise or the RMT scene feel free to drop me a line in Jabbr, let me know what you have.  If you want to send me information anonymously you can send intel to our drop box which is goonfleet.intelligence@gmail.com."

So why is one of the biggest alliances in the game potentially going after RMT operations an important event in the War On Bots™?  Because according to a report sponsored by the World Bank, 50% of all in-game currency sold by RMT shops is acquired though the use of bots.  I would link to the excellent work done by EveNews24 to back up how botting fuels the RMT shops in Eve Online, but I can't get through due to the continuing DDoS attacks on the site.  Any attack on RMT operations cannot help but attack botting in New Eden.

Currently, player-owned bots are beginning to curtail their activities to avoid CCP's new technical methods for detecting bots.  What will happen if bots are not seen as a necessary evil by alliances but an opponent's strategic asset that must be destroyed?  The Mittani's words give reason that such a change in outlook is about to occur.