EVE General Discussion

Do you even realize how silly this sounds?

I'm extremely disappointed, even disgusted by how this was handled. CCP Falcon, how low you have fallen. This whole thing was nothing more than a CCP sponsored and CSM fueled witch hunt.

Somer had authorization from your own VP and then you go ahead claiming this was not from your 'legal' department and therefore not valid. Are you for real? What kind of shoddy internal system do you have, if your VP can make deals without running them past legal first? I don't know if that's just sheer incompetence or pure amateurism. To then come back on them, at the expense of one of your players is completely unacceptable.

Secondly, you take actions against Somer's accounts because he disclosed 'private' communication. These are message between in this context, corporate entities. Not CCP and a player. He is well within his rights to publish approval or permission given for certain promotions and say they were approved by CCP, if in fact your own VP approved them in the first place.

You had a CSM fueled witch hunt, with our precious Goon CSMs leading the charge. And CCP sponsored it all, threw Somer to the wolves. I'm so disappointed by how you handled this, words can't express.

You caused this situation and you sacrificed Somer hoping it would calm the masses. You should be ashamed of yourself, truly.

Describing a post as 'lawyer-speak' (or did I say lawyer language?) is now a personal attack. That's rich.

...

CCP has always known that Somer made money from his website. CCP gave this guy unique ships just for kicks. CCP's VP of Sales corresponded with this guy regularly. CCP approved this latest promotion and learned about it FROM SOMER HIMSELF, not through some SUPER-AWESOME investigation. CCP's VP of Sales thought Somer was JOKING when he asked for consent from legal (presumably because the idea was so preposterous to her.)

If this episode is so wonderfully 'transparent' then why doesn't the initial post contain any of that information?

If Somer was just a player like everyone else and didn't have a business relationship with CCP, I would also like (as a regular player of EVE Online like Somer) regular emails from CCP's VP of Sales making friendly inquiries into my plans for the month.

...

As far as RMT, I loathe gold farmers who then turn around and RMT because that combination breaks MMO's. But it's the gold farming, the botting, the multi-boxers, the exploiters who break the game for people who play the game as intended (because it becomes impossible for them to compete.) NOT some guy who runs a gambling website and makes a few shekels out of the deal with CCP's full knowledge and consent and then gets banned because someone at CCP got butthurt that actual communications demonstrating shady behavior by CCP (yet again) were made public.

No, they aren't. If they were, he'd already be in violation of the EULA for being a "corporate entity" using EVE for business purposes. These were precisely between "CCP and a player". Anything else would be exactly the sort of privileged/special/favouritist relationship that CCP is/was accused of fostering with Somer, which is pretty much THE source of the community backlash.

As for his rights to publish them... certainly, he is well within his legal rights to publish (in most jurisdictions anyway). But CCP can ban his accounts for any reason they see fit, and publishing private CCP correspondence is one of those reasons clearly spelled out in the EULA that people get smacked with all the time.

Pretty much all of your arguments appeal to Somer's "special status", which is exactly the problem. No other player entity enjoys this special status with CCP. If CCP wants to spell out how we can apply for this same special status, great, we'll all be on even footing with Somer. Otherwise they MUST treat Somer like any average Joe regular player subject to the same EULA as anyone else, because that's exactly what he is.

The bit about extra ISK was context sensitive albeit in the description of a relatively complex system I can see why people might lose sight of the context but it was pretty plain to me on first read (as you can see in the Somer thread where I explained how it worked before all this kicked off).

A common necessity. They have to canvas the area and run-off all of the looky-loos who inventively gather and want to gawk at things like this first-hand.

Well, buying plex for above the average market price isn't really committing RMT on its own. If you bought plex through legit means such as an approved reseller or CCP directly you can sell it at whatever price you want to, same applies for buying plex from someone who got it in a timecode or such. Market prices in EVE pose no restrictions as its all player driven.

The main reason somer got into trouble was because he stated CCP approved something they actually didn't, and because he posted a log of an email without permission. The RMT element is still at CCP's discretion as to whether it occured, as Falcon mentioned they have nothing to say on it.

Dont get me wrong, Somer deceived CCP and anyone who bought from the service with the whole CCP Approval thing and also basically gave a '**** you' to all by pulling the service.

Guess who called it?!

I want the community team to know how amazingly this was handled. Wonderful job guys.

True enough, but when you combine it with a RL cash payment for every one purchased from your affiliate, who is receiving increased trade due to your promotion it becomes RMT.

So you're saying that this part of the proposal was a lie too — yet another thing that was in the proposal but not actually how it worked?

…except that it doesn't do that at all. What prevents that from happening is the PLEX credit system.


I'd imagine the opposite, if anything. When new volcanic islands pop up from the sea bed, they become a great place to store puffins on. But sure, you have to round them up before introducing them to their new habitat, I suppose.