Helmar's New Clothes.

A bit late but...

Consequences Will Never Be The Same

Looks like I done goofed a lot harder than I thought and CCP have deemed that I will not be allowed to run for CSM6 or any future CSM councils for that matter after all. I must say I'm pretty disappointed (but not overly surprised) considering :18 months: of being told otherwise.

After having consulted with our legal counsel and key stakeholders in the CSM project I’m sorry to inform you that we will not be able to accept your candidacy application. This decision will also go for any future applications to the CSM that you might send in.

We wish you the best in your future endeavors and we thank you for your past enthusiasm about the CSM. We hope that our decision will not dull that enthusiasm.

Now, I'm sure many of you will agree with this decision. I did a terribly silly thing which potentially put the whole CSM process at risk. Saying that, I was told that I would be allowed to run again in the future and I never led anyone to believe that my intention would be anything other than this. CCP even allowed words to that effect to pass muster in the Devblog about the incident now known as 'Larkonisgate'

Moderately butthurt about it all but I'm not intending to ragequit over it (much to the irritation of some).

I'll finish up some of the campaign material I've been working on and get it poasted, hopefully someone can make use of it and hopefully I'll get to work on restarting the Making Low Sec Matter initiative this weekend. I may even continue 'blogging' after that if you're unlucky.

CCP Or: How I stopped worrying and learned to love the :metric:

My tease on Friday night was actually the product of a slightly heated conversation on metrics and the like. I wasn't actually planning on writing anything but I've mulled over it slightly today.

"The data does not seem to support that polished quality sells better than new features."

CCP Oveur 2010

"Popular opinion supports that polished quality doesn't need to sell better simply because it encourages existing customers to remain engaged for longer."

Larkonis Trassler 2011

The word metrics has been thrown around a great deal with reference to CCP over the past few months. Simply put, whether rightly or wrongly, some people are implying that CCP are relying more and more on relatively poorly sourced and hazily interpreted data to make their business decisions. That's CCP's prerogative really. CCP is, after all, a business and if they want to head in a direction that they think will provide them with more profits then they'd be a fool not to take it. However, right now I believe that they're travelling in the wrong direction following a half finished map.

An anecdote, if you'll allow me. During the CSM 3 summit we had a meeting with the GM department. Not just one or two but all the lead GMs and then some, headed up by GM Grimmi and CCP Arkanon (head of IA). Now, the GMs do great work. I don't think there's many people who'd have the patience to put up with doing the job they do. But there were problems and there are still problems with regard to policies and game knowledge or communication skills among some GMs (this occurred once when I received a petition response from a GM who's first language was obviously not English, it was eventually solved but was no doubt as frustrating for him as it was for me). There were lots of nice blue graphs, the one that showed a 79% satisfaction rating with concluded petitions really piqued our interest. The GMs seemed quite chuffed at this. We weren't. We had a hard time convincing them of our opinion that their 'metric' was skewed. The vast majority of satisfactory outcomes will have come from easy to fix issues like billing and whatnot. Again there was no way for CCP to measure this. If you're anything like me, by the time you've bounced your petition around you just rage close it and don't rate the thing (not to mention I wasn't aware of the damn feature until maybe 3 months prior to the summit). Now, this is something players have themselves to blame for partially but if GMs had spent more time communicating and interacting with the players they could have gained more accurate metrics (regular devblogs on how the GM department works and how to file and rate a petition) and also prevented a lot of resentment (clear policies on things like reimbursement and the like, they are there but they're hard to find). At the time however if they'd looked at the forums (and I realise they are sometimes ruled by a very vocal minority) they would have realised the volume of dissatisfaction that the players were displaying despite their :metrics:.

