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Let me preface this:
- I voted for Hans.
- I hate Goons.
- Not sure if I care too much about The Mittani on a personal level.
However, after reading all the blogs, and his replies and responses, I have to lend my support to the Mittani. Why? Three reasons:
- His apology was, I think, pretty sincere. He replaced the isk and then some, he made a public, very personal apology that wasn’t the crappy Rush Limbaugh type of apology we get to see more and more of each day.
- Being human myself, I’ve made my share of mistakes.. and I had to eat some serious crow. I also personally believe that there isn’t a person out there who hasn’t said something of this nature to friends.. especially corp and alliance mates in Eve.
- Someone actually took the effort and contacted the guy the Mittani was talking about. His responses clearly indicate he didn’t think it was that big of a deal. In point of fact, you can read what Liang discovered here: http://liangnuren.wordpress.com/2012/03/26/the-mittani-hero/.
After reading quite a bit of all the information, it’s just another day in Eve. CCP and the rest of the non-Eve gaming community are completely going overboard. CCP, I can understand since this could become a PR issue.. but the rest of the non-Eve wankers need to settle the **** down, and get back to playing their Happy Kitty MMOs or whatever they’re called.
2nd Anomaly From the Left 
As much as it pains me to do so, I think I have to disagree with you here, O.
Do not get me wrong – this has not to do with my personal feelings regarding Alex Gianturco / Mittens / the Mittani. His public apology was certainly of the tenor warranted by the situation, and from all evidence he has made good his offer directly to the person affected. I can respect that, even while I find the behavior which brought all this about to have been absolutely abhorrent. How that person accepts it or not may be a subject of some controversy – what Liang found is apparently at some odds with other material I’ve seen out there; the chatlog presented as proof that the Mittani had given compensation to the player in question presented quite a different picture. (I believe I found that on Jester’s blog, although I am not certain of that at the moment.)
Here’s the rub: As many have come to point out, CCP is operating on a whole different level, now, with the imminent release of Dust 514 in partnership with Sony International. That is an event that needs to be surrounded with a maximum of positive hype and press; having the highest profile player in your flagship game – and let’s be honest, that’s EXACTLY who and what Alex “the Mittani” Gianturco is – become a focus for some of the worst type of negative publicity is potentially disastrous at a time when CCP can ill-afford such a disaster.
The critical aspect is this: An interesting thing to note from another of Jester’s recent blogs – during Fanfest, when they were live-streaming the keynote presentation for DUST, they had in several hundred THOUSAND people watching through Sony’s Playstation home network. Think about that – it was potentially more people than currently there are players in all of EVE. For the keynote of a game that’s not yet in release.
Think either CCP or (especially) Sony wants even the faintest whiff of anything like a Mittani-gate?
Alex Gianturco may well (and arguably) go down in history as the best CSM Chairman we’ve had. He worked for it and earned it, and I give him full credit for that, whatever else I might think of Goonswarm and some of the things he’s done with his alliance. And I think he would have continued that good job on CSM7, as well. But if he is serious about wanting the best for the game itself, sadly I think this clearly means he has to complete the act of falling on his sword; likewise will CCP need to accept it. Neither EVE nor DUST nor CCP nor Sony can afford for him not to; the ramifications for all those brands are just too important to allow otherwise.