Huge news out of THQ Inc. today as they announced that the Warhammer 40,000: Dark Millennium MMORPG is no more and is being turned into a single-player game with online multiplayer features.

President and CEO of THQ, Brian Farrell, has this to say about the the change,

As previously announced, we have been actively looking for a business partner for the game as an MMO. However, based on changing market dynamics and the additional investment required to complete the game as an MMO, we believe the right direction for us is to shift the title from an MMO to a premium experience with single and multiplayer gameplay, robust digital content and community features. Because we believe strongly in the high-quality and vast creative work that is in production, this is the right decision for both our portfolio and for gamers devoted to this powerful property.

Due to this shift, THQ will be laying off 128 employees, 79 at Vigil Games and another 39 at Relic Entertainment.

I think not. However according to Tobold, he believes sometime in the future a player will commit suicide in direct response to cyber-bullying in-game, which will lead to a lawsuit and the slow demise of open PvP, because it will be too risky for game companies to allow it.

Tobold’s initial statement reads,

People will continue to play free-for-all PvP games which encourage bad behavior. Cyber-bullying will continue.  At some point some bullied player will actually commit suicide, leave a letter explaining why, and his relatives will file a lawsuit. Between legislators thinking that bashing video games is always good politics, and courts thinking that there is no difference whatsoever between cyber-bullying in a game and cyber-bullying via other online platforms, we will end up with laws against game-related cyber-bullying.

Free-for-all PvP will die or at least be driven far underground into games nobody plays

This statement is fundamentally flawed and should read as is, “Cyber-bullying will continue.” There is absolutely no connection between PvP games and cyber-bullying that can’t be said about any other social media. Put any large group of people together and someone will bully someone else.  I don’t care if it’s in a game, in school, Facebook, message board, sports or online chat. There will always be bullying and if it leads to suicide, there are already laws in place, at least in the US, to deal with it. End of story.

There is no possibly way that the government should, or would, make special additional laws for PvP games. They’re basically chat rooms; how could any gaming company possibly monitor hundreds of thousands of players at the same time chatting or talking via voice-chat? It’s not even possible. There is also an issue of privacy if a company had to do this.  The suggestion that a law like this could pass specifically against PvP games is absolutely ludicrous.

Tobold, I normally agree with you, but you can’t be wronger on this one, I don’t care how dumb politicians get.

Eurogamer is reporting that CCP has launched an investigation against CSM chairman, Alexander ‘The Mittani’ Gianturco, after he presented at Eve Fanfest during the “unfiltered” player panel last week.

Eve Online, like the real world, is one of the few MMORPGs, if not the only, that allows its players to participate in in-game crimes and scams; allowing players to steal in-game items and currency from each other.

During his presentation, The Mittani aired out a private conversation with one of the Eve Online players that he had scammed.The victim revealed that he had recently gone through a divorce and had become depressed, to which The Mittani mocked during his rant, stating “We’re sure that he’s not dead” and “he might have committed suicide.”

The Mittani then revealed the player’s in-game username and encouraged the audience and viewers watching to find the player in-game to harrass them, in the hopes he would eventually act out on his depression and commit suicide.

CCP public relations and social media speicalist, Ned Cokes, responded with the following statements,

“I want to reassure you that CCP in no way condones the harassment of players, especially those who suffer from depression or suicidal thoughts, as we understand the possible consequences of such abhorrent behaviour,” 

While the content of online interactions between players cannot realistically be gated within our game worlds, we do take very seriously accusations of such behaviour between our players

We are undertaking a full internal review of this panel as well as the process used for vetting the panel’s materials. Even though this panel was billed as unfiltered by CCP, we expect public presentations to be courteous and professional towards others.

I realize this was the “unfiltered” portion of the event, but for the head of the Eve Online player elected CSM to blatantly show no regard for other players well-being, is quite shocking. I watched part of his speech during the live stream and couldn’t stomach his personality for more than a few mins. Sorry, but he just seemed like a complete asshole to me; I don’t care if he was drunk. I turned it off after he read the messages between him and the victim, before he gave out the players username and asked the audience to harass him, but I’m not surprised he went on to do that.

It will be interesting to see what CCP does to address the issue, but I think The Mittani can kiss his CMS chairman position goodbye.

Eve Fanfest 2012 might be winding down, but the parties are just getting started. To end the main presentation for Saturday, CCP released a new trailer for Eve Online called Eve Forever, which gives us our first glimps to how the Templar clone soldiers came to be.

Witness the stunning discovery that leads to the rise of the Templars, the first immortal clone soldiers of the EVE Universe. Unveiled at Fanfest 2012, this video gives a visceral insight into DUST 514′s impact on the future of warfare across the worlds of EVE Online.

Check out the trailer after the jump.

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