CSM Campaigns

Heya Folks,

I’m Robin, my character name is Kalbuir Skirate and I’m hoping to become part of the CSM this year. In this post I will introduce myself, and explain my platform, credentials, passion, and focus.

Intro
I’m a director at Pandemic Horde, where my focus is on our new player experience and our tooling & analyses (Square).

What this means is that I spend all my free time helping new players in various ways:

• I founded and actually run the NewBean Initiative (NBI) which is our “new player” helpers group within Pandemic Horde. A collection of super useful people who spend all their free time helping new players.
• I've worked hard to find ways to improve Horde for new players, in shape of our flight schools, classes, centralizing information and ways to distribute ISK towards new players.
• I’ve discovered ways that enable us to help more people, faster, and more efficiently. This focus is the only reason we were able to cope successfully with huge influx of new players during WWB and Ascension patch. To put it into perspective we handed out 10,000 ships and 50,000 skillbooks In the first two week of the patch.
• I collect and process feedback on Horde specifically as a means to improve our alliance.
• I run all the industry for the ships that gets handed out to new players.
• Finally, helping new players in-game (duh).

It might not look like it but much of this collides with our tooling and analyses. This allows us to gauge if changes we make have any effect on metrics. We also automate a lot of mundane tasks through the EVE API which allows us to spend more time on stuff that is important rather than tasks that just needs to be done.

I’m not going to talk too much about tooling as this is not why I'm running for CSM. For me EVE’s API’s, analyses and tools are a means to free up as many useful people so they can do what they truly enjoy: Help New Players.

Why the CSM
I’ve had an interest in the game industry, online games and online communities for much of my life. If we go back about 15 years, it wasn’t uncommon at all for a game company to have a council of players, class leads or community representatives. Skip forward and to my knowledge CCP remains one of the only companies that upholds this practise to a high level.

I believe in this concept and have a huge passion for online communities which for EVE the CSM is a vital part of. While it is a lot of work both for CCP and the players involved, it is my opinion that this collaboration contributes significantly to making the gap between players and developers smaller.

However all of this stands and falls with having the right CSM members with the time, intellect and motivation for the job. I think after 2015’s CSM a lot of us were starting to wonder if all the effort and time put in was worth it.

I can confidently say that 2016’s CSM proved to us that they can be useful and contribute to EVE’s developments cycle in a meaningful way. For 2017 it’s important we continue this trend and elect competent CSM members.

I believe I can be one of the CSM members that has a positive effect on the game and provide something that I already offer my alliance, a funnel for feedback regarding new players. Much of the analyses and ideas in Horde are things that we can only take so far without running into game limitations.

My hope is that by broadening that scope of feedback to all of EVE’s players we can work towards solving some of these issues or at the very least get them on the agenda to be discussed.

Importance of CSM this year
After phase 1 of the NPE last year, 2017 is going to be a very important year for the success EVE has with new players and potentially the future success of EVE. From what I heard at EVE Vegas, Phase 2 and 3 of the NPE are going to completely change how new players learn the many aspects of EVE. While I’m very excited about this new direction, I also feel strongly that CCP needs all the help it can get to get it just right. I will say it again for emphasis: CCP needs all the help it can get to get it just right.

You could argue that running for CSM with a voting platform that almost solely runs on new players is a waste of everyone's time. Many old players (cough BitterVets cough) don’t care about new players, and many new players don’t know about the CSM - well let's change that!

The real kicker however is that we should all care. If EVE is to exist for another 13 years. The NPE that both the EVE community and CCP provide go hand in hand with retaining more players. EVE’s biggest issue isn’t pulling in new players; the issue is holding on to them and introducing them to enough core features that will get them hooked and in love with the game as we all are.

In my opinion one of the biggest struggles of explaining EVE is that both CCP and the community have been playing this game for so long that there is so much knowledge that is implied and accepted to be common knowledge that it gets skipped over when trying to retain or explain things to new players. Luckily team Genesis has been taking a good hard look at that and is definitely on the right track.

