You should actually work in some sort of prize if someone successfully maliciously impersonates someone else in EVE. Like some concord LP or something if you pull off a tight scam.

Sincerely,

JEFFRAIDER,
Goonswarm Talent Management Specialist

It's my understanding that this was already (recently) banned by TOS or impersonation policy somewhere.

Greetings pilots,


We would like to address your concerns regarding the update to article 8 of our TOS that was published yesterday. Some basic information on how we deal with issues that come up regarding impersonation is therefore appropriate.

All cases are investigated individually on a case by case basis. If there are complications or difficulties in reaching a solution cases are moved to senior game masters, which happens a lot with the impersonation issues that are reported to us. There are no magic catch-all rules and policies to cover every eventuality so they must interpret the rules we have in place and apply them to the issue at hand in order to keep the peace. For all practical purposes there has been no change in how impersonation issues will be handled compared to the last few years. The TOS update reflects the way reported cases of impersonation have been handled by Customer Support for a long time. The rules applied have been buried in our naming policy and EULA but have now been placed in plain view in order to better help players to make decisions on how they interact with one another.

As cases are investigated GMs look at the information that is available, one of the important considerations being the intent behind a playerGÇÖs actions. Benevolent roleplaying of NPC entities may not be considered to warrant action in regards to impersonation while malicious activity employing such trickery will not be tolerated.

One concern is that we have pretty much banned all scams in EVE. Clearly, this is not the case.


Thank you and fly safe.

Apparently you've become the new Hans Jagerblitzen ... apologizing on behalf of CCP for things you're not familiar with. This might be a case of improper impersonation. :)

The situation described was never illegal, unless the person named their character in such a way to pose as an alt. For instance, real alts name is leo (lowercase L) and the faker named a character as Ieo (uppercase i). This was covered in the NAMING POLICY and was bannable.

The act of just stating that you're an alt of someone (with no naming violations) was not against the TOS previously.

Previously, if I wanted to fly around (as Poetic) and claim that I was an Ali Aras alt, and scam ISK out of people for some purpose (perhaps campaign finances), I could do so freely. Now, according to the TOS, I will be banned for doing so.

The TOS changes are there to protect really stupid people, apparently. People incapable of doing a Google search, or sending an EVEmail to Ali Aras to confirm.

Apparently you've become the new Hans Jagerblitzen ... apologizing on behalf of CCP for things you're not familiar with. This might be a case of improper impersonation. :)

The situation described was never illegal, unless the person named their character in such a way to pose as an alt. For instance, real alts name is leo (lowercase L) and the faker named a character as Ieo (uppercase i). This was covered in the NAMING POLICY and was bannable.

The act of just stating that you're an alt of someone (with no naming violations) was not against the TOS previously.

Previously, if I wanted to fly around (as Poetic) and claim that I was an Ali Aras alt, and scam ISK out of people for some purpose (perhaps campaign finances), I could do so freely. Now, according to the TOS, I will be banned for doing so.

The TOS changes are there to protect really stupid people, apparently. People incapable of doing a Google search, or sending an EVEmail to Ali Aras to confirm.

didn't that whole alt thing originate from some guy awoxing freighters with a vindicator after he applied to the freighter pilot's corp claiming to be the freighter pilot's alt? which was, until that spree, completely legit?

Apparently you've become the new Hans Jagerblitzen ... apologizing on behalf of CCP for things you're not familiar with. This might be a case of improper impersonation. :)

So some idiot was dumb enough to let someone into his corp that claimed to be an alt of one of his members without taking the very minimal precaution of checking this postulated fact, then took the time and trouble to petition his own stupidity and somehow got a positive result from the GMs, thus reinforcing his know nothing not my responsibilty attitude, and somehow setting a precedent on the matter

Look lets all be clear on one point, because it's perhaps possible some people don't know what precipitated this change.

CCP recently banned multiple people for pretending to be someone they were not. They did not make similar looking names, they did not make a corp that looked similar enough, or avatars designed to look the same. They just said "Hey, look we are all that guy".

Under the old wording of the rules, that was **not** against the rules.
Under the new wording of the rules, that was **definitely** against the rules.

Yet CCP are trying to sell this change as something they have totally always done and no change is happening honest, despite the fact the change has literally been made so that the rules can be applied, as written, in the above scenario where they couldn't before.

CCP, it might be helpful (customer relations 101 ITT) if you didn't communicate with your playerbase by citing easily demonstrable lies as justification for a change. Wait, no, it's not a change. It's the same but it's not the same. I can't keep up.

I'm not even against those guys getting banned, I'm just violently against you lying and saying you're not changing the wording so it will apply in more situations, when that is exactly why you've done it.

I am waiting for DUST to die already so at least they are only paying attention to 2 games, not three.

So some idiot was dumb enough to let someone into his corp that claimed to be an alt of one of his members without taking the very minimal precaution of checking this postulated fact, then took the time and trouble to petition his own stupidity and somehow got a positive result from the GMs, thus reinforcing his know nothing not my responsibilty attitude, and somehow setting a precedent on the matter

Hello everyone, my name is Carmaine of The Awesome Corp and I would like to announce to everyone in this thread that I have started the EVE PlayerGäó group as well as the carebearGäó, pirateGäó and pvperGäó groups!

"It's my understanding that..." isn't "apologizing" or "defending" CCP. I'd say stop being an idiot, but you're incapable of it.

Care to make a more meaningful contribution after the GMs response than "Poetic, you're wrong"?

IF that's the only indication of a preset "yes you can" or "no you can't", can we get a link or a citation as to what happened? (I want to discern details out of what can normally happen in Eve everyday versus getting banned =/)

"You may not create a character for the purpose of stealing the name and likeness of another player, or non-player entity. Inaccurate claims of identity are otherwise permitted."

Wouldn't that work a little better, and provide a clearer guideline for what is and isn't allowed?

You appear to be confusing the CSM with CCP employees. Even if they wanted to make a more meaningful contribution, it isn't up to them what the rules are. CCP needs to step in and actually clarify things.

The situation described was never illegal, unless the person named their character in such a way to pose as an alt. For instance, real alts name is leo (lowercase L) and the faker named a character as Ieo (uppercase i). This was covered in the NAMING POLICY and was bannable.

The act of just stating that you're an alt of someone (with no naming violations) was not against the TOS previously.

Totally agree. But I would much rather he'd said "I'm pursuing this" than "hurf blurf, poetic you be butt hurt" (although Poe is wrong)

False. Here's the news item, and here's a TMC article containing a convo in which a serial awoxer gets warned for pretending to be people's alts. He's not changing his name, just putting "Ali Aras's alt" in the application text and stupid people clicked "invite to corp".

N.B, nowhere in this post in the previous have I shared any opinion on the policy itself. I'm just making sure everyone's working from the actual facts here.