Feb 252015
 

CSM Elections are once again upon us, and as with the past few years, I will be recommending candidates for you all to vote for. With this recommended slate, I am focusing very heavily on people that are community focused, and whom care about the overall health of EVE, not just their own little corner of it. A strong healthy game, with a growing community is good for all of us in and out of the NPSI scene.

Now, the CSM is elected using an STV voting system (someone else can try and explain that) but basically instead of voting for 1 candidate, you can select up to 14 candidates from the field. And yes, with a list of 75 to chose from, many of whom have no published platform, interviews or anything, it can be bloody well hard. See the CCP Candidate page here, or this spreadsheet.

This is where I come in. Like many other groups and community notables in EVE, I am providing a break down of the candidates I think you SHOULD list on your ballots. Along with a suggested order for listing them.

However if you do simply want to exercise your rights as players, then get back to exploding one another, mining, missioning, exploring and ganking, here are the 14 I feel will be the best bang for your buck. Click here for a prefilled ballot with this list.

  1. Jayne Fillon
  2. Bam Stroker
  3. Khador Vess
  4. Xander Phoena
  5. Sugar Kyle
  6. Psianh Auvyander
  7. Steve Ronuken
  8. Mike Azariah
  9. Gorski Car
  10. Corbexx
  11. Cagali Cagali
  12. Sion Kumitomo
  13. Manfred Sideous
  14. Endie

Candidates 8 – 14 feel free to mix it up, or out right change them if you wish.  After all several of them will get massive bloc support from the CFC, HERO, PL etc, whatever you do though remember Jayne is your number ONE!!!

 

The following is a break down of these candidates and why I think they are important for the game. The top 7 are candidates who in one way or another sing from the COMMUNITY songbook along with all of us, the 8 through 14 slots are people whom I know deserve a place on your ballots for CSM X. Feel free to change up the last 7, but I really do recommend following my top 7.

Jayne Fillon

Founder of Spectre Fleet – one of EVE’s main NPSI communities; Theorycrafter extraordinaire, excellent public speaker and a guy with as much on focus on content creation as myself. Has a true love for the game and what it can be for as large a number of us as possible through increased social interaction and integration.

Bam Stroker

Yes he’s a dirty Crim, but he lives and breaths community; After all community is at the very heart of why we play EVE. Having a such a dedicated chap on the CSM will be a boon for all of us. Along with this, he is a Sov focused player which is the real hot button topic now, having a front line soldier on the CSM will be as valuable as having coalition level FCs and leaders sitting alongside him. Having met him and seen the passion he feels for EVE, I really want as many votes as possible to go his way.

Khador Vess

Khador is an individual who has experience in many aspects of EVE gameplay and the wider interactions around the game itself. Almost a generalist if you will, and in this age of rapid development such an individual will serve the community well alongside more specialised, narrowly focused Delegates.

Xander Phoena

Despite his work forcing him away from both the game and his CSM duties for a weeks at a time, Xander has given his all to the CSM this year. Yes, some may say having a media personality onboard is not necessarily a good thing, but you know what, Xander is also a great community rep BECAUSE of that media presence. Since COMMUNITY is my song I cannot find it in myself to ignore Xander.

Sugar Kyle

Easily the most hardworking, well respected CSM member to date.  Sugar has been stunning to work alongside this term. From her binders full of questions, answers, information and so much more at the summit to her well run and successful mini town-halls in game, she has been on the ball all year. Even better is, while she hails from the often fractious low sec community and therefore holds lowsec closest to her heart, Sugar is as eager to see improvements to the rest of the game.

Psianh Auvyander

Psianh is a member of NoirDOT and is the leader of their Noir Academy arm and so like those of us in RvB, BNI and EUNI, Psianh understands that new bros are hugely important to EVE. Obviously he is also a merc, and unlike other candidates from “that side” of EVE, he isnt on a “grr HS is too safe” trip. He just legitimately wants more gameplay options for mercs, so they truly can be mercs. Finally, he makes it onto the community portion of this slate due to his work as a community manager. Knowing how to be a bridge between developers and players is a valuable commodity for a CSM member.

Steve Ronuken

Steve is an industrial player, but even more importantly he is a third party dev. Having seen him at work over this term, he has been a constant touch stone for CCP in their work with crest and other technical applications. With more third pary apps appearing, and CCP being more willing to work the community on such things, Steve is a must for the CSM going forward.

Mike Azariah

Mike is a tremendous communicator, with a wide depth of knowledge about EVE and a totally steadfast advocate for the casual player regardless of where they call home. I know I said this last year, but I’ll stick by it. On top of all this, Mike is a social player constantly moving between different social groups. Another voice singing from the COMMUNITY hymnal is a bonus!

Gorski Car

Small gang pvper, neophtye – but knowledgeable blogger.  Gorski has a wealth of information on ship fitting, balance and how future changes will affect the combat meta at many levels of play.  If you love pvp, you have to vote Gorski. It can also be said of Gorski that he lives the Social & NPSI lifestyle without ever being a part of the more well known NPSI communities. He moves easily between different groups with EVE, which gives him a good perspective on the future of societies/social groups/social clubs.

Corbexx

THE wormhole candidate you must vote for this year.  As with Sugar he has been a trooper this year, working hard for both his community and the rest of us. He knows exactly how to get what he wants and how to use what he gets to the benefit of his community. As with Steve & Sugar CSM X with Corbexx will be good for EVE.

