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CCP Speaks on Allegations of Misconduct in Eve
Arti writes "Last week the hacker spoke, raising questions for many about how game companies should deal with 'out of game' tactics. What about the game companies themselves? The man behind Kugutsumen.com alleged that CCP employees had been involved too intimately with the game's top alliance, Band of Brothers (who, ironically, have publicly described themselves as 'omnipotence itself'). These claims were made based on posts apparently hacked from the alliance's private forums. CCP promised to look into the allegations. Now they report in a post that many players say is inadequate and does nothing to address a crisis of confidence in CCP's oversight of its employees. Developers need to understand the games they make, and deserve to enjoy them, but how far? And what should a company do when an issue like this pits it against some of its own customers?" Blues News has an excellent summary of the thread's contents, distressing though they be.
You can't do that in a game like this. One of the major restraints on out-of-game play in WoW is the the many servers invovled. Also the "unique", "epic", and "soulbound" objects prevent any wholesale selling of in game items. That being said, I am sure the farmers would be more than happy to farm for your epic for a fee. Combined with the "threat" of being banded, it regales out-of-play as kind of deviant, not-acceptable. Besides, you have to become self sufficient at one point in the game, or it just stops being fun.
Eve, however, is DESIGNED for everything to be up for grabs. You can buy, sell, and make anything provided you have the resources. Even if you spend the "real" cash for all the ISK you want, it doesn't mean dick of you don't have the skills (defined by time) to use the stuff you buy. Even if you do buy it, you need some kind of constant influx of ISK and materials to keep those resource heavy stations flying. Just because you have the money to buy a Titan doesn't mean you can find someone who can make it. Even if you did, it would take months to get the material together not to mention the months to learn the skills.
In the first example, because of WoW's limited world size, buying exp/gold doesn't help in the long run. At best, you get to 70 and go on some big world quests, but by skipping over allot of the world, its just boring. Its quest based and when all the quests are done, there isn't much left. However, Eve is so cut-throat that your status is worth more than the price. No mater how many skills or money you have, its not enough. A dev offers to "help" his alliance by offing some pre-patch advanced ships? How about "accidentally" adding a bunch of materials for the titan the alliance is building? The lure of the dark side is too great.
I personally think this problem can be solved by limiting GM power abilities to only their internal network and any kind of world modifications go though a manager. I rather have some player screw me who plays by the same rules than some GM who can wink me out of existence. I like the freedom Eve brings, in or outside of play. I don't want it destroyed because of some dumb ass CCP employees.
Really. All games have 'out of game' issues.
But when you have the Dev's and other employees breaking the rules and cheating by using their special priviledges, well that is a whole different story. If you're paying RL money to play in Eve, I wouldn't be surprised if this constituted as fraud (IANAL).
CCP is at fault here (Big Time) for letting their Dev's and GM's play in the game as regular players and not making sure they didn't cheat. They're more at fault for not dealing with the cheating (by firing said Dev's and GM's) when the people paying to play the game complained.
Why people are playing Eve anymore now that this has been exposed is beyond me.
"Prettiest space game ever - and also the worst and most boring space game ever...Everyone could do whatever they wanted, but all the big established guys had the power, and crushed the little folks."
Obviously your opinion, but very highly skewed, I was a casual player, darting in and out of the game (allowing my account to lapse in between), and never even joined corp. Obviously I could not fight a megacorp in their area, but there were huge areas of space to explore, goods to buy and sell (I did both), and so on.
Sure, if you wanted to mine the best minerals, or hunt the best areas of space, you needed a corp. But if you played in your means (you are just one person), it's not like anybody could really stop you.
Now, more specifically:
"crap like major newbie areas linked by unpatrolled space, that was near constantly gate-camped by people playing "pirate" in HUGE ships"
Of course, you could use the map to determine areas where there had been kills the last 24 hours and 1 hour (with the star glowing based on how many kills there had been) to get around the worst of it. Also, you could chart these areas in newbie frigates, bookmark map-points, and then jump around to those points so fast that it was practically impossible for someone to stop you. Yes, you had to plan and think, you couldn't just bull your way through it. But it could be done, and by a single player.
For the record, when I wanted to try trading, I jumped around in my big trader (Amarr bestower, I think), and never once saw a pirate in all the lawless areas I went through.
"Let's not even start talking about the economy. Man was that thing hosed."
Sorry, but that is nonsense. I as a few-month old player dabbled in production of newbie ammunition and made money because I found a few systems where new players were hunting and nobody else was selling.
There is plenty of opportunity for buying and selling and market play in the game. If you are determined to compete with the big boys, then yes you will lose. But there are so many niches you have to willfully try to fail. Just pick something small, look around, plan.
"advancement was near hopeless"
This is bald-faced lie. To advance a skill you simply pick it as your current skill to train, and you advance in that skill. No force in the game can stop that. It takes very little money to buy a huge number of skills, so for most intents and purposes any single player can advance as far as they want.
Again, you don't need to go into dangerous areas to advance. You do not gain XP for bopping rats (pirates). You simply train a skill, and it happens whether or not you are online. Nothing on earth beyond a server failure can stop you.
-Jeff
Please learn the difference between a dissenting opinion and a troll before you moderate.
You are right. You are more on topic than you know.
It is a tad better now for a new player because they give new characters about a month of training when they first start, but the game is pure hell for a new player that doesn't know anyone. It doesn't have a learning cuve so much as it haves a leaning wall. Well actually the wall is actually tilted towards you with mines every few inches.
Eve is all about the groups being dependent on your comrades, which makes these alligations all the worse. Helping your friends, hurts their enemies. But their enemies are paying customers that have no way to match this cheating.
The latest seems to be that a leader of a big guild was a dev, a dev who was perfectly aware of ebaying and account sharing in blantant disregard for the EULA and all professionalism. CCP has also banned all of the whistleblowers accounts for his actions outside of the game. Posts are being censored within minutes on the official forum. The responce is pityful. There is no confirm / deny if anything happened. It seems to be 'oh they found out who was who. Time to delete them and roll some more alt characters lol.' You know I don't even want blood, I just want transparency.
I do not pay $30 a month for two accounts for the Devs to play butt buddy and give their friends free shit//advantages, so that they use that attack me. One of my accounts just expired and it seems I have about 12 more days left on my main.
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Goodbye Eve