Jita Park Speakers Corner

I've caught up with all the posts and I am left with the question:

Would Ripard Teg being on the CSM be good for EVE?

The answer of this question is the only answer worth anything.

From reading how he reacts to challenges to his "platform" I have to conclude that, for me, he would not be good for EVE. That is my personal opinion based on reading all of these posts plus his blog.

Naturally, other people will come to other conclusions. The reason I am posting this is simple: to get people to think about the candidate's way of communicating and responding to situations. Take a moment and put issues aside (Ripard Teg has the same platform as most CSM candidates) and look at the manner of communication.

The highlights to me are how he became fixated on New Order people, his use of "colourful" language, and his need to be appear to speak as an "expert" even when it is clear he isn't. This type of person is dangerous in the role of CSM: if he tries to argue something with great results and ability when he is actually uninformed on the subject that puts -everyone- in the game in a bad spot. From his posts and his replies it is clear that he will do just this to the detriment of all of us.

Your just trying to make hi sec safer, for all the carebears.

Do it.

Ripard,

You will likely get my vote in this, but I would like you to speak to certain issues that you haven't necessarily covered yet (and I've been reading your blog, backwards, as fast as I can).

You've mentioned a process for collecting player feedback involving looking at the Features and Ideas forum. What criteria will you use for what ideas get presented to CPP as needing revision?

The user interface is in many people's opinion still ugly and difficult to use. When CCP presents you with new user interfaces what skills do you bring as an evaluator of user interfaces to give CCP useful feedback on these? As a professional usability engineer and user interface designer this one means a lot to me.

The forums have a particular slant towards a certain type of player because that's the kind of player who participates in forums and blogs. How will you solicit feedback from players who don't participate here or on your blog? If no one speaks up, is there a consolidated place where you can present what you believe are the primary concerns of each group? I would find a consolidated location of this easier than reading your blog posts over the last year -- you're a very prolific writer.

You've mentioned many times that you feel EVE PvE is boring. I concur, but, without turning into junior game designer, can you express in more detail what you think is boring about it? Fundamentally what parts would need to change to make it more entertaining?

What do you feel about the distribution of rewards for hi-sec's various activities? I personally find that the rewards for different activities varies drastically with some things being not worth our time (e.g. magnetometric sites) to worth way too much by comparison.

Where does the NPE experience fall within your list of priorities -- including the buggy tutorials -- given your position that "EVE strangles new players in the crib".

I've noticed on your list of things you've done you haven't done that much scamming. What is your take on player activities that rely on a misunderstanding of what is and is not allowed in game (e.g. margin trade scams)? Should there be better communication to the player as to what's allowed? What, if anything, should be done about these?

Do you see risk of getting a worthwhile reward at all (e.g. magnetometric sites, non-escalating complexes) as being part of the risk-reward process? E.g. exploration is very much hit-or-miss and you can spend hours without any benefit. In hi-sec you maintain relative safety, it may be hours before you actually get a decent reward from it, if you do at all.

You said you favor a DUST style skill system which eliminates attributes. I, for one, also agree attributes have outlived their usefulness. Do you also advocate a system where you gain SP from active activities the way DUST gives you SP for active participation in matches? If so, what would constitute SP-gaining activity?

How do you feel about the need for external resources for doing basic activities? To you, what kinds of information should be provided in game and what information should not be? E.g. something that shows the incoming making up damage I'm taking visually, both raw and after resistances rather than looking up missions ahead of time.

What part do you see walking in stations (WiS) playing in EVE's future? Can there be fun gameplay there? Is it worth spending any development time there at all?

Most players are uninformed about some aspects of the game, but each individual player will have different gaps in their knowledge. How do you go about giving us what we want without necessarily giving us what we ask for?

Thank you for your time.

Not bad, good candidate.

As I've already said, it's difficult to get CCP moving in a specific direction without explicit data or customer grievances to back up your position. That said, you're definitely right: they've let those two issues fester for far too many years. All anyone on the CSM can do is remind CCP of it, and remind them of it, and remind them of it again.

As Prince Kobol correctly stated, you've answered your own question here. Everyone is going to have a different opinion of where the risk/reward line should be. I have mine and I've made it plain in a series of posts both here and on my blog. Even if I were empowered take the precise measurements that you're asking for -- and I can't because what you ask is not only impossible but well beyond the level of data CCP will ever give any CSM -- how could any CSM member then make any adjustments into the game to account for those measurements? Again, impossible because the CSM doesn't have that level of control.

