Just when the political drama here in the US has started to wind down following the longest election campaign period in our history, more politics have started kicking up – this time in the world of EVE. That’s right, we’re three months out from CSM elections and yet people have begun to announce their intentions to run.

First off the mark was Mino Noud, an apparent Editor at EN24 (who knew, EN24 has editors!) who, while being a nullsec resident, seeks to represent everyone. Sound familiar? It should – riverini ran on much the same platform. However, riverini had name recognition going for him and a much larger platform from which to campaign (just being honest) than Mino does today.

Second into the fray was Mynnna, better known as Corestwo on the Eve-O forums, a writer at TheMittani.com (one of mine, in fact) and a Director in GSF. Mynnna is very smart, knowledgeable about everything financial in Eve, and articulate – all things I think will serve him well in his CSM tenure (yes, tenure, not bid – mynnna is likely to be the official GSF candidate, and thus virtually guaranteed a spot).

There was also a drama involving Placid09 of Podside podcast and Arydanika, my corpmate and host of Voices from the Void, a show I was previously a cohost of for a few months. You can find all the gory details on Poetic Stanziel’s blog. Unfortunate that such things must be aired in so public a fashion, but the part that actually relates to this blog post is Placid’s stated belief that Arydanika plans on running for CSM8.

Now, I don’t talk to Dani as often as I used to, but I can say this: from what I know, CSM is not on her agenda. If anyone from the terrible amokdotte corporation is going to be running for CSM, it would probably be me. I’ve harbored some quiet aspirations towards the CSM for some time now, but seem to never have found myself in a position to really pursue the goal.

If I were to run, of course, I wouldn’t be an official GSF candidate. I’m in the terrible Am0kdotte member corp, not a proper SA Goon, and even within the corp I am literally unknown. The other day the CEO said in jabber: Marc_Scaurus who are you? So, not really a strong base from which to launch a campaign.

My best shot at riding into office would be through my relatively strong background in lowsec. I also fancy myself quite the proponent of the New Player Experience, small gang and solo PVP, and big picture stuff like having actual design goals for all parts of space, rather than tackling issues as they come. I feel like these are things that no one on the current CSM really fulfills adequately and that I could do so. The problem?

Nobody cares. Seriously! Every single person running for CSM8 this year is going to give lip service to lowsec. Bounty hunting is great, they’ll say. The crimewatch changes are wonderful, but lowsec could always use more attention, they’ll say. You want to know how much of it they will actually mean? Not a fucking bit. Lowsec remains the awkward redheaded step child of High and Null, raised with Null’s habits but forced to follow High’s rules – to an extent.

The same goes for the New Player Experience. For God’s sake, the E-Uni CEO – you know, the one guy who should probably be gunning for more and better New Player Experience revamps – is a fucking nonentity according to every bit of info I’ve picked up from the CSM this term. Literally disappeared. Not even Kaiser Soze disappeared, either – just flat out stuck a feather in his cap labelled ‘CSM Member’ and called it a day.

EVE is still at a very vulnerable point in its life. It’s gotten on in years, but has managed to stay up to date. The road got really rocky, but things have been more or less smoothed out with the existing playerbase. What we need now is continued renovation of old and decaying features, as well as a renewed focus on growing that playerbase. What we need now is both the big picture and a grand story to describe it. Who is going to give that to you? Not a single person.

CCP is floating along thinking that the ship is righted and all is well. They have mollified the most indignant among the population and seen numbers stabilize. The Summer of Rage is a thing of the past and the game as a whole is being revamped on a level never before seen with initiatives like Tiericide, the UI improvements from CCP Punkturis and Co., and through the masterful direction of CCP’s saviour, Jon Lander.

Where is the growth, though? Where is the high drama? Where is the ability for a relatively new player to make an impact? We look to nullsec and see recycled alliances duking it out for worn out hovels in the South, and the return of hegemony in the north. We look to lowsec and see the same rag tag bands of pirates, now fighting for life against the faction warfare hordes, doing meaningless things in a meaningless space. We look to highsec, where miners may have abandoned Hulks for Mackinaws, but still plug away doing the same old shit, day in and day out.

All the while the rich grow richer and the new grow poorer as inflation continues its slow insidious growth. But CSM7 will declare a victory because they got to sit in on the meetings leading up to the release of Bounty Hunting, and they will say they were instrumental in the delivery of such a revitalizing concept to the game. They will say that there was no need for them to yell at CCP, to demand answers to hard questions, because CCP is doing the best they can – and gosh darn it, so where they!

I say bullshit. I say there is never enough. No matter how good things may be now, there is always room for improvement. There are a million and one ways in which the game could be improved, and for relatively little total development time. There are murals that could be painted to guide the way for EVE’s development for the next ten years, rather than looking at the last ten years and trying to fix all the mistakes. Not to say that mistakes can’t be addressed, but instead let’s try addressing them in new and inventive ways. Let’s kill two birds with one stone – set past wrongs right while also providing new and exciting content, or the frameworks for content generation, to attract a whole new generation of EVE players.

In the end though, does it matter what one dude with a wordpress install says? Not really. So, as my bottle of wine draws to a close, so too does this blogpost. No matter what happens this election cycle, demand more from the people you vote for. Demand more from CCP, and demand more from yourself – after all, you’re the person who will elect the new slew of Council members.

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7 Comments Posted by Marc