Metrics are only one piece of the puzzle. Time spent on reconnaissance is never wasted. In my experience it's far better to get 'eyes on' a problem and analyse it up close with your own eyes and ears than by viewing data presented on a spreadsheet. As a soldier I wouldn't be comfortable planning an attack on a position with an incomplete map copied from a hazy airfot, if I could I'd try and have a look at it myself. As an engineer if I'm given a problem to solve I'll get a look at the equipment and talk to the operators, not thrash out a solution based on reports and drawings alone. Likewise the problems that CCP face shouldn't be dealt with relying on second hand data interpreted by people with no connection to the issue (I'm looking at you PI). It might require a bit more of a time investment and maybe a bit more risk from the people on the coal face, they may risk having a few naughty words uttered in their direction or may even let slip the wrong thing in a discussion, but you'll end up with a much better end result. The CSM was supposed to bridge this gap, and to an extent it has, they've managed to start the ball rolling, there are more Dev blogs, more forum poasts and we even had a live event last night. Let's see a bit more. I recall Torfi being interviewed for Eve TV and saying he occassionally cruised round watching people in local. Don't just watch for God's sake man! Get amongst it, get some real opinions from real people on real problems.

Horizontal expansion at work: The future of Eve. This is no good at all.

Building on core design and iteration. See how much better this is?

Oveur's quote came to light during the first CSM 5 summit during the infamous :18 Months: debacle. We'd heard similar things during the CSM 3 summit, Quantum Rise was held up as example of an expansion that was full of fixes, clearing a lot of the 'technical debt' but slim on features and it was regarded as being not very successful at all in terms of boosting subscriber numbers (I'd argue that this poor uptake was probably partly due to the nano nerf and missile changes, but then, I really loved my nanos). I'd like to have seen the metrics on the post expansion droop in subscriptions that inevitably occurs once the hype has died down and the bitter vets realise that nothing has really changed. How long can you keep expanding outwards, continually adding new features and ignoring the core of the game? By concentrating on returning to 'old' content and building upon it you may forgo the initial surge of new subs and resubs that you get when a new feature is released (this is disputable though, it may draw back players who felt upset about the lack of content in that area), but how many of those really stick? Fixes and iteration of features are an incredible aid to player retention FACT. I don't have any metrics to back this up unfortunately, because, well, CCP don't have or don't release them, I do have access to a great many almost delirously happy forum posts, blogs and opinions passed by word of mouth about how such and such an upcoming fix will make their lives so much better. Even smaller fixes which don't include any content of note are enormously well recieved (as seen with Team BFF's efforts with Incursion 1.2, I do hope they are allowed to continue what they're doing). But, I fear these are like plugging individual holes on a colander. How much 'old' content and how many incomplete features have been ignored time and time again come patch or expansion day? Incarna and Dust are, unfortunately, a rapidly approaching reality. Once they're done, if it's not too late by then, it will be time to slam the anchors on and begin to shore up the base and weld that colander into a shiny pot.

A Murder Of Crows

Last night I FC'd an SHC 'Ganknight'. Now, normally the first rule of ganknight is that you... actually that's not a rule, I'm just trying to make shit pop culture reference. Essentially it's a themed roam organised by the Scrapheap Challenge community where pilots of all races, corps and creeds come together and run an NPSI (Not Purple Shoot It) roam, usually into deepest nullsec.

We invariably die in a fire.

The theme for GN 25.25 was Crows. Lots and lots of Crows. Now, the Crow has a special place in my heart, it's pretty much the ship I learned to PVP in and I even made a terrible PVP video back in the day.

So we formed up in Bosena ready for a 21:30 start off. Gang format was going to be Long Range Crows>>>Tackle Inties>>>Dictors (With a Skirmish Loki for beautiful bonus').



After spending ten minutes or so shaking the gang out we set off and made it a few jumps before we spied a Hurricane on our out gate. Being in paper thin ships and this still being Lowsec I gave the order to hold. One brave Crow decided to agro the Cane anyway. He was rapidly delaminated by the gate guns.

Man Down

At this point the Hurricane seemed to be overcome with some temporary palsey and decided to agro on of us. He was taken out in short order.

