What is the true measure of a mercenary's worth?

As you know there are ISK doubling scammers in EVE. No, I won't go space-Goodwin and mention a certain specimen, let's just talk about ordinary, strictly in-game ISK doublers. They claim that if you send them ISK, you receive the double of it. It's most obviously a scam, as it couldn't be sustained as a decent business. However the interesting thing is how they do it.

They have complicated and contradicting set of rules, making sure that you violate one or two, making you "legally" at the wrong and ineligible for payout. This is the in-game version of the shady business some do, typically the "free service but if you don't unsubscribe in 30 days it will become a very expensive service".

There is a problem though, which makes them called "scammer" (if I'd call a shady businessman scammer in real life, I'd be sued for libel). The problem is that there are no courts in EVE. There is absolutely no organization where I can turn to to sue for damages when I believe Noir scammed me, nor Noir can turn to it when they believe they were just witty and I failed to follow the rules.

How can anyone make business in EVE when anyone can freely scam anyone? There are two systems to make it possible:

• Return customers: if a business is mutually rewarding, neither side wishes to lose it. Imagine a manufacturer far from Jita (because soon there will be high taxes in Sobaseki) who buys minerals from a local miner. This way they save the price of hauling minerals to Jita and back and also the taxes and the margin between buy and sell orders. Let's say that the manufacturer saves 5% of his mineral costs this way. One week the miner mistypes the contract with one zero, requesting only 10% of the price he meant. If the manufacturer accepts it, he makes a one-time 90% savings. However if he does the "right thing" and upkeeps the cooperation, after 18 weeks he'll save more money.
• Good business reputation: Chribba and a few others make huge profit of having the reputation of being reliable. A single event that would prove them scammers would put them out of business.

The first case is judged by the client himself. The miner might accepts that he was careless and keeps on with the cooperation. He might consider the manufacturer dishonest and stops the trade, it's his call and no other people can affect it.

The second case is judged by the future clients. Not blog commenters, not the "community". It doesn't matter what randomguy thinks about who is the scammer in the Noir-me debate. What matters is what future clients think. After what they saw, would they like to contract Noir and would they like to contract me? Again: this is their decision and only theirs. Space lawyering and public opinion has no weight here. They will vote with their money.

After Noir published our letters (saving me the trouble of deleting other mails and publishing my API key), you can see what I requested as a client. Also, you can see that I did not request the things below. It is up to you (meaning: future clients) to decide, if I rightfully expected them anyway:

• My mercenaries shouldn't work for the target I've hired them against during the term of the contract
• My mercenaries shouldn't officially ally (via the in-game ally joins war tool) with the target
• My mercenaries shouldn't kill my own alt multiple times during the term of the contract actively saving targets of the contract
• My mercenaries shouldn't disclose information about our contract with the target or ask their permission to accept it
• My mercenaries should use methods that actually harms the target instead of just whoring on Concord kills, especially after I clearly explained them the GCC-jam mechanics and especially requested ECM ships

If these requests are unreasonable and overly controlling, then I'm in the wrong and you shouldn't do business with me. If they are things you'd request yourself too, then Noir are the wrong and you shouldn't do business with them. That's that simple. One of us will go out of business since future clients won't contract him. Time will tell which one of us.

But maybe I'm biased and we should turn to Noir's own site: "When NMG is hired to do a job, whatever that job may be, there are parameters. Those parameters differ with every contract. One time it may be that we're only allowed to count any kills made within a certain area. Maybe we're only able to count kills from a certain organization, or maybe we're simply hired to make life for the occupants as difficult as possible. To even have a hope of accomplishing any of these parameters, there is a ton of planning, coordination, and effort involved. The logistics of moving an entire alliance every few weeks to accomplish drastically different goals each time is not something to be taken for granted. Once the "boots hit the ground", the work hasn't just begun - it's simply one step in the process, and one of the last step, I might add. At the end of the contract, the true test of a mercenary's worth is how pleased the employer is."

But maybe there is a honest mistype on the page and they meant to write "the true test of a mercenary's worth is how pleased the target is." This case their record is perfect as every single CFC poster gave them complete support!

Finally, a positive example: On Sunday I got a convo from Tora Bushido, CEO of Marmite Collective, unexpectedly. He asked why did I sent him 500M out of the blue. It was Burn Jita day, I managed lot of things and took some time to figure out that we decided that the war against The Initiative (Goon servant) is a waste of ISK as only a frig was killed so it won't be renewed. But an hour before the war ended, a wild Rhea appeared. So I decided they worth deccing and sent the money for the war, and forgot to add a letter and even a note. I guess something interrupted me and after 5 minutes I forgot the whole stuff. Tora could have kept the money and I never figure it out (not like 0.5B shows up on my charts). But he still asked. You guessed it, I'll remain a customer here.


PS: Doesn't the highsec Goon servants has a rule against being podded in Jita? Not because being podded in Amarr is better!
I thought Goons keep their slaves in their coalition and not in their capsules!
lesser moron of the day: a random stranger out of the blue asked advice. I still gave the correct advice. He wasn't happy: