Fighting for Industry

Even in the old days, shield supercaps knew thier place.

So a long time ago I was in charge of this rather infamous mercenary alliance which, from time to time, would go off contract and revert to an absolutely horrid state of pure carebearism. At the malevolent heart of any PVP alliance are typically a lot of players that built themselves up the old fashioned way - mining, building and selling, market PVP, etc... Basically, all that stuff we claim to despise? Yeah, you just passed one of our freighter alts jumping into Jita.

I've always felt that a heavily Industry-themed expansion is LONG overdue for EVE. Long time players like myself, and especially former CCP Game designers (like me), understand just how interconnected the different elements of EVE are. As a CSM member especially, I think the opportunity to push harder for iteration on long neglected features will exist in the next year far more than previously. Whereas in the past the CSM had to be a bit more careful in the things we pounded on the table about, CCP's re-newed focus on fixing / iteration will allow a bit more of a shotgun blast of proposals. I'd like to see what would happen if the fuzzy bears at CCP were allowed to just go wild for a full release cycle. Every good PVPer in EVE understands the basics of industry and market PVP.

When it comes to how I would like to see CCP use their resources in the near future, the top three things I would like to see happen are:

1.) Fix / finish null sec sov

2.) Improve Factional Warfare and life in low-sec

3.) A full blown industrial expansion

My reasons for that order are that I very much want to see CCP iterate on and complete the first two systems that have been lingering in apathy for years now. More importantly, I don't want CCP touching #3 until they can literally put a full expansion's worth of resources into it. It is not an easy task as everything in EVE springs from the way we mine, build and trade. I don't want them rushing it.

I want to see everyone happily blowing each other up and then I would like to see an industry expansion that allows us to invent / build new and fun ways to keep the violence going strong. I'm a builder at heart. When I play strategy games like Total Annihilation or the old Master of Orion stuff, even Shogun2, I tend to work toward building things as big and 'upgraded' as possible before sending my armies out into the world and conquering it. I like making something out of nothing, big things out of small things, etc... In EVE, I have probably spent just as much time building everything from cruise missiles to Titans over the years just so I could say I'd done it.

I'll bullet point a few obvious things and they should be familiar as everyone has been screaming about them for years:

• New, dead regions of space waiting to be built-up / exploited
• Region-specific resources
• Dynamic resource allocation
• Improved mining / Comet mining / planetary ring mining, etc... (as a caveat to this, I'd like to see mining become something that requires player interaction to some extent so bots are taken out of the equation as much as possible)
• New probing / scanning mechanics
• Finite resources of rare resources (moon goo)
• Massive scale construction (stargates, etc...)

This is stuff just off the top of my head so don't treat it as anything even remotely resembling the beginning or end of what I'd want to see. One of the things I enjoyed most about being at CCP and working on Apocrypha was creating Wormholes. The sense of wonder and danger had been missing from EVE for so long; for the first time since the beginning of the game, we managed to re-capture some of that feeling, while also adding new stuff (T3) that made the risk worthwhile. I would challenge CCP to do that on an even larger scale.

Fix the fighting and then give us new and improved things to fight over!

BOOOOOOORING!!!! :(:(

Mining

Oh yeah, I almost forgot.  Mining in its current form is a soul draining, time vampire of an activity. I'd like to see mining become more interactive and require some form of actual DOING SOMETHING.

• I'd like to see bigger rocks.
• I'd like to see rocks with variable mineral content.
• I'd like to see rocks with multiple layers / densities. (zomg, what if there is Kernite, Omber and morphite in the center?!")
• I'd like to see finite resources of things like moon goo have a % chance to be in a rock.
• I'd like to see skills affect the amounts / types of minerals you could extract from a rock.
• I'd like to see planetary ring mining.
• I'd like to see comet mining.
• I'd like to mine / hollow out a giant asteroid and make a home there to live out of.
• I'd like to see a variance in the 'purity' of minerals that are mined where some veldspar is worth more.
• I'd like to see that same Veldspar refined into Tritanium that gives a ship 10% more hit points due to it's pure qualities...
• ... IF you had the proper skills to use the proper blueprint that allowed you to take advantage of the improved alloys.

