OOC————–

Welcome to the nineteenth installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by none other than me, 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 (AT) gmail.com. Check out other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

This months topic comes to us from @evepress, who 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 to projects that the CSM thought needed work on. As it has come out, this 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 scam by CCP to give us players a false sense of input in the game? What’s your take?

IC————————-

Scotty sat with Mike in the cafe and looked out on the hangers. Occasionally the comm would chime as some fool in a hurry would ask for ships sw3itches 20 seconds after their last ship switch and Scotty would yawn and tell them to slow down and take their time. Then the conversation would continue. “So you don’t think it is some huge stunt?”

‘Well, no.” Mike stretched his neck to see is he could get the waitresses attention and another round of coffee brought over. “The way I see it, as soon as they started the CSM they kinda put their rep on the line. The whining and complaining I see is the same sort you are handling right now. When someone wants change they want it right the hell now. As soon as they come up with a new idea they start to wonder why everyone else has not realized that this is the next thing that must be done and made the requisite changes. You have people who would bounce from ship to ship every 3 seconds if you let them. We have people who are the same way about ideas.”

“Well, there are ideas and then there are things that need to be done or should be done.”

Mike nodded. “I know and I do think that the ball does get dropped or laid aside in favor of some other new toy, every now and again. That is why the CSM is in place. To pick up the dropped balls and try to get them back in play. It is no secret that I am a big fan of the CSM and it would be damn hypocritical of me to slag them just because it was the current consensus.”

Scotty nodded and smiled. ‘So you think everything is fine?”

“Hell, no. I think we have a good CSM council and they are trying harder to be more effective and running into the bane of organizations everywhere.”

“Idiots in Charge?”

“No” Mike laughed. “Inertia and momentum. It is easy for the passenger to yell ‘turn here’ but a lot harder for the driver to comply if he is flying a fully loaded carrier. All organizations have this sort of inertia that makes sudden change damn near impossible. The bigger the organization, the slower it is to react to change, whether it is needed or not.”

Scotty muttered something about ” . . . . agile”

“Elephants can claim to be the most agile elephant in the herd, but they still are not going to be racing up the tree faster than a monkey. CCP is an elephant and it wants to be the biggest in the herd. It can trumpet agile all it wants but at the end of the day it has to plan each step out before it brings down its feet. CSM is trying to be the mahout on top of the elephant but once it is up to speed there are NO sudden turns. Right now the question running on the comms is whether the mahout should give up or whether the elephant may throw the rider completely. I think neither is going to happen.” He took a sip of his coffee. “It is not an even partnership. Never has been, never will be. CSM rides at the permission of the CCP but it is along for the ride and they share a common goal. Both want a better way to go. Five times has the CSM been elected and I don’t think we have the understanding of cooperation between rider and mount, yet. May not happen for a while.” Mike grinned “Maybe when I get elected.”

Laughter answered him. “Going to run again?”

“Try and stop me”

****************************************************

No, I don’t think it is a publicity stunt
No I don’t think the members are in it for the ‘free trip’
No, it is not perfect and probably never will be
Yes, it is getting better
Yes, we did well in the elections choosing good people (I’m looking at YOU Mynxee)

m

Other things said . . . .

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?!
and a whole buncha others, cross link or go to kinux to see a more complete list

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…

Wow. It is a dust farm in here.

Dust farm. It’s a Dust farm.

…

As many of you may know, I currently don’t have a computer right now. “Then how is he typing this?” is what you’re asking, isn’t it? I have the answer: Magic.

Due to my lack of a capable blogging or gaming platform (no, Wordpress for my iPhone does not count, as I cannot link images with it), I have been unable to blog about anything. Nor have I been able to play EVE. Which is kind of like a crack adict saying, “Yeah, I don’t have any spoons to smoke my crack with. But the worst part is, I don’t have any crack to begin with.”

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Linkage

AAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHhahahahaHAHAAHAHAH AHAHAhAhahahaahaHHAAHHAHH!!! *wheeeeeze* AAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA! No, I didn’t like Ankhesentapemkah…how can you tell? (How can you even manage to spell that correctly without looking it up first?)

