Time to Vote!

The Council of Stellar Management polls are open and its time to get out and vote. While I've become cynical of the role of the CSM in the greater CCP development environment, I still think its important to participate and try to get on competent members to give CCP the best representative opinions of the playerbase.

To that end, I strongly support Scylus Black as a member of the council to adequately represent Low Sec and faction warfare concerns.

CSM Campaign Post 

Scylus Black CSM Voting Page

BB 80 - Voices

Welcome to the continuing monthly EVE Blog Banters and our 80th edition! For more details about what the blog banters are please visit the Blog Banter page.

Blog Banter 80 - A Voice for All Players? 

CCP Seagull encourages you to get involved in CSM12 and put your name forward to be a Space-Politician. On his blog 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?

* * * * *

EVE Online has always rewarded the largest groups of organized players. The Goons' dominance for so many years was predicated not only on their size but how well they worked together towards common goals. It wasn't until World War Bee when a larger group as well organized was able to dislodge them from their throne in the north west.

When the CSM was seen as ineffectual the null sec blocs mostly ignored the voting and a diverse group of players would get on. However, when the blocs saw some things they didn't like come from CCP without any or adequate resistance by the CSM, they responded with their most potent weapon: organization and coherence. The result has been dwindling diversity of playstyles on the CSM and an increase of bloc representation. Unless you have explicit and implicit endorsement of a null sec bloc (or two, or three), your chances of getting on the CSM are very low. And with the CSM downgrading from 12 reps to 10, things get even bleaker. You need to be in the top three choices of a lot of ballots to get elected.

While there may be more players in high sec, they lack the incentive to have cohesion in their voting patterns. Null sec pilots understand taking orders and not having to determine their own ballot, but the individualists in high sec have no pre-existing basis for even taking recommendations from anyone trying to organize the high sec vote. IF they can be persuaded to vote at all that is.

So yes, high sec, low sec, and wormholes are going to be under-represented on the coming CSM, if they have any at all. I'm hopeful that faction warfare can get someone like Scylus Black voted in to pull CCP's attention to iterating on Faction Warfare at least a little bit, but I'm painfully cognizant that even getting the militia pilots of four factions and numerous unrelated allainces/corporations on the same page is nigh impossible.

I hope I'm wrong.

Gaming The Media

Recently the CSM White Paper was revised and in its new text prohibited people from being on the CSM who were "employees of other gaming companies/games/gaming media" and has led to some confusion as to what compromises "gaming media". You can read some of the details on that here at the CSM Watch blog. Most instructive of the information I've read so far is that blogs and "fansites" like Crossing Zebras and Evenew24 are not considered gaming media while TheMitanni.com is.

I want to delve into the question independent of the CSM White Paper and the drama surrounding Sion Kumitomo, TheMitanni.com, and CCP, and ask and answer the question if blogs like this one should be considered gaming media.

* * * *  *

media - noun
1. a plural of medium.
2. (usually used with a plural verb) the means of communication, as radio and television, newspapers, and magazines, that reach or influence people widely

You'll notice in that second definition that there is nothing that says that the means of communication has to be a company or organization of people, or even if it needs to be profitable or not. But rather that it can reach or influence people widely.

In the last month I had 13 thousand page views. Although I'm sure a lot of that was repeat visitors and search engines it does not include any audience I get through RSS feed readers since my feed posts full articles and readers don't need to come to my site for my content. Nor does it include any audience that I reach through my syndication with Evenews24.com when they post one of my articles. Does that audience reach qualify my blog as media?

When Ripard Teg burst on the blogging scene in 2011 with his blog Jester's Trek no one could have imagined that his ~3 year and a bit effort would become a widely read and influential source. To say he was one of the dominate members of the meta not a stretch, and his audience of his humble blogspot blog far exceeded mine at its height.

Noizy Gamer's work on his blog The Nosy Gamer investigating Real Money Trading in general and in EVE in particular, both company endorsed and illicit black markets, has at many times been of journalistic quality and gotten him well-earned recognition from the community and CCP.

