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Preamble[]
On Sunday December 10th, 2006 the leaders of the Freemason faction presented the players and staff of CyberCitizens with a dossier of evidence accusing the prominent Solaris founder and game moderator Sir Fobia of spying on other factions and creating multiple in game characters.
As of Monday December 11th, 2006 it is hoped that the matter may be resolved diplomatically before the game tumbles into its' first all out "World War".
The issues:[]
Brenden current Grandmaster of the Freemasons posted the Mason's accusations and evidence that Sir Fobia had been using aliases to gather information from and otherwise conduct espionage on the SWAT, La Famiglia and Freemason bulletin boards. These aliases were linked to Sir Fobia by taking his IP address from an administrative control panel on the old Freemason forums and comparing it to other IP addresses of the suspected 'Fobia puppets'. A representative of the Solaris faction was invited to comment on the alleged spying and seek Sir Fobia's comment on the matter. However the Freemason did not issue an ultimatum to Solaris before beginning hostilities against Sir Fobia.
At the same time as Brenden's posting Freemason Jean Loring posted another dossier that alleged Sir Fobia was using multiple CC game accounts - which is against the game's TOS - See terms and conditions. Jean Loring asked that admin staff check the game logs for further evidence to support the allegation.
The accusations:[]
[*] That, after Fobia parted ways with the Freemasons, he abused his administrative privileges on the OLD FREEMASON FORUM to mis-direct Freemason members trying to find the new bulletin boards.
[*] That he created the persona 'greendragon' to lurk and occasionally post upon the new Freemason bulletin boards.
[*] That he created the persona 'Iniquity' to lurk on the Swat forums.
[*] That he created the "Eon" persona (see: Account 2: _eon_) to Lurk and spread pro-Fobia propaganda on the La Famiglia forums.
[*] It was also alleged that Sir Fobia had in game accounts linked to some of the posting accounts - A violation of the CC TOS.
The 'confirmed' facts:[]
The IP address of the 'greendragon' and 'Inquity' posting accounts match those of the 'Eon' posting account, the 'Eon' CC game account and Sir Fobia's IP address - See the 'Multi Report' thread.
That Sir Fobia did inform moderator Azriel that another CC game account, under the name Eon, would be run from the same IP address as Sir Fobia.
The email address used to register Eon on the La Famiglia forums and Sir Fobia's email address where reported, with screenshots, to Azriel as being the same.
That Sir Fobia denies that Eon is a 'multi' of his but rather his room-mates citizen - See issues remaining.
And that Sir Fobia accepts that the greendragon posting account was created by him using a possibly defunct CC game account as cover. He has stated that he considers any "spying" to be 'dirty politics' and not CC rule breaking.
Sir Fobia strenuously denies that he has any multiple game accounts, or is otherwise in violation of the CyberCitizens TOS. At this time Fobia does not believe that this matter has impacted on his ability to moderate fairly.
Issues remaining:[]
Despite evidence to the contrary, some faction members remain unconvinced that Sir Fobia, greendragon and Eon are not one and the same (multi's).
Faction responses:[]
Both the Freemasons and La Famiglia have declared war on Sir Fobia alone for espionage.
Solaris has made it clear that an attack on Sir Fobia would be considered hostile towards their faction.
The Freemasons declared a temporary cease fire in order to attempt to resolve the matter diplomatically with Solaris - Presumably finding the argument of "No ultimatum before war" to be a meritorious one. Those diplomatic talks have broken down, the fighting is scheduled to continue at 12:00AM (game time) on the fifteenth of December 2006.
The immediate aftermath:[]
Solaris took the action of removing Sir Fobia from his leadership role in the faction. He appears to have been 'demoted' [In so far as Solaris has any demotions] to a 'normal' member. Solaris has asked Sir Fobia to issue an apology to all concerned, in addition to adding their own.
Sir Fobia issued an apology and explanation.
The Freemasons extended the cease fire against Fobia in order to consider what, if any action to take. The resultant decision was that the responses were not acceptable and fighting will continue.
La Famiglia's 'vendetta' has remained in force.
A force of players has been asking Sir Fobia to abdicate his position as Administrator on the CC Forum, for his admitted unethical behaviour and accused "cheating". Formal Request
Continued escalation[]
On Wednesday December 13th, 2006 The One posted the collective response of SWAT, La Famiglia and the Freemasons to the Sir Fobia and Solaris statements of apology and attempted conciliation.
While The One's response first appeared to be an ultimatum to Solaris IE: Remove Fobia from your ranks or we'll declare war. It was quickly clarified to state that the Trio of factions will only attack Sir Fobia and those who aid him. While the distinction may prove academical, the (very) unlikely option exists that Solaris may chose not to honour their commitment to defend fellow member Sir Fobia in order to avoid a war with the collective.
The separation of issues[]
The two issues (Spying and alleged CC admin abuse) have been separated from one another.
The spying/political scandal is, in essence, now an inter-faction role-play using the game as a battleground, the fact that Sir Fobia is an admin should not (in theory) factor into this.
The issue of Sir Fobia's ability to administrate and moderate has all but been left up to the game's creator Kevin - This issue is no longer part of the "war".
Current faction stance[]
SWAT, La Famiglia and the Freemasons have declared war against Sir Fobia and any person who aids him. They have signaled that they do not wish to engage the Solarian faction in a war but will do so if they collectively come to Fobia's aid.
Solaris have condemned Sir Fobia's spying and sanctioned him for it. They have yet to formalise a stance on defending Sir Fobia in the event of war but have indicated that any Solarian is entitled to the defence of the faction if attacked.
The Syndicate condemned Sir Fobia's actions but announced that they intend to stay neutral in any conflict.