Pay2Win Scandal - Signs of Life
From the Dev Blog:
The tone and demeanor of my blog on Friday did not correctly portray my emotions towards the community and player base at large. I love and respect EVE and its community on a level that's hard to really do justice in words. However I let my frustration take charge of me, fueled by emotions that had built up due to a breach of trust we at CCP have been experiencing over the past few days. I know that sounds ironic considering those are the exact same feelings you have been having towards CCP.
For that I am sorry.
Having cooled off a bit and taken a solemn look at the situation, I see it's clear we need to strengthen the deep mutual trust and respect that's been so unique and descriptive of our relationship. There are certain questions you want answered and there isn't room for more error in our communication on those topics or our perception of the root causes.
Therefore we have asked the CSM to join us in Iceland for an extraordinary meeting June 30th and July 1st to discuss the events of past week, to help us define and address the real underlying concerns, and to assist us in defining and iterating on our virtual goods strategy.
The result of this meeting should be mutual agreement of how virtual goods and services will evolve in EVE. Other issues may be brought up and we urge you to contact the CSM with your comments and concerns so that they may be addressed at this session.
However, just to prove the point of the Fearless newsletter and give you a further understanding of what it is then there are no and never have been plans to sell "gold ammo" for Aurum. In Fearless people are arguing a point, which doesn't even have to be their view, they are debating an issue. This is another example of how information out of context is no information at all.
Due to the volatility of the topic we want to refrain from any further comments on this matter until after meeting with the CSM.
Thank you for your patience,
Arnar Hrafn Gylfason
Senior Producer of EVE Online
Emphasis mine. Note that no promise was made that Pay2Win would not be considered in the future.
I've already quit. My clients and helper programs are all deleted. Want to win me back? Give an unequivocal written pledge to never offer for real money any in-game advantage or ex nihilo non-vanity item. When possible, vanity items should be transferable and destructible.
That's it. That's my only demand. I don't care how much space-barbie jeans cost, or whether you do anything with Incarna or not. Those things aren't important to me or can be forgiven. Answer the question of Pay2Win once and for all.
Mittens made his response to the latest Dev Blog on the forums:
This blog is a promising but much-delayed first step. The events of the past few days have left me feeling skeptical of the entire situation, since the May Summit itself went peachy, yet then these issues with the NeX prices cropped up, undiscussed, out of nowhere - not to mention the Hilmar mail, Greed is Good, et cetera.
Mark me down on the 'actions not words' end of the scale - In Reykjavik, I'm going to want to see exactly how the NeX prices were decided upon, how they were drafted, and which suits where were behind this nonsense - and who chose to not mention this to the CSM. Perhaps most important is understanding the degree of financial motivation behind this, and why it came from CCP like a bolt from the blue, and thus how likely similar bolts from the blue might be in the future.
I don't have much more to say beyond what I've already said on Eve Radio and in my CEO Update, which is crossposted on Kugu and Failheap.
We'll see how Reykjavik goes.
I've always liked Mittens, and I admire all of the CSM more than ever for being willing to go out of the country on short notice for a video game. It's my belief that the future of the game depends on CCP's position on Pay2Win. Keep Eve hard.
My first attempt at meme work. What do you think?

Until we hear something, I'll continue with Perpetuum. It's not bad!
8 comments
I really do hope this sorts itself out in a way that everyone is happy and satisfied. I am also alarmed at the possibility of Pay2Win equipment, and I can understand why it'd make you want to leave. A few members of my own corp have soft-canceled their accounts as a part of the protest.
I've been playing Eve just a little over a year. It really is game like no other. I was inspired by your... techniques here to try my hand at it, and while I'm not scoring high profile kills, I am bringing battleships to their knees. While your foes are probably dancing for joy, your fans are troubled by the loss here.
We really ARE counting on you, CSM Summit!
I didn't want to rage quit, but I think I will be canceling my subs tonight. This maybe the only "action" CCP listens to.
Isn't it ironic...
The writer for 'My Loot, Your Tears" shedding tears on the site....
Essentially what you want is a written guarantee from the company. Alright I can understand that to an extent but let me give you a quote from the movie Tommy Boy. "Hey, if you want me to take a dump in a box and mark it guaranteed, I will. I got spare time." We're all adults here and you know as well as I do that a guarantee from a company is only as good as they want it to be.
You Sir are a hypocrite
I read most of your blog, and listened to you on a few podcasts. In all of this you have been a propagator of the idea that it is your prerogative to play this game your way even if that means infringing on the way others do. Smirkingly you have threatened people with ban requests to CCP whenever they threw a temper tantrum at you that went a bit too far.
Now when CCP decides to take this game into a direction that does not sit well with you, you take umbrage. You also take the side of Helicity Boson who - by all accounts - lost it. He is emo raging and tear leaking like the worst carebear, and for what? On the basis of an assumption which - even if it were to become the truth in game - would not even change much in the way you guys play. Damn, for all it''s worth, don''t you think you could pod mission runners with monocles or ''gold ammo" or whatever just as well as you did so far? How many of the people you podded do you think bought their account+ships and fittings on ebay or elsewhere?
You have challenged all the assumptions about the game a lot of people made and felt yourself entitled to do so. It seems finally someone (CCP) did the same to you, and in the end you are just as immature a ragequitter as all those carebears you podded are.
Have fun playing Perpetuum and maybe try to reflect a bit more on yourself in the future.
Good luck at the summit. Hopefully they're going to quit trying to shove their hands in players' pockets and start listening.
I have not canceled my accounts yet... I am waiting to see how this CSM summit goes and what the results of it are. While I don't agree with the idea of MT's in a pay-to-play game (especially one where most players have multiple accounts out of necessity, making EVE the most expensive MMO subscriptionwise on the market right now), I too will suck it up and grudgingly accept the existence of the foolish shop provided there is a definitive answer (that answer being "NO, NEVER") on the topic of pay-to-win items in the NEX.
I just now am about ready to start getting better at PvP... and was looking forward to some lowsec piracy, but am currently sitting by waiting to see what happens before I move everything I own to lowsec. I don't want to go through the trouble if I'm just going to wind up unsubbing. :(
I blame you, Paul. Aren't you the one who said 'Always bet on stupid.'?
CCP is just betting on stupid.
That's both sad and funny.