A PvP Carrot?

I've spent a lot of the morning working on turning the raw information note from my live blogging at Eve Vegas into more palatable chunks of reading material while waiting for Razor to wake up so we can meet for lunch. I've made it through the first two with four more to go. At the rate of 2-3 hours per post... it will take a bit to crunch through it all.

I've been wondering how the new bounty system will affect low sec PvP. As well as low sec into null sec PvP.

A bounty is a bounty. It is not something that many of us think about. However, if bounties are placed on corporations and alliances and individuals it seems that the action of coming to low sec to fight has just been given a cookie. It has the potential to suddenly be not just about the 'good fight' or just going to 'PvP' but about going to PvP for whatever reasons (good fights, PvP, Revenge) and having the chance to acquire a monetary gain.

Right now, it is wildly accepted that most (not all) of Eve does not make money off of PvP. PvP sinks isk and items. Sometimes someone with a bounty is podded. There is always glee on coms when a pimped blingship has pissed off the loot fairy and all the delicious stuff drops. This ISK is nice but it is not expected.

Bounties being paid out across the entire fleet on particular pilots/corporations/alliances mean that there will be some ISK flowing out of the PvP.

Will this become a carrot to those who already want to engage in some PvP?

I wonder. Right now how much ISK a person places on another person is subjective to them. If someone is killed and they place a 1mil ISk bounty on their killer that is not incentive to hunt that individual down and kill them. The perception of value for a player kill will have to change to make the average 'killer/ganker/pirate/pvpr' worth chasing down.

But on the corporation or alliance level? There have been many hated groups in the game. There are currently hated groups in the game. The bounty system lures a chunk of the unaffiliated population who has no interest in politics but every interest in killing to do the deeds of others. With enough ISK on a corporation or alliance they can suddenly go from fighting a normal large scale war to having to deal with a constant chewing and harassment around their edges. If the bounty system stretches to things like POSs the potential is very creative for those looking to have their cake (of PvP) and eat it too (make some ISK).

It would give validity to anti-pirates. Right now if they fight us it is just to fight. With the bounty system behind them they have more reason to engage. Now they are rewarded for the pirate killing that they are doing.

But I feel that the numbers will be telling. A 50k bounty is not an incentive to hunt a player down, especially a player that resides in low sec or null sec. Perhaps, the mercenaries and anti-pirates can set forth with an education campaign and educate the public on the costs of PvP to help them set a more palatable reward.