A CSM delegate resigns

On Thursday, September 3rd, Adam Ridgway (aka Larkonis Trassler) bought items worth of 2.5 billion ISK in order to stockpile those items before a game design change would be implemented. Further 2.5 billion was traded in these same items earlier that night based on the same information but through another character. This was purely speculative since this particular game design has not been finalized yet and at this point the effect of the change in question is not known. However, insider information was used as the basis of this trade and that is not according to the standards that we set for members of the Council of Stellar Management or employees of CCP. Adam Ridgway realized his mistake and decided to step down from his post as a member of the Council of Stellar Management. He will be replaced by Michele Boland, aka. Issler Dainze.
Statement from the CSM

Greetings players, _It has come to the attention of our council that one of our councilmen has breached the trust that CCP and the Council has put in him. Acting on his own, he utilized confidential information that CCP shared with us in violation of the Nondisclosure Agreement he signed by attempting to engage insider trading. CCP, who is monitoring us closely, almost instantly discovered his actions and has banned his accounts. The councilmember has since resigned his seat on the council.

The rest of the Council condemns his actions and would like to express our sincere apologies to the players for this breach of trust. We understand that each one of us is held to the utmost standards of loyalty to the players and developers of EVE. We are here to represent and fight for the player base before we even think about our own interests. We cannot and will not tolerate such conduct within our ranks_.

_With regards,

The Council of Stellar Management_

Statement from the retiring CSM member

_The saying 'Internets Spaceships are serious business' is thrown around a lot when referring to Eve. Conflicts in game have spilled over to real life, friendships are formed and enemies are made. The Council of Stellar Management is perhaps the pinnacle of seriousness in this internets spaceship game. A political body made up of players from the game, elected by their peers. Ordinary people, some perhaps slightly more nerdy than the average man on the street, with a passion for the game and their own play styles.

Unfortunately no political body is ever going to be without scandal and a bit of bad press. While attending the CSM summit I acted on some information which was revealed for personal profit and, of course, was caught. Before attending the thought of using any information gained to aid my position in game never crossed my mind. However, we are all human and when presented with this information the urge to act on it was too great.

CCP have invested a huge amount of time, effort, money and most importantly trust into the CSM. My actions in some way have undermined that which is why I have no choice but to resign from the CSM. It is a voluntary act and not a case of jumping before being pushed and I will be allowed to run for another term in the future if I so desire. I apologise to those who voted for me and those who relied on me to give them a voice in a council which is viewed by many to be controlled by the power blocs (not the case).

I have had a tremendous time on the CSM. Rest assured that the issues that are voted for and pushed forward to Iceland are looked at and taken into consideration by CCP if technically feasible. The Dev team do not pay lip service to the CSM and are genuinely receptive to any ideas and suggestions made. I will make this plea to anyone considering running for CSM. Things may or may not be revealed to you about future developments which could be used to your advantage. If there is any doubt in your mind that you will be unable to suppress the urge to act on this information then don't run._
Adam Ridgway, aka. Larkonis Trassler.

Statement from CCP

The Council of Stellar Management is a democratically elected council of representatives of the EVE player base towards the publisher and developer of the game, CCP. This is a unique concept for online games, and something that CCP is very proud of having initiated as a new way of communicating with the player base about what needs to be done to even further improve and evolve EVE Online.

There have been three councils elected so far, each having a session of six months. From the beginning the players participating in the CSM have worked hard on bringing to CCP issues that they feel are important, and have put countless hours into meetings amongst themselves and with CCP in order to identify the most important issues. Through that process CCP has been very open towards the CSM about our ideas for future development of EVE Online, something that we think is absolutely necessary in order to have meaningful discussion and building trust between CCP, CSM and the player base. In order for CCP to be able to discuss detailed issues with the CSM all members sign an Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA).

During the last visit of the CSM members to the Reykjavik office one member of the council acted upon information he had received during a earlier meeting, engaging in speculative trading and trying to cash in on that information.

In so doing the CSM member broke the agreement between him and CCP, and more so, broke the trust he had build with other members of the council. Realizing his mistake the CSM member has elected to resign from his position effective immediately.

We welcome veteran EVE player and former CSM member Michele Boland to the CSM, and we look forward to the contributions she will bring to the team during this second term on the Council.

• CCP Xhagen