Dear CCP and fellow capsuleers,
Apolagies for the long recital but a lot of research and logic has gone into this. With the advent of AI the ability exists to automatically scan thousand of post on different sites and it really helped to put things into perspective using live data. Thank you for reading. I’ve been playing EVE on and off for around thirteen years on two Omega accounts. I recently came back after a break, expecting to ease myself back in with some highsec stuff while I relearned the game. Instead, I’ve run head‑first into a version of highsec that feels way more hostile and lopsided than anything I remember.
Over the last couple of months since returning, I’ve lost over 3 billion ISK across my accounts to organized, repeat ganking in highsec. The groups hitting me likely lost under 100 million total in CONCORDed ships per gank. This isn’t “I made a mistake and got punished.” It’s a pattern. And it’s not just miners anymore – it’s haulers, freighters, mission runners, explorers, basically anything that looks like easy profit in highsec.
New and returning player problem
As a returning player, this has been pretty brutal. Highsec is still sold as the place where you can safely relearn the game, rebuild, and try things out. In reality, it feels more like a hunting ground where you’re the content and the hunters know every angle.
Now imagine that as a genuine newbro:
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You’re told highsec is “safer” and a good place to learn.
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You grind up to your first “nice” ship or fit.
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You get suicide‑ganked in “high security” space without really understanding what just happened.
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You find out the “consequences” for the gankers – CONCORD and kill rights – are basically speed bumps.
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They lose a few cheap hulls; you lose everything that mattered to you.
A lot of players just log off and don’t come back.
The Code / minerbumping culture
On top of the raw mechanics, there’s the whole culture around “the Code” and minerbumping. If you strip away the role‑play, it’s basically a written justification for a protection racket and harassment campaign aimed originally at highsec miners, and now functionally at anyone doing PvE/industrial stuff in highsec.
This “Code” declares a self‑appointed “Saviour of Highsec,” claims ownership of systems, and imposes a “social compact” that no one actually agreed to: no AFK, no “bot‑aspirant” behavior, respect the gankers, pay ISK for “mining indulgences,” and so on. If you don’t comply or you talk back, you get put on lists, bumped, ganked, and publicly mocked. The language used about miners and “carebears” – calling them a “pestilential cancer,” for example – says a lot about the attitude behind it.
In practice, it’s a structured campaign: assert de facto control over highsec belts and pipes, threaten force, sell “indulgences,” and use non‑consensual PvP plus social pressure and ridicule to push people into playstyles you approve of or out of highsec entirely.
Economic and mechanical asymmetry
From the ganker side:
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They use cheap destroyers or similar, fitted to dump as much damage as possible before CONCORD arrives.
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A lot of this runs on alts and low‑investment characters; ships are expendable, losses are predictable.
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The only hard consequence is a CONCORD kill, which is factored into the cost of doing business.
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They can reship and be back on grid in minutes.
From the PvE / industrial side:
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You’re often flying expensive, slow or lightly‑tanked ships that took serious ISK and time to acquire.
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A single gank can wipe out months of casual progress.
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Organizing meaningful defense requires structures, SRP, logistics, fleets on call – huge effort compared to the cost of a gank squad.
This is not a “both sides pay a similar price” situation. It’s a low‑risk, high‑reward farm on one side and high‑risk, low‑control experience on the other.
Kill rights and “consequences” that don’t work
On paper, kill rights are supposed to be the justice system:
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Someone goes criminal, they get a kill right.
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Victim (or others) can activate it, turning them suspect.
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Now everyone can legally shoot them.
In reality:
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Activating a kill right gives a short suspect flag.
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Experienced gankers just dock or tether until it expires.
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Kill rights are often used as bait: you think you’re getting revenge, but you walk into a trap.
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There’s no real escalation or cumulative effect for people who rack up dozens or hundreds of criminal acts.
So the supposed “consequence” system ends up being mostly theatre. The people doing the farming know exactly how to skate around it.
Where this clashes with CCP’s own rules
I know CCP has historically treated non‑consensual PvP, suicide ganking, and even bumping as legitimate emergent gameplay, and that the Code crowd have pointed to GM green‑lights for what they do. But CCP’s own EULA, ToS, and harassment policies also say things like:
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They can act on gameplay that is “inappropriate, offensive, or in violation of the Rules of Conduct” and that “detracts from the overall user experience.”
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Players may not “abuse, harass or threaten” other players.
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Harassment and behavior “detrimental to the health of the community” have no place in EVE, and CCP reserves the right to step in.
When you look at long‑running, organized efforts that:
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Target certain playstyles/groups (highsec PvE / industrial, new players, returning casuals) as a farm.
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Combine in‑game pressure (repeat bumping/ganking) with out‑of‑game naming, shaming, and dehumanizing language.
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Openly talk about molding or driving out people they see as “bad” players.
…it’s hard not to see a clash between what CCP says on paper and what they actually tolerate in practice.
Questions to CCP
I’m not asking to delete ganking, remove risk from highsec, or make everyone safe in shiny ships. I am asking some straight questions:
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Does CCP really believe that kill rights, current CONCORD mechanics, and bounties function as meaningful deterrents or consequences for repeat highsec criminals?
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Where exactly is the line between “emergent PvP” and “organized harassment” in 2026, especially when campaigns are tied to manifestos and blogs that openly ridicule and dehumanize certain players?
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What is the realistic, intended counterplay for Omega players who want to fly something valuable in highsec without having to join or build a constant defense machine?
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How does this all square with CCP’s responsibilities under the EULA and harassment policy to protect the overall health of the community and new/returning player retention?
Suggestions instead of just complaints
Some directions that could help without killing ganking entirely:
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Make kill rights matter: longer‑lasting effects, some form of escalation for repeat offenses, and mechanics that stop people from safely docking/tethering the moment a kill right is activated.
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Scale CONCORD or other penalties based on repeat criminal activity in the same area, so industrial‑scale farming comes with industrial‑scale risk.
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Rework or expand bounty/mercenary tools so victims can actually put pressure on organized gank groups, not just hand them more content.
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Consider limitations or extra friction for throwaway alts participating in repeat suicide ganking, or give players meaningful defensive advantages.
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Improve NPE and UI messaging so new and returning players clearly understand what “high security” means, how suicide ganking works, and what tools they realistically have.
Closing
I love EVE. I wouldn’t have stuck around this long or come back again if I didn’t. But the way highsec feels right now – especially for people trying to do PvE and industry in anything bigger than a throwaway fit – is pushing me to question why I’m paying for Omega just to be content for people who risk very little. This game play mechanic puts serious constraints in a lot of scenarios curbing actual game play content availability in lieu of fear of gank fleet like when you doing abyssals in your gila and upon exit a gankfleet busts a cap up your 1.2 billion fit and eventually spanking you into space. There is but nothing you can do..
If the design intent is that highsec should remain what it currently is – a free hunting ground where organized groups can farm old and new players with minimal counterplay and socially discredit and humiliate them – I think that CCP should generally rethink these mechanics and govern this equation into equilibrium with the harassment policies in their player protection.
Feel free to leave your feedback, ganker, victim, the neutral guy but as well please CCP
But see that is why capsuleers need to be granted more defensive options themselves,because as of this time capsuleers have not and itt’s as you say, concorde is retribution.