If we look at the last 2 years CCP has been on the right track in my opinion with Ascension. However, beyond that we have the smaller changes such as the adjustment of starting skills, Inject All Skillbooks feature, multi buy, multi-fit and Skillpoint injectors that allow new players to customize their character a lot better than the character bazaar offers. There is a lot left to be done and I wish that there was more room for smaller changes like those mentioned above that would do a lot of good for the quality of life of new players.

Hi,

When I heard about WWB, I finally decided to try out Eve. I joined the game on trial account and within 4 hours, I was on the front lines getting blown up in ships provided to me by NBI, a program led by Kalbuir.

If it was'nt for the people in NBI, who guided me for 4 hours and tolerated my stupid and silly questions, I may not still be here.

But when I experienced pvp and hundreds of pilots fighting in space, I knew this was the game for me and 9 months or so later, I'm still here.

NBI gave me the skill books, the skill plans, and the ships to pursue several aspects of Nullsec. Pvp, mining, exploration,ratting and many other things (memes ). This allowed me to go ahead and give a shot at everything without there being any hurdles.

Everytime fleets went out at the time and when they still go out, newbeans are specifically encouraged to join and they get free ships. This culture has it's roots in NBI.

Despite the nullsec politics and Horde's involvement, the alliance still primarily caters to new players. You wont be surprised that the leaders of one of the biggest entities in-game spend considerable time flying newbean ships and tweaking the fittings to ensure effectiveness of ships in fleets as well as the ability of the new players to fly them and make an actual difference and contribution in the fights. I cannot tell you how many brand new players I've seen who have been super-thrilled when their Merlin tackles an opponent's ship for the first time and that leads to those ships being blown up. If you remember your first time, you'll know exactly the amazing feeling that I'm talking about. Kalbuir, has been the point man that enables this.

Training new players is just one thing, training content-creators is also important and Horde's leadership allows anyone to FC the fleets and actually train FCs too.

Kalbuir is being quite humble about the amount of work he does for Horde and makes things smooth for us in terms of services that he has coded for us.

Kalbuir, you have been a great help, without the support structure that you established, I probably may not have stayed around in Eve.

Thank you for the services. I believe your first hand knowledge and experience in designing and implementing NPE is a great contribution to Horde and Eve community.

You have trained 1000s of capsuleers and we're proud to call you our director.

o/

I don't think it's any exaggeration to say (personal opinion) that Pandemic Horde would not be the force it is today were it not for the unstinting efforts of Kal to try and make us the most effective group around when it comes to helping new players into the game - and then to retaining those players. I'm not putting down any of the other groups and small corps who help new players into the game, but I really believe we have a system that must rank up there with the most efficient in Eve. Please take the time to check out the screenshots, for example, and try and get a handle on what we have access to in order to help new players.

Kal devotes an inordinate amount of time to this. He is totally passionate about what he does, and he inspires all of us to be as passionate as he is in helping new players find their feet. I am a very proud member of Horde's Newbean Initiative (NBI) and I devote some of my time to helping new players out. Note, I said some. I have other things I like to do and Horde lets me do them. Kal devotes his time to the new players and to us in the NBI, to help us become great ambassadors for the game to our new members.

A vote for Kalbuir Skirate isn't a vote for Pandemic Horde, it is a vote for a man who will be as passionate on the CSM towards helping the new player experience for the whole of Eve, as he is towards helping the new player experience for people joining Pandemic Horde and he will come at it with a staggering amount of knowledge and understanding of how Eve works (and how it doesn't). Kal will make a difference and it will help all who play this wonderful game.

+1

Acknowledging that being on the CSM isn’t about wish fulfillment and you don’t really go there to give direction but to provide advice on a direction, feedback on plans and to help brainstorm ‘what if’s’ when asked…

Can you provide us some examples of what your constructive feedback would look like on any current mechanics, functionality or balance you feel passionately about?

