SOMERblink: Liquidation Sale

As game time code resellers and their affiliates scramble to comply with the change in the interpretation of how the GTC resellers agreement interacts with the EVE Online End License Users Agreement, one website is determined to milk the situation for all the real world money possible.  SOMERblink, the gambling website at the heart of the controversy, has raised its bonus for purchasing a 60-day game time code from Markee Dragon from 200 million ISK per GTC to 1 billion ISK per GTC.  Here is statement put out by SOMERblink on its front page:

As Seen on 1 November 2013

"CCP is changing policy and has asked that we discontinue the bonus credit program after November 7th.  So until then, enjoy a super-bonus of 1B Blink Credit for each 60-day GTC you buy!

"Thanks to everyone who has helped support our server costs by buying through the affiliate link :)

"The bonus will go away after the 7th, so we'll be investigating other options to cover the server expense after the GTC money runs out :)"

On Monday I posted an explanation of the policy that allowed giving away ISK for GTC referrals from the Chief Operating Officer of Shattered Crystal, Dennis Hutchinson...

When I pressed him for an explanation, Mr. Hutchinson first pointed me to point 2 of the EVE Time Code Bazaar rules, "Any form of ETC trading outside of the CCP created system is not permitted or supported by CCP." As I had also asked if he knew if CCP had approved of SOMERblink's "purchase GTCs, get ISK" promotion, he included that in his explanation...

"We are an authorized reseller so when the affiliate gives isk incentive to buy from us he is using the official ETC system. Shattered Crystal affiliate ###### and somer are doing the same thing. Somer gives blink credits which you gamble at a 20% loss to get isk, Shattered Crystal affiliate ###### leaves out the gamble part. It will probably be a few weeks until any official response is made by CCP, although I understand they are meeting about the situation. Anything that stops Shattered Crystal affiliate ###### scheme may do the same for somer. Somerblink has run for years and CCP has done so much with somer they just never got ask to make a direct decision about the incentives." [affiliate identification number edited out by me - NG]

I also wrote on Monday that I disagreed that the rules of the Time Code Bazaar should override the EULA and Terms of Service.  Apparently CCP's legal staff agreed, which has led to the shakeup.

One thing I found curious about the statement is the claim that SOMERblink will have no money coming in from GTC sales referrals after 7 November.  On its face that makes no sense.  CCP did not outlaw the ability of the GTC resellers from having affiliate programs.  They only told the resellers that their affiliates had to follow the EULA. 

The statement does make sense if Markee Dragon or SOMERblink plans to end the relationship.  From the description of the end of the business relationship between SOMERblink and Shattered Crystal given by Mr. Hutchinson, SOMERblink is probably getting a sales commission of 8% from Markee Dragon.  The normal rate is 5%.  I'm guessing that without the referral bonus, SOMERblink will not drive enough traffic to Markee Dragon to justify an 8% sales commission.  I have the feeling that SOMERblink is looking to use this as cover for why the business relationship is ending.  Whether SOMERblink can find another GTC reseller with an affiliate program willing to work with her is, in my view, questionable.

In the meantime the demand at SOMERblink is high.  In fact, Markee Dragon ran out of 60-day game time codes within 3 hours of the offer going live.  So the madness ended temporarily until Markee Dragon can purchase more time codes from CCP.  So will we see Markee Dragon end its relationship with SOMERblink before putting any more GTCs up for sale?  A lot of people are watching, wondering what will happen next.

SOMERblink: Headshot

I think that things are starting to settle down on the SOMERblink ISK for GTC sales front.  At 14:21 EVE time yesterday Katarina Reid, the player who CCP was allowing to run an ISK for GTC referral system on the EVE Online forums, made the following post:

Headshot Not sure if im allowed to link the letter given to resellers but it says to stop players trading ingame items for cash. ETC + bonus items may not be direclty or indirectly traded by the buyer for isk. EULA says cant sell ingame stuff for cash. 10 days for reseller to stop it or else. You can still support me for no reward when you buy your ETC's here $660 made for me 377 sale of ETC's $13,195 for CCP 188b given out

The letter apparently was shown to her by an employee at Markee Dragon, although Katarina didn't post the letter for fear of violating the EULA/ToS.  Good move as I think publishing violates point 18 of the EVE Online Terms of Service.  Also, when asked why he was ending the sale immediately, he replied, "Don't want to annoy GM's anymore and after 10 days it's a breach of reseller agreement. So I will shut it down now. I made my point."

UPDATE:  I've been informed by Marcus Eikenberry, the owner of Markee Dragon, that no one at Markee Dragon showed Katarina the letter.  After Mr. Eikenberry pointed this out, I reread Katarina's post and realized that it could also indicate she was contacted by Shattered Crystal, with whom she is an affiliate.  Shattered Crystal would have a definite interest in making sure that Katarina stopped giving out ISK for GTC referrals.  The link to Markee Dragon came from another post Katarina wrote in a different thread.

