The Botting / RMT Issue

Ravens are the devil.

Time to put my stance on this down on paper, as it were.

What is your stance on botting?

In a perfect world, I'd like to see it completely eliminated. I worry that CCP may be taking an 'all or nothing' approach when it would seem to be more effective and efficient to follow a phased plan. But I do not know exactly what CCP is doing or planning with regard to this specific issue so uninformed speculation isn't really productive.

How far are you willing to go with discussions regarding botting?

This really depends on what CCP has to say on the issue when asked about it. It is certainly a topic that will persist on my agenda until they provide satisfactory answers and evidence of taking action to eliminate the plague of bots in the game. Personally, I would like to see them have a team devoted to this issue as I feel botting does more to unbalance game play than almost anything else in EVE.

It's a problem that has to be approached with a realistic assessment of how willing people are to take the easy way out (especially when punitive responses from CCP are laughably light), how determined they are to to do so, and how sophisticated and pervasive the software is. It's unclear whether CCP is being realistic with themselves about the problem, but it's pretty hard for them to claim ignorance given the information collected by players and provided to CCP over the years... especially in the last few months.

Are you aware of the full extent of botting? Are you aware of the full extent of RMTing? (ie Alliance leaders RMT'ing through renters)

All too well aware, yes. If you are familiar with the series of articles published by E24, I was one of the people poking Manfred to, "Well, say something about it. See if anyone else speaks up as well."

I've initiated conversations with several players in the past months about this issue and it's also something I get asked about constantly. I plan to put a lot of effort into keeping the issue on the table and making sure CCP addresses it.

What do you think about micro-transactions?

I think this is inevitable because CCP is a business and they want to make money. There are certainly a lot of things in EVE that have the potential to be developed as MT items. I am completely opposed to MT allowing you to pay for anything that you can currently achieve through normal game play though. For example, you shouldn't be allowed to go out and buy a Tobias warp disruptor for $$$. I have no issues with MT for vanity items or things which do not directly affect game play. If someone wants to pay $1.50 for a pair of Minmatar-skin boots, that's up to them.

Plex for Remaps - for or against?

Against.

What do you think about plex for ship customization?

This falls into the same area as my MT answer - if it's a vanity thing and not an actual 'game play' item, that's up to you to decide.