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CCP's Director Of Internal Affairs - An Introduction
Eschiava
Member Posts: 485
Permit me to introduce myself: I was an EVE GM and I have been working as such since shortly before EVE was launched. I have always been proud of the integrity we established in the GM department (which was masterminded by Hellmar, then CCP's Chief Technology Officer and now our CEO). EVE GMs are and have always been subject to a very strict code of ingame conduct and that somehow has resulted in the most dedicated and hardcore GM team I have ever heard about. Most of the original EVE GMs are still here, enjoying their jobs and playing by the rules.
Having been allowed to take part in birth of EVE and its eventual success against all odds is truly the high point of my working life, a rare privilege. I've said it before and I'll say it again: I will leave CCP when they drag me screaming out the front door. And even then, they’d better change the locks.
It's fair to say that the original discovery of the misconduct that has rocked the EVE universe recently prompted my official transfer from the GM department to my current position of Director of Internal Affairs. The purpose of this blog is to allow you some insight into my duties and capabilities, as well as give you some background on me and how I came to fill this position.
I was involved in the original investigation of this unfortunate incident, along with the other seniors. Our lack of procedures in cases of this type was painfully evident at the time. The problem wasn't in the investigative process, it was in the process following the discovery, as has already been detailed by Hellmar in his blog. We have now addressed this, as part of the groundwork for my new post.
From Eve-)'s Dev Blog page:
My job entails monitoring staff accounts, both CCP player accounts and developer accounts, compiling reports on any findings that need to be addressed and asking the questions that need to be answered. I can enlist selected personnel from all departments to help me with my investigations. I have the authority to run database queries, conduct interviews, hire witch doctors and, in general, do what it takes to get to the truth about any ingame conduct I find questionable. On top of that, I have access to all available TQ logs and work with a programmer to provide more detailed logs and reports, as needed.
I am furthermore within my rights to shut down any accounts I find in possible breach of our rules, pending investigation or permanently. I am responsible for setting and enforcing CCP in-house policies. I answer directly to CCP’s Chief Operating Officer and my actions are reviewed by an internal committee to ensure that my decisions are based on verifiable facts.
First and foremost, I still consider myself a GM, here to serve the game, the players and CCP, in no particular order. As before, my job is to understand and enforce our rules, to take action when needed and raise the alarm when something is wrong. Only my jurisdiction has changed. Perhaps my new position will not always be the most pleasant of jobs, but I accept it and I'm glad that my personal intolerance for cheating can be utilized in this manner and potentially benefit so many.
I believed, and still believe that we owe our player community the right to be the focus of EVE, without paid employees using dirty tricks to swing our universe in their favor. Even playing by the rules, I frown on employees being power players to the extent that their gameplay results in any sort of domination over others. I don't believe CCP employees should run the EVE universe; that spot is reserved for the paying customer. EVE is a sandbox, but it's not our sandbox. We're here to keep it clean and provide the sand.
All the best,
Arkanon
Comments
The fact that such a staff position has been created indicates that Eve devs are involved at every level of Eve politics. Who are they? Who's to say! What corps are they in? Only their teamspeak friends know for sure! One thing is certain: Eve has 2 tiers of players - devs and non-devs and 2 tiers of corporations/alliances those with devs and those without. They can swear on a stack of bibles that they will "play clean", but I know for a fact that anyone would be 10x the player they were before if they could get a peek at Eve's source code. 90% of this game is essentially undocumented, and while everyone else has to rely on rumor and trial and error, the corps with dev alts KNOW FOR SURE how everything works, and how best to play the game.
Since Kieron refuse to answer about this maybe you can...
Why did CCP choose to NOT come forward with T20 ?, why did CCP choose NOT to remove the bpo's 6 months ago instead they first try to cover it up and hush people down by telling there where nothing in their investigations about this.
Then someone dig up T20's e-mail and logs on BoB boards, then CCP choose to come clean about T20, but still nothing about the BPO's, only when confronted about that as well they starts to come clean about this.
WAIT there is more, Kieron state that they banned Kugot(something) not because of him hacking BoB Forum but other things... aparently it was because he identified SirMolle's real identity, I admit that would be a correct action.
However, WHY did not CCP ban SirMolle's accounts when he did the exact thing, not only that he did also sent message about people to do stuff to him (Kugot).... this message was deleted (or changed) shortly after not by GM's/ISD's... but probably himself.
CCP have handled this very poorly and quite honestly with the latest attempts to silent people on the official forums by banning or deleting post about this is just ... bad PR.
So to CCP come clean about the whole thing and start banning someone in BoB for their involment my accounts stay closed... unfortnatly I should have known about this before februar so I did not have to pay, but lucky me I only pay pr. month so less than a month both my accounts are officially closed.
Good step by CCP.
