"It is great news to get a defined policy to follow and very much welcomed by vloggers and streamers."Occasionally I wish I hadn't started writing about real money trading. Personally, I don't consider the subscriber-only giveaways CCP banned as of 1 July as real money trading. A violation of Section 6B of the EULA? Sure. But CCP states directly in the Monetization of Videos and Streaming Policy:
"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.So I get to address the issue.
"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."
I think the two streamers most people pointed to who violated the new policy were TheMittani.com and 1ronBank. First, let's look at the easiest case to understand, TMC.
TMC had two practices that violated the new policy. First, they performed subscriber-only giveaways using in-game items. Secondly, they also weighted the odds towards subscribers in giveaways in which both subscribers and non-subscribers participated. Two practices that The Mittani stated TMC would cease on 27 June on The Meta Show. CCP Falcon appeared on the broadcast and explained the policy near the beginning of the show.
The second Twitch stream in question is 1ronBank. I watched the 3 July stream and, despite the quote at the beginning of this post, he claimed he didn't understand what he could and could not do. He also stated he attempted to contact CCP several times with questions and never received a response. Not a good start.
1ronBank did make changes in order to comply with the revised policy. Both subscribers and non-subscribers can only win in-game items once per stream. For his infinite raffles in which people may purchase as many tickets as they want with iron, 1ronBank's virtual currency, he will only offer out-of-game prizes. Yes, PLEX codes purchased from a reseller are out-of-game prizes.
Despite the changes, I do not believe 1ronBank is in full compliance with CCP's policy. In order to enter a raffle, people must still purchase tickets with iron. Subscribers earn iron at 4 times the rate as non-subscribers. As long as the iron is given out at uneven rates, I believe that 1ronBank is in non-compliance and faces CCP reporting him to Twitch for violating CCP's proprietary rights to EVE Online.
Quite frankly, my big concern isn't whether CCP decides to ban 1ronBank. My concern is that 1ronBank's actions could get one or more of his viewers permanently banned from EVE. In addition to a affiliate link to authorized PLEX reseller Markee Dragon, 1ronBank is also a partner of G2A, an unauthorized reseller of PLEX. G2A doesn't have the best reputation and earlier this year found itself involved in the scandal in which EA's Origin website sold thousands of Ubisoft game keys to people using stolen credit cards. Polygon reported that sellers on G2A sold around 2000 of the fraudulently acquired game keys.
One of the better known facts about game publishers is that they hate credit card fraud with a passion. CCP is no exception. If a player redeems a PLEX purchased from an unauthorized PLEX reseller, and that reseller obtained the PLEX code through credit card fraud, the player can expect CCP to ban the player and all the player's accounts. Permanently. Purchasing game time codes from an authorized PLEX reseller is means players don't need to worry about getting banned.
Did I mention that 1ronBank intends to give PLEX codes as the prizes for his infinite raffles? Hopefully he buys the codes from someone like Markee Dragon instead of G2A. I'd hate to see players banned from EVE because they trusted the wrong person.
Hopefully, this is the last post I write concerning violations of CCP's policies by Twitch streamers. I have my doubts, but maybe people will act responsibly for a change. I know some people will, but for some reason people will try to push the boundaries and wind up getting burned.
