[Jester's Trek] CSM8 Interview: EVE Stratics
CSM8 Interview: EVE Stratics
I received the following set of questions from EVE Stratics. They'll be publishing the answers along with their interviews with other EVE candidates, but I also thought I'd post them here as well...
1) Who are you?I am an EVE player running under the name of one of my three mains, Ripard Teg. I have five years of experience in a wide array of play styles from incursions to missions to mining to industry/invention to sov warfare to small gang PvP. I am also one of EVE's most active and prolific bloggers, something that I've been doing for two years at my blog, Jester's Trek (http://jestertrek.blogspot.com). There, I've written hundreds of blog posts about the EVE experience, and more than 40 guides to playing EVE, all of it free and without advertising.
2) Why do you want to burden yourself with the workload that is CSM8?This is quite an amusing way to put this question! But the real answer is to help improve the game that we love, and to represent a broad array of EVE Online players. I believe that I can help CCP, and I believe I can help EVE players. It probably sounds corny, but if I didn't believe that, I wouldn't run. In particular, though, I'm jumping into the fray because I felt like CSM7's communications strategy was a little weak and I'd like to help develop a more formal communications strategy that future CSMs can follow.
3) Can you dedicate 10-30 hours a week for the position and the occasional weekend travels?Yes. I've proven it with the work I already do on the blog I write in virtually every day.
4) Did someone suggest you put your name up for CSM?Before I ran for CSM6, I had a long conversation with Mynxee, Chair of CSM5, who after hearing what I hoped to accomplish during the following term, encouraged me to to run for CSM6 and provided me with a lot of insights and advice. For CSM8, I've been encouraged to run by a large number of my readers and by several CSM7 members, notably Hans Jagerblitzen and Trebor Daehdoow.
5) Have you represented other people before, in a similar or different capacity?Yes. I have been a play-tester and a player advocate for the developers of several miniature and tabletop war-gaming games. In addition, in my real world experience, I am a leader and professional negotiator in the IT industry with almost three decades of communications experience.
6) If not, do you have any leadership experience, negotiating experience, teamwork experience, a high level of group dynamics knowledge or other relevant experience that can benefit the CSM (and can be documented)?See above. In particular, in real life, I have presented before hundreds of people at technical conferences, and presented to and worked with C-suite level executives of Fortune 500 companies.
7) How often do you participate in events in EVE to meet other players? (ie. social, player gatherings, fan fest etc)?Of course, most of what I'm known for is writing one of the most active blogs in EVE Online. I enjoy quite a bit of back and forth repartee with my readers, other EVE bloggers, and EVE players in social media on Twitter's #tweetfleet. I'm going to my first player gathering in a couple of months, my first trip to the tenth anniversary Fanfest! So I'm looking forward to meeting and being met by a lot of EVE players there.
8) What is the players top 5 issues currently?In my opinion and in no particular order:
- the "big blue doughnut", as it's called, and the general lack of things to shoot at among the largest null alliances;
- related, the slowing down of conflict within the game generally;
- trying to draw new players into the game without breaking the nature of EVE Online itself;
- the necessary POS revamp; and,
- the need to shake up income sources at all levels in the game and put them "bottoms up" into the hands of the players and corps instead of "top down" to the coalitions and mega-alliances.
9) Which method of addressing issues do you believe is the most effective?I believe the best approach to make suggestions to CCP is to show them how both they and the players benefit from suggestions, particularly if you can frame suggestions to CCP in the context of bringing new players into the game, expanding their revenue, or expanding the scope of EVE's audience. On the player end, I believe the best approach is to involve as many types of players as possible in issues and make sure their voices are heard.
10) In which bar in Iceland does a CSM member have a higher chance of adressing issues for his constituents; effectively?As I noted above, I've never been to Iceland and the tenth anniversary Fanfest will be my first trip there. To take full advantage I'll be there for a week, two days on either side of Fanfest itself. That said, I'm told Islenski Barinn is the place to be to encounter CCP devs. I look forward to visiting it. Hopefully, they have a good stout on tap because that's the type of beer I drink. I hear Olvisholt Lava is drinkable.
11) Piggybacks fixes are common but can appear out-of-the-blue; How do you plan on creating and reacting to opportunities for bug-fixes/issues?Good question! I want to return to a bit of an "old school" CSM4/CSM5 approach to this issue. Directly, I'd like CSM8 to have a monthly meeting, preferably on text chat somewhere. Each of these meetings would be no more than an hour. The point to this meeting would be that all CSM members would pull ideas that they like out of Features and Ideas, other forums, players they talk to, or their own ideas. Those ideas would then be brought before CSM8 to vote upon. The ones that pass this vote would be submitted to CCP as a new list of "little things". If you look at the items on CSM4/CSM5's lists, you'll find virtually all of them are now in the game we're playing. CCP needs a new list. ;-)
Source: CSM8 Interview: EVE Stratics