Just today, on the website bearing his name, his smugness himself - The Mittani - wrote an article about the CSM primaries.
Usually the man manages to make his points well, even if one has to roll eyes and sigh about his staggering level of pretentiousness. Not that I expect anything else from a person who used to play Vampire: The Masquerade but it gets old after a while, and sometimes I would like to read intelligent commentary without all the contrived grandstanding.
This time, however, his article reads like he was having a bit too much to drink (it's the time of the year again).
Someone please tell me how the amount of candidates running for the election are - I quote - "a searing indictment of player confidence in the CSM and a sign of deep voter apathy."
So, if less people run for CSM that means people don't want to vote for them? I have the feeling that mister Gianturco just redefined the laws of cause and effect by turning them on their head after pulling them inside-out.
Call me deluded, but maybe less candidates means that the whole CSM process has matured a bit? The CSM 7 members have repeatedly made it very clear how much work the CSM membership means. More than ever before. Basically you are volunteering for an unpaid internship with CCP where you get to go to Iceland twice in a year if you behave nicely. So, the people who are on board with this must either be really idealistic, completely in denial, or really desperately wanting to see Iceland before they die. Is it a surprise that in the light of that information less people will stand for a CSM candidacy? Is it a sign of "voter apathy" that this number is lower?
Our smirking beekeeper proceeds to dramatically exclaim how "the sheer lack of interest for players in even running for CSM8, compared to past elections, is jaw-dropping.".
Oh the drama!
Personally I would rather call that a refreshing change.
Finally I (or any other voter) will not have to spend two hours digging through candidacy posts by people who will never even make any difference. 35 is actually pretty manageable. That becomes even better if you are a) with a large coalition which means you have no free will anyway and get to vote what your overlords tell you; or b) not with a large coalition, which will mean that you certainly wont vote for anyone who has CFHBC written all over their candidacy.
In my case, I can look at the candidate's list and immediately scratch half of the candidates. Interestingly enough only half of them. Contrary to the statement of the Lord of the Bees it's not "a sign that non-bloc candidates aren't bothering to run anymore." There is just less spam.
If the man would have put a bit more consideration into his piece, he might have reflected on the fact that 14% of the candidates are from a community that allegedly comprises only 5% of the players. (By that I mean WH Space). Compared to the playerbase they are actually just as much represented as all of nullsec. If you consider only the bloc candidates for nullsec, then WH-Space candidates are rather over-representing their constituency. Actually that makes this election rather difficult for me personally.
The self proclaimed Solar Spymaster might have noted how the only female candidate is from an independent nullsec community. Another thing that makes me think long and hard about where to cast my vote. Because of some probably ill conceived feeling of sisterhood, I like to see some female minds on the job, but I sure as hell couldn't vote for a nerdraging carebear harridan like Issler Dainze (who also ended up contributing nothing at all to CSM7 according to the more active members). I definitely voted for Mynxee despite the fact that I was a newbie, more likely to be shot to pieces by her than anything else, back when she was running.
No, Mr. Queen-Bee, this is not an election which causes apathy.
I dare to wager here and now that this election will see the highest participation yet.* After all, there are some really decent candidates from the independent factions. Mike Azariah, Ripard Teg, Roc Wieler, Ali Aras and Psychotic Monk look like serious contenders, and with one thing you have hit the nail on the head: "with so few candidates almost everyone with a vague amount of support could get one of the 14 seats."
That means of course, that it wont be a CSM safely in the hands of the nullsec hives with their single-minded approach to the game, and therefore more interesting than ever.
---
* If I win, you disband Goonswarm. If you win, I'll become a paying member of Something Awful. Deal?
27 Mar 2013
25 Mar 2013
OOC Entry 81 - Sanity Prevails
With great joy I have found out, that Xander Phoena has picked up where he left off with his interview series of CSM candidates. Also Alekseyev Karrde and Ninja Turtle have continued with their 1v1 candidate discussions.
Both of them featured a man I have never heard of before - Psychotic Monk. Turns out he is one of those highsec griefer types.
