Dujek Oneye for CSM 18

Council Of Stellar Management CSM Campaigns
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My EVE story:

I lived in Iceland during the launch of EVE, but I was first introduced to the game in 2011 by an IRL friend, who showed me how extremely overpowered Drakes were and let me watch tournament practices under a vow of secrecy. I was very interested, but it didn’t quite stick. After a couple more years of reading cool headlines and seeing Reddit posts about huge battles and the game in general, I gave it another shot in 2014 and joined Brave Newbies Inc. I’m sure having had a kidney transplant a few weeks before I got heavily into EVE helped a lot - as steep as the learning curve was, I suddenly had many hours each day to spend playing.

I almost immediately found myself drawn to Brave’s wormhole SIG, Crow Vanguard, and within a couple of weeks I was FCing for them and co-leading the group. I was quickly recruited into a Brave wormhole corp named The Desolate Order, where I rose through the ranks, becoming the head FC, a director and corp quartermaster. I got a lot of experience making doctrines, leading fleets, paying SRP and doing all sorts of spacework in the heyday of high-class wormhole corps. I ran a large market and buyback out of a POS, got experience with diploing, ragerolled for 12 hours straight for an eviction defense, was a founding member of Brave’s third wormhole corp and last but not least, met my partner of 8 years.

The Desolate Order came to an end after our CEO became a father, and several of our best PVPers went looking for new pastures. I followed my friends first to our w-space allies in Sleeper Social Club and then to No Vacancies, but as these folded or left w-space, I ended up joining SniggWaffe in lowsec. In SniggWaffe and PL I made friends who I still play other games with (sometimes immediately after fighting them in EVE), and I bought my first supercarrier, did my first middle-man trade of a super between different groups, and started to practice and play in the Alliance Tournament more. I ended up taking a bit of a break due to RL circumstances and when my director partner from Brave moved to Norway to live with me in 2016.

At the end of 2019, my partner got me back into Brave when we both came back to EVE. After previously spending the majority of my time in EVE almost exclusively in wormholes and lowsec, I found out that I actually enjoy proper nullsec warfare and huge fights. I still maintain a lot of connections with people I have played with previously as well as new friends from other alliances, and even if I love fighting in big wars, I don’t dislike or get carried away assigning moral failings to the people I fight every day. With Brave I have also gotten into small gang warfare in nullsec, blopsing, going into Pochven and helping to organize our Pochven presence, as well as being a behind-the-scenes fixer for different things that need to be done ahead of big CTA ops, a doctrine theorycrafter and a frequent bridger. I also enjoy dabbling in market trading and logistics, a bit of industry, and I run missions and mine in highsec.

I participated in 3 Alliance Tournaments before taking a break, and then all of the tournaments in the past 3 years, for which I captained all but the Alliance Open and won Brave’s first AT ships in 2022. I have gotten the chance to try my hand at casting, which I enjoy a lot, and to be an analyst for both EVE_NT and on the CCP Twitch stream.

Areas of expertise and what distinguishes me as a candidate:

First, there are a few things that distinguish me as a “nullsec candidate”. I haven’t been sent by my alliance or coalition to represent their interests, though I do have their support. Since I’m not in leadership, I spend the majority of my EVE time playing the game-game and not the metagame-game, so my perspective is closer to that of the average player. I’m happy to talk to people outside of my circle, and I have a varied playstyle across several types of space. Here are some of my areas of expertise:

  • Nullsec warfare - I fight a lot in nullsec - and I mean a lot. I am one of the most active pilots in Brave over the last few years, and when the wars are the busiest, one of the most killy pilots in the game (I mainly PVP on my alt Suzann Ivanova).
  • Small gang warfare - I enjoy doing small gang, kiting and AT-style fighting, blopsing, wormhole and Pochven pvp, and have experience both FCing and assisting FCs.
  • PVE - I multibox missions, abyssals, do sites in wormholes and Pochven and enjoy many varied forms of PVE. I am familiar with many ways of making ISK in EVE and am always learning more.
  • Trading and logistics - I have always had a good network of pilots to do hauling and trading in any group I play with.
  • Familiar with both the technical and social aspects of corp and alliance management, and communicate privately with many people about different features of this (including my partner).
  • Being trusted within my own alliance to safely (and discreetly) handle large assets and important tasks.
  • Having lived in all parts of EVE and tried a lot of what EVE has to offer to make informed decisions about what I like doing.
  • A good perspective on active inclusion and diversity, both for new players and people new to a particular play style, but also groups of players who are not as well-represented in EVE as a whole.
  • Experience running gaming communities both on- and offline in multiple games, applying for funding for those and making sure people feel welcomed and have fun.
  • Good grades in Icelandic from high-school in 2004. :slight_smile:
  • I have a degree in game theory, an interest in game design, have playtested and been a part of publishing rules for miniature games and am good at spotting potential interactions and incentives/consequences.
  • Extroverted and will talk to basically anyone, and with the time to do so - but with no urge to gossip about it. I have many contacts across New Eden and hear many perspectives, which can include yours!

