[godtoldmetodoit]

Former somewhat notorious Eve player here who has met Mittani in meatspace. My bias is that I really, really dislike Mittani as a human being (and our in game groups were very close allies throughout our relationship).

It's impossible to say for sure if he is actually stepping down or not. He has apparently given the "keys to the kingdom" to other Goons and appointed an interim CEO. Whether that means he is actually permanently out of the leadership loop or not remains to be seen. I don't know how close the new interim CEO is to Mittani, but I saw that the person he transferred the corporation shares to is extremely close to him, and the shares is what truly matters. With the shares you can remove the CEO, just like a board in real life.

You can run a major Eve alliance and coalition without ever logging into the game. So while his character may not be listed as CEO anymore, it means very little in and of itself. At the end of the day with groups of thousands of people, it's almost entirely about the politics and group dynamics. If he still has access to the leadership Jabber/Discord/forums and the leadership still believes in him, he could still be the de facto CEO.

I do want to note - this article did a terrible job explaining why so many people are mad at him. There were chat logs and screenshots from various services that showed he:

- kicked a player out for reporting some serious sustained abuse sustained against her by one player

- elevated a well known pedophile to a position of power

- Multiple women unrelated to the game were complaining about him groping them at events in his hometown

Reading the announcement he posted about stepping down, he cast himself entirely as the victim here and took 0 ownership and never apologized. Unless he has finally gotten bored with the Eve metagame, I highly doubt this is the last of him.

[smcl]

So when he says:

> The accusations that I am aware of are unsubstantiated falsehoods

Does he mean that people got mad at him for the three points you listed and started inventing stories about him as a result, or is he flat out denying those things happened at all?

[godtoldmetodoit]

I take it as him denying all of it.

He lies all the time. His style of leadership to the rank and file is to provide a narrative they can buy into, and whether the facts fit that narrative or not doesn't matter. He just needs to keep the narrative roughly coherent for everyone to consume in his group.

To my eyes he's currently playing the, "I'm the victim here, but despite being blameless I will step down for the greater good of the organization" martyrdom and us vs them story. That sets him up nicely for a return to visible power after a few months.

To be clear on the 3 points I listed out, the only thing I can personally attest to is that the pedophile in question is indeed a pedophile, as we kicked him out of my former group many years ago once we found out and that he somehow found a landing spot inside of Goons despite them knowing full well what he was.

[Ntrails]

He denies everything, that is his MO.

The chatlogs of him calling the victim of harrasment a "bitch who could not find the block button", "Wounded bird", "Amber heard" etc is sufficient to want him out of power and indeed the game.

I do believe most of the other accusations - but won't claim anything is definitely true.

[shadowgovt]

It indicates a change of culture that Goonswarm would care about that sort of thing enough to encourage Mittani to exit instead of (at best) just taking it as part of the old "dogs will be dogs" internet culture.

(Not a bad change; just observing the turning of the wheel).

[Sakos]

In the end, Goonswarm is nothing but a tool for him. A way to make money and to feed his ego. I highly doubt this is anything but a tactic to move away from the limelight while maintaining tight control. The way Eve's mechanics work, he has to maintain that control or some fuckwad could tear it all down overnight.

[Ntrails]

In game power has been moved already (The executor corp is under the control in game of Xttz, and Goonswarm under TheAdj).

I don't doubt that the majority of the coalition would happily welcome him back though, the people outraged at his behaviour are loud and passionate but the minority for sure

[shadowgovt]

So that begs an interesting question. EVE Online has one of the most nakedly Machiavellian power structure social dynamics I can think of in any multiplayer game. The combination of hypercapitalist core rules mechanics and hands off approach from moderators makes it a game where power is power.

If the people outrage it his behavior are a minority, why is he leaving? They must be a minority holding a big enough stick to prevent being simply ignored or marginalized.

[zrav]

Former unimportant Eve player active 2008-2017, involved in most of the big wars of that time-frame. I met Mittens for the first time in meatspace in 2011, before he built much of his influence and infamy, but the impression I got back then mirrors your bias and was confirmed on many later occasions. Ironically he himself comes to the same conclusion, if a decade late: "... has resulted in [] my presence being a net negative for the wider tribe". For the record I think that Goons are still a net positive for Eve despite the many overstepped limits, but that is debatable.

[ocdtrekkie]

Also have met Mittens IRL a number of times and know many people who have spent significantly more IRL time with him than myself: Absolutely nothing alleged shocks me. I can't say I've seen him do any of these things, but I'm also 100% able to square it with my experiences with him.