CCP Brings Real-World Trouble To EVE Online Monument Vandal - Update

[Andy Chalk]

CCP Brings Real-World Trouble To EVE Online Monument Vandal - Update

CCP Games says that whoever defaced its real-world monument to EVE Online is going to face serious real-world consequences.

Update: CCP announced today that four individuals responsible for the vandalism of the EVE Online monument have been identified and dealt with. "Firstly, I'll say that the fact that the monument was vandalized is an insult to the entire community, not just to the individual whose name was directly targeted by the vandalism," CCP Falcon wrote in a message [https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=4563308] posted earlier this afternoon. "Thankfully with the assistance of a number of members of the community, including some of those who were involved with the incident and other members of their own alliance, we've been able to make headway in identifying those responsible."

"Three individuals have been permanently removed from the EVE Community. A total of 7 EVE Online accounts, and 1 Dust 514 account belonging to them have been permanently banned. Another individual who was indirectly involved in the vandalism has received a 6 month ban from EVE Online on their sole registered account," he continued. "The four individuals involved are also blacklisted permanently from attending future Fanfest events."

Falcon said CCP considers the matter resolved "within the EVE universe," and that any further action that may be taken, including possible criminal charges and recovery of costs to repair the monument, will remain confidential. As he indicated previously, the identities of those involved will not be revealed.

Original story:

CCP remarkable creation [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/134141-EVE-Online-Player-Monument-Unveiled-Today] by any measure, and of course it only took a few days for someone to come along and mess it up.

"@Xenuria found your name and lost it again. #tweetfleet #eveonline #evefanfest," someone using the handle The_Real_Gevlon tweeted [https://twitter.com/The_Real_Gevlon/status/463002069989736448] on May 4. "You're welcome, everyone in eve!" An attached image shows a small segment of the monument, with Xenuria's name crudely scratched out.

CCP is notoriously tolerant of bad behavior in EVE Online, but is clearly far less willing to put up with this kind of guffola in real life. "This is damage of public property in the City of Reykjavik. The police have been informed, and investigation is ongoing," Community Manager "CCP Falcon" wrote in the EVE Online forums. "This is not a laughing matter, and will be dealt with as a criminal offence. We are currently reviewing security footage from a number of surrounding buildings."

"What's happened is absolutely disgusting. It's an insult to the entire community and is clearly the work a person who believes that behavior in a virtual world is a valid reason to make a real life personal attack on someone, and deface public property," he continued. "We will not tolerate this."

Falcon noted that players have already come forward with information about the crime, including some who are believed to be members of the culprit's alliance. He also said that if the vandal wishes to confess before the net closes, CCP will "take it as a gesture of good faith after an extremely stupid act," although how the admission will mitigate the circumstances - if at all - is left unsaid.

He also called on forum users to "stop pointing fingers and blaming people," and demanded that attacks on the victim in the forums come to an end as well. "It's not funny, it's not clever. Take your rumor mongering and personal attacks away from our community," he wrote. "If you choose not to, you'll be removed from the community, permanently. It's a simple as that. We will not tolerate victimization."

In a follow-up post [https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=4559193#post4559193] made earlier today, Falcon said CCP had been visited by a couple of players who "basically confirmed everything for us" and that he hoped to be able to provide further details tomorrow, although he clarified that personal information would not be released. "There's no way in hell we'll release anyone's identities, character name, corporate affiliation or otherwise," he wrote. "We will not be part of a witch hunt."

Source: EVE Online [https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=4552614#post4552614]


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[Atmos Duality]

Angry players acting like assholes and damaging/destroying properly with real life value?
This is art imitating life.

Ugly subject in any case.

 

[Slegiar Dryke]

to be fair, if what I've heard in the past is true, this is not the worst case of real world damage to get at a player (could swear I've heard a story about someone cutting a persons power to gank a Titan), but to do it to a public piece like this......I don't even follow Eve, but seriously, that's a douche move =/

 

[Scorpid]

to be fair, if what I've heard in the past is true, this is not the worst case of real world damage to get at a player (could swear I've heard a story about someone cutting a persons power to gank a Titan)

That's true, it actually happened.

OT: Oh, you mean a game that openly promotes, and rewards players for, selfish behavior and general asshole-ism, has players that are selfish assholes? What a shock!

Sometimes, in pro wrestling, a heel is really effective because the wrestler is actually a jerk in real life. I figure it's the same basic idea here.

It's a monument to the entire community and on top of that completely unique in gaming. For a player to vandalize is more than just being a jerk.

 

[mythgraven]

What I find truly interesting about this entire debacle, and indeed the last few debacles of EvE Online, is that it all basically boils down to "Do online shenanigans excuse real life repercussions?" Because both camps have extremely viable points to make.

