EVE General Discussion

Politics is a simple fact of organized numbers. It has been for hundreds of years. You want to compete? You need the organized numbers too.

They (the large nullsec alliances) took the disorganized, unwashed masses of players and forged them into large groups with similar goals and create an atmosphere where they trust the leadership because that's what keeps them in ships, whether exploding in PvP or looting in PvE.

The Mittani got over 5,000 votes last year. Since then, he's created a Steve Jobs-like perception filter that "he has made the game even more fun for a lot of people" ...who aren't in Goonswarm. He's made enemies (the tearful and raging Gallente Ice Miners Union), but they weren't in his voting base before, and even as an organized group they couldn't collect the votes to "overthrow" The Mittani. In fact, he'll probably garner more votes in name recognition for that event alone (because people like to back a winner).

If you are just starting to think about a run for CSM 7, you'd better already have a few hundred friends ready to back you - because you need something the incumbents and other bloc - candidates won't need: baseline name recognition. Either that, or you'd better be ready to campaign 23/7 for the next month throughout the mission hubs and ongoing incursions in Empire. You'd better be getting some EVE Bloggers, or #tweetfleet members, to back you. And you'd better have a clear message about the issues that you want to address in your playstyle. Frankly, the closest thing the disorganized masses of HiSec players have to a "representative" candidate will be whomever comes out of E-Uni. That person would have a good base of voters, and is most likely to be concerned with the unique issues of HiSec. It would not surprise me if the magic number is close to what The Mittani suggests, around 2,000 +/- votes, to get on the CSM this year.


tl;dr: nullsec candidates will be on the CSM. They are way more organized than you. Live with it, and find a candidate that seems electable and is aligned with your concerns with EVE Online.

What the op said, plus the gallente ice interdiction had actually quite a lot of people standing by and cheering on goons, because, well, you don't get this type of content in any other game and it's awesome that it's even possible. And the tears were tasty, of course.

Mittani actually explained some things about the current CSM and the upcoming elections rather comprehensively here in this interview: http://soundcloud.com/****-on-kugu/****-on-kugu-4 . (warning: contains about an hour of political chitchat, so beware).

The biggest problem is that the CSM has been largely ignored by most high sec dwellers. It is almost their nature to be disinclined to care about the CSM. A lot of the reasons folks are in high sec is they are more casual about how they approach Eve or want to avoid the politics of nulsec. They also tend to ignore the forums as a result of their bias towards "just playing to have some fun". There is absolutely nothing wrong with that!

I am hoping however that some of the actions of the CSM 6 may motivate some of these players to find a candidate and vote in the coming elections.

Anyone that would like to CCP woking on more:

- mining content
- more high sec content
- industry improvements
- ambulation
- RP
- trade
- improvements for solo play

Needs to get involved in the CSM 7 elections. If you find yourself wanting any of that please try and spread the word!

Issler Dainze
Voice of Reason Party CSM 7 Candidate

Hmm i might fire up some of my old accounts to vote for a High sec carebear like me just to **** off the CSM's RMT supporters out in nullsec.

Wait, what? I never got anything.

CCP: Perhaps you should have CSM election related ads running at login in the client for a while. Just not candidate-specific ones. Visibility of the process has the potential to be good (or bad). Most folks won't notice (do you actually read the ads?) but those who do might look, and some of those might actually get involved positively (and others will shotgun vote which may skew things crazily).

Bottom quoting the comment that brought the thought to life...

So what you are saying is, Obama shouldn't have won. He ganked the opposition.

65% of EVE play high Sec. Why did "goons win the CSM"?

EVE has 400K
Goons have 5K

Thats 1.25% of EVE.

Oh, I vote for Mintchip.

This single sentence is probably the most succint summary I have seen concerning the CSM angst on these forums.

Thanks for the early warning gonna have to set that. Actually set it to block everyone, gonna be smooth cruising this election.

Definitely the last one — they're plastered all over ever goon:ish site you come across.

Also, if “exploding exhumers” count as “product with bright colours”, then the second one holds true as well.

The underlined parts aren't really highsec issues, and have been part of the current CSM's key issues. The two bolded issues aren't highsec issues either, but I can't recall anyone on the CSM having them as their pet issues (well… aside from ambulation after the Incarna fiasco).

So that leaves rather few points on your list that aren't covered by the incumbents, and which don't really require any specific involvement beyond what was done last time.