Actually for someone who is engaged in an activity which I generally have very little affinity with, I found that the guy sounded pretty nice. He comes across as refreshingly unpretentious. Clearly not a professional "space politician" or a veteran metagamer. He makes good points speaking for his playstyle and those who engage in it. Actually, I almost found myself sympathizing with his platform. The man manages to talk about antagonizing players in highsec and doesn't even use the term carebear once.
What I also heard for the first time in the interview with him was, that James315 has withdrawn his bid for CSM candidacy. I couldn't help but chuckle sarcastically when I read this post of his and the reactions to it. In his usual style, James writes a huge wall of text to justify himself and of course a lot of crazy speculation ensues about what his real reasons might have been. Accusations of disappointed supporters, stubborn statements of denial and smug gloating are added as well and soon we have more than 100 posts.
James must be happy about all the attention he is getting again.
I, for my part, wont speculate or gloat. I have had my say about what I thought of James' platform. I do have to say honestly that I feel relieved that James315 has now become replaced with Psychotic Monk. The latter sounds like a person who can actually sit down at a table and have a reasonable and constructive discussion about the issues he stands for. James315, on the other hand, would have had the votes to actually get a seat because there are people who are either crazy enough to really support his ideas or just consider it a funny trolling action to vote for someone like him, but that would very likely have been a waste of a CSM seat.
The thing is, James315 had painted himself into a corner with his extreme and unrealistic stance.
On being elected he would have had a few options, neither of which would have resulted in a good outcome: He could have dropped his trolling/roleplaying mask as soon as he would have gained a seat, but then he would have had to make compromises and find a common ground with other CSM members and CCP. The chance is high, though, that many of his supporters would not forgive him for going soft and "betraying" them. His credibility and reputation would suffer in the wake. They have already suffered due to his withdrawal.Without that credibility and support among the constituency, CCP could easily ignore him.
Another option would have been to maintain his position, but my guess is, that Xenuria would have had a better chance to see his vision of gender bending fetish avatars become reality or Riverini to get his wish and have all the female avatars be stripperific masturbation material. The end result would have been an effectively empty seat on the CSM. In addition to that he might actually expose himself to real-life spillover from in-game nerd rage which could have resulted in annoying harassment.
The last possibility would have been for him to turn around and laugh at everyone involved, declare it all one big trolling action and resign from his seat as soon as he got it. That - again - would mean a lost seat and damage to his reputation. The latter is his own problem, but the former would be a lost opportunity to influence the direction of the game development in a positive way.
In the end, I am happy that sanity has prevailed and the "competetive highsec players" have a possibility to get representation on the CSM through a person who does not act like a total nutter.
Who knows, maybe they will even get one thing or the other included into the game which makes their playstyle more enjoyable for them.
Both of them featured a man I have never heard of before - Psychotic Monk. Turns out he is one of those highsec griefer types.
Actually for someone who is engaged in an activity which I generally have very little affinity with, I found that the guy sounded pretty nice. He comes across as refreshingly unpretentious. Clearly not a professional "space politician" or a veteran metagamer. He makes good points speaking for his playstyle and those who engage in it. Actually, I almost found myself sympathizing with his platform. The man manages to talk about antagonizing players in highsec and doesn't even use the term carebear once.
What I also heard for the first time in the interview with him was, that James315 has withdrawn his bid for CSM candidacy. I couldn't help but chuckle sarcastically when I read this post of his and the reactions to it. In his usual style, James writes a huge wall of text to justify himself and of course a lot of crazy speculation ensues about what his real reasons might have been. Accusations of disappointed supporters, stubborn statements of denial and smug gloating are added as well and soon we have more than 100 posts.
James must be happy about all the attention he is getting again.
I, for my part, wont speculate or gloat. I have had my say about what I thought of James' platform. I do have to say honestly that I feel relieved that James315 has now become replaced with Psychotic Monk. The latter sounds like a person who can actually sit down at a table and have a reasonable and constructive discussion about the issues he stands for. James315, on the other hand, would have had the votes to actually get a seat because there are people who are either crazy enough to really support his ideas or just consider it a funny trolling action to vote for someone like him, but that would very likely have been a waste of a CSM seat.
