the politics of fun

After mulling over, asking questions about and writing a few words on CCP’s plans to “re-imagine” the old Council of Stellar Management, I’m still rather undecided about whether it’s going end up as something new and wonderful, or whether it’s just a Trinitised version of CSM Classic. Aside from the fact that council members will be voted for by the community rather than by CCP and that meetings will also be convened in Iceland, fundamentally there is little that differentiates what will be in 2008 from what was in 2003. Or is there?

The voting process itself is a difference of course, one that was originally seeded as a move towards what might have been be the first virtual world democracy. More recently the term “democracy” has fallen foul of ambition and the New (virtual) World Order that was prophesied as being a first for MMOdom a year ago barely survives as a buzzword. Even so, despite the reservations that some might have, the fun has already started. Some of the names that have put themselves forward – respected veterans Hardin and Omber Zombie among them – bode well for the future of the CSM. Even if the processes that may facilitate their elevation to public service is flawed, even if CCP’s motivation for resurrecting the CSM was deliberately skewed as some have suggested, it’’s difficult not to see this whole process as ending up as anything but fun to watch and commentate on. If a “fun” part of EVE is all the new CSM ends up being, that’s good enough for me.