Eve Online maker CCP isn't scared of The Mittani or Goonswarm

Be contentious, attempt to destroy Eve Online's economy, milk an exploit for unprecedented amounts of ISK currency - developer CCP isn't scared of notorious player Alex "The Mittani" Gianturco or the antics of his bad-boy alliance, Goonswarm.

CCP ain't afraid of nobody.

"I don't think we really fear anyone, and I don't think it would be a healthy relationship with our customers if we did," lead game designer Kristoffer Touborg (CCP Soundwave) told Eurogamer.

"We accept that players do strange things, go to extreme lengths to win and generally come up with all kinds of clever schemes.

"Goonswarm come up a lot in the media, but they're not the only ones doing stuff like this.

"It's a trade-off, really - you have to accept that if you let your players be creative, most of it will be really awesome but some of it might not be. That shouldn't really cause fear, as much as it should foster an acceptance that some things will work out and some won't.

"Creative players are a blessing, even if they sometime cause us to work overtime now and then."

CCP's brave face coincides with The Mittani's latest stunt - a declaration of all-out war on more or less everyone who opposes the enormous Clusterf*** Coalition, to which the Goonswarm alliance (itself a collection of Goonswarm guilds - corporations) belongs. This war could begin as soon as this weekend.

"We're still pretty far away from ever seeing The Great War part two, but one can always hope."

Kristoffer Tuoborg, lead game designer, Eve Online

"No mercy, no respite, no 'freeports', just brutal conquest," Mittani's latest rallying cry read (we refer to him by his character name because he's writing 'in character'). "Conquest which will not stop until this threat to our bloc is extinguished."

Apparently he's not too fussed if anyone gets caught in the crossfire.

But CCP's eyes aren't popping - the developer's not convinced this war will match the scope of the Great War of 2007, which encompassed nearly all of Eve Online's nullsec - non-policed - space zones.

So, how big does CCP think Clusterf***'s new war will be?

"Hopefully massive!" blurted Kristoffer Tuoborg. "The big wars where tens of thousands fight each other are, in my opinion, the best thing EVE has to offer.

"We're still pretty far away from ever seeing The Great War part two, but one can always hope.

"Summer tends to mean some people spending more time on beaches and less time in spaceships," Touborg added, "so hopefully this will provide some interesting content in what can be a seasonally slow period.

"But yeah, let's hope this becomes gigantic so I can spend this summer eating popcorn and watching the war progress."

Incidentally, Alliance Tournament 10 kicks off in Eve Online this weekend. This is where player alliances fight each other according to some tournament rules. Rules? No thanks.