From there we hit 7Q-8Z2, a 0.0 entry system into GW. Scouts had some guys tackled in bubbles on the gate so we piled in and gave them a bloody nose . Big shout out to Rampant Basttard who died hero tackling a Drake while swarmed with Warrior IIs.

We pushed onward, getting a few ganks along the way and coming across two drakes battling one another in EOA-ZC. There was some confusion when mid warp I asked for the scouts to call a primary for us to shoot on landing.
'Primary is Primary in the Drake'
'Yeah mate I know but there's two Drakes, which one do we primary?'
'The drake, primary!'
'YEAH BUT WHICH ONE?'
'No, the pilot is called Primary.'
'Oh, right, primary when you land is Primary'

I must say calling yourself something like that is a real dick move and contributed to my ulcer no end.

From there we headed to UBX-CC, ganking somewhat along the way. In UBX we found some Violent Entity guys sitting outside of a jumpbridge POS. We smashed a couple of dudes on the outside of the shield before the rest popped back in. By maintaining high speed and transversal we were able to avoid the damage of the POS guns, right up until my arc took me into the path of two guns and I exploded. Fortunately Cyber Ten heroically gave me his Malediction so I could continue to lead the fight. Using immense metagaming abilities we accessed open source documents and gained entry to the POS forcefield and attempted to bump some guys out. Fortunately many of them came out of their own accord and were slaughtered piecemeal.

We took a break in FDZ4-A and just after we started moving out the Violent Entity posse were spotted again behind us. They somehow thought that smartbombing battleships would work well against long range inties. Unfortunately several of our number didn't quite get the concept and died. However, we won the ISK war.



After that we headed to BWF-ZZ and over the course of around three quarters of an hour mauled Brick Squad forces on the Oijanen gate. After trying desperately to hit us with smartbombing BS (special mention goes to Lady Spank for trying to blind a Maelstrom pilot by exploding right in front of him), high tracking battle cruisers and, bizzarly, solo stealth bombers they finally formed up around twenty or so dudes in a battle ball of fast tracking vessels being tracking linked and repped by scimitars. Despite almost killing a Tempest before reps managed to stabilise on him I called a regroup and we got out. Though Brick Squad had been a worth opponent I decided not to give them any free kills. I called for a retreat and we headed off... Our enemy broken, defeated.

Good Fight Brick Squad.

At this point we called it a night. We'd been on the go for almost four hours and out of our initial 70 vessels I reckon we'd lost 30 over the course of the night, either through dying or not having the stamina to keep up with this epic roam.

Thanks to all who attended, was the most fun I've had playing Eve for a while.

Special shout outs go to:

Pandora SC for being a good booster (despite being INIT)
My scouts: ROXGhengis, Lyyraia, Jalif, Cyber Ten, Don Pellegrino, Rampant Basttard and a few others I'm sure.
Sofail Roseburn
Ralara
High Sierra
inSpirAcy

Meanwhile... In Iceland

I don't know if someone has added something to the water supply in the Puzzle Palace but something pretty incredible just happened. Tonight Eve Uni ran a class with live input from some CCP QA guys on bughunting.

The talk was quite interesting, lots of details on the QA and Bughunting process with plenty of questions answered and input given. Even for someone who's reported his fair share of bugs it was very interesting to listen to and may even have given the BH team a chance to do a bit of recruiting on the sly.

The content of the talk might not have been riveting to most people but it's pretty exciting to see (well, hear) CCP staff interact with players in such a way outside of Fanfest. Sure, we've had 'Live' Devblogs in the past but they've been pretty well regulated and run by people closer to the top. In the wake of T20 CCP staff became much more insular and while in the short term following that debacle it may have been a good idea to allow people to 'cool off' they've left it far to long to show their face again. It seems that they are relearning that communication and interaction with the players that isn't a pre approved and internally vetted answer on the forums from behind a faceless avatar is a good thing and not something to be scared of.

