November 20, 2012

A Premature Ban

Recently one of MVN's finest (Psyco Groupie) got home from an oversea business trip to find all his accounts banned. Given PGs position in not only MVN but -A- in dealing with logistics and his worldwide travels (affecting his IP addresses) we immediately assumed RMT stink from renters may have been passed on to him combined with IP logs or some other such eventuality. As it turned out, a character he purchased from EVE-O Forums had previously been involved with RMT was the reason for the mass ban. We were baffled at the lack of cooperation from CCP when petitions were filed to ask for review; the fact that PG is a baller in real life who personally raises Icelands GDP with the amout of plex he purchases each year only added to the puzzlement. After demanding another GM (perhaps one more open minded and less influenced by "external" factors) Psyco was indeed correct and had done nothing wrong. They gave him a generous amount of game time for his many accounts and he is getting underway as we speak. I have heard interesting stories floating lately about RMT and MVN-let me be clear. MVN left IT dirt poor. We had 2 bill in corp wallet and our "severance" package from IT was shit. While other corps spent their time in IT ratting in titans and supers to RMT (and continued that tradition in their future alliances...) we were fighting in Fountain. The supercapitals our corp have now have come from our members pockets. With no free isk from technetium guarded by allies on the other side of EVE we have built our supercapital numbers the hard way.

PG had this to say after this whole debacle:


"To all that have asked, CCP finally escalated the petition for Psyco Groupie and his accounts to another GM. PG had legally bought 2 accounts on the forums, and these accounts had previously transferred assets to those owners main accounts previous to the purchase.  It turns out that owner left EvE and RMT’d all the isk.

So without actually bothering to check dates for these illegal transfers and when the toons were purchased legally, a Senior GM banned all of PG’s accounts, and refused to provide proof or listen to the clear argument against ‘selling in-game items for real world money’ – For all of you that know PG in real life, you all probably find that part the most comical of all of this (he does well in real life).

While we fully support CCP's efforts against RMTing, in his unholy rage a potentially biased Senior GM overshot his target.  We are glad that a thorough investigation by the appeals process has fully reinstated all accounts of PG and has provided substantial PLEX compensation as well as an apology.

It is unfortunate that reckless behavior of single Senior GM can affect an alliance in-game for weeks and mar CCP reputation for impartial customer service process. At this time we eagerly anticipate results of the internal affairs review being conducted by CCP into activities of said GM.

We will keep everyone updated as situation continues to evolve."