EVE No Longer Supported/Staff Change

[Tbone]

Well, I take no pleasure in having to make this announcement, but it's a necessary step in moving forward. FA will no longer be supporting EVE Online. The CEO of our corp in EVE, Manicvelocity, disbanded the corp without our knowledge, joined a different corp, and hijacked our news feed to say that FA had been disbanded and that all members should join his new guild (with the headline "Furious Angels Go Brave").

As a result, Manic has been removed from leadership and from the guild. This was a last resort and something we've been trying to avoid since Manic voiced his unhappiness months ago. As to why Manic decided to go out the way he did, I don't know. We haven't banned him from the website/TS yet as I know he has a lot of friends here, so perhaps he will clarify.

I do know that he was thinking of leaving the guild a few months ago, but we did everything we could to support EVE to get him to stay. A week or so ago he raided our base on Rust, taking what he could and leaving all the doors open. When asked if he was involved, he lied about it, only later confessing. We tried to talk to him privately about it, but unfortunately that conversation didn't lead anywhere. Then he made the news announcement tonight and I had to take drastic measures to minimize any future damage. I sent him a PM wishing him luck, and I hope he finds happiness somewhere.

As a result, however, I've removed the EVE groups and forums and we're losing support for that game. I know that leaves a few of you homeless in that game, so I understand if you end up joining with Manic's group in EVE. Just make sure you stick around for all the exciting things that are coming down the pipes!

Manic was with us for a long time, and this leaves a big hole in the community. We're looking for leaders to step up, and I have many projects that I'm currently running solo for the Oculus Rift and would love some help! We've also been actively playing Rust and my brother and I just got Titanfall as well. As always, we shall continue to press forward! Onward and upward!

[Mharz]

A truly unfortunate turn of events.

[Erathaol]

Wow, I certainly never saw this coming.  What a bummer...

[Tecknik]

Uh...  The Furious Angels Corporation was not disbanded... I'm still in it, and will gladly provide screenshots showing I'm in it and that it still exists.

I believe it was an overstatement on his part to say the Corp was disbanded because he is moving to Brave Newbies.

I also believe it is an overreaction on your part to remove all ties to EVE because of his actions.

But whatever.

[Manic Velocity]

Well that was unexpected.  But ok, so... a few things I'd like to say:

- First and foremost, I'm rather surprised that anything regarding FA's involvement in EVE even raises an eyebrow among the general membership.  I figured if anyone honestly cared about the goings-on within the corporation, I assume they'd be, well, in the game and getting involved.

- The corp is not actually disbanded.  That was just part of the script of a phony news broadcast which was intended to be fun, and was well-received by active corp members.  The corp is safely in the hands of my alt, and anyone who wishes to remain in the corp knows they are free to do so.  Far be it from me to dictate how anyone should play the game.

- The corp members and I had discussed joining an alliance a few times in the past as a means of keeping activity up.  This is not a new development.  At any rate, I didn’t think it was something I had to discuss it with Tbone or any other non-EVE players.  Again, I didn’t think anyone would care.  Apparently I was wrong.  But it turns out the more active and respectable alliances won’t allow a corporation to join them with less than 50 members.  Over the last few months we’ve had, at most, three FA corp members online at any given time.  This made joining an alliance difficult.  Our other option was to place the FA corp on hold for the time being, an option that I openly expressed to the membership.  Nobody was forced out of the FA corp, and those who were looking for more activity and more fun were given the option to go elsewhere.

- Commensurate with that, I felt that joining Brave Newbies (or some other highly active corp) was absolutely the wisest move in order to encourage more activity.  It’s difficult to maintain activity for a corp as small as FA, and EVE is a game that is best played with other people.  More than anything I want us to have fun, and as CEO I was failing to provide that.  The Brave Newbies corp and the Hero Coalition are composed of some of the most respected groups in the game, and they have proven that they can provide the fun.  The future of EVE is looking bright, with many high-end gameplay features on the horizon, and this happens to be where the fun is.

