Kshal Aideron for CSM19

I’m Kshal Aideron. I’m currently on CSM18 and am running to return. I started playing in January 2020 and in that short time went from confused newbro to NPSI pilot, FC and the CEO of a 3,000+ player community called Eve Rookies.

While I’m an expert on the new player experience, building community, and making Eve more accessible to all, I am also dedicated to the overall game and listen to the concerns of everyone from nullsec to wormholes to Faction Warfare and everyone between. The health of the whole game is my paramount concern.

You can get to know more about me here: About Kshal Aideron.

The tl;dr is:

So, what’s important to me? What am I about? What do you get if you get me onto the CSM again?

My experience as a player, and now CSM is:

  1. New player experience
  2. Community
  3. Player inclusion and accessibility

Please remember, just because these are the 3 things I’m most passionate about, it doesn’t mean I don’t have experience in other parts of the game. I’m part of the NPSI community, the Incursion community and have an entire industry and mining branch of Eve Rookies out in a wormhole. Most of my community’s fleets operate in High Sec and am living vicariously through groups I’m friends with that live in Null.

I’m hoping to get involved with Faction Warfare at some point, but I have players from my community that are deeply involved and I get to hear of all their successes and frustrations.

So, lets get into what I bring to the table.

New Player Experience: Eve is a game that heavily depends on its new players. Without a constant stream, I think that the game would become stale pretty quickly.

One of my favorite experiences so far as CSM is being able to interact with the developers creating content for new players. Not only this, but being able to bring data and experience about how new players engage with the game to CCP.

If you don’t know me and wonder what makes me uniquely qualified, my community is now running over 80 fleets a month. Up until August, we’ve undocked 419 fleets and introduced 1134 players to new activities.

This includes home fronts, which were meant for new players.

However, we’re still not there yet with getting players involved in the greater game after they complete their career missions. So, if elected again, trying to figure out how to get new players from career missions to becoming engaged with the wider community will be one of my focuses.

Community Development: I don’t think it’s any secret by now that I’m a community builder.

And, as we’ve come to learn, communities in Eve aren’t just in game corporations and alliances. It’s much bigger than just in-game, there’s a community for almost every in-game activity as well as communities for content creators and third party tools. It’s safe to say that the Eve community is vast.

While there have been many conversations started about communities this past year, there are still visibility issues for public communities. I’m on the lookout for opportunities to raise the issue and keep the conversation going. As long as I’m part of the CSM, it can’t be swept under the rug!

Player Inclusion and Accessibility: over the past year Eve Rookies has grown to 3,000 players. When I talk to individuals that join, there’s a recurring theme. “I feel safe in your community.”

For the past several months I’ve really been diving into why players are saying this and it boils down to our core values. We have a zero tolerance policy for toxicity. This means players wanting to post racist, sexist, ableist, homo and transphobic things or use “gamer words” probably don’t feel real welcome.

On top of this, every single individual on my 76 person leadership team is concerned with building our players up instead of tearing them down. When someone wants to try something, that person is rallied around and we try.

This means that we’ve become the place that players with all abilities come to try and experience Eve.

I want to bottle this and sell it to the rest of Eve. Like with community, this isn’t something that can be simply “implemented” into the game. This is a concept that the greater community has to buy into.

I’ve already started conversations in my capacity as CSM and they need to be continued.

I get a seat on the CSM once again, this is what I can promise:

  • My 100% dedication to the CSM for the duration
  • To listen to players and bring forth issues to CCP
  • To stay impartial and do what’s good for the game
  • To lend my expertise on new players and community where I can
  • To be as transparent as I’m allowed under NDA

Remember, no CSM is going to be able to charge in and start demanding things. We have ample opportunity to raise issues, make suggestions and ask for features. However, at the end of the day we’re advisors at best and we hope our advice and expertise makes the game better.

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The value which Kshal adds to Eve is immeasurable. If Eve Rookies were to disappear tomorrow the community and the game overall would much, much poorer for it. Even if you’ve never interacted with Eve Rookies I can almost guarantee that some of the other pilots you’ve flown with learned the game thanks to Kshal and the rest of the ER team.

Kshal is a very engaged CSM always open to hearing all kinds of feedback, questions and gripes. Not being aligned with any nullbloc and operating a community open to all, regardless of Corp or alliance, puts Kshal in a unique position to be a representative for all players. I’ve seen first hand the positive impact just her work as CSM has had for the game.

In short, she’s very much deserving of your vote and the position of CSM.

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I totally endorse Kshal as an excellent person to Vote for.

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we love you we love ER we love eve :smiley:

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Eve Rookies is a wonderful community for newer players to learn the ropes of the game with the different fleets that are regularly organized. I wish it existed when I first started playing.

Kshal cares about newbros, and I think everyone should too. CSM18 has been wonderful IMO with the proportion of nullsec to non-nullsec representation, which is why I think if you’re thinking of voting for a non-nullsec candidate, Kshal is an excellent choice as an incumbent along with Mike Azariah. Kshal for CSM19!

