EVE General Discussion

If you are reading this, you probably are aware of the controversial issue that spawned numerous posts, blogs and articles.
https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=283855&find=unread

Now the main argument there is that Somer Blink as an entity doesn't deserve the rewards (was it the ships or the vetting from CCP) because they are a purely for profit organization. They donated a lot, but so did Coca Cola, it is called PR for the uninitiated. For instance no outcry was created when the same ships were donated to the guys that organized SCL, specifically because they offer their services without any expected profit, which is a point I agree with. With the facts we have at hand Somer Blink shouldn't qualify, because they do what they do for profit.

Now these facts seem obvious, and even with CCP's record of mucking up some things I still don't understand how they reached this decision. Why give Somer blink the traffic and all these gifts when so many more other third parties deserve it more. Why go out on a limb and put your trust in them completely? So i thought about a little more and maybe, just maybe Somer Blink is offering is a very valuable service for CCP, and by extension to the player base of EVE.

Disclaimer: This is just a theory, links and data will be provided, but at the end the theory is just that, a theory. It fits and is reasonable, but in no way I am saying that this is what happened. Now that I stressed that enough, I'll have to say that this is going to be long and math included, you have been warned. The numbers taken below are all based on sources, but could ultimately be wrong, so apologies in advance if they are and correct me so I can fix it.

Somer blink from mid 2012 to mid 2013 have given out more than half a quadrillion isk, that equals to 500 trillion isk (check dates on the links provided)

http://community.eveonline.com/news/dev-blogs/community-spotlight-somer-blink/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOA6wGHluuU

I won't go on the details of this one, but it can be calculated very easily by anyone with basic math skills, Somer Blink makes a 20% profit on all of its transactions, that means Somer's share from the ISK that went through them is a 100 trillion.

Now we know from various sources that Somer received 30 scorpions, that means it is safe to assume that they have no more than 30 employees. We also know that from the link provided above (the community one) that isk transfers requires 145 hours a week. If we factor in that each employee takes 125m an hour and plex for each account (30), we will get estimated costs of 1 trillion (give or take) per month. Donations are marginal at best and shouldn't affect our estimations to a material degree. That means that Somer as an entity (ultimately controlled by one person, or a handful at best) rakes in 7.3 trillion a month as pure profit. Let that sink in for the moment, 7.3 trillion a month in a single wallet.

Now that we are done with the numbers part let us start by talking Economics

First let us start with isk faucets and sinks in EVE:

http://twostep4csm.blogspot.ae/2012/03/its-econmony-stupid.html

In the link provided above you will have the list of isk sinks and faucets in EVE. If we take the assumption that most of the iskies that goes to somber stays in its wallet (which I don't see any scenario where in won't, it is literally so much isk that spending will take more time than raking it in, we will get to that in a moment) then it is equivalent to an ISK sink. It is simply taken from the economy and sits right there in a pixelated wallet. If you open the link you will notice that the highest sink is 13t a month then 6t and then the rest drop to less 2t. Somer's wallet is the second largest ISK sink in EVE. Somer is responsible for decreasing the money (isk supply) by more than 25% by itself. Without Somer the inflation could spiral out of CCP's control, and do very weird (read bad) things to the economy.

Even if this wasn't a consideration, Somer has so much isk that they could break every market in the game very easily. The whole trit market in EVE is worth about 3 trillion a month. That is the mineral that more than 90% of things in EVE are made from (at least partially). They could literally break the game, just let us look at some other numbers for comparison.

* PL + N3 super cap feet peaked at 200-300 supers (numbers from when they had an awoxer and had to reign in all their lost systems). That is the biggest super cap fleet in the whole game. With the iskies Somer made (theoretically), they could fund 4000 supers. That is 10 times more than the current largest super cap power in all of EVE

* N3's rental empire (which is the biggest rental empire in EVE) rakes in 700 bill a month, that is before costs and needed thousands of players to maintain it. Somer makes 10 times that amount as pure profit.

