Know your place. That is going to be the recurring theme of this rant. If you can’t handle that, stop reading now.
Recently CCP Games, the creators and owners of EVE Online, gave the virtual gift items of Ishukone Scorpion ships to the team that runs an EVE Online Auction site called SomerBlink. Some people got upset by it.
Let’s get the basics out of the way in an attempt to appease the butthurt:
- You are free to express your opinion, even if it differs from others. I welcome healthy debate. However, if you are nothing but abrasive towards another person, using foul language and insults as a crutch to elevate yourself, then I’m not even going to bother responding to you. It’s a waste of my energy quite frankly.
- If we do happen to have differing opinions, that doesn’t mean I think less of you as a friend, enemy, or whatever our relationship may be. Speak your mind. Besides, even if my opinion of you did change, why would it matter? Didn’t you read yesterday’s post on self-confidence? For shame.
- Get over it. It’s a game.
Right, back to the main point. The SomerBlink auction site donates trillions of ISK to community events. Read that again. They donate trillions. I can only hazard how much they profit in order to be able to do that. They probably could’ve bought Ishukone Scorpions themselves if they were really interested in them, and assuming that many still exist in New Eden.
Regardless. Trillions. Community Events.
I’ve donated over a billion to the various contests and other community events I run here at Roc’s Ramblings. Did I get an Ishukone Scorpion? Well, no. Whoop di doo. I have partnered with CCP on many events, and players have received some pretty cool stuff as a result. Did anyone whine about it? No, no they did not.
So why the whine about SomerBlink getting them? Is it because CCP kept it a dirty little secret? Is it because SomerBlink is so profitable that they don’t need to be given ships?
I really don’t know. Nor do I particularly care.
Hell, One of the main players behind SomerBlink is part of the Toronto Area Pod Pilots group I attend every month. He’s given players 100 million isk just for showing up to the event some months. That’s not chump change when you add it up.
Why do they do it? To give back to the community that has given so much to them. I get that. I respect that. Apparently so does CCP.
Yet some players got their panties in a knot over this whole situation. They believe that they are somehow shareholders or stakeholders at CCP. That they actually have a say in CCP’s policies and business decisions.
They are spoiled, and delusional.
Sure, we pay a subscription for the game. We also bought iPhones, or Androids. Do we get to tell Apple or Google how to run their business? Of course not. In a best case scenario we can provide user feedback, and they can listen, or not.
Now if enough users offer the same feedback on something, then it’s usually in the company’s best interest to listen to that feedback. Apple has done that. Google has done that. CCP has done that.
I’d be embarrassed if they did that here.
Sure, there’s a mighty threadnaught of whine going on over at the official EVE Online forums, but it’s by and large from a repetitive and small group of players.
You see, we’re users. Accept it.
We have no controlling interest in CCP. We are not decision makers. They owe us nothing. Stop. You’re freaking out for no reason. Take a deep breath. Read it again. They owe us nothing.
Stop feeling so self-entitled. We’ve been spoiled by the interactions CCP does give us. They do listen to players. They do engage us. It’s great.
That doesn’t mean they have to engage on every single day-to-day business decision. They don’t have to make us privy to every single thing they do. Stop being ridiculous.
The funny part to me is that there were probably players before this that had never heard of SomerBlink and as a result of this nonsense the same self-righteous players that think something is amiss in this situation have inadvertently created additional revenue for the receiving party! How ironic and funny is that?
You might say I’m missing some greater point. Perhaps I am.
You see, to me it’s simple: CCP owns a business. A small group of consumers from that business are complaining about a private giveaway that company engaged in.
Sometimes simple keeps things accurate.
ROC'S RAMBLINGS 
Werd, Roc. My feelings exactly.
/agree
It takes courage to stand up and be firm in your convictions. There are forces afoot in this case that are actively striving to stomp differing opinions into the dust. I know, I tangled with a bunch of them this morning.
Keep the courage.
Sorry to hear you’re being targeted, Rixx. Last I checked, you weren’t a shareholder at CCP either.
I did get a single Pirate Rookie ship outta the deal, which I have yet to kill anyone with! Still trying.
Finally.
Good words, but your logical approach to life freaked me out a little since my opinion of this community so far (and I’m a relatively new player) consists of 60% clueless to Eve Politics (my favorite group) then about 39% on the more serious side, I guess I’d fall into that category since I sub multiple accounts and then the bloggers which up to now I have only likened to Fox News and for that I apologize because I had you categorized in there as well. Not from past pieces you’ve written, but basically because you were one of the bloggers.
This week has started to show me who’s writing for the game and who’s writing for themselves with no “real” feelings for the game except that it doesn’t pay as good as it should. Hilarious.
