The CSM Debate

So a new election year has come for the Council of Stellar Management, now going into its sixth iteration. It seems each new group pushes CCP harder and farther, a good thing indeed with the way CCP can act like a spoiled child that only wants new shinies. They work for the playerbase, or at least that is what they are supposed to do. They give voice to our concerns and demands, hoping that our universe's overlords will bend to listen. It's a lot of work and a lot of dedication put in for something that many people see as "just a game". So who would want to do this anyways?

Well there are quite a few this year it seems, names familiar and not. Kelduum Revaan, CEO of Eve Uni, has a campaign running I think, as well as Roc Wieler, and I am truly hoping one of my corpmates pushes to be a candidate. Roc, though, is my biggest pick and I will be voting for him. I hope you will too, but that's something for you to decide. Why do I want him? Good question, one that I will now answer.

In my mind, Roc is an exceptional capsuleer with a great amount of experience, knowledge, talent, creativity and character. In his own words:

"You’re getting an intelligent, charismatic bulldog that won’t back down from a fight. You’re getting a man that will stand tall and proud, shouldering your requests to the CSM, and then to CCP. You’re getting a cigar smoking, exercise driven ex-Matar Colonel that will fight with his last breath for what he believes in."

He loves Eve because of what the universe is and what the players make it to be with who they are.

"A game succeeds or fails not based on board room meetings, or even how good/bad a game might be; it depends on its audience. A game is only as good as its players. "

He sees the CSM as what it is: a voice of the people. While CSMs have done well to keep that in mind, they need to remember that their agenda is to be that of the capsuleers they represent. But that doesn't mean he is a puppet. He has his own mind and a sharp one with ideas to fix Factional Warfare and Third Party Apps, although they are only his opinions and not part of his campaign.

I think I'll leave it at that for now. He's a quality candidate and has had to fight just to apply to be one. But he is not my only choice as a candidate for the CSM. While I do prefer Roc's approach of doing what it is the playerbase thinks needs doing, I do want specific attention. Can you guess where? That's right, wormholes.

Embalizym, my aforementioned corpmate, is an excellent choice and to my knowledge the only wormholer that is going for it. She is as tenacious and bullheaded as she is nerdy. Yes, a woman *gasp* Mynxee isn't the only one around to kick CCP in the balls. And she is happy to do so to make sure CCP stays in line.

For Em, the important things are "balance, critical thinking, empathy, being painfully honest. anarchy and innovation" while she is less than enthusiatic about "people who rely more on numbers than skill, yes men, lap dogs & puppets." Very straightforward and honest in who she is and how she approaches any situation.

Understanding that wormholes are a growing and popular part of Eve, it is desired that the opinion of this group is heard, particularly in the following:

Overhaul of the BM system
-The current system is unwieldy at best
-A quick improvement would simply be to allow for adding bookmarks linked in chat, with the option to go directly to a folder
-Is it necessary that BM's first go to the general folder then the assigned?
-Implementing corporate bookmarks

POS Mechanics
-Refit T3's from POS's - require the ship be stored and unfit, make the change, then relaunch the ship, thus no redrawing
-Improved hangar tabs - allow for different tabs in different hangars, personal storage
-There is an option to name ship arrays and corp hangars, but it does not work, either remove the option or let us name them
-Allow for on lining of multiple modules at once/ why is it limited?

Scanning, WH's, etc.
-Why is D Scan in KM, people only care about AU
-Fail to jump bug, etc. There are bugs in WH's too.
-Perhaps implementing outposts in WHs to fix issues encountered with POS life

Now, there are also other issues in EVE and solutions for them:

Dealing with Bots and Nulsec
-Nulsec Bots are a problem, but cannot be easily removed because they must be detected
-Nulsec is effectively hisec for the locals, murder for anyone else
-Nulsec is often called static, unchanging

Change local to delayed (perhaps with modules to allow for faster local, etc. in more developed systems) - bots lose their security net, people have a chance to sneak around, making nulsec more violent, less static

PvP Issues
-Docking games, allow for some manner of stopping people from docking when engaged
-Hisec wars, and the fixing of

As is the trend, she does have an affinity for a particular area of space. Naturally, she hopes to finally bring more attention to wormholes and shape them into functional areas of space that they deserve to be. The CSM minutes from December noted that there is a desire to have players migrate to 0.0 space, including wormholes. So it is only logical that such a space needs work and Em is the one to get it done. Wormholes are ignored by just about anyone that doesn't live in them. The CSM has called it a "mini-game" and CCP seems to think it's good for little beyond day trips. But CCP also likes to vaunt how the game has developed through their players. Did you think CCP came up with jetcanning or alliances? Nope, that was all us players. So what if wormholes weren't originally intended to be what they are now. Working with the players as the game evolves is what the CSM, and by extension CCP, is all about.

So those are my opinions on a couple candidates to keep an eye on. I wish them luck in the days to come, as well as all candidates that are running.

Since I am already on the topic, I might as well mention things that have been knocking around. One of those is that the CSM itself could use overhaul in its execution. Well what do you mean? I mean the structure. Someone mentioned something like this and I would like to see it applied. Instead of electing an entirely new team of CSM, why not work more like the American Senate and stagger such changes. Keep half of the old CSM as an anchor to bring in the new candidates and maintain the established relationship and trust with CCP, while moving the CSM forward as a whole. As it is, the new CSM members have to get acquainted with the process and whatnot and CCP has to learn new faces and attitudes all at once. Might as well ease into it instead. Food for thought.

Another thing I have noticed in the CSM is that its members tend toward pushing changes that are important to them, rather than looking at each part of the whole and improving it overall. This can be good and it is certainly a natural inclination, you improve what you care about. But it can lead to favoritism. More than one CSM member lives in nullsec? Guess what gets brought up quite often. Yes, there are large number of players that live and work in nullsec, but that is hardly the entire game of Eve.

Since this is getting a little long, I'll just do TL;DR versions of some points:

-Roc had the idea in relation to FW, but why not apply dynamic content to more than that? Missions and perhaps exploration as well. Make it more alive and more worth the brain power.
-Along the lines of my CSM thoughts, when looking at changes and balances, see what can work for more than one area of space (highsec, lowsec, null, and wspace) and push for what can benefit many over a certain type.
-Instead of trying to get expansions out on some pointless timeline, why not just stop them. Stop giving us expansions, start working on what is already there. I like the move towards killing jump bridges and nerfing supercaps for example. We want to make what we have better more than we want more useless hangar decorations or broken mechanics. Fix hybrids, fix FW, obligatory fix lag (although ppl need to whine less about that imo), etc etc. Make more modular ships in the line of T3s.

I must say CCP is certainly doing a good job of working with the CSM, an opportunity no other player base has to affect their entertainment. So I do have to say thanks to CCP for allowing things like this for us all to enjoy Eve that much more.

Choose wisely!
-Mem

PS this has been sitting for a couple days, so forgive formatting issues and the little things.