Or maybe its time to take advantage

To be honest with the way Eve is going why the hell not

Was it a big FU to CCP, of course it was, but since CCP apparently seem more interested in their side projects then Eve itself these days.. sod it

Hmm anyone have a link to where CCP said this is wrong and gave them a grace period?

Oh for the love of god, when will you people stop complaining?

CCP has set a strict deadline. 10 days and then all incentives and rewards in return for the use of affiliate links are to be gone. That's it. Until then anyone is free to do whatever they like. Taking advantage of the time you have left is not rocket science, any reasonably smart person would do this. See the Amazon mess up, people took massive advantage of that because they knew it could end at any minute.

Yeah because god forbid someone has a good idea and makes more money than the average Joe . Whether or not they need the money for server upkeep, I think SOMER had a good thing going and in a troubled economy like today that's something I like to encourage.

Let me spell it out for you; some random dude or dudette found a loophole in the game's rules and stands to make over half a million dollars from it. That's genius. That's real money. You people are acting like this is somehow hurting your real life. Are you being fired from your job because of SOMER? Are you forced to embrace SOMER and buy weekly PLEXes to keep your car running? Or did SOMER sell you a ridiculously high mortgage which you are bending over backwards to pay? Is SOMER spying on all your internet activity and phone calls and selling the information to make the money they are earning? Did SOMER break into your house and steal your first borne child?

Nope, SOMER hasn't done any of that. What this is and has been from the start is one big collective "WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA" because people can't STAND the idea of someone out-smarting them financially. First it was jealousy because they make tons of ISK. Then it was jealousy because they make tons of real money.

Show me one person who's real life was negatively affected by SOMER because they made some money? Are you going to protest the local grocery store because they are making money?

One of the more expensive comparies Host gator server and cost


Intel Xeon Quad Core, 3.3GHz (8 threads)
1 Gbps Uplink
16 GB High Performance RAM
1,000 GB RAID-1 Drives
25 TB Bandwidth
5 Dedicated IPs
WebMatrix Ready!

$299.00 a month

This is well over what they would need for a server and only $3600 a year

So how about we don't try the boo hoo about sever cost as they have already made over $135,000 from this community.

Ah yes, but it wasn't actually against any rules until CCP changed those same rules. If you want to believe the skewed rationalizations posted around the forums then feel free to do so. But the fact is that is that up until a few days ago, what SOMER was doing was perfectly legal within the EULA and the reseller agreement. And you can't punish someone for doing something that is legal. Simple as that.

Why is everyone hating on Somer?

I don't see what they have done wrong, they were given prizes from CCP and gifted ships from CCP, should they have refused them?

Everything that has gone wrong here is CCP's fault, you guys are just jealous the Somer came up with a good idea before you did.

isn't that completely in the spirit of EVE?

the issue is being resolved. the reaction, while not classy, seems kinda rational.

Hm, you'd think CCP would keep a close eye on stuff like this. Maybe check their website, play a few Blinks? Certainly before writing a spotlight about them and giving them tons of goodies to give away. So yeah I think it's pretty safe to assume CCP had a very clear understanding of the setup Somer uses. I refuse to believe that not a single CCP employee ever visited their website and not noticed the credit for GTC thing.

By extension that also means CCP didn't mind and thus approved their setup. And THAT by extension means that Somer's entire thing was legal or at the very least not illegal. It's really not rocket science.

You can then rage at CCP for showing favoritism and stuff, but don't blame Somer for something CCP did or didn't. They got the OK from CCP and carried on like normal. If you want to rage at someone, rage at CCP.

I don't see the problem here.

They were doing a legal thing.

CCP changed the rules and now it's not legal.

Suddenly, they have a bunch of worthless stock (ISK).

So they are trying to sell it at cut-rate prices so they recoup their investment. Just like any business.

Say you bought 10 cars to sell, and then someone tells you you won't be able to sell those cars in 10 days - you would sell them as cheap as you could to get your money back.

Now, given that what they were doing was really close to being illegal, and probably was against the spirit of the rules, this should have been shut down a long time ago with bans instead of being given in-game items for it. But it wasn't, it was allowed, so now we have to allow them 10 days to get their business in order again, which may include getting rid of as much ISK as they can to convert to real money.

They got what they want and i made out like a bandit too..

Like you didnt jump on the amazon mistake? lmao ... strike while iron is hot i always say

Did you just quote morals, on eve? something ive been getting **** for for like 2 weeks?

When was the last time you heard of an ISK seller being given 10 days to stop?

Coupled with the complete silence on CCP's side - it's pretty obvious.

Somer's said before that he talks to CCP before doing this sort of thing / checked with them before doing the 1b thing.

Yet they won't talk to us....

