The Question Page

Got some questions for me to answer? post them here and I’ll try and answer them

Oz

First one - from the eve forums:

I doubt the pre-election public issues (which most/all candidates base their campaings on) are, in the long run, the ones that are actually going to be “settled” by CSM.
What I want in a CSM rep is a person that has RL experiences that merit him/her being the collective (and selective) voice that is to be heard by the “authorities” (i.e. CCP)

Who you are in real life shouldn’t matter? I say it is the only thing that matters (CSM shouldn’t be about ingame politics and such). If I am going to vote for a person that is to fly up to Iceland and talk to a corporation about matters that concern me I want to know that he/she is experienced, and capable in this area. Many candidates have a personal presentation which is good. Fewer use their RL merits to argue for their position in CSM, something I’d like to see more of.

Are there any candidates who can present RL experiences that would meake them particularily desireable as a CSM member? Any supporters of candidates are welcome to aleborate as well.

Thank you.

W Floyd
Minmatar
The Orpana Rejects Foundation

My response:

I’m really not sure what you are looking for here as “I want to know that he/she is experienced, and capable in this area” is a pretty broad spectrum for people to have skills in.

For example - I was the president of the student union while I was at university. Is that considered relevant? Do you have any way of checking that ‘fact’ that I just wrote? What skills do you (or I for that matter) think may make that statement relevant to the discussion of whether you (in the general sense, not specifically) think I am worth considering as a CSM delegate?

How about - “I “write code for a small independent games company”?
I don’t, but that doesn’t stop me from saying it, and it’s pretty unlikely you will find out of it was true or not.

While I understand what you are trying to get at, you need to keep in mind that it is very hard to check facts that people state about their real lives and in the end, and the way they present themselves over the forums or any other medium that they choose to post/talk/debate on will (and should) weigh far more heavily than stating “I started the chess club for my local scout troop”

You as a community should be voting for the candidate that you think will represent your views on Eve Online to CCP Games, what people do in their real lives really isn’t that much of a factor. IMHO of course

Question 2:

Why are you all such pretentious newbs with no game design manifesto?

Shouldn’t the eve community deserve more than just a glib blogspot site? The question is why should anyone take what you have to say seriously if you can’t demonstrate you know anything fundamentally about the game you’re purporting to advocate for instead of this embarrassingly trite attempt to appeal to different player subgroups? Is it too much ask that we have literate and articulate people who can at least feign understanding about POS mechanics, ship balancing and a broad and deep understanding of Eve?

Erotic Irony
0bsession

my response:

I personally think there are two issues here. Erotic Irony is correct, an understanding of how the game functions is necessary to push forward ideas/solutions/concerns, but I also disagree that having specific information about how every subsystem of eve works being necessary.

I’ve been here a long time, I like to think I know the game fairly well, but I can guarantee without any doubt that in every sub-profession of eve there is someone who knows more about it than me. What I think I personally bring to the party is to see how each system works overall and in unison, and should a specific issue be raised about a specific subsystem, be able to dive into that issue and get a better understanding of that mechanic and then relate it back to the rest of the game.

My job as I see it as being a part of the CSM is to weigh up that issue/concern/fix and then after looking at it carefully (and getting as much info about it from people far more involved with it than me) make a decision on the proposed change as to how it would interact with every other subsystem of eve. If I didn’t agree with it, but the council decided as a whole to agree with it, I would then have to explain the proposed change/fix/suggestion to CCP in a way that reflects the councils wishes, not my own, and then after that explain to the playerbase those decisions.

Neutrality on an issue in this case I think is warranted, but in the end, any decision that the council makes is going to be divisive, it will be the delegates ability to explain their decisions to the community that becomes the most important aspect of the entire process.