Do you also think that giving Red Vs. Blue advertisement was wrong?

Competitors like E-Uni will have harder time.

If fan-sites etc are rewarded with isk, be it in the form of rare ships or whatever, could it not lead to a situation whereby some folk will learn how to milk-abuse the rewards system?

I'll draw some lines for you:

Don't give out anything that can undock unless it's a part of a CCP organized event.
Don't take actions that directly increase the profits of an existing enterprise (e.g. don't tie item giveaways to Blink usage).
Giving out plexes to media people is ok.

Not that hard really.

A reasonable question, but I don't know anything about this, and so will not tender an opinion.

The two aspects of this that bug me are:
- It was not announced at the time. This makes it seem sketchy, especially since the value of the IWS in player eyes is based on how many there are.
- It was given to a for-profit enterprise. SB is a for-profit website. They make plenty of ISK doing their normal operations.

When I kill sleepers and sell their delicious gooey insides, that's my "normal operations" and I make plenty of ISK doing it.

So why exactly are they getting rewarded any more than me? It's not like they're providing a community service for free the way E-UNI or Chribba or any number of other people are.

I would be totally okay with stuff, even in-game stuff, being given to people who donate their time for the benefit of the whole community, as long as it's given out in the open.

But giving stuff to people who have as their primary goal making money off the stupidity of other EVE players? Yeah, no. That's basically saying, "Here. You're so awesome at making money that we're going to give you EVEN MORE money."

What is the differents between those items and a IWS?

That's what we're pausing until we have a better system the community feels better about; All selective give-aways of rare in-game items.

If you say items you can't undock, do you also mean not tradable? Or why does the undocking part matter? And 1B ISK ship has the same value as a 1B monocle, no?

A reasonable question, but I don't know anything about this, and so will not tender an opinion.

We recognize that gifting rare in-game items of potential ISK value proactively to select third-parties, whether as prizes for them to hand out or as a personal thank-you, can have implications no matter how well-meaning you are. We realize that for example in the IWS reward situation, a line was crossed in many peopleGÇÖs minds despite there being certain similarities with previous gifting events. Where the line of acceptability lies is something we need to work out together before we move forward.

Should we stick to out-of-game things only? Create non-transferrable in-game items as rewards? Give no personal rewards and only prizes? Only items below a certain expected ISK value? Always give out tons of stuff at once so early recipients canGÇÖt cash out? List all rewards publicly?

Except that the podcast is presumably written for entertainment purposes, to the benefit of everyone who wants to read it. Anybody, even those who don't play EVE, can go listen to the podcast for free. In that way, they're providing a community service for free.

If they had received ISK and ships for just doing PVP without the podcast...that's more like what's happening there. SB is being rewarded for running a business in game.

How long until CCP rewards the ISK doublers? Because that's basically the same thing.

We needed a line in the sand. I provided it. Just that simple.

If people want to put monocles on their furries, I don't give a crap. If people want special unique ships in a spaceships sandbox, I give a crap.

Hence the line in the sand; Don't give out anything that can undock unless it's a part of a CCP organized event.
It's up to the community at large if they agree with this position.

Gambling is also for entertainment :D If not that then for what?
The podcast had advertisment (for SOMER Blink, hehe), that means the listeners were the product.
If you want to take part in a Tournament you also need to have an active account.

Do ISK doublers (the scammers) give out billions of ISK for ingame events?

If people want to put monocles on their furries, I don't give a crap. If people want special unique ships in a spaceships sandbox, I give a crap.

Hence the line in the sand; Don't give out anything that can undock unless it's a part of a CCP organized event.
It's up to the community at large if they agree with this position.

the market is still part of the sandbox, unless the item is nontransferable the issue persists regardless of whether it can undock or not.

I'm taking a dinner break. Going home for pizza and then I'll check in again! Thanks for the responses so far.

if you have pineapple as a topping, you're a terrible person.

Meh, the market for monocles and thousand dollar jeans is not that large and saturates far more readily. If that wasn't the case, we'd have seen far, far greater development of incarna/WiS by now.

No one would have batted an eye if CCP gave Somer 20 monocles instead of 20 IWS.

"as long as it doesn't affect my corner of the sandbox" is a bad justification.
either the rewards should affect the sandbox, or they shouldn't.

nobody massively cared that they got scorpions, the fact that CCP seem to be showering blink with benevolence and half of which was done in secret is what made eyelids bat. mostly the combination, individually i doubt either would have stirred up much interest either.

For the time being we are pausing all plans for rare in-game rewards to select third party contributors. We want to carefully consider your feedback and determine what our framework should be and what improvements to the level of transparency are needed so that the rewards program serves its intended purpose of making the EVE Universe a better place.

ThatGÇÖs it for now, let us know your thoughts.

if you have pineapple as a topping, you're a terrible person.