Well there went all my plans for new ship fittings. Life came up and I've not been able to do those yet. My apologies, but they will be coming in the near future.
In other news! SOMERblink... Yes I know all of you have stood by your favorite gambling site! Well, maybe stood is a strong word. I think by now most of us are standing on them and/or CCP putting pressure on them to do something about this RMT thing. Finally, no official CCP word, we've SQUEEZED something out of them. Not the glorious resolution some have called for, but it is a step in the right direction.
I've not been around for most of the SOMER fun fair to be had due to some RL issues and a lovely trip to Vegas. We'll get to the Vegas thing another time. Once RL let up and my vacation was over I came back to the rage and bitterness of this SOMER bit. Before I get into my point I want to make it perfectly clear I have used SOMER's gambling site in the past and have profited from it. I started using it back when CCP Rise was still Kil2. In his podcast, Bringing Solo Back, he got a sponsorship from SOMER. A few episodes later he actually went on their site and tried it out. He stated that it was really easy, fluid, and very enjoyable. Peeking my interest I went and tried out the site for myself. I found the site to actually be enjoyable and made a profit. I continued to play for a while, but lost interest in short order. Now that we're clear that I have supported them through using there site in the past I can start to build my case.
Content creators in the past have not got the attention from CCP that many feel they deserve. Whether it be players organizing events, players teaching new players to play, external sites with ties to the game, or many other forms of content. Now recently CCP has started community spotlights. This has been a great move, but now with SOMERgate coming to light is it enough? Is CCP showing too much favor to one and not the others? Of course! There is no doubt about this! CCP gave SOMERblink prizes of immeasurable worth on top of rewarding every "employee" they have. I know they took back the Gold Magnate and Guardian Vexor, but the gifts they still gave away have immeasurable worth. Who knows what VIP package to fanfest or the special edition ships mean and/or could be worth. Lets not even get on to the subject of even playing field to win these prizes.
Many people have asked why all the favoritism towards SOMER. I think I have found the answer to this question. The answer comes from one of CCP's own employees, CCP Rise. As I stated prior he has a history with SOMER. His experience was a good one and I'm sure SOMER benefited greatly from it. CCP Rise, Kil2 at the time, told stories of players making it big their site and those who lost it all on his podcast. Now that he is a CCP employee his words and actions have more meaning to us as players. He can't just say anything anymore without weight and possible repercussions.
In September of this year CCP Rise graced The Daily Roam podcast on their 6th episode. The show started off ho hum and usual. Then when the attention turned to CCP Rise for opening statements he mentioned that he couldn't mention SOMER and he really didn't know of other things to say. He did mention the features and ideas area of the forums however. Forget Myface, one of the host, mentioned that he was jealous of Rise's SOMER sponsorship. After a few chuckles, CCP Rise mentions he has a whole new kind of joy from SOMER. He stated that once moving to CCP he's found how many "CCP'ers are like hopeless degenerate SOMERblink gamblers who like buy PLEX to pay for their SOMERblink addictions..." He goes on to say a few more things, but this is the meat and bones right here.
There we go... It all makes sense now. Here is where CCP's favoritism comes from. I'm sorry it took so long for me to get to this point, but I feel it to be necessarily. Here is the link to the podcast episode. The statment is about two minutes into it. I enjoy The Daily Roam and wish no ill on the guys. They do a great show and I hope more of you will listen to it. As for statements about CCP on this episode... I'll leave you as the players to it from here.