I spoke briefly about it with Dierdra Vaal, current CSM member and owner of possibly the shiniest head I've ever seen. Apparantly this sort of thing has been tried in the past but been swatted by CCP down due to concerns about showing favouritism to certain player corps. That's quite well founded but out of all the player corporations and alliances out there Eve Uni is probably as impartial as you can get, they opened up their voice comms and the event was publicised it well. Eve Uni is, as near as you can get, a perfect host and forum for these sort of events. I'd also raise the point that maybe CCP hasn't wanted to engage in discussions like this for fear of someone putting a foot wrong and saying something daft or the whole event not resulting in a particularly desirable outcome. That's a reasonable attitude to have but it's a risk that CCP are going to have to start running if they want to engage more with the players. I'd say the negative connotations of locking themselves away FAR outweigh those that might manifest themselves from getting back out there and engaging with players 'face to face'.

Hopefully this is the start of something new and we'll see more events like this in the future.

:Metrics: Coming soon to a blog near you

A discussion on metrics and why relying on them is bad, especially for Eve and it's future...

ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY NINE WORDS

So, my CSM ap went in the other night. Maximum limit was two hundred words, not a lot to work with but this is what I spat out:

Communication, communication, communication.
Iteration, iteration, iteration.
An end to The Bot.
Rejuvenation of the small gang and lowsec experience.


These are the cornerstones of my campaign. I have played Eve for five and a half years and I believe these are the most pressing concerns of the Eve player of today.

Communication with the players has always been one of CCP's weak points. The CSM has helped build bridges. Let's make them even stronger.

The release of Incarna is a given but once it's out there and done and dusted it's time to really spruce up some old features that were given the once over and have sat ignored since then. Sovereignty, POSes and Outposts, Science and Industry and COSMOS among others all need a look in.

The insidious bot must be destroyed, from the RMTer to the casual. It won't be, and it can't be, quick and simple but it is something which must be done for the good of the players and the economy.

Lowsec needs a rework from the ground up, from mining to marauding with an emphasis on carrot rather than stick. Let's incentivise PVPers to do more with less, not more with EVEN MORE.

Making Low Sec Matter

Working on some poasts and whatnot, should have a lot up by the weekend.

Aside from that my application for CSM 6 is in and hopefully the powers that be will approve it.

Mynxee has asked me to take over her 'Making Low Sec Matter' initiative. The goal of the project is to create a draft proposal for a reformat of Low Sec to be submitted to CCP. I'm looking at a time scale of having it ready to hit the AH when the new CSM takes office. If I'm not elected then I'm sure I can find someone who is willing to pick it up and present it.

Anyway, if you're interested in getting involved drop me an Evemail, leave a message here or Twat me.

The Issues

There are many issues in Eve that I have gripes with. Here are some of my biggest ones (in no particular order) on the list of what I will urge CCP to sort out during CSM 6. While the CSM cannot force, only suggest, I feel that many of my ideas are sound and I can present them in a compelling fashion. Please scroll to the end of each section if you want a TL;DR

Larkonis on Communication... New and Shiny vs Polish etc.

I've always said that Eve's biggest feature isn't the spaceships but the people. It may sound like ridiculous rhetoric but it's what got me into the game (reading about the GH-SC heist in a printed magazine, remember those?) and dare I say kept me playing all these years. I've made space friends, space enemies taken part in in-game events that have been reported all over the gaming press, I'm sure this has not been an atypical experience. What I've seen over the years has been CCP further ignoring and marginalising this most important of features. Without the people there would be no Eve. I've seen the most enthusiastic and dedicated players become the bitterest of unsubbed vets and asked myself 'How can this be stopped?'. Yes, subscription numbers continue to increase but retention rates are apparently becoming lower. The Eve community is remarkably tolerant and will cheer joyfully when the tiniest bone (rockets, learning skills anyone?) but I think we're rapidly approaching the breaking point where no amount of high publicity 'bones' will be able to prevent the onset of bitter vet disease. There are so many demanding issues and bugs which are simple to fix yet ignored (and some which won't be so simple and are probably rightly ignored). Expansions released with half finished content which never get a look in again. Complete lack of communication or intent with regards to certain, crucial changes ('Hey guys, we just did this, you like it?'). Continued allegations of developer/GM favouritism with regards to certain alliances. It all adds up.

