Jita Park Speakers Corner

Last night was one of the most interesting and informative nights of my entire campaign, and an example of the type of experience that keeps making my time as a CSM candidate worthwhile. One of the real pleasures has been getting to know pilots I might not have otherwise met, and having a chance to share stories and talk about what we love most about EVE.

The subject of the nights discussion – Incursions. I was approached by a pilot who put me in contact with Phattecia, a community leader who took interest my campaign and talked with me at great length about the future of the Incursion feature. Phatt shared with me much about the history of the incursion running, the formation of the competing shield and armor sub-communities, and I found the many cultural similarities between Incursion and militia pilots fascinating. I also realized how many parallel challenges we face in our quest for feature iterations, including being stereotyped and marginalized by the general player base.

I was particularly impressed by Phatt's decision to lead his fleets using tactics specifically tailored to reinforce good PvP habits, and the way he used Incursion-running as a stepping stone to help soften the curve for pilots looking to get involved with PvP. I've also always had a particular interest in Incursion AI, and its potential uses for enhancing PvE activity elsewhere in the game, and I particularly appreciated the wealth of information Phattecia was willing to share for me to bookmark for future reference. There was no way I could cover all the homework he's given me in a single night, but I certainly have my work cut out for me.

Most importantly, Phatt took the initiative to strike up a conversation, regardless of the "final" hour of the CSM elections here. He expressed frustration that the Incursion community doesn't have a candidate willing to commit the time to listen to their concerns and be an advocate and supporter on CSM7.

Phatt‘s dedication to his community and willingness to take a few hours to strike up a conversation with a stranger reminded me a lot of myself 6 months ago when I really started getting involved with learning how the CSM works and how I could make a difference. CSM6 members did the Faction Warfare community a favor by passing my feedback to the developers, I am willing to pay the deed forward and invest the time to make sure Incursion enthusiasts are heard as well.

When I launched my campaign I made a commitment to represent the interests of empire space, and to serve as a voice for unrepresented groups, providing an ear wherever needed. I told Phattecia I would honor this by pledging to support the Incursion communities - armor and shield alike, through listening to your concerns and speaking on their behalf as a CSM member.

I know I'm a stranger to most of you, take some time to check out my blog if you have a few minutes and learn some more about me and my work. If you are still looking for a candidate willing to commit to supporting Incursion runners this coming year, I’d greatly appreciate your vote. However, what's most important to me is that we keep the conversation going, election business aside.

Both of the feature-communities that Phatt and myself are interested in improving face similar challenges in terms of sustaining activity levels, creating long term appeal, and the balancing of fleet sizes and rewards. I look forward to speaking more with those of you that regularly run Incursions, as I think there's a lot of lessons our militia members can learn from your pilots’ discipline, communication, security, and preparedness. Don't be a stranger, send me a mail if you have something you'd like to share!

Still sore?

An entirely predictable response that's quickly growing stale. That's why I found it interesting to actually talk some leaders of the community that runs incursions, and learn a lot about the reasons pilots enjoy the feature beyond just the monetary rewards.

What Hans means is...

No.

I'm not sure how you went from someone I thought would represent Malcanis' High Sec Manifesto on the CSM to someone defending Incursions, but I sure am glad I didn't vote for you now.

While that's certainly an edgy, positive soundbyte, it makes for a terrible platform if you actually stick to it. It's good to make yourself sound like you're the candidate for the discerning, intelligent voter, because that makes the non-discerning, non-intelligent voters want to vote for you; and, by virtue of the way statistics works, that makes up the majority of all voters. But if you actually stick to that platform, which I doubt you will (in which case you're a liar like most politicians) then you are going to alienate the non-discerning, non-intelligent blokes while simultaneously inviting the discerning, intelligent gentlemen to peruse your wares and potentially discard them for being found wanting. You don't want that.

Or you could just see it as inteligently entering the subject to debate issues and enter a greater discourse with the players of EvE rather than prescibing or assuming how things should be. For which some other candidates would simply just assume supreme mandate to simply choose irrespective of player involvement. And their minions therefore unable to culturally accept an alternative approach to politics.

Oh wait that's pretty much the point of the thread I think, or has that escaped you. A candidate spending time with members of the comunity to reflect on issues and their concerns in detail.

Easy there Grumpy, Lyris is my INTERNET SPACESHIP FRIEND FOREVER!!

If he wants to stop by and offer some very intellectual-sounding advice, no harm done. I'm sure he's just trying to help with all of his heart.

*waves white flag* I'm sorry Lyris *hugs*

How many marshmallows would you like in your hot cocoa?

No worries! Now we can be space friends forever, too!


Two please!