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A virtual manhunt years in the making

A virtual manhunt years in the making

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When Eve Online makes headlines, it's usually because of some large scale, epic space battle. But there's a lot of subtlety to the game as well. Rock, Paper, Shotgun details one such instance, a virtual manhunt that required an almost incomprehensible amount of patience. It started when a group of hunters spotted a valuable Titan ship being parked in a quiet section of space — a big hint that the owner is taking a break for a while and wants to leave their ship somewhere safe. The group made note of it, and started following the user's alt characters waiting for any signs that he would return to the Titan.

"We could basically follow the sun."

But though nothing happened for months and months, they never stopped watching. It's a process that took close to two years, and it paid off, as the squad ultimately managed to track their prey after it appeared that he was preparing the Titan for sale. Numerous players spent hours on a stakeout. "Our crew covers all time zones, some are Australian, some are European, some in the US, so we could basically follow the sun," says one hunter. The final showdown reads like something out of a sci-fi classic. Read the full story at RPS to get the nitty gritty on how it went down — and be sure to check out the upcoming book A History of the Great Empires of Eve Online, which delves even further into the game's crazy universe.