Thank you very much everyone for placing me on CSM 6 and now on CSM 7 where I am currently serving as the Chairman! If you would like to contact me directly, do not hesitate to just send me an eve mail in game. Keep your eyes here and watch for new posts.

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

CSM Emergency Summit - The Aftermath

Dramatization - CSM 6 has no girls. Well, maybe White Tree.
As I mentioned previously, while I was unable to physically attend the emergency summit, I was on Skype for most of the sessions (got up at 4am one morning, ugh) and then watched the video recordings of the whole affair once they were available.  First, let me start with the 'joint statement' that was released:


First off, I just want to say that the amount of back and forth in crafting these statements was pretty intense but they were published very quickly. It's a stark contrast to the two months (and counting) that has passed trying to get the official minutes of the summit published. I'll touch on that later. Right now I want to point out that, at least in terms of the CSM statement, it wasn't something that all of us agreed 100% on.  I'm going to touch on a few points in the CSM part of the joint statement so that there's no confusion about my stance on these issues.

Fuck this. Where is the pirate eye patch?!
The Noble Exchange Rollout Debacle - This continues to amaze me, in that it's still an absolute joke. The initial rollout of very few items combined with the ludicrous pricing killed any interest or enthusiasm I might have had for this feature. I've said it many times - I was prepared to spend years and lots of $$$$ dressing up my space dolls because I'd assumed there would be some sense behind the pricing of the items. There still is not.


While I do not know exactly what CCP is making in terms of money off all this, I still believe that they would be raking in the cash right now if they would literally slash the current prices in half because several times more people would be buying stuff for multiple characters. For example, if the NeX had goggles or a silk scarf something priced at 300-500 AUR, every cyno alt in EVE would be wearing them. I'd call the high prices of NeX items "greedy" except that I honestly believe this pricing strategy is actually losing CCP money! That's not greed, it's just terrible marketing. To this day I have not purchased a single item from the NeX store.

Game-affecting Virtual Goods - While we don't see eye to eye on everything, this post by Vile Rat where he voices his discontent on this issue is something that I thoroughly agree with. While some may consider Vile to be just another Goon mouthpiece, he's very much his own man and I'm going to re-print his words here and give them my strongest support:
"The lack of a clear concise statement declaring that they will never go in this direction is alarming, let me explain why.

Right now there is a roll out of cosmetic microtransactions which by and large the CSM, myself included, had no real issues with. I personally had no issues with it because there was an understanding that this was the far extent of what would be done. Nowhere in these statements is a determination to never cross this line into pay for non cosmetic, just an immediate desire to not pursue this goal. I can not support any MT scheme that would pave the way for even the possibility of going beyond this. I would have been satisfied if they said "we will never do this", you will notice that this statement did not occur.

I respect the fact that CCP has no plans to go beyond cosmetic and I truly feel this sentiment is sincere, but without committing to it my confidence in the future of this MT scheme is in doubt and as such I cannot support it."
The Fearless "Greed is Good?" Leak - Wow, the spin on this was pretty incredible, almost to the point where I think many of the newer CCP'ers believe it.  This is what the CSM part of the statement said:
We accept CCP's position that Fearless is a deliberately controversial internal publication and does not represent the policy of CCP Management or of CCP Zulu, the Senior Producer of EVE Online, nor the direction of game design.
Guess what? I don't accept that at all, at least not completely.  Zulu is his own man and I'd never believe anything about him unless it quoted him directly or he authored it himself.  Insofar as the rest, as I said on EVE Radio, Fearless is supposed to be there to help employees digest what's going on in the company and the company mindset. It is not just an opinion piece and I never took it as such when I worked there. I always saw it's primarily purpose to be getting people to have their noses pointed in the same direction so that by the time a feature is going live there has been internal messaging that says what is coming is going to be awesome, so be ready for the awesome. Here are some cool pics too, ta da!

Just because some of the CCP folks that the CSM spoke with said they never read it / don't pay attention to it / think it's pointless does not change what it has been used for in the past.  While I do accept that the most inflammatory bits (with Soundwave sounding pro MT) were 'staged', it does not make the content any less true and I think CCP's efforts to downplay it just prove the point that it's not to be dismissed out of hand.

I'd be really curious to know if Fearless has been fearlessly cancelled for fear that another one would be fearlessly leaked.

CSM 6 uses this stamp a lot lately...
Status of the Minutes

A lot of folks have been asking lately, "Where are the official minutes for the Special Super Duper Emergency Summit?"  Well, here's some info for you all to chew on while we wait.

The first official review of the minutes from CCP's side landed in my inbox on the 25th of July.  The CSM as a whole did not like what we saw as the minutes had been edited "mostly in regards to tone".  In our opinion, it was a bit more than that.  Lots of emails went back and forth comparing & proposing changes.

The next pass kicked off on the 2nd of August. Once again, the CSM didn't like what we saw and the discussion intensified into a full fledged debate as to what the purpose of the minutes actually was and who 'owned' them. This went on through email and Skype until the 9th of August when communications fell off a cliff due to multiple key folks on CSM and at CCP being on vacation / travelling / having babies, etc...

