Blog Banter 34: Killers, Thieves and Lawyers

First:  Theme music
2nd:  Yes it’s a CSM post.  Blog Banter > my silly promises.

Right now the CSM consists of literally the biggest “Killers, Thieves and Lawyers” with backers enough to walk across their backs to Iceland.

The biggest issue they run into is that they are billed as something of a governing body.  They don’t set policy, They aren’t the arbiters of justice.  The Council of Stellar Management manages nothing.  This does make managing expectations a little difficult.  Up until about mid summer of 2011 this CSM was not exactly high on peoples rankings.  Especially when the Summer of Rage broke and they appeared powerless.  During the Summer of Rage the people on the CSM managed to channel all the anger of the player base and use it as leverage, the Devs were much more inclined to listen to the CSM, as much out of CCP desperation as anything.  Suddenly the reviled CSM became beloved.  Now they are expected to cure cancer.  Let’s reel this in now.

CSM 7 should be the last CSM.  Let’s replace it with the Stellar Advisory Council.  The Stellar Advisory Council will have 6 different focuses.  Nullsec Representative, Wormhole Rep, Low-Sec Rep, Highsec Rep, Industrial Rep, and 3rd party development/media rep.

Each focus would have two people.  Ideally they would come from different groups.  Individuals planning on voting would declare two “focus” groups DURING THE NOMINATION PROCESS.  Once you have declared a focus you will be voting in that election.  For example I’d declare Low-Sec and 3rd Party / media.  In addition to, while declaring for the election, characters must (of course) pick a focus to run for.  CCP will vet this.  If Mittens wants to run as a Highsec or Wormhole Rep CCP can take a look at his game activity, position and roles and say, “nuh uh, change it or lose eligibility” assuming they don’t just strip your eligibility for the election to punish shenanigans.

The Fanfest trip is still granted to the top X vote getters, with additional seats given to specific members CCP needs to speak.  Onus on CCP here.  In addition, consultations will be less high profile.  The devs should pull in everyone over the course of the year, but a lot of the consultations can be handled with trips to the nearest offices, to meet with relevant people.  There’s no point having the Wormhole and Highsec guy spinning their chairs in the back of the room or playing on their phones while the Nullsec and Industrial guys come up with a plan for player built stations to get more industrial clout.

There will still be 1 big annual summit with the big 6 (top vote-getter for each category) with topics broken up by “CSM at-large” categories, things that will change the entire game, and topics for smaller “working groups” so that once the “big picture” stuff is out of the way the working groups can focus on the issues of their constituents with the dev teams working in their arenas.

Finally… I DEMAND that the SAC be given fancy hats to wear at all their public appearances.

I'm using it every time I can