Jita Park Speakers Corner

My EVE career has been focused on building thriving, lasting organizations. As someone who has built an alliance from scratch, I’ve learned that in order to be a good leader to an alliance you have to understand and act on the concerns of a diverse group of people ranging from miners and industrialists to corp CEOs to PVPers. That interaction - of taking a group of talented people with different areas of expertise and bringing their capabilities and concerns together in common cause - is a large part of why I play this game.

In addition to my in-game experience, I also bring substantial real-life experience to this task. CCP has repeatedly said that the CSM is a stakeholder in the development process, a role I am intimately familiar with from my real-life job. I work in the software industry in a role that obliges me to forge working relationships with stakeholders who hold a variety of conflicting interests, all in service of creating a strategy with which to design and market software products. This gives me a strong sense of how to leverage this relationship, where the limits are - and how to push them when necessary.

My focus as a CSM is less on devising new mechanics and more on working with other CSM members to ensure that our message is heard by CCP. CSM6 proved that a united CSM with a clear message can be a powerful force for player advocacy with CCP, and I believe I can work with CSM members of all backgrounds - whether hisec or nullsec, elite PVPer or hardcore industrialist - to help resolve our differences and turn a group of disparate elected officials into a unified team that leverages its status as a stakeholder with CCP to its greatest advantage.

The focus of my experience and my playstyle is on nullsec. However, I am keenly interested in all aspects of this game we love, and have participated in most of them at one time or another, from faction warfare to hisec industry. I'm happy to discuss my personal opinions on these areas and where we can take them in the comments. However, a brief list of improvements I’d like to see:

• Nullsec should be a more viable platform for industry than it is today, independent of hisec. I want to be able to source more of what my alliance needs locally.
• I also think it would be really cool if mobile entities such as wormhole alliances and nomadic k-space alliances could bring more of that industrial capability with them when they move. That makes them less dependent on market hubs while allowing their enemies to generate content by attacking them. This goes hand in hand with making nullsec more viable for industry and can lead to more mobile alliances that still hold space.
• I want to expand the content available for small and medium sized gangs in nullsec with the much-discussed 'farms and fields' initiative that has been mentioned in the past.
• Anyone who has ever set up a POS knows that pain; the process of setting up and configuring a POS could be far less painful than it is and I'll be a loud voice advocating that.
• I think that Faction Warfare matters, and should be made to matter more. I’d like to see FW have real, lasting consequences on the map just like sovereignty warfare does in nullsec.
• Wars and war declarations should have consequences. I want to ensure that wardec mechanics continue to have real impact on an entity’s operations, and that wardecs can’t be easily avoided.
• I want to shift away from passive sources of income like moon goo, and towards active sources of income that require player involvement to finance operations on the one hand, and give hostile parties opportunities for content in attacking those resource-gathering activities on the other. Mining planetary rings rather than passively sucking down moon goo is a fine example of this.
• Nullsec sovereignty mechanics need a revamp. The current set of mechanics are a miserable grind even with supercaps (and they’re practically impossible without them). I would like to see a mechanic that relies less on burning through monster amounts of HP while simultaneously increasing the potential for a fight over every timer.
• I support the link between EVE and DUST 514, and I love the fact that we as players can impact the gameplay of the folks on the ground through orbital bombardment. I am eager to promote further integration of the two games.
• I support a revamp of the industry UI; it’s clunky and painful and needs to be better at handling large-scale tasks.
Incursions have fallen in popularity from their initial release; I’d like to see them made viable again.

• I’d like to make it possible for players to gain control of customs offices in hisec. This would provide a new source of hisec wardec content.
• Finally, I want to ensure that CCP’s focus remains on flying in space, and that it continues to make constant, substantive improvements to the average player’s experience.

I hope you will consider voting for me in the CSM election. I look forward to talking with you all in the comments. Thank you for your time.

Follow me on Twitter: @KesperNorth
Email me: kesper_north@eve-gents.com

The CSM needs gentlemen of great distinction.

I know Kesper in game and in RL. He would make an amazing contribution to CSM and is a genuine and pragmatic candidate for ALL of Eve....

Kesper is a proven hard worker, a gentleman and a scholar. He would be a clear strong asset to any CSM.

People, this man has been an essential part in the creation of an alliance I am proud to be a member of.
He's chill, competent and I've only ever seen him loose his temper once (and even then we were able to quickly calm him).

You could not ask for a better CSM member: Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.
I don't say this lightly.

vote for this guy.

Not enough good words can be spoken of Kesper and his ability to communicate ideas effectively. EVE would profit well from having such a skilled speaker and player on the CSM.

Kesper North for CSM8!

I vote 100% Kesper North for CSM8

Best CSM candidate ever!

Anyone looking for someone to bring the voice of the players back to the CSM should vote for Kesper North. With the current CSM pretty much completely disbanding, I can't think of anyone who could advocate for the players better.