EVE General Discussion

In before the lock and ban for attempting to profit in RL cash off the game.

In4b morons commenting with a blatant disregard for anything the OP actually said.

Oh darn, I'm too late.

It's the reason so many phone sellers can keep calling you even if you reserved your number. They don't sell you anything, they give you free samples, and by accepting the sample you subscribe to their service of expensive boxershorts every month. Tricky business

It is indeed a valid question the OP raises as, when I look past all the middle stages, the SOMER arrangement indeed seems like a valid model to turn in game cash to out of game cash. Though, this build on the premise that the GTC retailers (appears to be Markee Dragon) indeed pays SOMER in RL cash for referrals. This premise appears very sketchy and I cannot find any confirmation on its validity atm.

A lot of players are using Somer solely for the extra credit they gain by buying GTCs and thereby an extra isk gain, while Somer gains real life profit by selling GTCs through their own system.
How many are actually using it and how many gamblers would potentially stop using Somer Blink if the extra isk gained is removed is not easy to guesstimate.

You missed one. Fixed your post for you.

CCP do not allow monetisation that uses their copyright without their express agreement.

Just because CCP approve one site it does not automatically mean they will approve another site or system.

Whilst I do not know what factors make CCP agree Somer's system is 'OK' I can draw some differences between that and Ladybird Credits. Not saying this is how I think it is or should be decided. Just some notable differences;

LadyBird Credits
- Primary Purpose is a currency
- No other features beyond a currency
- Doesn't really add to game experience

SOMERBlink
- Primary purpose is a lottery game
- The extra credit when you buy a GTC is a sub-feature
- Adds a new game experience outside of what CCP provide.

there is one fundamental oversight in your argument that also makes that SOMER does completely okay with the EULA wording (though arguable not in spirit)

buying a plex via somer gives your BLINK CREDIT, not isk

you cannot cash out blink credit, you can only play blinks

An in depth explanation as to why SOMER's sceme is deemed legal would be nice, CCP. I understand to confusion it brings to some. But the process is simply this:

1. You buy a GTC from party A (Markee Dragon).
2. Party A then pays a referral commission to party B (SOMER Blink).
3. Party B then gives you 200m in Blink Credit which can be used to play Blinks.
4. Unless you're absolutely stupid/unlucky you will will always win at least something.
5. You cash out the ISK to EVE Online.

You're indirectly giving SOMER Blink money so they can indirectly give you ISK. That's what it basically comes down to and it's probably those two indirectly's that make the entire thing legal.

The transaction between the player and Markee Dragon is legal.
The transaction between Markee Dragon and SOMER is legal.
The transaction between SOMER and the player is legal.

It's really quite an ingenious sceme that treads the boundaries of the EULA very narrowly. The odds of CCP making a complete 180 after all this and declaring this illegal are extremely low. It would mean CCP gave trillions upon trillions of ISK to an RMT sceme so it's very unlikely they will ever say this is illegal.

However, the thing I would like to know is how much Markee Dragon and the guys running SOMER are related to each other? Is SOMER really just using Markee as an affiliate or is there some deeper hidden agreement between them?

Given that Markee Dragon has a huge reputation for running RMT scemes for other MMO's and his name now AGAIN pops up with what is deemed to be an RMT sceme by many players, I wonder if CCP is fully aware of exactly how SOMER and Markee are connected. Some investigation into this is warranted if you ask me. Can CCP confirm, through cross checking IP and mail adresses, that Markee Dragon and SOMER are not actually the same person?