December CSM/CCP Minutes, Local, and Kraken.

Well, if you haven’t read the December CSM Minutes.. wow, you are missing a lot.  But, you aren’t going to be missing anything about any upcoming expansions or the like.  Rather, you missed the exchanges that happen.  And those exchanges, give us a pretty interesting view on how things are looking for the future of Eve Online.

But first, let me give you some really quick interesting notes on what the December CSM Minutes covered.  Concepts and thoughts I thought were interesting..

Topic #1 – Eve Online, the Next Decade

• CCP Seagull takes on the position of head of Eve Online Product Development.  Now, all expansions will be based off of a Theme and each Theme will now interact with gamers at the Customer Level, the Player Level, and at the Character level.  All future expansions will be tied to a particular theme that addresses various subgroups: Instigators, Enablers, Lurkers, Followers, and Small Scale Leader.  The metric looks a lot like this:

• Think of every expansion from now on as being another “Apocrypha” in development.

Topic #2 – CSM as Stakeholder

• CSM now going to brought in earlier and CSM promises to be committed to quick turnaround times, which they proved they could do this last time around.
• There will be some strangeness with the next expansion because they are changing from the old way of doing things to the new way of doing things, so the summer expansion might not fully follow the “themes” principle.

Topic #3 – CSM Whitepaper and Elections

• Lots of discussion about giving CCP more leeway in kicking off deadbeat CSM members.  Also lots of discussion on changing how voting is done.  Aside from having CCP Xhagen doing more for kicking off CSM members, the rest of the time appeared just to be a wash.

Topic #4 – Null-sec Part One.

• Everyone basically said that null-sec needs more options for smaller fleets and more goals that can be accomplished specifically by small fleets.  Popular ideas about industry being more efficient or more effective, or having better access to minerals were floated again in this meeting.
• POSes got brought up where in CCP Greyscale basically said, “Um, you believed me?!  HAHAHAHA!”  It is my opinion that CCP Greyscale has the type of mind where he brainstorms a whole lot, but the part of his brain that says, “Well, let’s think about this before we say it.” doesn’t seem to be very well exercised.  Since CCP Greyscale himself was the guy who really got us excited about modular POSes, it’s pretty arrogant of him to suddenly say that we shouldn’t believe him.  CCP Devs also said that they were working on something POS related, but it would only affect a small number of players.
• Apparently nobody at CCP thought that the main reason so few people put up POSes is that, while they clearly are an opportunity to add some individuality to the game, the current pigeonholed use makes POSes practical to only a small number of people.
• Thoughts on new content, “creation” versus “destruction”, and avoiding the current pain of structure grinding were also thrown around.
• Side Note: Trebor’s idea of requiring a “Supercap Core” is awesome.  The idea is that in order to build a new supercap, you need a “supercap core”, which has a chance from dropping from ultra rare NPCS and other destroyed supercaps.  Trebor, push it.  That IS the solution to the supercap proliferation problem.

Topic #5 – Null-sec Part Two.

• Basically two thoughts:  ”Why should you want to go to null-sec?”  and “Why would you undock when there?” were discussed in detail.  Honestly, I still think my Distributed Challenge idea has merit, but I’m not on the CSM and I’m not a dev, so it probably won’t get any traction again.

Topic #6 – Ship Balancing

• CCP Fozzie is awesome.  And he is working on Black Ops, Command Ships, and EAFs soon.  Plus, Minmatar Caps are definately going to get reviewed because, they aren’t ideal.

Topic #7 – Faction Warfare

• Awesome, but still need tweaks.  Also needs to have more impact in the Eve Universe.  The end.

Topic #8 – Bounty Hunting

• Works and works well.  CSM should have come in earlier, but aside from that it does work as intended.  Payouts should be adjusted higher.

Topic #9 – Mercenaries, War, and Crimewatch

• This was basically a discussion about human behavior.  Crimewatch changes were well received, however, though some minor changes would be nice.

Topic #10 – Eve UI

• Interesting discussion about the how the UI works and changes that are being made.  Nothing really jumped out as “Wow!” to me, and nothing in the Eve UI probably will until we can having completely customizable interfaces.

Topic #11 – Live Events

• I live in the Pacific Time Zone, plus I work late, which means that Live Events are rare for me.  Needless to say, they did have a nice discussion about creative live events in the future.

Topic #12 – CREST

• I’m not a programmer, but if you are, definately read through this.

Topic #13 – Out of Client

• One VERY cool thing, the discussion that changing skills might be handled through Eve Gate, also a potential Web-based ship fitting tool that can be saved to personal/corp/alliance.

Topic #14 – Player Experience

• A lot of this stuff has already hit Tranquility, so no reason to go over it.  Other things like improving the “flow” of the game and getting both corps to be more active in recruiting as well as getting new players to understand how to get into the corps they want to be in.

Topic #15 – ART

• Summer V3 project will work on non-player structures like gates, stations, interiors, drones, etc.  Art department also seemed to be on board with Modular POSes and overall, the ART Department is not the bottleneck of the system.

Topic #16 – Eve Economy

• Lots of interesting stats.  Nothing jumps out except that the Tiercide project is making Frigate pilots lose more ships.  This is good because it means frigate use has increased.

Topic #17 – Eve Marketing

• About the only thing important was that CCP is not opposed to adding video recording software to Eve, so that players can make their own videos and do it easier.

Topic #18 – Customer Loyalty

• Lots of suggestions based on Milestones or Tokens.  They are still pondering the good/bad of each.

Thoughts On Local

So, there has be a lot of discussion about “Local”.  You know, local chat.  Now, I have heard the arguments about how local should be like wormhole space, but usually those arguments fall flat because without local as it is, PVP will happen much less.  The problem with local isn’t that its bad, the problem is that Local is too good.  But, its only a little bit too good.

