My Story.
While I started Eve in beta, I only played a few months into release. Returning for a few short stints, the game finally stuck when I joined Goonfleet in 2006. Since then, my history has been Goonswarm’s history. I’ve been playing steadily since then, taking part in conquering our first space, the great war, and all of the rest of Goonswarm’s significant conflicts. I’ve been around for a long time, and this shapes how I look at the game. I am not concerned with what ship doctrine is in vogue, or what the game will look like next month. I am concerned with what the game looks like next year, or five years from now.
My biggest contribution on the CSM has been spearheading the push for wardec reform, bringing us the system we have now which while imperfect is no longer driving players out of the game en masse.
Why am I applying for the CSM?
Continuity. When I first ran in CSM 11, all but one person was on the CSM for the first time. While we did do some good, we spent much time and effort working out who was who and how the CSM would work. My following terms were greatly improved both by not losing time and by helping first term CSMs get their feet under them more quickly. I feel that turnover in the CSM is essential, but also that it is valuable to maintain continuity. In every case I have seen, a 2nd term CSM has always been more successful than their first term. I give this as advice to anyone considering running for csm; don’t run unless you expect to run for multiple terms.
What can players expect from you?
I am unapologetically a Goonswarm bloc level candidate. But don’t misunderstand what that means. The health of Goonswarm is inexorably linked to the health of the game. We cannot survive without a healthy highsec growing new players, or without strong enemies capable of threatening our existence. No matter what we do in the game, or what banner we fly under, we’re all in this together. I advocate for what I believe to be for the overall betterment of the game and take the long view on the impact of changes. I want to be able to hunt buffalo, but that means making sure there is a healthy population of buffalo to hunt. If we let the buffalo die out, we die next.
When CCP told the CSM they were planning to boost rorquals and add excavator drones my reaction was disbelief. I thought it was a bad idea. The specific words I used were, “If you make this change, Delve will be wall to wall rorquals.” The change was going to be massively beneficial to us, but I argued against it.
Before my time on the CSM I was a supporter of highsec wardecs. I believed they were about as Eve a mechanic as you can get. As a Goon, we expect to be under highsec wardec always and don’t think much of it. After talking to the highsec wardec people themselves, it became clear that the bulk of what they were doing was preventing highsec players from being able to form meaningful groups and social bonds. Starting on CSM 11, I pushed on highsec wardecs, and even though the csm was profoundly nullsec biased, there was broad support each year that it was a significant problem. It took two and a half years, but we did finally get it addressed. Without the continuity of having those three terms in a row, I do not believe the change would have happened. This also serves as an excellent example and reminder that just because someone is from nullsec doesn’t mean they don’t care about the health of highsec.
My areas of expertise.
My long tenure on the CSM has made me something of an expert there. Having been through the problems and solutions used by previous CSMs, I’ve been able to help guide both individual CSM members as well as the CSM as a whole through what would otherwise be much more difficult situations.
I am very much a generalist. I have, at some point, done most of what the game has to offer, but have avoided getting too attached to any particular system or mechanic.
Aside from playing the game, I also manage the Goonswarm servers and have written a large portion of our software. We use the ESI heavily, making it’s operation, development, and feature set dearly important to me.
I am a big fan of keeping in mind Chesterton’s Fence and higher order effects of changes. My long experience in the game is particularly important here. In many cases, I have played all of the variants of a given system over the years. For example, when talking about sov changes, I have engaged in station ping-pong, pos warfare, dominion sov, entosis sov, and the current citadel system. Understanding how past systems worked is critical to avoid repeating their mistakes. Often this means knowing not just the what, but the why’s that may never have been written down. Who remembers why carrier fighters don’t have auto-aggression?