That kind of stuff. That's what I'd like to see happen with mining.

Now I'm going to post this and listen to my corp haze me for a week.  :)

Hot for Teacher

Taken in a real EVE Uni classroom!

I've had dealings with EVE University dating back to 2005. I've shot them, recruited from them, given guest lectures to the 'students' there and generally consider the Uni to be one of the most awesome things in EVE. Last year I started a thread on the Uni forums during my campaign for CSM 6 and I've done the same this year.  The goal isn't so much to troll for votes but to give newer players an opportunity to ask questions about, "WTF is this CSM stuff?"  As I said in my intro there:

"What is most worrisome about this next election are the number of 'bloc' candidates attempting to run without answering so much as a single question. They are simply relying on what they believe to be their 'bloc' to boosh them into a CSM seat. The fact is that if enough people vote, and if those people vote with their heads and not just because someone told them to push a button, then the election results could turn out far differently than many would expect. EVE Uni and it's alumni represent a group of players that can be a part of that.

I want everyone that votes to make it an informed decision. Question everyone, ascertain their motivations and help eliminate the joke / troll candidates. Ask me what you wish of my own campaign and the other candidates or simply where you might find out more information about what past CSM's have done and what the future might hold."

Another reason is that I find it much easier to write up my thoughts in response to questions and, over the years, Uni members have continually come up with things that get my brain working and allow me to express thoughts I might not have found words for otherwise. Hopefully things will keep going and I'll have more to post later.  For now, here are a few of the stand out questions and my answers to them so far:

Do you(as well as other current CSMs) and the CCP Liaisons to the CSM still have a good working relationship after the Incarna issues?

It's improved greatly since last year. This is due to a number of things, not the least of which is a complete change of the guard in terms of who is in charge. They aren't doing this anymore:

A year ago, CCP was a completely different company with a completely fragmented mindset. People worked on what they had to or what they were told to. Their messaging and PR were colossal failures. Since then they have a new lead designer, a new senior producer, a new focus (not space dolls) and a completely different way of talking to the player base. I will not say that this is all due to CSM 6, but I will certainly say that we played a part in working with CCP to help the sinking ship stay afloat.

The current CSM has a very good relationship with those CCPers we interact with most often. Some of it is due to 'going through the fire' of the last year together, some just due to a lot of hard work and long conversations to find common ground. You have to understand that a lot of the past problems existed because the people we were interacting with were literally 'under orders' to try and sell us something we didn't want to buy. This hamstrung large parts of CSM 5's entire term and made CSM 6's early efforts all the more frustrating. It took the near implosion of the company at the middle and upper management levels for people to be allowed to work on things they wanted to work on.

You can see the results of all this in every dev blog and video blog that's been released since Hilmar's Apology letter. CCP is a much more relaxed and open company because the people involved are doing things they want to do. That makes them happy and easier to communicate with.

I understand that Dust is a new project and CCP will most likely keep things close to the vest. Is there a mechanism in place for the CSMs to be notified by CCP on anything that may alter game mechanics/economy significantly via Dust implementation?  If a mechanism is not in place for disseminating this info to the CSM would you push for it?

There is no current mechanism in place regarding DUST and EVE. At the first summit in May, we had a session on DUST which was a complete embarrassment for the lack of information given and the preparation made. We had a session scheduled for the December summit but it was called off due to CCP wanting to make sure they didn't brief us with the wrong information. As of right now, CSM 6 has yet to see even so much as a screenshot in any of the summits that we've attended. We've seen no demos of the game nor do we have any clue at all as to how DUST 514 will link into EVE.

