This is being sent to all accepted applicants, so my apologies for the lack of a personal touch. Your application to run as a candidate in the election for the sixth Council of Stellar Management has been accepted, congratulations!

It’s what I’ve been waiting to hear. I am officially a candidate for CSM 6. Go me.

We love you Roc!

Thanks for deciding to support me in the race for CSM 6. I truly appreciate the support of each and every individual whom has taken the time to email me, give a shout in local, post on the EVE Online forums, encourage on Twitter, or comment here.

What can you do to help spread the madness?

• If you’re on Twitter, #eveonline #tweetfleet #RocTheVote – Chat me up on Twitter @rocwieler. Chat others up on Twitter. Let’s shake the universe.
• Got Facebook? I have a Campaign Page there too! http://www.facebook.com/pages/RocTheVote/185976791442725
• In a corporation or alliance? – Infect your corporation mates and alliance leaders. Link them to my campaign page at https://rocwieler.com/2011/02/14/csm-6-roc-the-vote/
• Sitting in station, tired of spinning your ship? – spam local, spam your address book, spam EVEGate.com! (don’t really spam, but rather engage people in meaningful conversations as to why they they should #RocTheVote)
• Need something to Troll? Head over to Jita Park Speakers Corner and bump my visibility. Ask me questions! Challenge all the candidates!

Meh, Roc, whatever

Hey, casting your vote for the CSM is a very important decision and should not be taken lightly. I respect and applaud your hesitancy! Please, look at the links in the section above and feel free to hit me up with questions about the matters that are important to you. I’m doing my very best to educate myself on all the important matters, but at the very least I will acknowledge your question and try to blog a reply.

While I welcome your vote, I want to encourage you to make sure you spend the time to make sure you support the candidate that most represents your wants and needs in New Eden.

Oh screw you Roc

That’s what she said! But seriously, I know not everybody likes me. I’m a big boy. I can handle that. I am going to turn it around on you and ask you to wonder why? Is it a preconceived misconception about my arrogance? Is it jealousy that I get all the ladies, and even more of the men, than you do?

All kidding aside. If you don’t like my views, I respect that. I would ask that you take the time to elaborate as to why. Maybe some of my views are naive. Maybe they’re uneducated or lacking experience. If people don’t take the time to engage in intelligent debate, how am I going to be best equipped to represent all players should I successfully earn a seat on CSM 6?

Take a look at my campaign page if you haven’t already. https://rocwieler.com/2011/02/14/csm-6-roc-the-vote/

Think about it. I look forward to hearing from you.

Thank you for your interest in my campaign to be part of CSM 6. It is my intention to work diligently, effectively, and tirelessly to bring the concerns of the player base to the CSM, to CCP, and back to the players.

The following is a user submitted request for my stand on a topic important to them. I have given thought to the topic and formulated my opinion, but it’s just that; my opinion. Nothing more. There is no guarantee the opinion expressed herein will ever see the light of day.

My platform isn’t one of issues, but rather one of integrity, tenacity, and the willingness to hold the CSM and CCP accountable to the players that support everything we do. I will not push my own agenda, unless it coincides with what the majority of the player base wants for a given topic.

Never start a fight you can win. #RocTheVote

QUESTION from Mynxee: We both know that communications from CCP can sometimes be unclear or less than timely. What do you foresee as CSM6’s key challenges in that regard, and what ideas have occurred to you for tackling those challenges?

This is a very good question, and one I have had to deal with, time and again, throughout my professional career.

Education

Most of the world’s population doesn’t know how to be effective when communicating negatively. Many personal relationships end because people don’t know how to work together to reinforce their relationship through adversity, finding it easier to simply ignore the issues, or lash out, or any number of other and equally ineffectual responses.

This also spills over into our business relationships. After all, who we are is who we are, whether we’re at home, at work, or in a game, right?

In the workplace, most people are terrifed of being fired, being embarassed, looking foolish in front of coworkers, etc. It’s very challenging to get someone to take responsibility for their actions, learn from it, and move forward creating better solutions for the company. The quick gut reaction is to blame someone else, ignore the situation and hope you get away with it, or any number of other and equally ineffectual responses.

