Just a quickie, and a reblog at that. Listeners to the most recent podcast may remember me grumbling about my lack of any kind of affinity for, and indeed, knowledge of, any of the nominations for EVE Online's Council of Stellar Management. I'm being on best behaviour here and most certainly not assuming that this is just a prize lottery, the winners of which will receive a free holiday in Reykjavik, and instead find myself quite fascinated by the whole experiment in online democracy that it is.
Anyway, looks like Crazykinux, the hardest working man in EVE Blogging, has it covered:
Crazykinux's Musing: The CSM, The Candidates and You!
In which he gathers together a quite comprehensive set of links to various forum threads covering all the candidates. Looking through it all, I can't help but be a little frightened by the effort gone into it all, and its clear that most, if not all, of the candidates seem to be taking all very seriously indeed.
Plenty of campaign slogans there, from the sublime ("An average player, vigorous and fair.") to the ridiculous ("Caring for bears since 2004"), and almost every candidate has a dedicated website (some impressive, some less so) and some have even gone further by creating campaign videos and even going on the lecture circuit! Internet Spaceships: SERIOUS BUSINESS!
An interesting variety of party platforms emerging. Pretty much everyone purports to be 'the voice of the little guy', a somewhat nebulous claim, but then I guess if you're a candidate from a huge Alliance, you probably don't need to be winning your own party members over, and it is very much going to be the much larger collection of little guys, little corps and little alliances; the 'floating voters' of the electorate, who will ultimately make the big decision.
Some candidates, in a move I personally applaud, have struck out in more specific directions; with issues like POS and Outpost Combat, Real Money Trade, Free Market Economics, Soloing and Mission Running, all finding more single-minded candidates to support them.
Looking at the list, there are a few names that even soloing sociopath me has seen before; Jade Constantine, a long time and quite vocal roleplayer type, Omber Zombie, who used to roll with M0o, back in the 'frontier' early days of the game, Lavista Vista, representing the Virgin Worlds Warp Drive Active Podcast Massive, Verone, notorious 'proponent' of the PvP aspects of the game, and TornSoul, an unusual choice of candidate, largely famous for being behind the 'BIG Lottery', Eve's longest running and most successful in-game lottery.
I've never met any of these folks you understand, those are merely the names I'd actually seen prior to today, and you, dear reader can be sure of fair, balanced and impartial reporting of the ensuing campaigning and eventual vote from me, largely because I tend not to speak to anyone at all in my average EVE Online session!
I decided not to stand in the end ("Van Hemlock - Do Whatever You Like, I'm Busy Hauling...STILL!"), largely due to time commitments. Plus, they still have Imps and Pixies in Iceland, and I'm afraid of both.
Listeners of the podcast may also remember me grumbling about Tabula Rasa's rather inadequate 'LFG' system (A chat channel in a different tab, that no-one reads). Well, Grumble And It Shall Be Seen To, and the chaps at TabulaCast have that covered:
TabulaCast: Episode 18
In which Shawn and John interview 'Critters', the NCSoft Community Coordinator for the game. All sorts of interesting insights into what lies ahead for the title, including mention that Destination Games are aware of the inadequacy of the current LFG system, and are already working on something better. Lots of other gems in there too, and TR seems to be becoming one of those MMOs that starts off a bit short of expectations, but improves as the months go by. (See also, EQ2)
Its all rather taken the wind out of my whinging a bit, and although I'd like to imagine that it is that very same whinging that is making these things happen, I'm not quite that far up my own backside...yet, and the likelihood of this really being the case, is about the same as the likelihood of one misplaced, indifferent and barely-read mini-review of Auto Assault, killing it stone dead the very next day!
Anyone need anything whinging about next episode?