Will we push for it? We've never stopped. It's something I've personally wanted to know since I first heard of DUST when I was working at CCP. You can bet your ass I am going to be all over this.

Do you feel that the so-called "new player experience" needs revamping/improvement? If so, what are your ideas regarding the issue?

In general, I've long been in favor of a massively re-designed New Player Experience (NPE) that put players through a proper 'Academy'-like atmosphere, which ends with them being introduced to their first podding. While it may not be ideal of everyone, my personal preference would be something along the lines of what happens in Dragon Age Origins, where you run through a specific set of events tailored to your racial choices / specializations and when done with that, you move forward into the larger sandbox. Of course, it should be optional but with proper incentives it would be worth doing for anyone not already familiar with the game. At this point, enhanced tools used to locate a suitable corp / alliance would be essential to helping the new player keep going.

As a side note, to me, this was one of the great tragedies of Incarna; especially after having played through several classes in SWTOR, just imagine what EVE would be like if your introduction to EVE was done with proper NPC avatars guiding you, explaining the history of the universe, your race or that Kestrel you just bought. CCP spent five-plus years working on that stuff and.... okay, gonna stop now before I super rage. The point is, if done right, it could lend quite a lot to the NPE.

In general, I prefer for EVE to keep it's dangerous edge. Bear in mind that I started playing the game 2 weeks after it went live in 2003 (it took that long for the Army PX in Germany to get a box copy after the Beta). A lot of things were horribly unbalanced, CCP was a barely 30 man company and we were all guinea pigs of a sort. I'm tainted by what I experienced as a 'new player' and, even though it was nightmarish at times, I enjoyed the challenge of it all. A big part of what is missing from EVE these days IMO is the sense of discovery and mystery for new players and I constantly push for and support anything that lends to that.

My impression is that the Jita riots and the large number of un-subscriptions, during the summer, were the real driving force behind CCP's change in direction and the resultant, highly successful, Crucible expansion. Don't you think it is rather silly for anyone on CSM6 to lay claim to being the "savior of Eve" or to point the finger of blame (for Incarna) at CSM5?

I won't claim that it was ALL the CSM that helped turn things around, but I will say that without the CSM there really is no telling what path toward righting the boat CCP would have taken. I've blogged and posted extensively on the effect the CSM has had on CCP, both as a Dev and as a player and I'm not the only (former) Dev that has acknowledged this. I think the two are intertwined - Without CSM 6 our protests would not have been properly heard / acknowledged. Without our protests, CSM6 would not have been listened to. Make sense?

On CSM 5 - I consider Mynxee, the CSM 5 chair, to be one of my closest online friends. Carole is awesome and we've kept in close contact over the past couple years. I fully supported CSM 5's Open Letter about Incarna's problems, along with many of their frustrations along the way. IMO, CSM 5 laid the ground work for CSM 6 being able to walk in and say, "Okay, enough of this crap, we're going to try this another way."

As for blaming anyone, the only finger I've ever pointed is at CCP's formerly inept middle-managements horrible PR skills and at Hilmar directly for having tunnel vision and being blind as to what was going on. If you read the December summit minutes, in the section of our meeting with Hilmar, a big chunk of the grilling done was by me. I wasn't just asking questions about the last year, I wanted to know why this path of ignoring player desires started all the way back before Tyrannis. To his credit, Hilmar didn't try to shift any of the blame and I'm much more confident now of EVE's future direction with the installation of Jon Lander (CCP Unifex) as Senior Producer.

Official CSM 7 Thread Linkage & Endorsements

VOTING IS OPEN! CLICK HERE TO VOTE FOR SELEENE FOR CSM 7

This is the link to my thread on the EVE Online forums; here you will find details on my entire campaign platform:

EVE Online ITERATIONS: Re-elect Seleene to CSM 7 

Have a read and hopefully you should have most of your questions answered as to why I'm doing this one more time. If you have any questions, feel free to shoot me an eve mail!

