I assume the former, but there's something perversely funny about the idea of a player in a fictional universe having to resign from fictional corporation because he failed to adequately address in-universe HR claims.
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.
> 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?
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.
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.
(Not a bad change; just observing the turning of the wheel).
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
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.
To quote: > the_mittani: and just like last time, i will simply put heads on spikes over and over again until order is restored, with the occasional oops sorry about that one overly enthusiastic apology thrown in
I believe the real issue was his name being dragged through the mud on Reddit and SomethingAwful etc. I think his monetisation was also being attacked - sponsors of shows and so on simply do not like being associated with this sort of stuff. I still simply do not know what was going through his head. But stepping down for "the greater good" and playing the victim may simply be a tactic to let things die down
I've done everything from old school POS wars to Titan kills to running multiple types of production empires to living in wormholes and being a wealthy (trillions ISK, back when the best way to get wealthy was through RP) feared low-sec space pirate (this one was my personal endgame).
Once you've reached one of EVE's endgame scenarios it's basically impossible to continue playing and get any enjoyment out of the game.
You might try, but it's like chasing your first high. It's never as good.
And knowing Mittens and what he's like...yeah he's not playing anymore unless it's waiting for the heat to die down and coming back in a year or two.
It's not like WoW where the delta between someone that started the game in 2005 and someone who started in 2020 isn't that far apart.
Someone who started Eve in 2005 would be like a member of the Rothschild dynasty while someone who started in 2020 would be at best, some low level corporate middle manager.