Way over the line buddy

True, but there's no need to take it into real life. The iron is also "hot" when you spot a Condor flying about with 30 PLEX in his cargo hold, or when someone puts an extra digit on a contract or market order.

It all depends on your perspective and which situational ethics you apply. Don't go quite too heavy on the ethical judgment there.

If it already was illegal, then why wasn't it stopped? Why did the rules have to change?

I'm just too new to care about Somer Blink at all. Only hear about it in articles I've been reading to get to know EVE better. Turns out there are a bunch of morons playing EVE who really want to gamble... well, just undock your ships and you're gambling already.

Who didn't know what Somer Blink was doing that they were 'exposed'? Other affiliates were also doing similar things. They had to change the policy to make it illegal. When you change a policy, you don't get to go back and ban someone for breaking that policy in the past, and you give time to allow people to match the new policy. If you don't, you're a bad business partner.

Whether it should have been legal or not is a different answer, of course. Of course it should have been against the rules and CCP should have been enforcing it that way, but they chose to interpret their policy as allowing it, which is their right to do.

Outrage! Favoritism! This should not be possible! It's all one big conspiracy I tell you!

They changed their interpretation of it, which is effectively the same thing.

Somer's been in operation for years.

Isn't is funny that once CCP give them some shiny ships all of a sudden everyone 'realises' that what they have been doing is RMT and 'breaking the rules'.

I'm sure CCP are really happy that you have figured out a player run organisation that's been doing the same thing for years is actually breaking the rules.

Damn, really wanted to read that devblog but like so many others (the $1000 pants one) it got "missing".
What was it again "the winners will write the past"?

You, and ppl like you, make me sick. For all the HTFU and WOW is that way crap that gets spewed on this forum, never have I seen such a collection of entitled, self-important whiners. For the vast majority of Eve players, this SomerBLINK nonsense has exactly ZERO impact on their game.

Please, CCP, don't mistake the forum pussies for the Eve player base. Most of us could care less.

Read the EULA, Genius. It isn't your stuff. It never was your stuff.

As for SomerBLINK, however screwed up the arrangement became, in the end, I believe CCP saw SomerBLINK GTC sales as another way to get and keep players in the game, another way to promote Eve Online. Was it haphazard and ill-thought out? yea, a lot of it was. And in the end, CCP changed their policy. End of story.

But my god, users of this forum want this to be fricken' Watergate. Give me a break.

As for being a Somer shill, I've never played SB, I've never bought GTC or anything else from them, and I generally consider gambling as a way to part fools from their money (or ISK, as the case may be.) I could care less if they vanished into thin air. I'm just bloody tired of the bitching and moaning, the tin-foil hattery, the absurd accusations and ideations of conspiracy and back-room deals.

Could CCP have handles this better? yea, probably. Could the community have reacted with a little more maturity and a little less self-entitlement? Judging by this and nearly ever other issue facing Eve players, probably not. That such a thing is true doesn't make it any less pathetic.

And where on earth could they possibly have gotten such an idea from?

The vast majority of the forums, in particular GD, is just spamming bullsh!t. People whining about the game and/or the players, and trolls trolling them. Maybe one thread in 20 is actually worth a read.

If the shoe fits, babycakes . . .

This subject took a turn for the worse long, long before I commented on them. The fact is that players of your ilk have been crying and whining about "unfair" and "favoritism" and all sorts of nonsense from the moment this issue broke the surface. It is not enough that CCP reversed their decision on the "special" ships for Somer's EveVEGAS activities, it is not enough that CCP decided to curtail the GTC bonuses, it is not enough that SomerBLINK can no longer conduct business as they have been used to doing, and in fact, the forum warriors see the fact that CCP gave the affiliates 10 days to comply is further evidence of collusion and conspiracy.

Pathetic.

You know, the cease and desist only says they can't provide ISK/in-game item rewards for purchasing GTCs.

It doesn't say that they can't provide out-of-game rewards for purchasing GTCs.

So all they have to do is create a new Blink or Bonk and only allow people who have purchased GTCs in the last month to participate in the chance to win some massive prize. Then, you're not giving people ISK for GTCs, you're just giving them access to an exclusive part of the website as "thanks".

There you go, SOMER. That's your new method for [redacted]. How soon can we expect to see it implemented?

Or you can implement my other suggestion: http://myevelotto.com/blink

Just trying to help a fellow lottery host.

A thread full of gamblers complaining that the people they give their ISK to are bad and need to be banned.

Has it occurred to any of you that if you could get your habit under control, you would have no reason to complain about Somer since they would have folded a long time ago?

Blaming others for your own failing is not a new strategy and entirely expected. But until you come to terms with your addiction, you will be the fools and sites like Somer will be the people taking advantage of you.

Mr Epeen

Don't know about that. The first time they did something that can obviously be seen as a way of sidestepping the rules, CCP gave them 10 days to cash out as much as they could...