Because the perception was that it was an acceptable game mechanic. This perception was set forth by the Devs.

Not a big deal, it's their game -- they can do what they want.

But just so you pay attention here, I'll repeat it for you.

Because the perception was that it was an acceptable game mechanic. This perception was set forth by the Devs.

*edit* Do not spam please. - DEV Zoom

It wasn't JUST Infestation, it was corps that had huge wallets and/or stock piled resources... because there was nothing to expend those resources on.

Actually, its more like you give them a Sip of beer and its OK... the child later goes back and drinks your six pack, pukes all over your market, and claims its OK because you told them it was OK to drink.

I don't think the devs felt it was wrong to let players get a little extra nic back from a bot dying in combat, as it encouraged more combat. It was probably OK too build'n-bash a couple bots now and then, but when entire production runs being bashed, it was just too much for them.

This isn't just M2S, it was any corp or alliance that had the resourced to go into full build'n bash production.

And tldr; on my book, summary - reducing resources was a good first step, but there should be more reason to lose bots built into the game.

only FED can make money out of thin air

players: dont makes stuff that are on the grey zone

devs: put your s**t together and plan better your features

taking this action is not good making nothing is not good 

lol by who...a DEV or another player ... An exploit is an exploit and Im sure you are all smart enough to know that lol, whether its there for a day or a month, its apprent how much stupidity can run rampant in a community.

I take it you mean more PvE options, and a more diverse range of PvP options?

Also, I wouldn't underestimate the lure of virtual currencies. One of the major goals in the game for many people is to accumulate wealth...even if there isn't anything "real" to spend it on.

Camp-

I wasn't really thinking about PVE options, PVE encounters that caused mass losses of bots would simply be passed up by most corps.

I was more thinking PVP combat or other resource sinks that would make corps have to choose between making NIC or defending, taking, or creating some other objective.

It was simply a 'no brainer' to build'n-bash.

And I agree with you, and I said in my post, greed would eventually make players build'n-bash regardless of the options; so removal of Insurance was inevitable, so better sooner than later.

Bureau, we both seen enough to know how these things start and how they end. This thingy is ended now - so its good for the game and everybody. Lets get it over.

Excuse me, did you miss something here? The issue is not that the situation needed to be corrected, which it did, but that when asked months ago, the DEVs told us and others that it was OK to do it.  They were ASKED FIRST, assented, and people did it.

A month or 2 later, they turn around, point fingers, and shout "Exploiters, bad boy, bad!!!" and arbitrarily grab NIC out of peoples accounts based on merely having a minimal association with those they claim violated a non-existent rule / regulation.

1)  When informed, they approved the activity
2)  Later, they claim that it is an "exploit"
3) They accuse, by name, corps that actually communicated with them prior to doing it to make sure it did not violate any requirement
4) They then perform punitive action against those entities, and also individual member accounts associated with them, without looking at the transaction logs of where those players actually obtained that NIC, such as kernel sales or assignment rewards, and not by insurance, then claim the reason they did was because the player had over a certain amount of NIC, and associated with the entity the claimed were at fault.

People, if you do not see, not only the hypocrisy of the above, and the arbitrary actions performed, then you are blind.  Nothing prevents this from being repeated again in the future, and those currently praising the DEVS actions because it indirectly benefits themselves or hurts their "enemies", could yourselves be the victim of the same behavior.

Truthful reporting of what actually happened by the people who run this game, objective and critical investigation of issues, transparency of process, and factual reporting is essential to maintain customer trust, and the DEVs handling of this issue has seriously eroded that.   

This should matter to everyone, regardless of being affected by it, negatively or positively, because there has to be a clear process of evaluation and resolution, that is thorough, and respects client rights.

The DEVs have been strangely quite during this whole debate, and we all should be clamoring for them to acknowledge the statements in this thread, and to be objective and truthful in that response.

Heard = rumor.  I heard today that you are gay, does not mean it is true...

