Serious Internet Business

So there has been one hell of a shit storm kicked up in the aftermath of the Alliance Panel feature of Fanfest. The issue in question is that of a drunk Mittani's questionable content during his presentation, and the later suggestion that people may want to go grief a certain player into taking his own life.

There have been calls for Mittens to resign from the CSM, which he has offered to do but so far has not. These calls come both from the player base at large and also from a certain CSM alternate who almost wasn't (umadbro?). In my opinion this whole situation has been blown up to a ridiculous proportion for no particularly good reason other than pretend politicians politicking for their own perceived gain or players who think "Goons Are Evil" ™.

Now it was definitely wrong for Mittens to go down the route of naming this player and suggesting others go gank him to push him over the edge. It is questionable whether Mittens should have included the content at all, but this is the internet and people who air their private lives to people they don't know shouldn't really expect privacy. Mittens himself says being drunk is no excuse and he's correct. Traditionally throughout the drinking world more allowances are given to people who're inebriated unless someone has an ulterior motive to suggest otherwise.

Drunk or not,though, we do need to accept blame for stupid things we do. I bet nobody calling for Mittens' head on a stick can claim to have never ever done something stupid and hurtful to someone else, drunk or otherwise. To expect Mittens to resign off the back of this is somewhat hypocritical.

If you are one of these people calling for his resignation you need to ask whether you want him to resign because what he did is genuinely wrong (and you need to be sure you've never made such a mistake yourself - ever) or if you just want him to resign because he's the head Goon. If the former applies then is it really more harmful to the game to have him on the CSM considering the potential positive benefits he brings to the table? If the latter then you clearly don't actually care about Eve and are just looking to grief Mittens and are, thus, just as bad as the Goons themselves.

Just to be clear, I am not a Goon nor have I ever been one or plan on ever flying with them. I do not agree with their method of playing the game by ruining everyone else's game. I do find their antics amusing from time to time, even if they adversely affect me. I also did not spend any of my votes on Mittens, not that he would have needed them in any case.

What I do think is that Mittens has been good for the CSM and unlike a certain friend of mine I think the CSM does have a role to play in the future of Eve. If CCP use the CSM as a sounding board it is probably one of the most effective ways for CCP to determine if the next great feature idea is actually a great idea or yet another lemon. The big problem is the 'if' is not certain. What is certain is that CCP will not use the CSM if the CSM does not exist or is ineffective at what they are meant to do.

I'm going to leave this now but if you want a much better analysis of this whole issue then Jester has written a long post about this whole situation with even more links to more discussion.