Eve Online to Elect Player Oversight Group

StCredZero writes "The New York Times is reporting on plans by EVE Online developer CCP to open itself up to independent oversight. In response to the recent allegations of misconduct, they are proposing a system of 'nine player-overseers who will act as ombudsmen for the game's subscribers. The company says it will hold the elections in the fall.' Systems will be put into the game to support this ombudsmen status, making this (effectively) a player-run world governance system."

Whoa.

[Winterblink]

I'm pretty intrigued by this. Of course there's tons of details to be worked out. How long is each player's term? What kind of powers will this committee have over the developers? How will the elections be handled to avoid one large entity from swinging elections the way they want them to go? Will be watching this one to see how it unfolds, especially as a player of EVE.

One thing's for sure, I haven't heard of this happening anywhere before (in terms of gaming). I wonder how much of a precedent this sets for MMOs?

Good PR, but pretty much useless

[A beautiful mind]

Basically what, they are supposed to fly over for a few days every xth month and 'audit' the game/company?

What would be the point in that? They can't discover anything serious anyway. You'd need good insider and developer knowledge and months. Apart from that they might act as conduits for reporting on gameplay issues and bugs, but it'd be better accomplished by CCP reading their own forums...

Let's see how this will run

[Opportunist]

Ok, so players should "elect" their representatives. How is this done? Most likely on a "one vote per account" system.

Who will run for it? Probably many, but who has a chance? Well, to have a chance, you'd have to be known. Who'd cast his vote on someone he doesn't know? Who do you know? The people from your corp, or alliance.

So who has a chance to get the most votes? People from the largest alliances, of course. And ... weren't they the ones accused of cheating?

Re:Glorified P.R. visit

[A beautiful mind]

You mean the explanation by CCP that completely left out the part (and in my opinion main allegation) where a developer from the database group went around and started questioning and telling the ISD member (volunteer) what to do?

It is easy to debunk the patently false accusations and then try to use that as proof by association to make it appear as the rest of the allegations are bunk too.

For some reason the developer in question no longer has a character. Shiny clean eh? I don't suppose it is tinfoil to be just a bit skeptical of a company's PR claims. The internal affairs division completely, utterly failed because their statement read like a corporate press release instead of the report from a supposedly independent review board.

Spontantious thought

[Zironic]

Won't this just turn into a popularity contest?

Normally an ombudsman is appointed by the government/company to represent the interests of the citizens/customers. Never heard of anyone getting elected as ombudsman before.

They're normally supposed to be professionals so they can pursue issues that the normal citizen don't have the knowledge/resources to do.

Also aren't ombudsmen normally meant to represent the interests of the persons they represent and not some kind of watch force?

Are They "Employed"?

[Greyfox]

I recall that a few year back there was a lawsuit claiming that volunteer helpers in Ultima Online were actually working for the company and should therefore be paid. The helpers had some extra powers and support from the company. The court agreed, which led to the dismantling of the helper program and a fairly large chunk of cash for the plaintiff.

Could a similar situation arise from these positions or will the company treat them like paid support employees once they're elected? And if they're employees they'd hardly be independent oversight, would they?

Thank you for this utterly useless insight

[BlackCobra43]

As the gameplay of EVE online was never a point of contention at any time in the article itself OR the discussion so far. We are talking about their administrators, and EVE's are corrupt beyond belief compared to pretty much any previous MMO game, with the possible exception of Ultima Online.

The only way out of this mess...

[CharonX]

Well, CCP has selected the only reasonable way out of this mess - whether the latest allegations had a foundation of truth or not, their clumsy handeling of the last incident had already sufficiently tarnished their reputation so that those new allegations further damaged it - some doubt would always remain.
By installing a player oversight they take important steps to restore player faith in them - as the article said, especially in online games, the perception of reality is the reality.