On April 30, 2019, CCP announced the relevant dates and information for the 14th Council of Stellar Management elections. The devblog provides information for both voters and candidates. If you like, you can discuss this year’s CSM elections in this thread.
By all accounts, there is a small issue with the registration process, as pointed out very nicely by Xenuria: the email address used to apply to the CSM is not delivering applicant’s emails. I am confident that this will be fixed in the very near future, though.
Sign Me Up!
The official CCP post is titled as “CSM 14 – All you need to know”. But as a lover of truthiness, I feel that there are a few additional points that need to be relayed to those considering running in this year’s elections.
1 – You will be held to a higher standard than anyone else in the game.
2 – The folk of New Eden will hate you, as you have not removed local chat or cloaky camping.
3 – CCP will hate you for not relaying the issues the player base has in a way that stops CCP from erroneously affecting playstyles.
4 – Being in a room for lots of hours a day with people who follow the Steve Jobs approach to personal hygiene is to be expected. I might suggest the old mortuary trick of a bit of Vick’s Vapo-Rub under your nose.
5 – If your in-game name begins with a certain letter of the alphabet, you will not be able to sell anything. You will not know the letter that has been chosen.
6 – Despite living in the 21st Century, you will be forced to use primitive scribing tools. This is to ensure that you do not inadvertently release any information covered by CCP’s NDA. Subsequent to all sessions, your mind will be wiped upon the completion of each meeting, again preventing NDA breaches.
7 – If you should break the NDA, EULA, ToS, or the Lord’s Prayer, your breach will be announced in Variety magazine. You will be the last to actually know.
Democracy Works
As I am a member of the Imperium, I think that I should make this very clear – as an organisation, we absolutely love democracy. The democratic process ensures that the very best of the best can represent the wants and needs of all folk residing within New Eden. This is why, every year, members of The Imperium vote exactly how they are supposed to, and as they are instructed by our God Emperor The Mittani. The Ballot is all, and members are free to vote as the State instructs.
Joking Aside
As much as the CSM gets a real kicking, and at times for good reason, it honestly does quite a lot of good. If your job is to work for CCP as an EVE Online developer, it is very possible that you will lose sight of what it is to be a player. The CSM is supposed to act as a safeguard for the game we all love. So, despite a large group of people being very vocal about how it should be scrapped, the CSM does actually serve a very useful purpose. If you actually go over the CSM minutes from the last few summits, you will see that having a CSM, even a not fantastically effective CSM, is better than no CSM.
After all, without the CSM, CCP would have to rely on Reddit posts and Twitter, and who knows what that problems that could cause?
Every Vote Counts
The very best CSM candidate will have excellent communication skills. It is not feasible to know every facet of the game, so players voting for someone with a very niche field of expertise is probably unwise. Any good communicator will be able to listen to our community as a whole, and present information to CCP in a way that they can digest and appreciate.
So please, skip the meme-lord candidates who are going to save us from botting or other such nonsense. Ignore those who (supposedly) already know exactly how to fix the game. Go for the candidates that listen and communicate well. They will ultimately serve us the best, as players of EVE.
Above all, however, use your vote(s). Highsec must get its act together. Please, find a couple of good candidates and vote for them. Run a few town-hall-style events and discover who is up to the task. Do not dilute your immense voting power by choosing anything with a pulse. Equally, the same goes for any lowsec dwellers, wormhole residents, or those that simply live in Jita 4-4.
Get involved as a candidate, or simply exercise your democratic power!