- In regards to the Rust incident: I explained myself in the staff forum.  I believe the discussion didn’t lead anywhere because there was nowhere else for it to go.  I did what I did, I owned up to it, and I made a point to stay off of the server from that point on.  And it turns out the server was wiped shortly thereafter anyway.  The only people who seemed to take issue with the incident were Tbone and Broin.  I didn’t hear anything from any other Rust players.  So what more was there to discuss? 

- As for “hijacking” the news feed… I used my access to the news feed to post FA-related news.  I assumed that would be ok, seeing that non-FA-related news has been posted there before.  I didn’t think it would ruffle the feathers of anyone who didn’t play EVE.  I had specifically asked to be removed from the staff group a few weeks ago because I no longer wanted to be privy to the under-handed back-talk that was taking place among the staff regarding former members.  That kind of clique-ish mentality is not something I want to be associated with, and I suspect it is going on right now as it pertains to this situation.  But my staff access was not revoked, and I used that access to, again, post FA-related news in the FA news feed.  I feel “hijacking” is giving it more weight than it deserves, but if that’s how it’s going to be viewed, so be it.

So there’s my side of the story.  Thanks for giving me the opportunity to clarify.  I really appreciate it.  If anyone has anything they’d like to ask me, I’ll be keeping an eye on this thread.  Or feel free to PM me if you’d prefer to keep it private.  Either way, I’m more than happy to offer full disclosure.

Peace out, I guess.  Be excellent to each other.

[Lithium]

I would like to thank Manic for all his contributions to FA over the years. Especially, the time and dedication he put into helping us develop the new site. These are things that will have a lasting impact on the current and future members of the community. Manic was a good friend, an ally, or even a foe at times but there was always respect. And in the times when I hit bottom he was always one of the supporters for me to get back on my feet.

However, I am disappointed in recent actions. I never thought in a million years that our site headline would contain the words, "Furious Angels Disbanded" or have a cruel in-game 'joke' played out on us. Regardless of the motivations, there has been a lot of talk about what it means to have a 'loss of trust' and it pains me to see this happen.

I really do hope you can figure out your path. Take it easy.

[Tbone]

Regardless of whether the post was a lie or not, we cannot tolerate the trolling of our own guild, especially from leadership. We can't have a person like that running a chapter of FA either, so the FA in EVE is no longer an official chapter, even if it has been left around in name for kicks.

If someone else in EVE would like to take over that chapter, please contact me. Unfortunately Manic had permissions to a lot of things, and the quickest solution at 2 a.m. was to gut the EVE API hooks and forums from the site.

This website isn't just for EVE, and anyone visiting our site could see the image of "Furious Angels Disbanded". I'm not buying the "harmless prank" act for a second this time, and any "overreaction" perceived was necessary to avoid further damage. Even if it was clear that it was just in EVE, just because members and leadership do not enjoy a game does not mean we don't take pride in how the guild is presented within the game, and I feel like the way the guild has been presented lately is a huge stain on our name in general.

As for "under handed back talk about former members" in the Staff forum, in the spirit of full discloser (and none of this is new information), Fuse PMed me asking to regain permissions to Teamspeak in order to join us for Rust. I took the PM to the Staff forums to get feedback and got two replies. One person commented about how it's still weird to have public forums. Another person commented that Fuse could basically fuck off (and no, that was not from Broin or Lithium). Nothing else was said. He was discussed very briefly in another Staff thread that I created to try and talk to Manic about why he raided us on Rust, but it was nothing sinister.

Fuse unexpectedly dropped tag in the middle of a meeting we were having with new members in SWTOR after years of being a part of the guild. He near-immediately joined another guild. It left a lot of us rather shocked and disheartened, and a lot of the older members feel burned and cannot go back down that road with Fuse. This is not unlike Manic's sudden tag drop of FA and PSA about it, followed by a recruitment video for another guild he's already joined. I'm trying my best to keep things friendly, as I don't want more people as far on the outs as Fuse has become. I hope that the antagonizing can stop soon and that Manic is able to move on.

If there are any questions, feel free to contact me.

[Da6onet]

In my experience, a body in motion tends to stay in motion unless acted upon by an external force.

