The purpose of this initiative is two-fold. The first is to give a more comprehensive and real time feedback to any developer or staff who are curious about how changes impact the game on a level that is rarely seen. That level is the silent middle-management directors, fleet commanders, diplomats, logistician and recruiting directors, the day-in-day-out cat herders of Eve Online. The second part is to give the player base an idea of what issues actually matter and those issues that have an actual chance of being looked at. This isn’t going to be an initiative that aspires to some individualistic perfect unrealistic vision that CCP has intention of ever bringing forth. If you are advocating for CCP to delete titans and supercarriers or getting rid of asset safety or skill injectors then I suggest finding a discord server to rant on because this won’t be it.
This isn’t anti-CSM, The Council for Stellar Management is a great aspiration for players. Being able to understand the concerns and problems of the playerbase at large and those percentages that play a more niche game and being able to sit down with that for a week in a room of CCP developers is an amazing skill set to learn and some that few ever do. Whatever shortcomings the CSM has it is not for want of players who understand the game. This is for them, if they choose, but it is aimed for people who want to have serious gameplay discussion without the trollish toxicity that tends to follow discussion spheres.
WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT
The idea is to have a repository of high signal-to-noise observations and feedback. It is also important to educate the greater player base on what the actual issues are in a clear and concise manner. On his interview on the Less Than 10 podcast, CCP Rise expresses some of the frustrations developers have in making changes to the game because of the game’s deep interconnectedness. Players feel that some things should be easy fixes but they don’t see the changes across seemingly unrelated areas of the universe. Also, there are players that stuck in silos that are their own niche community and rarely explore outside to other gamestyles. While that is perfectly valid gameplay, they develop an isolationist mentality that is their own agenda is paramount to the desires and struggles of those who play other ways. This Initiative is designed to be the greatest Venn Diagram of dialog where players can not only share their feedback and ideas in a structured, moderated format but can receive the same in areas and playstyles in which they were not aware.
Whether they realize it or not, CCP developers have twenty thousand game testers every day. Players spent countless hours in thought and gameplay manipulating the game in ways they never intended. This Initiative is for them, it is a repository of the same feedback so the curtain is peeled back on emergent gameplay, and how the environment shapes the players and those player’s experiences with it.
HOW YOU CAN BE A PART OF THIS
I believe how that will come about is not an open roundtable but smaller, moderated, singular-focused groups. These groups will have the best possible people, not necessarily the ones that have a five digit voting bloc behind them. If you understand the topic, realize that you can be wrong and come to the table as peers then you’ll fit in perfectly. If you think this is the place for you to hold court and write a 10 page google doc on why everyone is wrong, then you won’t make it through the front door. Share this with your friends, your corporation and your alliance directors and XOs. Fill out the form at the bottom of this post. You must have a discord tag to participate.
WHO AM I
I love Eve Online more than most things and probably more than things that should have a higher priority in my life. Since I started playing being involved, Eve Online has affected more of my attribution than most experiences that have happened to me. It has allowed me to discover aspects of my personality and how I’m wired as a person and developed areas of my life that I had not the chance to develop in real life. There are few things in real life that I can be as passionate about as Eve. In real life, I love how systems work. Whether manufacturing systems, or the cyclic lifespan of stars to the ATP chain that is found in everything that breathes oxygen on Earth, I deeply enjoy understanding the complex and highly structured systems and cycles that underpin everything we know. To me, Eve Online provides that same pull and attraction because of how the complexity and intricacies mirror the real world. I’ve been playing since 2014 and basically failed upwards to where I am now. I am still younger and less experienced than most people I come into contact with. I don’t really believe in a right or wrong side of the meta but players playing out whatever role-play scenario that they’ve become attached to. I’ve been working on Talking in Stations every week building out the Sunday show, I sit in a production meeting as a student of The Meta Show behind the scenes production. These two organizations gave me an insight to Eve that I never thought possible and has helped me in the opportunity to listen to anyone who has unwittingly decided to engage with me. These organizations haven’t endorsed it to be upfront. This is my own initiative that is the culmination of several thoughts beginning last year. If they or any reputable group wants to endorse it down the road, I’ll be very appreciative.
I was born into the game universe at the end of 2014 and since then I’ve been involved in nullsec blocs, small gang roams, daytripping in wormholes, capital production and market trading.
WHAT IF THIS DOESN’T GO ANYWHERE
It will probably fail. In fact, I can’t tell you how much time I’ve put into exploring ideas or written shows to be told or known it wasn’t good enough or right for the occasion and I need to go back to the drawing board or been even told no. One of the greatest thing about Eve is that there is strength in trying and failing. Everyone who ever attempted anything knows this. There should be a joke about how Eve teaches someone to fail, because there is much truthful irony in it. I hope you all give this your best effort though because it is something I feel very strongly and you should as well. I hope that this becomes the go-to for new players, veterans, the CSM and CCP developers to find a clear and concise feedback loop that benefits everyone. If you have any questions or comments, you can find me on discord January Valentine#9887.
