The text below is just my opinion on the matter. I respect the right of others to have a different one.
I bet that almost every EVE player has already heard about the recent controversy, which caused the community to literally boil. To make the long story short, a gambling service run by Somerset Mahm (SOMER blink) has been recognized by the CCP and the Blink crew has been rewarded with a limited edition ship, Ishukone Watch Scorpion.
For many, that was plain favouritism: first to sponsor Blink with resurrected limited edition ship prizes (which in response to negative comments have been changed into new limited edition ships) and then to give them a reward of 30 Ishukone Watch Scorpions. Why Blink got the reward and Chribba didn’t? Sindel Pellion runs a charity and she didn’t get one, yet a for-profit organization got as much as 30 IWS! And they sit on an unimaginable pile of ISK anyway! They even make RL money out of it! RMT! Scam! Fraud!
Wait a second. Whose game is it? Is it mine, because I pay a monthly fee?
– No.
First off, comparing it to T20 misconduct is an exaggeration; items were given to more than just one entity, and besides these items could indeed be sold for substantial amount of ISK, it’s a one time sum, rather than ISK printing press that Tech II BPOs represent.
Secondly it’s CCP’s own right to reward anyone as they please, because it’s their game. 102 other pilots have been awarded as well. If instead of complaining people did something for the community, it might be them receiving the next limited edition ships.
For example, does the fact that I have never got any rewards from CCP (and SOMER did) should make me stop blogging about EVE or developing 3rd party software that helps running Industry corporations? Did I start all these endavours with rewards in mind? Or even to get CCP attention? Hell, no. I do it for the players. Players such as you, who would like to read about EVE, perhaps because they can’t play the game at the very moment. Plus, I do it for my corp, so we have a tool to help us plan better and make more ISK.
I can however understand why CCP has chosen to reward Blink. Running this kind of site is a full-time job. More than that, it’s a 23,5/7 operation. People that handle prizes are always there. Servers and load-balancers to handle such amount of traffic don’t grow on trees either. Yet, they are able to make a profit from it, real money profit! Without resorting to RMT, without breaking any rules. Isn’t that an achievement? Maintaining such a site really takes a considerable effort, not to mention the idea to start the thing.
“SOMER Blink does not enrich my EVE experience”. Okay. It might not enrich Your gaming experience, but it does for others. Why? Because if they feel like it, they can go and gamble. If one pays for their EVE subscription with GTCs, there is really no difference for such a person to go buy GTC directly from Markee Dragon, or through Blink. It’s exactly the same amount in USD that one has to pay. Yet in the latter case player gets free Blink credit, that can be turned into ISK. Isn’t that a great service? It’s simply bonus ISK with every GTC you buy.
So it might seem that I am white-knighting for CCP and that they are completely without a fault here. Well, not completely without a fault. While I don’t question motives behind awarding Blink with rewards, I agree that CCP has been giving their prizes in a haphazard way and without a transparent procedure. They should never give rewards such as these in secret. After the T20 incident, CCP has promised players transparency. This transparency requires that every kind of reward from developers to players should be made public. Community has never complained when CCP granted limited edition ships to Alliance Tournament winners, because both the rewards and the winners were always made public.
In the end it saddens me a bit, that because of the outrage this giveaway has stirred in the community, CCP has held giving out more rewards. That means that neither Chribba, nor Sindel, nor anyone else doing the great job of enriching EVE experience of others, is not going to get a limited edition ship for their hard work.