Also, in fairness, I think I should post the relevant part of Mr. Eikenberry's email:

"Your latest article you state that an employee at Markee Dragon provided the letter.  This is not correct.  Our employees have not seen the letter and we have not shared it with anyone.  Their source is someone else.

"I just want to make that very clear because the privacy of our business partners and customers is very important to us.  This would be a violation of trust and it would violate our privacy policy.   We would never share anything like this."

UPDATE 2: Katarina seems to have confirmed that she received the information from Shattered Crystal in this post.

I can confirm that Katarina's view of the letter is correct because a copy of the letter was in my inbox when I woke up Tuesday.  I received it from one of my many new contacts I've established while covering this story.  I can't quote from it due to the ToS.  However, I think I can safely state that the exact bonus scheme that SOMERblink uses was described as violating the EVE Online EULA, specifically Section 6B.

One important thing I think Katarina left out is that while the GTC resellers have 10 days to get their player affiliates in line, the letter did not state how long the player sites have to comply.  So I would think that websites would want to work quickly to comply.

One site which also ran an ISK for GTC referral system is EVE-GAMES.NET.  The site is an affiliate of BattleClinic Deep Space Supply.  The site quickly updated, stating, "We have discontinued the Time Code Bonus at the request of CCP."

Eve-Games.net new GTC referral page

I don't know of others except for SOMERblink.  As of 0800 EVE time today SOMERblink was still advertising their BlinkCredit promotion for purchasing game time codes from Markee Dragon on the site.

SOMERblink GTC referral page @ 2013.10.30 0754

Of course, just because one player site can change quickly doesn't mean all of them can.  Perhaps SOMERblink's web designer is only available on to work on the site on weekends.  So players should give SOMERblink a little time to get things straightened out.  Something tells me a lot of eyes will stare at that page in the coming 10 days.

SOMERblink, A SOMER Clone, And GTCs

When writing about illicit real money transactions (RMT) I know I will get some things right and other things wrong.  But I really thought I had read the EVE Online End Users License Agreement (EULA) and Terms of Service (ToS) correctly last Monday.  Both DNSBlack's and SOMERblink's model of converting in-game assets and currency for real world cash were clearly RMT unsactioned by CCP.  How could I get that wrong?  Everyone from FunkyBacon to James315 have pointed it out before I wrote about SOMERblink's model.  But as events over the past week showed, I did.

First Poll: Is SOMERblink Conducting RMT

If you visit the blog for the rest of the month instead of using an RSS feed you'll see my first ever Nosy Gamer poll question.

Do you believe that SOMERblink is engaged in RMT? If so, what should CCP do?

I've also embedded the question in this post for those who are using some sort of feed reader.  I don't know if it will actually work, though.

As always with internet polls of this nature, the results are completely unscientific.  I don't want people to think the all internet polls are bad, because they can be good if standards and best practices (and honest sample selection) are followed.  But this one is just to see what people who visit the blog think.

Also, apologies if this post loads a bit slow.

The Slippery Slope

Okay, so after opening my eyes and actually seeing that SOMERblink engages in RMT activity, I would think that sometime before the end of the year that CCP would seize the assets of the Cognative Distortion alliance and permanently ban the alliance executor, Somerset Mahm.  With GTC seller Markee Dragon having sold over 1 million EVE time codes, it is entirely conceivable that SOMERblink has made over $100,000 as an affiliate. That $100,000 figure I gave represents slightly over 57,000 time codes sold over two years.  Is it possible that SOMERblink has referred an average of 1,200 GTC sales a month to Markee Dragon over the past two years?  While I have no hard sales figures, I can believe that 5% of Markee Dragon's sales have come from SOMERblink.

UPDATE: 27 October 2013 -The link to the article on the CCP site, as well as a video put out by Markee Dragon himself, both refer to Markee Dragon as having sold over 1 million GTC.  But a source indicates that the 1 million is the number of GTC sold by Marcus Eikenberry the person, not Markee Dragon the website.  This seems to be confirmed by a story Mr. Eikenberry told in a video about helping to fund Goonswarm's wars.  I'm pretty sure he was referring to Goonswarm during the Great War, when Mr. Eikenberry was still with Shattered Crystal.

Also, a source at Shattered Crystal revealed that during SOMERblink's first 32 months, when it was an affiliate of Shattered Crystal, that SOMERblink received approximately $135,000 for GTC referrals.

But will that happen?  That entirely depends on CCP's relationship with SOMERblink.  The most important part of that relationship, at least for this argument, is what was Somerset Mahm told was allowable when first starting the enterprise.  If Somerset Mahm was told that this GTC for ISK scheme was allowable, I don't see how CCP can enact punitive measures for past actions. If that is the case, I think the most that could happen is for SOMERblink to stop the RMT offer.

If CCP told Somerset Mahm that the GTC for ISK scheme was allowable, it would not be the first time that CCP had told players to do something that violates the EULA and/or ToS.  Anyone remember the cache scraping controversy?  Yes, cache scraping is not allowed, but because a dev many years ago told players cache scraping was okay (and CCP subsequently put in features to make cache scraping easier), CCP is not enforcing that portion of the EULA.  Here is the statement from CCP Peligro concerning the use of cache scraping...