Why I’m applying for CSM:

  • I have a strong interest in this kind of work and it is a long-term goal of mine (back in the day I wanted to run on the wormhole ticket, but needed to get more experience first).
  • I dislike when people complain about specific things when they don’t have good solutions, and when people with good solutions are not heard by people who have the power to make the change.
  • There are areas of the game where I have a unique perspective on things that can be improved.
  • As a connoisseur of many games, I care about EVE as a unique game that operates in its own niche.
  • I want people to fight more and have bloodier fights that they can also feel good about.
  • I have spoken to several CSM members both current and former, and have some idea of what is realistic and what isn’t in terms of things I might be able to influence. I also have the time to be consistently available.
  • I love talking to people about EVE!

Some things I would want to advocate for:

First, I have to say that a lot of people seem to expect that CSM candidates are equivalent to devs. Based on talking to current and previous CSM members and from CCP’s own description of the position, this is not what the CSM does, so promising features and changes in a CSM campaign is unrealistic. That said, this is something that people look for, so here are some examples of the issues that I would like to advocate for if possible:

  • Leave no ship unloved - while CCP does re-balance ships in waves, there are several ships that see little to no use in either PvP or PvE. This is relatively easy to see statistics on by looking at both kills and losses, so it would be nice if there was a reason to fly potentially any ship in some niche.
  • Something fun to do in any play session - there are relatively few things in EVE that can be done both in a small amount of time and that are fun. Abyssals are a good start, but there could be more.
  • Mission progression (especially for new players) - the rewards for missions have remained unchanged for years, while the costs of ships has increased dramatically, meaning that it is now much more difficult for new players to purchase even basic ships through combat-based PvE. Low level rats have such small bounties that shooting them can lose money.
  • A reason to engage in unequal capital fights - currently, there is little reason for smaller groups to drop capitals against larger groups, since the smaller group’s capitals will often be simply wiped out with little/no strategic gain. I have some ideas about how to address this.
  • Quality-of-life and UI improvements - there are a number of unintuitive and painful UI issues that could be improved or drastically overhauled, such as anything involving corp management (or corp advertisement).
  • No gate-to-gate route - more reasons to be in wormholes doing things, increasing the accessibility of Pochven without ruining it, etc.
  • Fighting perverse incentives - calling attention to things that are (or will be) unintended and undesirable outcomes of design decisions, both in current and future gameplay. For example, “seagulling” in FW.

Contact info:

You can find me in-game or on the EVE Discord server as Dujek Oneye, on Discord in general as “mikkjel”, and on Reddit as “mikkjel”.

Poster credit: Leanna Mccarthy

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Campaign appearances:

CCP Candidate interview

EVE UNI Town hall Q&A

Push to Talk

FC Chat

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I worked with Dujek in my time as a Brave middle manager and ultimately Chief Of Staff of Brave Alliance. He was always knowledgeable, candid, and willing to help. The community will be well served by his willingness to speak his mind openly but professionally, in a way that CCP can hear rather than being antagonistic. If you’re looking for someone who knows game mechanics, how they impact the player experience, and can convey that information in accurate, compelling, respectful ways, Dujek should be at the top of your ticket.

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I am absolutely the most biased person ever since I’m Dujek’s aforementioned partner, but I can at least honestly say that when we were deciding who to make our next director way back when in my original corp, we went with Dujek because he always had a unique opinion that was valuable because it went against the grain while also being well-reasoned. This might have been infuriating except that he was also so incredibly nice about it. This hasn’t changed over the years, but it is always fun to hear who he’s been talking to in Eve lately, even if I am left stewing with curiosity about the things he won’t gossip about even to me. I’m excited for him to run for CSM and think you should be too!

By the way, there wasn’t room for it in the main post but this is my favorite video of him FCing back in the day. I may or may not have warped an extra dread on field because I didn’t realize my mic was muted. :sweat_smile:

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Dujek is good stuff. In and out of game.
Give this candidate your serious consideration, people! 7o

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As a member of his AT team, I’ve seen Dujek foster trust, fairness and positivity in one of the game’s most competitive niche. He knows ships, he directs pilots, but he never forgets the humans he’s playing with.

