CSM6: Commitment to Excellence

Why don't they
Do what they say, say what they mean
One thing leads to another
You told me something wrong, I know I listen too long
But then one thing leads to another
The Fixx - One Thing Leads To Another

The candidacy for CSM6 is now open. I was seriously considering running for CSM6, but I left it to another year and another person. So, given that, lets examine why I thought it was important to run, and what I want in a candidate.

First of all, I think CCP is running headfirst in the wrong direction, and it scares me a bit. With Incarna and Dust, I believe that CCP has abandoned those of us that play Internet Spaceships. Incarna and Dust are not unworthy projects, but they should not be bigger priorities than ingame content.

Imagine the ingame landscape if very ounce of energy invested in Dust were to be invested instead in fixing the myriad of problems across all of eve(Assault Ships, Cloaking, Low Sec, Faction Warfare... this list could go on). Imagine the POS and Corp Director Interfaces got as much attention as the new character designer.

I believe wholeheartedly that this game can be improved, and in doing so we create a better environment for everyone. CCP should dedicate an entire expansion to correcting past mistakes and fixing old problems, before it's too late. Before there are too many problems to fix.

CCP has this fire and forget mindset, that I'm quite bothered by. They release new content, let the players figure it out and then forget about it. This is like throwing up a middle finger to loyal subscribers in order to go out and get more. This may sound childish: but it's also incredibly rude. We saw it with Faction Warfare and we'll see it again.

CSM5 has gone a long way to repair CCP's reputations for this. But there is still a long way to go, and we can't let the work done so far be for nothing. You'll see a number of candidates running for special interests, and that's fine. Someone needs to speak up for low-sec, for PvPers, for carebears, for non-traditional PvP, even for the Null Sec Coalitions. But on top of that, someone needs to speak up for the whole community.

I don't mistrust CCP, I just think that like any company getting a taste of success, it's a good thing to have people saying "No, this is what's important," every once in a while. Luckily they have the CSM to be that voice in their ear. While that's about as much influence as the CSM really has, if they're loud enough, things can change.

Lets hope this time around we see a good mixture of candidates, across all spectrums of interest. Because no one thing deserves to be left out, and the playerbase itself needs a voice.

We need to keep the commitment to excellence alive.