I realize that's an open ended question without any specifics or quantities requested. I’m asking because I want others (and myself) to see an example of your thought process, level of knowledge, writing style and hopefully balanced approach when talking about a topic you are passionate about. I think it is important that CSM members have the ability to talk rationally and intelligently about topics they feel are important and can take into account play styles other than their primary chosen style. Ie: Can you represent (to the best of your ability) the entire player base on general topics and on topics that you have a greater knowledge can you engage in discussion that involves seeing the topic not only from your particular play style.

Other than the question above - I already like you because you do amazing work with Horde and it has been a pleasure seeing you work your magic keeping our newbean chaos organized. Thanks for all you do Kalbuir.

Kalbuir is an amazing individual. He keeps a low profile, but anyone involved in PH can point to some service, some point of contact, some way in which Kalbuir has made that pilot's space-life richer and more enjoyable. The work he does on our tech services is outstanding, and his dedication to making the experience of every player as full as possible is unparalleled. He is the champion of the Newbean, and has created numerous systems within the PH framework specifically designed to familiarize new players with the game in general, PH's part in the game, and the roles each pilot can take upon themselves within PH and beyond, providing both in- and out-of-game support structures for all. I can not imagine anyone more devoted to nurturing this game and its players, nor anyone better suited to helping Eve find its path for the future.

Kal, best of luck to you. I may be but a simple Hordeling, but you have my full and unmitigated support.

Kalb has been with PH since the beginning and basically setup and ran the NBI (new player helpers) for the last year and half.

Top dude.

I support this product and/or service due to reasons already listed above.

Kalbuir already is an ambassador for this game with all the work he puts in for newbeans in horde.

I strongly believe him being able to directly communicate with CCP via the CSM platform would benefit both CCP and new players as a whole and there's no doubt about his dedication.

This is a vote I can comfortably say will not be wasted.

Nice resume, simple questions for you

How much do you answer to the upper ranks of PL and others and how much are you your 'own'. Will you expect to continue to be able to do the good work you do fi CSM takes a fair share of your time or have you considered handing off responsibilities?

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Going over some questions that were asked

How much do you answer to the upper ranks of PL and others and how much are you your 'own'?
A common misconception people have about Horde is that we ultimately answer to PL. Truth is I can say what I want but people will still doubt that this isn’t the case. And that is fair, that was the price we paid when we decided to call ourselves “PANDEMIC” Horde.

We have a good mix of PL members who are directors and Horde “grown” directors whose opinion all matter equally and work together smoothly. Every one of those directors ultimately answer to the CEO, Gobbins who makes the final decisions if we can’t come to a decision. However I can’t even remembered the last time that happened.

For the last 2 years I’ve been running my own projects inside Horde focussing on new players without negative interaction from PL, in fact a lot of the their experience and views about EVE have helped me tremendously. I do not see how doing the same sort of activities in the CSM would suddenly cause a need to answer to anyone.

What I hope is to have people on CSM12 with me that disagree with me, because discussions are a good thing. If CSM12 is a group that can discuss and argue with each other and keep an open mind about each others opinion we’ll be just fine.

The CSM in my view isn’t a group that takes a vote and then pushes an opinion through. It should be a group that discusses and wins each other over, finds a middle ground or agrees to disagree and communicate both viewpoints to CCP for them to make the decision.

Will you expect to continue to be able to do the good work you do if CSM takes a fair share of your time or have you considered handing off responsibilities?
Delegating work I am passionate about isn’t exactly one of my strong suits and probably one of my biggest weaknesses in terms of the CSM candidacy. I put an insane amount of time into my responsibilities at Pandemic Horde and it that regard i’m going to learn quite a bit this year :).

The plan IF I win in April is as follows, I plan to keep all my current projects running which means I won’t be stepping down as director, still be running NBI and working on our tooling. However new projects will most likely end on someone else his plate, luckily we have plenty of people willing to step up and take on those challenges.

That realistically might still leave me with a shortage on raw time, so additionally i’m going to do something i’ve been wanting to do for a while now which is work less and spend more time on the things I’m passionate about or wish to develop myself into. This includes the CSM, Online Communities, EVE, Horde and hopefully a bit of PR & Marketing (If there is time left).