I started playing EVE in Beta 6, back in early 2003. I have had at least one active EVE account from the week the servers went live until today. In that time, I've played EVE at every conceivable level. My most well-known role is as CEO of Body Count Inc. and founder and leader of the old and infamous Mercenary Coalition alliance.

From November 2006 until February 2010, I worked at CCP as a game designer as CCP Abathur. Some of you may remember me as the guy behind wormholes.

When it comes to how I would like to see CCP use their resources in the near future, the top three things I would like to see happen are:

1.) Fix / finish null sec sov

2.) Improve Factional Warfare and life in low-sec

3.) A full blown industrial expansion (see my blogs on this): Fighting for Industry & EVE's Industrial Revolution

My reasons for that order are that I very much want to see CCP iterate on and complete the first two systems that have been lingering in apathy for years now. More importantly, I don't want CCP touching #3 until they can literally put a full expansion's worth of resources into it. It is not an easy task as everything in EVE springs from the way we mine, build and trade. I don't want them rushing it!

I want to see everyone happily blowing each other up and then I would like to see an industry expansion that allows us to invent / build new and fun ways to keep the violence going strong.

TALKING ABOUT EVE

Sometimes it is better to hear someone than just read their words. Hear me talk about EVE here:

EVE News 24 - This is a short and broad interview about EVE and my thoughts in general.

Voices of the Void Podcast - A two hour interview with myself, Two Step and Trebor. Very informative and entertaining.

ENDORSEMENTS

I've picked up a few comments / endorsements along the way so far and will update them as time goes on.  These are some of the ones that lept out at me due to the names involved:

Two Step, CSM 6 Delegate:

"Seleene was a great rep on CSM 6, and I expect he will do the same on CSM 7. Seleene has *always* been willing to raise issues even if those would hurt whatever alliance he is currently in. This includes advocating for nerfs to supercaps while he flies one himself and his alliance (PL) is widely known as the largest users of supers. He has done a fantastic job representing *everyone* who plays this game. Thanks to all of you who voted him on CSM 6, it would have been a much worse CSM without him."

Mynxee, CSM 5 Chair:

"He brings a unique perspective to the CSM due to the combination of being a long-term player with wide experience in the game, a former CCP dev, and now a seasoned CSM member. He's not shy about calling bullshit on anyone and doesn't sugar coat it when he does. Besides that, no one can write a more impassioned, convincing, and humorous wall of text about CSM issues than he can. A vote for Seleene will be a vote for a broad-based perspective and passion for the game."

Meissa Anunthiel, CSM 2,3,4,5 & 6 Delegate:

"I've had the pleasure of working with Seleene on improving the game throughout the years since CSM 2, when he was known as CCP Abathur. As an example of his willingness to put effort into it, he once had a brainstorming session with us for 6 hours... by text... on a Sunday!

Seleene is a veteran player and obviously knowledgeable about the game in general, and when it comes to medium to large scale PvP and 0.0 in particular. Unlike many delegates over the years, he actually bothered to contribute, participate and make the voice of the people who voted for him (or didn't) heard. Shouldn't he already have it, he'd have earned my respect for that alone. I hope I have the chance to work with him again."

Trebor Daehdoow, CSM 5 & 6 Delegate:

"Mark (Seleene) was one of the most effective members of CSM6; he doesn't give a shit about getting credit for stuff getting done, he just cares that stuff gets done, and that CCP deploys their resources efficiently to provide improvements for the whole community.

I don't think you'll find a single member of the CSM -- or CCP dev -- whose opinion you respect that will have anything less than unreserved praise for how much *effort* he put in. A vote for Seleene will not be wasted."

Krutoj, CSM 6 Delegate:

"Having Mark on CSM6 have definitively help push a lot of key fixes through and having his experience as well as other 0.0 members helped open up a better outlook on the issues we have worked on with CCP. Mark is one of the few CSM members I can be proud to have worked with on CSM6."

