Sugar Kyle for CSM9

Posted to the Eve Online Forums:

I’m Sugar Kyle, a two year player of Eve and a two year resident of low sec. I’m going all in for CSM9 on a basic platform of being a representative for low security space and the people that live there. Low sec is a vibrant facet of Eve and one that I’m here to support. A low sec representative was missing from CSM8 and my goal is to not have this happen for CSM9.

I am a member of Calamitous-Intent, a small gang PvP corporation of semi-nomadic nature that bases out of Molden Heath. I have spent the bulk of my time in eve in non-faction warfare low security space. Many would label me as a pirate or outlaw but small gang PvP would be my area of PvP activity.

I do more in low sec than spend my time looking for explosions. I run a market in low security space. I disliked the fact that everyone in the region had to jump into high sec to do basic shopping at a station. I put my ISK into the venture and a year later I am still keeping people supplied with spaceships to commit spaceship violence. It gives me experience in the market and with asset logistics. I also manufacture boosters for my market and corporation. I can build up to capital ships (I have alts for these things). These are some of my non-combat talents.

I make my ISK in low sec. I started salvaging my corporation’s level 5 missions as a newbie and worked up to exploration and booster manufacturing before I ventured into creating a market hub. I consider my market a social project made to prove that one can make ISK in low sec by selling things at reasonable prices to the people who live there. Players can live completely in low sec if the residents of that space are willing to put the time and energy into taking care of the space in which they live. This can be accomplished while still shooting all of the things all of the time.

At Fanfest 2013, I spoke to a CCP Developer during a low sec discussion and presented my idea to introduce 1/10 and 2/10 DED sites into the low sec exploration site list. These sites had been static sites and were removed in December 2012 with Retribution. The complexes were introduced into low sec as exploration sites with the release of Rubicon. My goal was to create more content for lower level players. It was also about breaking some of the theme park rails that Eve has under much of it’s older content. if a new player is to live in low sec and go outlaw early they need to be able to sustain their losses.

When I am in high sec I am often a space trucker. In the past I have spent time doing incursions. I was curious about them and have spent many a morning in an incursion fleet making ISK. I am also not embarrassed to mine. I built my Orca out of mined minerals because I wanted to.

My null sec experience is roaming in small gangs looking for fights and the occasional exploration excursion. As for wormholes, I’ve cleared a few C3 sites in my day, assisted in a wormhole theft engineered by someone else, a gank here or there, and regularly use them as a roadway to other parts of the game.

Some of my areas of focus:

• Residents of Low Sec needs to be able to support themselves outside of Faction Warfare. This means PvE content from exploration to missions to resource gathering options. Low sec is its own defined part of space and "go to high sec and mission" or "go to null sec" should not be the default option. Those things are good and well and many fun adventures can be had making ISK in null sec, but then those things become high sec and null sec things and move pilots out of low sec.

• Low Sec suffers from an identity crises brought on by the tiered approach of high -> low -> null. This approach does not represent the actual gameplay of Eve and leaves low sec an unfocused state where it has no actual definition. We have stuff. Cultures built through players living in the space.

• Faction Warfare is supposed to be the empires fighting between themselves. If the actions of the capsuleers are causing the empire to lose control why is Faction Warfare not defining more across space? Should not wars affect economics, military mobilization, and be major news sources? Even bulletin boards (or a new board if it is a code problem) in high sec should announce the current status of the war.

• PvE in general needs love and attention. The stale state of missions causes boredom. New content is wonderful but missions are a staple. They need regular attention.

• Player Retention. We need to make sure that the introductory experience for new players is intriguing enough to get them hungry to learn more. If that is adding to it each release or completely gutting it and starting over with a new approach it is an important topic that should always be on the table. With the current upswing in people trying out Eve the information that they provide about their first days in Eve are crucial to help the continued improvement of the new player experience.

• Corporation Management Interface - The unintuitive, obscure nature of the corporation interface needs a complete overhaul. 

• Boosters - They feel incomplete. More types, more combinations, maybe the stronger boosters less painful to manufacture so that they will gain more common use.

• POS - I have run a POS for research and booster manufacturing for the last year and a half. I know this pain, well. They need to be mentioned and brought up. 

The CSM is an advisory group to CCP. They are a conduit for the players to the designers. I believe that a resident of low sec can speak about how changes or additions will or will not affect the residents of low sec. I am here to represent and protect what makes low sec an unique area of space.

About me:

I am 34 years old. I’ve spent the last eleven years in emergency services. I currently spend my time solving other peoples problems and handling whatever I’m handed to take care of. That may range from courtroom testimony to incidents I have handled to being on the street in a blizzard keeping my little part of the world. I’m able to work well with others and able to document how well I happened to do that. My career has also given me a taste for honesty and a lack of embellishment in things that I report. It is a side effect of being liable for every decision that one makes. I’m not afraid of work or documentation.

There is always a question of spousal support with a commitment such as this. My husband supports my Eve addiction. He has travelled with me to Fanfest and Eve Vegas even though he is not an Eve player himself.

I write a regular blog about my playing of Eve. At over a thousand posts in two years I can, do, and will communicate. I have, in the two years that I have played, attended Eve Vegas 2012 and 2013 as well as Fanfest 2013. I will be making plans to attend Eve Vegas 2014 as soon as the dates are announced. When I attend these events, I take notes and write daily blog posts about the topics that are not available by stream or audio.

My video game background starts with MUDs as a teenager. I still log into the MUD I started playing then to chat with my friends from college. I’m a console gamer as well as a PC gamer. I did not enter into MMO’s beyond playing Diablo II with my best friend until Hellgate:London. From there I have played City of Heroes and Guild Wars extensively before settling on Eve just after Skyrim was released. I currently run a Minecraft server for the Molden Heath community.

Availability:
I’m available, daily in game, on twitter, on google, on Skype, Steam, Jabber, and e-mail.