The current grinding involved in taking sovereignty in 0.0 is does not lead to exciting and engaging gameplay. Fleets can move around all too quickly and easily and this is only amplified with the ever increasing need for tidi in large PvP engagements. The option of dividing fleets over multiple systems as happened during B-R is something that could be implemented intrinsically into sovereignty mechanics.

[cont.]

So, what kind of fixes are we talking about exactly?

To be 100% clear, I am not suggesting that 0.0 is more worthy or important that other areas of space in New Eden, simply that the issues that are present in 0.0 are more apparent to me personally due to how I spend my time in Eve Online.

The NDA stuff will drive him insane, which will also be funny to listen to.

So here's a hardball question. Seems fair, given your interviews last year.

Over the past year especially you've shown yourself to be very hotheaded at times. You've got a short fuse and often go off in a big way. If (more likely when) you get elected, do you think you'll be able to reign that in and stay professional and businesslike, or are internal explosions - which may be enjoyable and entertaining to watch, but may not be productive - likely?

Hope this answers your question Mynnna.

I liked your answer to mynnna's, although you reference the Somer situation-- how would you have handled that had you had a direct line to CCP, rather than a community platform?

I had the pleasure of having Xander Phoena as a guest on my podcast, where we talked about his CSM campaign, go check it out at the following links below.

Mp3 Download Link:
http://www.legacyofacapsuleer.com/mp3/LOAC_ep_05.mp3

YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lb-DeAitKY4

Good segment on Eve Radio!

Your answer about sov had me thinking - do you think deployables, both current and future, represent the right way to change sov to make it more dynamic? Speifically, I'm wondering about the ESS.

Good segment on Eve Radio!

Your answer about sov had me thinking - do you think deployables, both current and future, represent the right way to change sov to make it more dynamic? Speifically, I'm wondering about the ESS.

There have been several discussions here on the forums and elsewhere on how our actions and motivations in Eve reflect our actual selves and whether it's dumb to care for pixels.

While it's (imho) obvious that blowing people up in game doesn't mean you are a terrible person, I think the intend of your actions does say something about you.
Eve is a game of choices with no formal goal. In a way it's a multifaceted simulator. If someone plays "for the tears" / with the intent to specifically mess with another player; if someone choose to suicide gank on a player ship instead of an NPC hauler because he wants the player to react emotionally (and not for profit, political reasons etc) - I think that tells me this person likes to make others miserable.
Hilmar actually did a presentation I really liked and spelt out thoughts I had on Eve and virtual worlds. Because I do think Eve is real. It's not 'just' pixels. It's the representation of effort/work done by people and more importantly it's real communities of real people and their real interactions.

What is your serious take on that matter?
Do you think there are players that claim to enjoy the tears just to appear more mean/tough? Should players that almost entirely play to mess with other players - that is, to ruin their day - be encouraged or discouraged?
Is it foolish to attach emotions and personal value to virtual items considering people attach emotions and personal value to real life hodgepodges, vanity items or other stuff related to love, esteem and self-actualization?

What makes the current ESS a failure, and how would you achieve similar objectives while avoiding the pitfalls in the present solution?

There have been several discussions here on the forums and elsewhere on how our actions and motivations in Eve reflect our actual selves and whether it's dumb to care for pixels.

While it's (imho) obvious that blowing people up in game doesn't mean you are a terrible person, I think the intend of your actions does say something about you.
Eve is a game of choices with no formal goal. In a way it's a multifaceted simulator. If someone plays "for the tears" / with the intent to specifically mess with another player; if someone choose to suicide gank on a player ship instead of an NPC hauler because he wants the player to react emotionally (and not for profit, political reasons etc) - I think that tells me this person likes to make others miserable.
Hilmar actually did a presentation I really liked and spelt out thoughts I had on Eve and virtual worlds. Because I do think Eve is real. It's not 'just' pixels. It's the representation of effort/work done by people and more importantly it's real communities of real people and their real interactions.

What is your serious take on that matter?
Do you think there are players that claim to enjoy the tears just to appear more mean/tough? Should players that almost entirely play to mess with other players - that is, to ruin their day - be encouraged or discouraged?
Is it foolish to attach emotions and personal value to virtual items considering people attach emotions and personal value to real life hodgepodges, vanity items or other stuff related to love, esteem and self-actualization?