This is where education comes into play. When I was in high school, I was part of the debate team. Sure, it’s dorky, nerdy, geeky, whatever you want to say, but it taught me some very valuable life skills, primarily these:

• Conflict resolution is the ability to understand someone else’s point of view and work towards a mutually agreeable and realistic solution
• Arguments end debate. An argument is one party’s inability to see any viewpoint but their own. There is absolutely no point in continuing a discussion once this has been realized.

And I 100% agree.

Consistency

By now, I hope you all know I’m a fitness afficianado. I workout regularly, maintain a healthy lifestyle, starting running marathons, even spent the time and money to acquire professional knowledge sufficient enough to help me earn industry certifications.

None of those things happened over night. All of those things took consistency.

There are times we all succeed. There are times we all fail. How we should measure ourselves is by how many times we keep coming back for more.

In our relevant situation, here’s the skinny:

CCP needs to educate themselves on consistent and effective communication. The CSM, and by extension, all players, simply want to have an accurate and honest appraisal of the state of the game at any given time. It’s alright to say “Our game isn’t perfect” or “We screwed up there”. We welcome statements of “Yeah, we really wanted to do that but then looked at the logistics behind what was a seemingly easy change and realized it had a trickle down affect across multiple essential systems so we decided to scrap it.” Or how about this? “Yes, we’re behind schedule. Here’s why.”

There appears to be an inherent fear in being consistent with communication to players. This needs to stop.

Busting Heads

Sure, I’d love to go stampeding through CCP HQ for a week, strong arming my way through this educational process, but that is short term thinking, although it would be fun!

I’ve already outlined the solution: consistency. CCP creating the CSM was a good step towards consistency in communication. There is continued responsibility, however, with all involved parties: CCP, CSM, players.

• CCP needs to mandate consistent communication as a daily goal. It’s the only way to make it a habit.
• CSM needs to work with CCP towards consistent communication. This could be through terrorist like activities, a parent nurturing a child, or any other number of approaches. The trick is finding the one that works.
• Players need to encourage CCP’s consistent communication with appreciation, realizing that ultimately this is CCP’s game and they’re going to build what they want, not what every individual player wants. Thank God for that!

So how would I do it Mynxee? By continuing the work that became very evident with CSM 5. By working tirelessly with CCP through frustration after frustration until their education sticks and they come to realize that good business requires good communication.

Work with your players; plain and simple.

Thank you for your interest in my campaign to be part of CSM 6. It is my intention to work diligently, effectively, and tirelessly to bring the concerns of the player base to the CSM, to CCP, and back to the players.

The following is a user submitted request for my stand on a topic important to them. I have given thought to the topic and formulated my opinion, but it’s just that; my opinion. Nothing more. There is no guarantee the opinion expressed herein will ever see the light of day.

My platform isn’t one of issues, but rather one of integrity, tenacity, and the willingness to hold the CSM and CCP accountable to the players that support everything we do. I will not push my own agenda, unless it coincides with what the majority of the player base wants for a given topic.

Never start a fight you can win. #RocTheVote

QUESTION: Hot topic – Jump Bridges. Keep them or remove them?

Ok, we’re finally getting to the meaty topics. I like that.

Preamble

Skill Training Time = Real Life Time

This is one of the things about the structure of EVE Online I enjoy most. I’ve played games where you have to grind incessantly to level your character. Most of your time spent in game is trying to get to the next level. A lot of the time once you’ve reached the maximum level, you really don’t know what to do, as you just spent the last x months of your life grinding.

EVE Online engages you right from the very beginning. CCP understands that you want to spend your time playing with content, not grinding skills. I applaud that thinking.

At the same time, however, there are many other grinds (by that I mean unnecessary repetitive actions) within our universe: mining/missioning for ISK, having to repackage items in order to sell them every damn time, clicking & dragging to optimize your Harvester Control Units, the list goes on.

Some of these may be necessary. Others might not. I’m not debating that right now. I’m trying to get to my point, albeit slowly.

To me, static unchanging content is a grind. There are what, 5000 solar systems in EVE now?

