I attempted a suicide gank against The Wis today. It was a feeble attempt collect a bounty - 3b isk is a lot of money and a Thrasher was a small price to pay at a chance to get it. Do I feel The Wis is in any way responsible for this week's drama? Nope -- I assure you this was for the spaceship money.

He pulled out in a well-tanked cane and successfully got me and a T2 fitted Tornado blown up by Concord. I convo'ed him afterwards and complimented him on his successful bait.

Imagine that - he's playing the game the same as everyone else. The Wiz is not a "victim" - he is another eve player who happened to send the email that Mittens made an ass out of himself reading. (Let's not beat around the bush - Mittens was wrong for his actions and statements but let's try and avoid bringing that up here)

So, ridiculous people on an internet forum - should I be banned for harassment? I don't think so, however, some of you frothy types and CCP's own actions have put people being banned for similar actions in the realm of possibility and I have begun to worry.

I'm not going to argue about whether CCPs actions against The Mittani are warranted, but I will say this: The line for harassment needs to be clearly distinguished again. I'm not going to risk an EULA violation against my main character if all it takes to get banned is killing the same person 3-4 times in a day. What if he tells me he'll do something drastic if I kill him again? Is it now my responsibility, as a player of a /game/, to act appropriately for an individual who cannot distinguish reality from virtual spaceships?

Should I additionally suffer real-world consequences for not taking to heart some person's ranting?

People say stupid things when they're angry and upset. I've received death threats playing this game - like "I'm going to find you and kill you" type threats. Things that really make you pause. I discount them as the ramblings of someone who is obvious upset and let them slide. Being able to make the distinction between innocuos bile and an actual threat isn't necessary - we assume that the anonymity of the internet protects us and move on. If we are really worried we can petition CCP for action against that person's account. (If we're really ballsy we run for CSM and give our names out to a player base that hates us in real life for actions in a game)

Now what if someone I don't really know told me they were going to kill themselves because I blew up their ship? Just like the death threat I have no way of verifying the validity of that statement in the context of this person's mental state. However, is it my duty to report this person to CCP? Can we continue to shoot said person or move forward in a scam if such a statement is made mid-action? It may sound cold, but as a player of a game, we cannot police what we do not know and it should not be our responsibility to nanny a players mental well-being.

If I saw someone on the street about to jump off a ledge of course I'd stop and try and help, but this is a game and there is no ledge. No indication that what the person is saying holds any merit. Without context, the words are nothing but text on a screen.

It's really easy to take the moral high ground on these issues, especially when it's backed by vehement disdain for the parties involved. However, before making any rash decisions or labeling a large group of players "psychopaths" you should calm down, breath, take a step back and look at the policy implications of what you're describing.

In the past, people have been very clearly targeted for one reason or another - be it a corp you wardec'ed because they popped your low sec POS or said something mean about you in local. Hell, my alliance is in perpetual war dec with high sec griefing corps for no other reason than "we make easy targets". People have been targeted for writing articles on EN24 that were unfavorable towards certain alliances. In fact, whenever we're near BrickSquad..... (is that the right amount of dots?) now, we make it a point to single out and blow up Riverini or Darius III whenever possible. People pay for corpses of individuals. Entire Merc corps make a living out of "destroying" pilots. I could go on and on with examples of how individuals are targeted.

Where do these fall under the potentially new interpretation of harassment?

This is part of the narrative in Eve - it's what makes it interesting and dynamic for a large portion of the player base. If we set aside The Wiz's "suicide" statement (which, mind you, we do not have the context to identify its validity or intent), he is just another pawn in this narrative and perfectly ok playing this game.

So I pose this to CCP: Am I to be banned because his role in this narrative is already written permanently simply due to protection offered by words without context?