Shadow of Cerberus EVE Community Forum

CCP Mintchip (aka Mintchiplol)

I wanted to stay out of the CCP Mintchip hiring fray for a few weeks. Granted, I made short mention of it back when it was first announced, mainly the thought that it seemed a strange hire, given that she's never really shown any proclivity towards first-person shooters on her YouTube vlog, yet she was hired as a community representative for a first-person shooter. Be that as it may, one doesn't necessarily need to be interested in the game they're hired to represent, they simply have to know how to sell it enthusiastically and to assist the community effectively. She may well be more than capable in both areas.

I also refrained from discussing CCP Mintchip because I have some active (and, in my opinion, quite interesting) email interviews ongoing with CCP. (I've previously published two, one with CCP Explorer and another with CCP Merovingian.) I figured that talking about Mintchip might jeopardize those interviews. (This must be what the CSM goes through, the need to be critical when necessary, but also the worry that such criticism might cut off access.) I did my waiting. I don't think this topic is out of bounds, and it's not a personal criticism or attack on her.

I'm not going to be harshly critical of Mintchip. I don't really care why she was hired. I'm not going to question her qualifications. CCP Games is more than capable of determining the qualifications and job performance of their employees. I wish her all the best in her new employment with CCP. I think she has a great job, with a great company, in a great country. I consider her fortunate.

I do have issue with a particular webpage of hers, given that she is now a CCP employee. I didn't take issue with this webpage pre-CCP, because at that time it was her business. Now that she is an employee, it potentially raises some awkward questions. I was waiting to see how it might be resolved. Looking into it today, the issue remains unresolved, the webpage is still active. It's what I want to talk about.

Her Amazon Wish List. It is still active. I was hoping, by now, she would have had the good sense to delete it, or at least remove it from public view.

I have no problem with people having Amazon Wish Lists. I have no problem with CCP employees having Amazon Wish Lists, because they're likely private and not for public consumption. The difference with Mintchip is how she promoted her wish list pre-CCP. This wish list is now a direct link to her employment at CCP.

Mintchip used to link her Amazon Wish List to fans via her YouTube and her Facebook pages. By all accounts, fans have gifted her items from that wish list. That's fine. More power to her if that is the case. It's not much different than a website having a PayPal donation link. If people want to purchase her a few things because they enjoy the entertainment that she provides, then that is perfectly cool.

The evolving problem is that she chose to keep her Mintchip monicker when she was hired by CCP. She's not CCP Bangs or CCP Pink Sweater, she's CCP Mintchip. Mintchip is her long time internet persona. Her Amazon Wish List has Mintchip emblazoned above it in big bold letters. This wish list is now tied to CCP, because they now have on staff a CCP Mintchip.

To be perfectly blunt about the issue, her wish list should now be private. We should not even know it exists, the same as any other CCP employee who may have a wish list of their own. The specific problem is that, before she was hired by CCP, her wish list was personal, public and donative, in nature. Should this wish list still be active and public, especially given that it was originally promoted as a way to donate to her online endeavors? Should it be linked to her CCP employment? Mintchip, as an identity, is no longer hers. It is now equally within the purview of CCP.

What if some DUST 514 player decides to buy her a gift? What if that player makes that kindness public? I'm not saying Mintchip can be bought, that she would favour any particular player over another simply because she was purchased a gift, but the optics of the situation would certainly merit that discussion. Does CCP want to be in a position where it has to defend an employee who has placed them in that predicament?

My other problem was with Twitter, though that seems be on the verge of being resolved. Is she going to communicate with CCP customers using @CCP_Mintchip or with @mintchiplol? She's finally using the CCP account. That's progress. She still has some work to do in differentiating how she's going to use both as communication tools with fans and DUST 514 players.

So, Twitter? Seems to be mostly resolved, or at least heading in that direction. Amazon Wish List? Very much problematic, but only due to the public nature of the list, her use of it in the past, and it now being tied to her new CCP identity.


Source: CCP Mintchip (aka Mintchiplol)