Renting is a part of 0.0 living that few people seem to really understand. It has been described as “space feudalism” with a touch of criticism to say the least. The Goons referred to Band of Brothers as an “evil empire” for doing exactly that. It was so until they saw that N3 was making isk hand over fist after which there was no way they wouldn’t “get in on it.” Even so others continue to see see it as a dirty practice. This article seeks to explore some of the criticisms presented by people and to show the benefits of renting.
Regardless about how one may feel about it emotionally, the space being rented out is owned by that particular alliance because they have the strength to enforce their rule in that area. Your 50 man corp has absolutely zero chance to hold any meaningful sov. The ruling alliance has managed to put together hundreds of pilots logging in thousands of collective hours in order to claim the space that they now own. It’s much the same way someone owns a hotel or rental apartments in a major city. How some people fail to grasp the concept has always thrown me off and the arguments used were generally childish.
To answer this question we first have to understand some aspects that were brought up in the previous section. When you look at a coalition such as the CFC or N3/PL you have to realize that even though they have the military strength to hold said regions (at least for now) they don’t have enough people to make full use of all the resources in said regions. These large sov holding alliances generally have the bulk of their members deployed to a specific region or system.Spreading out their membership across the vast territory they hold would weaken their offensive and defensive capabilities.
A way to harvest the resources of their vast territories is through a rental program. They bring in people from empire space to settle their 0.0 regions. The renters use the system/s they rent, make their profit, and essentially give a cut of it to their landlords. It’s no different than (historical example ahead) when the knights and spahi would be off at war on the front, and their peasants/serfs would work the lands. The large difference however is that you can become extremely wealthy if you know how to manage your resources as a renter. I know individuals that rent a group of higher end systems and their passive income more than pays for the rental fee.
The concept has been extremely popular among 0.0 politicians as a talking point. Everyone with their salt espouses some sort of “farms and fields” concept for 0.0 gameplay. While not perfect, renting provides something that resembles the concept. Renters populate 0.0 instead of leaving vast empty patches of unused territory. This provides the hunters targets to kill and also adds another level of gameplay to Eve online. Renters fund alliances. Attack the renters and you attack the alliance’s income source directly. This allows small groups such as Pasta Syndicate and others to wreck havoc on larger entities through the use of guerrilla warfare.
One of the things that turned me off about renting in 0.0 is the botting. It’s a fairly common practice and often facilitated by the landlords themselves. Botting doesn’t help actually populated 0.0, nor do bots provide valid targets for pvpers as they are designed to dock up/warp to a pos the moment a neutral enters local. Luckily if one wants, they can afk cloak in the system and limit the viability of botting.
With botting also comes RMTing which affects everyone in Eve. It screws with the economy and generally lowers the quality of the game as a while as in any MMO. Call me pessimistic but I’d suspect every major alliance leader doing some level of RMTing. With that level of power and control, with so many resources at your finger tips, it isn’t too hard to see how tempting it would be to at least entertain the notion to convert “pretend internet money” into cold hard cash. This is one of the major reasons that eventually I’d like to see the break up of all major coalitions, but that is another topic.
I’ve been enjoying my time within an alliance known as “Surely You’re Joking.” Originally they were a wormhole alliances living in a c6-c6 working as mercenaries with a reputation of excellence in purging wormholes of their inhabitants for a price. Eventually they decided that you can only do that so many times before it got old and they decided to give K-space a try. After bouncing through NPC Stain for a little bit, a small group of them ended up in Lowsec Khanid and promptly lost a few carriers at the hand of the regional power in the area. Pleasantly surprised that this would happen, the entire alliance moved to Kor-Azor/Khanid and began a war with said alliance. The region was fairly quiet but the resources it held were vast. Fighting a primarily AU TZ alliance wasn’t easy as a US TZ based group but eventually the other side collapsed.
