I've held off giving an opinion on this topic as I wasn't sure where I stood as I listened to the different viewpoints.
I also had to balance any thoughts I had with my position against CCP using SOMER Blink for its giveaway recently in "Its not the Ships, its the Venue" post.
So here goes.
1) CCP is not obligated to tell the community when it gives out gifts to players AS LONG AS the gifting is overseen by CCP's Internal Affairs department to ensure fairness.
2) The gift in question, Ishukone Watch Scorpions, may be expensive on the market due to rarity but are not unbalancing game mechanics-wise. Nor do they have any implied rarity status (i.e. not limited edition) or history.
3) SOMER Blink may be a third party for profit business, but also runs on "employees" paid in ISK and plex which effectively makes them similar to volunteers. And SOME Blink is a huge community supporter for events and giveaways (admittedly that pays back in increased advertising).
4) The ship has been given to other players in other organizations for other reasons.
Therefore, I think this controversy is a manufactured one that exploded due to the spotlight being on SOMER Blink already due to the Gold Magnate and Guardian Vexor giveaway fiasco last month. I think CCP is in the right here and should continue giving away Ishukone Watch Scorpions as they see fit as long as everything is on the up and up and overseen by impartial observers in the company.
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It really seems like constructed. When most of the staff is on a vacation TheMittani.com presents such a story. Even with a quote from an intern CSM/CCP Skypechannel.
ReplyDeleteAnd what I found really interesseting where all the comments from goons on the first forum threads xD
Myself I think CCP should state more clearly how rare such ships will be. So that only a handfull will be stupid enough to buy for too much ISK.
What if David Reid is actually a genius and he promised SOMERblink huge exposure as a thank you for shifting lots of PLEX? Maybe the community has been dancing to his tune all along, but when all is said and done, there will likely be a measurable gain in SOMERblink's customers, therefore even more PLEX will be shifted, all at the price of some disgruntled players who are always on the lookout for something to be disgruntled about anyway.
ReplyDeleteWhat if...
Nice comment Mat! And a good post from you Kirith.
ReplyDeleteYes it all seems to be over rate and hyped by some player groups and goons are one of the groups infamous for that.
I hope CCP has some metrics about "how many real players are posting in that threadnaught". There are many players not even aware of this "want to be scandal" and those whom I know are aware of this couldn't care less.
And this little coincidence that this article is posted on TMC a) when somer Blink already is in the spotlight of some discussion and b) most of CCP employees are out for a long holiday trip is providing its own argument for artificially hyped scandal.