Eve CSM chair Mittani breaks the peace

By John Bedford Published 5 September, 2011

"So the gloves come off..."

The outspoken chairman of Eve Online's player-elected Council of Stellar Management, Alexander Gianturco - aka 'The Mittani' - has broken the temporary peace established at June's emergency Summit meeting, in order to address what he views as the abandonment of the core gameplay of Eve Online.

"We will not stand idly by as an alliance while our subscription money goes to waste, watching the game we pay to play spiraling into entropy due to the folly and neglect of CCP's management," he wrote on his website.

"It is not yet time to start a fire, but get your gasoline ready."

Alexander's comments coincide with third party data which indicates that the recent controversy surrounding the introduction of micro-transactions - combined with what was perceived as a partial expansion by many within the community - has had a negative impact on subscriber numbers. This summer's Incarna expansion introduced the concept of avatar-based gameplay to Eve Online - but also brought player revolt with it.

"In the past, Eve expansions were based off the desires of the players, to augment their behaviour," he continued.

"We need something new to do, not something new to wear."

Alexander Gianturco, chairman, Eve Online CSM

"Player Owned Stations exist because CCP noticed players stockpiling goods in safespots in GSCs. Outposts were added based on the obvious attempts to build more infrastructure in 0.0. Wormholes provided a place for players to indulge in a no-local environment and explore the unknown. Capital ships were created to deal with the POSes, and Supercapitals were made due to a fit of utter stupidity that haunts the Reykjavik office to this day."

"Usually after an expansion there is a surge of players who join the game; these create peaks and valleys in PCU (Peak Concurrent User) numbers as people kick the tires on the new content and then either stick around or leave. Incarna, which has taken a tremendous amount of development and marketing resources from FiS [Flying in Space], essentially had no impact."

While acknowledging the progress made with those working directly on the space-based component of Eve Online, he expressed the Council's frustrations when dealing with the upper echelons of CCP's management team.

"Our interactions with CCP's upper management in the aftermath of the Emergency Summit have shown us that the suits are not treating the needs of the players with the gravity they deserve; our willingness to negotiate in a chill way with the FiS teams (which has met with obvious success) is being misinterpreted as a sign of weakness and compliance by the suits."

"So the gloves come off ... In the coming weeks we are going to be making some extremely loud statements regarding the neglect of FiS, the failure of Incarna, and the need for CCP's management to pull the game out of this stall. We need something new to do, not something new to wear."

Picture of John.

About John Bedford

John is an MMO specialist with a particular passion for Eve Online. He once nearly went paragliding.

Read more articles from John by visiting the John Bedford archive page.

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Comments (41) Latest comment 9 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • eltonpr0n #1 9 months ago

    Good luck to this chap. All the power to him.

    I love the principle behind Eve, even if I got bored playing it.

  • overcorpse #2 9 months ago

    The mittani has always been awesome,glad hes the the tip of the spear of the CSM because the guys pulls alot of weight with the community.

  • JoeGBallad #3 9 months ago

    Toys, meet ground.

  • TriggerHippie #4 9 months ago

    Good luck to him indeed. I've been playing on and off (mostly on) since 2004 but they've seen the last of my money. The last expansion and the utter failure of the devs to tackle pre-existing problems just aren't even funny now.

  • node #5 9 months ago

    Excellent to see the players taking it into their own hands like this. And The Mittani's writing and opinions on Eve always make for great reading.

  • Jesterrr #6 9 months ago

    Wait, did I miss something? I thought Eve was a video game.

  • hulahoops #7 9 months ago

    "and Supercapitals were made due to a fit of utter stupidity that haunts the Reykjavik office to this day"

    Saying this kind of thing may make him popular among players but it's not going to endear the developers to the cause.

    Yes they're paying 15 dollars a month to play but I pay Waitrose about 500 dollars a month for my shopping and I imagine I'd find them more receptive to me if I gathered opinions about ways to improve their stores then politely put them to the upper management, instead of saying "you utterly stupid bastards change this now".
    Edited by hulahoops at 05/09/11 @ 15:36

  • DodgyPast #8 9 months ago

    3 months ago he called the Failheap community hysterical babies for stating this. It was obvious that this was happenning purely from the fact that suddenly all the chat channels had become empty.

