Interview for Evemag

Ikki Phoenix from Evemag asked me to answer some questions for his next issue - I thought I may as well make it a public Q&A

1.Please introduce your eve character.
Hi, I’m Omber Zombie, most people call me Oz as it’s easier. I’ve been around eve since a couple of weeks after it launched (I had a different character name in beta). I’m Gallente, Industry/Miner/Prospectors path, current Security rating of 4.98 and I tend to live in Everyshore.

I can usually be found flying a Dominix (Madame Spank) or a Guardian-Vexor (Oooh Shiney) and tend to spend my time market trading and mission running in empire. I take the occasional road trip to pve in 0.0

 2.Please introduce your “true” self (real life).
In RL my name is Jeremy (most people call me J), I’m 29 and run a jazz club in Melbourne, Australia. I have a double degree in Computer Science/Software Engineering and a Diploma IV in Network Systems Administration. As you can tell, I don’t really use my qualifications much in my daily job

I like pretty much all styles of music,  but tend to not listen to much Rap or Death Metal. I’m not a huge fan of Dixieland and Country either. I’m also the manager of a indie band called The Conglomerate

My favourite movie is ET: The Extra Terrestrial,  I was a big fan of Babylon 5, and am slowly getting converted into the new series of Battlestar Galactica.

My favourite book is Through the Looking Glass (Alice in Wonderland), and the last book I read was the last book of the Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson (The System of the World)

3.Why are you interested in serving in the Council of Stellar Management?
I’m always interested in helping Eve evolve into something greater, it’s one of those games that everyone pretty much sums up as “It’s great, but it has so much potential to be better” - I want to help it someway down that path. If it means allowing the devs to concentrate on what they do best while the CSM filters out the better community ideas from the general spam, I think that will go a long way. I think I’m capable of doing that, I want to do that, here’s my chance.

A lot of people are already calling the CSM toothless or a waste of time, I can see where they are coming from, but I’m also optimistic about what the CSM can become, and that’s why I want to be part of the first CSM - to help mould it into something worthwhile (and possibly give it some sharp teeth)

4.What qualifications do you have to serve in the Council of Stellar Management? Please include in those qualifications any gaming experiences. If you have previously worked for gaming companies, please explain how has that shaped your player experience.
I’ve never worked for a gaming company before, but I have been a part of eve’s volunteer department. I was a member of Aurora (events) for a short time and unfortunately I decided it wasn’t for me as timezone issues forced me to miss out on too many events. As mentioned above, I have also been playing eve since beta and watched it evolve into the game it currently is, so while my insight into the game progress isn’t unique, it is starting to get rare as most of the old-timers leave the game. I think I can bring both that sense of history and and an understanding of the game’s path to the CSM.

5.Throughout Eve’s existence, the common word used to describe Eve has been complex and that has sometimes pushed potential new players way.
Would you please explain what steps(if any), you would recommend to CCP in order to grow the player base and attract more new players?
I think CCP and the community are doing quite well in attracting new players to the game, I think the issue here is more keeping those players playing the game. I think Eve being complex is a good thing, people get bored of simple and need challenging. I think making eve less complex would actually hurt the game rather than help it. Keeping players on the other hand does require a bit of effort. ISD STAR do great work welcoming people to the game, but I think getting players involved in the community through asking for corporations to volunteer to adopt new players would help a lot. There doesn’t need to be a huge reward for that, but some reward (like free office rentals for adoption corps) would help newer players adapt to the game faster. Eve’s best resource is it’s players, they should be utilised to help keep new players in the game.

Another thing CCP could do is finally implement the wiki that they have been promising for a long time. The sooner people can get access to up to date information about the game, the better off everyone will be.

6.In the recent past, there has been a few scandals involving CCP employees and CCP has seen players confidence diminish. What steps would you advise for CCP to take, in order to restore the community’s trust?
Unfortunately trust is a one time thing. Once broken, it can never truly be gained back. That said, I think CCP bringing in an Internal Affairs department has helped restore some of the confidence in them. Time is the only thing that will help that trust get repaired, as long as no more incidents occur, I think CCP will be fine.

7.One of the major issues in Eve is isk farmers/buyers/sellers. As a member of the CSM, what steps would you take to try and resolve this major issue?
Well, as I’m not a dev, very little. Obviously CCP are taking isk farmers/sellers seriously, the introductionof GTC for isk has helped devalue isk for people to sell and the planned introduction of all asteroid belts being non-static should help stop the farming aspect.

8.Eve is divided into 3 parts: high sec,low sec and 0.0 .As you have probably read on the official forums, many high sec pilots are worried that the CSM members will work on balancing the game toward low sec and 0.0 .Could you please elaborate on your position regarding Empire and low sec/0.0 .What would you like to say to Empire pilots to reassure them.
There is no real divide other than in the players minds. All 3 areas are neccessary to everyday eve life as they are intertwined poltically, economically, logistically and ‘physically’. Trying to give one of the areas more ‘balance’ while ignoring the other 2 is quite simply, impossible. Changing anything in eve effects everywhere so people really shouldn’t be worried about the CSM balancing things out to a specific living space. Hell, I doubt CCP would allow the CSM to make game breaking changes anyway.

9.In your opinion, what is the most important issue facing Eve Online? How do you propose to fix or try to fix that issue
Lag is obviously the most important issue, but as I’m not a dev, I can’t fix that. Helping balance out the ships/modules based on community input would be my biggest issue. Players can provide far more testing than the devs and QA ever can in the game. Players try things that devs never even considered as options. Using that player experience, the CSM can bring those balance issues to the devs and finally sort out this constant nerf/boost time wasting and allow the devs to start concentrating on implementing some of the things they have on the drawing boards like factional warfare and planetary habitiation.