In April of 2014 the US Justice system weighed in on the matter:

A recent legal decision that helps support this idea was handed down in a Florida court case involving accusations of defamation. Under state law, anyone who wants to pursue a defamation case has to notify the media outlet in question five days before filing. But Christopher Comins argued he didn’t have to do so in the case of a blog post from university student Matthew VanVoorhis, because blogs aren’t a traditional form of media and therefore aren’t entitled to notice.
As Techdirt notes, Comins’s argument was thrown out by the original court, but he appealed. Now, an appeals court has upheld that decision — and in the course of doing so, the judges in question chose to provide some great commentary on the importance of blogging as a form of media. The decision says:

“The advent of the internet as a medium and the emergence of the blog as a means of free dissemination of news and public comment have been transformative… the impact of blogs has been so great that even terms traditionally well defined and understood in journalism are changing as journalists increasingly employ the tools and techniques of bloggers – and vice versa.”

The court went on to say that the term blog typically refers to a site operated by a single individual or a small group that has primarily an informational purpose, most commonly in an area of special interest, knowledge or expertise — and one which usually provides for public impact or feedback. Based on this, the decision states, “it appears clear that many blogs and bloggers will fall within the broad reach of media, and, if accused of defamatory statements, will qualify as a media defendant.” It continues:

“There are many outstanding blogs on particular topics, managed by persons of exceptional expertise, to whom we look for the most immediate information on recent developments and on whom we rely for informed explanations of the meaning of these developments.”

In other words, a blog can be considered media if it acts like traditional media and has the impact of traditional media. So yeah, I think gaming media can and does include gaming blogs.

The words in the CSM white paper, if interpreted strictly, should exclude anyone with a blog or other similar fansite. I'm not sure what CCP is trying to do with its "gaming media" versus its (unofficial) "fansite" distinction but I think its clear the wording in the CSM white paper is not thought out and should be clarified, or thrown out entirely.

Poisoned the Well

The Council of Stellar Management is in a bad place.

CCP developers seem ot have severely soured on player feedback in recent months and news out of the CSM has not been prevalent or hopeful. It seems we have gone in a short year from a cooperative and productive relationship between the two sides to one of hostility and suspicion.

Somewhere along the line someone poisoned the well.

Now it wasn't the entire CSM, either this incarnation or previous incarnations, that caused the rift to form and its worth noting that a good portion of the CSM membership work hard at their volunteer role and play by the rules. But you know that saying that when you do your job right no one notices but you screw up once and everyone remembers forever? That applies here.

Xander Pheona having to fight off NDS disclosure allegations, CSM White Papers getting updated without CSM input, Manfred Sidious getting turfed off CSM for allegded NDA leaks about capital changes, CSM members getting removed for simply being too inactive... each one a bit more poison in the well of goodwill between the CSM and CCP.

We've come to the point where it feels that CCP has lost the group-think willingness to work with the CSM in a serious manner. The focus groups CCP has used for T3 Destroyer Balance, Sovereignty, and Capital changes indicate a willingness to go directly to selected subject matter experts (aka SMEs) rather than the general representatives of the CSM, something I'm not a fan of because I find that sometimes SMEs are too focused and biased towards certain designs and decisions and not casting a wide enough net in the overall game design architecture. But that's a discussion for another day.

Another poisoning of the well is the occasional effort to elect "joke" members or obviously toxic members as a form of player protest against CCP via the CSM elections. Quite frankly, this is ineffective at passing any message other than how infantile they want to communicate. We get it, you don't take the CSM seriously, move along.

Personally, I think the CSM has run its course and the well is too poisoned to recover from. Its become too toxic for both the player and the company to continue and letting it fester is not doing either side much good at this point. I think we need to increase the involvement for focus group discussions and work towards helping CCP come up with a method for occasional groups for topic discussion that are not as soul-crushingly demanding as a CSM term and not as frustrating for CCP developers.

It should be shut down soon, before it becomes a debacle or a joke.

The Other

On my CSM 10 endorsement post, Gevlon commented:

"Gevlon 2:58 am

Every Goon is a "Goon First". Having an outside-acceptable candidate is just a scheme of the Goons to hijack non-Goon votes. In the council he'll represent Goons and Goons only."

There have been several members of recent CSMs from Goonswarm, including Mynnna, Sion Kumitomo, and The Mittani himself, representing in 3 of the past four councils. Never once have the words "he is only looking out for Goonswarm" been said by any other council member about any of those three. In fact, the exact opposite opinions have been stated by several people for each of them. For whatever their faults, the Goons love EVE and take their responsibilities for the CSM extremely seriously.

