xJoKer [2160404] —
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Find out what recent vault thief Byte had to say about their theft of $6 billion from The Box, as we explore why vault thefts are becoming an ever more common occurrence in Torn City.
This time last month the HoF faction The Box was $6,284,427,562 better off than it is today. On the 24th of May, one of their members, Byte, cleaned out their vault and stripped their faction armory of over $2 billion worth of items before high-tailing out of there. A forum post by Deetz of The Box alerted the community to this theft shortly after it happened, and in doing so, he added another name to the list of infamous vault scammers in Torn City history.
"The Box was a disorganised 1.2mil faction when I joined. Best chain 2.5k. No rules. "Laid-back." We were attacked by Lingering Insanity at one point, and then Elite at another point, and had it not been for allies stepping in, The Box would not exist. From that point, I took point on getting things organised"
The way Byte talks makes it clear that he felt like The Box owed him something in return for his efforts, and when he didn't receive this through the actions of the faction himself, he straight up stole it in the form of cash and items from their vault. But was there really an issue with the levels of organization within the faction, or is Byte just trying to excuse what he did? Valar_Morghulis, The Box's co-leader, disagrees with the accusations levelled at his faction.
No one single member makes a faction, but that doesn't mean that Byte wasn't doing a disproportionate amount of work for The Box while he was there. Without knowing the ins and outs of the faction, we cannot say for certain whether he did indeed toil away to no appreciation. But even if Byte did have legitimate grievances with the way The Box was run, that is no reason for him to punish the entire faction by stealing their hard-earned cash and items. When we asked Byte if he was capable of doing such a thing again, he gave the following response.
"No, it was purely personal for me. When your leader and co-leader are online less than you are and you are running the faction with one other person who has a god complex higher than your own, you get into a mindset of entitlement. The mistake was not taking the money in this situation, the mistake I really won't be making again is joining a pointless faction that should have been wiped out some time ago and would be if it weren't for the few alliances they have."
Pictured: Byte completely turning his back on the faction and the family he was once part of, and trusted by.
Valar_Morghulis rejects Byte's reasoning entirely, describing his comments as "just more crazy talk trying to justify his dirtball actions after the fact." He made the point that nobody forced Byte to stay in The Box and that he wasn't forced to do any particular work.
"Lots of people work in our faction and no one is "owed" other people's money. Either ask for pay or recognition upfront like a man or shut the hell up about it."
The issue here seems to be communication, with Byte failing to air his grievances over a long period of time, during which he allowed his emotions to build before he finally snapped. When the moment came, it seems that Byte did not hesitate to act and take what he felt was rightfully his.
"You know, there was a huge surge of adrenaline once I pressed the button to first start taking the money. It reminded me of old games from the 90's where there was a constant beep going off of how long you had before it was game over. People started messaging me asking what I was doing once I got to the armour, I just kept on going so I could get out cleanly."
"Watching faction chat knowing that the leader had been notified but stuck in another faction for the moment was amusing, knowing that the only two people who could do anything about it were both offline made it less intense, but I would be lying if I said I didn't hesitate on whether I really needed to steal the money. Would it be worth it? Would it pan out? Will it blow over eventually? I don't know, we'll see."
The idea that this was like a game to Byte gives us further insight into his motives. He didn't care that he was punishing The Box's members for his disagreements with leadership, he just wanted to punish those he felt had wronged him. And when his conscience struck for a brief moment and he asked himself if he was doing the right thing, Byte threw caution to the wind and said to hell with it. Byte, like many players in Torn, did not think of the human consequence to his actions before he performed them.
Pictured: Byte's first purchase with his illicitly obtained billions.
The lesson most people will take from this is to never allow impulsive or hotheaded players to gain access to the vault. Furthermore, giving such privileges to someone only 500 days old at the time is also considered unwise, as time has sadly proven. Byte is the wrong-doer here, but The Box's leaders have to take responsibility for this incident too. And thankfully for their members, that's exactly what they've done, as Valar_Morghulis explains.
"Byte was really a one-off ... we made an exception in allowing him banking privileges and got burned. We won't make that mistake again and banking is restricted to just one other member outside of our leaders."
"Honestly, we are doing really good and all of the members have pulled together. If anything it has brought us closer together. At this point, we have restored everyone's faction bank balance so no one has lost any money - with help from some great friends and leadership putting in personal cash to cover everyone's losses. So it wasn't real difficult but it was of course a bit painful for leadership and our personal networth ... but it was without question the right thing to do."
The Box's leaders made a mistake, and they rectified this by putting their hands in their own pockets - you can't say fairer than that. Faction chiefs should always bear the responsibility of their actions if they have led to a theft, as it is upon them to look after their assets on behalf of those who have earned them. But when a high-ranking, trusted player screws you over, that isn't something you can necessarily plan for.
Yet still, the question we asked at the beginning of this article remains unanswered: Why are cases of vault theft becoming more and more common? It could be that younger players and factions are more ambitious these days, so they decide that the risk of punishment is worth the chance to become wealthy without having to work to earn it. Or perhaps the copycat factor is at play; some people might have read this article and immediately wondered how they might spend the billions laying untouched within their factions' vault.
Pictured: Tempting, isn't it?
But those who are considering such an act may want to check up on how our most recent thieves are doing. Shminiganz is currently without a faction, and their networth graph suggests that the $13 billion they stole has now been returned or sent elsewhere. Deimos, who now goes by the name Tik_Toc, has managed to find a faction, but only by changing his name. Byte, meanwhile, remains homeless, and like Shminiganz he too seems to have ditched his stolen fortune, half of which went to his now-former spouse, clfyur.
Where the rest of this money has ended up is anyone's guess. The Box certainly haven't received it back, so has Byte sent it elsewhere to be transferred to a future restart account, or has he given it to the person who ordered a financial hit on a rival faction? We haven't yet been able to find out the answer to this question, but I imagine the truth may prove to be unpalatable - and possibly illegal. Regardless, Byte's reputation is now ruined beyond repair, as no amount of money can restore your honor, no matter how you spend it.
To most people, $6b+ is a lot of money, but is it really worth it to completely ruin your game? Players from rival factions joined those from The Box in placing bounties upon Byte, so hated are those who rob faction vaults. There are still a few paid hits on him waiting to be claimed one month later, and while these will fade away eventually, his reputation is now permanently stained with deception, despite what Byte would have you believe.
These supposed faction offers have yet to materialize, so it appears that Byte will have to wait until the heat dies down if he is to resume his Torn life with any sense of normality. Players like this often have to change names and hope that their new faction doesn't do too much homework if they are to stand a chance of continuing on their current account. And even with a restart, there will always remain the possibility that their old identity will be outed by others, as they seek to reunite with their former friends and associates under their new account ID.
As vault thieves like Byte become ever more frequent and bold, faction leaders will inevitably tighten their restrictions on who is allowed to touch their supplies and cash. But the real danger here is complacency; with faction thefts occurring several times every month, soon it may not be seen as the crime it once was. Before long, faction leaders may consider taking on a vault thief just as they are happy to allow a buy-mugger or forum troll into their side.
This would be a grave mistake. If anyone is reading this and considering Byte as a candidate for their faction, his former leader Valar_Morghulis has a few words of advice for you, which you ignore at your peril.
"Just be careful and obviously don't give him vault access. He was very committed to the faction at first which is how we got complacent and allowed him access to help with faction banking. And understand he'll be spending most of his time in the hospital for the foreseeable future."
Byte wasn't the first vault thief, and he won't be the last. Not long before this incident, NSK was robbed of $14 billion by pikachugundam, who later returned the money claiming they'd been hacked. In April, Deimos of Unrelenting left the soon-to-be-deleted faction with a few billion his back pocket too. And just four days after Byte struck, Shoop of 39th Street Healers reported that a player called Shminiganz had stolen $13 billion from ELITE.
