A forum thread over at EVE Insider is really hot at the moment - it's at 600 plus posts and rising. The hot thread centers around alleged improprieties done by CCP staff.
The original post by EVE Online community manager kieron mentions that the identities of CCP employees participating in the game have become public and that the involved accounts have been deleted. There is speculation that the coming story arc had been leaked by employee or players. Kieron's post describes a tightening of policies and reassurance that employee accounts will be monitored closely.
The reason that the thread has grown to its current size in such a short span of time is that there are allegations that the scandal runs deeper than what is being addressed. Some claim that CCP employees have been steering valuable in-game items to the groups in which they participate.
Many have expressed that allowing employees to play the game represents a conflict of interest.
Here's a bit from Kieron's original post:
As for the allegations themselves, they consist of two parts. The first part involved a case that happened seven months ago when a CCP employee’s identity became public knowledge within his corporation. Per company policy, the incident was investigated and actions taken where appropriate, including the removal of characters whose identities were compromised.
The second part of the accusations stem from a leak of information pertaining to an in-game event arc. Due to the amount of time that has passed since the planning and execution of the event arc, we have not been able to confirm nor deny the veracity of these allegations.
In both cases, these accusations were recently brought forward when a player revealed the identity of numerous CCP employee characters. Since these play characters are known to belong to CCP employees, they will be removed from the game. Many of them have been around since the creation of EVE and it is most unfortunate that these developers are now forced to end their relationships with their in-game friends, but that is our policy when the anonymity of staff members has been compromised.
Last summer, CCP implemented stricter monitoring procedures and audits on all CCP employees’ EVE accounts. We are confident that our rigid procedures and protocol will prevent any misconduct or, at least, allow us to quickly discover it, should such an unfortunate scenario arise.
Here's a reply from user Brogholio. It gives us a good overview of user sentiment:
The concern being talked about by the vast majority of players is not the identity of certain Dev or GM players, nor is it an in-game event that occurred many months ago. The concern is that Band of Brothers (and possibly other large alliances) have received ill-gotten assistance from the Developers or GMs in the form of blueprints, ships, etc. That was the biggest concern, and you made absolutely no mention of it at all. Nobody really cares about the identity of CCP players in player alliances. Nobody really cares about an event that took place months ago. People care about rampant cheating by those whose job it is to STOP cheating. By conveniently ignoring this issue, you are only reinforcing the belief that CCP has something to hide.
Were you to come out and say "Yes, some of our Devs and GMs were cheating. We cannot release their names for privacy reasons, but we can tell you that they've been fired, and all ill-gotten assets have been removed from the game.", then the community would be happy. It would suck that CCP employees have (yet again) been caught cheating, but at least we would know that you're doing something about it. Or you could have said "In regards to the cheating issue, we can't find any evidence of this whatsoever.". That wouldn't make people as happy, but at least you would acknowledge it. Instead, you whitewash it. You really screwed up, CCP. We want clear, straightforward answers, and we want them now.
A later post from kieron has asked users to list concerns that are yet to be addressed and they assure that it will be dealt with thoroughly.
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