EVE's 3rd Council of Stellar Management elections underway
by James Egan 
May 21st 2009 at 8:00PM
Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Events, real-world, Events, in-game, MMO industry, Politics
The Council of Stellar Management (CSM) in EVE Online is perhaps the best implementation of governance in the virtual space achieved thus far among the numerous MMOs and virtual worlds, although this concept in the industry is rare. The basic idea behind the CSM is that as the horizons of EVE Online and its subscriber numbers expand, there are many different playstyles to be found in the game. The CSM acts as the voice of the playerbase, advising CCP Games on how best to change or develop the game to suit player interests in a far more direct way than the requisite 'nerf this' or 'boost that' threads on the official forums. The Council of Stellar Management delegates aren't selected by CCP but are elected by the players themselves, which is the subject of the latest dev blog from CCP Xhagen (aka Pétur Jóhannes Óskarsson).
EVE Online's 3rd Council of Stellar Management elections are underway. CCP Xhagen's dev blog enumerates some of the CSM's main achievements to date, hopefully providing more incentive for players to vote. (Voter turnout has been lower than hoped, with only 8.6% of the playerbase getting involved, as of the 2nd election.) Massively has covered this idea of player governance in the past through interviews with CCP developers involved with this initiative, but Xhagen's dev blog and its links to EVElopedia provides greater detail into how the CSM operates.
The polls close on May 26th, so if you're an EVE Online player, remember to make your vote count.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Benicio said on 10:04PM 5-21-2009
I know there are critics who say the CSM have very little say in anything and are more of a token council but the very idea of players with the ear of the developer is something pretty revolutionary and I hope other games developers are taking notice.
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Conquests said on 11:15PM 5-21-2009
governmental organs and general politics is a natural element(i've been expecting for years) in ANY mmo, one that's not meant to provide just casual nonsense pastime, like WoW and WAR, too limited in its rhetorical gameish concept, but made by people who realize that an mmo is a virtual reality, a plausible simulation in everyway... it was the path clearly indicated by Ultima Online, and lost in the following years almost on everyone, for lack of wits and vision.
Little information: aren't the electable council members directly related with the corporation members who at the moment detain control over the territory? Shouldn't political power be attached to territorial power or even BE it? I mean how does the council apply its power if those who own the space are ADVERSE to the agreed decrees and new laws?
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Roadkill said on 7:12AM 5-22-2009
No offense dude, but you're incoherent.
Conquests said on 9:56AM 5-22-2009
None taken, since you didn't motivate who cares what you said, it's not like based on your "you're incoherent" you prooved it ;)
Kasuro said on 3:56PM 5-26-2009
'everyway' is spelled 'every way.'
Sorry, that's one of my biggest pet-peeves, like, ever.
Myria said on 11:45PM 5-21-2009
It's kind of amusing to see "Vote for me!" cans outside of stations, too bad I haven't been playing long enough to have a vote to sell -- in fine 'democratic' fashion, that seems to be mostly what this is about. Ah well, maybe next time.
Of course if they don't get the stupid jumpgate bug fixed soon, I won't be around for a next time. All MMOs have bugs, and it seems a law of nature that patches are going to have bugs that need to be patched (thus creating new bugs), but never have I seen one that was this bad or went on for this long. I'm lucky if I can make more then two or three jumps before the game locks, that's just so not acceptable.
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rawk1977 said on 5:07AM 5-22-2009
and dont forget to use the votes attached to your 2nd and 3rd accounts!
Democracy FTW.
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Dag said on 8:49AM 5-22-2009
I wish there was a foucs on the sensible thing to vote instead of any populistic urge to vote simply because it counts, or because you can.
In the end, as in real life for me, if noon are apt, I will not feel a duty to choose between one bad option as opposed to some other bad option. And when faith in voting is lost, voting alltogether is for me pointless and no "vote because you can" will matter.
So I want to say that the sensible thing is to not cave in to any populistic behaviour that seem to lead to degeneration of a public discussion or degeneration of common sense.
I think the strength of democracy is to elect people that are apt, not only at governing/working with a conscience, but to be responsible and ideally to meet any and all criticism, for people to relate to with ease. The future should be a matter of discussion for all and I think the best thing is to allow discussions, and lenghty ones if needed.
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