I've been playing Eve continuously for almost a year now. This is the second longest I've ever played a MMO (behind 18 consecutive months of SWG). My corporation has gone from four people to over ten and we recently joined an alliance.

So there we are the other night doing some mining. And as we're moving ore back and forth from the asteroid belt we keep coming across members of our alliance. I casually inspect them as I do everyone, checking what they fly, what their security rating is, and so on.

The first one has a slightly negative rating and a small bounty. Interesting, I think. But thats cool. I continue on. The next one has an even worse security rating and a bigger bounty. Huh, must be together I think and move on.

The third one has a bad security rating and a bounty of nearly 185,000,000 ISK (the currency of Eve). Thats a LOT!!!! I have had at most in my position maybe 60,000,000 ISK before and that was rare. The Exhumer I was in was scarcely worth more than that guy's bounty.

So I mention it to my corp-mates who also express surprise that many of the alliance members that have seen and inspected also had negative ratings and bounties.

Huh, I think to myself. We joined a pirate alliance. Does that mean we're pirates? Arr matey and all that jazz? Paint that ther' parrot on th' side o' me ship, for' ah keel-haul ye!

I haven't blown anyone up yet. And I haven't begun preying on other miners. So perhaps I'm not a pirate afterall. But I haven't been attacked recently so maybe being allied with the pirates is a good thing. A bonus. The silver lining, as it were. They probably blew up and scared off the competition.

Or maybe we sold our soul to the devils. Time will tell. Until then, maybe I'll keep one eye on the rocks, the other peeled for danger, and a loaded gun under my pillow... er, fitted, heated up and ready to fire.