EVE Online Making A Hack Into A Feature
Every now and then, a group of tech-savvy gamers decide that they want to change something in a game. Companies are usually not terribly fond of these kind of alterations, and will usually send out a patch that will stop anyone from having whatever the hack was, or trying to do it ever again. However, such was not the case with EVE Online.
There is a giant TV in the Captain’s Quarters on the main screen of the game, and some hooligans decided to mess with some files in the client so that the TV would show whatever videos they wanted. Any other boring old company would get all huffy and try to completely destroy all of this effort. With EVE Online, however, they instead made a tool so that you can use this new hack appropriately. It almost seems ridiculous, but they provided an actual tool to help you do something that you weren’t supposed to do.
Not only that, they gave you complete access to pretty much any video on the web. That’s right, any. But they noted, “In a case of your cat accidentally downloading, converting and displaying some morally hazardous material on your screen, you’ll have to take it up with it rather than us, okay?” While this may not be a conventional way to handle this type of situation, it definitely gives them a better reputation with their gamer clientele. Not to mention it’s hopefully going to be a good business model for other companies out there.
