EVE General Discussion

I would suggest that at long last Somer are acting in accordance with the true spirit of Eve Online and taking CCP for a ride.

I wonder if CCP still think Somer are nice trustworthy folk with whom they can do 'honest' business?

I understand what you are saying, and there is some truth to it but it doesn't tell the whole story.

First of all, GTC are directly convertible to Plex, and Plex can be "used up" (removed from the game) in ways other than paying for game time. So the demand for Plex is not really constant. Otherwise CCP would have little incentive to run Plex sales.

Additionally, the effective price of GTC affects the number of active accounts. A player wavering between allowing an account to expire may be swayed by the bonus deal, or an active player may decide to add an additional account.

But I do agree that the normal "market share" for GTC has been captured at the expense of other resellers and other community websites.

I can honestly say that is the first post of yours that has made sense.

Look on the bright side, with the 'bonus' removed yourself and people in the same boat as you are more likely to buy GTCs off actual community sites, allowing them to once more grow and become more numerous.

Somer and its 'redacted' have acted as a cancer on this games community, stripping the rightful support from those community sites and giving them to a business.

Yes people will choose to support Somer as well on a level playing field but at least people such as yourself are more likely to actually consider buying off other sites now.

Hell EvE radio needs help, but atm they have not even got a GTC link.

It's assumed at this point that CCP or certain rogue CCP employees are behind this scandal to enrich themselves. CCP themselves profiting from Somerblink seems unlikely as they would get the money from the GTC itself. A group of rogue employees getting kickbacks on the other hand is likely given how carefully CCP is handling the situation and doing nothing just praying for it to be over.

Even if certain rogue employees were caught it would be in CCPs best interest to hide it as this would be an even bigger scandal and perhaps break laws and/or be the end of the company.

So no one has thought of the fact that PLEX are soaring up in price right now, maybe CCP and Blink are working together to introduce more PLEX into the economy to get the price down? Maybe Blink isn't actually getting the cut on sales and everything goes straight to CCP?

Of course, such a logical explanation must be heresy and the conspiracy theorists are obviously right.

They will never be honest with the community. It's pretty obvious CCP has some sort of investment in Blink, and we will instead get some diversion from the truth. No one will ever know the truth, and CCP will continue to slowly degrade from within. But why don't we all enjoy EVE while we still can? It's still fun for now.

It makes complete sense. First, why would I give to your event when you are more than adequately supported by SOMER. I'd much rather give to someone who needs my contribution. But more importantly - in real life and in EVE, what charities and organizations I give to depends greatly on who they choose to associate with, endorse, accept money from, etc.. A donation is business, and it is more than reasonable for me to choose to not do business with people who do business with SOMER.

SOMER has bought your support, by supporting your charity - and that is fine. But it does not make it okay for them to violate the EULA and it also means you need to own that support - and the good and bad that comes with it.

So seeing as Somer have a nice way of converting ISK to RMT throught GTC what precludes them to sell Assets for RMT, and just using Somer to distribute said assets.

I don't tend to buy into the conspiracy theories. I am not sure if it is some sort of "icelandic" thing, but this is par for the course in how CCP tends to deal with these things. We've all seen it before. It doesn't mean it is right mind you, or the smartest course of action, but it is pretty typical and so I am not overly tinfoiled over it.

Additionally, it is pretty clear that some 'real world' contracts and legal obligations come into play, with resellers, etc.., and so they are probably being cautious for that reason. They've given people a "cease and desist" order, and I don't expect them to take any action against SOMER (if they do at all) until that grace period elapses.

SOMER is well within their rights to milk this for all its worth, but their abuse of the grace period sends a message to CCP and the community how they think. It is easy to let them off the hook with "they are just doing what they are allowed to do". Is that really how most people think? That we should always run out and do whatever the rules or law "allow" us to do - I doubt that. There is right and wrong beyond the letter of the rules. You all know that.

Once again - I am not saying SOMER should be punished purely for abusing the grace period, but their actions speak a great deal about who they are - about their ethics and business practices. They've basically thrown pie in CCP's face, and the only saving grace is that it is so obvious that I am sure CCP sees it. The only thing that comes next is them having the courage to shut the whole thing down, which they can do, based on multiple EULA violations.

As for PLEX, CCP has more than enough PLEX at their disposal to keep the price down, and they often inject PLEX to do so. They stated at fanfest that they put PLEX that have been confiscated from RMT'ers on the market at times (sort of acting as a "federal reserve bank") and they also tend to put plex on sale when the price increases. In fact, SOMER represents a potential threat to the economy when they sell an extra billion isk with every GTC sale, as this can result in a huge flood of isk into the economy and thus increase the price of PLEX.

If anything, Somer has increased the price of plex. How many plex did Somer employees give away at Vegas? The 100 plex for the fiction contest came through Somer. Who knows how many more plex Somer has bought (increasing demand and the price for everyone else) only to shove them into the Blink corporate vault for later use.