An unbiased summary... (Score 1)

(inasmuch as anything can be TRULY unbiased, anyway)

I read the EVE forum thread about the matter. It was very interesting, and what was said takes on dramatically different meanings if you have a particular bias one way or the other on the matter. I'm a once and future EVE player. That is to say, I played EVE, I enjoyed it, and I'll probably play again in the not-too-distant future, but I'm not currently playing, and haven't for several months.

I'm not a member of BoB or Goonfleet, and have never been. I've never been part of any corporation larger than 10 people, for that matter. I do have a vague bias against Goonfleet, because I hate what SomethingAwful stands for, and have been attacked and harrassed on other game sites (for things that had nothing to do with the game) over matters that are popular SA targets.

So, that's my disclosure on my lack of bias on this matter.

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A known hacker (Kugutsumen, aka AnthonyZ, among other aliases) hacked BoB's off-game forums, and made off with documents, including forum posts and private messages from said forum. He then posted what he claims is complete and unedited information, claiming that it's proof that a Dev (developer) has been directly aiding BoB with knowledge and/or abilities that the average EVE player does not have access to. One of Goonfleet's higher-ups, The Mittani, corroborated the claims that Kugutsumen does indeed hack sites in order to gain information and advantages (http://myeve.eve-online.com/ingameboard.asp?a=top ic&threadID=468189&page=3 -> Page 3 of the thread in question), and has done so to Goonfleet in the past. He didn't confirm whether Kugutsumen posted the information whole and complete, or altered it in any way.

Now, that said, it's clear from Kugutsumen's blog that he profits from strife - he directly hires himself out for hacking, and asks for donations for the public posting of the information gathering that he does. His methods are generally considered illegal (although they aren't where he is supposedly from).

Kugutsumen posted several private mails that supposedly prove that Lord Stone is a CCP employee, and that he revealed to at least one other player that he is a CCP employee. He posted more private mails that implied that Ishos Rerajan was a CCP employee who donated several T2 Blueprints to RKK before being suspended. Lastly, he has inferred that Al Haquis is also a CCP employee. There are also other claims of wrongdoing - feel free to browse his forum for details.

The question that everyone should be asking is, "Is any of this credible?" Is this genuine information, or is it a carefully-crafted web of half-truths? I doubt that anyone outside of the involved parties could ever say for sure.

CCP's Community Manager, Kieron, explained in brief the previous incident where a CCP employee (a GM) was caught spawning items for himself. He was fired, and the entire incident was publicized by CCP, not hidden or swept under the rug. I think this fact alone shows where CCP stands on the matter. Kieron has stated that this matter will be investigated, and that the results of the investigation will be announced. Enough said about that.

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All of this hoo-ha on the public forums has had a number of people proclaiming loudly that CCP employees should either not ever play the game, or should have their play characters exposed to the public. Both of these are absurdly bad ideas.

In the first matter, I'd like to post a rhetorical question. Have any of you ever had to call customer service for anything and ended up talking to a representative who was clearly reading from a checklist, and didn't actually have the first idea of what they were doing? Think about that for a moment...

In order for CCP staff to be able to experience the play environment properly (and for ISD:STAR volunteers to be able to give advice to newbies accurately), they need to play the game. The full game, that is, not a test server or Dev Environment. They need to know how it actually works, not how a scripted piece of paper says it's supposed to work. And you can only do that by playing the game. In addition to that, you also have to factor in morale issues - people who work on a game, but who aren't allowed to play it, aren't going to have the same kind of drive to make the game as fun and enjoyable as possible.

On to the second part - demanding transparency in employees' game accounts. Blowing the whistle on every employee account would do one thing: shine a great big spotlight on them, and make it impossible for them to practically play and enjoy the game. They would be routed out of honest, honorable corporations, hounded with invites from unscrupulous corporations, and viewed with suspicion by nearly everyone. Any corporation they associated with would be treated as though they had inside information all along - even if the employees had been very carefully keeping their player knowledge separate from their employee knowledge.

I expect CCP to get to the bottom of this fairly quickly. If there has been wrongdoing, there will be firings. If there hasn't been any wrongdoing, there will likely be a house-cleaning of some sort, perhaps of the accusing parties. And in any case, CCP's reputation as a whole is being tarnished for the alleged misconduct of a few.

This is a very sorry state of affairs for an MMO to get to be in, and the trash-diggers who are causing this should be ashamed... but of course, they're not, because they're reveling in the drama that they've caused, for better or worse.