Therefore, your question is better addressed to CCP Unifex and CCP Seagull, not any CSM candidate. All I can take with me are my own perceptions of where the R/R lines are today and where I think they should be, plus what players tell me of their own opinions.

Sov is unquestionably broken. The only people who think otherwise are indeed the people benefitting from the current state of affairs. Even those people agree that the feast set before them is laughably broken even as they gorge themselves on it. Why not? It's probably what I'd do too in their position. But that current state of affairs needs a good solid kick in the nads.

Read between the lines of any Summit Minutes you care to. I believe the phrase used in the most recent set of Minutes for this sort of thing was a reference to "some unconstructive POS-related banter".

Yeah. Well, you know that's just, like... your opinion, man.

7. I haven't done anything with scamming. It's not for me. But I don't begrudge the players that do it and I feel the balance here is just fine. If anything, CCP has come down too hard on it.

8. Yes. I believe this is also currently well-balanced. I realize high-sec scannable sites have very poor rewards but they're also ridiculously easy. That said, even with these sites, I've done enough of them to pick up low-level valuables and get a good understanding of their rewards.

9. No, I don't think EVE should grant SP for in-game activities, only for paying in some way for a subscription.

10. I feel like this is a question dancing around the various targeting system overlays in Tanks. I'm generally against such things in EVE: everyone should have the same UI, whatever it is. If that's not what your question is about, please rephrase it.

11. It seems clear to me that this will forever be the province of DUST 514. At best, I can see EVE players and DUST players meeting in a non-combat oriented social situation. But I can't see CCP taking it very far.

12. This is a question for a CCP dev, not a CSM candidate.

Hope my answers are useful to you!

First, thank you for responding to my questions. It is greatly appreciated.

I wanted to rephrase a couple of questions that I clearly didn't communicate well.

1. I have not played a lot of WoT and certainly haven't modded it so I really wasn't trying to dance around that issue whatever it is. I'm all in favor of one UI provided by CCP in this particular game. I've played other MMOs where mods essentially became a requirement and while I applaud the ability to customize, it is often quickly balance-breaking and I do not believe CCP up to the task of keeping up with those game-breaking mods.

But to my specific question, there is a lot of information that simply isn't provided to the user right now. The only real way to figure it out is to go online to find it. E.g. the biggest one is probably the makeup of incoming damage. When fighting someone you don't know what kinds of damage you're taking. You just know how much. Is there a reason not to show this visually to the user? Perhaps is users saw the composition of the incoming damage they wouldn't need to write down in their bios all the various incoming damage types for different NPC opponents.

Secondarily there is a lot of information that is simply provided badly or is difficult to compare. In business and government the more complex a dataset is the more beneficial it is to show that information in a comprehensible way. E.g. the market details history with its Donchian channel, volume and 5d and 20d graphs is one of the few things I felt CCP really got right visually. I imagine its because they have a full time economist on board.

2. As for my other rephrased question, users who aren't designers tend to suggest ideas that are bad, but within them may or may not be a real need for change. Do you plan on reorganizing bad ideas and pushing forward the underlying need? Or do you feel that is too much interference?

3. After thinking about it some, I feel that the problem with the relative value of hi sec magnetometric sites over other exploration sites is that only a few items of T1 salvage are worth anything. You've mentioned that you feel that the T2 production recipes need to be re-thought out. Would you support a similar measure for rig recipes?

Hi all,

The primary for the CSM8 election is now up. You can vote for me here:

http://community.eveonline.com/community/csm/candidate?id=5519550

Go there, log in with your EVE account(s), click the bright yellow "Endorse" button.

I need 200 votes in the primary to proceed to the main election, which starts in about a week. Once I get the 200 votes needed, I'll post again in this thread and won't need any more primary votes (unless you really feel like it). But when the main election starts, we get to do it all again... For the record, I hope that all 35 preliminary candidates pass this phase.

Thanks for your continued support!

Glad to see you have made it :)

I have and will be voting for yourself.

I like many other candidates like Mynnna but will not be voting for anybody who is guaranteed a place due to block voting as what's the point lol

Instead I will giving me 4 votes to people who do not have the support of their alliances but to independent players who I think would be good for Eve as a whole and hopefully breathe some life back into the CSM.