CCP investigates player panel amidst controversy [Updated]
EVE Online's annual Fanfest is an opportunity for players from across the world to share stories of the year's big events, political actions, and epic battles won and lost. Each year, player speakers from the game's biggest and most influential alliances are invited to take part in the Alliance Panel at Fanfest, where they can talk about their organisation and what it's done over the preceding year. GoonSwarm alliance speaker The Mittani gave a talk on some of the year's most memorable alliance activities, from shutting down Ice Mining operations across several regions to scamming people with fake supercapital ship trades.
During a Q&A session after the presentation, he said something that has become the focus of a great deal of controversy. Massively got a hold of a copy of this year's Alliance Panel to find out what all the controversy is about.
[UPDATE: The Mittani has issued a public apology for his behaviour during the Alliance Panel and has vowed to make all restitution necessary.]
[UPDATE: This post has been updated as part of an apology for covering this in a sensationalist manner]
"Incidentally, if you want to make the guy kill himself, his name is [redacted]," The Mittani said, adding that "he has his own corp. Find him." The talk was watched by a packed room of Fanfest attendees and streamed live to thousands of players at home. The Mittani told players to "deal with it" when complaints surfaced on the EVE forum, but claims that at the time he didn't remember exactly what he said.
With people still heading home from Fanfest, CCP reps responded to tell us they are investigating the issue and will get back to us with the results as soon as they can. Public Relations specialist Ned Coker told Eurogamer that CCP is "undertaking a full internal review of this panel as well as the process used for vetting the panel's materials," adding that "even though this panel was billed as unfiltered by CCP, we expect public presentations to be courteous and professional towards others." Ned also confirmed that "CCP will be very vigilant in monitoring any behaviour directed towards the individual named in the presentation."
