My Dearest Martian Community,

A few users notified me of recent Martian events, and I feel an obligation to speak about them, as a moderator of Mars Explorer and the administrator of Terrium. I hope to address all the concerns regarding these matters patiently and reasonably. My intention for writing this letter is to let you know my verdict on it all.

For those of you unaware, _ACE_ admitted to hacking a couple weeks ago. His ability to manipulate servers is a function of using the complete source code that Aubrey released and the Unity editor to alter gameplay.

Before I share my input, I would like to report the general status of Terrium, the successor to Mars Explorer. We (I speak on behalf of all the developers of Terrium) are nowhere near ready for a game release. There is much core development left to do, including updating the networking and assets, and we are on a development hiatus until early December. Due to Terrium's current state, beginning to advertise the game has not even crossed our minds. With that in mind, please consider that Terrium has no affiliation with the recent events on Mars.

Now you may be asking, "But how could you allow such behavior of a developer, who represents Terrium, and therefore the Mars Explorer community? Are there going to be any consequences?" I will address consequences first.

Technically, hacking Mars as _ACE_ did is acceptable. Aubrey chose to release the game's full source code with no restrictions on its use to play the official game. Therefore, _ACE_ has hacked legally and on Aubrey's terms, which is just under the Creative Commons license. Although disturbing to some, ACE's actions have also not been harmful to anyone. Hence there is no necessary punishment for him. Hacking Mars Explorer as _ACE_ did may be frowned upon, but it is allowed.

Morally, _ACE_'s choice to hack public Mars servers was wrong, as it was devious and vindictive in nature. By listening to private conversations on Mars, he eavesdropped. Additionally, by tampering with public game servers, he attacked the community. Despite how benign his hacking was, it was done with bad intentions, and therefore is immoral.

A week ago, after Kruncher notified me of _ACE_'s hacking, I reprimanded _ACE_ and shared my concerns on the matter. I also told him why I would not punish him if he chose to keep hacking Mars. Evidently, _ACE_ has chosen to continue hacking, which disappoints me, but is his rightful choice. Now the question remains, "How could you allow such behavior of a developer, who represents Terrium, and therefore the Mars Explorer community?"

First of all, _ACE_ is a programmer under my management. His actions do not impact the way I run Terrium. For example, he is neither a moderator nor administrator. We, as partners and friends, have faith in each other to successfully produce Terrium. Despite his shortcomings, I fully trust _ACE_ as a developer. His work never lets me down.

Regarding kruncher, it is saddening to see yet another formidable figure of the Mars Explorer community capitulate to the Martian drama. However, this does not excuse him from inappropriate behavior. Fortunately, I was able to read his comments in the Mars Apocalypse thread, and since he left them unhidden this time, I shall address his "last ditch effort to send a palpable message" to me.

"The fact that Terrium's admin allows this AND expects to advertise here to recruit users is a matter of his own obliviousness and greediness to get his game working. You're free to accept this dirty deal, if you so choose. I honestly won't fault you for it. IMO, no game is worth this level of compromise. Especially not a game that lacks the soul and charm that only Mars Explorer possesses."

Kruncher referred to me as the "Terrium Admin" several times in his posts, and he also called _ACE_ a representative of Terrium. While this may be true, it was a desperate and distasteful attempt to use Terrium as leverage to stop _ACE_. I disagree with his approach for the following reasons:

1. He started to hide my Terrium-related posts in order to gain my attention because "[I] can reinstate any post and should definitely share in the inconveniences that [my] team of ghouls have brought to good Martians." He says "team of ghouls," but I presume he means _ACE_ only because GTR34 has been inactive, and he does not even know the composer, a personal friend of mine. And I actually have experienced direct hacks before I knew who the hacker was – my vehicle kept being deleted in a server, for example. I do not see the relevance this has to my Terrium posts, though, so I hope they will remain untouched.

2. As I discussed earlier, _ACE_'s poor choice to hack Mars has no influence on the direction I am taking Terrium.

3. Kruncher and I had been diplomatically communicating about _ACE_'s hacking via private messages. If kruncher had notified me again when _ACE_ continued hacking, instead of attacking the whole Terrium development team on this forum, I would have told him why I ultimately decided to take no action against _ACE_. I do not consider this choice to be oblivious and greedy. 

I also disagree with kruncher's forum moderation decision that involves letting Oinky's spam stay as long as _ACE_ continues to hack Mars Explorer. It is not fair to force all forum users to deal with spam because of the actions of one. Furthermore, Kruncher is demonizing  _ACE_ for something in which _ACE_ has no involvement.

Lastly, some of Kruncher's comments were directed at individual users in an impassioned, insulting, and contemptuous way, doing nothing to remedy anything. Here are a few examples: 

"You will need far more than an attitude adjustment to ever fit in or feel that you belong with any decent group of humans. You have not yet humanized hence you have no tribe."
"Noob it up, buttercup. Kill that which does not love you."
"I allowed you to participate thought you offer no contribution. You're welcome."

Despite all of this, kruncher was a good Martian friend of mine, and I am sorry that continuously growing tension ruined our friendship. I wish kruncher a healthy, happy life on Earth.

Now I conclude this letter, reminding my brethren that I want the best for Mars Explorer. I am still on leave, as per my "Enough is Enough" thread. I will return when Terrium is completed. Terrium is the third attempt for the future of Mars Explorer, and third time's the charm – you will not be disappointed. I look forward to the betterment of our community and a prosperous future. Thank you for taking the time to read this letter in its entirety.

Sincerely,

Eric

P.S. For the sake of a historical archive, the following are all of my threads regarding Terrium, including why it is being developed: "The Future of Mars," "The Future of Mars – Updates and To Do List," "Aubrey's Message on the Future of Mars," and "Enough is Enough."

EDIT (Oct. 3, 2014): After taking a fresh look at this thread, I thought I would share something about which I should have been more clear. I adamently do not support _ACE_'s choice to hack Mars Explorer, but because _ACE_ was playing a crucial role in the development of Terrium (the successor to Mars Explorer), and because his actions were not egregious, I chose not to kick him off the team. There were more factors to consider than just weighing the right versus the wrong. Regardless, I am happy to say that _ACE_ has grown from this experience and is, in my opinion, a better man than he was a year ago.