CSM 10

Elections are near and CSM 10 is about to be voted into office.  As usual, the EVE Forums are the place where the candidates present themselves to the voting public.  The CSM delegates are meant to communicate with the players, be the sounding board of CCP about new ideas and in general, facilitate sane conversations between the company and its player base.

And while the CSM mandate pretty much stayed the same over the years, the workload that the delegates are expected to perform seems to have gone through the roof.  Some delegates have answered that call and progressively increased their workload matching the expectations.  To be honest, I think we players all ask a little too much from our unpaid delegates.  We ask them not only to be our spokespeople, punching bags and product designers, we ask them to be our personal therapists and entertainment providers.  In light of that, its still amazing that some delegates are active, communicative, fair and retain a sense of humor.

It is customary at this point to stress the importance of the democratic selection process and fire up the readers to vote.  This is horse manure.  If you have no idea who the candidates are, if you don’t know what CSM is and tries to be and if you have no clue about the game you are playing, please stay away from the voting booth.  Go, mine, shoot crosses or players, sit on a gate, but please don’t contaminate the CSM with some randomly chosen characters.  Not voting is a vote as well, one of apathy and disconnect.  Exercise the right!  My opinion on this topic is published.

So, the primary list of candidates is drawn up on the EVE Forums and I took the liberty of not reading any of the comments but simply focus on the candidates “pitch”.  I fully understand that I don’t get the full picture of the candidates but I underpin my assessment with experience from sources outside the EVE Forums.  To be blunt, if I have never heard of you, you are likely not my candidate this year.  The reason I can be so arrogant is that I follow the metagame pretty closely except possibly Reddit. But I do read and participate in the blogosphere, even read my #tweetfleet and certainly listen to a significant number of podcasts.  I may not agree with many of the EVE personalities but I certainly recognize most of them.  A CSM candidate needs to bring in community service well before the election cycle and not like someone we knew who would only talk to his electorate just before the new election starts.

So, with my selection process out of the way, here is my ranked short list of worthy candidates for CSM 10

Sugar Kyle

Sugar represents newbs, industrialists, low sec, PvP, marketeers, haulers, fleet pilots and others.  Yes, she genuinely does all these things in EVE and has done even before she was elected.  Her blog took the staff from Jester and ran with it, it has become the blog to go for insightful and personal introspection on the game.  Her knowledge about the game, her dedication to the cause and her relentless drive to communicate are legendary.  CSM has never had a delegate who offered so much, asked for so little and delivered beyond expectations.  Endorsing Sugar for CSM is like endorsing oxygen in breathing air.  Don’t think about it, make Sugar Kyle your primary candidate.

Corbexx

Corbexx was an unknown to me when he ran for CSM 9.  I know his corporation, of course, anyone in Wormhole Space does.  But I never read his infrequent blogs and I rarely saw his twitter feed.  When he ran for CSM 9, I thought, well, yeah, maybe throw in a WH candidates – whatever, wormholes will never change.  Boy was I wrong.  Corbexx was cast into the thick of things when CCP released one change after an other that affected us clandestine pilots.  And with much change comes much CCP stupidity and Corbexx rose to the challenge to defend our space, our way of life and our homes.  He was put on the spot and he delivered in a series of wormhole “little things” blogs and TeamSpeak sessions. When he said that income in lower wormholes is inadequate (he himself doesn’t live there), he backed it up with hours worth of personal data.  How much really is a C1 anomaly?  How hard is it to run it?  How many SP do you need?  How dangerous is it?  His assessment wasn’t by guess work, it was empirically derived.  The man simply struck out and ran these sites for hours.  The data provided unbiased proof that lower wormholes needed to be buffed.  With hard data, he could counter bleating of the mouthbreathers who assume everyone in Anoikis is richer than Gevlon.  Lastly, Corbexx is a leader in our little wormhole community (*) and intervened when a normally great WH corporation did something stupid and faced eviction.  Trash talk in local is verboten – everyone knows that and as a consequence that corp nearly lost their hole.  Corbexx and others moderated, things still exploded, ISK was lost but the hole was kept in the hands of the corporation who continues to fly and fight.  Corbexx’s influence certainly calmed things down – he didn’t have to do it but he did, proof of someone engaged and motivated to make all of our lives better.  We are fortunate that he runs, vote Corbexx for CSM 10.

 

Ashterothi 

You may say “huh” when your hear this name but not if you have listened to his podcasts “High Drag” and “Hydrostatic Podcast“.  His resume is substantial. He has done the PvP thing in null, low and now Wormhole space and is strong on lore and EVE history.  Listen to his podcasts and you get a feeling for the man, his enthusiasm and his deep knowledge.  In these ‘casts, he pairs an almost innocent sense of wonder with his deep research and personal experience.  He shows respect and is never afraid to say “I don’t know”.  A guy you want to have a beer with and a guy who understands software development processes.  And yes, he was a Gallente FW pilot for the longest time, sorry but you just have to vote for him.

Mike Azariah

read my endorsement for CSM 9 – it hasn’t changed. Mike is a solid, humble and yet very resourceful guy representing us adults, us normal men and women for whom the game is entertainment and not compensation for failed career.  Mike is a moderating influence on the craziness out there, a methodical worker and a terrible blogger (just kidding, of course!  I love your RP!).  Vote for Mike if you have kids, if you have other hobbies and if you play EVE.

 

Psianh Auvyander

Yes, a dirty Mercenary is added to my shortlist of candidates.  Psianh is not as well known to me as the others but whenever I read his blog, its funny, insightful and shows me a very different way to play the game.  Psianh appears to be mature enough to deal with the nonsense that players show at him, loyal to his cause and certainly competent in the PvP aspect of the game.  I vote for him since I have soft spot for mercenaries in general and Noir. specifically.  If I had no job or life, I would fly with Noir. and live the life my RP characters only dream about.

This concludes my shortlist of the CSM 10 candidates.  Others are typical “bloc” representatives or comedy candidates who ride on their own message.  But of the ones I recognize, the ones I list above promise to deliver what I’d like them to.

Go vote for your CSM this year – the cadence of change within the game and within CCP mandates a fast and furious review cycle.  Be represented in the sprints, the vision, the changes that are coming down on us.