There’s really not all that much to the story at the moment so I’ll cover some basics and then address some possible in-game effects and other concerns. According to CCP, it was other members within the CSM itself that brought forth these issues. Considering most CSM members are part of the coalition that Brisc’s own alliance is in, this adds another layer of to the plot. It is possible that all of this is a mistake by CCP and I am reserving some skepticism for all of this just in case. However it doesn’t seem likely that CCP would go through such a ban without having all the evidence they would need to be sure. The Eve community has shown a tepid and tempered response in regards to the situation:
What is unique about Brisc and his situation is that he’s actually a real life politician and used this factor extensively in his campaign for CSM.
Being a lobbyist/politician, it’s very likely that breaking a non-disclosure agreement will impact things much beyond Eve Online. Some may try to dismiss it as “just spaceship pixels” but he broke an official NDA contract with CCP. Some have said that this should be left out of the discussion and for most cases I would agree. I only made mention of it because of how prominently Brisc himself put his real political career in the forefront when it came to his CSM election. It’s out there because he put it out there so it’s fair game. That’s more or less the information that is publically available. It does not seem like Brisc really did all that much that would have benefited his alliance, leaking excluded. Prior to this, he was notable for taking himself very seriously and trying to find out who did not.
In this case someone who had his alliance’s tag had a different opinion and thus Brisc pinged his entire alliance to find out who this person was. I witnessed this kind of mentality directly myself. A debate in the CSM discord server had developed regarding Rorqual balance among other things. Yours truly was critical of the current strength of Rorquals while certain people aligned with the Imperium talking points disagreed with me. Brisc, instead of addressing the point of discussion and clearly using his DC experience, instead brought up how an alliance I was in 3 years ago looked like “Nazis.” Being my usual irreverent self toward important spaceship people ™ I called him inane. Unable to handle this very serious transgression he promptly banned me. When I pointed out that others had said much worse…
Brisc Rubal 08/19/2018
I don’t care what folks say to each other. I care what folks say to me, on the CSM server. You can do what you want elsewhere.
Forgive me m’lord I forgot myself.
We don’t yet have any clear evidence of what Brisc did wrong. For all we know it’s all a late April fool’s ruse by CCP. However, it’s not surprising to imagine why such a soft skinned yet entitled character would simultaneously think they are above the rules while also being oblivious (or lying) about what they had done wrong.
But what kind of in-game impact will this have? Brisc may have been a glorified talking head line member for his alliance the Initiative, but the loss of prominent alliance FCs Pando and Shines could have a larger impact. “PLEASE DON’T PANIC” moral pings have flooded Init discord along with claims that there has been an “uptick in Fountain traffic” the region Initiative currently holds sovereignty over.
Next to Goonswarm, Initiative is the most capable self-sufficient alliance within the Imperium coalition. Their position in Fountain, lacking the supercap umbrella protection of the Goons, and now losing two prominent fleet commanders, may become much more vulnerable to enemy attacks. An outright invasion of Initiative space could either collapse the alliance’s holdings, or cause the members to rally. A measured punitive campaign could wreak havoc without galvanizing Init and possibly escalate if the situation presents itself. The question is who would actually do such a thing? Some might consider NCPL as the obvious choice. Unfortunately for them they are contending with the Imperium’s own punitive campaign in The Spire. Their tendency to turn allies into enemies (TEST, DRF) has lost time strategic potential on the larger scale. Despite thwarting Initiative’s campaign against their holdings these past few months, NCPL still finds itself on the back foot paying for mistakes made years ago. Unless a dark horse entity such as a resurgent Triumvirate or a vengeful GOTG decides to actually strike at Fountain, Initiative will weather this humiliation and loss of leadership in relative peace.
Not to take a page out of Mitten’s “cracks forming” spin strategy, but there are two other factors to consider in context to all of this: 1) TEST’s Vily and Snuff’s Hy Wanto exchanged heated words last month which prompted the latter group to strike down two Titans and eight Super Capitals. Initiative was also present with about two hundred members opposite of TEST. Those who have played a while might see a similarity between the rivalry that developed been TEST and Fatal Ascension back in 2011 which culminated in war. At the time both alliances were allied with Goonswarm which eventually sided against TEST. This rivalry between Initiative and TEST may eventually push Goonswarm to once again make a choice. 2) Goonswarm’s reactions regarding the banning have been a mixed back.
Naz al-Ghul has made sport of memeing Brisc on reddit and twitter.
Querns has attempted to distance his alliance from Brisc in any way possible.
Moonin who of course has always had a tenuous relationship with objectivity and reality has summoned previous scandals “Muh T20” from way back in 2007.
Because of course somehow this is relevant to the issue.
Anyway, unless CCP royally screwed up on the banning, they deserve great credit for catching this. The player base loves it when rule breakers get dealt with. We still have great lengths to go in terms of CSM balance. With the majority of CSM 13 being Imperium aligned, the concentration of power should be concerning to the rest of the player base. The point of the CSM is to have is to have player feedback from a variety of players from different areas of space. If over half of the CSM comes from one coalition, how well does that work? In recent times we have seen changes that overwhelmingly favor nullsec PvE and safety. This has led to a number of economic issues from stupidly cheap supercap/Titan prices to overwhelming structure spam. Areas like lowsec have been neglected. I understand the assumption that democracy is the best way to represent the majority of people. But perhaps CCP can but in some limitations; say after the second or third person representing an organization gets voted in, maybe someone else can get in? Brisc Rubal’s early ejection is hopefully a warning for other potential leakers. However the CSM is clearly in need of greater reforms in order to ensure wider representation of the player’s needs. It cannot stop here and CCP would be wise to use this momentum to further improve the system.
