Minus the plex buying, it is what they do, buy articles for isk, get money from adds.
TMC or Evenews24 doesnt buy just any article from anyone either.

I should unsub because I don't really care about this BLINK drama? That doesn't make any sense. I'm not even that sure of what's going on, I just came back to the game.

Something about SOMER giving people ISK for using his referral link. Then CCP Falcon being really engaged, something, something.

If proven to be true, this is another scandal, Somerblink RMTing. That would mean Somerblink and Co cheated, manipulated outcomes of blinks and winners to benefit them because when it comes to real money, people get weird and would do anything to keep making money. Somerblink defraued people who played on their site and your game was the vehicle that they used to perpetrate their activities. They have cheated the community and CCP. I am not a lawyer, but I would say that this is fraud and the numbers involved are astronomical. I have played Somerblink over the years and have seen some shady/questionable things. Whenever someone is found guilty, the punishment usually includes restitution. Other players and myself that have played with large sums of isk should be compensated. At least the amount of tokens and 5% of deposited funds should be rewarded to all players. Be assured that Somblink's coffers can take the hit.

You have to ask yourself at what point will/would Somerblink start changing the dynamics of our game? Just like the giant corporations in the real world, they are not too big to fail. Shut them down.

Maybe so tbh I've not even bothered my head about it, all I know (in full transparency) is that I've walked away up more than 20bn and somewhat disgusted that the toxicity (which is far more low and disgusting than anything somer may or may no have done) behind some of the more vocal efforts to bring somer down appears to be legitimised by all this even if somer is guilty and even if some of the concerns voiced about somer were purely altruistic.

There are plenty of reasonable and intelligent non-goons as well and I feel this tendency devalues their input.

Except that they had authorisation from CCP. See, RMT results in a permaban IF it can be shown to be RMT AND it's not authorised by CCP. If you're going to throw out the blanket statement "RMT is punishable by permaban" then anyone who's ever bought PLEX and sold it for isk is in line for a permaban. Because that's RMT. It's trading real money for in-game money. The only difference is, CCP allows it.

The REAL difference here, of course, isn't that CCP approved Somer's promo, it's that it was Somer. Again, this whole debacle has just been another "Grr Somer", brought to you by people just looking to make mountains out of molehills.

I don't care about Somer one way or the other, but if you were a victim of an unsubstantiated witchhunt, it'd probably be easier for you to just disappear, don't you agree?

That would be fine, provided the crowd didn't kill you first based on circumstantial assumption, bias, and the fact that they just never liked you to begin with.

I love how everyone is demanding justice!!!

Justice to you idiots would be Somer being banned, in turn banning every user who took part in Somerblink for bonus rewards and or "the new plex system" basically crippling eve online because 50% of users in eve played blink at some point.

Everyone is going by the assumption that somer's mails he advertised on the site aren't legit, should they turn out to be accurate and true and the intent behind the new RMT scheme was legit, who then takes the blame?

Surely banning somer or the punishment should be equal to those who took part?

GÇ£It is better to risk saving a guilty person than to condemn an innocent one.GÇ¥

Surely banning somer or the punishment should be equal to those who took part?

And we are assuming CCP will decide on the difference between bad faith and good faith?

Taking into account the start of this entire mess in the first place being CCP giving faction ships? Endorsing it?

Somer may or not be innocnet but this worthless speculation by everyone is becoming tireless. My personal belief is that this has always been a labor of love for Somerset and the somerblink staff. I fail to see a reason to undermine and possible destroy it. Maybe this was a reasonable misunderstanding maybe it wasn't but spinning this one way or another doesn't benefit anyone :/

This thread is the sole reason USA needs military vehicles for their police forces. Mob justice is king and no one listens to the 99% who are trying to act in a sensible manner.

Only way to crack down on a mob is to have bigger toys and actively use them.

"When elephants start to fight, the grass will always smashed the ground"

Somer vs CCP.. The grass is the innocents K1ng Splurge talks about.

This is just the case.

I wont believe that CCP is %100 innocent, also Somer did things against some rules. It is obvious. They should not drop the ball because Somer closes its doors.

The party who punish the guilty is the one also a part of the problem. THat makes me thinkg that If they will be fair or not... I except them to be righteous, and treat Somer like every other RMT'er. That at least, maybe calm the community and they could gain a wee bit trust that they lost during the process.

Abrazzer's post, maybe.

Neither has Bernie Madoff's ponzi scheme

So to sum it up Somer tried to play CCP sales rep, got burned for it and closed the business while giving back some of those hard scammed ISK for his cows ?

Anything I missed when I skimmed the last 20 pages ?

I just think banning somer having blink be dead does more harm to more people than good. Yes somer closed blink not CCP I get that but the two are related obviously.

Maybe it's just me, but I think this is most obvious and both sides - CCP and Somer - should have avoided leaving this open.

I want to say this yes I agree both sides are right, but why now, I remember a news post from CCP themselves in 2012

I like the fact that SOMERblink tried to get around any problems by the use of 'clever' wording.

Did they get a lawyer to devise the wording for them?

Mittens perhaps?

The above is a joke by the way.

So after Somer Blink done with the reinbursment, they shall get the well deserved permanent ban for RMT and the reputation damage they done to CCP right?

Does the EULA exist as an abstract codified set of law that MUST BE ENFORCED just for the sake of enforcing it? NO. The EULA exists to allow CCP to do what they need to in order to PRESERVE THE INTEGRITY OF THE GAME. The integrity of the game is the principle, the "spirit of the law" if you will, which the EULA exists to codify. But as with all such things, written law can never fully capture the spirit of its intent, and sometimes even comes into conflict with that intent.

Finally, the crux... if you were CCP, and your EULA against RMT existed to protect the integrity of the game, and you see Somer doing a verifiable but somewhat low key ISK->$ scheme that doesn't seem to be harming the integrity of the game in any fashion while possibly even boosting PLEX sales, are you going to crack down and enfroce the EULA "just because", or are you going to understandably turn a blind eye? More importantly, what SHOULD you do, again understanding that the EULA doesn't exist just to be enforced for no reason but rather as a tool to allow CCP to protect the integrity of their game?

Tell me what's gonna happen to Lisa?

fixed.