    Still it does slightly elevate the probability that the we'll get a contrite apology from Hilmar.

    http://jestertrek.com/eve/blog/2011/eve-...

  • jablonski #9 9 months ago

    "So the gloves come off ... In the coming weeks we are going to be making some extremely loud statements regarding the neglect of FiS"

    Is the '...' part of the quote when his mum shouted 'DINNER'S READY!' and he lost his train of thought?

  • dagas #10 9 months ago

    This CSM thing is going out of control and if they shut it down there will be an uproar. What if the players revolt and take over the company like the Russian revolution, that would be so EVE Online.

  • geeza2020 #11 9 months ago

    Oh no he didn't!!!

    /clicks fingers

  • kangarootoo #12 9 months ago

    "In the coming weeks we are going to be making some extremely loud statements"

    Whoa, now lets not get too carried away here. I understand you are all angry, but once that pandora's box is opened and all the extremely loud statements come tumbling out, there is no going back.

  • telboy007 #13 9 months ago

    I've seen a lot of players leave Eve over the past weeks and months, the unofficial eurogamer corp is almost dead with only a few of us left. Eve has stagnated badly. No idea how long I'll be subbing for, I'm sticking it out for now though.

    But hey if you're ever on, join the eurogamer.net channel to chat to... whoever might be online.

  • TheDudesRug #14 9 months ago

    I love MMOs, but how people can get so worked up about video games is beyond me. It's like they don't have any real worries so this sort of thing seems major to them.

  • Concrete #15 9 months ago

    Ok I'm probably not getting this correctly, but from the graph posted by Dodgypast, theres been a 15% drop in users, but that has largely tailed off now. Combined with reports of chat channels feeling empty, I can only assume that the loudest, most obsessed players are sulking while waiting to see if anyone misses them, while the rest are just carrying on as normal?

  • milezMayhem #16 9 months ago

    I would urge this individual to think very calmly and clearly before pushing the big red button marked " extremely loud statements"

  • Valis #17 9 months ago

    First world problems....

  • DodgyPast #18 9 months ago

    Part of the point is that the pattern after each expansion has always been an increase in players online followed by a slow decline, but always finishing higher than where it started. Historically that growth has been around 10%. That 10% dissipated over the prior couple of expansions and then the actual decline in numbers was triggered.

    The declines take a while to tail off due to the fact that it's pretty common for players to subscribe in 3 / 6 month chunks. It's worth bearing in mind that there's also a fairly large amount of people waiting to see what happens next... and CCP fail to deliver on any more promises you can expect to see another 15% drop off, which really would spell an end to the game.

    Probably also worth noting that those 15% are disproportionally powerful in terms of providing content for the average player.

    As to first world problems, obviously. But at least it's more relevant than getting worked up about a football team over whom you have no control.

    After doing some digging one issue seems to be over the minutes of the emergency meeting, which CCP decided to re-write into a document of pure fantasy ( literally claiming CSM members said things they didn't in order to spin it that the CSM supported them on issues that they actually disagreed with ). CCP have since been refusing to allow an accurate version of the minutes to be released.

    http://treborofthecsm.blogspot.com/2011/...
    Edited by DodgyPast at 05/09/11 @ 17:58

  • Nazo #19 9 months ago

    There ain't no drama like mmorpg drama.

  • Macross #20 9 months ago

    the mittani is a bit of a wierdo as a person. but i do applaud him as a player, i hope he gets through to CCP so they can actually demonstrate theyve done some work on the game someday (something more productive than taking as long as gt5 took to make (nearly) to create 1 room to walk around in single player with bad lighting issues).

    theres so many things in space that need finishing let alone polishing i got bored of waiting and left, if he can get through maybe il come back (and regret logging off in the middile of nullsec in a t1 frg)

  • Cobalt_Jackal #21 9 months ago

    Hmmm, I sense a disturbance in the force. The Galaxy is on the brink of civil war... the likes of which has never been seen. The lives of countless people, in countless star systems are at risk. Careful we must be.

  • RedSparrows #22 9 months ago

    A CCP vs player war would be great If it were in game... or real life... isn't EVE real life?

  • Toothball #23 9 months ago

    I think the trick with business is to persuade your customers that they want what you do, rather than that you'll do what they want. Sounds like there will be much grief from this one.

