The Alphaville Herald

Co-Opting the Contraband in EVE Online

by Alphaville Herald on 05/10/05 at 11:16 am

As EVE Online‘s pod pilots know, not everything you can fit in your ship’s cargo hold is equally pleasing to the NPC authorities who keep a watchful eye on Empire space. Drugs like Drop and Frentix, radioactive goods like plutonium, forbidden icons like Khumaak, and even the ectoplasm used to make the viscous suspension liquid that keeps capsuleers safe in their pods — all are considered contraband in various sovereignties throughout the galaxy, with penalties up to and including painful fines, standing losses and, more often than not, the destruction of your ship.

Trade in such goods is understandably rare, though the accomplished smuggler can earn boo-coo ISK (InterStellar Kredits) with the right ship. Now, one EVE pilot is seeking to formalize the contraband market with a new in-game service that will gather market information in one place and enable smugglers to place buy and sell orders for such goods on a dedicated in-game browser page.

The site, EVE Black Market, is not yet available in out-of-game Web browsers, but is only accessible in the browser EVE’s pod pilots have access to through their Neocom interfaces. Players can place buy and sell orders on the site, but then must EVEmail or convo each other in order to complete the transactions.

The normal in-game market, of course, already lists orders for contraband. But while the normal market only shows orders in one of EVE’s many regions at a time, EVE Black Market aggregates orders from all over the galaxy. EVE’s in-game player-to-player escrow system provides the same range of listings, but only sell orders may be placed there, and weeding the few contraband orders out from among the many other items on offer can be tough sledding. By collecting orders for contraband in one place, EVE Black Market could improve the smuggling business for capsuleers all over the galaxy.

Anaesthesia, the Gallente pilot who created the site, has been flitting around the galaxy since June of this year in the employ of uber-guild The Sentinel Corporation, but was not available for comment at press time. The Herald looks forward to bringing you more news of EVE’s contraband market — especially if we can get in on the action ourselves.