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Community Concerns Regarding SOMERblink

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Fracoix
Rubius Dubious
#761 - 2014-08-20 07:01:55 UTC
CCP Falcon wrote:
Hey guys,

We’re aware that SOMER Blink has posted a message to state that their services are shutting down.

We’re also well aware that a lot of members of the community have enjoyed playing SOMER Blink over the course of the last four years, and it’s very unfortunate and saddening to see a source of enjoyment for our players closing its doors.

In the same respect however, we believe that the promotion that caused this issue was not representative of the original proposal that was brought to CCP.

Given that we’re unable to provide reimbursements as per section 1.3 of our reimbursement policy, it’s good to see that SOMER Blink is shutting down in a controlled and stable manner, and that players will be able to withdraw their ISK and / or assets.

While we will be monitoring this closely, we have no intention of interfering with this process, as we feel that allowing players to be able to have their assets and / or ISK returned by SOMER Blink of their own free will is an important part of bringing this situation to a solid resolution.

We’ll have more information for you guys tomorrow, once myself and CCP Leeloo get back into the office and speak to the relevant people, including the CSM.

This remains a top priority for the community team, those involved in other parts of CCP, and the CSM.

Thanks for your patience while we work on bringing this to a close.






Enjoy the hit to PLEX sales......
Derrick Miles
Death Rabbit Ky Oneida
#762 - 2014-08-20 07:02:28 UTC
Tao Dolcino wrote:
I have played EVE since 2003 with different accounts. Each time there have been a scandal because of CCP i have cancelled my subscription for many months to protest.
I have lost all trust in CCP years ago (Incarna was the final nail in the coffin).
If they again play it "blurry mafia" instead of being clear and straight, i will cancel again, but this time for good. I'd better pay 15€ monthly to people who have a minimum of sense of probity.
By the way, CCP, i'm also watching you on the matter of null sec sov, which for me is another form of mafia issue.

A mafia issue? Don't you think accusing CCP of running an organized crime syndicate might be a bit extreme?
Andski
Science and Trade Institute
Caldari State
#763 - 2014-08-20 07:08:04 UTC
Josef Djugashvilis wrote:
Oddly enough, it would help mittens if CCP were to take a really close look at his operation.

I am one who finds, 'The Ego' as I think of him, rather pompous and tedious, but I do believe he runs a clean operation.

Clear the air and all that class of thing.


Yeah, if you run a major alliance it's a really good idea to keep your nose clean. CCP loves making an example out of highly visible players to demonstrate that nobody is above the rules. I doubt he implemented his compensation/revenue model without running it by CCP thoroughly enough to clear all doubt.

Twitter: @EVEAndski

"It's easy to speak for the silent majority. They rarely object to what you put into their mouths."    - Abrazzar
Andski
Science and Trade Institute
Caldari State
#764 - 2014-08-20 07:10:09 UTC
Fracoix wrote:
Enjoy the hit to PLEX sales......


People who buy PLEX aren't going to stop buying it because a 40-50m incentive from a website is no longer there.

Twitter: @EVEAndski

"It's easy to speak for the silent majority. They rarely object to what you put into their mouths."    - Abrazzar
Jebus hChrist
Doomheim
#765 - 2014-08-20 07:10:36 UTC
Well looks like the goons got what they wanted as always gg ccp. Love that everyone forgot how many Plex Blink had given to the last plex for good giving good pr for ccp and all of us. No mention of the support given to Eve Uni and RvB and all the others that blink helped out.

Andski
Science and Trade Institute
Caldari State
#766 - 2014-08-20 07:11:12 UTC
Jebus hChrist wrote:
Well looks like the goons got what they wanted as always gg ccp. Love that everyone forgot how many Plex Blink had given to the last plex for good giving good pr for ccp and all of us. No mention of the support given to Eve Uni and RvB and all the others that blink helped out.



another forum alt who thinks that somer blink is a charity and who also attributes everything he dislikes to grrgoons

lol

Twitter: @EVEAndski

"It's easy to speak for the silent majority. They rarely object to what you put into their mouths."    - Abrazzar
Ohkewl
School of Applied Knowledge
Caldari State
#767 - 2014-08-20 07:13:33 UTC
Derrick Miles wrote:
Ohkewl wrote:
RubyPorto wrote:
Ohkewl wrote:
You say you represent the players but that is a lie. You might represent the 50 or so loudmouths here, but there are far more players that use the blink website, and you sure arent representing them.
You just showed how valuable the CSM is.


The only reason Blink is down is that Somer threw a hissy and turned it off when his RMT scheme came to light.

How does Somer's hissy become the CSM's fault, exactly?


The only one who really knows why is Somer.
A wild guess, some people are allowed to RMT from CCP, and others arent.