Not yet enough - but the potential is there. I for one will lay off a bit and give them time to explain where they are going with this... If this all ends up locked and censored again ... well.. game over. I sincerely hope it doesn't.
Lets hear what they have to say.
One clarification - Eschiava
Are you the the Internal Affaris Director or are you just reporting this here by posting it off of the main Eve-o site?
LOL.... So you are from CCP
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Eschiava
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HAHAHAAHAHAH
They are also censoring the topic heavily, you won't find any answers there.
cccp should just go back to clubbing baby seals to death, and leave honest gamers alone...
(and my account is banned for a week....somehow they claimed I posted again while banned for 24 hours...HAH)
ccp the "we cheat for our buddies and are proud of it" company...
That is really odd! I just opened this thread for the first time since I posted, so I didn't realize until I read Nicoli's post that the first line of my post, the one attributing the quote, never made it into the post.
Given the browser I use at work though, I am not surprised, I usually have to try between 4-6 times to be able to type into the posting window. Browser does not like this site at all!
As Nicoli said, I do not work for CCP, I work for a manufacturing company in Silicon Valley CA. EVE is a fascinating hobby to me that I enjoy very much. Nothing more.
Give the guy some freaking TIME! They just started this, as far as it goes it's a positive step. It introduces procedures where there were none. (To be honest, I can understand their reticece to punish t20. It's only human nature to protect a friend, and as this guy said, they didn't have set punishment procedures, now they have them.) Only time will tell if they stick with them. But please, don't speak of words vs action when they haven't even done anything yet.
If you're asking that this guy will attack t20, well, as hellmar said, that's decisions been made. To do otherwise would be like putting a person through double jeapordy in the court system.
"words are worth little insurance, even from the cleanest of mouths"
Interesting EVE fact: The name of the CEO of CCP is actualy an anagram of "real ham".
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience"
CS Lewis
Besides, GM Arkanon has done a fair few repugnant things. Dunno why he set himself on this high horse, except to get knocked down later. I guess CCP just made a corporate decision to deflect some flak. You run an project involving tens of thousands of people for three or four years and you are going to develop a list of people that really really don't like what you do. Those people are all over communities external to eve-o, and boy do they ever have long lists of questionable decisions and anecdotes of some of the slimiest behavior. GM Arkanon has already been raked over the coals for actions such as reactivating/reselling banned accounts on Ebay and banning those who piped up about it. There are GMs even who don't like him, and have expressed that they are powerless to change anything within the core of CCP. It's a commercial organization. What do you expect? These people design games for a living.
This whole abstemious, hypervigilant authority claptrap is silly. I expect the owners of a game world to bend the rules, and to make efforts to stir the pot. I expect them to use incentive where they wish. I expect them to enter all major organizations within their product, and actively peruse it through the customer's eyes. Using God powers is fine. All that is really required is that it be done with Style.
Style can mean toying with things that carry risk. Obviously there's not much risk in handing out a T2 bpo or a faction loot, or a mothership or something. It is possible to do things that are ordinary, or things that are thought away from being physical examples of hyperbole e.g. "Lol, Mothership!" Setting up a simple, temporary humble contract somewhere, or letting an Aurora member conduct a minor subplot with a POS or something is fine. Aurora events should be designed to make people take risks and do things they would not normally do. Most developers seem anchored to the idea of just making the player do excessively more of what they do habitually or instinctively.
I swear, sometimes it's like CCP has zero creativity when it comes to dealing with people. That's why they are good at the elementary building blocks of sandboxes I guess.
If your gonna "Talk the Talk, then Walk the Walk". I keep seeing these wonderfully constructed "We're concerned.." "We care.." posts, but never any action. Look at the main thread that was started over this issue, 100+ pages long. Alot of players asked good questions, and voiced real concerns, NONE we're answered. The thread was locked with an obligatory, "We're glad this discussion took place, and we can move on."
Wonder if they will address concerns such as ...
http://www.kugutsumen.com/showthread.php?t=83
I don't care WHAT that guy found. What he did to gain that info was illegal and immoral in the highest order and IMHO totally disqualifies his credibility as a witness. For all we know, he could be pulling that stuff out of his ass.
Besides, if I am properly informed, evidence gained in such a manner would be thrown out of any court.
I don't care WHAT that guy found. What he did to gain that info was illegal and immoral in the highest order and IMHO totally disqualifies his credibility as a witness. For all we know, he could be pulling that stuff out of his ass.
Besides, if I am properly informed, evidence gained in such a manner would be thrown out of any court.
Except that the misdeeds he uncovered have been ADMITTED to by CCP employees.
And this ISN'T a court of law. It's the court of public opinion; standards are lower here.
The fact of the matter is, if Kugutsumen hadn't used his "illegal and immoral" means to gain this info, no one would ever have known about it, CCP would never have admitted to any of it, and it would still be going on today. This is the crux of the problem with CCP, and the reason they do not deserve your business.