In case you somehow haven’t heard yet, on March 9 CCP Games announced they would be selling a new Prospector Pack. This pack includes 30 days of Omega, 100 Plex, and a “Ready to Fly Retriever”, though many in Eve Online’s community question its readiness to fly. This egregious intrusion of CCP into EVE Online’s player-run economy, a core component of Eve Online’s initial vision, as well as bypassing the role that ‘loss’ plays in building the friendship machine, caused a great deal of backlash. This backlash included an open letter from the Council of Stellar Management (CSM). This open letter is covered at length in this article “Breaking News: CSM Publish Open Letter On CCP Monetisation” by INN’s Dirk Stetille.
Backlash
Further backlash against CCP’s recent monetization came from several of the members of the CSM on The Meta Show. This backlash included a scathing rant from Karmafleet’s CEO and CSM Member Merkelchen where he informed watchers, “[CCP] didn’t talk to the fucking CSM about it because we would’ve said what the fuck is wrong with you”, asserted that “[CCP] has lost their way”, and that this overreach by CCP was “repulsive, skeevy, greedy”. The entirety of the rant may be found here on INN’s Twitch Channel.
It has now been almost a week since the Prospector’s Pack was released. CCP have yet to make any comment about the recent player backlash or the grave concerns of the community. This lack of communication has spurred several prominent members of the EVE Online Community to create and participate in a new campaign.
Blackout
The famous Redline XIII, EVE Online Fleet Commander, host of the talk show Trash Talk Tuesday on New Eden Post’s channel on Twitch, and who runs the news organization called New Eden Post, created a new website called “EVE Blackout” to protest the monetization. When asked if the name is a nod to CCP’s historic Blackout in EVE Online, Redline XIII said in reference to the lack of response from CCP: “yes, they black us out; we black them out”. The website calls out a warning for readers:
This image has been streaming on the Twitch channels of several prominent EVE Online streamers, including ManicVelocity. This website calls for a media blackout of Eve Online until CCP makes “immediate and lasting changes to their monetization practices.” The website “will contain links to helpful resources that new players can use to earn ISK without swiping their credit cards”. The website also allows readers to submit links to content that will help new players.
And lastly, the post echoes what I imagine many feel, including myself, about this situation:
And to CCP, please see reason. Understand the impact of things like this and the ripples it sends throughout the EVE universe. Know that we don’t come to you out of hatred or malice, but out of respect and love for the world you’ve created for us.
Please help us keep it.
Redline XIII, “EVE Blackout”, https://www.eveblackout.com
How To Participate
If EVE streamers wish to participate in this project, then Redline will provide the assets for your use. We should note that this protest does not technically comply with Twitch ToS, and may also jeopardise any EVE Partnership, per CCP Convict’s commentary on Reddit.
CCP Backs up
CCP also participated in the campaign on March 16th as CCP’s twitch began hosting New Eden Post on CCP’s own Twitch channel. New Eden Post at the time was streaming the EVE Blackout message. Whether or not this was intentional is up to speculation, of course, though the most likely answer points to Twitch’s auto-hosting feature. This setting allows the channel’s administrators to define a list of channels to stream while the main channel is offline. CCP have since turned this feature off, and are replaying old videos from their streams.