The thing is, James315 had painted himself into a corner with his extreme and unrealistic stance.
On being elected he would have had a few options, neither of which would have resulted in a good outcome: He could have dropped his trolling/roleplaying mask as soon as he would have gained a seat, but then he would have had to make compromises and find a common ground with other CSM members and CCP. The chance is high, though, that many of his supporters would not forgive him for going soft and "betraying" them. His credibility and reputation would suffer in the wake. They have already suffered due to his withdrawal.Without that credibility and support among the constituency, CCP could easily ignore him.
Another option would have been to maintain his position, but my guess is, that Xenuria would have had a better chance to see his vision of gender bending fetish avatars become reality or Riverini to get his wish and have all the female avatars be stripperific masturbation material. The end result would have been an effectively empty seat on the CSM. In addition to that he might actually expose himself to real-life spillover from in-game nerd rage which could have resulted in annoying harassment.
The last possibility would have been for him to turn around and laugh at everyone involved, declare it all one big trolling action and resign from his seat as soon as he got it. That - again - would mean a lost seat and damage to his reputation. The latter is his own problem, but the former would be a lost opportunity to influence the direction of the game development in a positive way.
In the end, I am happy that sanity has prevailed and the "competetive highsec players" have a possibility to get representation on the CSM through a person who does not act like a total nutter.
Who knows, maybe they will even get one thing or the other included into the game which makes their playstyle more enjoyable for them.
24 Mar 2013
OOC Entry 80 - Yes I am still alive
I just realized it has been two weeks since I wrote something on my blog. The reason for that is, that I was engaged in a massive project IRL that meant working days of ten and more hours, living in hotels where the network connection is always bad wifi and generally too much on my mind to deal with EVE or writing stories.
I have typed a few notes and collected some scraps of half-remembered scenes in my mind which I would like to put into the epilogue for my last big story, but it probably wont happen before the Easter weekend because next week I have to travel again for the third week in a row to finally get this project done.
I sort-of hoped to be able to log in and play a bit this weekend, but to be honest, as much as I love the game and my in-game friends, I love my boyfriend more and would rather spend my scarce free time with him. On top of that one of my friends and neighbours is moving out next week and was giving a goodbye party.
Still, I am not completely out of the loop. I noticed how CCP has announced their next expansion - Odyssey.
The announcement sounds quite promising. How much of the promise will become truth remains to be seen of course, but it seems like there will be new visuals and that CCP wants to tackle PVE content.
Of course there will be a lot of haters, as always, and the big question about "A rebalance of major areas of space from highsec to nullsec" is, whether anything will be done to address the ridiculous concentration of certain essential materials in the hands of a few overly powerful alliances.
For me as a wormhole resident, the promise of "dozens of changes to player-owned starbases" is of course music to my ears.
Also there has been mention about more dynamism in security status, new ships, more rebalancing and "a renewed sense of wonder".
I like my sense of wonder renewed.
More changes to the storyline and more live events are promised too. As usual I will probably be missing those, but I still like reading about them and I like a game universe that doesn't just remain static. It keeps you engaged beyond the immediate group you are playing with, and that's always nice.
So yes, I am cautiously excited.
What also excites me is the prospect of going to fanfest for the first time this year, and that will be in only a month from now. The first time in 15 years that I am actually going to attend an event with people from an online community.
In one way I expect it to be pretty horrible in ways that I will try my best to be amused about. On the other hand, I really look forward to meeting my in-game friends, some of which I have spent more than a year with now.
I am also looking forward to actually meeting some other people I have not ever been with in-game or maybe only for a short time: Alekseyev Karrde who I had the opportunity to spend time with during my period in Noir Academy and Black Legion and for whom I have a lot of respect and admiration, Elo Knight of Black Legion (if he's going to be there) because I just want to meet the guy who can do such amazing things as a combat commander in-game - he really impressed me during the operations I was able to join under his command. Sindel Pellion because I think she's a funny person I can imagine to have a lot of fun with, and because I might need another woman next to me in some situations. I want to meet Kil2 to tell him how big of a fan of his I am and to wish him all the best for his career with CCP. Also, Roc Wieler because I want to experience what kind of macho ladies' man sweet talk he could come up with and how much it can make me laugh (or even make me feel genuinely flattered, who knows).