So when I look and see a candidate who happens to be endorsed by Goonswarm leadership, I assume that person is probably not a dummy nor a slacker; I don't preclude that possibility but going by previous examples I feel safe in my assumption.

Gevlon, however, assumes the worst of a candidate simply because of the alliance ticker and no amount of evidence can convince him otherwise.

You know, its a common human defense mechanism to turn people we don't agree with into The Other. It dehumanizes them, makes it easier to dismiss, disadvantage, and destroy when the chance arises. No one sane likes to hurt good people, but hurting The Other is OK; they're not like us, they're practically inhuman.

What's that called when someone judges a person based on preconceived notions of the group the person happens to be a part of? Right, prejudice. Stereo-typing is another name. Sure, goons have done a lot of things over the years that many find deplorable but so have many other groups in EVE, big and small. We as a community recognize that the game's structure and design allow for people to enact many of their darkest tendencies because we realize at the end of the day its a game, and as long as it remains on Tranquility then most things are allowed.

The CSM is bigger than the game  world it represents. Alliances don't run for CSM, people do. And I judge those people on their words and ideas out of the game, not by the ticker on the character in the game.

Ninveah CSM X Endorsements

Two years ago I wrote a post explaining what it takes for a CSM candidate to earn my endorsement and I think that post is still as relevant today as it was when I wrote it. Go give it a review, I'll wait.

Back? OK, now on to CSM X endorsements.

CSM 9 was a transitional council, going from twice yearly releases to 10 a year and there were some growing pains related to that in how the CSM works with CCP. CSM 10 is faced with the continued evolution of that paradigm as well as the daunting task of implementing a new sovereignty system that meets criteria that are vast and diverse, not to mention sometimes at odds with each other.

With all that in mind, here are my endorsements for CSM 10 voting.

1. Sugar Kyle

There is no doubt that Sugar has been a tour de force on CSM 9 representing not only all areas of low sec but also being an approachable and tireless council member for anyone in any area of space. She's also maintained constant community presence and reporting from summits through multiple media including her blog. On top of all that, she's intelligent, thoughtful, organized, and not afraid to speak up as required. She should be the number one vote for everyone; my only concern is burnout in a second term but she shows no signs of slowing down yet.

2. Mike Azariah

A lot of people have speculated on Mike's usefulness in CSM 9 but I still feel that the he provides a necessary "devil's advocate" to ideas and concepts from a perspective of high sec casual long time player. Its helpful in teams with people very focused on details and plans to have someone whose job it is to look at the whole thing from 50,000 feet and tell them how it looks like its going to go. An added plus is his two terms of experience of dealing with the CSM and CCP.

3. corbexx

I've put him high on my list based entirely on all the good things people who I respect have had to say about him and his efforts on CSM 9. Since he's a wormhole representative, I think his perspective on null sec changes will be valuable.

4. Endie

As I said in my podcast, Endie is another Goonswarm candidate that does not come across as Goon-first, unlike Sion Kumitomo. His postings under his blog and ideas about null sec sov align strongly with mine, and I like that he's very intelligent and communicates well.

5. Steve Ronuken

I knew of Fuzzy Steve in his 3rd party development efforts in the community and again people I respect have spoken highly of him for his efforts in CSM 9.

6. Ashterothi

I like Ash and I have no doubts he is a capable candidate, my concern is EVE overload and burn out on a single person with two podcasts and a new corp he's getting off the ground.

7. Psianh Auvyander 

Another blogger who writes cogently, I like that he's a mercenary and corp leader and will bring the paid-guns side of EVE back into the CSM.

8. Mandfred Sideous - Another candidate that is highly recommended by people I like, I had him higher in my endorsements list until I heard him on Crossing Zebras podcast where I felt a little disappointed. I understand that some people, like myself, are better at writing their thoughts rather than speaking them but I expected a more impressive showing at this point of the election cycle. That being said, from what I've read he is a null sec candidate with his head on his shoulders.

Don't ignore the vote! Do your part, vote early and often.

So You Want to Run for CSM...

This year's plethora of candidates makes me wonder what has changed to encourage so many people to step up and put their hat in the ring? The new rule allowing people to run without exposing their real name? Excitement in the game? Fear of the null sec changes on the horizon?

