EVE General Discussion

Would it really even be considered harassment considering this occurred within a completely option leisure activity that has pre-existing anonymity through derived character names and mechanisms to avoid unwanted interactions? It didn't impact either his livelihood nor his personal identity space.

The media and laymen both have preconceived notions when it comes to videogames and the media is in the business of selling ad revenue through sensationalism not actual information distribution and public education.

Whether the person was serious or not, claiming suicide when in-game (IN-GAME!) assets are destroyed is pretty ****** up. It's a sick attempt to get what you want. You'd assume CCP would have some sort of EVE mail scraping utility to look for **** like that.

Now, I don't blame The Wis for what happened to The Mittani; The Mittani did that to himself. But given the situation I would hardly call The Mittani a cyber-bully.

We should not and do not base our cultural norms around mentally unstable people. They need to confront their particular reality and receive professional treatment otherwise a red light or rainy day is just as likely to push them over the tipping point as is someone being mean to them inside of a fake reality.

I love how Goons and pets have worked so hard to build the shithole rep that they have and when it comes around to bite them in the ass they cry like little ponies being bombarded from orbit.

Sorry Goons...your dear leader ****** up bigtime. He was wrong, you are wrong and now you will forever be remembered for this one point in EvE's history when you all went emo after losing the fight.

It's beyond simple harassment, has nothing to do really with preconceived notions of "video games" and is actionable in at least 3 countries (AUS, GB, and US), 2 of which CCP does direct business in where they could suffer liability. That's why the ban happened, and why an official statement from CCP occurred. CCPs legal exposure here is quite significant. Ginger Magician for instance did not get an official CCP statement when he was banned for threatening a player's RL welfare, he just got perma-banned because he was not inciting anyone else, and violated in-game rules (now called the "magic circle").

One more time:



The above was proclaimed by Alex only after setting-up a premeditated presentation that was used in part to mock a specific in-game player who claimed to be suicidal in real life. It may not be 100% technically accurate, but it is also not disingenuous for anyone including the media to call his suggestion to harass a player until they went over the edge to commit suicide, "cyber-bullying".

Thats what made it clear cut. In game character or not, knowing his real name or not. He was inciting people to drive him to IRL suicide.

And how long would it have been before someone found out his IRL name and took it further then just the game. This is the type of stuff that has happened in many other cases of cyber stalking and bullying.

He basically was painting a target on the guy. And in cases of cyber lynch mobs I do not doubt it would have bleed over beyond just the game in short order. Especially with a group like the goons whom do out of game meta crap all the time.

Mittani had Upped the stakes in this situation in a really dangerous way. Most rational people saw that. And wisely went to the mattress on the issue.

Thats why this was dead serious stuff.

Having been in no less than a dozen corporations with my various alts over the years where this kind of thing was standard fare, color me less than impressed by the bold. Making people extremely mad, upset, and generally unwilling to log in and fight back has been a mainstay of EVE pvp since I created character number one back in 2004.

As for the incite to suicide bit, you can characterize the apology as a feint if you like, but the apology was for that action. He may not have fully bent over, gracefully quit EVE of his own volition forever, and whatever other extreme penance the forum-alt community was clamoring for, but he made a public apology and a private one with the guy and even sent him isk.

I've been frank from the get-go of this shitstorm that the address was his gaff, premeditated or drunkenly conjured by a fel wizard hat. But, in terms of EVE conduct in general that was a toe-step over the line. Considering the responses from the mittani detractors was not merely mind-games, but direct physical threats (complete with address listing), I think you can extrapolate there's a whole lot more sadism tucked away in the unknown lurker publords than in the mind of one king of space.

He (or anyone who receives a RL threat) should definitely alert the appropriate authorities and then CCP without delay.

Such revelations do not have any place being regurgitated here, and would only serve to fan the flames and entice other "publords" to join-in or follow along.

For a "cyber bulling" legal action perhaps. But you and your ilk keep saying that's not what happened here at all, and I agree. incitement to suicide however, applies to any age. There are cases being tried in the US right now.



I can only quote your dear leader here: ~deal with it~

Yeah the judge would be horrified someone would do such a thing and lock the person up for a number of years. While thier assets are civilly actioned against to pay the victims families.