In the forum thread that followed The Box's heist, Whis echoed the thoughts of many when he pointed out that faction vault thefts are becoming more common these days. So why is that? Are factions becoming less stringent with their checks? Or are vault thieves simply more brazen than they ever have been? In case you're wondering, here are Byte's reasons for stealing over six billion dollars from his own factionmates.
You have to be a trusted, influential member of a faction to gain vault access - or at least that's how it should be - so it's clear that Byte was important enough to be granted these privileges. When such a player becomes disenchanted, you would expect them to speak up before it gets to the point where they consider grand larceny a reasonable step. But based on Byte's comments to the TCT, it appears that either his concerns fell on deaf ears, or he never shared them in the first place.In the forum thread that followed The Box's heist, Whis echoed the thoughts of many when he pointed out that faction vault thefts are becoming more common these days. So why is that? Are factions becoming less stringent with their checks? Or are vault thieves simply more brazen than they ever have been? In case you're wondering, here are Byte's reasons for stealing over six billion dollars from his own factionmates.
"The Box was a disorganised 1.2mil faction when I joined. Best chain 2.5k. No rules. "Laid-back." We were attacked by Lingering Insanity at one point, and then Elite at another point, and had it not been for allies stepping in, The Box would not exist. From that point, I took point on getting things organised"
The way Byte talks makes it clear that he felt like The Box owed him something in return for his efforts, and when he didn't receive this through the actions of the faction himself, he straight up stole it in the form of cash and items from their vault. But was there really an issue with the levels of organization within the faction, or is Byte just trying to excuse what he did? Valar_Morghulis, The Box's co-leader, disagrees with the accusations levelled at his faction.
No one single member makes a faction, but that doesn't mean that Byte wasn't doing a disproportionate amount of work for The Box while he was there. Without knowing the ins and outs of the faction, we cannot say for certain whether he did indeed toil away to no appreciation. But even if Byte did have legitimate grievances with the way The Box was run, that is no reason for him to punish the entire faction by stealing their hard-earned cash and items. When we asked Byte if he was capable of doing such a thing again, he gave the following response.
"No, it was purely personal for me. When your leader and co-leader are online less than you are and you are running the faction with one other person who has a god complex higher than your own, you get into a mindset of entitlement. The mistake was not taking the money in this situation, the mistake I really won't be making again is joining a pointless faction that should have been wiped out some time ago and would be if it weren't for the few alliances they have."
Pictured: Byte completely turning his back on the faction and the family he was once part of, and trusted by.
Valar_Morghulis rejects Byte's reasoning entirely, describing his comments as "just more crazy talk trying to justify his dirtball actions after the fact." He made the point that nobody forced Byte to stay in The Box and that he wasn't forced to do any particular work.
"Lots of people work in our faction and no one is "owed" other people's money. Either ask for pay or recognition upfront like a man or shut the hell up about it."
The issue here seems to be communication, with Byte failing to air his grievances over a long period of time, during which he allowed his emotions to build before he finally snapped. When the moment came, it seems that Byte did not hesitate to act and take what he felt was rightfully his.
"You know, there was a huge surge of adrenaline once I pressed the button to first start taking the money. It reminded me of old games from the 90's where there was a constant beep going off of how long you had before it was game over. People started messaging me asking what I was doing once I got to the armour, I just kept on going so I could get out cleanly."
"Watching faction chat knowing that the leader had been notified but stuck in another faction for the moment was amusing, knowing that the only two people who could do anything about it were both offline made it less intense, but I would be lying if I said I didn't hesitate on whether I really needed to steal the money. Would it be worth it? Would it pan out? Will it blow over eventually? I don't know, we'll see."
The idea that this was like a game to Byte gives us further insight into his motives. He didn't care that he was punishing The Box's members for his disagreements with leadership, he just wanted to punish those he felt had wronged him. And when his conscience struck for a brief moment and he asked himself if he was doing the right thing, Byte threw caution to the wind and said to hell with it. Byte, like many players in Torn, did not think of the human consequence to his actions before he performed them.
