Eve Online Panel Encourages Harassing Suicidal Player

[Sabrestar]

I hope the player is getting the help s/he needs.

 

[Freyar]

EvE Online has always been a hostile game, but this goes beyond that. What goes on a game is just that, whereas this level of public humiliation is unacceptable. The CSM responsible and anyone else tied with this individual should not (and if I have anything to do with it, shall not) be re-elected. As far as I'm concerned ANY CSM that let this go on without a significant amount of fuss is culpable. It's one thing to roll your eyes at someone (since there are people that do pull this card to get a reaction), it's another to publicly heckle an individual and encouraging others to all-out harass a player outside of game mechanics.

This is the Street Fighter tournament thing all over again.

 

[Dogstile]

Hey, everyone who attended that panel and joined in on this?

You are all sick, sick bastards who should be hugely ashamed of yourselves.

Those who presented this shit?

You're not even close to human. Please stop living.

Oh...the irony...

I'm so glad someone else said that.

Hint to anyone wishing death on the people who did this, you're no better. What you're doing is the same thing for different reasons.

OT: On another note, I can think of a few members who won't be reelected purely for the controversy next time.

 

[Baneat]

Isn't inciting people to contribute to the cause of killing themself illegal in any way?

 

[Lunar Templar]

not sure which is sadder and more pathetic

the fact this even happened at all

or that EVE Online has a convention .....

 

[Carnagath]

Okay... being a law student, I can safely say that, at least in my country, encouraging or assisting someone to commit suicide is punishable with a 3 year jail sentence (if they do it). I suppose that most countries have a similar law?

 

[Tireseas_v1legacy]

This news story doesn't come as a surprise to me, having played EVE for about 3 and a half years myself. Overall attitude towards people who rage in EVE is "qq more, it's just a game, deal with it or stop playing. [Enter more smacktalk, abuse etc here]" And that's sort of what I think about this situation. If a game is making him feel suicidal in the first place then why bother playing?

Not saying that publically promoting harassing him is right, it certainly isn't, but if this guy is feeling suicidal then EVE is not the game for him. The main selling points for EVE are how hostile the community, and in turn you, can be and how much freedom there is to be a complete dick towards everybody else. Signing up for EVE is pretty much saying "I want to be a dick to people, and I accept that the cost of this is that people will be a dick to me in return." I just can't feel as bad as I probably should about this story just because it is EVE Online.

Fellow player here, and while my corp would eject anyone who pulling this kind of shit (we pride ourselves on a strict CoC), I know alliance members who would have no problem participating in this kind of shit. Hell, I'm a carebear (industrial specialist) and the nature of EVE promotes paranoia, aggression, and tribalism even in my little rock crusher.

My main concern is where was this guy's corp? I assume that he wasn't a soloplayer, but a player's corp is supposed to be the guys he trusts and supports him. Where were they in this?

 

[liquidsolid]

So my roommate is in Test Alliance and has access to these presentation. I watched the portion of the presentation that stirred the controversy and was shocked.

The Mitani (the presenter) not only did NOT encourage players to harass the depressed player, but also did NOT provide any in-game contact information. The player was scammed (which is allowed in the game and condoned by CCP) and sent a letter after the fact which provided clues to his depression (such as his divorce). The letter was read by Mitani as an example of how 'terrible' their alliance is.

The article from Eurogamer has achieved a Fox News level of misrepresenting the facts.

 

[Bostur]

Events like these makes me ashamed of playing EvE. I would love to say that it's an isolated case, but unfortunately it's not. There is a small core of players for whom behaviour like this is normal.

Some people simply don't know where to draw the line.

 

[koroem]

Everyone of the counsel/panel members that had a part in this should have their accounts stripped and banned. Any company reps present who didn't try to stop this (which sounds like all of them) should be fired. That is just inhumane bullshit and shouldn't be tolerated or encouraged at all.

EDIT just saw the above post about this news being "incorrect." Interesting if true. But until the footage is made publicly available and/or the news articles explaining the real events materialize, my mind won't change.

 

[Pandabearparade]

Ladies and Gentlemen.... Eve Online.

Dear God, is it really that bad? I'd heard it was bad, but is this sort of thing really representative of those who play it?

I'm starting to develop a knee-jerk dislike of anyone who plays Eve, similar to my dislike of anyone who has 'Atlas Shrugged' on their list of favorite books.

 

[PrinceOfShapeir]

So my roommate is in Test Alliance and has access to these presentation. I watched the portion of the presentation that stirred the controversy and was shocked.

The Mitani (the presenter) not only did NOT encourage players to harass the depressed player, but also did NOT provide any in-game contact information. The player was scammed (which is allowed in the game and condoned by CCP) and sent a letter after the fact which provided clues to his depression (such as his divorce). The letter was read by Mitani as an example of how 'terrible' their alliance is.

The article from Eurogamer has achieved a Fox News level of misrepresenting the facts.

Can't say I'm really surprised to hear that. Everything I've heard about EVE says the playerbase is brutal, but I've never heard them being actively evil like this. Not even Goonswarm or Band of Brothers. And yellow journalism from gaming sites is hardly news. (Can't spell ignorant without IGN, amirite?)

 

[Bostur]

for those of you who are actually interested in what happened here is the video, that the escapist didnt seem to think was worthy of being included in their article here is the presentation;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=E7Ki91U-mBE#t=3705s

The person just read a letter the guy wrote to their whole alliance, they didn't encourage anyone to send him messages or harass him until he committed suicide, that is bullshit.

The story is blown a bit out of proportion by Eurogamer, but try moving forward to about 1:12.

Massively's coverage is a bit more accurate, and as they mention it's a little hard making sense of the drunken stupor.
http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/03/26/ccp-investigates-player-panel-that-encouraged-cyber-bullying/

 

[gyroscopeboy]

Please stop living.

Maybe you could organise a panel of people to bully them til they do as you ask?

 

[Section Crow]

isn't there laws to prevent this type of inhumanity?

i don't even want to think about it, it's just gonna piss me off how people feel that pushing someone to suicide is right or funny in any way shape or form it's just sick, it reminds me of those fuckwits that terrorize memorial websites...