Shadoo, EVE Alliance Commentator and Pandemic Legion Grand Admiral:

"Love him, or hate him -- you have to admit the man has been there, done that and knows not only the game mechanics, but also can appriciate the difficulties in balancing corporate pressures and tight game release schedules. I think that gives him a unique position to speak as a peer, not only a customer, when it comes to important game wide issues."

 Noisrevbus, Excellent forum poster:

"Knowing he understands the complexity of a given situation and is willing to open up to it, makes Seleene a clear pick for me this round. A candidate who is willing and able to take the discussion is better than anyone who simply agree or disagree. I prefer lasting tangible results over simply being thrown a bone, and i prefer being challenged over patted. Thus, i know voting for Seleene mean i can feel somewhat safely represented through that ideal, not quality as professionalism but as in depth understanding of the game. Showing commitment beyond that is only flattering - and I'll do my best to continue to hound everyone when it comes to priorities." 

Raivi, EVE Alliance Commentator, Hero of the Legion and Sexy Man Beast:

"Seleene obviously worked really hard for CSM 6 and his experience as a prominent dev is very valuable. I'm convinced that CSM 7 won't be at it's full potential without him on it."

There are a lot of folks still finding out, "Oh, it's election season again?"  Yep, it sure is. It's been a very frustrating, but ultimately rewarding term.  I feel like I spent the first 2/3 of the last year beating my head against a brick wall and then finally CCP changed course and started to listen and do shit right.  I was still on the fence about running again until the December summit.  Seeing some old friends at CCP and seeing the change of atmosphere in person was a much needed confidence boost.

It comes down to this - I'd like at least one full term where everything works the way it is supposed to in terms of communication and feedback.  CSM 6 felt like we ended up with myself and the rest of the CSM being firefighters and nuclear clean-up specialists for much of the term. If I can be a part of CSM 7 and help keep CCP on the right course then I'll feel like I've done the job I initially ran for last year to the fullest.

Unlike a lot of others, I do not have 2k or more voters as a starting point in my back pocket. I'm going to need every vote and voice I can get this time around.  Hopefully folks will know that I've done the best job I could and vote with their minds and not what they are told to do by their alliance / bloc. Thank you to those that have already sent me an encouraging email or posted in my campaign thread in support. It makes doing this much more worth while. :)

DUST 514 & Buzzwords

Why, hello, Master Chief!

At some point this year, supposedly in the spring, CCP will be releasing Dust 514. There was a recent article published at Ten Ton Hammer interviewing CCP’s new marketing director, David Reid, along with CEO Hilmar Petursson.  The article has such gems as these:

David Reid:

“With DUST 514 shipping this year, with bringing in the tens of millions of people that play shooters on PSN into the New Eden universe, EVE could be the biggest game in the world at the end of 2012. To end the year on that upswing, it just blows my mind the opportunities we have here to keep building on this awesome universe.”

"I don’t think anyone has to worry about our commitment to making World of Darkness a transformative experience.  Despite what you hear from us about DUST and EVE, there are more people working on World of Darkness here at CCP than there are working on triple A titles at other companies I’ve worked at for the stage of development it’s at.”

Uh huh…. Okay, well, considering that we don’t have so much as a launch date for DUST 514 and CCP has yet to speak about how it will interact with EVE Online in even the most basic terms it is very difficult for me to get excited about the game.  As things stand right now, DUST 514 is nothing more than a couple slickly produced trailers. I also want to be very clear on this next point: Despite our requests for more information, not even the CSM has been able to garner a single detail about what could be the “biggest game in the world at the end of 2012.”

Never one to pass up an opportunity to discuss much of anything, the guys at Massively who run This Week in MMO singled out this article and spent some time discussing it:

This Week in MMO: CCP has gone crazy edition

Start around 7:45. Without more solid info, this is how pretty much everyone I talk to thinks about Dust 514. In roughly ten minutes, these guys break down the entire potential mess that exists concerning this game. There is too much ~buzz word~ nonsense with zero solid info given to players / CSM or anyone. Once again, it's hard to be excited about something that is still basically a trailer. What is worrisome about this is that it indicates to me that CCP’s new CMO is either completely oblivious to CCP’s recent history of ‘overstatement’ or that he honestly believes what he is saying.

