Massively's EVE Online CSM 6 candidate roundup

Starting life as a humble indie MMO development studio, CCP Games was always noted for its close relationship to the players of its flagship game EVE Online. That relationship diminished a lot over time as both the size of the playerbase and the scale of EVE's development grew to immense proportions. Today CCP relies on players to guide development more than ever, but it needs a lens through which to focus feedback from such a large community of players into a form that the team can use. The democratically elected Council of Stellar Management (CSM) is that lens.

Fifty-seven players submitted their applications to join EVE's elected player council this year, and all this week, players have been voting to decide who will represent them in discussions with CCP. With so many candidates in the running and only four more days to make up your mind, it can be hard to pick one individual from the list. To help you decide, Massively has compiled a full list of every applicant in the running along with a short message about his or her campaign and handy links to available campaign resources.

When you're ready to vote, follow this link to the voting page, log in, and click the vote button to the right of your chosen candidate. Remember to get your vote in before March 23rd when polls close! The results will be published on March 30th, and we'll find out who will be representing the EVE playerbase to CCP for the coming year.

Why should I vote?

This is a big year for CCP, which is gearing up to finally release Incarna and its revolutionary walking in stations feature. It's imperative that the sixth council be made up of sensible individuals who can deliver reasonable feedback on Incarna and represent player issues without bias or personal ambition. The past few years have shown that the CSM is not generally able to push ideas and solutions at CCP. Candidates who are interested in making very specific changes have been unable to follow through on campaign promises, while those capable of representing the entire playerbase in an unbiased manner have made a big contribution to the council.

There has been a growing perception over the past six months or so that the CSM is being taken very seriously at CCP. Several ex-employees of CCP have even entered their names in the running, recognising that they may be better able to improve the game as part of a player-elected council than they could have as an employee within the company. The CSM can make a very real difference to EVE, and every vote absolutely counts.

In this three-page candidate roundup, we have split the 57 applicants up into the same three groups as last year -- returning members, new campaigners, and relatively unknown characters with very little campaign material or who aren't taking the election seriously. Next to each campaigner, we've included a brief synopsis of his or her campaign information and links to any relevant campaign materials that might help you make your decision.

Last year, 17 members of previous council sessions submitted their applications for candidacy. This was due mainly to the removal of the mandatory two-term limit, which encouraged previously successful candidates to give the council another shot. This year, only five candidates have served as members of previous councils. Trebor Daehdoow, a 52 year old veteran of the programming industry, played an integral role in the fifth CSM and is standing for re-election this year. Meissa Anunthiel has served in the council a whopping four times now -- as an alternate in CSM 2 and 4, and a full member of councils 3 and 5.

Helen Highwater has played the role of alternate in CSM 4 and 5 and is hoping that this experience will be useful in a full council seat. Similarly, Issler Dainze served as a full member in CSM 2 and an alternate in CSM 3. She didn't recieve enough votes to get a council or alternate seat in the previous term, but is back in the running this year for another attempt. Sokratesz was a full member of CSM 4 and 5 and is hoping to be re-elected for a third term running.

Perhaps the biggest surprise this year is that several ex-CCP employees have signed up to the council. Veteran game designer CCP Abathur, also known as Seleene, was present within CCP during the formation of the council and sees it as the only way left to get the players message across to the company's management. CCP Lingorm of the QA Engineering team has also applied, hoping that his experiences within CCP will give him a competitive edge.

If you spot any errors in the list or have a useful link to contribute, please leave it in the comments at the end of this article.

Name: Iain Compton EVE character: Helen Highwater Corporation: GoonWaffe(GEWNS) Alliance: Goonswarm Federation(CONDI) Useful links: Campaign blog, Campaign thread, Lost in EVE debate Helen is a professional game designer and community manager with over 15 years of industry experience. Having served as an alternate in CSM 4 and 5, Helen is running on a neutral platform and aims to secure a full spot this year. It is a matter of public record that Helen was absent from nine of last year's CSM meetings. As an alternate, however, Helen's participation was not essential.
Name: Mark Heard EVE character: Seleene Corporation: Body Count Inc.(BDCI) Alliance: Cascade Imminent(FAIL) Useful links: Campaign website, Campaign thread, Lost in EVE debate Seleene was leader of the Mercenary Coalition and part of CCP's game design team (as CCP Abathur) for several years. He plans to focus on getting CCP to iterate on existing gameplay.
Name: Shay McAulay EVE character: Jonathon Silence Corporation: Thorny Rose Enterprises(T.R.E) Alliance: None Useful links: Campaign website, campaign thread, Lost in EVE debate Jonathon has been both a volunteer for CCP and a developer as CCP Lingorm in the QA Engineering department. He's running on a platform of getting CCP to commit to excellence and upgrading the EVE API to support third-party development.
Name: Tim Heusschen EVE character: Sokratesz Corporation: Rionnag Alba(R A) Alliance: Northern Coalition.(NC) Useful links: Campaign thread As part of CSM 4 and 5, Sokratesz has significant experience in the role. He is running on a neutral platform with no specific goals but tends to favour ideas that involve competitive gameplay. As a matter of public record, Sokratesz missed five CSM meetings in his previous term, with four absences not excused.
Name: Michele Boland EVE character: Issler Dainze Corporation: Tadakastu-Obata Corporation(TDAO) Alliance: The Honda Accord(BEEP) Useful links: Campaign website, campaign thread Issler Dainze was a full member of the second CSM and an alternate character for the third CSM. Her campaign website lists her goals as reviving low-security space, adding corp logos to ships, revisiting wardecs, improving invention, and more.
Name: Robert Woodhead EVE character: Trebor Daehdoow Corporation: Sane Industries Inc.(S.I.I) Alliance: Initiative Mercenaries(IM) Useful links: Campaign website, campaign thread, Lost in EVE debate Trebor Daehdoow was a strong contributing member of CSM 5, on which he was the primary editor for almost all the CSM blogs and summit reports. He also created a prioritisation crowdsourcing strategy to determine which issues in the CSM in-progress list should be resolved first. Trebor is running for re-election to keep the pressure on CCP. As a matter of public record, Trebor attended every single CSM meeting during his term in CSM 5.
Name: Stephan Pirson EVE character: Meissa Anunthiel Corporation: Redshift Industrial(RS-I) Alliance: Rooks and Kings(HARK) Useful links: Campaign website, campaign thread, Lost in EVE debate Meissa Anunthiel was an active member of CSM 3 and 5 and an alternate in CSM 2 and 4. He believes his past experience will help speed up the CSM process significantly. He is running on a platform of pushing CCP toward fixing existing content and making sure that Incarna lives up to expectations. As a matter of public record, Meissa was absent from six CSM meetings during her last term, of which three were excused.