Assembly Hall

As disputes on who better perceives wishes of the playerbase continue to surface up on a permanent basis, I've started to wonder why even after 10 years of development the game project trying so hard to consider the visions and desires of its audience still lacks a solid way of examining and studying it. Of course we have forums, and we have these [not very noticeable] links to hot topics or important news in the game's launcher, and from time to time there is a survey on some third-party website, and we have CSM as some kind of deputies, and that's about all.

For first, the forum audience hardly can represent a playerbase as a whole, as most players spend not so much time here (if any at all), showing a little interest in all the boards but "General discussions" or some purely informative sections (like related to guides, tactics, fits etc) while they are at it. Does this mean we shouldn't account for their point of view just because they don't have so much time/desire to bicker every day with hardboiled forum's residents? I don't think so. I think those players are unfairly denied the right to speak their minds despite they pay for the game like everyone else.

The current method of CSM campaign's organization has same drawbacks - it potentially leaves many players at a loose end, mostly accounting only for visions of forum dwellers and large ingame alliances.

Thats why I think that survey/voting system built into the game client is better way to implement it. By adding easily noticeable, large enough and visually appealing info panel to the right part of the character selection screen which will briefly inform player about ongoing important surveys/polings every time he logs on to the game and suggest to click on it to retract full survey overlay and answer a couple of questions pertaining the future of the project - would be much better way to gauge playerbase's moods and opinions' distribution. In times of CSM campaigns there should be very brief and appealing summary of every candidate's program with links to respective topics on the forum, as well as ability to vote for them from inside the client.

Aside from presenting aforementioned activities for all to see, this approach has other advantage - an ability to reward active enough players by ingame means for the time and effort spent on answering survey's questions and voting. It shouldn't be something valuable, more like a pleasant insignificant gift - like some new booster that speed up skill learning a little bit for a day or two (not aquirable by any other means), or some cheap custom ship's painting. But it will be enough to make people eager to answer a question or two.

Appendix 1:
Yet, we probably will have to place some restrictions concerning who is allowed to particiapte. No trial accounts allowed, obviously. Moreover, it would be a reasonable thing to require at least two to three months of active subscription to particiapte in surveys, and even elections, to protect the system from manipulations through easly createable alts.

While the neocom is already pretty populated, I think a news link might be a good addition. As a veteran CSM member, I feel kind of ashamed at the lack of player involvement in the future of this great game. It seems as if most players want to play a single-player game.

So long as there's a lack of involvement, the major alliances will continue to hold the majority vote. If we have this icon similar to the news list at the login screen, I think it may be an improvement to gameplay. I don't think it will affect voter turnout or involvement in Eve's metagame, but it couldn't hurt either.

Supported.

I'm sorry for making you waiting for answer so long.

Not exactly. The in-game voting system itself is mostly a convinient tool, not an incentive to become involved. But you should agree, than if every time you log on to the game you see a very noticeable, flashy panel spewing popups about how important is your opinion is and how all the future of the project rests on your decisions, that at least has to ignite a little spark of curiosity, enough to click on it to findout what is going on. And here you will see a brief introduction of CSM candidates appealing for your support to create a better EVE for you. Or hot topic survey asking for your oppinion on how this particular feature should be implemented or changed, or do you think this recent change was for bad or for good - and offer you a clickable links to forum's topics discussing corresponding questions where you could elaborate you opinion further.

This is a real incentive, as I see it. Thats exactly the case why we have those flashy and pompous election campaigns IRL. People need to be agitated, pulled out of their beaten tracks and zones of comfort for a moment, we need to draw their attention and show them that this is for real, this is happening here and now, and their participation is important.

Because they have their opinions too and they are also paying customers. But they distant themselves from the active part of community for great variety of reasons.

For them all those important events - fanfests, elections, public conferences - just happen in another dimension. Many of them heard about CSM, but that just keep sliping their minds again and again. They think like "Oh, that pretty intresting, I probably should check it.. tomorrow, I too eager to try my new ship today", and then forget competely about it for a couple of months. And then something else distracts them.

Or even they think "Elections, heh, it's always just a farce, and how it's even supposed to be related to the game? screw them all, that definetly has nothing to do with mere player like me".

Yes, they aren't intrested enough to track all the activities, check all the boards on regular basis to not miss the elections, or important surveys and meetings with developers, follow all those [not so noticeable] links in game's launcher. They engrossed in their real and virtual lives too deep for that. But they could convey an invalubale volumes of information no one else can. About real impact of changes that was made to the game world and mechanics, about usefulness of all those features are being added in, on how really are they feel about choosen course of the development. What one is able to see here on forums and in results of those third-party surveys is just a tip of an iceberg.

I know it because I was one such player and it took me more than 3 years to find out how important all these activities are and that it really has significant impact on the game's present and future I can be involved in. It's all about evolving too. As a project that puts playerbase's feedback at the forefront we need such tools to hold a hand firmly on pulse of its moods and to draw as much of them as we can to the active side, at last. And to succeed in that we need to put it right in front their eyes, to be here every time they enter the game world. Because you can play EVE without visiting the official forums even once, but still to play it you MUST log on to it.

And that's exactly the reason why we must start agressively advertise it too, with new info panel I'm proposing. People at least have to be awaked to the fact that tools to change the game world is at their arm's length, just a few clicks away.

Major alliances are driven by their major biases while choosing decisions they advocate. The rest of the playerbase must be relieved from the burden of their ambitions.