As for World of Darkness, I agree with the guys in the video – there’s not sixty people working on that game, at least not sixty full time developers. CCP North America is a ghost town compared to six months ago.

Now, I get that a CMO’s job is to hype his company, but I would suggest that someone pull him aside and give him a formal education on the battered wife of a community that he’s dealing with. We are tired of this kind of thing and have been begging for even one scrap of solid gameplay information for over a year now. We have no more today than we did a year ago.

Update: Here is a bit more info, but it still basically amounts to more bread crumbs: Interview With Executive Producer - CCP Jian 

You can bet that as I run for re-election to CSM 7 that I will be banging the drum on this issue quite loudly.

Q&A Part II - Low Sec

Marc Scaurus has begun a quest to get as many CSM 7 candidates as possible to answer a survey he sent out that focuses on answering questions about lowsec.  I took some time yesterday to respond and here are my answers.  As always, if there's something specific you want me to address, head over to my big Q&A Thread on the official forums:

What single part of the game do you feel requires the most work in terms of iteration by CCP?

I want to see the null-sec sov system finished. I spent the better part of my last year at CCP working to have Dominion start to break the mold and open the doors by providing more conflict divers and eliminating much of the grind-y bullshit. Obviously ~management~ deemed us game designers crazy and systematically road-blocked and nuked Dominion down to exactly what it was not intended to be, and there it has sat for two long years.

The term ‘bitter vet’ is tossed around a lot, but imagine it from the side of someone that actually worked on it and then saw months of effort wrecked in a matter of weeks due to mismanagement, misunderstanding and just plain short-sightedness. This was the same idiocy that gave us invulnerable starbases in Sov 4 and AoE Doomsday Titan weapons.

It is a cause of near daily frustration and I never waste an opportunity to preach about it to the other CSM members or the player base at large. It’s a big part of what drove me to run for CSM 6 and has me running for CSM 7. FINALLY CCP is working toward un-fucking all of this and I want to make damn sure I’m in a position to help keep them focused.

Do you feel that lowsec is ‘broken’? If not, explain why. If so, explain what you want to see done to fix it.

Lowsec is only ‘broken’ in that it has a lot of untapped potential. I think that a big part of the problem is how little interaction is possible with the NPC factions in EVE and that leads directly to boredom and stagnation. If it were possible to become directly involved with a lowsec faction’s politics or desires (this obviously ties into FW a bit), I think it would open a lot of doors. I dislike how completely DEVOID of actual game play the NPC elements of EVE are. I know some people prefer them to remain in the background and just ignore all the capsuleers buzzing about their space, but I think that’s silly.

I would like to see improved interaction with all NPC entities. If such a feature can be pushed for as part of a null-sec or lowsec overhaul, that’s the angle we should be pushing for. I don’t like how things are now where you have no options for real interaction at all. I haven’t liked them since 2005 when, during a Mordu’s Legion event, some dipshit Mordus Admiral smacktalked me in local. I still want to burn his station to the ground and take his stuff.

 Do you have any plans to push CCP, if elected, to iterate on lowsec in general?

Absolutely. I think this is a no-brainer and a win-win opportunity to develop game mechanics that could be of benefit to all styles of players.

 In your opinion, where should lowsec rank in terms of priority for iteration by CCP?

Lowsec should be right under null-sec, but only because null-sec is considered by many to be ‘broken’ whereas lowsec is just undeveloped.  I believe, however, than any major iteration of either system will affect the other in some way so it’s doubtful that we will see JUST a null-sec iteration that has no effect on lowsec and vice versa.

