Tuesday 28 February 2017

BB 80: A Voice for All Players?

Blog Banter 80:  http://sandciderandspaceships.blogspot.de/2017/02/blog-banter-80-voice-for-all-players.html

CCP Seagull ecourages you to get involved in CSM12 and put your name forward to be a Space-Politician. On his blog ( http://nevillesmit.com/blog/2017/2/13/i-like-tweakage ) Neville Smit noted that CSM11 had done a good job with minimum of drama. However he said he’d not be covering CSM12 like he has in previous years as he sees no point. The power-blocs will vote on who they want and unless Steve Ronuken manages to get on CSM12 it is almost certainly going to have every seat taken by the big null-sec blocs. Is Neville right? Is the CSM moving more and more into just a voice for 0.0? Is this a bad thing? Are the hi-sec, low-sec and WH players going to lose out badly or is it really not an issue as its the same game? Could a totally null-sec dominated CSM 12 give a balanced voice for everyone?

Hello, my name is Lorelei and I am candidating for the third year running for the CSM as a high-sec carebear. 

That is why I am not going to get elected. I honestly also got fed up with talking to people that thought the CSM would be able to dictate policy to CCP... seems that a lot of people have the wrong impression of what goes on.

The CSM is being reduced to 10 seats from 14. My best ever performance I was able to get position 15 in the CSM 10 elections. With 13 of the 14 seats on CSM 11 going to the null sec blocks I think that it is safe to say that the null sec blocks will be deciding who is on the CSM again, maybe they will throw Steve a seat because of his excellent track record. Of course that is no reason not to announce a candidacy... show CCP that High Sec / Low Sec / Wormhole people are still at least interested....... except that they are really not.

I still think that having a mixture of backgrounds and playstyles in the CSM would be a productive opportunity for CCP to get feedback on the issues surrounding the game, but then maybe the Council of Null Sec Management was the reason for the lack of drama this last year? Anyway CCP can always form focus groups for whatever they want to be looked at. Is the CSM even really relevant any more?

In my opinion the drama surrounding CSM X put the final nail in the coffin of the CSM. Whilst firing up for CSM XI I contacted the people / groups that supported me for CSM X, and without exception the people I spoke to said words to the effect of "CSM... meh... why bother".  CSM XI did a stand up job, and kept whatever drama there was well under wraps. Maybe a couple more such councils and the public opinion of the CSM might start being restored.

So once again to answer the questions above with my opinions:
1) Neville is right.
2) The more null sec players the more the CSM represents the experiences of null sec. (or do the null sec players mine a lot in high sec?)
3) I think CCP is losing out on a broader spectrum of opinion and experience. Do the Devs have up to date experience of life in High Sec?
4) No, a totally null sec dominated CSM could not give a balanced voice for everyone.

Thank you for reading.

Monday 27 February 2017

Burn Jita 2017.

So this last weekend saw the Goons forming up to do a "burn Jita" event. This year I was there.
Unfortunately RL concerns stopped me from being online too much, but I jumped on over, hopped into one of my trusty covert ECM ships, and undocked to see what was going on.


Seeing a huge blob of red flashing coercers swarming around a freighter was quite something... and those fleets of CONCORD and Faction Police. Of course this made a very different impression from those Uedama gank-fleets... but CODE. were also there to whore off Goon kills.

Because of aforementioned RL concerns, I did not even try to join any organised activities or fleets, but I did manage to get some gankers on my zkillboard. Check it out! https://zkillboard.com/character/94644678/

I was present in the right system in the middle of the blob at the right time for two very (for me) interesting events:

         One of the ganked freighters was carrying a Fortizar... more than 18 Billion ISK killmail IIRC. When the gankers tried to loot it (I think in a Jump Freighter) and went hostile, the looter got killed... one strike for the good guys (I am sure that you will be able to read about it elsewhere... if I find any links I shall post them).

         A freighter was saved from a ganker blob. Repairing and boosting the freighter whilst the gankers were shooting, the good guys managed to keep the freighter alive long enough for CONCORD and the Caldari Police to do their jobs. This is the first time I was able to witness at first hand a Freighter being directly saved from a gank. The fact that another ganker fleet finished the job five minutes later takes nothing away from the achievements of the good guys! Hats off to them!

Over the course of the weekend I did manage to get some loot out of the wrecks that were produced by CONCORD. At the end the tally was just under 100 Million ISK, which was a nice bonus.