First and foremost I've always viewed the CSM as a 'communication bridge', a filter which operates both ways between the players and the Devs both for raising issues and concerns and then providing feedback. Sometimes even managing to intercept ideas or Devblogs before they're published and suggesting a rewording so they appear more 'diplomatic' although it seems an embarrassing number slip through the net. Post T20 many Devs shied away from interacting with the community and the CSM was a tool that was born out of that. I hope to not only strengthen the bridge between CCP, the CSM and the players but help build a bigger one between CCP and the players.

TL;DR: No feature left behind. Greater communication from CCP and the CSM.

Larkonis on Solo and Small Gang PVP (and also a bit of Sov)

I've been solo PVPing or doing it with a small group of bros since pretty much the start of my career. For me there's nothing better than going out roaming with some e-friends and having a good, fair (within reason :)) scrap, win or lose. Where personal skill, abilities, position and timing count for more than in a larger fleet fight. Right now the situation is pretty dire both in terms of finding fights and the risk/reward benefit. I feel that engineering solutions to make it more profitable and worth while to engage in these activities is the way to go about this problem (that's not to say that certain ship types and weapon systems don't need more of a defined role or a buff here or there).

On an individual level there is simply no money to be earned unless you get lucky or camp a gate day in, day out. Pre invention was the heyday for people of my ilk, where netting a T2 fit battleship could be worth upwards of 100 million (equally a loss stung a lot more). Now, with cheap mods and the addition of rigs to the mix, the vast majority of the value of a ship is tied up in the hull. My dream would be a gradual shift in the amount of components to produce a T2/T3 ship and mods, raising the prices of modules and lowering them for hulls. How does this fit in to the solo/small gang player? Well, it's much easier to administer and distribute loot or payouts between ten men than 100. I'm not for a moment suggesting we go back to the days of more than 10 million for a turret or 20 million for a cap recharger but a nudge (perhaps gradually phased over several expansions) would be a godsend. While we all saw what happened last time T2 production was messed with (and for some of us the consequences were worse than for others) I feel that if this is properly managed and lessons learned from Dominion were applied there could be benefits that reach far further than than individual players' wallets.

On a larger scale (with regards to Sov warfare and the like) there is simply no way for a :smallgang: to have any meaningful impact on day to day operations in enemy territory beyond killing some ratters. More here: http://scrapheap-challenge.com/viewtopic.php?t=38776

There are also many issues with individual weapon systems and ships which need addressing. I'll cover these in a later post.

TL;DR: I will lobby for the introduction of greater financial incentives to PVP and also strategic objectives for small gangs operating in 0.0.

Larkonis on The Bot

If you're anything like me you'll have been worried and alarmed at the increased usage of bots over the past few years. They used to be the sole preserve of hi-sec ice belts but since then they have 'evolved' and are now found in nearly all parts of the game; PI, the market, 0.0 anomalies and, if some are to be believed, even PVP. While the bot used to be the sole preserve of Far Eastern gentlemen in computer sweatshops farming ISK to sell to fat, wealthy westerners it seems now that everybody has their own personal bot either in Jita playing the 0.01 ISK game on the market or tucked away in some dead end 0.0 system ratting away. To fight the bot we must understand the bot. For as long as can be remembered if an activity becomes too mundane or isn't worth your time then one does one of two things: You automate it (the bot) or outsource the work to some foreign chap who eats rice all day (the farmer), this is how it's always been. PVE content, for the most part, is pretty woeful in terms of reward, difficulty and, most importantly, fun. By engineering significant changes to missions, mining and the market it may be possible to both remove the need and desire for people to bot and the ability of the bot himself to operate (to an extent).