In my experience, a body at rest tends to stay at rest unless acted upon by an external force.

This is called an equilibrium or static state. It is the desired lowest energy state of a system.

In my experience, only stupid actions disrupt equilibrium.

Interpret that however you wish.

[Jeyk]

It saddens me to see another old-timer depart. 

Take care, Manic.  I wish you the best, and enjoyed gaming with you.

[likwidtek]

Manic, dude we love you.  You've been such an awesome person to hang out with and game with since MxO.  Honestly though, you're kidding yourself if you can't admit that you've been attempting to prank and troll FA.  It's not only just that but your tone in TS has been super resentful and rebellious for some time now.  I feel like you were either being immature and passive aggressive, or you voiced all of your concerns to staff, didn't get your way, so you decided to get some payback.

Dude, you lied about raiding our base in rust.  You were obviously up to no good.  And why wouldn't you have spoken with staff about the huge EVE change?  This is common sense no brainer stuff, and I feel like you're attempting to hide behind twisted or rationalized reasoning.

It's messed up and you know it.  If you could just man up and admit your true intentions, whatever they were, I don't think this would be as big of a deal. 

It sucks dude, because I really liked gaming with you.  You know what you did was messed up and you attempting to justify or downplay what you did is honestly insulting. 

I'm not writing you off man, but I at least need you to know how I feel about it. 

tl;dr:  You've obviously had beef with FA for some time now, instead of communicating like a mature adult you did this passive aggressive "trolling" or "joking" crap.  Not cool man. 

[Fuse]

Oh nevermind...

Stop bringing me into this.

[Erathaol]

I know my opinion may not matter to you as much as that of the real long-time vets around here, but I've also played with you for quite some time and enjoyed your virtual company immensely.

I honestly though the base theft in Rust was simply a good-natured prank, what with the relatively low value of gear in that game and the frequent wipes, one of which occurred very shortly afterwards.  I still wish you had recorded and edited it, much like your other humorous Rust videos, so we could have watched and laughed along with you.  But now it seems like it wasn't such a harmless prank after all.

As for the EVE corp joining Brave Newbies, I think it's simply a great idea and one we should've done a long while ago.  It's perfect for a small corp such as ours, and will surely result in much more fun for everyone involved.  What most people don't quite understand is that EVE corporations are different than guilds, and joining a large group such as Brave Newbies does nothing to weaken our cohesion as a group and loyalty to FA.  If I still had the time to be playing EVE, I'd be right there with you!

But as for how you handled both of these matters, I really can't get behind you.  You really did lie to us about the Rust burglary initially, and you KNOW how FA takes lying.  It's probably the worst thing you could do, and coming from you definitely made it hurt so much more.
I didn't actually see the News post before it was taken down, and only saw the video through your link here, so I only have what was said to go by.  From that, it seems it was one hell of a post to get such a response.  Whether you saw it as such or not, Tbone (and apparently others) saw it as grossly insulting and wildly unprofessional and inappropriate.  You've been around long enough to know how much of us think and how we would react to something like that, so it's only logical to assume you did so knowing it would downright piss them off.  We all expect better from a leader and a veteran who has been here from the beginning.

I'm not a staff member so I am not privy to the staff forums, and so I have no knowledge of nor right to speak on anything that goes on there.  But I assume that, unless there is gross misrepresentation or outright slander regarding others, I an the other non-staff simply don't need to know about it.  The staff forums are private for a reason, and unless something horrible is going on behind closed doors, please keep in between you and the other leaders.

From my perspective and with what limited information I have, it doesn't seem to me that you should be completely kicked out of FA, but I can trust that the decision was made via staff consensus and with more information than I am personally privy to.  Perhaps it's just my selfish desire to keep playing games with a fun guy like you, and perhaps I'll receive some flak about it, but I really don't want to see you go.  Definitely not like this...

[Revalis]

All I could hear at the end of Erathaol's post.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avr7enrZuJQ

[likwidtek]

^ This

[YuriVi]

*sighs* and i was just looking into EVE. =.=