While at first, Eva seemed to a be really good choice for CSM (some of the first CSM elections), she’s grown more insane, bitter and openly hostile over the years. The first time around she had good arguments, stood up for her “voters” and represented the carebear, high sec style of EVE really good. This time around, however, she’s turned into a raving lunatic and I was dismayed to hear she was elected and as you can see, delighted to hear she was removed. If it wasn’t nearly midnight here, I’d link you to several of her outbursts, but I’ll leave you to browse the forums yourself. Or why not have a look at EVE Tribune. Helicity Boson apparently have even more information (and info that originally got me to despise the woman, not just dislike her), as does Jimer Lins here, and here.

Some of Ankhs gems:

“The only whiners are you criminals, who stubbornly refuse to accept the fact that law enforcement isn’t *****ing down hard enough on you, and that it is a logical, realistic and proportional response when Concord and the insurance companies take drastic steps to stop you parasiting scum.”

“If there are people that need to be treated, it are those griefers, that should be locked away and rehabilitated into friendly productive members of society, instead of running around griefing people left and right because it makes their twisted minds feel aroused.”

“I just feel disappointed that the killer is capable of doing such a thing. I’ll never understand that. Surely people have some kind of concience, and some empathy and compassion towards other people? Maybe they just forget that there’s a real person behind those ships. Maybe they don’t care. Maybe they’re ruthless psychopatich sadists.”

“People that use a game to get their enjoyment by frustrating other people definately are antisocial psychopatic virgins.”

And this girl plays EVE? (I particularly like the virgin part. I was MARRIED, you twit…twat…retard. Or in the words of NC: I WAS FROZEN TODAY!)

In a short and cryptic message, CCP announced this morning that Eva “Ankhesentapemkah” Jobse was removed from the Council of Stellar Management for NDA violations. The nature of those violations is the subject of much speculation on the EVE forums and among the #TweetFleet members on Twitter.

Basically, nobody knows for sure what the reason is. It’s probably not what Larkonis Trassler got nailed for- insider trading on information he got from the CSM- but who knows? Consensus on Twitter seems to be that it wasn’t for leaking material via her blog.

So, as CSM Member TeaDaze42 said on Twitter, I hope CCP clarifies things, because otherwise it’s just rampant speculation until the end of time.

Mike sighed and watched as the work crews repaired the damage to his entry and another crew ’swept’ the area for bugs. “Highest tech, assume, guys.”

“Hard to be sure, sir. Every time we make a finder they make a different hider.” One of the techs said. “But you ordered the subscription package so we will be keeping a steady sweep and upgrade, for now the jammers should keep you fairly secure. Use land line comms through our portal and we will make sure nothing is piggybacked.”

Mike nodded. “Thanks guys. And the upload from my monitors?”

“Backed up. She did disable the outer set. How did you know she would be doing that?”

“I assume that my shields will be hit. Basic armor tanking philosophy is let them shoot the shields, but keep the plates strong. She knows, if she has done her research that I fly shield ships, so I switched it up. If you need me I will be down in the bays.”

“Aye, sir.”

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People and Planets

Tyrannis is here, and with it the feature they are calling Planetary Interaction. Inside the latest E-ON we have a guide to understanding how to make the most from New Eden’s literal new landscape. …But, hang on, where have all the people gone who live on all those surfaces (perhaps not so many on those lava ones)? How are we supposed to be benevolent or tyrannical when there are no insignificant proles to sell cheap electronics to in order to keep them in line? We ask whether as an attempt to breath new life into old New Eden, Tyrannis was an opportunity missed, or one soon to be realized.

Stellar Council Matters

Keeping with the theme of people in EVE, we look at the work of the CSM, the volunteer body of EVE players who are elected to give CCP a players’ perspective of EVE. It’s been more than two years since the first Council was sworn in, since which time our various representatives have canvassed and cajoled for important changes. We ask whether those changes have been significant enough and try to gauge the CSM from the view of those that might vote for them.

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The small planetary shuttle was almost empty on the trip to the surface. As was the case in most systems, there was always more going off the planets than back to them. Mike smiled and leaned back and closed his eyes but Dee was a bit nervous and kept bringing him back to the moment with questions about the safety of the trip and why they were doing it in the first place.

“I told you, I want to thank a pilot for the courtesies she has shown me and offered to treat her to dinner. I decided I would do the cooking myself.”

Dee looked at him with a quiet and reserved expression, but he plowed on.

“I also pointed out that this is just dinner. I have no romantic or even physical agenda aside from eating with her.” He paused. “I like cookin, it be my relax time. To do it right takes a mix of art and exactness. There no be a lot o that sort o ting for me round here. When I fly I have the shoot and bang but it lacks the art.”

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