I have, no doubt, that if they wanted to CCP could, with a wave of their hand, eliminate the vast majority of bots in a heartbeat but at the moment are content to limit their activities to the RMT trade, mainly from a legal standpoint (many RMT accounts are set up or funded with stolen credit card details) but also because they compete with the biggest RMTer of them all... CCP. Don't get me wrong, I think PLEX are absolutely great, not only giving players a means to fund their accounts legitimately through their in game efforts but also putting a massive dent into the RMT market. The question is the knock on effect of doing so? How many subs would be lost and from a player's perspective what would be the knock on effect on the economy? A mass banning could have far reaching consequences. I would like to see a very steady cull of bots, a phased banning if you will so that the percentage of 'known' bots is gradually reduced as a means to wean the economy off it's reliance on the bot while at the same time introducing the aforementioned changes to game play.

And what are these changes you ask? I'm no game developer but there are multiple suggestions out there (ranging from excellent to horrible) on how to improve PVE content both in terms of fun and anti bot measures. At the other end of the scale changing local (note, I'm not in favour of a blanket removal of local in 0.0 ala wormholes) and scanner mechanics will empower players more to defeat the bot and perhaps make things more interesting in 0.0 as a whole.

TL;DR Lobby CCP to deal with the bot.

Larkonis On Low Sec

If you were to give New Eden an enema you'd be sticking the tube in a Low Sec system. Devoid of meaningful resources, a massively skewed risk/reward ratio and a lack of any real requirement to go there it's no wonder that it's empty. I'll go and throw out a 'story' I was asked to prepare as part of a low sec focus group (apparently it's the way things are done in the industry).

My name is Larkonis Trassler, outlaw, murderer, pirate. The fringe of Empire space is my home, where I ply my trade. My fellow cut throats and I kill, ransom and steal what we need to to get by, it's a living, somewhat profitable at times but life is hard, a challenge.

Things have picked up here recently. Eager to fund their war machines the Empires have dramatically increased levies and taxes on everything from refining to private contracts. Many merchants, scientists and builders can no longer afford to operate within the tightly regulated confines of high security space so they come here where the eyes of the four empires are slightly more myopic. Some are willing to take the chance and pay for 'protection'. Others take a different chance and occasionally find themselves on the wrong end of a blaster cannon.

Talking of myopia the local authorities in these parts are more than willing to look the other way for the right price. It's amazing what benefits a fistful of credits, a crate of expensive booze and a favour here and there will get you. There's nothing better than being able to operate independently without repercussions within a system (or a constellation for those with enough influence) as long as you don't make too many waves or throw yourself about in something which will get noticed.

Tensions between the empires and raids by other pirate forces have forced the navies to send out more patrols off the beaten track. It can get slightly 'hectic' to say the least if a patrol comes across your fleet as you idly camp a gate. They can be driven off or even destroyed with some effort. This won't enamour you to the powers that be but the rewards can be... substantial.

It's been getting harder to recruit. Seems many of the locals around here took no notice of the 'Winners don't do drugs' slogan. The major pirate factions shut down their booster operations in the depths of 0.0 and moved them closer to the Empires for more 'market penetration'. I must say it's worked. Even with regular forays into their sites, where we burn their labs and steal their product for later 'redistribution' there seems to be no stopping them.

The major pirate factions have brought one good thing with them. They have built a number of specialised stargates linking hard to reach and far flung pockets of low security space. Access can be gained if you grease some palms and are on the wrong side of the law, I guess honour among thieves isn't such an outdated concept after all.

It's not all sunshine and roses. Caught between the empires and any have a go hero capsuleer life out here is tough, but I was never one to back down from a challenge.

I'm sure that you can gather some of my intentions from this.

TL;DR: I shall work hard to improve Low Sec.

Larkonis on Supercap proliferation and Power Projection

I think these go hand in hand. Space is meant to be big. Space in Eve is anything but that. I may be showing my inner bitter vet here but in my day we didn't have jump clones, warp to zero, jump bridges or capital ships.