Pictured: Byte's first purchase with his illicitly obtained billions.
The lesson most people will take from this is to never allow impulsive or hotheaded players to gain access to the vault. Furthermore, giving such privileges to someone only 500 days old at the time is also considered unwise, as time has sadly proven. Byte is the wrong-doer here, but The Box's leaders have to take responsibility for this incident too. And thankfully for their members, that's exactly what they've done, as Valar_Morghulis explains.
"Byte was really a one-off ... we made an exception in allowing him banking privileges and got burned. We won't make that mistake again and banking is restricted to just one other member outside of our leaders."
"Honestly, we are doing really good and all of the members have pulled together. If anything it has brought us closer together. At this point, we have restored everyone's faction bank balance so no one has lost any money - with help from some great friends and leadership putting in personal cash to cover everyone's losses. So it wasn't real difficult but it was of course a bit painful for leadership and our personal networth ... but it was without question the right thing to do."
The Box's leaders made a mistake, and they rectified this by putting their hands in their own pockets - you can't say fairer than that. Faction chiefs should always bear the responsibility of their actions if they have led to a theft, as it is upon them to look after their assets on behalf of those who have earned them. But when a high-ranking, trusted player screws you over, that isn't something you can necessarily plan for.
Yet still, the question we asked at the beginning of this article remains unanswered: Why are cases of vault theft becoming more and more common? It could be that younger players and factions are more ambitious these days, so they decide that the risk of punishment is worth the chance to become wealthy without having to work to earn it. Or perhaps the copycat factor is at play; some people might have read this article and immediately wondered how they might spend the billions laying untouched within their factions' vault.
Pictured: Tempting, isn't it?
But those who are considering such an act may want to check up on how our most recent thieves are doing. Shminiganz is currently without a faction, and their networth graph suggests that the $13 billion they stole has now been returned or sent elsewhere. Deimos, who now goes by the name Tik_Toc, has managed to find a faction, but only by changing his name. Byte, meanwhile, remains homeless, and like Shminiganz he too seems to have ditched his stolen fortune, half of which went to his now-former spouse, clfyur.
Where the rest of this money has ended up is anyone's guess. The Box certainly haven't received it back, so has Byte sent it elsewhere to be transferred to a future restart account, or has he given it to the person who ordered a financial hit on a rival faction? We haven't yet been able to find out the answer to this question, but I imagine the truth may prove to be unpalatable - and possibly illegal. Regardless, Byte's reputation is now ruined beyond repair, as no amount of money can restore your honor, no matter how you spend it.
To most people, $6b+ is a lot of money, but is it really worth it to completely ruin your game? Players from rival factions joined those from The Box in placing bounties upon Byte, so hated are those who rob faction vaults. There are still a few paid hits on him waiting to be claimed one month later, and while these will fade away eventually, his reputation is now permanently stained with deception, despite what Byte would have you believe.
These supposed faction offers have yet to materialize, so it appears that Byte will have to wait until the heat dies down if he is to resume his Torn life with any sense of normality. Players like this often have to change names and hope that their new faction doesn't do too much homework if they are to stand a chance of continuing on their current account. And even with a restart, there will always remain the possibility that their old identity will be outed by others, as they seek to reunite with their former friends and associates under their new account ID.
As vault thieves like Byte become ever more frequent and bold, faction leaders will inevitably tighten their restrictions on who is allowed to touch their supplies and cash. But the real danger here is complacency; with faction thefts occurring several times every month, soon it may not be seen as the crime it once was. Before long, faction leaders may consider taking on a vault thief just as they are happy to allow a buy-mugger or forum troll into their side.
This would be a grave mistake. If anyone is reading this and considering Byte as a candidate for their faction, his former leader Valar_Morghulis has a few words of advice for you, which you ignore at your peril.
"Just be careful and obviously don't give him vault access. He was very committed to the faction at first which is how we got complacent and allowed him access to help with faction banking. And understand he'll be spending most of his time in the hospital for the foreseeable future."
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