Yesterday the Eve community got kicked in the balls a bit. No reason to sugar coat it. Changes to the all-powerful EULA and ban-hammers falling like rain everywhere. Like chickens with their heads cut off everyone ran around in circles with signs saying "The End is Nigh!" all day. Quickly posting to Reddit, the forums, podcasts, Twitter and everywhere else you can find an Eve nerd hiding. No stone was left un-turned. It was so bad I even dreamed about it last night. Sorta. Y'know, if that dream involved moving to Iceland for a job at CCP only to learn that they really work in an old Supermarket between the aisles in cardboard cubes. And the Fantastic Four showed up. But enough about my dreams.
You might remember I just interviewed Lenny Kravitz2 last week. Interesting in hindsight that he just recently tried to divest himself from IWI. I guess that didn't work. The point being that there is no middle ground when it comes to RMT or "gambling" in or out of Eve. The potential for real money means that there will be real money. Humans being human. This was a problem before PLEX. Before Casinos. Before it became easy to do. So obviously it would continue to be an issue after it became easier. Duh. I believe there are monkeys in Kenya that know this.
So yeah the isk faucet is closed now. And my friends at various community activity centers are going to suffer for it. All the Slack lit up yesterday. All the Discords. All the channels. And yes that is all extremely unfortunate. And probably unfair. A bad system built some good things. Casinos are good for the... wait a sec! I sound like one of those people that testify in front of Congress about the Mafia! "But Senator, Don Moneybags built the Children's Hospital!" So yeah, let's move on to the next paragraph.
Out of game sources of income are not good for Eve. Everything in-game can be countered. You don't like someone then camp their system, declare war, gank their stuffs, any number of things can help you combat them inside of New Eden. Outside? There is nothing you can do. And while I enjoyed WWB as much as the next intelligent adult, the Goons did have a point about that. It was unsettling frankly. When it is happening to someone else fine, but what if it was happening to you? Might be a different story.
I am diametrically opposed to RMT. I've also advocated here on this very blog against the system which makes it easier to accomplish. I've never been comfortable with the need to gamble. Even in the real world it is a system that is rather notorious for being abused. It always manages to achieve the exact opposite effect than it was intended to accomplish.
On the other hand, it is the system we had. And everyone got a little fat from eating off that plate. This is unfortunate and it makes going on a diet hard on everyone. Support, prizes, isk, all went into a lot of great community projects. And those are going to suffer, no doubt about that. Eve is at once much better off and also much worse than it was earlier this week. What springs from this ruin is anyone's guess.
Eve is a global game with its footprint in countries around the world, each with their own laws, rules and guidelines regarding multiple issues that deal with gambling and its side-effects. In addition, with the opening of the floodgates to Alpha clones coming up, a new wave of Eve players (of all ages) will be descending into the fires of New Eden. Given these conditions it is no wonder that CCP brought out the hammers and cleaned the house. Guests are coming after all and we needed to red up a bit.
There are no winners. Only ash and ruin. But every once in awhile a forest needs to be burned so that new growth can spring from the ashes. I can only hope that such will be the case here. And that stronger and better growth will spring forth from this great community.
Keep the courage.