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CSMX - Post #28

The CSM finished its first summit. The second one will be in February of 2016. The first three days of minutes are released.


Day Four is on the way. We simply got slowed down with things like the o7 show, people travelling, some problems with the recordings, and being worn out. There is no nefarious reasons under it. We are tired. The attempt to release the minutes the following day is exhausting and easily unsettled by technical difficulties and scheduling conflicts.

Changes are coming. CCP Seagull is back writing dev blogs and doing some face to face communication with the community. This is something that the player base has asked for and that we had asked CCP for as well. I'm glad to see the decision being made for her to step forward again. With her newest dev blog and appearance on the o7 show comes the announcement that we are moving to a hybrid release/expansion cycle.

After spending the last fifteen or so months doing a six week release schedule a lot has been learned. Many, many things have happened in Eve in last fifteen months but the scattered feeling of the releases does not give a wow factor and indeed causes distress from players who are having to change every six weeks in a game renowned for its long plans. The six week releases will continue. They will contain tweaks, small things, and fixes. Larger projects will be bundled into more expansion themed titles that are easier to market and consume.

I didn't know how people would take this when we heard about it a few days before the Summit. I don't think it is a bad idea. I had no idea how the player base would respect. Over all, the response has been positive and I am glad for it. It changes some of the planned deadlines but the end product should hopefully be more spectacular.

CCP Seagull also opened the return of the o7 show.



We watched them put the set together this weekend. Between it and the construction on the brewery on the floor below CCP, it was often noisy at amusing moments. Right before the release of the show a new structure dev blog was released by Team Game of Drones. With it comes major changes to how structures work. We're going back to the hit point model but with some changes.

The work on structures is still ongoing. They are moving along and not just in the contemplation stages anymore. Some people like these changes, some do not. All in all, I think we are heading towards a good place. The more we did into structures the more complicated they become. What was a dream filled hope is turning into a reality but there is so much more involved in making it a good reality. See where it is and chime in with how you feel. I have to update the FAQ that I wrote with the new information and the entosis changes.

I forgot to comment on the Amarr succession trials last month because the announcement came out over my personal vacation. This is something I've known about since last fall. There have been questions about the current game story line and does it expand into the future. I can say yes and this is the type of event that is now coming to fruition from prior planning. CCP Fozzie has rebalanced the Gold and Silver magnates and shared some of that information at Eve NT this weekend.

I like the idea of the players being the champions of the Amarr houses. While not a fan of tournaments, having the players involved in the story-lines direction is very Eve. It is the type of thing people can brag about forever and others can look back at as a type of moment they may be able to have in the future.

On my to do list are a few things. We're still working on ongoing structure talks. We're now working on scanner feedback as well. Many, many changes have gone in this last week to improve it. CCP Goliath posted a 31 point update list on feedback they have gotten and worked on over the last two weeks. Join in the feedback. This project is to push the scanner out of beta. "Please don't change anything," is not going to happen. Participation is how you can help the scanning experience stay the same or get better.

I also expect to see people interested in new players working on some pooling and information searches with new players. I'll have to go harass someone at Eve Uni. This has been tasked to us from the New Player focused team.

I've been asked how I felt about the Summit. It was fine. I'm frustrated in some areas. People have left and new teams have formed. Some of the work I have done has gone down the toilet and I will have to rebuild it. It is not that the current people do not wish to interact, it is just that it has to start from the bottom up again.

Also, ten of us went instead of seven. More people made the discussions a bit longer. We ran over almost every single session. The increase in people is part of the 'give up fanfest to get more people to the summit' initiative that I was a supporter of during CSM9. While I managed to be busy interacting with players and Devs and doing the CSM thing at Fanfest it was nothing like a week of meetings and focused discussion like a summit brings. At Fanfest, many members of the CSM are done with their terms and CCP is busy running Fanfest. Cutting it for more opportunities at productive face time was a call I will continue to support.

I am very tired but I don't see myself resigning. I don't plan to go AFK and just surf out the rest of the term. I have lots of wistful regrets over how the last few months have gone. What has happened has happened. It doesn't make it okay but things can continue on. And for now? I have things to do.

I'll probably try to hold my next open talk on the 4th. Eve Vegas is just around the corner and I will be there for the fourth time.

Comments

  1. Get some rest. And 24 hours for the minutes is an aggressive goal that I think can be pushed back some. Although I suppose you have to decide whether its worth it to just get it out of the way while everyone is in Iceland, or deal with it after the fact when everyone has gone home and edits are being made remotely. But thanks for the effort you put in.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. +1

      As a shareholder in the loosest of loose terms, a week would be fine. I don't really care for having the minutes out immediately, because the rewards (which are limited) aren't worth the costs. A CSM who aren't dead tired are going to come up with better feedback and suggestions. Placing communication over quality of feedback is not a good trade.

      Delete
    2. Rob,

      I think you’ve said something here that demands elaboration. I too feel like a shareholder in this game we play even if in only the loosest of terms. Eve has some 300,000 subscribers of which I am but one. In addition to that I’m primarily a Hi-Sec soloish player meaning you don’t get much more invisible than me. Even so, I’ve seen a couple of my specific concerns percolate up through the CSM (and most specifically through Sugar) for review by a relevant CCP developer and I know they were my specific inputs as I paid close attention to the language of the percolated concerns ‘cause I’m self-centered like that. No massive game changing results dropped out but still, I’m just one part of 300,000 thousand (and a particularly inept part at that) and I got heard. That’s a big fucking deal right there.

      So I say to CCP, the CSM and to Sugar, your hard work facilitates making us players not mere consumers but stakeholders in this game we share. Minor stakeholders to be sure, there are some 300,000 thousand of us, but goddam, stakeholders just the same. Individual trees may be a little sickly but the forest thrives. I am content. Good work all, well done.

      Delete
    3. Sugar, FTIW, you have my heartfelt thanx for all you have done and are doing. As Dire said, "...your hard work facilitates making us players not mere consumers but stakeholders in this game we share."

      Good work all, well done and thank you.

      Delete
    4. Strangely, Dire, I actually used the word shareholder" in the loosest of terms" because I disagree with it. The idea that I have ownership in or over Eve Online is absurd. Literally, CCP owns all that I am and do in EVE. Figuratively, do I 'own' Eve Online? How can I?

      Eve Online is far more than I, or any player. Eve Online is. It is a ecosystem. A world. A universe. It is more than data, more than words. Eve Online is memories and moments and emotions and soul. You cannot own Eve, for Eve is.

      Eve is, Eve will be.

      There are true shareholders: CCP and the CSM. Only they have given time and blood and sweat to animate Eve. The rest of us? We're motes upon the winds of time. Shadows upon the face of the Earth. We change, we are blown, we are erased. Eve carries on.

      And so we reach a similar ending. Thank you, Sugar and the CSM. You are the true heroes.

      Delete
    5. So sweetly said, Rob.. but what is a world without its people to care for?

      <3

      Delete
  2. Just wanted to comment on this and thank you for all the work you're doing. I'm not sure but I sense some degree of burnout, have a well earned rwt

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  3. I'm really sorry the last three months have been bad. I got the impression that things were testy when everyone came out of the meetings marveling at the improved relations that happen face to face, but it sounds like things were rough.

    You realize that you've earned a break about twenty times over, right? :-) You astonish us with your work ethic.

    ReplyDelete
  4. "You either die a heroine, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain."

    ReplyDelete

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