Sounds pretty wild to me, I'm pretty sure CCP doesn't allow RMT in any form. Unless you're redefining the term.



RMT= converting ISK to real money.
That's what Somer, Evenews24 and TMC are doing, they jump thru some hoops to get there, but the end result is the same.
Mike Azariah
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#768 - 2014-08-20 07:13:33 UTC
Ohkewl wrote:

You say you represent the players but that is a lie. You might represent the 50 or so loudmouths here, but there are far more players that use the blink website, and you sure arent representing them.
You just showed how valuable the CSM is.



I wonder if neighbourhood junkies complain when the local dealer is arrested.

m

Mike Azariah  ┬──┬ ¯|(ツ)/¯
Altrue
Exploration Frontier inc
Tactical-Retreat
#769 - 2014-08-20 07:14:02 UTC
Oh well, never liked blink anyway.

Although I like the way they shut down while "boo-booing" about CCP. It feels like déjà-vu all the time, giving up while accusing someone else.

SOMER should understand that they are responsible for their current situation, if they didn't try to RMT - again - they could've continued with their business indefinitely.

Also yeah, they are in a good situation. I mean they probably have close to a trillion of isk, if not more. They also got their ishukone scorpions... So yeah, money plus limited edition ships, I wouldn't call that a bad end if you ask me.


Finally, best sentence of the week :

Quote:
As always, we're not in the business of stealing your money.


Rather ironic coming from a business that made hundreds of billions from player money.

Signature Tanking Best Tanking

[Ex-F] CEO - Eve-guides.fr

Ultimate Citadel Guide - 2016 EVE Career Chart
Enaris Kerle
Deep Core Mining Inc.
Caldari State
#770 - 2014-08-20 07:15:16 UTC
Ohkewl wrote:
RMT= converting ISK to real money.
That's what Somer, Evenews24 and TMC are doing, they jump thru some hoops to get there, but the end result is the same.

No, RMT = selling ingame assets or ingame services for IRL money.

Gallente born and raised, and tutored as a pleasure slave and courtesan to the exotic tastes of the Amarri court. Jade's career veered violently off course when a diplomatic envoy's transport was blown to pieces in mysterious circumstances and she was rescued from the escape pods by the enigmatic genetic mastermind Athule Snanm.
Lucas Kell
Solitude Trading
S.N.O.T.
#771 - 2014-08-20 07:16:52 UTC
Baron Torkskails wrote:
seriously need to reconsider this whole affair, the CSM's relevance to the matter is minimal at best. the promotion was approved by ccp after a long discussion and should be honored.
Have you read the actual workflow that was supposedly agreed? It explicitly states no extra isk will be handed across, yet extra isk is handed across. What CCP (or at least one person at CCP) agreed to was not the same as what they set up as the promotion. They purposely misled them to get them to agree, hoping they could then use that as their defense.

The Indecisive Noob - EVE fan blog.

Wholesale Trading - The new bulk trading mailing list.
Derrick Miles
Death Rabbit Ky Oneida
#772 - 2014-08-20 07:20:33 UTC
Ohkewl wrote:
Derrick Miles wrote:
Ohkewl wrote:
...

The only one who really knows why is Somer.
A wild guess, some people are allowed to RMT from CCP, and others arent.

Sounds pretty wild to me, I'm pretty sure CCP doesn't allow RMT in any form. Unless you're redefining the term.



RMT= converting ISK to real money.
That's what Somer, Evenews24 and TMC are doing, they jump thru some hoops to get there, but the end result is the same.

Those "hoops" are the rules CCP has put into place for all third party developers to abide by. It's pretty clear that Somer is the one who broke them, which is the whole reason this thread exists.
Fallon Talwyn
Doomheim
#773 - 2014-08-20 07:20:43 UTC
Rumors? Kinda hard not to assume what it really is when every other post is a Goon or Goonpet......
Derrick Miles
Death Rabbit Ky Oneida
#774 - 2014-08-20 07:21:22 UTC
Mike Azariah wrote:
Ohkewl wrote:

You say you represent the players but that is a lie. You might represent the 50 or so loudmouths here, but there are far more players that use the blink website, and you sure arent representing them.
You just showed how valuable the CSM is.



I wonder if neighbourhood junkies complain when the local dealer is arrested.

m

Not really helping your case.
Hendrick Tallardar
Doomheim
#775 - 2014-08-20 07:24:32 UTC  |  Edited by: Hendrick Tallardar
Ohkewl wrote:

RMT= converting ISK to real money.
That's what Somer, Evenews24 and TMC are doing, they jump thru some hoops to get there, but the end result is the same.


No, but again nice attempt at a straw man.