Sunday 5 February 2017

CSM XII Campaign Thread

https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=6822498#post6822498

Hello!

My name is Lorelei and I am announcing my candidacy for CSM XII. I am running whilst focussed on High Sec. I am a self-confessed High Sec Carebear and am proud of it. I have analysed the commitments planned/coming up in my life for the next year and have decided that I can afford the time to run for CSM XII!

I really haven't changed, neither has what I am thinking, (and therefore neither has my opening campaign post, really) and I am looking forward to discussing with you all!

This is my Campaign Thread from last year:

https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=464501&find=unread

This is my Campaign Thread from the year before:

https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=386664


This is my CapStable Podcast Interview from 2015:

http://capstable.net/blog/2015/01/26/lorelei-ierendi/

And this is my infrequently used blog:

http://hisec-carebear.blogspot.de/

But to recap for people that do not want to jump to other web sites:

Is there room for a High Sec candidate on the CSM? Someone that has the well-being of the multitude of High Sec pilots at heart?
I would like there to be a "High Sec" platform, for a candidate for the CSM. If no one else can step up to the plate, then I will. If someone else wants to run for CSM for the benefit of High Sec gameplay, then I am happy to step down and support them... if they can do a better job.

The problem with High Sec space is that the players there are all independent. There is no feeling of "we". This lack of "we" is a problem. The lack of "we all stand together" is a problem. The "apathy of the carebear" is a problem...

This I know. I know that, although numerically High Sec has the largest number of log-ins... accounts... players... I know that High Sec will probably never be able to gather together enough in order to support a CSM candidate. But that is no reason to not try!!
Come on, High Sec! If something is important for you, stand up for it!!!

Who am I?

I am a High Sec Carebear, and proud of it!
High Sec Carebears tend not to socialize too much, and are only members of NPC or small corporations. If you are reading this thread, then sadly you probably do not belong to the player-metric that I mostly represent!

Well, this is not the first character I have created in order to play "EVE". I have never been a member of a big alliance or coalition. I have never been a member of a big corporation. Hell, I have never left High Sec space before the CSMX Election..

I gained my love of Spaceship games by playing Elite... way back on my ZX Spectrum 48k+ (with a jammed SHIFT key (jammed as in... raspberry jam)). Back then it was possible to try docking with a space station and to accidentally line up with the back of the station... and die whilst trying to fly through the back of the station to the entrance. Fun times.

I graduated to Frontier: Elite II on a 486 PC, and spent my time happily flying between Barnard's Star, SOL, and Wolf 359. I should have been studying, but flying a (mostly harmless) panther fully loaded with robots was more fun.

I kept my eyes open for an online version of a space-sim... and that is where EVE comes in.
I really enjoy (as in "really") flying transports, fulfilling contracts, and, sometimes, mining.

My CSM Interests for 2017:
I think it is important for people to know what the CSM is, and can achieve. I could not run claiming that I would make all spaceships pink. As a member of the CSM I would not be in a position to dictate to CCP or enforce any "election promises". The scandals of the past have meant that the Player Base has lost some trust in this institution.

But well:

None Of The Above: Campaigning for an opportunity for people to vote for the CSM, but to vote for None Of The Above. The problem of player participation is disproportionately affecting those of us in high sec (because we carebears are not exactly non-solo).
In order to increase the possibility of player participation, maybe CCP could work up some Popups. Reminding players to vote is not a bad thing.

Ganker: I would like at least a 50% chance of walking away from a gank. At the moment this is not the case. On my blog I mentioned changes to Concord that I would like to see. I would also like to see some changes to Ice Spawning (maybe in random systems?) that would mean that the gankers would have to move around to gank ice miners! Local chat could also be changed to provide less free "intel" to people. No need to announce to everyone who is in local... just the number of pilots.
Please read my last threads before posting questions... we really do not need to cover the points that have been discussed before... high sec is worth fighting for!

New Player Experience: That was a WOW change in the last year. I managed to try it eventually. It is about a bazillion times better than the old way. It does however need observing, and I am looking forward to the statistics from Fanfest!

Player Corporations: See my blog and previous posts in Campaign threads for details. The need for player groups that are just social has not changed.

But when all is said and done, I believe a CSM member needs to be a conduit for information exchange between CCP and the players. I do not think that the CSM should be used for the Metagame.

Thank you for reading this far. I am looking forward to working with you / hearing from you, and although I am always busy at this time of year, I promise to read every post in my thread