EVE General Discussion

Wow. That is your response, huh? I (all of my accounts) will not be coming back. Its too bad you folks can't see the mistake you made and the urgent remedy that it required. Spinning for 20 pages was not what I was hoping for in this thread(especially after NO responses on the forums for DAYS after this fiasco). Been playing since 04 and I will absolutely never support another product with a CCP stamp on it. You broke player trust, you gave away an enormous advantage in-game and yet the best you can do is "we though it was ok because..."

Rubbish.

You took that out of context. We were talking about damage to the EvE economy (or rather lack thereof). The difference in the context you're speaking in, between SOMER and 'everyone else's wallet' is that SOMER had the vision, time, and dedication to organize, design, and program a huge out-of-game application used by a hell of a lot of capsuleers.

Not it's not a business. It's makes fake play money. If I go around collecting up monopoly money for people to play games on my site I would not have to pay personal or corporate taxes to the state or federal government. Not a business. It's a game site, accessible to the EvE community. Thus, community site.

...uh no. The community site is representing the developer. Other way around. This doesn't address what I wrote. The construction crews who built that hospital/research center did not volunteer. They go paid real life money. ...and now they can buy PLEX if so inclined.

You say clearly here that they are an enterprise so giving them free stuff is indeed favoritism vs the other enterprise working in the same business. Isn't favoritism something you, as the creator of the sandbox, are not supposed to show so the sandbox stay a sandbox?

And remember,



If you want to thank enterprise that gives out money to help causes in any way, shape or form, go as the govt do and give them tax breaks just like corp IRL get when they give money away. Oh wait, you already do that by giving them free account.

It is RMT... sort of. Just as PLEX is RMT. The difference between RMT that gets you banned and RMT that is sanctioned is who gets the money. If CCP gets it it's not bannable RMT. As a 3rd party affiliate, I would bet SOMER gets around 10% for the referral. ...just like gaming sites and others that advertise for EvE. So you are confused about key elements here... let's break it down.

STEP ONE: The Real money transaction.
A player has 50 bucks or whatever GTCs go for. He goes to the SOMER site and says "hell yah I'm feeling lucky, I want to win a lot of ISK. I need a little ISK for seed money and this will totally work out." He buys a GTC from SOMER. || AT THIS POINT - The real money transaction is done. Now follow the money. CCP get's 90% and The Real Life SOMER (not game character) gets 10% for the affiliate referral or however they set it up. That's how internet advertising works. You want to sell stuff on a site I owned and I develop, you need to make it worth my while. So SOMER got his little RL cut but CCP gets the lion's share, and the player who bought the GTC has a GTC. Part of your confusion lies in this stage. As the site operator and real life human being, SOMER is not acting in this stage as a video game character. He's a person. This wasn't a video game transaction... it was a real one.

STEP TWO: The Conversion.
Just as with a PLEX, the GTC has lost all of it's real money value now. It only had real money value at the time of the initial transaction, for which CCP raked in some dough. This GTC cannot be re-sold for real money. This is CCPs policy. The GTC, for it's entire existence, will always be controlled by CCPs policies. At this point in the process the purchaser of the GTC may submit it to the video game character known as SOMER. SOMER is not real here, and the transaction has nothing to do with real life cash. In fact, no matter what happens from here on out, the GTC will be burned at the next step and the rest of what happens with regards to the capsuleer's gambling addiction and SOMER scamming that poor fool out his ISK, there isn't going to be real money involved anymore.

Final:
There is only one point in the transaction where real money comes into play. At that point in the transaction there are 3 real people involved. The person who created the video game character SOMER, the guy who created the capsuleer that needed the ISK, and CCP. These are real entites and CCP gets most of the money per normal business practices.

What happens afterwards is where some of you are confused. After the initial transaction real money is not involved. The initial transaction was the same as any PLEX purchase. The latter transaction are not transactions... they are games being played by spaceship barbies in an internet game. The inability of some players to make the differentiation between real life people and spaceship barbie is starting to blow my mind.

CCP are watching what you do, not what you say.

Save your breath.

Gogela gave a good long explanation.

The short one is this:

What you've just described is no different from buying a plex and turning it into in game stuff.

The RMT problem is taking isk or in game stuff and turning it back into personal, real life money. That isn't happening here.

I'm not saying whether it is good or bad; I'm merely pointing out that the reward for sponsorship is increased revenue, and as such it is neither deserving of, nor an appropraite justification for, further community awards.

As someone else pointed out, if events sponsored by SOMER are such a good thing, why not reward the event organizers who put things together, rather than the sponsors? It's like giving superbowl rings to the companies running the halftime commercials rather than the players (not a perfect analogy, but you get the idea).



Not necessarily "bad", but also not an action itself deserving of special rewards.

Sorry if this question has already been answered (though based on what I've read of this thread, nothing of substance has actually been answered):

What kind of transparency, if any, has SOMER Blink given to CCP as to how their "lottery" actually works?
How does CCP know for certain that SOMER is running a legitimate operation and what guarantee do you have that they will continue running this way in the future?
Is CCP privy to the specifics of the transactions between SOMER and the players?
Who at CCP is working with SOMER to ensure that they are not cheating on their lotteries and/or stealing from the players?
Does SOMER random = random?

If these are questions that can't be answered, than how can CCP officially endorse SOMER Blink, effectively legitimizing what may or may not be legitimate?

You say SOMER was selected because of EVE Vegas, and SOMER being a gambling site. But the state of Nevada has a Gaming Commission, a government entity, whose job is to guarantee, to the best of their ability, the "fairness" of gambling in their state. Does CCP have such oversight?


EDIT: I see now that some of these questions/concerns were brought up in the FIRST reply to this thread and were completely ignored. I won't be holding my breath for a response...

Good luck; I asked for the same thing yesterday (specific, measurable reasons for the SOMER gifts), and that's the point at which Guard stopped responding to my posts.

Since CCP has had ample opportunity to present evidence to the contrary, and has failed to do so, my assumption at this point is that there are no specifics to be given, and that the choice of SOMER as a recipient was purely arbitrary.

I've made my decision; I'm discontinuing my recurring subscription. There is still time for CCP to change my mind, as I've got just over a month left, but at this point it is going to take some drastic measures and open honesty to brign me back. Lip service to an idea won't be nearly enough; there needs to be real change and real fixes for past mistakes before more of my money goes to CCP.

I find it ironic that this "direct wealth injection", the IWS, is merely a twiddle of a few numbers in a database for CCP, and that anything "trivial" like game time, t-shirts, mugs, and advertising all have real world value and cost to CCP.

I would also argue that a spaceship with a fancy paintjob is merely a vanity item.

If people stopped arbitrarily placing ridiculous value on nonsense items, there wouldn't be a problem with any wealth injection. Stop feeding the frenzy. You guys are all turning the IWS into the $1000 pair of jeans by buying into the idea of it being worth something more than it is.