



Start of Content: Subject- CCP Games

Over 5 Years ago in 2011 a company by the name of CCP Games (~65 million revenue in 2015 (1)) Had a publicity scandal referred to as “Monoclegate”. Where after several major blunders and losing sight of what their customer base wanted, CCP Games customers base incited a virtual protest. The resulting impact was CCP Games laying off roughly 20% of their staff.(https://www.engadget.com/2011/10/19/ccp-layoffs-affect-20-of-worldwide-staff-company-focusing-on-e/)

Since that period of time, their technology asset library has grown larger, they’ve created several new games, and are one of the early pioneers for applying Virtual Reality in the consumer market.

What allowed CCP Games to recover?

The above is a screenshot of a line from CCP Hellmar’s (Hilmar Veigar Pétursson CEO of CCP Games) apology for the events. A simple 7 worded sentence in a 1500 word apology letter sums up several of the core values of Good Leadership; Accountability, humility, self-awareness, and a willingness to admit failure.

There isn’t just one single thing that allowed CCP Games to recover, but I personally believe that their Leadership played a part in it.





I Highly, Highly suggest everyone go and read the full apology “A letter to the followers of eve”

With the Help of Eve's Video Game’s Fiction writing team, he wrote one of the most honest and real things I’ve personally experienced.





What was Monclegate?

Internal Newsletter from 2011 titled “Greed is Good” by CCP Games

The too long, didn’t read version (TL;DR going forward) was an Internal newsletter was leaked that talked about the topic of Virtual Goods sales when their customer base at the time was very much opposed to Virtual Goods sales.

For those looking for a more In the weeds breakdown, read the Post I made on Reddit a year ago titled “Resubbed an old trader account, can’t believe it has been over 3 years since Monclegate”. (https://www.reddit.com/r/Eve/comments/3kyihj/resubbed_an_old_trader_account_cant_believe_it/cv1l7xc/) Warning, following this link will lead you to places corporations may deem “Not Safe For Work”. Strong language and other unsuitable content may be found. Additional Warning, following the links found here could lead one down a rabbit hole that may disrupt one’s productivity.

Page 7 of the “Greed is Good” memo linked above where Kristoffer Touborg talks about his personal perspective on the value of micro-transactions. This was published all the way back in May of 2011, over 5 years ago on the internet. Now Micro-transactions in games are more common for skins and items. League of Legends is a 1.6 billion dollar in revenue per year company that gives their primary product away for free and makes a good chunk of their revenue “selling dresses for characters” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riot_Games





CCP Games themselves have even done the same now by selling specialty skins for their game. As seen below from a preview of their Dev-Blog titled “The New Eden Store” in June of 2014 where CCP Xhagen(https://community.eveonline.com/news/dev-blogs/developer-spotlight-xhagen/) talks about opening their virtual store in Eve-Online.

Hubris and Disrespect

A snippet from a leaked internal memo from the CEO surrounding the event archived on the wayback machine (https://web.archive.org/web/20110627082301/http://www.evenews24.com/2011/06/25/ccp-hilmar-global-email-shows-the-reasoning-behind-ccp-zulu-devblog/). Where CCP Hilmar releases a sort of “stay strong” internal Memo extolling their legitimately impressive technology accomplishments. Players latched on to

Screenshot from the parsed text from the wayback machine talking about how they are not too concerned over their upset customer’s talk. The important take away being that the “Do and the Say must match.”

Unfortunately for CCP Hilmar

Screengrab of “AD’s Wordpress post titled ‘EVE INCARNA MASS PROTEST IN JITA”

The players “do” and “say” matched. I personally unsubbed 8 accounts and did not play again for several years after that. All over the internet in gamer circles and blogs this was being reported on in real time. Chat channels filled with strangers all over the internet were popping up. People were protesting through several different channels. It kept growing through a continuing series of mis-communications that led to CCP Games having to let go of 20% of their staff.

The Road to redemption

A “Memed” representation of a quote from the movie “Joe Dirt” where the main character of the movie finds a firework salesperson selling only “Snakes” and “Sparklers” because it was the only thing the salesperson liked. Joe Dirt teaches the salesperson that a business is about selling a solution that the customer desires. By the end of the movie the Firework Salesperson becomes wildly successful by following this advice.





In Hilmar’s own (Well, fiction team put his ideas and thoughts to text) words

Since then I believe CCP Games has successfully made their Say match their do.Warning Strong Language

In 2014 they released a marketing piece titled “This is Eve”

The company realized that Eve was its customers. They took audio logs from encounters their players had showing real excitement and engagement. These weren’t paid actors, they were customers of the game that wanted to share the joy of what they’ve experienced with others. It was a part of their very identity. To most of us this sounds like a science fiction story, however to these individuals it was real. Real in the sense that they felt alive and felt something. That is what most of us mean when we say a Digital World. This is what Social Media has to capture. In that memo that leaked there was a statement that said

Eve online has essentially created Westworld in Space. Where the players can find out who they really are in a consequence free virtual environment.

They’ve stayed true to that. At 27 I am someone who now attaches a significant portion of his own personal identity to a video game. Not only my personal identity, but now my professional identity. I haven’t seriously played Eve-Online in several years, but there is a joke the community says that “No one ever really quits Eve, they just go on auto-pilot.”





A mistake 5 years ago is still being used to this day as a source of growth and self-reflection. That’s what good leadership is.





Thank you CCP Hilmar for providing guidance. You were heading in the right direction we just had a hard time trusting. In your own words I too would like to now say.

I was wrong and I admit it.

I apologize being one of those protestors in Jita. I get why people fear change now. Change is good, but we have to bring the past with us we can't forget it. Like ship spinning.





Ryan Myers is a successful High Functioning Autistic in the Corporate world who shows others like him the examples he used to get to where he is today.