Eve Online permanently bans three players for defacing Iceland monument

CCP Games permanently banned three players for vandalizing the Reykjavik, Iceland, monument commemorating players of Eve Online, according to a post on the game's forums from community manager "CCP Falcon."

The monument, which was unveiled a little over a week ago before festivities kicked off for Eve Fanfest 2014, was vandalized shortly after the expo ended. A sticker bearing the insignia of one of Eve's in-game factions, the Goonswarm, was placed on the monument's face and one player bragged about having scratched out the name of another player.

In his post, CCP Falcon stated that Eve community members helped track down those responsible for the vandalism, including players complicit with the vandalism and members of the vandals' alliances. Falcon called the monument's defacing an insult to the entire Eve Online community, and said CCP Games will "continue to operate a zero tolerance approach to dealing with harassment and victimization in the Eve Universe."

As a result, three players — with seven Eve Online accounts and one Dust 514 account between them — have been permanently banned from Eve; another indirectly involved with the incident is facing a six-month ban. These four individuals, whom Falcon refused to name, are also blacklisted for life from future Eve Fanfest events.

"While the community has been justifiably outraged and a number of people have requested that we release the in-game identities of those who carried out the act, we feel that this would be contrary to our privacy policies," Falcon said. "As such we will deal with this incident in line with our current policies, and the identities of those responsible will remain confidential.

"With this in mind, we now consider this issue resolved within the Eve Universe, and any further action taken outside the virtual world relating to criminal damage or recovery of costs for repairs to the Eve Universe Monument will remain confidential between CCP Games, the authorities and those involved," he added.

For a more in-depth look at CCP Games' Eve Online monument, check out our coverage from Eve Fanfest 2014.