Jita Park Speakers Corner

from http://poeticstanziel.blogspot.ca/2013/03/sgurd-battersea-and-nullsec-sovereignty.html

What Sgurd Battersea knows about the CSM fills all of four words. Council. Of. Stellar. Management.

That's it. He didn't know what the job of the CSM was until last Thursday, even though he signed up as a candidate two days before the deadline. He can't name a single CSM7 representative. He can name only one CSM member prior to CSM7. Vile Rat. And that's only because everybody knows about Vile Rat now. If Vile Rat were still with us, Sgurd probably could not have named him either.

Did I mention that Sgurd's been playing EVE Online for 18 months? That's one and a half years. Only heard about the CSM when CCP posted their open candidacy devblog. Didn't even know what it is these people did until last week.

I don't say any of this to mock Sgurd. He's simply a reflection of the playerbase. He's a reflection of CCP's effort to market the CSM. He's a reflection of any CSM's efforts to market themselves. He's a reflection of player involvement outside of the game.

Given Sgurd's depth of knowledge on the CSM, it should no longer be surprising to anyone that such a very small percentage of the playerbase bothers to vote. Only 20%[1] of the playerbase knows the CSM exists -- 16%[2] care enough to vote and 4% are apathetic (not too mention annoyed they know anything about the council at all.)

Xander Phoena, of the #1 podcast Crossing Zebras, recently interviewed Sgurd Battersea. I get the impression that Xander feels the interview was a monumental waste of his time, and that's he's somewhat annoyed by that. He needs to see this interview for what it is, an indictment on both the perceived importance of the CSM as a player organization, and the importance that CCP places on the CSM. If people like Sgurd have no idea what the CSM is, having been subscribed for well over a year, then that says something about how CCP views the CSM. They've put forth so little effort marketing the council to the playerbase, what does that say about the actual value they see in this group that purports to represent their customers?

It is a genius interview. It showcases exactly why Xander deserves his acclaim as a skilled interviewer. And it showcases a moment of complete candidness in a CSM candidate. We have never before witnessed this level of naked honesty from a candidate, and we never will again.

Sgurd mentions early on that he ran solely as a lark. He is as surprised as anyone that he somehow managed to get the 200 preliminary votes necessary to move onto the election proper. And he did it with only two forum posts, which were buried deep in the CSM Election Devblog comments back in late February. Maybe that says something more about the CSM process than we're willing to admit, that people will click on any name on the candidates list.

I don't see Sgurd as a troll, though. I see him as a new player who simply loves the game and has a desire to be more involved with it. When CCP announced CSM candidacy, he saw that as a no-loss opportunity to perhaps get involved. It was little trouble for him to submit the required information and run. He didn't see himself as having a hope in hell of winning, but neither did he see any harm in trying.

I liken Sgurd to one of those adorable newbies, who understand the game, don't get butthurt about, they tell an amusing tale of loss, they obviously are amused (maybe bemused) by what happened to them. The playerbase shower them with ISK.

Sgurd is not much different. He enjoys the game. That much is evident. He understands the game. Highsec, as he says, is too safe. He started in highsec as a miner (not different than how most of us started), quickly found out that mining is not a path to riches and that it's terribly boring, and moved into PvP and lowsec. He's not terribly adept at the game, but he's having a lot of fun.

The one striking thing about the interview is Sgurd's complete honesty. Try to find any CSM candidate, past or present, who's willing to be no nakedly honest. He says he ran on a lark. Now that he's made it past the prelims, he's going to take his role more seriously. People gave him votes. He respects that. When asked to rank himself against other candidates (who he likely knows nothing about), he says he's probably 30 out of the 35, maybe even at the very bottom.

He doesn't much like the ship balancing, because he has to keep changing all his fittings. He doesn't know what technetium is. (Why should he? Does that help him kill people in lowsec?) He knows alliance can control space in nullsec, but doesn't have a clue how it all works. Can he work 15-20 hours per week on CSM issues? He'd like to say yes, but he wants to play the game and he has family, so he won't commit. He'll invest as much time as is appropriate. Perhaps the people on the CSM take it a little too seriously. Even I think that maybe CSM7 members have been overestimating the hours they put into their job.

It really sums up what was said on the CCP election reform thread.

The players need education. We don't need a more complex voting system that scares more people away, (just listen to Crossing Zebras, these guys have no idea how an STV works and they are interested in the CSM,) not to mention no one will actually know who they actually ended up voting for.

While removing the power of peoples votes by allowing CCP to choose 5 of those who go to Iceland and to cap it all of the STV system will hand the election to Null even more than normal.

So we now have a wonderful situation where we have almost no publicity for the CSM so far and we have given people less reason to care.

Wonderful way to listen to the community CCP.

The plot thickens

I would comment further except my ability to be "dense" would kill the thread

Didn't Sgurd Battersea get a faslse positive qualification Evemail then later got an Evemail saying he had less then 60 votes?

So Poe is WRONG in having this thread's subject line saying [Qualified] ?

Poetic, you're confusing someone who needs a good representative with someone who would be a good representative.