EVE CSM chairman announces resignation

Alex Gianturco, aka ‘The Mittani’, has announced his intent to resign from EVE online’s player run and elected ‘Council of Stellar Management’ after drunkenly revealing the name of a seriously depressed player, and suggesting that others could make him "go kill himself."

His remarks were made on Thursday night during an alliance panel at last week’s EVE fanfest, during which an in-game conversation was shown that suggested a player was having suicidal thoughts.

"Incidentally, if you wanna make the guy go kill himself, his name is [edited]… He has his own corp. Find him," said Gianturco, an open bottle of Jägermeister in front of him.

The Mittani is the most famous player character in EVE, responsible for single-handedly bringing down ‘Band of Brothers’, one of the major factions in a conflict the community now refers to as "The Great War."

A member of the alliance known as ‘Goonswarm’, The Mittani infiltrated the ranks of rival alliance BOB and, over the course of two years, worked his way up to the upper echelons of the faction’s leadership.

He then disbanded the alliance.

This event, which attracted the attention of the BBC, is for many the defining moment in EVE, demonstrating how a single player can permanently change the game.

In fact, many players in EVE not only think ‘griefing’ and scamming others is part of the game, but part of the freedom that makes the MMO worth playing.

But the player community has its limits.

Once the panel had ended, Gianturco was called out on the EVE forums for his insensitivity, and has drawn criticism from across the gaming media, as well as an investigation from CCP.

He has since announced his intent to resign over twitter.

"Just landed. Step one, apologize profusely. Step two, resign. Step three, send all my isk to the victim. Entirely my fault and unacceptable," he wrote.

"This has been hanging over my head since Thursday when I stumbled away from the Alliance Panel with a vague sense that I had done something horrible,"Gianturco said in his apology.

"I’m relieved to discover that the Mackinaw miner is doing fine and mining away, despite being blown up by Goonswarm in-game. He deserves, and he has, my heartfelt apologies – here in public as well as a private apology. There’s no excuse for what I did – while some might try to use my inebriation as a mitigating factor, I put myself in that compromised mental state, and the guilt of that is entirely mine."