These are all GOOD THINGS. However, sometimes you can have too much of a good thing. I think there needs to be a serious review of how these time saving measures operate in 0.0 and whether or not they contribute to the sprawling power blocs we see in the game. As it stands the way the game is designed brings about conflicts which are bigger than current technology can handle. Things are getting better every week and I've been on the front line of some of the largest battles seen to date. While this has been a very interesting year in terms of conflict and the ever changing Sov landscape I can't help but wonder if engineering means to bring about smaller, intra region conflicts are the way forward, it would certainly make things more interesting and enable smaller entities to get a look in without aligning themselves with a power bloc.

It's human nature for some people to want to team up with buddies to feel safe and make space friends. However, huge, bloated, stagnant space empires shouldn't be so stable. While Eve is built on this concept of the 'social sandbox' it's also built on the concept of violence and destruction. Sometimes it doesn't hurt to add or take away toys from the sandbox or change some of them.

Reference Supercaps. One measure of an alliance's power is the number of active Supercaps it owns. Again, this is no bad thing. However, as it stands there are far more being built than being destroyed (by an order of magnitude at my guess) and many groups are unwilling to commit them to fights. Much like the dreadnoughts of World War I era Europe they rarely engage one another in large scale engagements. The requirement for Supercaps to be competitive in the Sov game isn't the problem, it's the sheer number required as of right now and the difficulty in removing them from the equation.

TL;DR: Sov needs looking at as does power projection, mobility and Supercaps.

I remain, as ever open to ideas and suggestions here, in game or on the forums.

Thank you

Taking Spaceship Politics By Storm Once Again

Hi, Larkonis Trassler aka Adam Ridgway here to announce my candidacy for the sixth term of the Council of Stellar Management.

Who is Larkonis Trassler?

I have played Eve for five and a half years. In that time I've done pretty much all there is to do in Eve with the exception of Planetary Interaction. I have spent most of my Eve career in low-sec but I currently reside in 0.0 flying under the banner of Pandemic Legion for a change of pace. I can empathise with the problems that most players, whatever their background, struggle with day to day be it the terrible Sov system, corporate interface, Player Owned Structures, mining and my personal bugbear; the lack of solo and smallgang PVP incentivisation and opportunities.

Who is Adam Ridgway?

Outside of Eve I am 24 years old and live in the United Kingdom. By trade I am an Engineer working on a large chemical site. My job involves identifying problems and finding ways to fix them quickly and cheaply. When I'm not working, playing soldiers or playing Eve I enjoy a spot of hiking and mountaineering and long walks by the beach.

Why are you running for the CSM and why should I vote for you?

I enjoy Eve, I think that CCP have crafted a fantastic universe but I am constantly frustrated by lack of communication between the Devs and the players. From the start I viewed the CSM not as a vehicle for raising single issues or grievances (although it performs this job well) but as a conduit between the player base and the Devs in their Icelandic Puzzle Palace, in fact, improved communication was something I lobbied for consistently during CSM 3. Having served on the council before I'm well aware of the amount of work that one needs to put in and given the progress that CSM 5 has made the bar has been raised several notches since then. As beautiful a country as Iceland is I'm not in it for the free trips (the most expensive ones you'll ever make) and I'm quite happy with my current job, I'm not going to seek out the CCP HR department as soon as I walk through the door.

While there are multiple individual issues and topics I wish to address (and these will be covered soon) if I'm elected I will be happy if by the end of my term I can convince CCP to interact more directly, openly and honestly with the player base.

Hey! Aren't you that dick who broke an NDA and used insider information to his own benefit?

Yes, that was me and CCP in their wisdom (or lack thereof depending on your views) are allowing me to run again this term. What's to guarantee that it won't happen again? Absolutely nothing. My word will, to many of you, will be worth less than stock in BP but that's about all I can offer. What I did was inexcusable and, even for me, pretty stupid. But I've learned a lot since then and grown somewhat as a person. Given how seriously the CSM is being taken now I have no intention of risking my position (if I am elected) on pixels and dare I say that the in game and out of game consequences for me will be somewhat more harsh second time around if I'm found to have been naughty.