Hi, I’m White 0rchid, 32, from the UK and currently a member of V0LTA.
I ran for CSM once before, 4 years ago (CSM 12). You can see my original post here. I was not voted in but came fairly close at 16 out of 64 candidates. I since took a little break to move house and renovate, but have now been back in EVE for just over a year.
Your EVE Online Story
I’ve been playing EVE on and off now for around 13 years, since 2008. I jumped directly into sovnull as part of BRUCE and staged out of Fountain. A few years of playing on and off while going through university and moving around for work meant that following BRUCE’s eviction from Fountain, I mostly ran missions (back when the nighthawk used the ferox model) and did a little exploring. I got a little involved in EVE University but not heavily.
In 2015 I joined EVE University again properly and helped out in various departments (recruitment/fittings/FCing). Following my year there, I joined up with Sniggwaffe (WAFFLES), where after I year I was made a director, and then for the following four years on and off I assisted in running the corp and wrote their discord bot to track characters, kills, structures etc. While in Waffles, they transitioned from being a lone nomadic group moving all across EVE, to being part of Pandemic Legion, back to nomads in a wormhole, then to Horde, then finally back to their nomadic roots again, so I’ve seen how some of the large organisations operate and how smaller nomadic groups move to find content across all areas of space.
I recently hung up my director hat in Waffles and moved to V0LTA to experience a slightly different style of gameplay.
I am still involved with EVE Uni, where I briefly ran their FC team last year following on from Sabre A, before handing over to one of their own members. I also spent some time over the last 5 years (on and off) mentoring new players. At present I head up their fittings team and assist with adjusting their doctrines for the current meta.
Your areas of expertise. In which areas of the game do you feel you are the most knowledgeable? What qualities set you apart from other candidates?
Some indications of my experience, in order of strength:
- Medium to large PvP fleets/multiboxing/capitals, fittings, tournaments
- Hauling/Jump Freighters
- New Player Direction/Experience
- Trading
- Solo/Small gang
- PvE: Missions, Incursions, DED/Site running
- I’ve also taken part in: Industry (capital building), Hunting, Exploration
- I’m not as familiar with: Mining (T2 barges/rorqs), Faction Warfare, Abyssal Deadspace, Pochven
I have lived for more than a year in each area of space (high/low/npc & sov null/whs) with the exception of Pochven and am not currently a part of one of the major blocs or the war.
I was one of the more vocal advisors on the strategic cruiser panel. I mainly lobbied for the interdiction nullification and warp speed subsystems to be combined as I felt that was important for them to remain viable as covert hunters.
In the real world I am a Platform Lead/Software Developer. I spend most of my time in Azure managing infrastructure and DevOps, and writing highly concurrent and distributed computing systems (C#/SQL/Actor frameworks). I also contribute to product planning (what is the best way of implementing a certain feature).
I’d like to think some of the skills I have to employ as one of the product owners (balance between what is good for the customer and what is good for the company) would help immensely if I were voted into the CSM. I have a wide array of experience in EVE and always enjoy playing devil’s advocate as sometimes you can only truly see the downsides of your argument if you put the shoe on the other foot.
Why are you applying for the CSM?
I believe that I could contribute in a positive way to the direction of the game while actually enjoying the engaging discussions with other members of the CSM and with CCP. While some do not believe the CSM is a force for good, I think it’s a very valuable tool for player engagement in a controlled manner.
One of the points I spoke about when I ran before was around the citadel shield timers, I believed you should be able to create that initial reinforcement at any time of the day. This mechanic was changed since then which is great as it’s one less blocker for content creation. I have a small list of some thoughts on what I’d also like to change too
- More opportunities for smaller groups (less reasons for joining a big blob)
- Better organisation of UI layout, graphics settings and overview setup
- Ignored sigs stay as such when relogging
- Stripping/repackaging ships is buggy, make it easier! Fitting multiple T3Cs
- Ability to easily share standings (ACL based?)
- Put clone bays in all NPC stations (lore wise surely NPCs would want the business?)
- Ability to set default skin
Fix Pochven standings requirements (hopefully this is coming in some form soon)DONE!- More active gameplay, less passive/afk
- More engaging missions
- Mechanics that aren’t simply “more damage”
- Skew site ISK to lean towards the end of the site, not equal throughout
What can players expect from you?
While I have been playing for a while, I haven’t quite achieved “full bittervet” status and am very approachable and open to communication from all players in all groups across the game. If I were voted in, I would encourage anyone to use that open communication channel to feed their feelings and thoughts to me so I can act as a voice on their behalf.
I am driven and put forward rational and calculated arguments but am not so stubborn that my mind cannot be changed by a well laid out and factual counterpoint, which I believe is important when dealing with other people from all backgrounds (as I mentioned earlier I also enjoy playing devil’s advocate)
Media
DTM135 Interview - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEjBsufrbrA
DTM135 Pochven Panel - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHTLqqpegxc
Pando FC Chat - Twitch
Ashterothi Interview - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sazCpS6c3aU
CCP Interview - https://youtu.be/ruMqsinhJIw?t=7618
Contact Info
In game - White 0rchid (note it is a zero, not a letter ‘o’ in 0rchid)
Discord - White 0rchid#9781
Reddit - White0rchid
Thanks