Of course there are more, but those are the ones I really would like to meet in person and of whom I know or expect that they will come.
There is one person I want to slap in the face (only figuratively of course) if he were to come. I wont say who because otherwise he might hide from me. Well, he doesn't know what I look like anyway, only from behind on a black-and-white photograph, but still.
Well, it's still a month to go.
Hopefully a month during which I can write some more and actually play that damn spaceship game too.
I have typed a few notes and collected some scraps of half-remembered scenes in my mind which I would like to put into the epilogue for my last big story, but it probably wont happen before the Easter weekend because next week I have to travel again for the third week in a row to finally get this project done.
I sort-of hoped to be able to log in and play a bit this weekend, but to be honest, as much as I love the game and my in-game friends, I love my boyfriend more and would rather spend my scarce free time with him. On top of that one of my friends and neighbours is moving out next week and was giving a goodbye party.
Still, I am not completely out of the loop. I noticed how CCP has announced their next expansion - Odyssey.
The announcement sounds quite promising. How much of the promise will become truth remains to be seen of course, but it seems like there will be new visuals and that CCP wants to tackle PVE content.
Of course there will be a lot of haters, as always, and the big question about "A rebalance of major areas of space from highsec to nullsec" is, whether anything will be done to address the ridiculous concentration of certain essential materials in the hands of a few overly powerful alliances.
For me as a wormhole resident, the promise of "dozens of changes to player-owned starbases" is of course music to my ears.
Also there has been mention about more dynamism in security status, new ships, more rebalancing and "a renewed sense of wonder".
I like my sense of wonder renewed.
More changes to the storyline and more live events are promised too. As usual I will probably be missing those, but I still like reading about them and I like a game universe that doesn't just remain static. It keeps you engaged beyond the immediate group you are playing with, and that's always nice.
So yes, I am cautiously excited.
What also excites me is the prospect of going to fanfest for the first time this year, and that will be in only a month from now. The first time in 15 years that I am actually going to attend an event with people from an online community.
In one way I expect it to be pretty horrible in ways that I will try my best to be amused about. On the other hand, I really look forward to meeting my in-game friends, some of which I have spent more than a year with now.
I am also looking forward to actually meeting some other people I have not ever been with in-game or maybe only for a short time: Alekseyev Karrde who I had the opportunity to spend time with during my period in Noir Academy and Black Legion and for whom I have a lot of respect and admiration, Elo Knight of Black Legion (if he's going to be there) because I just want to meet the guy who can do such amazing things as a combat commander in-game - he really impressed me during the operations I was able to join under his command. Sindel Pellion because I think she's a funny person I can imagine to have a lot of fun with, and because I might need another woman next to me in some situations. I want to meet Kil2 to tell him how big of a fan of his I am and to wish him all the best for his career with CCP. Also, Roc Wieler because I want to experience what kind of macho ladies' man sweet talk he could come up with and how much it can make me laugh (or even make me feel genuinely flattered, who knows).
Of course there are more, but those are the ones I really would like to meet in person and of whom I know or expect that they will come.
There is one person I want to slap in the face (only figuratively of course) if he were to come. I wont say who because otherwise he might hide from me. Well, he doesn't know what I look like anyway, only from behind on a black-and-white photograph, but still.
Well, it's still a month to go.
Hopefully a month during which I can write some more and actually play that damn spaceship game too.
8 Mar 2013
OOC Entry 79 - Finally! A Double Feature
It has been a long time since I released another episode of my most recent story.
Too long.
At this pace I could almost be out-published by my friend Splatus who writes stories maybe once every two months.
I do somewhat make it up to you, dear readers, by releasing not one but two episodes at once.
I have first started to write in the hope that I could finish the story in one episode, but then I realized I forgot something and had to add it into the narrative. Then other things didn't fit anymore and the episode grew and grew.
In the end I decided to split it into two episodes.
