EVE Online Status And Not Using A VPN

For a week or so now, I have not played EVE Online due to a continuous DDoS attack and/or the mitigation service used to combat the attack. I include the second reason because for the last four days I cannot even get to the character select screen. Early on, I could at least get into the game, where I would get kicked out when trying to use the market.

CCP started a megathread on the official forums to keep players apprised of the situation. The only problem is, as I compose this blog post on Tuesday morning, I can't connect to the forums. I'll leave the tweet from CCP linking to the thread instead.

📢#tweetfleet status update:

Issues with in-game chat and game connectivity are still ongoing. We are working closely with our partners to improve the situation across the board for everyone affected. Please continue sending your reports to us.https://t.co/yyn53Hfmjk

— EVE Status (@EVE_status) February 4, 2020

A lot of players are using a VPN service to log into the game from a different location from where they live. Doing so seems to work. But I am really leery of doing so myself. Reading CCP's Help Desk article on the subject gives some reasons.

VPN AND PROXY USE

While CCP does not endorse connecting to the server or web sites using a VPN or Proxy, the use of such services is not strictly forbidden. However, this can cause problems such as updating the client. It is also possible that the user may connect via an IP address that has a bad history with us.

Should the use of the aforementioned services result in the account being suspended due to suspicious connection history, or preemptive security measures, please contact Player Experience via Support Tickets

Ultimately, it is recommended that users avoid the use of such services unless absolutely necessary and that the user does so at their own discretion while being aware of the potential risks associated with doing so.

Despite the date on the article, the text of the article has remained the same since at least July 2018, when I found a link on the Wayback Machine. Pro-tip to aspiring writers. Always check the Wayback Machine when dealing with CCP pages. The last modified date is not always what it seems.

I have another reason for avoiding using a VPN. I play other games, namely Final Fantasy XIV. EVE is not region locked. I'm fairly sure FFXIV is. Although I hear that some East Coast players use a VPN to reduce lag, I'm not sold on using a VPN with a floating geo-location.  Or worse, an IP address of someone banned from the game.

So until CCP gets everything straightened out, I'll just do my online course work and play FFXIV. The game is pretty good and I'm enjoying myself. But I do want to play EVE at least once before going to Fanfest.