A "CareBears" Journey

Welcome to the nineteenth installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed to crazykinux@gmail.com. Check out other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

This months topic comes to us from @evepress, and he asks: The CSM: CCP’s Meta Game? – The CSM, an eve players voice to CCP.Right? In the grand scheme of things yes, the players bring up issues and the CSM presents them to CCP. But in its current iteration the CSM was supposed to be given small authority to assign CCP assets toprojects that the CSM thought needed work on. As it has not come outthis was not the case. So fellow bloggers, is the CSM worth it, has the CSM improved the game in any way, or is it just a well thought out scamby CCP to give us players a false sense of input in the game? What’s your take?

Wow, what a huge topic. I have been a bit strapped for time. I want to treat this topic in the way it should be, but I want to get this in on time, so, here is hoping that I can organize my thoughts in a cogent fashion. I believe this can be broken down into three areas, the CSM, Software Development, and Player Expectation.

Within discussion of the CSM, there are four areas that need covering. First is the fact that the CSM is a step forward in MMO game development. Second, the concept that the CSM is just meant to pacify the player base without any real input to the development process should be discussed. Third we need to cover the effort put forward over the CSM’s history by the CSM members. Finally we need to discuss the true democracy, or lack thereof, of the CSM voting process.

I feel driven to remind everyone that the CSM is the lone entity of its kind, at least within my realm of knowledge, within MMO games worldwide. Whether we feel like the concept has lived up to its potential or not, it is still a concept that only CCP has pursued. In my opinion that is enough to be considered a big step forward in MMO development and support.

The argument has been made that CCP put forward the CSM concept as a “pacifier” to keep the natives(players) quiet and satisfied that our voice was being heard, but with no inclination to really respond to its input. I would agree that not everything put forward by the CSM has been implemented. I would venture to guess that not even a third of the changes proposed by the CSM have been implemented, though I don’t know that for fact. However, in my opinion, if even one change has been made that came out of the CSM process, then the CSM concept has brought our voice to CCP and it has been heard. Skill queues and ship loadout changes being the major examples of that.

I do realize that there have been a few CSM members that have either not taken their membership and responsibility seriously, have used there membership for the free trip only, or have taken advantage of their knowledge for gain and broken the NDA. However, from the reading I have done across the CSM’s history, the majority of CSM members have been very motivated to listen to the voices of the EVE player base, assemble it into cogent presentation, and have taken those to CCP. Teadaze and Mynxee stand out for CSM 5, but I know they are not the only ones from CSM 5 hard at work. I also have gotten the impression that folks throughout CSM history like Song Li, Vuk Lau, Omber Zombie, and others have taken their election seriously and have tried to do what they can to better the EVE Online for the most players. That kind of dedication within an online game player base speaks volumes to me.

I have read a number of posts and comments indicating that the CSM is not representative of the player base, that the voting process is not high enough profile, and that these things denigrate the value of the CSM. I have heard the “not representative” argument in relation to real life elections as well. If you want to be represented, you have to participate. Abstaining is not helpful. If people want the word to get out, they need to pass it themselves. Some of those complaining that not enough people know are more than capable, and have the tools to bring information of the CSM elections to a larger audience, but don’t. If we want the CSM to be more representative of us, the player base, then we have to be part of that solution, not just commentators on the side.

The second area that needs to be discussed is software development. CCP is first and foremost a software development company. Being a software developer myself, though in the web area, efforts tend to center around what has the best “Return On Investment” and what “low hanging fruit” we can pick to get the most bang for our buck. From all the professional reading I have done about software development, that is a pretty standard approach across the industry.

Within game software development, focusing on the best “Return On Investment” takes on a particular aspect. Game developers primary focus is on growth of the company, thus growth of the player base for each of the platforms they are currently supporting. Tuning of the platform takes second place to this. Bright, Splashy, Explody, Neato, Golly-Gee-Wizz new features is what brings in new or returning players. This effort provides a greater perceived return on investment than grinding away tuning the already existing engine.

Another typical approach within development is to take care of the “Low-Hanging-Fruit”. Low-hanging-fruit are the quick, easily resolved, low resource intensive issue resolutions that help to improve the platform, but pull minimal resources off of the type of development in the above paragraph. Working on low hanging fruit tends to provide a much higher return on investment, so it tends to be a primary focus within development strategy.

Finally, from the reading I have been doing across a number of blogs, forums, and comments, a large amount of the more vocal player expectation is just unreasonable. As a player, expecting the software developer to implement every thing they ask for is just ridiculous. Most players don’t have the technical knowledge of the platform to understand what is necessary to implement their wishes. Without that knowledge, our expectation of immediate response by the software developer becomes even more abhorrent.

I do realize that there are very real concerns with the game platform that need to be addressed, the largest and most prevalent being lag during large engagements. Even though I am not a null sec PVPer, I consider that to be an issue that should be at the top of CCP’s list. There are definitely a number of valid needs that players have expressed that CCP needs to work on.

The biggest issue I see with the whole CSM process is communication. From all that I read, the CSM is trying to keep the player base informed of everything going on. However, CCP seems to be struggling to keep either the CSM informed, or we the players informed of what their real vision for the future. Without that real communications to the CSM, and including them in planning out for the future, CCP is weakening what could be an evolutionary step forward for them, and for MMO development in the future.

See other participants:

1. Growing Pains | CrazyKinux’s Musing
2. CSM: Hoax or Serious Business? « Lost in New Eden
3. CSM-Power to the people or puppets of CCP « A whole lot of Yarrrr!!!
4. Gaming the CSM | A Mule in EvE
5. A Taste Of Democracy | StarFleet Comms
6. CSM: Player Power or Paper Tiger? | I Am Keith Neilson
7. Governance Thrash Redux? « The Ralpha Dogs
8. CCP Doesn’t Care: Blog Banter 19 « OMG! You’re a Chick?!
9. The Cataclysmic Variable: It’s Crunch Time!
10. The 19th EVE Blog Banter is upon us… and about the CSM and CCP | Victoria Aut Mors
11. CSM: Lame Duck from the beginning?
12. Blog Banter #19 << Dense Veldspar 
13. Be careful what you say, Roc « Roc’s Ramblings
14. Exchange Fraking Phone Numbers « Scrap Metal & Faction Ammo
15. Blog Banter #19: Assumptions
16. EVE Blog Banter #19 | EVE on Real Life
17. A Reality Check | A “CareBears” Journey
18. Quit your bitching | Fly Reckless – EVE Online
19. War has come to EVE | Scram Web
20. CCP and the CSM | Morphisat’s Blog
21. More to come…