CSM Campaigns

Greetings all,

After much thought and discussions with my wife and friends, I have decided to finally put in my ticket as a candidate for the twelfth installment of the Council of Stellar Management. I actually intended to start campaigning this year for CSM XIII but I think there is no better time than now to see if I can gain more traction by running this year as well.

Who is Kael Decadence?
Well I’m glad you asked. While you may see that my character has been active since 2006, I wouldn’t say that I started playing EVE Online until 2013. Like many players, I found a free trial of the game, installed it and made my character, and had no damn idea how to play the game. It didn’t make sense and didn’t play like any other video game I had ever played. So I gave up. Every so often I would get an email from CCP letting me know that there was a free weekend for returning players to come check out the game again and see what was new, so I would install the game and recover my password only to be again disappointed and still not understanding how to play this game.

It wasn’t until I was in Afghanistan for my 4th deployment that I saw on a real news source, something about an EVE Online battle that costs tens of thousands of dollars. When I read about the Battle of 6VDT-H, I knew that I should take a second look at EVE Online. While I waited to get home to install the game, I took the time to start watching YouTube videos and learn everything that I could about how to play before I even stepped back into the game.

Since then I have been in a few corporations while I learned how to play for really the first time, and took longer than I would have liked to start feeling like I got it. Searching around on Google for a ship fit one day for an Algos, I came across a fit on a site for the High Drag Podcast. I knew what a podcast was, but didn’t realize that this game had one. So I started listening to everything they had. Then I realized there were more podcasts about this game I was starting to fall in love with. Then I found EVE Radio and DJ Big Country, the Podside Podcast, and so many more. I was hooked.

One Friday morning in Germany (which was when Podside with Manny Bothans aired live on Thursday stateside) I was invited to fill in as a guest for my favorite EVE Online Podcast, Podside’s Thirsty Thursday Edition. I kept coming back week after week to lend my voice to the show, even when the time changed and it was at 4 am for me. I didn’t care, I loved talking about this game that I loved now. I joined a Wormhole corp with Kazumi, one of the hosts, and learned so much more than I had to that point.

After making the rounds as a guest host on ever edition of the Podside Podcast before it shut down, an appearance on the Open Coms Show, and starring on Manny Bothans is Primary, I decided to start my own podcast with Meredudd. Nearing its 23rd episode, our show is now over 10,000 downloads and is syndicated on Crossing Zebras. Not only that, I have been a writer for Imperium news ever since I started a campaign called EVE an Hour.

Why am I running?
Over the past few months I have been very vocal about how the game needs to adapt to allow new players to more easily learn how to play the game. For a long while, even before the new NPE and Alpha Clone State, I had been adamant that CCP needed to make some changes to help new players get into the game. In 2016 I hosted an player meet up and started talking to new players (and recruiting prospective players) in the game, culminating in me starting the EVE an Hour campaign to help bridge the gap between veteran players and new Alpha Clones.

It amazed me how many players were joining the game and were in the same boat I was back in 2006. They joined the game because of all the advertising on game news websites about being free, but just a few hours into it they had no idea what to do. I decided to do the new “NPE” and started talking to people in the Rookie Help chat about it. From what I gathered by doing it myself, and from talking, nothing had been changed to REALLY help anyone want to continue with the game. If that had been the NPE that I experienced in ’06, I still would have left the game. It did nothing for me as a veteran, and wasn’t doing anything for these new players. Hence I started doing what I could to help new players find their way through the game.

What I found was that the ISD, Game Masters, and “official” representatives of CCP and EVE weren’t very helpful in the help channel and that the best help was found from players watching streamers and talking to other players. One day in rookie help I had been answering questions and pointing people to my Discord channel for two hours before a GM finally chimed in and said I couldn’t advertise my unbiased help in a help channel. TWO HOURS and I was the only person giving help and advise in a help channel before I was told that I wasn’t allowed to give that help.

If I wasn’t vocal about my desire to help new people before then, I was now. So if I have a platform at all, its to help new players. This is what I want to do.

Nobody has any questions for me?

I was wondering if you could answer some questions.

1) What area of the game do you play?

2) Do you PvP, or are you more industry focused?

3) You mentioned something called the "EVE an Hour" campaign. What is that for those like me who have never heard of it before? And is it still active? Your mention of it leaves a lot of questions.

4) Have you ever been in a corp or alliance leadership position? If so, what challenges do/did face that CCP could help with by changing features in the game?

07 Candidate!

First, thank you for your time and effort (both present and future) in representing the capsuleers of New Eden! They’re much appreciated.

I’m preparing to cast my vote in the CSM12 elections. After reading the information you submitted, though, I still have a question.

By way of background, I started in Eve as a hauler, moving freight in T1 industrials and gradually working my way up in both ships and cargo. However, I repeatedly found my progress impeded by gankers who would destroy my ship and steal my cargo. In low- and null-sec space, that’s to be expected. You place your bet and take your chances. In high-sec space, however, this is very frustrating. Why have high-sec space at all then? This frustration drove me into anti-ganking, and I’ve been a proud member of Thomas en Chasteaux's High-Sec Militia for several months now.

So, my question. Where do you stand on high-sec ganking? I’ll concede that ganking is a legitimate style of game play, as CCP has ruled. But I also feel that it should be difficult and dangerous (for the ganker) in the 30% of New Eden designated as high-sec space. In particular, I’d like to see CCP tweak the game mechanics so that the criminal flag generated by looting a ganked freighter in high-sec space follows all players who handle that loot, and otherwise make looting more realistic. (Thomas en Chasteaux's ideas, not mine.)

As a member of the CSM, would you present such an idea to CCP? Would you push for its adoption? What other game changes might you consider to make high-sec ganking more difficult and less profitable?

Regards,
Cochise Chiricahua.