Cagali Cagali

A member of BNI, head of their recruiting and education section. Cagali lives and breathes new players and their interests. While everyone can claim to have new players as an area of focus, no other candidate can really mean it. New players are a key to keeping EVE alive, so the experience Cagali has will benefit the CSM and CCP greatly.

Sion Kumitomo

While Sion really does not need an endorsement from me, nor your votes (Go Go CFC Ballot), I do feel he is worth the votes of people outside of his obvious constituency. His push for more transparency on the CSM (between CCP and the CSM, and between the CSM and the player base), his ability to see the wider, meta implications of game changes both small and large all point to a guy with the health of EVE as one of his core interests.

Manfred Sideous

With 2015 shaping up to be a year that either makes or breaks null – if changes come it either changes or dies, if they dont, the status quo may well kill it – key players like Manny (as he is known) are an absolute must for a place on the CSM.

Endie 

Another “GRR Goon”, but as with Manfred he brings to the table a depth of knowledge on nullsec that is damn well unrivalled. More  null viewpoints are 100% necessary for the health of EVE, both for the guys who live there and groups like Ganked that visit Null as a source of content.

 

 

Oct 242014
 

I know the current CSM 9 term still has 5 months and change left to run, however it has been asked in recent weeks, most notably during EVE Vegas as to my intetions regarding CSM 10. 

I will NOT be running for a third consecutive term as part of CSM 10. That’s not to say I will not attempt to run again in the future, but I will certainly not be running for CSM 10.

Tl;dr of why is I want to play eve again. I want to login to do more than answer EVE mails or FC / Admin Ganked. I was elected to CSM 8 on the back of massive name recognition (Single largest number of votes regardless of ballot position) and a huge level of activity in RvB. I barely scraped onto CSM 9 – and while folks have assured me it was down to voter assumption I was a lock, I am working on the idea that my visibility where it matters was not sufficient. 

Its time I did more to reinvigorate my EVE experience, and that of others both inside and outside of RvB. So many projects I want to get off the ground. Things I cannot do while CSMing and working heavily in RL. Somethings gotta give, in this case my career in Space Politics has to make way for actually playing with spaceships.

I will for the rest of my term as a CSM member continue to represent you all to the best of my abilities, just after that, its time to shoot you all instead.

Aug 312014
 

csm9

CSM 9, like CSM’s 7 & 8 before us will be continuing to hold regular Town Hall meetings where you the public can ask questions live to your CSM representatives.

The second Town Hall of CSM 9’s term will be held on Sunday September 7th 2014 from 19.00 UTC. This Town Hall will be a little over a week before seven of my comrades depart for the Summer Summit in Iceland.

As normal, the town hall will be held on the EVE University Public Mumble and broadcast live by EVE Radio.

You will be able to ask questions live on the night via the in game channel “CSM Townhall”, or if you are unable to attend you can post questions in the Town Hall thread on EVEO and we will ensure our moderator on the day asks them of us.

We look forward to seeing many people attend this Town Hall.

(Yes, we understand that this is AT Finals day, however this is the best available day for all the attending CSM before Summit prep truly kicks in. If you cannot make it, then at least listen in between matches).

Jul 012014
 

Those of you who joined in the first CSM 9 Town Hall back on June 22nd will have heard me say that I wished to run a project relating to any potential future corporation/alliance revamp, and how such a thing could benefit the numerous social groups in EVE.

Well here I am.

First up what do I mean by “social groups”. Usually these are 2 or more individuals with a shared interest coming together to undertake that interest outside of other ties, familial or employment related. Borrowing from wikipedia (I know, I know), I found this list of definitions which works even better:

Common motives and goals
An accepted division of labor, i.e. roles
Established status (social rank, dominance) relationships
Accepted norms and values with reference to matters relevant to the group
Development of accepted sanctions (praise and punishment) if and when norms were respected or violated

In EVE terms, the following are what I would class as the prime examples of social groups:

  1. Incursion communities such as Warp to Me, Incursion Shiny Network or The Ditanian Fleet and many many more.
  2. NPSI / Open Roam groups like RvB Ganked, Spectre Fleet, Redemption Roams or Stille Gewalt
  3. Groups from outside communities that wish to enjoy EVE’s content together without leaving the potentially disparate corporations they are in. Examples being the SIG’s famous in the CFC, forum based groups like those in the Teamminmatar channel, shared language communities and so on.

For those interested in my current thoughts on the issue have moved beyond simply allowing the creation of truly public fleets. Currently I would love to see social groups/communities in EVE be more than a chat channel and potentially a mailing list. This could be done by merging both of those as the key systems the group coalesces around, with membership of one granting immediate access to the other. Combine this with greater granularity of roles for those assigned them by the community. Roles that potentially allow some people to moderate the chat, some to moderate the mail systems, or others to form fleets that any members of that community can access just like they would a corporation fleet, fleets that can inherit standings from their FCs, that have built in kill logs, allows some people to post operations in a group calendar (rather than relying on outside sites and tools) and so on and so on. Effectively a corporation without the shared assets, hangars, taxes, and all the other useful aspects that cause people to come together under a corporate banner.

This is where I need feedback. I have my own ideas, some of which I have wrote about above and in the past on my weekly Crossing Zebras column, but the larger the level of feedback the better.

When providing feedback try to use concise explanations, with plenty of obvious keywords, this will make it easier to scan and get that feedback centralised for when and if the time comes. 

NB: Feedback is welcome either in the comments on this blog, or in the matching thread on EVEO.