EVE General Discussion

It must have been an impressively stupid petition to get him banned.

It has come to my attention that a Game Master known as "GM Thunder" has recently altered the topic text of the public channel "recruitment" to reflect a change of policy disallowing scamming and fraudulent activities to occur within the channel, or to be used as a channel with which to find targets for such activities.

It is my opinion, and the opinion of many other EVE Online players, that this is an encroachment upon the activities of players that use the recruitment channel.

Scamming has long been part of the EVE culture and has long been a promotional tool by CCP to draw new players to the game. The permission of such activities is a display of the truly sandbox nature of the harsh, hypercapitalistic EVE universe and the recent rule change in the recruitment channel encroaches on the true sandbox that the game provides for its players.

From TenTonHammer to PCGamer, the proliferation of EVE Online scams in gaming media has been a powerful driving force for EVE's current popularity. The draw of a true sandbox where your actions have legitimate consequences is a very powerful niche that isn't filled by any other game, and that includes the dangers of interacting with players on a regular basis. From the fall of BoB at the hands of a disgruntled director to the massive thefts of iterations of large EVE banks and investments to supercapital holding scams, the scamming culture is very deep-rooted and an important part of EVE Online.

Additionally, this change of rules presents a considerable workload increase on GMs as well as issues with burden of proof; cases where recruitment is used as a "hunting ground" will be exceptionally difficult to prove and even more difficult to enforce punishment for the use of such channels.

I would like this petition to be escalated to a senior GM who can reverse this recent change and, if the change is not reverted, respond to this petition with a clarification and justification as to why this new rule has been placed.

The full text for the recruitment channel's topic will be pasted below for easy reference.



[18:16:37] EVE System > Channel MOTD: Welcome to the recruitment channel. This channel is intended for those players looking to find a new corporation, as well as those looking to enlist new players. Other activities, such as non-recruitment discussion is not permitted.No scamming is allowed in this channel and this includes, but not limited to, using the recruitment channel as a platform to find or target players to scam. As per subject, we ask everyone to use their best judgment before contracting assets or ISK as part of corporation’s recruitment process and any deals made or finalized outside this channel are done at your own risk and responsibility.An additional recruitment source is the Alliance and Corporation Recruitment Center section of the forums.

Swamping the petition system with this would be the cause of the ban, so you already know exactly who got him banned and why.
Not the brightest move.

Besides, if other people using your petition is reason for you to get banned, then I see a new metagaming tactic coming.