But at the end of the day, lets not guild the lily. EvE players by and large enjoy what they do. Whether that is succeeding in running a multimillion ISK operation, or ruining a multimillion ISK operation, there is a certain pleasure to be had in planning and succeeding.

And for a large... VERY large chunk of the playerbase, that enjoyment is in the freedom to be literally the biggest asshole they can be. The stated mission goal of the largest player run cooperation is to ruin the game for their fellow players. While it can be argued that in-game actions shouldn't warrant out of game actions, dont pretend that there isnt a legion of players out there that will happily keep pushing the limit until they achieve that very state of "out of game" anger, that they claim has no basis on their gaming habits.

This is a matter of intention, not execution. There are more than a few EvE players who are downright gleeful to anger another person to that point.

 

[Shamanic Rhythm]

Oh hush, CCP. We all know it wouldn't be a proper tribute to EVE unless someone was trying to grief it.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

I like this Falcon person. He is dropping the hammer hard and fast and is not putting up with anything and is calling on other people to grow up. This guy has the right idea I think. A good man to have in charge of something like this.

 

[Laughing Man]

Oh hush, CCP. We all know it wouldn't be a proper tribute to EVE unless someone was trying to grief it.

I am shocked no one has started to camp round it specifically so they can kill any other players who come to look at it and then steal their wallet.

 

[Baresark]

Weird news.... a crime was committed and the police are involved... weird what makes the news rounds around here sometimes.

 

[TheSYLOH]

Don't you wish you built that monument in Singapore instead of Iceland?

 

[Spartan448]

Oddly fitting that someone just tried to IRL gank something and is about to be got by the IRL CONCORD.

When they blow up his car, can I have its IRL loot?

 

[Jadak]

I'm rather surprised they found the name. There's a lot of tiny names on that thing.

 

[WindKnight]

Ok, pardon my ignorance, but is there any idea why that particular player was targeted in this vandalism?

 

[Deathfish15]

Ok, pardon my ignorance, but is there any idea why that particular player was targeted in this vandalism?

There's suspicion that he's one of the people behind a hack attack against the EVE servers back in 2012. He was a potential candidate for their Community Council thingy, but got booted out by CCP after blasting one of the developers who commented on the suspicions of him being a potential hacker.

 

[Callate]

I dunno. I mean, yeah, it's petty, stupid, mean-spirited vandalism- and it's exactly the sort of behavior you'd expect from people who enthusiastically engage a game where duplicity and betrayal can lead to losses worth tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in real-world currency. I truly believe that the vast majority of people have solid barriers between real-world actions and in-game ones, but Eve Online seems to have intentionally worked to make such barriers pathologically thin.

If it turns out that Eve's brass can't, in fact, locate and punish the offender... this may be an unfortunate precedent.

I can understand the thrill that people get from playing Eve Online, but at the same time, I'm glad that I don't.

 

[renegade7]

to be fair, if what I've heard in the past is true, this is not the worst case of real world damage to get at a player (could swear I've heard a story about someone cutting a persons power to gank a Titan)

That's true, it actually happened.

OT: Oh, you mean a game that openly promotes, and rewards players for, selfish behavior and general asshole-ism, has players that are selfish assholes? What a shock!

The keyword there is "game". It's a game that people are ultimately playing for fun, saying that EVE Online "promotes" self-serving behavior (which isn't even strictly true) is basically the same as saying that an FPS promotes real life shooting. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect that people will be civil about the game to their fellow players when they're offline.

 

[Strazdas]

and just like that this player just got more popular than his place on the monument could have gotten him in many years. what a PR tactic i smell here.

Oddly fitting that someone just tried to IRL gank something and is about to be got by the IRL CONCORD.

When they blow up his car, can I have its IRL loot?

im not sure those metal scraps are refinable with your skills though.

 

[shirkbot]

The keyword there is "game". It's a game that people are ultimately playing for fun, saying that EVE Online "promotes" self-serving behavior (which isn't even strictly true) is basically the same as saying that an FPS promotes real life shooting. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect that people will be civil about the game to their fellow players when they're offline.

Actually, I would be very interested to see research into how different types of games could influence behavior, as opposed to the focus on violence. It's not inconceivable that a game like EVE could promote self-serving behavior because such behavior is not inherently punished in the real world, as opposed to violence. But that's all speculation, and I doubt there will be any desire to research it for another decade or so.

OT: I just think it was daft to vandalize a public monument in a city of <150,000 people. It's not like finding the person is going to be rocket science, especially with the addition of Twitter information. The dumb and petty will remain so I guess.