Well that didn’t take long. In what may be a new record-setting time for CCP to go from first being alerted to dropping the ban hammer, Somerset Mahm was marched to the wall and summarily executed. By my count it was a little over 3 days from the first mention on reddit to the final blow. During those 3 days, CSM9 and CCP worked tirelessly to get to the bottom of the allegations against Somer. Early mornings, later nighters, numerous meetings and ongoing Skype convos between the CSM and CCP. On top of that were probably a bunch of internal meetings at CCP where employees that apparently don’t speak too often finally did so. This was that kind of emergency. Lotto bin Laden had struck again and SEAL Team 9 was locked, loaded and screaming out Geronimo before they went through the door.
You’ll have to forgive me for reacting a bit tongue in cheek to the whole situation, but there was just an incredible amount of outright pleasure derived by some in going after this guy. EVE tear buckets and all that. Don’t get me wrong, I’m no Somer fanboi or apologist. I’m also steadfastly against real money trading, in all its forms, directly or indirectly. I’m just not quite sure he is the root of all RMT evil. He is successful and that garners some haters, but he certainly wasn’t working in the shadows. What he has been accused of, this time and the last, was very much out in the open. It’s pretty hard to try and hide it when it is open to the number of players that frequent his site. That isn’t really the modus operandi of what most sane people would consider the real villains of RMT. In most cases of RMT activity neither the CSM nor the community ever hears about it. CCP just does its job and players and ISK vanish into the void. But not here. This time the target was out in the open and a known commodity that some players already held in contempt. To say there wasn’t a lynch mob mentality would be disingenuous.
To be fair, I don’t hold myself harmless from being part of the talking head community that latched onto the story pretty early on. Within the first 24 hours of the story breaking, I participated in an EVE Radio discussion regarding the topic. EVE drama can always be a little fun, especially when it relates to the RMT bogeyman and CCP’s EULA and TOS. However, what struck me right from the get go was the zeal with which some players exhibited as it related to the person rather than the facts. Immediate calls for bans in spite of missing facts or a well-grounded understanding of CCP’s disjointed and vague EULA/TOS. I’m not shocked by that; it is pretty common on the internet and in EVE to make every topic an end-of-the-world event. But it is a little disappointing that even some of the saner heads were pushing for a scalp right from jump.
Did Somerset Mahm have a past mired in flying too close to the edge of the envelope with regard to RMT? Yes. The previous Somergate scandal resulted in CCP performing a widescale review of the various ways ISK and items are used to compensate for activities that could generate a real world monetary benefit. He was forced to shut down that operation, but when CCP gave him several days to make it happen, he first chose to ramp up the operation in a sprint to the finish. That didn’t go over too well with some people, but nobody can say that CCP didn’t allow it. When you want something shut down immediately, you don’t give them an extra week.
That of course brings us to the current situation. Once again, Somerset Mahm was not operating in the dark. By all accounts, he was in direct contact with CCP and openly asking for the go ahead, preferably with evidence that it had been cleared by CCP Legal. Now some people want to cite the fact that in the leaked proposal it indicated that no”extra ISK” would be given. Fair enough, we can debate what “extra” means, but the discussion is nothing more than a smokescreen for those who want to declare that the proposal was intentionally fraudulent, thus nullifying any approval. The fact is that “extra ISK” was never the issue here. No amount of ISK would meet the standard. You cannot link a transfer of in-game currency or assets to an action that will create a real world monetary benefit to one of the involved parties. This scheme should never have been approved, regardless of that one line. But it was approved, and CCP bears a good chunk of the responsibility for allowing that to happen.
What came next though is all on Somer and may have been a rage-quit of sorts. We should all know that you can’t publicly disclose conversations from CCP. Now, we all know that it may be one of the most self-serving rules on CCP’s books, but it is what it is. Likewise, if CCP gives you the approval to do something, you cannot advertise or promote that approval. Yet in the end I feel it somehow cheapens the outcome when so much reliance is put on those two charges. Was Somerset Mahm banned for RMT? That was the primary accusation lodged against him so one would think it should be the primary focus of the resolution. Like the first Somergate scandal, we wont be told. Instead, he got Caponed, as in Al Capone. If ya can’t get the guy for murder, tax evasion will work nicely. Just get the dirty criminal off the street.
Throughout the various discussions I participated in, both publicly on EVE Radio and privately elsewhere, my primary focus was on the EULA/TOS. I totally bought the fact that this was an indirect form of RMT that should be prohibited. Frankly, I thought it was a pretty slam dunk case that shouldn’t require all that much effort to shut down. Not a ban mind you, but just stopping the activity once it was deemed to be a real or potential violation. Why not a ban? Mainly because it looks like he was trying to work with CCP. Sorry, but I give a little leeway to people who at least appear to be asking for permission and guidance. But I also thought there were other issues that should be addressed now that, yet again, the EULA/TOS were being referenced. Every time one of these dramafests occurs, the space lawyering begins and tends to generate the most back and forth. More words are spent arguing over the meaning of various provisions of the EULA/TOS and yet nothing ever changes to make anything any clearer.
The whole issue of a vague EULA/TOS, or the fact that many don’t believe that even the clear sections are effectively or equitably applied, doesn’t just relate to RMT. The Naming Policy is exceedingly clear, yet we all know that it isn’t generally enforced unless someone creates a petition or your name is headed for the monument. Questions about ISBoxer, CCP’s right to enforce in-game sanctions on out of game activity, what defines a business, among other topics, come up far too often. I fully recognize that legal jargon can be tricky and that lawyers exist to both write it and translate it for the layman, but these are rules for a video game that players are supposed to understand without hiring an attorney. Given the level of CSM input into this particular scandal, I was really hoping they would have taken this moment to begin the process of addressing that more head on. What is a EULA violation? It can’t always be that CCP will know it when they see it. That just leads to confusion and some pretty inconsistent applications. They can do better and it wouldn’t take time away from the devs to make that happen.
So here we are and the Somerblink story is wrapping up, this time for good. CCP Falcon and CCP Leeloo did a great job at keeping the community appraised of the situation along the way. Really, my hat is off to them for handling the tough job of being client facing when the shit hits the fan. The CSM was obviously hard at it along the way, but they couldn’t say much to provide any great depth or insight outside of their lay opinions.
So what was the outcome? Well, Somerset Mahm and all his accounts are banned. Somerblink is shutting down and, by all accounts, returning assets to the players. That’s a good thing for those players involved. Maybe it also shows some people that it wasn’t a scam all along, but there really is no convincing some of the haters.
So what does it all mean for the game? Nada. Seriously, nothing is going to change except that there is probably a mad scramble out there to try and get this ISK printing machine back up and running under different leadership. I highly doubt any focus will be made on the EULA/TOS and the same old excuses will be used to justify why it can’t be more detailed, clearer or better organized. None of this was game-related anyway, at least in terms of what any of us see on a day to day basis in space. This was just EVE drama, and while EVE drama is best drama, you’re now free to go back to our regularly scheduled snoozefest.
– Dirk MacGirk