First up, great question.

The answer, like the question itself, is complex. Eve is a game about relationships. It is also a game about achievements. When you grind enough minerals to make your first Rifter. Grind enough red crosses for your first Raven. Jump in there for a one on one you know you probably should lose and somehow get the win while warping out in structure. Your own corp getting 100 players.

We all have goals in Eve and when we achieve those goals I imagine we have a huge amount of elevation. Oh having put in the blood, sweat, tears, time and commitment to achieve something. That it is pixels is almost irrelevant.

And that achievement is all the more because you are beset with dangers and perils at every corner. Had you not overheated that hardener at the right point you'll have lost that one on one. If you hadn't trusted your instincts with that corp app for a guy you felt in your gut was a scammer .

For there to be any sense of achievement in Eve there has to be the potential for loss. To truly feel happy after achieving a goal against all odds, you need the potential of the crushing disappointment when it all goes wrong.

The griefing scamming side if the game isn't for me. I don't play Eve to harvest tears. Would I remove that side of the game? No chance. As you say, Eve is multifaceted. It's a whole ecology. Just like those of us trying so hard to build our sandcastles, we need those willing to kick them down.

Man you have no idea how much I disagree with literally every single word you just wrote there.

At first if was a clunky 0.0 nerf and now it's a clunky 0.0 buff so I just don't know.

[...]
I mean I guess the point is the potential to awox corpmates and for small gangs to come steal your stuff but deploys less such as siphons do this in a much cleaner and intuitive manner.
[...]

I will agree that CCP did a terrible sales job including a justification that seems tangential to the actual purpose of the ESS. Let's postulate that the purpose of the ESS is to provide an opportunity for an interaction between people living in a system and people roaming around other than "camp people into station" and "gank inattentive ratters" and an incentive to provide this opportunity for interaction. Given that:

1. Is this a worthwhile goal? If not, why not? (If you think it is not worthwhile, you are welcome to ignore the remaining questions if you think they are not relevant.)
2. How does the siphon achieve this better than the ESS? As far as I can tell, what the siphon does is let your neutral eyes alt damage people's income with possibly a chance to get some payout. What am I missing here?
3. How could the ESS have been implemented to better achieve this goal?

1. Yes. 100%. Pretty much anything that can liven up dead areas of space where people feel they can AFK rat without any problems is a 'good thing' in my book. Interaction in my humble opinion is always a good goal with this sort of thing.

2. I think you misconstrue my affection for the ESS. The ESS obviously doesn't increase ship-on-ship 'PvP' in the most traditional and literal sense. It does allow small gangs to go in and cause aggro to bigger alliances and from that there is the potential for a fight. (FWIW, I do think there should be some POS module or 'something' that allows people to receive notifications when they are being siphoned even if you don't get a warning by default.)

3. I am not privy to the facts and figures CCP has or even someone like Mynnna can access. Also, I am not a game designer. With those caveats aside, perhaps an expensive mobile deployable which allowed the system security to be modified beyond a certain level for access to better ratting but had relatively low HP for those who own the system? Or conversely, how about a mobile depot that can be placed in a system and drops sec status in that system while gaining HP the longer it is left there untouched (to a maximum level perhaps)? These are quite literally off the top of my head atm. I'm sure there will be some obvious hole to pick in either concept. Point is, from a design perspective, they are far 'cleaner' than the ESS and I believe there is a greater possibility of them generating fights.

If I'm understanding you correctly, the idea of something that improves system income and needs to be defended is something you approve of, but the ESS didn't do it in the right way? Is it just that it's badly explained, or does the idea of stealing from it, as opposed to just wandering through and torching it with a possible reinforcement timer, particularly bother you for some reason? How would your ideas achieve your goal better than the ESS does? I don't need to be told they're perfect, but I'd like to know what you think your suggestions do better.

The one thing I'd point out about your alternate solution is, it lacks the theft mechanic. Even if you don't take tags, the ability to *get something* from ratters who've docked up and ignored your small gang for fights is, I think, rather powerful. You're not just kicking their sandcastle over, you get to take home some of the booty, which makes ratting-disruption a little more appealing.

