CCP delivers verdict on Eve Online Council chairman

Eve Online developer CCP has delivered its verdict following an internal investigation into the behaviour of the player Council chairman at a recent Eve Fanfest Alliance Panel.

Alexander Gianturco - AKA "The Mittani" - will be banned from Eve Online for a period of 30 days and removed from the upcoming seventh Council of Stellar Management.

CCP published its verdict following a drunken Gianturco's presentation where he named a player suffering from mental health issues, and encouraged those attending the panel - as well as those watching Fanfest via the EveTV stream - to continue harassing the player.

The move also blocks a potential loophole that could have allowed the chairman to resign from the current Council, before accepting his inauguration as chairman of the next term. In an unusual move, CCP publicly stated the action taken against an individual player for breaching the terms of the EULA. The full statement is reproduced below.

"As some of you might have heard, one of the Alliance leaders speaking at the Alliance Panel during EVE Fanfest 2012 breached our EULA/TOS with some ill-advised remarks about a fellow EVE player. It goes without saying that CCP deeply regrets this incident and will work towards reducing any possibility of this happening again in the future.

"CCP requested that all panel PowerPoint presentations and discussion topics be handed in beforehand for approval. Regrettably, the offending comments were made during an unscripted Q&A session after the main presentations.

"Following a thorough internal review CCP has decided to respond to this clear violation of our Terms of Service and wholly inappropriate use of the Alliance Panel. According to our existing policies, we have issued a 30 day ban from EVE Online to the panel speaker.

"The policy of CCP is not to publicly discuss warnings and bans on an individual basis. This situation is entirely unique because the panel was displayed via CCP's Fanfest video stream component, a platform analogous to our forums. As a result we have published this statement due to the special circumstances involved. However, our policy remains that we will not publicly discuss warnings and bans.

"The panelist has subsequently posted a public apology as well as a private apology to the victim of his attack. He has also resigned from his position as Chairman of CSM 6 and has forfeited his right to serve on CSM 7. As per our policies, this candidate may be eligible to run at a later date subject to candidacy review.

"The Council of Stellar Management is a democratically elected council that represents the players of EVE Online. Although council members may represent the players in any manner they choose, being a council member does not permit actions or playstyles that violate our policies."

Gianturco has yet to comment on these latest developments but posted an image to an Eve Online community website [not his blog as previously reported - Ed.] yesterday evening. The image parodies a well-known piece of Goonswarm Alliance recruitment propaganda, and acknowledges the more than 10,000 votes received during the recent election.