EVE General Discussion

I have been going around High Sec and a fair bit of Low Sec, trying to reach that huge pool of voters. Yes, there are heaps of apathy but I am finding that so much of my time is being spent explaining what CSM is.

There are loads and loads of people who have not heard of CSM.

(I might as well be explaining the mating rituals of fish found only in Malawi.)

When it comes down to effort and effect, then CCP and large alliances, particularly in Null Sec, hold all the cards:
- The mailing, forums and such are all in place for large alliances, as they are war ready.
- CCP could have CSM on the launcher during the whole voting period and like a MoTD in every Local chat.

Going through this experience of being a CSM candidate and trying to reach out to the wider EVE population, represent a full cross section; I can see why there are so few CSM members from Low Sec and High Sec.

For the vast majority of people that play this game, it's just a casual thing. Space is not serious business.

Why would they care about the CSM?

Might be cool if the old video projector things near some of the stargates would have CSM info on them.

Or a launcher or notification feed item that links to CSM election info (if there wasn't one already)

Now I have an urge to investigate the aquatic life of Malawi, and their intimate habits...

It's towering stupidity on somebody's part to look at the actual conditions of the "average" gamer in EVE and claim the idea that a viable, representative election could occur to create a committee representing this playerbase to influence the direction of this game is a valid one. The idea is ridiculous. Yet, here we are. This is why it's easier to define it as a public relations gimmick, and to assume there is no intention of it really having an effect - but is here just to keep us at bay by claiming we are representing ourselves in some weird way.

Getting a majority of MMO players to participate in the game's forum, across the board, is impossible. I've actively participated in creating and maintaining such community websites in three (unnamed) major games, and the average of active participants with a forum is always the same - with the same "sorts" of people doing the participating. I guess the ones who don't participate can blame themselves for not doing so, but how this influences game development over time and the community as a whole makes such an indictment empty words.

There's no way you're going to get me to believe CCP is oblivious of this. If they were intent upon creating this community, the steps to be taken to do so are no secret. That they aren't taking such steps speaks volumes as to their intent. What this does is reduces the CSM election to the equivilent of electing the homecoming queen and court. It's relevant to certain sorts of people, but is essentially insubstantial.

Voting will not change this. That you are here (claiming this post is TL;DR) puts you in a minority
with regard to this playerbase.

It doesn't take a Weatherman to tell which way the wind blows.

During the Hulkageddon years I was still running into miners who never heard of it.

I would say this was the result of using banner ads on news websites. You see people really don't read the news, just the headlines (we call them "low information voters"). So if there's an Eve banner on those news websites, now you have low information players.

If this game was being heavily advertised on say engineering websites, we'd have a lot of guys running EFT in their heads (and being proud of it). There would be no more calculator wars. No need for calculators at that point. Though the older players would be breaking out their slide rules to verify DPS then everybody's in trouble.

The disinterest flows because to them the only winning move is to be dead.

Evolution however allows the powerful to keep them going through emotional manipulation and coercion.

If you are running for CSM it's kind of hard to take the side that the CSM is just corporate window dressing.

I imagine the day after the nerf there is going to be a hilarious increase in the number of Tengus exploding in missions as the oblivious suddenly find a chunk of their tank missing

Personally, I have absolutely no problem with people who are not engaged in the larger game from being oblivious to the CSM process. Generally speaking, someone who is fixated on only a small corner of the game, and either doesn't appreciate, or can't comprehend the larger ecosystem of the game, and the interconnected nature of each of its elements, is not someone I want to have any say in the direction of the game, as they will have no appreciation for anything beyond "buff my chosen playstyle", and their choice of candidates are more likely to be ones with unreasonable up-in-the-clouds theories of how to change the game, rather than a more grounded attitude.

Ugh, you do love to prattle on and waste people's time reading what you have to say.

Right, so cutting to your main points:
1) I have no idea, apparently my coalition leader sent out mail with Core, Vaari and myself. I haven't seen it. Others have said their alliances are voting for me. Feedback is very erratic.
2) I have accomplished a great deal by simply running, people are talking about topics I care about. If there is a shift in mentality or not; at least I can say that I made the effort.
3) Do you even play EVE? Have you travelled around Low Sec or through Null? Goons can get most of their slate elected, have 2x Goons on the current CSM. That is obviously due to a lack of voting. 49K~ let us say 50 000 votes were the highest out of 500 000 active accounts, only 10% have ever voted at a time.
4) At best CSM might be used for feedback, in all likelihood from what I have been reading and hearing it is a group that is largely ignored and dragged out to be displayed for publicity reasons.

Why do I bother responding to Jenn aSide? There are other people reading the forums, lurkers who actually do think like him.
I am fully aware of how Tengus are broken. I had an immediate example of why they would care. It is the job of the CSM to listen, know why people are complaining and take that to CCP. I can add to this feedback why I agree with CCP but it would be my job to make the aware of some complaints.
Far better if they diffuse and explain before people start popping in their fail fits and going on a mad rampage.