New Controversy Surrounding EVE Online

A new controversy is threatening to engulf EVE Online developer CCP Games, as former players level accusations against CCP employees they claim have been abusing their positions to assist particular players and alliances advance within the game.

According to a message posted on the GoonFleet website, a CCP employee named CCP Sharkbait joined the DarkStar 1 corporation, assigned himself as a Director, and then approximately 14 minutes later, left the corporation. After discovering this, DarkStar 1 corporate officers filed a petition to determine the reasons for CCP Sharkbait's actions; the petition was deleted, and CCP Sharkbait would not respond to in-game conversations.

Other accusations regarding the allegiance of CCP staff to certain corporations are also made, along with claims that in-game RP events, supposedly meant to be free-form in nature, have their results predetermined by CCP. Perhaps worst of all, claims are made that certain corporations have CCP staff "on call" to intervene in game events on behalf of favored players and corporations.

While no hard evidence has yet been presented, the charges are particularly stinging due to a previous controversy in which a player hacked into an EVE corporation's website and gained evidence of a CCP employee's complicity in very similar circumstances. (Along with the original interview, a Q&A with the CEO of GoonSwarm, CCP's responses to questions on the official EVE Online forums, and a follow-up interview with Kugutsumen are also available.)

News of this latest controversy resulted in a campaign of spam against the EVE Online forums, resulting in their complete shutdown. The forums were eventually restored, with a news post and forum thread dedicated to discussion of the matter being created by CCP.

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The key point: no hard evidence has yet been presented.

CCP has put in place an employee and a process to manage this sort of issue. Has that process been given a chance to work yet?

Having seen our own business slandered on numerous occasions by baseless rumor, nuance and supposition, I'm skeptical of Internet claims of wrong-doing until evidence is presented.

Skepticism in cases like this is well-warranted. CCP's problem lies in the fact that because of the earlier incident involving BoB and Goonswarm, even the appearance of impropriety can have serious consequences. Even if it's proven that no wrongdoing took place, CCP will have to make a serious effort to get that point across to its subscribers; once people get it in their heads that shenanigans are afoot, they have a tendency to stop listening.

Conspiracy theories are sexy, and far more interesting than the simple truth that stuff happens.

As a longtime Eve player, I would not dismiss the accusations so lightly.

"Stuff happens" is not a valid business or administration model for an MMO where management, gameplay, tweaking, and the playerbase are so inextricably interwoven. The level of GM and developer involvement with the gameplay and game universe itself is unprecedented in comparison to other MMOs.

"There is a process in place" - well, what kind of process? We already know that in a previous incident of an employee acting - according to CCP own (belated) admission - wrongly, he was not fired, just given a slap on the wrist.

While Kugutsmen's methods are unsavory, the ineluctable fact is that his discoveries using those methods have unveiled an incestuous relationship between high-level players of one faction and the development team itself.

CCP has no hard and fast rules outlining boundaries of that relationship until the previous GM incident came to light, and even those are shaky.

This discussion leaves aside the fact that Eve Online is fundamentally broken now in PVP with supercapitals, ie. a handful of ships managed (against EULA) over shared accounts capable of obliterating hundreds of other ships instantly without any vulnerability.

In the controversies I've seen over EVE, just as a bystander I've felt considerable pressure to pick a side in the argument, despite not knowing anything about it. One thing keeping me from signing up is the thought that I'll have to deal with this kind of bullshit in-game as well - I don't mean "CCP allegedly doing something unfair" bullshit, I mean "intergalactic flame war" bullshit. I don't want to care whether the developers are giving any faction an unfair advantage. In fact, if I find myself starting to care about that, that's how I'll know it's time for me to quit the game. The fact that such controversies spring up every time CCP sneezes suggests to me that I won't enjoy the game's atmosphere.

Did the Dev's that got caught ever retire or quit or anything like that? I would think it would be hard to come to work after doing something like that. I had a job where someone I know, I wasn't even involved, got caught doing something really stupid and I couldn't bear going to work there anymore.

It's a shame that this game is so devastated by the developers of it. I used to play casually, but I won't go back to it even if I do have the time to devote to it. I hated twinks in WoW (which wasn't even a violation of any sort, was done by players and not devs, and many wouldn't even consider it wrong), and this is on a whole different level.