TMC, EN24, CZ and yes even Somer are given guidelines and rules to abide by. Somer's plan for the incentives offered last year, and this time around, broke those guidelines. TMC, EN24, ZKillboard, Dotlan etc. making real money off the service they provide through not offering incentives to for their patrons/users, or any in-game goods, for using their service doesn't. It's why EVE-Bet isn't under investigation for their operation and Somer is. It's not hard to comprehend.
Fracoix
Rubius Dubious
#776 - 2014-08-20 07:25:11 UTC
Andski wrote:
Fracoix wrote:
Enjoy the hit to PLEX sales......


People who buy PLEX aren't going to stop buying it because a 40-50m incentive from a website is no longer there.



People like me who bought PLEX to blink will Roll

I expect i wasn't alone in doing this....
James Amril-Kesh
Viziam
Amarr Empire
#777 - 2014-08-20 07:25:53 UTC
Ohkewl wrote:
RMT= converting ISK to real money.
That's what Somer, Evenews24 and TMC are doing, they jump thru some hoops to get there, but the end result is the same.

No, it's just what Somer was doing.

Enjoying the rain today? ;)
Lord LazyGhost
Sebiestor Tribe
Minmatar Republic
#778 - 2014-08-20 07:26:09 UTC
Fracoix wrote:
CCP Falcon wrote:
Hey guys,

We’re aware that SOMER Blink has posted a message to state that their services are shutting down.

We’re also well aware that a lot of members of the community have enjoyed playing SOMER Blink over the course of the last four years, and it’s very unfortunate and saddening to see a source of enjoyment for our players closing its doors.

In the same respect however, we believe that the promotion that caused this issue was not representative of the original proposal that was brought to CCP.

Given that we’re unable to provide reimbursements as per section 1.3 of our reimbursement policy, it’s good to see that SOMER Blink is shutting down in a controlled and stable manner, and that players will be able to withdraw their ISK and / or assets.

While we will be monitoring this closely, we have no intention of interfering with this process, as we feel that allowing players to be able to have their assets and / or ISK returned by SOMER Blink of their own free will is an important part of bringing this situation to a solid resolution.

We’ll have more information for you guys tomorrow, once myself and CCP Leeloo get back into the office and speak to the relevant people, including the CSM.

This remains a top priority for the community team, those involved in other parts of CCP, and the CSM.

Thanks for your patience while we work on bringing this to a close.








Enjoy the hit to PLEX sales......


people will just go get plex from other places.

they still need to fund their eve crack habit
Lucas Kell
Solitude Trading
S.N.O.T.
#779 - 2014-08-20 07:29:40 UTC
Rain6637 wrote:
the momentum of this is pretty scary. I feel bad for the guy for the possibility that his intentions were good. you have to admit, this much attention is scary in itself, and it's the kind of thing that would keep you up at night if you have a conscience.
His intentions were not good, his intentions were to make money and that's that. Nobody here believe that he occidentally stumbled onto convoluted RMT schemes to convert isk to cash, but even if we did, that doesn't make it any less RMT and thus doesn't change the punishment. I still expect his assets to be siezed and his accounts to be permanently banned. Undoubtedly he's shutting down Somer in an effort to avoid that, but anything short of that will be a disappointing outcome, as anyone else involved in RMT gets banned forever, and the rules should be applied fairly across the board.

The Indecisive Noob - EVE fan blog.

Wholesale Trading - The new bulk trading mailing list.
Andski
Science and Trade Institute
Caldari State
#780 - 2014-08-20 07:29:46 UTC
Here's a rough timeline of events:


  • Somerset Mahm proposes a PLEX referral incentive model to CCP for approval. It is approved and he later implements a referral incentive, creating a buyback program for PLEX purchased through his referral link at above market prices.
  • Somebody discovered that SOMERblink has created a new incentive to buy PLEX via their referral link. This was posted to Reddit, discussed there and it made its way to the forums.
  • The discussions about this catch the attention of the CSM, and it makes its way to the desk of CCP Falcon, CCP's community coordinator, who mentions that he was surprised by this and unaware.
  • SOMERblink is asked to put this promotion on hold for the meantime. They do so, and publish private correspondence with CCP's VP of Sales, along with the document they presented to her proposing their new incentive model.
  • Players who read this document realize that the proposal was undoubtedly written with the intention of deceiving the reader into believing that there would be the incentive was not based on ISK or assets.
  • CCP's conclusion is that the incentive implemented by SOMER was not what they approved. In response, SOMERblink shuts down indefinitely and refunds outstanding deposits.


So who acted in bad faith? CCP, by approving an ambiguously worded proposal and then deciding that what was implemented was not what they approved, or Somer, by writing an ambiguously worded proposal, deceiving CCP and essentially implementing a similar referral incentive to what CCP previously made him discontinue?

Twitter: @EVEAndski

"It's easy to speak for the silent majority. They rarely object to what you put into their mouths."    - Abrazzar