Huge respect for Xander.

But why in the hell would you let CCP nail down your tongue for 5 years? The current CSM members can't even get it straight that they can actually say what they are pushing for with CCP because they are so scared of the big bad boogeyman NDA. Frankly I think you can do much, much more holding CCP and the sitting CSM's feet to the fire as a well respected podcaster with a huge following. Heaven knows they need it in spades.

Hi Xander!

So you state that while you personally may not have a solid grasp of life outside of null, you have the ear of those who do - which is an excellent thing and something all candidates should try to cultivate.

However could you touch on exactly what experience you have of other sectors of EVE?

I would be most interested, and I am sure others would be too.

And as its a Friday afternoon, how do you feel about Wormhole Stabilisers?

i been following this now a long time and read alot about what people have asked and you told them back your getting my vote any way but this is what i want to ask are you wanting to try stop people from stealing from other people at the end of the day ESS can be stolen from but only if your silly and not puttin them in the right place then the siphon unit steals moon stuff from POS you want to give people messages when there getting stolen from whats next you going want to give CEO messages every time something getting taken from the corp hangers or POS been able to steal from people and take large or small amounts of ISK or assits is one thing in the world that no other game let's you do and for some people it makes the game more enjoying

I'm in the midst of writing a series of blog posts about the changes I've seen over the last few years to EVE's culture. I feel we've become much quicker to embarrass and humiliate each other, much less likely to treat each other with respect, more inclined to see how far we can push another player... see if we can break him... see if we can drive him out of the game or make him snap.

And if successful, we crow "Go back to WoW, you *****!" and we celebrate our "victory."

1) Do you agree?
2) If so, why do you think it's happening? If you disagree, why?
3) What, if anything, do you feel CCP should do about it?

What do you think about projected effects get on killmails?
Ship A kills Ship B. Ship C is remote repairing/projecting links/Rsebo/whatever on Ship A. Should Ship C be displayed on Ship A's killmail?
Why / Why not?

So I have a fairly simple question: Do you think CCP should focus their efforts on innovating new mechanics and gameplay features or refining existing ones?

There are obviously pro's/con's to both approaches, but I'm curious what your preference would be.

The election schedule is now up:

http://community.eveonline.com/news/dev-blogs/csm9-elections-schedule-election-process-and-candidate-applications/

My application as well as my passport photos are now both in. No going back!

Did you also send in your up-kilt photos? :P

Stop talking and get elected so I can start complaining about you.

Thanks,

malc

Please check all that apply:

[X] Dirty sellout nullsec RMT bloc *****
[X] Worthless carebear who will destroy small gang PvP given the chance
[X] Sociopathic griefing ganker who literally eats live puppies
[X] Friendless virgin who lives with his mum and can devote 22 hours a day to being better at PvP than me
[X] Monotonous crybaby who is unable to accept that someone can legitimately kill his ship in a PvP spaceships game
[X] Both likes and admits to other people that he likes haggis even though it's essentially dogfood
[X] Ill-kempt homeless tramp who has strong opinions on the best lighter fluid and also ship rebalancing
[X] Other (please specify) - DESPISE EVE BECAUSE IT IS FUNDAMENTALLY A TERRIBLE GAME FILLED WITH TERRIBLE PEOPLE
[X] All of the above
[ ] Too busy injecting vodka directly into a vein to reply properly

Thanks,

malc

Is Mike rubbing of on you...?

The man who stood up for a cheating RMT scumbag outfit in SOMER Blink

As one of the most vociferous opponents to everything SomerGate at the time including calling out everyone from CCP to members of CSM8, I really don't know what to say to this.

As one of the most vociferous opponents to everything SomerGate at the time including calling out everyone from CCP to members of CSM8, I really don't know what to say to this.

As one of the most vociferous opponents to everything SomerGate at the time including calling out everyone from CCP to members of CSM8, I really don't know what to say to this.

Hes chubby

I certainly was a year ago. Lost 45 pounds since then and run 10kms and half marathons for fun now. What a difference 12 months makes huh?

Xander,

What is your position on CCP taking in-game disciplinary action against players for things they do outside of the game on privately-owned blogs, message boards, and Teamspeak servers?

I think this is a question that needs to be asked of evey single CSM candidate.

