EVE General Discussion

Yeah... we wont get that.

They said they are going to do it again in the other thread... 3rd party yadda yadda

So how much did Somer Blink actually make from this?

Is the 35 trillion figure being claimed total nonsense or not?

Well I'm not ready to accept that. I'd also like assurances that the ToS issue is moving forward.

CCP can pretend this stuff never happened, but the general sense of disappointment and dissatisfaction that these incidents create is cumulative, and they're running up a steep tab at an accelerated pace. A few more disasters like this, and they'll be back to Incarna levels of player mistrust.

basically sit down and shut up its all taken care of

nothing to see here

play somer blink more

Let me get this straight; CCP decided to try to outsource a bit of nepot-/favouritism (assume because their skin is raw from all the hand-washing the past few years) by putting up some collectors items that have close to zero impact on Eve as a whole only to pull them and add a rather significant real world cash prize on top of a collectors item .. how is that better?

Nothing new, Devs have been accused of bias (in some cases probably warranted) ever since CCP started recruiting heavily from the player base.
The mere fact that the game, especially 0.0 was allowed to develop as it has with 2-3 massive power-blocs each with the in-game funds and sheep herds to break the game at any time should they so choose more than indicates that some decision makers in Iceland has agendas that goes beyond offering an awesome game .. null is being revised and that revision will reveal if it has become systemic, woe unto us if it has.

Not sure when the camel broke its back, best guess would be the melding of real world money with ISK when PLEX were introduced. That alone essentially incentivizes CCP employees to favour changes that benefit the bottom-line rather than the game proper, in most cases it is probably not conscious though (or at least I hope not!) but the impetus is there .. IA needs to be put to buffed and given the task of giving all plans a once over, flagging anything that involves or encourages PLEX sales either directly or indirectly.

In short: CCP has like each and every corporate and governmental entity before it grown corrupt due to the lack of measured regulation, oversight and ability to police itself.

PS: In Denmark any winnings from a game or lottery outside the EU is generally to be taxed as personal income, just FYI .. hope that extra 20-30% is included in the 'all expenses paid' line .
There are exceptions, but they pretty much all involve game/lottery being either state run, government regulated or non-profit oriented none of which seem to apply.

Well, all there is now is to wait for the inevitable RMT scandal.

Has there been an official CCP response on any of this? Even if Somer is not profiting directly from this they are benefiting from what seems to be a CCP endorsement of their site/activity. Add to that the recent revelation that they are gifting a bunch of ships to employees, CCP favoritism toward BLINK becomes concerning.

As Trebor said, there are some issues here that are CCP's business decision to make - but their decisions have been horrdenous.

There is literally no defense for this sort of favoritism. The fact is that the only way to truly be sure there are no conflicts of interest is to avoid absolutely everything and anything that even smells of one. Engaging in the slightest of questionable activities opens the door to tremendous abuse and EVEN IF NOT ABUSED, creates questions that seed distrustt between the company and its customer base. And that is exactly what we are seeing here.

And nothing can really be said to ever make that customer base feel comfortable with the situation. The fact is that the appearance creates the sentiment, no matter what the truth. This is why you simply NEVER engage in this sort of favoritism. And CCP Pokethulu makes the age old mistake of trying to defend by saying that CCP will be able to make sure it is not abused and remains balanced. These are the sorts of claims made by the foolish and corrupt. No one can be sure this is not abused - therefore it should not occur. Simple as that.

No player run organization should be gifted items of such significant value within the game. Give them plaques, letters, tours of CCP offices, or their name engraved on the walls of Hilmar's private bathroom - but to grant them items of in game value is to give them isk. And herein lies the problem. For CCP to be in the business of handing out isk to players is highly disturbing and threatens the integrity of the game itself. Even when those items are given to be given out via lottery - they will profit the entity in question, therefore providing them with isk! Why is CCP basically handing a ton of isk over to SomerBLINK?

I sat with Hilmar at Fan Fest and had dinner with him. I basically said something along the lines that I felt he got a bit of a rough shake when it came to the whole monocle debacle. I mean, why can't a CEO be glad his company is making money? Despite my support, he took ownership and apologized and made it clear he felt he had made a mistake, and had failed to understand what the players wanted.

Hilmar, if you have any sense of what the players care about you will realize what a tremendous mistake this favoritism toward SomerBLINK is. It reeks of impropriety and corruption and secret deals with Somer. And for your own people to sit there and say they think Somer is 100% trustworthy - first it makes them look like complete fools and shows a complete failure on their part to understand the problem. Does CCP know who every alt of every Somer employee is? Why you might think so, I highly doubt it given that I've seen more than one player receive a permaban on their main while their alts did not. Once again: the ONLY way to insure no impropriety is to not engage in any activity that could come close to it.

So now, on the heels of this we find that Somer 'employees' are being gifted hundreds of billions of isk in special release ships. Once again, this is giving players isk. And for what? Because they are such a great fansite? They have already been rewarded for this. If they've paid out more than a quadrillion in isk, then just think how much they've made in profit! That profit is their reward. CCP is going to hand them rare, in game prizes for being good at getting you to pay them isk? That's ludicrous. Clearly there is some level of bias here, or plain stupidity... one or the other.

And please realize, Somer is just as much to blame. It is the responsibility of a business to turn down gifts that could either result in or give an image of impropriety.

So for the players, the answer is simple: stop patronizing SomerBlink. Boycott SomerBlink and if they truly value your business they will return any and all gifts and prize ships. Otherwise, kiss them goodby and stop handing over your hard earned isk so that they can bask in the glory of CCP's adoration. They are being gifted ships from CCP for one reason: YOU GAVE THEM ISK. So, stop giving them your isk. They clearly don't deserve it.



P.S. And for the love of god, stop witch hunting the CSM on this. Look to Somer and CCP as that is where the problem is. Boycott Somer and demand better of CCP.

I get your point and you are entitled to your opinion. However I think it has derailed the discussion from something which seems more concerning to me, and that is CCP gifting isk to EVE players because they think that their gambling site is nifty.

lol, -2 subs.

Thanks for making the quit decision for me CCP... How far you lot have fallen, rather fuckin sad tbh.

Why's this a CSM thread instead of a CCP thread?