* The economic benefit of the whole fountain war (the biggest war this year) was 200 billion a month in moon minerals, that is about 3% of what Somer is making (after costs).

Now if you were CCP you will keep a very close eye on anyone that has that much isk, and has the potential to seriously damage the game, but at the same time as a player driven game it is very sensitive and you can't outright control them. Also don't forget that they are providing an isk sink without the added cost of creating a new one by CCP, which will take at least one full development cycle, and won't have certain results (HIA faction warfare).

So maybe CCP decided to kill 2 birds with one stone, reign in a 3rd party by giving them extra business (traffic, vetting etc..) to make extra real life cash (at the end of the day isk can't be easily transferred to real life cash, at least not at these amounts and not when you are closely watched), and CCP getting a free of cost economic control over their fantasy universe.

Far too many posts on this subject.... Bored now!

Just to further add that it's irrelevant really, we have no way of knowing how accurate Somers figures actually are.

To address the op:
That they give some money out for sponsorship etc is a good thing, and maybe in need of recognition of some kind, but not by shady under the table deals and the spawning of trillions of free Isk.

Imagine if they gave Chribba 250bn units of Veldspar as a reward, on the grounds that, hey he has so much Veldspar already it's just a drop in the ocean for him. It might be and the big guy might deserve a nice reward for everything he has done for us all, but I would have just as much a problem with that as I do with Somer right now.

They don't though. Because they RMT their isk, some of it through their website, seemingly supported by CCP, and some of it laundered through shill accounts and sold through illegal sites.
Somer make REAL cash through their site. They run their corp as a business (against the EULA) and yet they are supported. THIS is why they don't deserve to be supported by CCP..

And the main complaint isn't about the scorpions. It's that by CCP stating they are legit, even without any form of evidence, they are promoting Somer above all other groups, which pushes more traffic to Somer. Not to mention that you have to join Somer to take part in lotteries taht should be run by CCP directly.
Why should a group that runs what are essentially scams for profit be promoted over groups like Eve-Radio who run a non-profit community site that offers it's services for free to the community?

Seriously dude, we've been over this.

You keep saying they RMT there isk but never back it up with any proof.

So here we go.

CFC RMT massive amounts isk and get away with it because they have friends in CCP.

Also I do not have to prove because like you say, you must be dumb not to believe they don't.

ok. now we need 2 more proofs:
- SOMER takes real money to themself
- SOMER gives out their own GTCs

What about Battle Clinic.

https://www.deepspacesupply.com/60-day-eve-game-time-code.html

They also involved in RMT?

Here is a list of where you can buy GTC's

https://secure.eveonline.com/etc.aspx

Most of those sites offer a referral scheme.

So you could simply setup a website offering the best deals of GTC's with nothing but links to many of those sites. Somebody buys a plex via your site you make RL money.

That is how referral schemes work.

The more S'BLink gives away, the more it proves how much they make. The more S'Blink makes, the less they need free CCP slag.

SOMER Blink would give to "charity" anyway - it makes them look ethical (left to be determined), not to mention rich (not much doubt). Run a lottery at the people's level instead - a plan that doesn't necessitate a SOMER Blink account to win.

Great. And CCP's ungodly valuable marketing and advertising clout automatically comes with it for free, just like it did for SOMER Blink?

It's pretty clear that it would have to be a CCP announced, sanctioned, and publicised event, the same way their tryst with S'Blink has been. Unless you're - for some reason - after an uneven playing field.

That's a guesstimate at best.

But they do take in massive amounts of money and that makes it a very smart business. The thing I'm wondering is if SOMER as an organisation is a very successful cover operation for one of the major alliances in the game. Goons come to mind first. CCP would have the ability to check this, since they can cross reference IP adresses and stuff.

Any alliance that has the income of SOMER at its disposal would quickly become a nearly unstoppable force in EVE. Wouldn't surprise me if a lot of SOMER's profits are funneled into someone's war effort.