The 23rd of August saw round three kick off and the cycle seems to be repeating itself once again. Today is the 31st of August and, at this moment, I could not honestly tell you when the minutes will be released or what final form they will take. That's not drama, it's just where the situation is at the moment.

So, what is the problem? It all seems to be about CCP wanting to represent 'factually' what happened versus the CSM wanting to do the same while still holding CCP to account for what caused the summit to take place to begin with. My feelings on it all are disappointing to say the least. If not for the haggling over 'tone' the minutes would have been out over a month ago.

While I know all of this is being done with the best intentions, this seeming debate about what the CSM can or cannot say or how we say it is getting old. What annoys me the most is that Mittens did the little video with Zulu and, aside from that and the 'official joint statement', there has been nothing else come of all this in two months. This continual editing back and forth and the adjustments for 'tone' just screams spin spin spin to anyone with even a passing interest in the process.

As I noted earlier, some of us are still very much at odds with several aspects of what took place and the longer this "review" goes on the less faith I have that the CSM is what Hilmar likes to say we are (a bullshit detector).  Between summer and trying to be patient I, and others, have held our tongue in the hope that the marketing speak would tone down. That rope is almost played out because I feel like we're being strung along indefinitely until CCP hopes we submit to whatever they want the minutes to say out of sheer resignation.  That is not going to happen.

It’s understandable that CCP is concerned about how the summit is factually represented to the public, but the CSM was elected by EVE players to represent EVE players and speak back to them as their elected peers. Non EVE players and the media didn’t elect us and don’t really concern us.  We’re looking to address the concerns of our constituents and show that we share their frustrations while at the same time working to resolve the same.

As someone said on the forums about this yesterday, "In 24 hours it will be September."  True enough.  I'll keep everyone updated as best I can as to where this situation is as it progresses.

10 comments:

  1. CCP is as concerned about messaging as about facts, if not moreso. I am willing to bet that is the crux of the disagreement--and in the end, if CSM holds firmt CCP will probably simply lay down the heavy hand of "NDA" on the bits you cannot agree on. Then what?

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  2. Seleene... I could kiss you.


    "As I noted earlier, some of us are still very much at odds with several aspects of what took place and the longer this "review" goes on the less faith I have that the CSM is what Hilmar likes to say we are (a bullshit detector). Between summer and trying to be patient I, and others, have held our tongue in the hope that the marketing speak would tone down. That rope is almost played out because I feel like we're being strung along indefinitely until CCP hopes we submit to whatever they want the minutes to say out of sheer resignation. That is not going to happen.

    It’s understandable that CCP is concerned about how the summit is factually represented to the public, but the CSM was elected by EVE players to represent EVE players and speak back to them as their elected peers. Non EVE players and the media didn’t elect us and don’t really concern us. We’re looking to address the concerns of our constituents and show that we share their frustrations while at the same time working to resolve the same."


    Worth re posting...

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  3. What about the option of going with the version CCP has put forward, and accompanying that with a "we said what we were told to say" posting on EVE-O or FHC? There has to be scope here to issue a "study guide" companion publication to indicate which parts of the "official" story are bogus. Or is the message so distorted that no amount of study guide could help interpret the CSM's actual opinions without violating the NDA?

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  4. I would like to read previous editions of 'fearless' to see how close to company policy/direction they were/are

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  5. Mara, as THE historical record of a summit's proceedings, the minutes must be a factual record and not a PR spin tool as CCP so often tries to massage them into being. CSM5 had to deal with this, too, once micrtransactions and the hard questions about Incarna got put on the table.

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  6. Good to see you are back Seleene.

    I think the issue of patch quality should be pushed by CSM right now. Patch quality has been unbelieveably poor in recent times. After Incarna we had the long 3 months of silence from CCP no patches no communication. I had hopped during this silence they where working really hard on making the next patch nothing less than perfect and at least creating something that would give us docking in the logical method of Space>Hanger>CQ.

    As usual most of the issues with Incarna patch 1.1 have been reported on Singularity test server weeks if not months before the patch was applied to Tranquility. Is EVE good value for money right now with these major bugs introduced in every patch with other stuff generaly broken for months and no resolution in sight?

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  7. Sorry but all I can say is "ha ha told you so".

    I knew this is exactly what was gonna happen. Just be true to yourself and seriously ask yourself what this special emergency meeting actually accomplished.

    Look at patch 1.1 and be realistic about times to come. You should've laid down CSM and voted with your feet like I told you to. Instead, you chose once more to play CCP's promotion tools.

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  8. Who was the scribe for the minutes? Were they experienced taking minutes? Minutes are usually out with-in a day and at most a week and when authored are usually written in a manner that does not inflect tone.

    If it was an inexperienced scribe then I can see where CCP might have a point but on the other-hand there is quite a bit CCP has to answer for and facing down that mountain of what ever you want to call it and making it public may be more than they can stomach.

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  9. Just 'leak' the minutes, that is, the CSM version of the minutes.

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  10. If you see this during the EVE-Radio interview are the CSM going to push the issue of patch quality? bugs are ridiculous and CCP seem uninterested in fixing the majority of them. Patch quality and docking in the logical method of Space>Hanger>CQ.

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