Back on January 29, a massive war erupted across the entire world, between two huge factions with over 7000 combatants and over $300,000 in damages.  Ship after ship was cast into the onslaught and the fate of an entire section of the galaxy was changed forever.  But you probably didn’t even see or hear of this war because it didn’t “technically” actually happen.

It happened in an internet MMO called EVE Online.

Its been a little over two weeks since the Battle of B-R5RB.  Also nicknamed “The Battle of The Bill,” because that’s how the battle started… over a missed bill payment.

Apparently, through error of either the computer or human variety, an automated payment didn’t go through.  This payment was for the sovereignty of B-R5RB for player alliances “N3” and “Pandemic.”  This missed payment rendered the system “up for grabs.”  And that’s when a bunch of Russian coalitions decided to step in, along with the “CFC Alliance.”

 

And thus the greatest warriors of America:

 

Took on the soulless heathens of Europe:

 

Or that’s the closest approximation I could get.  Minus the South Park characters in the background.  Or don’t.  I like South Park.

So how in the Milky Way did electronic ships end up costing real world money?:   Titans.

 

75 of them.  They were destroyed, along with a lot of other ships too.  But each Titan cost roughly around 150 billion “ISK.”  ISK is the currency of EVE Online.  Keeping in the mind that the currency rates are always changing, you know, the Economy and crap, I used this handy dandy calculator and it comes out to roughly $4000 US dollars.  Per Titan.  That’s just getting one up and running.  And 75 were destroyed in the Battle of the Bill.

 

Even our SIMULATED wars are expensive!  These Titans are the easy ones to count up.  The $300,000 price tag doesn’t even really start to add in the thousands of smaller ships that were destroyed.  And what about the CHILDREN?!

For a moment, I almost judged these people for putting that much money into an online game.  But thankfully, the rest of humanity on this world went and made this feel almost normal.

 

On eBay, an old iPhone with that weird “Flappy Bird” game I barely heard about yesterday, is going for north of a $1000.  So, yeah, a badass looking space ship that you get to captain costing $4000?  Not so shocking.  The internet holds many interesting and expensive treats.

*SIDE NATE NOTE*:  If I had a Titan, I’d call it the “USS Mutant Enemy.”  Cuz I’m that badass!