Yeah I'd really like to know everyone's position, as it's one of my main issues right now. It just seems to me that the "A question for all candidates" threads don't go very far, so Ive asked several of the candidates I already have some interest in.

Was waiting for someone to ask me this one... I've actually been speaking with Ripard on and off about it a lot.

So one thing I will say is that for me, E1 clearly overstepped the mark morally. It was a wretched and deplorable thing to do and I believe he firmly stepped over my personal moral line.

That caveat aside, I worry that CCP has set themselves a very dangerous precedent here. I do not think they should be policing out of client / official forum / Eve Gate activities. What if someone ganked me and I sent them a really abusive DM on twitter calling them every name under the sun, really nasty, vitriolic stuff? Does CCP have jurisdiction there? What if it transpires the account is fairly new and is called @xander_phoena rather than @midi2304 (my actual account)?

I worry that CCP has opened up a can of worms here and that this decision is going to land with egg on their face. Am I pleased E1 was banned? Yes. Should CCP have actually done so though? Probably not. Like I say, I think this could land them in a lot more trouble in the long run. I sincerely hope I am wrong. I need to be able to call Varg a ***** on TS whenever the opportunity arises after all ;)

Hello Xander Phoena,

I have been asking all the CSM candidates the question, in italics, below.

I only have 1 short, pointed question, so this should be a pretty easy "yes" or "no" answer.
Everyone has their own reasoning / logic, so I don't want to know why, just a clear answer to whether or not you support a ban.

Do you support banning players, for actions, like Erotica 1 ?

I believe you answered it already, and I hope my assumption is correct, but I was hoping to get a clarification.

Am I correct in my belief that you do NOT support banning a pilot for actions similar to Erotica 1 ?

I believe E1's actions were morally reprehensible but that no, on the balance of things, CCP should not have banned him. I strongly suspect this precedent will come back to bite them further down the line.

Would you have publicly come out in support of erotica despite his actions which you dislike, defending him from the ban which you consider unjust?

I believe E1's actions were morally reprehensible but that no, on the balance of things, CCP should not have banned him. I strongly suspect this precedent will come back to bite them further down the line.

Thank you for taking the time to answer my question.

It is known that you spend time working offshore- a few weeks at a time. I don't think you play or do podcasts when you are away.

Would this affect your ability to serve as a CSM member?

I had the opportunity to sit down for a 1 on 1 interview with the fabulous fellows of Cap Stable. I was very tired but enjoyed it massively:

http://www.capstable.net/2014/04/03/csm9xanderphoena/

Thanks to Lanc and Stu for all their efforts this campaign!

Hello.

Currently the Serpentis are the only pirate faction in the game that don't have a rated 6/10 and 9/10 DED complex available to be run. These sites have been on the "coming soon" list for quite a few years, but no further news or information has been released. Would you be willing to request that CCP introduce these sites to the game so that areas like syndicate that rely on running sites as the main form of income can continue to grow and prosper?

I am pleased to inform you that your candidacy in the CSM9 elections has been accepted. I will be publishing the full list of candidates in a public thread later today. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

I am happy to endorse Xander for election to the 9th Council of Stellar Management! Good luck at the polls!

I had said elsewhere in this thread that I would be endorsing Xander, and earlier today I published my recommendations for CSM 9. Xander featured very highly.

I look forward to working with him in the coming CSM term.

"DUST is Dead" and "Walking in Stations is Dead" as vote match answers pretty much guarantees you would never get my vote or my support. Not that you need it, from the looks of things. However, it not only demonstrates to me you have no concept of how badly EVE will continue to fail in gaining subscriptions without new content, but your stubborn adherence to "x is dead" indicates you will not be open-minded about the sorts of things CCP will need to work on in an era where space sim competition is becoming more and more prevalent.

I spend about eight hours a day with the DUST community. Very possibly more. I can't support the notion that "DUST is dead", or place any credibility in someone who believes that's the case.

In fairness Crasniya, DUST has their own council and Xander is not running for it. The CSM gets essentially an update twice a year at the summits, sessions which are traditionally totally NDA'd and during which the CSM is mainly concerned with any upcoming DUST impact to EVE or CCP's brand generally.

In that capacity I think Xander would do quite well.