Lowsec is home to around 8% of the playerbase. What, in your opinion, are the main factors that make it more attractive to its current residents than other areas of space?

No dictor bubbles, less of a chance to get blapped by 800 Maelstroms or 100 supercaps, etc…  You don’t have to deal with full scale sov mechanics and ‘piracy’ is actually something you can still do semi-successfully.  Lowsec also allows you to play out the ‘lone wolf in a sandbox’ metaphor if you so desire, whereas null-sec pretty much requires that you be blue with SOMEONE.

What are your thoughts regarding Faction Warfare, particularly the idea that FW is the key to revitalizing lowsec?

Any proper iteration on FW is going to require a fundamental re-work of how players interact with NPC factions. This is one of the reasons I am banging on this particular drum so hard – it’s not all about NPC stations in 0.0, it’s also something that could heavily affect and improve how FW works. I want to see FW become a fully supported and much more dynamic feature.

Would you support using Faction Warfare as a test bed for future Nullsec Sovereignty Mechanics?

I think that FW and null-sec sov could, and probably should, have some commonalities with regard to capture mechanics but I don’t really see any ‘testing’ going on in a practical way.  The ‘test bed’ metaphor is being overused IMO and has turned into one of those ZOMG SCARY WORD type of things. It implies that CCP is going to use FW as some sort of lab rat and I don’t see it happening like that. The systems will likely evolve in parallel anyway simply to make the most efficient use of CCP’s resources.

What is your thinking regarding piracy in lowsec – is it good, bad, or ugly? Would you like to preserve it in the face of upcoming tweaks and possible expansion to Faction Warfare, or would you like to see lowsec go in a different direction?

I’d love to see piracy expanded and supported fully.  It should become something more than just the random killing of people that jump through gates or ‘ransom & release’. I would like to see corps like VETO able to fulfill their wildest dreams. Empires and NPC factions at war (declared or otherwise) should be handing out the equivalent of ‘Letters of Marque’ and rewarding pilots for their service. There are dozens of ways like this that you could promote exciting game play if the incentives existed.

What are your thoughts on the notion that increased protection for PVE players in lowsec will result in a better lowsec?

Mother of God, no!  When you make that jump and you get the little pop up that says, “Hey, it’s dangerous here!” then you’ve been properly ‘protected’. Everything beyond that is at your own risk.

What are your thoughts regarding the introduction of a PVE activity or item (minerals, manufacturing certain items, etc) that would be lowsec-exclusive?

Fine by me. Finite puddles of moon goo, ultra dense minerals to mine, random sightings of the Dread Pirate Robert!! The reward should match the risk.

What is your opinion on the Jack Dant proposal (link below) and the general belief in some sectors that improvements to lowsec should focus on entry-level, casual PVP?

Jack Dant LINKAGE
I love the basic concepts. I’ve been in contact with Jack and already forwarded this to the CCP dudes whose current work this might be relevant and pointed them at Jack’s thread. I also linked it up on the CSM forums and pointed the others at it as well. Thus far it’s gotten a pretty positive response. This is one of those ~ideas~ that makes a fire that’s already burning even hotter. I can’t really say much more than it’s been properly passed on and will not be stillborn on the forums. Hopefully some good will come of it.

If elected to CSM7 and subsequently informed by CCP that lowsec was the ‘hot topic’ for iteration in the coming year, what input and advice would you have for them?

Lowsec should be dangerous, but it should be fun. It should offer opportunities for new players to get their feet wet or null sec veterans to take a break from blob wars. There should be opportunities available that if you never want to go back to high-sec or move to null-sec, you don’t have to feel like you are compromising your game play in any way.  Most of all it should be UNIQUE and not just a stepping stone to another type of game play.

What lengths are you willing to go to in order to make pirates flashy red on overview by default again?

I will talk to my best bro CCP Punkturis and type in ALL CAPS to try to get this done. I am pretty sure that she will agree all evil people have a right to flash red!!