Wednesday, September 13, 2017

In EVE, Threats Are Common but Bans Are Rare

Nullsec dwellers were amazed this week by news that one of Circle-Of-Two alliance's highest-ranking officers, The Judge, stole over a trillion isk worth of assets and handed important infrastructure to the alliance's enemies. Immediately after the betrayal was discovered, Circle-Of-Two's leader, gigX, went ballistic in alliance chat--which was actively being streamed. The result was an article on PC Gamer with a stunning headline: "EVE Online alliance leader permanently banned after threatening to cut off another player's hands."


gigX's permaban for "real-life threats" was confirmed by gigX and CCP Falcon. Since highsec carebears frequently make these kinds of threats to me and my Agents, a lot of people wanted me to weigh in on the subject. It's true that real-life threats are a common occurrence in highsec. MinerBumping readers won't be shocked by anything gigX said; it's certainly not the first time they've read something like it.

Heck, it's not even the first time we've seen real-life threats involving the mutilation of someone's hands:


I'm referring, of course, to handaki. Or as he's affectionately known, "Handaki the Hand-Breaker". In the wake of gigX's ban, one might wonder whether all of those carebears get permabanned, too.


The answer is a little complicated. Take Handaki the Hand-Breaker, for instance. Was he banned? Possibly. Or maybe CCP simply granted his petition to close his account, or perhaps he simply quit the game. Since CCP normally doesn't comment on bans, the only way to know for certain that someone's been banned is for the banned player himself to confirm it through out-of-game channels.


However, if someone hasn't been banned, this can sometimes be confirmed. For example, we know Be Human wasn't banned for this threat because he recently joined a new corp. If a player appears on a killboard or changes his bio, that can also be used to confirm he's still active.


It's widely believed that highsec carebears are less likely to get punished for making real-life threats or committing other violations of the EVE ToS. Former CSM member DJ FunkyBacon demonstrated this point when he made this nifty diagram for a discussion about CCP's banning policies.


Finding examples of carebears who make real-life threats is as easy as jumping to a random post on MinerBumping. The threats sometimes contain gray areas, though. Joseph McFarlane wasn't banned for this EVEmail, perhaps because the threat was hypothetical: "If I lived on the same continent as you... But I don't."


Chupa Onil wasn't banned for threatening to cut off our Agent's ear. Maybe ears are not as valuable as hands?


And threats of cyber crimes, perhaps, are not as egregious as threats of physical violence.


GRAND INQUIZITOR, too, continues to play EVE--despite making a threat even less veiled than gigX's.

After gigX's ban, he and his allies complained that The Mittani wasn't permabanned for encouraging another EVE player to commit suicide. Actually, The Mittani didn't tell another player to commit suicide, but never mind the facts. What if someone did explicitly instruct another player to kill himself in real life?


This, too, happens all the time. Highsec carebears encourage other players to commit suicide even more often than they make threats of real-life harm. And the punishment? Don't count on them getting even the 30-day ban The Mittani received for the wizard hat incident. In most cases, we can confirm that highsec carebears who encourage suicide are not punished by CCP. None of the following resulted in permabans:


This is just a tiny sample, mind you. In each instance, the player joined a new corp or logged a kill/loss on zKillboard well after the incident. (In the case of Infected Space-Monkey, he updated his bio--possibly at the urging of a friendly GM. His old bio contained additional encouragements of suicide.)

Now, I know what some of you are thinking. "But James 315," you say. "The carebears were pushed into making those statements. Of course they lost their temper after being ganked. Their ships and implants were destroyed!"

It's interesting, though, that players outside of highsec are expected to keep their cool, even when they lose assets. gigX and his alliance lost over a trillion isk, but that was no excuse. Miners lose their minds over far less. Consider this next gentleman, who may have actually managed to get banned, though we can't confirm it either way:


How much isk do you think he lost? What kind of blingy ship could've inspired such an EVEmail?

Behold:


It was a mining Moa worth 15 million isk.

Here's the bottom line. It's not really about whether gigX shouldn't be permabanned or whether all the miners should be. The use of the permaban is itself a controversial topic. The mighty CODE. alliance is home to a large number of ethicists. (If ethics were nukes, CODE. would be EVE's sole superpower.) Some say that all bans should be temporary, because permabans deprive a player of the chance--however small--to someday get right with the Code. Others argue that it's good when CCP permabans unrepentant carebears because it increases the Code-compliance quotient of highsec.