If Brave is a family, my favorite parent is Dujek.

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I have to say Dujek is one of the most down to the earth and helpful people i met, since i joined and FC for Brave and futher B2 currently, and its a pleasure to be able to work shoulder to shoulder with him.
I always could count on his word and expertise in need and i think he would make a great CSM for the whole playerbase and especially newbros.
Give this dude a shot on your Candidate roaster you will not regret it 7o

Edit:
that is btw the most trustworthy moustage in the history of ‘‘totally not turned out to be the villain’’-moustages

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You’ve spoken a lot about your pedigree but not much about your thoughts on the state of the game, the changes you would propose to CCP and the areas of the game you want to focus on if you were to become a member of the CSM. Can you elaborate a bit more on that? :slight_smile:

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One of the things I personally care about a lot are lifting up universally bad ships so people have a reason to use them again. There are a ton of iconic ships that currently see no play.

For nullsec, I would like big fights to happen more often - both sides sitting on tether because they are afraid of losing more ships than the other side isn’t great content. I would especially like the side with a few capitals to still inflict damage upon the side with a lot of capitals, should they end up fighting.

For tournaments, I think the collusion rule can be rephrased a bit, especially so experienced teams can help out newer teams who want to get into flying - it is currently a rather niche part of the game, and it would be fun to have more people do it.

For PVE, I think the game needs to have some of the older types of content catch up a bit more in terms of potential, especially missions and other stuff that is more approachable content for short play sessions. Pochven and wormholes, etc, still make great ISK, but I think some more ISK sinks in the game would lower the inflation somewhat.

The ideal scenario is having more people playing the game, having more reason to log on and do stuff, and then spend that isk on cool ships to fly, not hoarding big toys and being risk averse.

EDIT: anchoring a freeport keepstar in another group’s staging and flying a super around in their staging is the kind of throwing money at fun I can get behind.

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Can you speak to some of the issues in Pochven you would like to see addressed?

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I think the 15-person multiboxing fleets are created by perverse incentive, and I think there are ways to encourage people flying together by bringing more people. I also think the barrier to entry has gone up lately in some ways, and the cool aspects of Pochven (the likelihood of meeting other fleets in transit, fighting over scarce sites, etc) should be highlighted, not necessarily “the place where you cannot fit your ship if you are a newbie”. Also the LP definitely needs fixing.

On a plus side, Pochven does lend itself quite well to NPSI content because the payouts are immediate, and there are lessons to learn from that to use elsewhere.

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Years ago when I moved into the Desolate Order and was short on money, Dujek was happy to loan it to me. More importantly, when I left the corp and realized I’d have to sell most of my ■■■■ to pay him back, he said to take your time and pay him whenever I’m ready, even though with me leaving corp he would have no leverage over me and I could’ve just ghosted him. I paid him back a few months later, and in the mean time he never bugged me about it.

I think that said a lot about his character. He’s a great guy, and a smart guy. Give him your vote.

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You too shall have my sword!

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Dujek cares about quality improvements and doing things right, the right fit for csm! you have my vote!

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I met Dujek earlier this year stemming from the intersection of Blazing Capsules joining BRAVE and my interest in the EVE AT (having never quite made it to the main attraction with AARP, and previously flying as a reserve/practice member for CVA in the provi days).

I have been incredibly impressed by Dujek’s capacity to facilitate trust and inclusivity via welcoming open discussions and listening to and considering input from everyone. He’s demonstrated great leadership capability in building the positive culture present within the BRAVE AT team - and has my support for CSM.

-DPR

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Dujek is the most knowledgeable, productive and kind person I’ve ever played with - and in my opinion would absolutely have rocked it on said wormhole ticket.

I cannot think of a more fitting CSM candidate.

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I asked Yondu, so I have to ask you as well Dujek. What sort of bribe will work on you to be a proponent of complete skill removal from the game? Asking for purely academic purposes! :joy:

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What are your thoughts on creating a special cyno that could bridge ships into Pochven, and potentially Wormholes?

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I see the point of skills being a barrier to entry for new players, but at the same time, skills are a part of the EVE I came to love, and a lot of things I do in the game revolve around managing skill queues and optimizing that (and selling implants), so I won’t try to do anything to remove skills from the game.

As a hypothetical - give me a completely fresh eve server where nothing is built yet so people can try starting from nothing without legacy wealth.

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For Pochven I can potentially see some arguments for - it could be fun to have the chance to blops both in and out, but it also ruins the randomness of filaments. I wouldn’t bring it forward, but I’d weigh the options if CCP did.

For wormholes, definitely not. That ruins all the dynamics of hole control and closing a hole for farming and more.

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