Helen Highwater for CSM 5

I've been playing Eve for more than two years now and I remember the introduction of the Council of Stellar Management. Like many players I was unconvinced at first by the rhetoric from CCP about player driven development goals and accountability to the community. Since being elected as the first Alternate in the fourth CSM, I've had a chance to take part directly in the process and, it's pretty obvious to anyone but the most jaded cynic that CCP's goals have, in fact, been achieved. Issues raised by the first and second CSM are now finding their way into the game, and not just minor aesthetic tweaks but massive redesigns of core systems. As someone who is fiercely enthusiastic about the future of Eve, professionally involved in games design and more than normally interested in community issues within games I will be applying as a candidate for the fifth CSM.

Who Am I?

So, firstly then, let's get some biographical info out of the way. My real name is Iain Compton, I am British although I live and work in Germany currently. I work as a games designer for a studio that is developing an online FPS and I have previously worked on two different MMOs (Dark Age of Camelot and Warhammer: Age of Reckoning) as a community manager. Prior to that I worked for Games Workshop in a variety of roles from games developer to White Dwarf staffer.

In-game my main is Helen Highwater who is a not very specialised Gallente combat character. She can fly most sub-caps pretty well and prefers fleet engagements to solo encounters. This character is in Goonwaffe, which I joined as a result of fighting alongside some internet friends that I've known for some years. Before that I was flying with two different sets of real-life friends in corps that are now sadly gone. As you can guess from this, community and personal attachment is important to me, I fly with friends because the game is better when you know the people behind the character names. I also have a second account which contains an industrialist character called Krette Yn. He sits in Empire inventing and manufacturing a wide range of ships and modules for the local mission runners. Mostly he has introduced me to the joy of spreadsheets.

Personal details aside what would I bring to the CSM?

• A blend of community experience along with game design knowledge. I've worked in both fields for more than ten years and I believe this fusion of skills would be invaluable for the CSM.
• A deep appreciation for Eve as a unique experience within the MMO industry. I love Eve for all the things that make it different to other games. Improving that experience while not compromising on the uniqueness of the game is something I am excited about.
• A strong understanding of many different playstyles and gameplay choices within Eve. I've been a part of 1000 pilot per side battles as well as 3 man gangs. I've been a mission runner, an inventor, a trader, a war-scout, a fleet commander and a warrior-bee. I've lived in Empire and in 0.0. I'm a member of one of the major alliances in the game now but I've also been part of a 0.0 holding alliance that was mostly comprised of a few dozen real-life friends. I've experienced victory on a grand scale and I've been on the wrong end of a crushing defeat that destroyed our holdings and everything we had worked for.
• An ability to take ideas in a rough form and turn them into workable suggestions. One of my key skills in my day job is to take a problem, consider some potential solutions and then to refine those ideas and spot issues that would cause further problems.
• Perhaps most importantly I've been an active member of CSM 4 and have worked hard for the future of the game over the past 6 months. I attended all but two meetings of the CSM and was able to fully participate and vote in each. My attendance record and level of participation was better than many of the full CSM members. You can read my contributions in the CSM Meeting Minutes (note that as an Alternate I was not invited to the Iceland summit).

My goals for the CSM

My main goal for the CSM this cycle is to work closely with CCP in bringing the feedback from Tyrannis into a usable state. As someone who is heavily invested in the industry side of the game as well as in empire building, Tyrannis offers some unique opportunities. CCP have stated that they intend Planetary Interaction to be a work in progress after Tyrannis is launched and I intend to make sure that everyone's points of view are represented. Beyond that, I will continue to aggressively push for change to systems that need to be reworked. The new 'Spacebook' application has the potential to fix some of the UI issues currently in the game but even assuming a perfect implementation there will still be many areas that need to be improved. I will campaign vigorously for better POS mechanics, streamlined corporation and alliance management, a more holistic approach to game balance and for blurrier edges between game styles.

What are these 'blurry edges'

Basically they refer to the categories that pilots and corporations tend to put themselves in. Mostly they involve gameplay choices but not always. I would like it to be easier to make a transition from one area of the game to another, whether we're talking about mission runners getting PvP experience or corporations moving between high-sec, low-sec and 0.0. I'd like to see players and corporations seamlessly moving around and sampling all that the game has to offer without needing to uproot themselves and start again. I'd like to see these sort of transitions become something that you can do casually without fear and without massive upheaval. There are many ways in which this can be accomplished and not all of them involve major game changes. In some cases it's purely a matter of making existing tools more visible and improving their usability.

Additionally I'd like to address the new user experience and the initial complexity that drives away so many potential players. I'm sure many of us have managed to persuade a friend to join only to see that person quit while still in the trial period because the game seemed impenetrable and over-complex. I have no desire to 'dumb-down' Eve or to make it any less harsh a universe but there's a marked difference between making the universe newbie friendly and doing the same for the game. One specific thing I'd like to push for on this front is the removal of learning skills. Currently they are nothing more than a barrier to new players, a wall they have to climb to be able to play on even terms with the rest of us. They don't add anything to the game, they don't open up cool new ships or playstyles, they simply serve as a speedbump between training up skills that do make the character more fun to play. I'd propose that all newly created characters get a bonus of +9 to all stats and a flag that makes them unable to use the existing learning skill books.

Beyond that, I'd like to make Eve a better experience for all of us no matter where you play or how you spend your time in-game. Vote for me and I'll represent you, whoever you are.

Updates

 23/04: My campaign thread is now up on the Jita Park forums. Please feel free to ask questions or comment there.

27/04: Keith Neilson has published an email interview with me on his blog. You can read it here.