Even though I split them up, they still became the longest single episodes I have written so far. I hope your eyes can take it while you read those walls of text.
Alltogether this was a story of superlatives. I have laboured for three months on it's completion, and as it stands now, it fills 34 pages. The longest thing I have ever written in my whole life. The whole series would not even fit onto one story feature page. If you want to read the whole thing, you actually have to jump to "Older Posts" after part 8 to get to part 9.
It has the longest description of a space battle I ever wrote. I have to admit I needed to compress a lot there. I didn't want to spend pages upon pages describing how this ship did that and another did something else, but went more for a description of an overall scenery and the developments on the field of battle. I also wanted to get some character development and introspection in there, which required even more space.
For the first time, the action is described from the point-of-view of Cedrien whom I have never used in this function before. On the outside, he goes for a daring strategy, but on the inside he is conflicted and riddled with angst which is a dichotomy that characterizes this protagonist for me: A man full of ideals, with a sharp mind and the freedom loving Gallente spirit, but on the other hand vulnerable and burdened by his responsibilities.
Now after more than two hours of editing a proofreading I feel exhausted but proud and happy I finally finished my 20th story.
Usually I read the story again after letting it sink in a bit (and usually I find a dozen new mistakes then) but I don't think I will have the strength for that now. So for better or worse, I am letting them stand there now as they are.
Even if the story is long and there might be mistakes or things that can be improved upon, I can promise you that it is pretty fitting for the ending of a story that has built up over such a long time.
In the end very little will remain of what has been, and then of course there is a surprise that you as the reader will most likely have seen coming, but none of the players on stage would even consider possible.
I most sincerely hope you enjoy the conclusion.
I guess I'll follow it up with an epilogue where the pieces will be picked up ... and there will be many because a lot gets broken.
Again if you missed the links in the text
Engineering Peace - Part 8
Engineering Peace - Part 9
Too long.
At this pace I could almost be out-published by my friend Splatus who writes stories maybe once every two months.
I do somewhat make it up to you, dear readers, by releasing not one but two episodes at once.
I have first started to write in the hope that I could finish the story in one episode, but then I realized I forgot something and had to add it into the narrative. Then other things didn't fit anymore and the episode grew and grew.
In the end I decided to split it into two episodes.
Even though I split them up, they still became the longest single episodes I have written so far. I hope your eyes can take it while you read those walls of text.
Alltogether this was a story of superlatives. I have laboured for three months on it's completion, and as it stands now, it fills 34 pages. The longest thing I have ever written in my whole life. The whole series would not even fit onto one story feature page. If you want to read the whole thing, you actually have to jump to "Older Posts" after part 8 to get to part 9.
It has the longest description of a space battle I ever wrote. I have to admit I needed to compress a lot there. I didn't want to spend pages upon pages describing how this ship did that and another did something else, but went more for a description of an overall scenery and the developments on the field of battle. I also wanted to get some character development and introspection in there, which required even more space.
For the first time, the action is described from the point-of-view of Cedrien whom I have never used in this function before. On the outside, he goes for a daring strategy, but on the inside he is conflicted and riddled with angst which is a dichotomy that characterizes this protagonist for me: A man full of ideals, with a sharp mind and the freedom loving Gallente spirit, but on the other hand vulnerable and burdened by his responsibilities.
Now after more than two hours of editing a proofreading I feel exhausted but proud and happy I finally finished my 20th story.
Usually I read the story again after letting it sink in a bit (and usually I find a dozen new mistakes then) but I don't think I will have the strength for that now. So for better or worse, I am letting them stand there now as they are.
Even if the story is long and there might be mistakes or things that can be improved upon, I can promise you that it is pretty fitting for the ending of a story that has built up over such a long time.
In the end very little will remain of what has been, and then of course there is a surprise that you as the reader will most likely have seen coming, but none of the players on stage would even consider possible.
I most sincerely hope you enjoy the conclusion.
I guess I'll follow it up with an epilogue where the pieces will be picked up ... and there will be many because a lot gets broken.
Again if you missed the links in the text
Engineering Peace - Part 8
Engineering Peace - Part 9
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