The point is that when travelling around New Eden, it feels very much the same. Oh look, red space background. Green space background. Blue space background. Lovely.

Oh look, gate camp. Warp bubble. War target blob. I’m in a pod. WTF.

Courier mission? I’m a capsuleer. How many times do I have to save this damn damsel? I’m going to have a long nap while my mining drones do their thing. Ok, I’ve got all agro, you guys go kill them.

Ok, ok, Roc, I get it; get to your point already.

TL;DR

Eve needs to feel alive.

Two views, but one really

Jump Bridges. If you don’t have a good Jump Bridge Network (JBN), you want bridges nerfed/removed. If you do have them, you don’t want them touched. It’s really the same point of view when you think about it.

One party says “We don’t have that advantage; take it away.” The other party says “We have that advantage; don’t take it away.” What both are really saying is “We want to have the advantage.”

Fine, let’s create a solution together.

Life in Nullsec (see what I did there Mynxee?)

As I’ve mentioned previously, I’m not an expert at life in nullsec, but I do know what it feels like to be stuck in a grind. Jump Bridges fall into that category for me. I didn’t know the intricacies of this particular topic. So what did I do? I asked, and I researched.

I asked my own alliance, Ushra’Khan, to explain it to me. We spoke about logistical advantages for fleet activity, how easy JBN make it to trap an enemy fleet, or escape from one. Low upkeep costs, they don’t appear on the overview, etc, etc. There are a lot of reasons why nullsec alliances love jump bridges, that’s for sure.

I also spoke with three other alliances. I received pretty much the same information, leading me to believe that the information my own alliance provided was relatively unbiased. That’s the key for me, really. There are always two sides to a story, and in the middle is the truth. I want to work with the CSM to provide a solution that is best for everyone.

I researched at eve-search, reading numerous posts and opinions on the subject matter. Everyone has an opinion. That made me happy.  Opinionated players are caring players.

Making nullsec scary(er?)

Imagine if you would, a dynamic landscape in nullsec. Imagine jump bridges being anchored to rare planet types, types only found in nullsec. These planets have a random distribution, meaning some systems may have a few, some may have one, most will have none. There would need to be rules around having at least one per constellation.

Now imagine jump bridges appearing on overviews at all times. Nothing hidden. Imagine them more vulnerable and more expensive to maintain. Imagine them tied into Planetary Interaction, where one of the rare planet resources is actually routed directly to the jump bridge. That would mean it only has so much use before that resource is depleted, or the controlling alliance needs to buy from the market in order to increase the mass capacity of the bridge. Wormhole physics anyone?

Imagine tying that into DUST 514, where Dusters could actually disrupt JBN simply by virtue of destroying the connecting offplanet routes.

We’ve now created a new market for PI and for DUST, as well as new challenges for nullsec alliances. That’s a good thing, right?

I would like to say all of these are original ideas. Some of them are. Some of them aren’t. I think the point here is that players are thinking.  Thinking of themselves mostly, and what works best for them, but like I said, at the end of the day, it’s the same point of view.

My point of view is to create a system that makes nullsec more engaging. Each system feeling more unique. Main corridors changing as the larger alliances fight for sovereignty, but at the same time, smaller alliances are still able to setup and maintain their own JBN. You would know the hot spots to avoid, much like most of avoid Jita at all costs.

I think nullsec needs to cater to change. It shouldn’t be easy to control a vast amount of space. It should be very, very hard in my opinion.

Tie this in with my Factional Warfare idea for dynamic landscapes, extending that same AI idea across nullsec, and you now have a very dangerous, very dynamic environment in which to play.

Food for thought. Now I’m hungry.

Thank you for your interest in my campaign to be part of CSM 6. It is my intention to work diligently, effectively, and tirelessly to bring the concerns of the player base to the CSM, to CCP, and back to the players.

The following is a user submitted request for my stand on a topic important to them. I have given thought to the topic and formulated my opinion, but it’s just that; my opinion. Nothing more. There is no guarantee the opinion expressed herein will ever see the light of day.