As a diplomat for SYJ, the conflict had provided me a particular insight on the power dynamics of the region and a particularly interesting realization. I had always considered myself as a “0.0 player.” I had spent most of my time in 0.0 as a cov ops pilot docking up only to pick up ammo or if I died reship and then back to 0.0 I was. What I came to realize is that the conflict had tied me to Lowsec just as much as I enjoyed 0.0. Lowsec provided the “small guy” a place to base out of and do pvp in a particularly unique style. In a way I would say Lowsec pvp is sort of a bridge between the 0.0 style and wormhole style of pvp. Being that I love frigs, I hate and still do hate gateguns (and of course wish I could drop bombs in my SB) but over all I appreciate its unique style of play.
I decided that I wanted to develop Khanid and Kor-Azor as lowsec regions as my own little way of helping promote lowsec over all. No I’m not running a charity and yes the motivation behind it does include personal reasons. But I still believe the cause is a good one. I figured with the power dynamics of lowsec Khanid/Kor-Azor, we could “rent” out the region to other corps and alliances.
In my thread I outlined some of the differences between renting in lowsec and 0.0 and I would go over most of the details again here but some things I believe stand out. One of the questions I get is “Why rent in lowsec? What the hell is there?”
Kamar Raimo recently wrote a wonderful article concerning industry in lowsec.
One of the things that really struck me was this quote: “Lowsec has all the highest value isk ores, if you look at the chart. Jaspet, Hedbergite, Hemorphite are the top isk/hour right now We also get random nullsec belts, up to the larges. There’s probably more than enough ore in lowsec to supply lowsec needs.”
That on top of the fact that PI is not over populated as in High Sec or even 0.0 provides some advantages few seem to be aware of. Part of the reason is that there is this general assumption about the progression of playing Eve: Highsec > Lowsec > 0.0. In reality the issue isn’t a 1, 2, 3, A, B, C linear progression, but a much more dynamic equation.
The similarity in warfare style between 0.0 and wormhole space is due to the fact that both “geographic regions” are profitable enough for small and medium sized groups, but not worth it for larger entities to invest the time and manpower into holding said regions. So for example a large coalition can push even a sizable lowsec alliance out of their region, but once they have done that, who is going to stick around and police it? A similar observation is made for Providence, often referred to as “the worst region of 0.0 space.” In this case a dedicated group can take over the region but then you remain with the issue of “now what?” As far as Khanid/Kor goes, no one can take your sov or push you out. The bigger groups will show up, make a mess and then find out it isn’t profitable to stay around and anyone smaller will have to contend with the patrons of the area.
Some of the comments in the thread make suggestion that bringing people in to rent will attract gankers and pvp gangs into space to kill them. Quite frankly I hope that is exactly what happens. People fail to realize the difference between this sort of renting and conventional 0.0 renting. In this case the patrons are not off doing things like “Burn Jita” or deployed to grind sov somewhere. The ones renting and the renters live together in a symbiotic relationship which benefits both sides.
Because of the nature of this relationship, my role isn’t simply accepting money for blue status, but I actively try and participate in developing the groups coming in. Being a big fan of entities like Brave and myself having spent a few weeks in Eve Uni, I have much respect for “newbie friendly” alliances. Although my goal isn’t particular to newer players, I do believe it allows them to experience a level of small/medium sized pvp without being curb stomped by a major 0.0 entity OR being absorbed into our alliance and losing their autonomy. I firmly believe that the more unique and autonomous entities are out there in Eve, the better.
“What man is a man who does not better the world around him?”
I hope renting continues being a way that regions can be populated and developed and that people renting space out will look at it more as a way to better gameplay for others rather than just receiving a stack of money due to their power. Is the system perfect? No, but the alternative is empty swaths of spaces doing nothing. Whether it is out in 0.0, lowsec, or hey, even w-space, for short term or long term, I hope people will consider and look into renting and the possibilities it can offer.
– Seraph IX Basarab
