Why the CSM is Failing (Council of Stellar Management)

The CSM is failing.(Council of Stellar Management as a body not as individuals)

By its definition the CSM is an advisory committee for CCP to make judgment calls on what the future of the game should be. Allowing a playtest of concepts before dealing with mass response from forum posts.

Insert trolls here. I won’t respond unless I feel you actually are trying to make a valid point on the topic.

To quell the inevitable; No I am not butt hurt about losing the CSM9 vote, I’m broke, unemployed, and recently out of an engagement. Trust me the CSM9 vote was not and is not the biggest deal in my life. Simply put I will run again.

Here is a concise list of my issues with the CSM as it stands now. Future posts will take a more narrative point of view but this is technical so this list format is most suitable for the content.

1. 1. Permanent attendees. I guess I’m not sure what to think about an elected council with 2 members from larger power blocs in the game. I can say I disapprove of unlimited terms in office as eventually you no longer have new ideas and are just gaining the benefits of the job not having to put in as much. I am not attacking those characters directly just stating a comparison to what happens in US politics. (Of which a Degree in Political science and Public administration I am qualified to make that comparison.)
2. 2. Dramatic drop in Voting from CSM8 to CSM9. 49,702 for CSM8 to 31,294 for CSM9. Clearly the player base is not falling behind the CSM as a concept.
   1. a.Why? During my own campaign I targeted incursion groups. Specifically The Ditanian Fleet reminding people to vote for csm9 even if it wasn’t for me. Many times the response was the following.
   2. a i.      The vote is rigged anyways (why are there permanent attendees if not for favoritism?)
   3. aii.      The CSM is powerless to do anything other than be a sounding block of the large power blocks.
   4. aiii.      The CSM does nothing.
3. 3. I was listening to a podcast that included my idols in this game, Rooks and kings  Lord Maldoror talking with the Declarations of War host On the topic of The Assembly Hall forum area.  The points made where that no one reads that section of the forums except the trolls. Of which begs the question why does it exist? Also stated was that the CSM does not read that section either. A few points on why this is bad and how it relates to the CSM9 vote.
1.   i.      CSM members appear to be disconnected with the player base. This is the fundamental purpose of the Assembly hall forum. Communication between CSM and the player base.
2.  ii.      The fact A CSM member open says they won’t read it in lue of having their own opinions on things to fix in the game. Keep in mind I am an avid listener of this particular CSM candidate’s podcast.
1. 1.Let us role this politically USA host elections where candidate A Says I don’t Care what you say I have my own agenda to see though and I don’t care about your opinion. This is a fundamental Flaw in US politics mainly due to money but in eve’s case power is the catalyst. Yes You are allowed to have priorities and your own views however disregarding the players trying to contact the CSM only pushes voters away.
2. 2.Power Blocks have the advantage coalitions, the natural progression of political diplomacy past alliances, can send out mass emails generating a vote of several thousand in only a few days’ time. This is without matching to candidates’ views and only pursuant to further the issue of alienation of smaller groups for CSM. This is the natural progression of politics. In the US we have super pacs basically massive groups of smaller groups to create a coalition and support a specific cause. Resulting in the worst and most misleading campaign ads in history. But it works for both sides.  This isn’t a problem because it’s a sandbox. However politically It is a problem in fact it is a huge problem because it results in the individual perceiving an inevitable winner regardless of quality of other winners.
3. 3.Candidate Overload. In the US as an example again local elections often are written off to party lines voting due to a general disregard for caring about that positions actual value to the local area. For instance if you said in April there are elections people would be more likely to say no those are in the fall. Often not able to give the normal month for fall cycle elections. Less than 15% of the US votes for local elections and less than 2% of them can correctly identify candidate’s views on their position.
4. 4.A single transferable vote system is complex. I have actual training in electoral systems and I can tell you that this is a complex system that most people do not understand. Here is why.
1. 1.People will vote for either a selection of candidates starting to pick randomly to fill out the form to its completion.
2. 2.People will only vote for 1 to x candidates that they want to see win.
3. 3.If you need to site a Wiki on the system and the wiki is several print pages it is complex.
4. 4.NO ONE WILL READ HOW THE SYSTEM WORKS ANYWAYS
4. 4.The EVE-CSM website is likely the best thing to happen to the vote but was entirely underutilized and under promoted by CCP.
1.  i.  CCP wants the Best and most like the actual player base to be the representatives for the CSM What better way than promoting a system like this to match players to candidates that share their priorities.
5. 5.The CSM are hard to contact and likely only responsive during election cycles.
1.   i.     Rare posts on forums except for inevitable First posts to dev release of information on changes and rare follow up responses. With exception of election cycle topics.
6. 6.Lastly The CSM has not done enough publicly to earn its respect.
1.   i.      Meeting notes more than 6 months late.
2.  ii.      Meeting notes 2 months late
3.   iii.      No response in most cases to requests.
4.  iv.      No publicity other than a single video showing little potential action being made.
5. For those that do not keep up with 14 different blogs or podcast every week information on candidates is hard to get
7. 7.The CSM is trying to fill the role of an elected committee and a private sector Advisory Board.
1. 1.Literally Between a rock and a hard place so choosing to go nowhere.
1. a. How Does CCP fix this? It is an inevitable problem they think in terms on programming and logic, but politics is not logic based far from it in most cases.
1. i.Pride Power and and the flow is isk all warp the system
2. ii.Candidates are not professionals they have other jobs so they will never  embody of perfection the community thinks they should be.
3. iii.Make more CSM posts and create a CSM blog area on the community page. to discuss the issues and provide a place that the player base can hear the candidates speak that they don’t have to scourer the web to find them
4. iv.More public support for the CSM and showing what they do. for instance videoing the entire summit and releasing that video so the player base can judge more than just the minutes. Allowing for deeper context and understanding of the process and abilities of the CSM.
5. v.More transparency. The Non disclosure agreement aside CCP needs to be less secretive allowing minutes to be released within weeks of the summer not half a year later because they contain undisclosed information.
1. 1. This will not alienate the player base it will engage them more.
2. 2. Showing the process allows for the players to understand why decisions were made not just have to accept a decision was made.
1. ai. This does mean open to public scrutiny and is understandably a tough line to draw under how open it should be.

To sum this all up In the Eyes of a Political scientist and Public administrator creating a better more open and visible CSM will create a better system for altering the future for the game we all sometimes take more seriously than real life. Maintaining a passion for the game throughout the player base is vital to the success of the second decade.