I personally want to vomit a little when these “bloggers” use the open forum to whine about how they never get what they deserve. Entitled special snowflakes beware, sounds like your time is almost up here.
Excellent piece and thank you for being a grown up among all the children.
Appreciate you stopping by and leaving a comment. Hopefully you’ll make it a habit.
I like your voice of reason in all of this ;). I do have to say, like I did on Twitter, that the whole favoritism and secrecy surrounding this giveaway leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Also it’s hard to tell whether this was a community manager’s action, maybe being a little too enthusiastic, or a CCP managerial decision.
Thanks. And don’t get me wrong. I can understand why it would’ve been in CCP’s interests to keep this all above board and public. My point is that they don’t have to.
The fact that we, as a whole, react so very strongly to what surmounts to small events scares me as a professional and makes me wonder if what I perceive as immature responses is teaching CCP to share less with us about anything.
That would not serve the community well, and we would be none the wiser.
How dare you suggest reason to the internets!
Begone foul demon and take your reason wizardry with you!!!!!!
Good post btw.
This actually made me chuckle. I needed that. Thank you.
I agree with you good sir. I sounds like this rather small group of unhappy members of the community are trying to talk for everyone, while that is certainly not the case.
I feel like people should pick their battles, if this is our biggest problem then we could say that CCP are doing many things right.
“Local casino supports local sports teams and related events. City government rewards casino croupiers with new cars.”
So, support the casino, or support the actual causes? What would you prefer? Somer’s sponsorship is nothing more than advertising to attract more degenerate gamblers to their service.
CCP’s time would be better spent supporting the actual events, and not the sponsor of those events.
Hey Poetic, good to see you. Let’s try this one:
“Internet game publisher gives virtual items to game related auction site that generates trillions in game revenue and auctions ingame items that drives more players to their business.
Since the auction site doesn’t make any real money, and the game publisher makes a lot of real money from the added draw of players and game revenue, the game publisher gives some members of the auction house some virtual game items.
It doesn’t cost the publisher a real world penny, and it creates free advertising and real money subscriptions for their game!”
Sounds like a good business plan to me.
That’s not exactly the good press they’re getting out of this, is it?
Debatable, I suppose. I won’t equate this to Miley Cyrus but we both know that even if what she’s become is wrong (and in that case I fully believe it is), someone’s still making a boatload of money from all the negative attention.
Same could be said here (except this is nowhere near as horrible as what Miley Cyrus is doing).
Know what? Forget I even brought Miley into this.
Good post roc. I agree.
Would be interesting to know how many “different” pilots make this threadnaught. Does someone has a script at hand to check that? I often get the impression that there are only a few people how build up the thread by responding more than averagely often.
After all, this hole thing is a storm in a tee cup. People should stop wasting our time complaining about gifts. If you don’t like SomerBlink avoid them. Or try to intercept there price delivery system. Create content in game. Thanks.
Glad I’m not the only person who thinks ‘big deal’ over CCP giving virtual items to groups who are doing good things to create additional content in and around EVEOnline.
I particularly like it when people say CCP should be supporting these events themselves while simultaneously complaining that CCP have ‘violated the sandbox’. When CCP run things themselves (live events) they come under ridiculous levels of scrutiny over every aspect of a live event. No wonder they die out so fast. In any case, by CCP giving gifts to encourage other entities inside EVE to run events they *are* supporting the events indirectly and they are *promoting* the sandbox. Finally, they get the bonus of insulating themselves somewhat from muppets who probably don’t play EVE anymore and just bitch and whine lots.
Except the ‘muppets’ don’t like that and go out of their way to find new ways to attack CCP. It’s almost like they don’t want to play EVE anymore and don’t think anyone else should either.
While I am strongly in the corner of CCP can do what they want, and should be able to as long as their stock holders/funders/creditors approve of the general direction they are taking. I do also understand some people being upset about it.
Business perks happen all day every day, all over the world. I have not been the benefit of one in which I was told to keep it quiet but I have benefited from some and I have chosen to stay quiet unless I was sharing the perk with friends. There is a common understanding that you do keep quiet unless you don’t. Some just want it to be keep shush because they do not want those receiving perks to know of the difference in perks, then again some do, because competition for these perks improves their bottom line.
Could CCP have handled this different/better/warm and fuzzier?
Sure they could have, at the end of the day they can of course handle it any way they want to. It is theirs to handle.
BTW Hello Roc, long time reader. You should log in more often 🙂
Hello.
I actually login every single morning. The trick is I need to stay logged in longer. Unfortunately, real life trumps Roc, and no matter how much I want to be more engaged, my real life employment responsibilities keep me sufficiently occupied.
I’ve been adding EVE to my list of habits. It’s a good thing.