I'm talking about direct communication with the DEVs.  Also, if you read the posts above, you would also see that other corps, not just M2S, also had the same communication.

Read the data in the above posts, not just the emo, and look at what has been done, and I doubt anyone can say that this was handled objectively, factually, truthfully, and professionally by the DEVS.

Before I go into explaining the extreme yet overlooked difference between what I call insurance FRAUD and what I call the insurance EXPLOIT, I will list a few facts that are relevant to me and my thread :

Fact 1.
I play Drahkar and Brawn, I never participated in neither the fraud nor the exploit, and neither did my corporation. I'm looking at the problem as a third party who knows some people who were involved.

Fact 2.
A significant number of people who play this game also play or have played the very similar game Eve Online. Eve Online has a nearly identical insurance system which is why this is relevant.

Fact 3.
In the previously mentionned Eve Online, insuring a ship (equivalent of a bot in Perpetuum) and then blowing it up to receive the insurance payout is where the term Insurance FRAUD originated. It is NOT against the rules in Eve Online as it is a self balancing system. It is self balancing because the payout is usually slightly lower than the mineral cost of the ship but when the mineral cost goes down, people commit insurance FRAUD for a while until the mineral prices go up again and insurance FRAUD becomes unprofitable again. The profit made from this activity in Eve Online can be considered insignificant compared to the game's entire economy.

Fact 4.
People coming from Eve Online (and many of those who don't) cannot GUESS that insurance FRAUD is against the rules here. They are in fact very likely to assume that it is NOT. Just like they would be likely to assume that offering to triple someone's NIC and then breaking their promise is ALLOWED unless the opposite is mentionned in the rules somewhere.

Now that everyone is aware of these facts, let's look at the immense yet overlooked difference between Perpetuum's insurance FRAUD and Perpetuum's insurance EXPLOIT.

The Insurance FRAUD

Insurance FRAUD as mentionned above in the facts section has been going on for a while in Perpetuum. It involves either building or buying a bot, both of which cost significant time and/or NIC, insuring it for between 20 and 30% of the insurance's payout value, and then intentionally blowing it up to receive the insurance payout. This practice was and is still genuinely thought of by many honest (probably ex-Eve) players as a legitimate means of getting NIC in exchange for a bot. This means is chosen by some because of its self reliance (you don't need to find a buyer for the bot), for the extra profit (depending on the economy, it can sometimes be more profitable than selling the bot) and surely many other logical reasons (perhaps because blowing up a bot removes it from the market, while selling it could put it in the hands of an opponent).

The Insurance EXPLOIT (which may never have happened)

My knowledge of Perpetuum's insurance mechanics is very limited because I only used it to reduce my losses when dying in PvP, never making an actual profit from it since all my bots were obviously fitted with modules. What I have heard of after the punitive actions is that A SMALL PORTION of the insurance FRAUDers were also using an EXPLOIT to increase their insurance payout. By selling a bot (for example a Kain) back and forth to eachother for a ridiculously high price (for example 100 millions NIC), they would influence the game's insurance system into thinking that the average price that the bot was being sold for was much higher than it really is. This EXPLOIT increased the insurance payout and allowed people to make an much larger UNINTENDED profit from the otherwise legit insurance FRAUD. Note that I'm not sure if the EXPLOIT ever even happened, although it was most likely attempted, but this is the only type of activity that I see here that I think would deserve punitive action.

Hopefully many people will read this or already understand the difference between the two. The Devs have done a very poor job explaining these things and also a very poor job at punishing some innocent people (even some who were involved in NEITHER the fraud nor the exploit).

Sadly, I'm certain that some people with hidden agendas will continue spreading lies about how their opponents in a game are all dishonest cheaters, as if the developpers here haven't made a mistake about the way they handled this, and as if Infestation (I mention it because I see Infestation being targetted by the mob, despite the majority of us being entirely innocent) is one big borg collective where if one is guilty, everyone else is aswell.

Too colorfull. Hard to read.