The problem with these sort of issues is that people will spin them whatever way suits their prejudices as seen in the recent threadnaught.

In the case of the quote above, if CCP had stepped in and laid down the law then there could quite well have been more outrage for "interfering in the sandbox, blah blah".

It's a no-win situation in many ways.

"We need our Evil Emperors (TheMittani), our Tywin Lannister (Baltec1) and the other assorted scoundrels out there, we even need the phosphorescent green mold that accumulates under many space urinals (The New Order).

What we don't need is a Hannibal Lector mind humping his prey before eating their liver with a nice Chianti, it's not good press, it's not good for player retention and it is not good for the community.

That recording is truly awful and if it evokes such a primal response Eve players (arguably a harder bunch than average) imagine it in the hands of a politician that wants to add restrictions to gaming, mother's being asked for their cc# so a new guy can make an account etc.etc.

Our Hannibal is obviously extremely intelligent and he can change his act if he chooses to, so banning, not the best option in my opinion. He did a disgusting thing, but many things I see in this game, particularly in this thread, which seems to have attracted the worst of the worst in this game, sicken me. However, it's not my game to say what is acceptable; CCP and the community will have to decide." -Drone16

Have to agree here. I would like to think that the person "roleplaying" a truly reprehensible individual in game is not some sort of "spread the lotion on itself..." kind of guy in real life.

After all, the game is Rated:Teen, not 45 with peanut butter issues

I like the stance CCP took, keep the douchebaggery, but let everyone know there are limits that they will determine on a case by case.

So Telling someone to go off themselves is worth 3 months, While making a snide remark about someones speech impairment is worth a perma? Please tell me more about how thats even remotely fair...

But what if I write M...A...L..C...A...N...I...S in peanut butter on my chest? Can I get a discount?

This is obviously a witch hunt for ero's head by the dude that wrote that blog for personal reasons. He stirred up a **** storm that incited a riot not only be alot of the eve community, but other gaming communities as well. Then CCP was pretty much forced into actioning ero's account weather they wanted to or not. This probably got the victims account actioned as well too...

Okay lets buy your argument for just a second here...

Its really irrelevant as to when Ripard found out, its to when CCP found out. And it should have been found out when threads started getting locked in C&P. If they didnt know then, then someone needs to get in ISD's ass for dropping the ball. Because isn't it their job to moderate the forums and when something grossly breaks the rules to forward it to a game master for investigation? If CCP didn't know 8 months ago then take a wild guess at who wasn't doing their job....

Have I gone beyond a gank if I trash talk in local? Having the guy sing a few songs is not much different. Plenty of things in this game are not done for any real gain.

Have you actually listened to them? They are really not as bad as people make out. I can only think that a lot of people campaigning so hard against it are doing so because of the blog posts about it rather than first hand information. Anyone with a CSM member campaigning personally against them is going to stand little hope as so many people will side with them just because they are the CSM.

I must have missed the part where HE HIMSELF could have stopped that treatment AT ANY TIME and yet didnt.

DC from game, DC from TS, chalk it up to being stupid and start over. Why is this not HIS fault at all for not doing this? Why are we absolving the poor dumb guy of all responsibility for doing this? Is this the new EVE?

But this is certainly due to Ripard Teg there is no doubt about that. Pretty shameful imho. He must have lost a bonus round at some point. He seemed to have a great deal of understanding of it having never actually talked to anyone who participated in a Bonus Round.

I wonder how many assets Erotica1 got of him, and what songs he had to sing while he gave them away willingly.

Forcing Malcanis to lick his name -- written in any condiment -- off your chest would be considered abusive behavior, although TBH I am not sure who would be abusing whom in that particular instance.

Sure I've said things out of anger. I, however, have never and would never repeatedly hurl racist remarks at another individual, no matter what the circumstances. And I most certainly would not hurl abuse after choosing to perform random tasks asked of me over a computer game when I could easily walk away at any time.

So a small minority of the playerbase has been laughing about this for a long time. Unfortunately somebody with some influence dared to expose it to the wider community.

A lot of that wider community didn't know it was going on and was shocked. The response we all know about.

Does that make it right or justify it? No. Have CCP acted in accordance with their own moral compass as an organisation? Yes.

I knew about minerbumping.com 3 months ago but I didn't read it because it is of no interest to me. Does my ignorance make me complicit? I don't think so.

It's pretty easy to state that under no circumstance would I turn to racial abuse since I'm not in any way a racist. When you are pushed you tend to strike out more instinctively and say things before your mind has filtered them. Racist remarks are not filtered out during my every day speech, they are simply not generated to begin with, so while I may use a vast array of selected profanities when pushed beyond a limit, there is no situation ever in which I would hurl racist abuse voluntarily, regardless of my level of stress.

I certainly wouldn't use them in the way they were used on the recording. Have you actually listened to it? They are not just the odd word thrown out in a moment of anger, they are calculated racist attacks.

Sig: It puts the peanutbutter on itself or it leaves the bonus round... - E1's greatest Hits

Seemed to work well for him.

There are also so many groups of people who don't play that way that I would encourage anyone to try it. It is what you make it. When I go to Jita I shut my local window when in station (apart from a couple of minutes to work out the latest scams)

Most of my game involves none of this stuff - it's just spaceships and explosions. Don't be too sensitive about it - in context don't take it too far either.

I have to admit that now the question has been asked it's a bit puzzling why there has been no article on TMC.

I find it a bit hard to credit that they think the goat simulator is more important, even if it has a certain novelty value.

Cheers - seem to have been listening to a lot of podcasts recently =)

I am only partially through the cast but it perfectly covers this thread. All the same arguments have been used.

Oh god it's turning into RL examples and lawyering =(

Comparing what happened to any real life case is utterly pointless and I don't agree with that. Mike (who seems like a good guy) didn't endear himself to me with that.

I agree with you. Bad analogy.

This situation deserves equating to nothing apart from someone going too far. We've all done it - found ourselves in a situation where we forgot the line.