Devs on MSN

CCP employees are allowed to use instant messaging programs and indeed, use them for work related purposes every day. As with everything else concerning CCP and EVE, our employees are urged to exercise judgment in their usage of these programs, but we do not go over people’s buddy lists, nor have we had reason to believe that this constitutes a major problem up until now.

Having a CCP developer as an MSN buddy is not an offense in itself, nor does it give you any special privileges in EVE. If you have a problem, you file a petition, even our GMs are not allowed to bypass that rule, so you can bet that they are not going to let anyone else do it. No one is allowed to take any action that can benefit their friends or family ingame. We have rules that people are supposed to follow, but we also place trust in our employees and expect them to act responsibly and professionally towards the company, our products and our customers without being subjected to an atmosphere of mistrust and suspicion.

The assumption that this particular type of contact with our developers can only be a sign of corruption makes little sense to me, I must confess, particularly as there are so many other ways you could get in touch with people. What about email contact, I get a pop up on my screen alerting me of new emails, it might as well be instant messaging, since I can respond to it at once. So, do we forbid our employees from receiving emails from anyone not sanctioned by the company? The Fanfest offers unparalleled and unmonitored private access to the developers, I guess that’s off too, then?

You see where this is going. We are a company that thrives on interaction, that deals in interaction, for that matter. Cutting ourselves off from the community is not a viable option for such a company, especially considering that interaction and open dialogue with our players is arguably what’s gotten us this far in the first place.

There are specific rules in place forbidding players from bragging about GM or developer connections, especially implying that you can get people banned or fired, or that your contacts have put you in a position where you are above the law in EVE. If someone says something to that effect to you ingame, please petition it using the “Harassment” category and we will deal with it as harshly as our policies allow. If anyone has evidence of such interaction being used improperly, to further anyone’s cause ingame, I urge them to contact us through the internalaffairs@ccpgames.com email address. We will investigate all such claims to the best of our abilities.

CCP Arkanon
CCP Internal Affairs
internalaffairs@ccpgames.com

Such ambushes have to be prepared in advance though: the said players have first to fly to the particular solar system and log out there. And you have to take care that it is THIS Solar System where the battle will take place.

Especially the Goonfleet is well known using such exploits.

When someone I know was kicked from ISD (for good reason), a due process was followed. Not with this guy. It was wham, bam, piss-off man.

I saw in the logs that even Macayle didn’t know who the “Admiral” was and Macayle is/was a big cheese with ISD. The fact that Macayle didn’t, AFAIK, resign in protest at this obscene abuse of power is what amazes me. What would amaze me even more is if people continue to sign on to ISD or Aurora despite knowing that all it takes to be kicked off is that you annoy someone “in the know”.

This one incident is the one thing that makes me very very doubtful of their “internal affairs” division – if “Admiral” can do what s/he damn well likes, what is the point?

Worse off, they still haven’t even shown an attempt at tackling more game-breaking problems, such as the day-old alt scouts laying in wait to tell ten to fifteen people when to pull a login ambush. IP addresses are rather traceable, and CCP has even started using them to disallow trial accounts from operating simultaneously with paid accounts at one address.

From a strict business perspective, the question of whether players will quit over this is a good one to ask. CCP should have asked it of themselves. The “offended” players are some of the most dedicated in the game. One dreadnought bump isn’t going to make or break their battle, and they’ll still be there the next day. The fact that they’re flying capital ships indicates their level of investment. A great many of the players I knew, though, have on-and-off subscriptions, and arbitrary dictatorship and subterfuge by the company will affect their likelihood to stay, and their willingness to return.