Monetizing EVE Twitch Streams: 1ronBank

Yesterday CCP Falcon posted in the news channel about a change in the policy covering the monetization of EVE Online by video makers. Besides renaming the policy to the "Monetization of Videos and Streaming Policy", CCP added the following language:

"Videos and streams may also not be used to generate real world revenue by offering in-game ISK and/or assets as incentives to subscribe to a paid service such as a Twitch channel subscription or other subscription service.

"If in-game assets are used in giveaways to promote popularity of a stream or video, there must be full parity between users who are viewing the content for free and those who are subscribed, and all viewers of content must have the same access to giveaways and the same chance to win prizes regardless of any subscription fees paid.

"Use of in-game assets for subscription-only based prize draws and incentives constitute real money trading (RMT). This is against our policies."

Yes, the policy is pretty clear. But will that prevent the space lawyers from arguing edge cases anyway? Please! EVE Online players not space lawyering? So in the interest of maintaining my position as a space lawyer in good standing, I'll analyze the most obvious edge case: 1ronBank.

1ronBank is a Twitch streamer famous for giving away large amounts of EVE Online in-game objects and currency on his streams. The format of his EVE-centric streams is that of a game show.

Is Angry CONCORD Guy Angry With 1ronBank?

Players enter a raffle to win a chance to become a contestant in one of 1ronBank's games. In the game pictured above, contestants start with a 2 in 3 chance of picking a winning box, with the odds changing depending on the choices made by previous contestants. In theise raffles, viewers can only purchase one ticket per drawing. 1ronBank also holds something called "infinite raffles" in which viewers can purchase as many raffle tickets as they like in order to win a really big prize.

How do viewers acquire raffle tickets? By using a virtual currency called "Iron", with each ticket costing five iron. Iron is acquired by activity in the chat channel, with two iron credited to a viewer for typing in chat every five minutes during an active stream. Viewers can also earn 2 iron every 20 minutes for leaving their browser logged into the Twitch page. I'm not sure if viewer have to chat every 20 minutes to receive any iron, though. Iron is also acquired through a game that runs in the chat channel, which means potentially the Twitch stream is hosting some sort of game 24 hours a day.

Where 1ronBank gets into trouble is the boost given to subscribers in getting iron. Subscribers get a 3 times modifier for the amount of iron earned. That means that a subscriber receives enough iron to purchase a raffle ticket every 5 minutes while a non-subscriber can only purchase raffle tickets every 15 minutes. That difference violates the language in the revised policy:

"If in-game assets are used in giveaways to promote popularity of a stream or video, there must be full parity between users who are viewing the content for free and those who are subscribed, and all viewers of content must have the same access to giveaways and the same chance to win prizes regardless of any subscription fees paid."

1ronBank also runs afoul of the new language due to the restrictions placed on non-subscribers in winning. Subscribers can play as often as they like while non-subscribers can only win once per day.

So in order to comply, 1ronBank will need to remove the unequal rates of iron gain and equalize how often viewers can win raffles. Also, the unlimited raffles, in which subscribers have an advantage in the number of tickets they can purchase, will also need modification.

But if that occurs, how many people will stop subscribing? The main draw of the stream is the game show that gives away EVE Online in-game items and currency. That potentially is hundreds of dollars of revenue lost every month.

Now to bring up a question that has puzzled me for months. Is 1ronBank really an EVE Online streamer? The more I watch, the more the answer, in my honest opinion, is no. Does the presence of Fedo and PLEX graphics with a EVE Online trailer or PvP video running in the background really make the game show an EVE Online stream? I don't think so. And if 1ronBank is not an EVE Online stream, then the channel's raffles and giveaways break a lot more of the EULA than the new rules posted yesterday.