Saturday, August 31, 2019

"This Is the Player Who Runs the Largest Spy Agency in No Man’s Sky"

Fanbyte:
Murphy tells me he is the Head Security officer for the Galactic Hub, the largest player-run civilization in No Man’s Sky. He controls the Galactic Hub Defense Force, a paramilitary organization dedicated to the safety of Hub space.

...

The process spying isn’t nearly as arcane as Kibbles believes. Agents prepare for assignments through a combination of monitoring social media and targeting key leadership roles. Another operative, AM, leans on No Man’s Sky players’ tendency to document everything in wikis. This leaves paper trails and detailed accounts of power dynamics. Exploiting those to earn a place near the top of a potentially “hostile group” is every operative’s main goal.

“It’s very similar to the process of making friends,” says LG, another operative. “My tactics tend to come down to spending some time in a community before mentioning some sort of skill or connection that makes me an asset to whoever I want to get close to. If they don’t approach me, then I spend time around the people they spend time with to get an ‘in.’”

...

if they confirm Murphy’s suspicion? He doesn’t actually mobilize the Defense Force. Not at first. His initial approach is often direct and personal: an invitation to chat and talk through the issue before it escalates. Once, his reputation preceded him and led to a record-setting deescalation in just three minutes

“I had the invitation link,” Murphy explained. “So, I popped into the Discord to say hello and they immediately deleted the server and abandoned it.”
*Previously: "The First Spy Satellites Had to Drop Gigantic Buckets of Film Back to Earth"