time flies by

I can’t believe it’s been almost three months since I last attempted an entry here, and I feel a slight sense of shame that it has taken so long to be roused from my blogging slumber. That said it has been a busy few months: Another EON has been and gone; there was the Council of Stellar Management meeting in June, some other deadlines in July that corresponded with a trip to the US (where I saw a drive-in movie for the first time) and loads of other personal stuff, including moving home, filing a very late tax return and a few less pleasant chores even than those.

…All of which kinda leaves me back where I was three months ago; rushing around to complete another EON. Whilst I and others get on with that task though, I shall endeavour to blog a little more often and update all the things on the site that need updating.

reflections in a flat

Congratulations tonight to those who were announced as being the first batch of representatives in the reinvigorated Council of Stellar Management.

The turnout was predictably quite poor (11% of EVE accounts registered their vote, compared to 56% of the eligible population who voted in the last US presidential election – a similarly pointless endevor :), but the results are no less interesting, with the two leading candidates both being seasoned role-players. Remember EVE is a game where role-playing is a minority pastime.

Ironic too that the first CSM chairperson, Jade Constantine – possibly now the most influential single person among the player community – is the exact same person who was served an EVE ASBO and gagged for years from posting on the forums.

I can’t help but want to break into a line from a great Half-Man Half Biscuit song: “La la la Lech Wałęsa”.

let the muck-raking begin!

The MMM team (at least, those with passports and without criminal record) went out to Iceland last week for discussions with CCP about various things that are actually rather mundane and not very exciting (making EON better, making the EVE Store friendlier for those that have to endure its bizarre ways in order to buy the mag, etc etc), but of course being at CCP means you bump into a few old faces, some of whom remembered your’s truly from previous visits, and with whom I managed to exchange a few pleasant words before collapsing in a heap due to exhaustion, illness and excessive beer ingestion the previous night (a bothersome threesome of afflictions it must be admitted).

One of the people I exchanged words with was GM Xhagen, who of course is co-responsible for the redevelopment of the new Council of Stellar Management, and who was on the day of our encounter going through all the applicants to make sure they weren’t evil-doers – lapsed or otherwise – or lacking in the necessary documentation to make the trip to Iceland in June (should they be voted in). I should add that I received no insight about this process, nor did I offer much of my own beyond my slow transition from skeptic hopeful to hopeful skeptic. What we did briefly chat about was whether it would be a fun idea to put the weight of EON behind any of the hopeful candidates: It’s fairly obvious that many print journals have political affiliations, so why not EON? Of course it was quickly agreed that to openly back any of the candidates would be a bad idea, not just because EON is kind-of an “official” EVE publication, but because not many people would care anyway… since the next edition of the magazine comes out after the candidates will have already been sworn in. It was a mindless suggestion in any case.

Since our return from northern lands, the full list of candidates has been revealed and I’m very happy to see all the names on the list, some of whom I know little about, some of whom I’ve stood toe-to-toe with over a beer or two. Most revealing of all is that the usual fears and preconceptions are already being manifested and dirt has already begun circulating. As a political entity, the CSM may end up as toothless as some detractors have already argued, but for entertainment value the political process in EVE is already proving to be very diverting. For most of us in the Western world, politics is entertainment, of course, but the good news is that this particular pretense at democracy will have at least been decided upon fairly soon… which will coincide with my next visit to Iceland to cover the first CSM meeting, and so enjoy more chats with new and old faces alike.

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.