Assembly Hall

No seriously, what is it?

I thought I knew, or wanted to think I knew, but I really didn't.

I thought the CSM was supposed to be a body of elected individuals who would represent the players of EvE towards CCP. I had no misconceptions that we as players could or should completely influence the game design, but I thought it was nice that they were willing to listen to us and take some of it into account in their game design.

Only that's not at all what happens with the CSM. I just read the minutes for the recent meeting. Not once did I see a single CSM member say the words "The players I have spoken to feel..." or "I think most players think..." or even reference the fact that they are supposed to be speaking for many, not only themselves. But I did see plenty of "I WANT..." and "I FEEL..." and I I I I ME ME ME ME. Good to see the CSM is acting as they were designed no?

I realize this is probably not a new thing, but I am new and this is the first time it has struck me. And to be honest, I'm utterly disappointed. Take from that what you will.

Sooooo... because they don't word their sentences a certain way (see: like a politician) you assume they don't talk to other players for ideas and discussion?



I can assure you... they talk to people and listen.

Better question? 'Why Is CSM'?

After reading the CSM 7 Meetings Minutes, I don't see any reason for CSM to continue.

Why don't we just save the game time spent on voting and send CCP messages saying, 'Just do what you want to do.' every few weeks. They're going to do it anyway.

There is a possibility that CCP's money making schemes would be affected by player input. Let's not let that happen.

Seriously, if CCP went out of business, what would we play?

Have you considered maybe sending them an eve-mail to try to address something? See if you can chat with them every now and then. The forums are not the only medium they respond to. That reminds me. I need to get in touch again. It's been a long time for me since I last contacted my representative but that's because my account was in cryostasis for some time.

Voting is anonymous so actually it would be extremely hard to fulfill your request General. We do have constituents though, several established and reliable ways to talk to them or prominent figures in any subgroups representing them, and relatively large networks of information gathering in general. Otherwise we'd have been hard pressed to get elected in the first place ;)

We also interact on twitter, podcasts, blogs, news site interviews, and interactive town halls (in addition to being available by eve mail and private convo). As for not knowing who the CSM Representatives ARE after you READ THE MINUTES, I'd say yes you haven't looked hard enough. Not sure if troll or just stupid, but I was bored and thought I'd respond for the benefit of other players happening upon this thread.

Opinions of EVE players are not very difficult to find. Separating the signal from the noise, however, can be difficult. Aiding with that and acting as advocates for players behind closed doors are two very important functions of the CSM. CCP never has to actually do anything we suggest but recent history has born out that our advice should not be too hastily disregarded (Incarna/Summer of Rage, unlimited allies/dec shield exploits, the current POS stuff) and can in fact push things in a good direction (numerous feature refinements, logistic frigates, bounty hunting revamp, planning a long term view of EVE development).

Also for the benefit of other players, the wiki is based on the CSM White Paper (our founding document), both of which are horrifically outdated. As discussed in the minutes, CSM7 has managed to convince CCP Xhagen to update them this month (we hope). Hopefully such an update will include locking + archiving this Assembly Hall forum, which has not served a functional role in the CSM process for almost 2 years and really just confuses new players.