My platform isn’t one of issues, but rather one of integrity, tenacity, and the willingness to hold the CSM and CCP accountable to the players that support everything we do. I will not push my own agenda, unless it coincides with what the majority of the player base wants for a given topic.

Never start a fight you can win. #RocTheVote

QUESTION: What expertise do you have ingame, Roc? Why should I vote for you? I know you’re big on community and do a lot outside of the game, but do you even actually play?

I’ve been in EVE Online since Nov 2007. What have I done in that time ingame is as follows:

Experience

Missioner

I’ve run solo missions in high/low/null sec. I’ve done lvl 4 corp missions for grinding out profit. It sucks. I’ve not done a lvl 5 mission to date, though I want to. I’ve done rogue drone hives. I’ve done storyline. I’ve done epic mission arcs.

Exploration

I’ve enjoyed exploration. I’ve enjoyed wormholes and the challenges that exist in w-space.

Salvage Looter

I’ve salvaged wrecks. I ninja looted nullsec alliance wars early on.

Faction Warfare

I’ve plexed. I’ve done small gang roams through low sec. I’ve ganked. I’ve gate camped. I’ve helped disrupt constellations. I’ve defended. I’ve offended. I’ve led sub-capital fleets of over 100 ships through Amarr and Caldari space. I’ve led small gang fleets extensively. I’ve blobbed. I’ve been blobbed. I’ve used EVE Voice for war fleet coordination.

PVP

I’ve solo PVPed. I’ve lead corporate fleets. I’ve participated in nullsec alliance fleets. I’ve fought against the Sansha Nation. I’ve killed. I’ve died. I’ve foolishly flown with +4 implants in my head. I’ve never been caught without an up to date clone.

Market PVP

I have a super secret alt. She makes billions selling only 5 items. I spend less than 20 minutes per day on her. I understand how to profit.

Planetary Interaction

That same alt has 6 self-sustaining P3 setups running. More profit.

EVE API

I’ve worked extensively with the EVE API, though technically that isn’t an ingame activity.

BOTS

I’ve suffered at the hands of macros, and been a victim to fraudulent ISK.

Less Experience

Research

I’ve only recently found a data research agent for my alt. It’s quite the trip to make, as she normally doesn’t leave her station, so I’m not certain if this will be beneficial yet to me.

Manufacturing

My alt has limited experience in invention and production, but not enough for me to say with confidence that I have mastered this field.

Corporation Management

I’ve never been a Director in a corporation, though I have played with that interface.

Mining

I’ve never mined. I never will. I just lost Chribba’s vote.

Covert Ops

While the first ship I trained to was a Rapier, I’ve never gone further than cloaking. I’ve never used a cyno bridge. I do understand the logistics of them.

Conclusion

There are some of you that may at look at this and think “Geez, there is a lot he hasn’t done, especially some of the higher level game stuff. Why would I vote for him?”

The answer is simple really:

• I have always been one to surround myself with people smarter than myself. If I had to know everything, I would never have the time to do anything. The CSM is a group of intelligent and like-minded individuals. We all want to improve the game, even though we may have conflicting ideas on how to accomplish that.
• I am open and honest. As I’ve mentioned several times, my campaign isn’t about trying to show you why my opinions are better than another CSM candidate’s opinions. My goal is to work as part of a team, being sensitive to the voice of the people, and standing strong for the issues that simply can no longer be ignored.
• I am a creative thinker. Not possessing direct experience in a certain game mechanic doesn’t make my ideas invalid, as you will see in coming posts. It’s easy for me to research every angle of an issue, weigh in the arguments, and figure out a logical solution I would then present to the other members of the CSM. Should an idea be shot down? So be it. I will have to come up with another idea, working with the CSM team.

Do I play EVE Online? Yes, I do, though like many of us, not nearly as often as I would like. I also play EVE Offline, as many of you know, and truly believe that the social media aspect of community should not be underestimated.

In the end, you should vote for the representative you most believe will best represent your views. There are some things I have strong views about: EVE API, Faction Warfare, making EVE a more dynamic experience from high sec to null sec, Incarna, Microtransactions, and more.

Want to know my views? Look at my Campaign Trail posts and stay tuned.