Shadow of Cerberus EVE Community Forum

Quote of the Week: Maximum protest size

As long as I'm in the mood to talk about groups of discontented players, let's talk about one more: the Council of Planetary Management (CPM), the DUST 514 equivalent of the CSM.

You think we're having problems...

This is a group that was announced with great fanfare by Hilmar himself at Fanfest, intended to model the successful CSM program in CCP's new product.  Headlined by CSM7 member Hans Jagerblitzen and a really impressive array of DUST 514 stand-outs, I was more or less uniformly impressed by this group when I met them face to face the Saturday after Fanfest.  These are people that were hugely passionate about their game, and getting DUST 514 off to a good start.

When he was on CSM7, I teased and heckled and persuaded Hans to write periodic updates (the precursor to my own weekly updates).  And he continued that process -- though of course not weekly -- once he was on the CPM.  You can read them on his blog.  There are eight of them so far, the most recent one just yesterday.  And taken as a group, they paint a very bleak picture of CPM-CCP cooperation over the last four months... or lack thereof.  The first update back in June is upbeat and optimistic, yet realistic and pragmatic, with lots of plans, ideas, concerns, and initiatives for the future.  The most recent one... wellllll... not so much.  The CPM is clearly frustrated as hell, angry, and are reflecting the mood of the DUST player base, which is... not ideal.  "The time has passed for the CPM to take verbal assurances at face value," Hans says flatly in the latest update.

This is Hans we're talking about here, who was arguably the most cheerful and diplomatic member of CSM7 after Trebor.  Yes, even when he was going after me.  Other members of the CPM are keeping their statements equally flat.

So it was amusing today to hear about him teasing CCP Dolan (quoted with permission and edited slightly)...

Your only saving grace is that there's no monuments to shoot in Dust so you're safe there.
Maximum protest size: 32
(devil)

That made me literally laugh out loud.  Nice one, Hans.  ;-)

Anyway, in his update Hans talks about an upcoming meeting between the new DUST 514 Executive Producer CCP Rouge and the CPM to find a path forward.  I do hope very much that CCP takes the CPM's concerns seriously!  And hell yes, I'm biased.  The more seriously CCP takes the CPM, the better that is for the CSM as well.  Go over and read Hans's eight update posts if you want to catch up with what they've been up to.
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