Seismic Stan even did a Blog Banter on it here.  I’m still reading up on all the ideas, to see if any compared to what I thought up, and especially, what things need to be addressed.

So Kraken. wraps its tentacles around Solar.

A lot of changes have happened in the last few weeks.  The first big change was that we pulled our forces out of GRHS, where we were working with Why So Serious.  However, a unique opportunity presented itself, and that opportunity would have us closer to the front lines in the fight against Solar.

So, we’ve moved our forces into C-J6MT, under the umbrella of Red Alliance.  The change has been pretty well favored and there is even talk of giving us a single system for our effort.  Which system, well, I know.. but, why spoil the surprise.

Oh, btw, Kraken. has a new alliance symbol:

Kraken.

Not bad.. not bad at all.

Daily CSM Log 3456-321 1 of 12 – Today, I Picked My Nose..

Eve Online is a Game.

I need to remind myself of this from time to time because it is so easy for me to get caught up in all the information (i.e. raw data dumping) that happens in the Eve Universe.  I know I am not alone because there are Facebook pages on Eve, a Reddit thread on Eve, two large forums dedicated to Eve (Kugus and Scrapheap.. er Failheap), and countless gamer mags, blogs, and dev posts that are available to us if we want to research it.

And we do.  And I do.

This is where we start to get what is often called “information overload”.  Most of us know this from the dawn of the 24 hour news cycle, wherein we get information just as it is made available.. often without any serious background or anything legitimate to compare it to.  “Information Overload” starts to happen when we get more raw information about what could be happening, what is happening, what might happen, etc. which is then broken down into little snippets that are supposedly easy to digest.  But, its akin to being drowned by plan M&Ms:  A few bits at a time are tasty, but a whole ton isn’t.  The problem with “Information Overload” is, of course, the substance.  If you are that hungry for information, virtual m&m bits aren’t useful in the first place, but being innundated with them makes you waste time trying to find good, reliable facts for us to really enjoy and to share.

So, how does this relate to the CSM?

First, let’s start here, the rather infamous CSM 7 Minutes.  This was brought about because, from CSM 1 thru CSM 6, the voting populace (i.e. those that actually care about this stuff) determined that there just simply wasn’t enough information getting to those interested.  In particular, these minutes talked about who exactly said what in various meetings on various topics.  Now, this is a good thing in my book because I found out that many of the players I was supporting turned out NOT to have the same views on things that I had.  However, at this level of detail, there is also a lot of “garbage data” that is either rumor, or speculation, or just plain “not data” at all.

This is then spurred on by posts like this.  Or this.  Or this.  Bloggers like Poetic Stanziel and Ripard Teg constantly zinging the CSM if they don’t speak out often and constantly.  Some would argue that they keep the CSM from thinking it is an exclusive club.  Others would argue that all they are doing is setting themselves up for CSM seats next time around.  But do they really foster the idea that all the information they can give us, no matter how premature, is a better option?  Are we to endlessly, and perhaps needlessly, push the CSM to talk about stuff.. when there simply isn’t anything to talk about?

CSM 7 is without a doubt the most visible CSM to date.  This is true because it has:

• Highest number of interested voters.
• More CCP interaction based off of the success of CSM 6.
• Two very active Eve News sites.
• Several CSM members have blogs or websites or podcasts that are routinely (well, somewhat) updated.
• Efforts in Reddit, Kugus, Failheap, and Eve Online forums to get more direct interaction going.
• Bloggers in general more interested in CSM actions.

So there is no question that CSM 7 is already under more scrutiny that any previous CSM before it.  Every decision, every COMMENT is being viewed and reviewed, removed out of context and critizied.  Granted, part of those critizisms are legitmate, but others not so much.  Remember that each of these people have jobs, got Real Life ™ commitments that go above and beyond this game, and in order to keep relevant, they gotta keep playing the game too.  But it also goes deeper than that.  We want to avoid getting so voracious for information that we forget WHY we want this information, and we start demanding information just for information’s sake.  That viewpoint has no use for any of us… it doesn’t make us play our game any better.  Nor does that extra information allow us to gain advantage over our enemies if it hasn’t hit the server.

I took a look at Han’s blog today, where he talks about what the CSM 7 has done lately.  And it made me wonder if perhaps we are doing a severe disservice to ourselves, by forcing them to talk about everything, that they get too distracted from seeing bigger problems down the way.  It is great that CCP is now using the CSM as a sounding board for their ideas, and its true that some of those projects have been made better for it.  But if they miss a big issue before it becomes a big issue.. aren’t we going to blame the CSM, despite the fact that it may have been our incessent demand for pandering that made them unable to see the problem?

“Tomorrow”?  What is “Tomorrow”?

Oh, there is no major problem, you say?  Oh, but how do you know?  As Ripard Teg said during a podcast with Aleks of Noir, (and I am paraphrasing), Each CSM is defined by the emergency at hand.  I personally can think of one feature that CCP is just DYING to integrate.  One that they have spent millions on.  One that could drastically improve the numbers of players in game.  A “Jesus Feature” if you like.  One that people are already wondering if it will ever come to be.  The funny thing is, it wouldn’t take all that much for this feature to be successful.. all other MMOs rely on it. making CCP’s job of cherry picking the best ideas even easier.  But, if it is done badly.. as it was once before.. it could harm the future of CCP and Eve Online.

I know you know what it is, and perhaps you think its a bad idea or maybe a good idea.  The end truth of it is that it is still being developped and I’d rather make sure the CSM’s eyes are nice and clear to see where this can be a success for CCP.. and by extension us, rather than waste their time putting out a blog which tells us nothing more than what we already know or is pure conjecture from the devs or CCP.