CCP responds to EVE Online favoritism scandal
It's never wise to kick a hornet's nest, and there is perhaps no hornet's nest in the world of MMOs that is as prone to swarm and sting as that of the EVE Online community. EVE players have been up in arms over allegations that CCP, the studio behind EVE, showed favoritism to SOMER.Blink, a third-party lottery site, by providing its employees with exceptionally rare Ishukone Watch Scorpions (fancy ships), as a reward for the site's continued contribution to the EVE community.
After a few days of fan caterwauling, CCP has issued a lengthy and detailed response built to clarify what happened, why it happened, and what it means. First, CCP explained that the Ishukone Watch Scorpion is a promotional item with no value beyond that which is created by its rarity. The studio also noted that only 132 ships exist, all of which were handed out by CCP to community contributors. CCP explained that giving away the ships to fansites and contributors was meant to be a continued initiative but is now on hold.
CCP also clarified a few things about the SOMER.Blink giveaway specifically, noting that the secrecy mandate was issued by a SOMER staffer and not by CCP itself and that the size of the SOMER giveaway was bigger than that of previous giveaways because of the larger size of the SOMER.Blink staff. The studio concluded by explaining that it is not happy with the way things turned out and that it is pausing all plans for in-game rewards for third-party contributors while it works out how to thank community members without upsetting the economy (or player perception of that economy).
The full post is worth a read if you're an EVE fan or drama llama.
