EVE General Discussion

Equality? in Eve? are you real?

Server shut downs to save fleets? The Goon string puller mittani is making more RL cash from his website advertisements than I bet Somer ever could.

And yet people scream equality - are you awake? can you even smell those roses?

Server shutdowns aren't really any form of inequality, as they are usually pretty unavoidable and some have been external. As for TMC, whats not equal about advertising on websites? There's nothing illegal about having paid advertising, nor is there anything CCP could say against it. And anyone can do it. Go ahead, make a website right now and chuck ads on it, you're free to do that whenever you wish. The problem isn't making cash, the problem is RMT.

Sure, but without a clear ISK-valued benefit for the consumer there would be not much difference anymore to any other 3rd party service being financed through CCP's affiliate program and player's ISK donations.

It's no doubt been pointed out numberous times: Marketting income from advertisements on a website is entirely different than offering in-game currency for out of game financial gain.

The Mittani, EN24 etc. offer opinions and insights on Eve in general, advertising is present on these pages as it is with all websites. They haven't out-right offered in-game currency in return for interacting with these advertisers as SB have.

This isn't a blurry line with subtle differences, it's Black and White. SomberBlink offered in-game currency in exchange for using there affiliated companies.

"Accounts may not be used for business purposes. Access to the System and playing EVE is intended for your personal entertainment, enjoyment and recreation, and not for corporate, business, commercial or income-seeking activities. Business entities and anyone who is acting for or on behalf of a business or for business purposes may not establish an Account, access the System or play EVE. Accessing the System or using the Game for commercial, business or income-seeking purposes is strictly prohibited."

I guess the rules doesnt apply to everyone as long as they are big enough.

Some people in this thread have serious issues focusing on the problem at hand.

This is not about SOMERs gambling service.

This is not about earning revenue with ads or other means outside of EVE who are completely isolated from the game.

This is not about PLEX which is indeed a form of CCP sanctioned RMT and is totally legit.

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This is about SOMER incentivising their PLEX sells with ISK, which is in the end - and a lot of people have already explained why - illegal RMT outside of the normal PLEX mechanism.

Every other player in this game would face a permanent ban on the first offense, this are the rules. This is SOMERs second offense, they already got away the first time because of their good relationships with CCP. The "we asked a GM and it was OK" trick does not work and CCP have demonstrated this many times that they will turn on you anyway even if one GM said it was ok if it is an obvious breach of the EULA, at least for normal players that is.

CCP is of course free to do whatever they like with their game, but if they really go the way and favor one group of players over another this will have implications for the game. EVE is the only product they have that produces revenue and people purchase their PLEXes with or without SOMER Blink. It would be madness to risk this for an online casino a small part of the community uses.

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On another note, I am impressed with CCP Falcons performance, he is really on top of this it seams and he really cares. For the first time in years (yes this is a new char) I feel the community is in good hands.

yes but dotlan does not give me isk for buying a plex through them.

Noone has a problem with 3rd party sites that serve the community earning some cash to help with server costs etc

what people are objecting to is that somer blink give isk as an inventive to use their plex buying service to generate real cash. Real Money Traded for isk

Except buying PLEX from Dotlan doesn't give you any in-game item or currency if you choose to use their referral link. Yes, you can plan your travel more efficiently than you would just with use of in-game map but that's only because CCP prefers to have bunch of half-assed features in-game and let the 3rd parties implement better versions (vide Dotlan, various fitting tools, market analyzers, etc.).

Dotlan gets RL money for PLEX sales and probably quite nice amount of ISK donations in-game but one has nothing to do with the other. In case of SOMER's latest scheme buying PLEX with their referral link is connected to rewarding you for that with ISK. And it doesn't matter whether you take that offer or just sell PLEX on in-game market, the fact alone that SOMER makes that offer is proposition of participation in RMT. Which according to common knowledge is bannable offense to both sides of a deal.

EULA
Section "Your Account"
Subsection "A. Establishing a New Account"
Paragraph 4:

"Accounts may not be used for business purposes. Access to the System and playing EVE is intended for your personal entertainment, enjoyment and recreation, and not for corporate, business, commercial or income-seeking activities. Business entities and anyone who is acting for or on behalf of a business or for business purposes may not establish an Account, access the System or play EVE. Accessing the System or using the Game for commercial, business or income-seeking purposes is strictly prohibited."

CSM just had another meeting with CCP, including the VP of Sales. It's great that CCP has kept us so involved and are actively seeking the input of us and the community. Mad props to Leeloo and Falcon for their hard work.