Regardless, I'm going to give some general advice on how to run a campaign to get elected to the Council of Stellar Management.

1) Start Campaigning a Year Ahead of When the Election Starts.

I'm not kidding. If you want to be elected you need to start laying the foundation of a good campaign long before the general public is even thinking about the next election, preferably right after an election finishes. There is so much to be done and it can't be rushed at the last minute.

2) Establish an Electoral Base

You need a lot of support in order to get elected so you need to find a community to represent. If you are in an alliance/coalition bloc, you need to convince them that you should be one of their main sponsored candidates. If you decide to try and represent a community like Low Sec or Multi Boxers or Incursion runners, you have to work to become known in that community and make sure you understand the current issues that trouble the residents of that community. This is where the year long lead in to an election comes in: it gives you time to become know in your chosen community and make inroads into becoming their preferred candidate.

3) Become a Public Figure

Very much related to point 2, you need to expose yourself to your desired voter base by posting in forums, chatting on voice comms, speaking up in chat channels, and generally getting name recognition. Part of this publicity drive is establishing your intelligence, trustworthiness, and personality with people that don't know you and you want to vote for you. Ideally you should be intelligent, trustworthy, and have a decent personality but its not strictly necessary as long as you connect with the voter base in a way that makes them want to vote for you.

If you are a coalition candidate and are number one or two on their ticket for the next election, you can stop there. Otherwise you need to get into the general EVE public vernacular as being associated with your chosen community and being thought of as a good candidate. This means interviews on blogs, newsites, and podcasts long before election time to speak and listen about subject directly and indirectly related to your community. Any positive word of mouth that comes from these appearances helps push undecided voters your direction, and encourages voters outside your community to put you on their ticket even if its later down the list. Every possible vote helps in the long run.

4) Create a Platform

Finally, after months of virtual handshaking and debating the topics, you need to come up with a platform that survives scrutiny and appeals to your base. The media pundits will see through a hastily put together platform of platitudes, and will eviscerate you if you present a platform that is obviously unworkable in the known CSM context, so you need to put some serious thought and time into forming your platform so that you have something that has a direction and reasonable goals. Running on a platform of disbanding Concord  will get you labeled as a crank candidate, for example, as everyone knows CCP will never even consider such a proposal. Also, you don't want to be too specific or have goals too firm because you can't possibly know what you can actually accomplish in the context of CCP's desires and constraints. Basically develop a modest platform that benefits your community and has desirous benefits for other communities.

5) Practice Selling Your Platform

Take your platform and sell it to your closest friends, then you corporation, your community, and then the EVE public at large. Find its weaknesses and have responses for them. Identify what people criticize of it and try to have answers for them too. If your platform needs modification, don't be afraid to do so. Inflexibility is not a sign of a good CSM member. Go on the podcast circuit, give interviews, sell your platform to anyone who will listen. Sell, don't preach; you want people who won't necessarily vote for you to think and speak positively of you to bolster your position in your community and as a secondary vote in other communities. If this sounds a lot like number 3, it is. The first part of your early campaign is making a name for yourself so you can sell your vision as you prepare for the actual campaign.

6) Be Prepared to Lose

Unless you have a coalition sized bloc behind you, winning your first time out takes a lot of charisma, name recognition, and a solid platform. Often first time runners without all these factors will fall short of a seat. This setback can work to your advantage if you lose with grace and run again next year. People like preservation in a CSM member and will think more highly of you if you run again. Spend the year between losing and the next election fine tuning your base, platform, and your pubic persona. It will pay off in a second run as people will think of you as more experienced and worth voting for.

7) Be Prepared to Win

Make no mistake, a winning CSM member is expected to invest a lot of time and effort working for the CSM. If you go through the effort of running in the election and manage to win, make sure you follow up by being a superb member. This involves participating in the discussions, reading the NDA'd forums, communicating with the playbase, researching topics you are not familiar with, and generally having no time to actually play.  Also, you are going to be a target for people who are antagonistic to the CSM process, or are just general trolls, so you will need a thick skin, patience, and more thick skin. Not to mention you are on the council with 13 other strongly opinionated people, some with purposes that are opposed to yours, yet you need to work with them in some capacity for a year. Compromise and diplomacy will be required constantly.

If you're lucky, you will finish your term with your sanity and desire to fly internet spaceships intact. Good luck.