CSM vs. CCP Employee

Drink the red wine and you will be drunk; drink the blue wine and... oh wait.

Avalloc, a former CSM member, asks:

Seleene, how can you hope to have any real impact as a member of CSM after having been a Developer with CCP in Game Design? You're asking for votes from the community which has been giving feedback to (you) Game Designers for years now. If you didn't take the opportunity to use it and exact real change when you were being paid to how will you being CSM be any better?

This is an awesome question but it has a very simple answer - A normal employee has to keep his mouth shut and swing the :awesome: bat while simultaneously trying (and often failing) to push points that would be common sense to most players. An employee can't talk to Massively or Rock, Paper Shotgun or blog about what a failure the last meeting was. A CSM member can do all of these things and more.

The CSM has come much further than many would believe. I remember when it first kicked off and folks inside the company had absolutely no idea what to make of it. Most wrote it off as a neat idea that probably wouldn't amount to much more than a big PR stunt. Yes, many of them are just as cynical and :bitter: as the rest of us and with good reason. Over time however, things changed due to the fact that the composition of the CSM evolved and began to come into its own. The analogy of the monster that CCP created grew out of control is pretty apt in this case. I'm sure a few people, such as Hilmar, fully realized what the CSM could become due to the media exposure and the uniqueness of the concept. Most still didn't, but reality crashed down on the CSM skeptics last year when CSM 5 presented a united front and presented their own version of 'Excellence'.

CSM5 worked because the members shared a common thread - they weren't there to have sexy time with the devs, they had a job to do and sought common ground whenever they could. Being a productive member of the CSM requires you to understand not only the game itself but how to address your concerns to the people making it with a united front. Which leads me to your next question:

You speak of knowing which Devs are open and receptive to the CSM and that it will give you an advantage in advocating for the playerbase. Couldn't that work against you too, having been an insider at CCP and now you are potentially pushing from the outside? This may create some tension at meetings where you'll know more than CCP may be comfortable with?

 If CCP were concerned about this then they wouldn't let former employees run for the CSM. I trust that the people the CSM will be meeting with aren't going to let such perceptions color their interactions. Some may not like the CSM, but due to how it's grown, they can no longer ignore it.

I left the company on good terms and don't plan to go in frothing at the mouth. I'm doing this because EVE is worth it, for all of us. As a community, as people. Yes, I would bring a new element to the table that hasn't existed before and it will be interesting to see, if I win a seat, how CCP deals with it. I also know of a few other former employees that are watching how all this plays out so I don't think I will be the last person who attempts this. Hopefully I won't because I think it would be great to see a former QA or GM employee bring their own experiences to the table on behalf of the players.