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It’s been a while since we’ve seen Kshal Aideron — their last post was 4 months ago.

^^^ This bothers me when it comes to voting for someone who rarely visits these forums.

You may well help in the rookie channel, and good on you.

But it’s here that you post wanting votes to elect you back on, just to disappear again?

Eve exists across a lot of channels:

  • Discord Servers
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • Twitch

I’m part of many communities, in game and out, and have a presence across several social media platforms. But being everywhere is an impossible ask for anyone. CSM, CCP or player.

I’m sorry if your preferred platform is this forum and I don’t have enough presence for you here. I do check the forums from time to time, but unless there’s any value that I can add I prefer to engage players on other platforms.

I do hope that you find yourself a candidate that posts as often as you expect on the forum.

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I’m grateful for everything Kshal has done during her first year on the CSM. She is exceptionally effective at getting CCP’s attention when there’s an issue affecting players, especially when it’s entire communities of players. We need that kind of dedication on the CSM. Send her back so she can do more!

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I am, and have been incredibly lucky to have Kshal in my community circle - incredibly invested in community, new players, and engaging with people. Eve Rookies is a testament to how much energy and vibrancy that she has input into the game. a vote for kshal will help you all.

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If it wasnt for Eve Rookies and Kshal I wouldnt be playing this game right now. Ive been on a break from Eve for years and coming back to it and also finding a community as Eve Rookies has made me enjoy the game more than I’ve ever have since I started in 2009.

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I am, and have been incredibly lucky to have Kshal in my community circle - incredibly invested in community, new players, and engaging with people. Eve Rookies is a testament to how much energy and vibrancy that she has input into the game. a vote for kshal will help you all.

I’m grateful for everything Kshal has done during her first year on the CSM. She is exceptionally effective at getting CCP’s attention when there’s an issue affecting players, especially when it’s entire communities of players. We need that kind of dedication on the CSM. Send her back so she can do more!

If it wasnt for Eve Rookies and Kshal I wouldnt be playing this game right now. Ive been on a break from Eve for years and coming back to it and also finding a community as Eve Rookies has made me enjoy the game more than I’ve ever have since I started in 2009.

Thank you guys so much for your kind words. :purple_heart:

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Kshal and Eve Rookies is an amazing place both for completely new players but also old vets returning and anywhere in between.

I came back to eve after a long break not having any friends to play with as all my old friends had quit playing during my break, i tried finding a new place to meet people to play with and quickly found Eve Rookies which has given me so much fun and incredible people to hang out with and play with.

I could not see myself playing the game right now if it wasnt for Eve Rookies and their incredible community :smiley:

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Sorry I haven’t stopped by to FC for EVE rookies yet, Kshal - I still have the business card you gave me in Iceland!

Anyone who does this much to promote newbies in EVE deserves to have input in the CSM. I endorse Kshal.

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Hey, no worries! We’re not going anywhere. And than you so much for your kind words. I appreciate it.

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Yes, EVE needs to attract & retain more newbro.

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Kshal is everything the CSM should be, and she is what EVE needs - a voice for the Newbros that will keep bringing new content, new kills, new fun and new friendships to this awesome game. Her commitment to the Eve community is never-ending, and she fully derves to be on the CSM again.

Having met and talked with Kshal during EVEAmsterdam, I fully support Kshal and will have her on my ballot. She deserves to be elected and I hope to have the pleasure of serving on the CSM with her.

@Kshal_Aideron Do you support hiring (EVE Vanguard) Warclone Mercenaries as an attack/defense vector in Capsuleer conflicts? Like attacking/defending Planetary Infrastructure, Skyhooks/POCOs and Upwell Structures?

As a CSM would you try and pitch for CCP to make stack multi-split (splitting a stack of items into multiple stacks of same size in one go instead of just on split at a time) happen?

Will we ever know what beef you guys had with CCP recently. The thing Mike mentioned in his Update and CCP Swift briefly explained on reddit as a new ISK sink?

For the Vanguard stuff, I’d have to hear the details before I could really say anything.

Don’t quote me on it, but I think the multi-split was actually pitched as a QOL item. I think it’s a good QOL update and I’ll put it on my current list that I’ll be leaving behind for CCP if I don’t make it onto 19.

As far as the beef, I think you’re going to be left hanging on this one. I think we managed an arrow through its heart, burnt on a pyre and the remains buried 6ft underground. :full_moon_with_face:

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I definitely feel like Kshal is one of the most uniquely-qualified candidates and a great addition to the CSM!

I feel like the importance of this can’t be overstated, especially these days - it’s one of the main reasons I hesitate to recommend EVE to friends, since even if my particular corner is okay, it’s still basically just a corner. That, and the large chunk of time many activities in EVE require. :stuck_out_tongue:

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