Regardless of where you stand on permabans, it's clear that highsec carebears should be held to the same standard as everyone else. They shouldn't be subjected to the soft but poisonous bigotry of low expectations. If an alliance leader can withstand the loss of his stations, territory, isk, etc., then a carebear should be expected to endure the loss of his 30 million isk Retriever without violating the EULA. In fact, one of the reasons why highsec carebears behave so poorly is precisely because they're not held to a higher (i.e., human) standard.

We do the miners of highsec a great honour (undeserved, to be honest) when we expect them to behave like normal people.

43 comments:

  1. I would encourage all Agents to consider live streaming to a public web site, with MSM journalists invited to comment later, It seems that anything that puts CCP into a poor light is the sole condition for a permaban.

    I look forward to a Pc Gamer article on "the uncontrolled fury of a highsec carebear & how to sup their tears".

    Eve needs new players of low cunning and a thirst for blood. This would be one method of improving the player base.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Do it, please do it, the devs would freak out so badly they would pull the plug on this game faster than they could shit. Do it, NO BALLS DO IT!

      I look forward to reading your article of tears in PC gamer magazine about how you feel CCP is unfair to you.

      Keep trying carebear.

      Delete
    2. Oh HO a challenge I couldn't resist, sure I will have emailed NBC to let them see if this is a story they may want to cover. HOW FAR IS TOO FAR FOR ROLEPLAYING? Do you think we'll all be in the story, I do hope they get my good side.


      HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

      Delete
    3. But then it would be more difficult for Jamey and his CHODE. slaves to create the fake stories for this blog.

      Delete
    4. Its called a challenge for a reason. Don't they like challenges?

      Delete
  2. Great article, Supreme Protector!

    I gotta get back to harvesting CO2 tears from the forums...


    -Oink

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Here piggy piggy piggy, I like to eat bacon.

      HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

      Delete
  3. I was considering bringing something like this up in one of the many recent threads on Reddit. But then I remembered that /r/eve is a carebear echo chamber, and I'd just get downvoted.

    Excellent article, Saviour.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jesus needs more than your praise, send money you fool.


      HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

      Delete
  4. yeah I get these too and all I did was steal this guys loot in the belts

    [ 2017.08.19 14:06:50 ] Micos Blowdatup > If you and i Aeonaa Kalfren where in the same room i would ripp your face off

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sounds like someone has an admirer who wants to keep that pretty face of yours close forever.


      HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

      Delete
  5. People could literally murder there own child, and then kill themselves over eve online and not get banned. However the widow could use the account to let people know whats happened and get banned for account sharing.

    That's how messed up CCP is.

    Never forget Shardani

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Would be rather hard to do --forget, that is-- since your sociopathic glee at constantly bringing that up is a daily occurrence.

      Delete
    2. BAM! 10:10 triggered!

      Keep falling for it, it's still funny.

      Delete
    3. You have a bad taste in jokes my friend, you need to try out something with better taste. If you fry up a good portion of dead capsuleer meat and season it with a bit of ship fuel you get a perfect char and a tangy taste, too much seasoning and your gonna launch yourself right out of the pod. But it will be ok, I don't mind reheating frozen food.

      HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

      Delete
    4. Hmmm... Wolfy got banned probably for a few items... one of which was some not so good comments in local as well. So please get off your high moral horse.

      Delete
    5. Oh don't worry about that high horse, I cut his legs off so he's a bit lower now.


      HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

      Delete
  6. Good article, and timely.

    I think the first commenter got it right, by identifying adverse media publicity (and thus the possibility of attendant legal action) as a definite driver for CCP reactions.

    We saw it in the removal of gambling; but in the gigX incident my understanding is that not only was there a live twitch stream (with CCP apparently watching) but there was also some other clear record of the man's meltdown.

    The Mittani incident? Different time, different place. Couldn't happen now.

    At a time when they're perhaps trying to pretty-up the game for investors, such incidents probably don't help much. That's why they came down so hard - and publically. PC Gamer is big in the field.

    CCP would have preferred the story without the ugly ending - they'd have milked it for all it was worth.

    So, keep it in-game and you may or may not get the permaban. Do it outside, on prime-time, and you're doomed.


    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. So what should happen if people were to expose this site to some prime time media, OOOHHHHH I wonder at the chaos that could be sparked there and how people would perceive this whole thing. Do you think it will go over well. Perhaps we should find out.

      Remember the media adds 5 pounds of hate to everything these days.

      HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

      Delete
  7. Its a shame ccp seem to have one rule for one style of player, then another rule for another style of player. Have lost many friends to ccp indifference to how they adapt permabanning a player. i.e. agent dj for been in a channel that he was just invited to.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. That's a shame because it would have been so much nice to have you in the game, spirits are not fun to blow up, but I do hear Cthulhu likes them with a dash of salt.

      HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

      Delete
    2. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
  8. Love the tears people, keep crying!

    ReplyDelete
  9. It seems plausible that CCP has a strikes policy set up. I'd imagine most of the miners we see are first time offenders and get off with a warning. High profile alliance leaders have probably already been warned at least once in their career, or can otherwise be assumed to know better since they in positions of authority.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Baseball stinks and so does a strikes policy, I prefer a slice policy where if you mess up once I slice your arm off, mess up twice I slice a leg off, and well you see where it goes from there but I have very few repeat offenders. Seriously how many one armed people do you know play this game.


      HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

      Delete
  10. I hereby wish to express gratitude towards all parties involved in the CO2 incident. It's good to hear that the spirit of The Code reaches so distant James-forsaken spaces too as Nullsec.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You guys don't play in Null your too scared.

      Keep trying code miner.

      Delete
    2. Anywhere is fun with enough dead bodies strung up from the ceiling.

      Delete
  11. I remember the bonus room where sokhar flipped out and raged at erotica 1 and called him a nigger because he stole a bit of in-game currency, yet erotica 1 was the one who was banned. By CCPs fucked-up logic, The Judge should be permabanned and gigx given a pat on the back and a cookie.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. By Jameys logic you should be ash and bone for swearing so much. Perhaps his BBQ isn't working, he can always borrow mine.


      HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

      Delete
  12. Yup another crybaby article from James 315, at least this one isn't 21 fucking pages long.

    Good job James, just remember CCP makes the rules for the game, you and your agents HAVE to follow those rules.

    Crying about it wont do anything.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No but blasting people into oblivion and then smearing their names all over the internet like a shit covered hand does wonders. It certainly helps my shitty mood and its great to see so many others enjoying in the smearing. I am truly home with my people, making life a little bit more real even when its not.

      HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

      Delete
  13. Oh come now Jamey, bringing up such old emails from as far back as 2013, old news is old news, leave the dead alone unless your gonna dress em up and throw a tea party with some dancing. If your going to complain about something complain about how the dead aren't great at conversations.


    HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

    ReplyDelete
  14. In before the reveal... This just some second and third level Kusion sh!t. None of this happened. Goons just in on another ruse!!! Well played - bigger and better than ever.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A ruse can be fun but only if the payout is just as sweet as the set up. Then again when the jack in the box pops out its better to be the one watching than the one cranking. Especially when it pops out with a gun and blasts em.


      HAHAHAHAHAHA

      Delete
  15. lol someone has completely lost his mind in the comments section. Miner calm down and buy a permit!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. yeah carebear/antiganking/salty ex-code members provide the best tears.

      Delete
    2. Yes please bring me more tears, I have a bottle set aside for collection, just please do leave a good story to go with it, I label mine so everyone knows what they are choking down.



      HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

      Delete
  16. That's crazy, gigX got perma banned when so many others are not even temp banned. My guess is someone at CCP had it out for him or maybe they really do treat people in high sec with different standards.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Maybe because none of the threats were towards a CSM member ?

    ReplyDelete
  18. the hole scamm was planned in iceland by CSM members
    and yes because of the CSM asshole CICX got banned
    wonder who wil protect the judge at eve Vegas

    ReplyDelete
  19. One of the major differences between your random highsec care bear and alliance leaders is credibility of threats. People with influence have a harder time dismissing the credibility of threats since they would have the motive, means, and opportunity to carry them out. Many high profile characters are not anonymous to each other, so threats become as real as they can be even though this is "just a game." It's like how high profile gamers in any competitive game are held to a higher standard than recreational players. They are held to that standard because with power and wealth comes responsibility. High profile cases are worth more to CCP as a company, so they will focus on them and keep their ToS and EULA vague so they can lower the boom as they choose. This same thing happens in the real world all the time.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Seriously!?!?! All these idle threats we see in EVE are rage induced emotional cries from computer game nerds sitting at their desk alone.

    Those EVE mails you get from carebears is the sweet reward that HS pirates strive for and it saddens me that CODE of all groups are putting up discussion topics like this to potentially remove this aspect of the game.

    If you assholes keep up this "human standard" bullshit, CCP is going to create a thought police squad to constantly monitor EVE communications.

    You know why these HS bears don't get banned? Because CCP doesn't have the personnel on hand to monitor 60k+ accounts communication in real time. Gigx was banned for his actions because he made it easy as fuck for CCP to look at it and assess, and that's not even counting his high profile position in the EVE community.

    I swear to Christ if you have CCP remove these juicy, salt filled gems of an EVE mail, you are going to make those ganks a lot less sweet.

    ReplyDelete

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