"After consulting with CCP Legal and Team Security, we are not prepared to amend the EULA at this time to address your concerns. However, your comments are good ones, and we will consider incorporating them with the next scheduled update to the EULA (expected this fall, 2013).

"In the meantime, CCP confirms that we will only impose penalties on cache scraping if used in connection with other illegal activities in the game (i.e., botting). We will not take action against cache scraping for other uses."

The same holds true for the use of ISBoxer.  Anyone remember this statement by CCP Stillman concerning section 9c of the EULA?

"Some of the multiboxing software out there is powerful enough to count as “client modification” if used for that purpose."

That's a direct reference to ISBoxer.  But because devs had ruled that the use of ISBoxer was okay, or at least that people wouldn't recieve a ban for using it in the past, that CCP would not enforce this part of the EULA concerning ISBoxer.  The funny thing is that someone who is detected running a bot using Inner Space is not banned for botting, but permanently banned for client modification.  Using Inner Space to run ISBoxer, however, isn't currently a bannable offense even though the same client modification is performed.

Let's take a look at CCP Stillman's entire statement on the ISBoxer question...

"This extends to multiboxing software. Some of the multiboxing software out there is powerful enough to count as “client modification” if used for that purpose. Our stance on third-party software is that we do not endorse such software as we have no control over what it does. As such, we can’t say that multiboxing software isn’t against our EULA. But the same goes in this case, that unless we determine that people are doing things beyond “multiboxing”, we will not be taking any action. We only care about the instances where people are messing with our process for the purposes of cheating, and running multiple clients at the same time is not in violation of our EULA in and of itself unless it involves trial accounts."

So as you can see, CCP has set precedents over the past year allowing players to break the EULA as long as they don't do "bad things".  Of course, I maintain that RMT is a bad thing.  But the precedent exists for CCP to rule that what SOMERblink is doing does not qualify as bad and to allow it.  I think that would be a huge mistake, but the player base has spoken loud enough on other issues to force a bending of the rules.  What's to keep CCP from doing the same in the case of SOMERblink?

UPDATE: 24 October 2013 - Darius JOHNSON (the former CCP Sreegs) left this comment on Facebook that's relevant.

""So as you can see, CCP has set precedents over the past year allowing players to break the EULA as long as they don't do "bad things"." - Correction... VERY junior members of CCP have gone on record in the past year and prior to that regarding EULA violations. In most cases VERY junior members of a company don't get to decide which portions of their legal contracts a company is going to honor." 

Raffles And RMT

I really wanted to avoid the entire SOMER Blink controversy.  So apart from a few links to the writings of others I've pretty much stayed away from the subject.  Until now.  DNSBlack, the leader of Dirt Nap Squad, came up with a post on the EVE Online forums claiming he came up with a method to conduct real money transfers without violating the Eve Online End Users License Agreement (EULA) and Terms of Service (ToS).

Here's the opening post of the thread.

1. I am looking for a 3rd party wholesale GTC seller.

2. I would like to discuss the terms on splitting your profit with me to raffle off some of my in game assets.

3. I will also would like to offer my character to raffle once all my assets are gone. We will follow all CCP rules for transfer once the raffle is over.

4. 1 Black credit for the raffle will be given out for every GTC bought on your site. You can hold the raffle once 1000 GTC have been sold. If players would like to buy a ticket in game it will cost 1 plex and you can have them contract it to you.

5. This practice has been ok'd and does not break the EULA according to CCP.

I am doing this to re-capture some of my money I have spent on EVE over the last 7 years and look for another game to play. This is not a joke and CCP has left me no choice. I suggest that everyone of you look to sell your stuff in this manner before CCP cracks down.

So if you are a third party seller of GTC please send me a eve mail with your percentage offer let the bidding begin.

An obvious attempt to sell a character for real life cash.  No legitimate GTC seller would risk becoming involved with this scheme as it would jeopardize their working relationship with CCP.  This probably led to this post.

Two Step better yet

1. I just sold a GTC to a guy for $2500.00 I gave him 2500 black credits.

2. I just sold another guy a GTC for $17.00 and gave him 2 black credits

3. Both of these guys used the black credits and bought tickets to my charcter [sic] raffle.

4. I all ready held the drawing and the winner will be announced soon.

5. I will be starting the legal transfer on the charcter [sic] form today.

6. Thank you CCP I made $ 2502 dollars enjoy your 30.00 dollars.

7. I did this with no website.

So an admission of someone conducting RMT, if the events posted really happened.  So why such a public method of leaving the game?  After all, CCP's standard response is permanently banning the RMTer (DNSBlack, which since he's allegedly leaving the game probably doesn't bother him) and seizing all the stuff, which in this case I would expect would include the character named DNSBlack.

The answer is surprising.  DNSBlack maintains that the method is totally allowed by the EULA and ToS and for proof, look at how CCP allows SOMERblink to operate.  He received much backing for this stance.  But is this correct?