Eve CSM chair Mittani breaks the peace

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."