Over the many years talking with CCP devs and some CSM members, the overwhelming majority of the time when an opinion that was different from what they held was expressed, the phrase “well, the people I associate with don’t see it that way” or something to that effect was almost always thrown back at us. While I may understand that , for them, they are baffled by the separation of what their coworkers or fellow alliance/corp/sector of EVE are saying and what the a far larger group of people are thinking. their reliance on getting feedback from the same group of people they associate with in game and that play in “their style” has created an institutionalized echochamber of perceived needs and possible fixes. The tendency over the last year to have CCP and its devs respond faster and far more often in Reddit than these forums just underscores the underlying problem. This corporate insulation from many of CCP’s customers over the years was a concious choice on the part of Hilmar: HS and LS just didn’t generate the industry buzz they needed to help feed their need to showcase CCP’s developments, especially with their several aborted attempts to branch out in different facets of the gaming world. They needed that exposure to promote their company and hyperfocused on NS to provide it…and the ALWAYS heavily weighted NS CSM was there to encourage that the situation in regards to focus wouldn’t change.
The summit meetings are going to be an interesting read. One of the things I appreciated with Brisc, is that once he understood an opinion and the information behind that opinion, he would at least present that to the CSM and CCP, whether he could fully back the proposed concept or not…and meeting notes show this. That being said, the past history of NS CSM members and certain CCP NS playing devs deciding on how to fix the EVE biosphere, has always resulted in stagnation, if not outright failure. When I keep hearing from people in power or influence that how much isk you make per unit of time dictates how much fun you have in EVE, well…I know things are not going to get better. I do not envy your CSM assignment.