The following is the summary of my interview with @Komi_Valentine. We edited the summary together, and she has duel-posted the interview on her campaign thread: questions, suggestions, and comments regarding the interview should go on her campaign thread. This thread should continue to only focus on The Hunt itself.
Summary of Archer en Tilavine’s interview of Komi Valentine
Archer: How many other characters are you currently playing with alongside Komi, and what kinds of activities are they doing?
Komi [OOC]: I have my old character on the same account + an alt (2012). At the moment I’m just using my old characters for PI. I want to focus on Komi and drive her story. I have created a second account for RP-Alts, I just use them for RP-reasons and they are alphas.
Komi’s CSM Platform and Positions
Lore/RP Enhancement and Game Immersion
- Address Lore inconsistencies (eg. regarding Minmatar magic elders)
- Show and link World News / ISD Articles / Scope Videos in-game
- Introduce lore guide/library in-game (eg. timeline)
- Introduce thematic lore elements to FW in-game such as freighters full of slaves warping away
- Introduce Bloodline/Tribe specific skins in addition to faction SKINs (eg. right now there is only one ship with a Vherokior SKIN even though it is only one of three playable races)
- Introduce bloodline apparel
- Push for more faction apparel as well as headwear and tattoos
- Introduce portal for direct submission of creative content (SKINs, apparel, stories for lore inclusion, etc)
- Create some civil shuttles (you can’t interact with them, they just warp from gate to station)
- Show maintenance drones flying around stations
- Discuss possibly bringing back and expanding the ability to walk in stations
- Wrecks should not suddenly disappear after salvaging. It’s silly that a battleship instantly disappears after salvaging one “Charred Micro Circuits”
- Increase input requirements of Upwell structures
- Split Upwell structures into four functionally identical racial variants each to enhance Lore
PVE
- Dynamically generated mission sites
- Dynamically generated Exploration sites – static sites don’t feel like “exploration”
- Adaptive AI (esp. on Rogue Drones)
- AI that competes for resources the same way players do
Active role in CSM
- CSM currently acts as an “echo chamber” – focus on countering ideas that negatively affect baseliners
- There are a lot of ideas raised on the forums and Discords I’m in (TIS, UK, RIP, DammFam, Matari, ARC, etc) that I agree with, and I’ll want to advance those ideas
Archer: You received an endorsement from Ferra Orta, one of the directors of Ushra’Khan. How do you know him? From publicly known information, that is an extremely unlikely endorsement to have! Do you know him out-of-game? Or…?
Komi: Ferra contacted me some months ago, we have done some business. That’s all. [And OOC we share some discords and stuff…]
Archer: A large number of players (RPers and non-RPers) are suggesting you are a hypocrite for leaving CONCORD’s protection in Hisec to get Ushra’Khan’s protection in nullsec, where they are perceived to be vicious and lawless/criminal by many (not me personally). How will you justify these actions RP-wise, especially since there does not appear to be an apparent connection (RP-wise) between Komi and Ushra’Khan/Ferra Orta, or any reason why they should give you amnesty at all. I think it is safe to say that if Ferra wasn’t your friend OOC, they’d have killed you themselves!
Komi: CONCORD simply could not provide protection for me. They would have blown up anybody who engaged me illegally, but they are not responsible for my personal safety. I knew of at least one smartbombing ship that waited for me, so I had to flee in a Probe that wasn’t even fully fitted and I soon found myself stranded deep in nullsec. It just happened that I was close to Ushra’Khan space, so I asked for help and they sent a fleet from Amamake to rescue me. The other RPers calling them criminals don’t seem to understand the concept of Ushra’Khan’s alliance Tag.
If I didn’t ask them for help, or if I hadn’t proven myself before, they might have killed me, but they are honorable and there are things worth more than ISK. I have shown my good will to the Minmatar people.
Archer: What are your thoughts, feelings, or comments on The Hunt up to this point in time?
Komi [OOC]: I think the hunt is an event that really fits into eve. Bounties in Eve are kind of meaningless right now, but since the hunt would end up in a biomassed character that someone really cares about, it would probably give a great feeling of accomplishment to the person that claims it, being the ONE that managed to take the target down. As a target it was giving me a lot of accomplishment, too. Dealing with blackmails, managing to escape a prison. However, I could feel it interrupt my gameplay a little since I was stranded in Nullsec and couldn’t return to my BPC-“business” and production. It was actually a little sad that the bounty didn’t seem to motivate anyone following me into Nullsec. I did not ever think the hunt was unfair or a bad move, but the one thing you could improve is not taking in game events to a personal level. “Egomaniacal RPer” is a personal attack and it really hurt me a little after all the work I had done for my campaign and all the future work I prepared for. So that was kind of a dick move. Whatever, it proves that Eve can be much fun and inspiration ^_^. For sure it has been a good RP opportunity!
My thoughts post-interview? Komi has been a good sport throughout the hunt and has demonstrated some spine. While I still do not believe Komi is qualified in the slightest to join CSM, I do not believe, however, that The Hunt is justified any longer.
The Hunt was started per the following criteria:
- Gratuitous egomania, AND
- Failing to run for CSM on qualifications OR a concrete platform
“Gratuitous egomania” is relative to other kinds of engagement - Komi’s engagement with the community throughout the hunt and even her outreach to Ushra’Khan indicates she is more down-to-Earth than she had presented herself to be up to now since her only public profile prior to the Hunt had been largely confined to RP, the FTL Hack News, and the campaign itself. I think Komi certainly could have presented herself better, but I think she has demonstrated RP/OOC Komi is not, in fact, too egomaniacal given her limited public exposure. The first criterion is faltering.
The second criteria was on failing to produce qualifications or platform… well, she has no qualifications, but NOW she has presented a more concrete platform if not previously, and has also indicated she has long been present on Discord servers where she agrees with the ideas of others, so we know she is not entirely out of touch with constituents. The second criterion is no longer being satisfied.
Since the criteria for which I started The Hunt are no longer being met by a relatively wide margin, I think it is safe to end it here and now, and I will be editing the initial post and title accordingly.
I am aware that many of you still wish to see her podded just to see if she follows through the self-imposed biomass comittment - personally I do not think a bounty is required for that given that there’s really no “deadline” for such a thing (think about it: the longer the character lives, the more devastating the biomass) and this would not affect Komi’s candidacy or ability to serve on CSM per policy anyway, so I will not maintain this thread for the purpose of placing a bounty on seeing if Komi biomasses herself on getting podded. If you guys want to keep hunting Komi, go for it. If you guys insist on running a bounty for Komi to biomass herself, you may use this thread to decide among yourselves who will participate in that bounty and who the new organizer will be so they can form a new thread for that hunt since I will be terminating this hunt started by this thread and updating the first post/thread title accordingly.
How and why did the interview come about? It was simply a matter of good will on my part. I reached out to her to provide her with a second opportunity by which to disqualify the criteria on which The Hunt was started. I asked for nothing in return. I had nothing to gain from doing so either. Initially she was not happy to hear from me and was very suspicious of my intentions, but obviously I kept my word and now the above interview is dual-posted on her thread.
Do I have any regrets starting this? Off the top of my head, I think my only regret was that there were certain things I failed to state but could have stated and that there were things I could stated more clearly initially so that my views and rationale would not be misrepresented and so that I would not need to make amendments or clarifications later on (that might not be read or taken into account). I also regret that some have blended my individual views and statements with those of others, but that’s inevitable with something like this 
.