  • Bleemo #24 9 months ago

    "We will not stand idly by as an alliance while our subscription money goes to waste, watching the game we pay to play spiraling into entropy due to the folly and neglect of CCP's management,"

    Did you hear that CCP he said you were criminal of folly for Christ's sake, are you just going to take that?

  • Vyggo #25 9 months ago

    Even moreso than other mmo's, for many of the players Eve is way more than just a game. Eve is set up as a virtual world and many of the players are heavily invested in it. There is no game out there like Eve. I think it makes sense that emotions run higher over this than other games.

  • curtlikesmeat #26 9 months ago

    Ouch!

  • Macross #27 9 months ago

    its also the whole single shard thing, you actually do get individuals who have enormous influence over large portions of the player base that could theoretically pull off a revolt on some level of magnitude.

  • Silvervein #28 9 months ago

    @Tootball
    That didn't work too well with star wars galaxies.

    Devs are there to deliver product that people want. They are not on a trip to their fantasy land sponsored by some chums that happen to subscribe.

  • SneakyGun #29 9 months ago

    I don't play EVE Online nor ever have played, but this game is really inspiring.

  • overcorpse #30 9 months ago

    Spaceships is serious buisness.

  • HiredMan #31 9 months ago

    The EG channel is so barren now :(

    *runs into loungeroom crying*

  • shadowdogg #32 9 months ago

    As the Merovingian said: Its a game, only a game.

    Just pack up and move on.

  • Ahskay #33 9 months ago

    If Eve is failing how are they hoping of making Dust a succesfull commercial release? I hope Sony drops this exlusive, it has failure written all over it if they can't even get the core game right after all this time.

  • Toothball #34 9 months ago

    @Silvervein

    I'm not so sure. Sure there was plenty of rage-quitting in Star Wars Galaxies but the game went on, seemingly being killed off to make way for The Old Republic rather than because no one wanted to play it. From what I gather the remaining player base petitioned for various options for keeping the game alive.

    There will always be those who are vocal and opposed to change whether it's for better or worse. Quite often a situation can move on without them. I'm just curious to see whether that will be the case here.

  • Markusdragon #35 9 months ago

    The dynamic here sounds like that of a union dispute.

  • pinchofsalt #36 9 months ago

    Doesn't he realise he's damaging the financial future of the game he is so passionate about. What a egotistical tit.

  • Stratix #37 9 months ago

    When an MMO developer looses sight of what it's fans want, they have every right to let them know.

    MMO's are a huge time investment, and if you invest a lot of time in something you enjoy, you start to become passionate about it. This is not the sort of game for me, I'm in this business for instant fun and cheap thrills, but I can absolutley understand their viewpoint.

  • EvePlayer #38 9 months ago

    Mittens is just ticked because he chose not to concentrate his alliance on supercap production like most other alliances did. He stuck to his model of accepting any applicants (regardless of skill or experience). A numbers game basically. It was an idea that worked until supercaps came on the scene.

    Even with the upcoming supercap nerf, he still won't be in a position to defend his space and is butthurt.

    So now he is whining to anyone and everyone that will listen.

  • Grom #39 9 months ago

    @38
    Whereas you're not 'butthurt' enough to register on a website simply to post that opinion?

    Also the numbers game was pretty good at getting him elected as chair of the CSM where he can push for a supercap nerf, but of course you wouldn't be 'butthurt' about that either, would you?

  • ircaddicts #40 9 months ago

    i would say I hope this will be the end of eve but then all the scum in that game will start infecting other VASTLY better games so lets hope eve goes on for ever.

  • Pugga #41 9 months ago

    I have been playing EVE since 2005. I finally pulled the pin on my accounts this year. It has been apparent for a few years now that CCP is using eve as a cash cow for its other projects and the game really has suffered for it. It is no longer the game I used to love so much and while I have kept my subscriptions running 'in hope' I finally lost that hope with CCP this year and am gone.
    The hardest thing in leaving was the realisation that there is no other comparable space MMO to go to. If there was Eve would be truly dead and buried right now, of that I have no doubt.
    Would I sub again? No, I realise when I have re-subbed it is to play the old eve, not its latest incarnation. My memories and fondness are for an EVE online that no longer exists. RIP eve-online it was great back in the day but its a hollow shell of what was and what could have been.