War For Our Time

I've been a lowsec dweller for most of my Eve life, after moving on from the usual highsec start.  The tales of nullsec have been interesting in terms of politics and history, but the cap/super-cap driven nature of nullsec war was something that kept it firmly in the "not for me" category.  The nullsec world seemed static, with all of the knowlegable opinions seeming to come together to say that the CFC had effectively won and that we would see no great battles like B-R again.

"To have a large war, you need two large adversaries.  To have a large battle, you need two sides willing to commit large numbers of expensive assets." - Ripard Teg, "The Last War", 30 Jan 2014.

Aegis Sov started to change this opinion.  It used to be that the cry was that you needed a fleet of supers to take sov.  Now suddenly the weight of the game mechanic shifted, and the cry was that anyone in a troll-ceptor could threaten sov.  Player inventiveness responded of course and we've hit somewhere inbetween as best I can tell from my station down here in lowsec.  Stuff was definitely starting to happen and then suddenly...

Where did that come from?  I recommend Nosy Gamer's blog as a neutral starting point for what he termed The Casino War.  There's a summary today by EN24 (not neutral) of the Allied Forces.  The breaking news this afternoon was that LAWN and Bastion are evacuating Vale of the Silent, straight from none other than Mittani on his own Metashow,  surrendering that region to the anti-Imperium forces.  The propaganda on reddit has been voluminous and often quite good.  I hear that this is what TEST does best. :)

It's enticing.  The possibility of joining on of the "Allied" combatants and battling the hated CFC certainly stirs the imagination,  We here in RDRAW have gotten in a few ops via our connection to Snuffed Out, and from what I hear it sounds like our northern GalMil cousins have taken some fleets up in search of CO2 assets as well.  But being third-parties or allies-of-an-ally is a bit different from shifting home and living that war.

There is one measure that I think all Eve players are looking to right now.  There are plenty of "that's it, I'm resubbing" comments in the propaganda threads.  Will that really come through?  Here's the one slope that we'll all want to watch:

War for our Time, pilots, let there be War for our Time.

Grab Bag and CSM Autocorrect Answers

Some miscellany today before they slip out of my mind.  If you haven't read the CSM Autocorrect Quiz at the bottom of the CSM Ballot post, now is your chance to do so before you see the answers.

Dual Tanking Newbies

If you've taken a new character through the career missions (as I've done recently) then you know why new players dual-tank: it's what they are taught to do.  In both the Gallente and Caldari career missions you'll be given a shield hardener for your frigate and then a bit later you'll be given a small armor repper.  I think you also get a blaster and then are given rails, just to get that mixed-gun thing going to.  I assume that's because they wanted to reuse the same mission for all races with as little parameterization as possible, but I haven't spun up Minmatar or Amarr alts recently enough to know.

Station Trading

I've been relatively successful at station trading on my alt over the past months, though I did get caught out paying too much for items that tumbled in price.  On an active day I can log in twice: once in the morning and once in the evening, so I can't quite do the 0.01isk every 5 minutes thing.  Finding new stuff has been a bit of a challenge.  I tried the Evernus website that some people were speaking well of on reddit, but it looked like a decent chunk of the time the data was just wrong, so I'm guessing that's because its source information is being gamed somehow.  I need to put in the time to find more items with a decent margin, activity on both the buy and sell sides, and which isn't being so actively traded that I'll be left behind 15 minutes after I log off.

Gureaster Goodies

I haven't run one of these yet, but I'm looking forward to trying.  There was a site in my home system, but apparently some of the guys were leaving it open as a trap so I headed off to fight in some FW plexes.  I've heard of people scoring skill injectors, which would be very nice indeed.

Skill Injectors and Alt Training

I have an alt that was trained to be an off-grid booster, which isn't that long a train.  I haven't made a huge use of him, but with the coming changes (soon, I hope) I've been training him towards on-grid combat capability.  Ah, quite the reminder of all of those core skills that you need if you're going to actually survive and do anything useful on grid.  It's a good reminder of what new players have to do too - and of course my alt dates from before the new character skill boost, so he needs to do things like train Science IV so he can get to Thermodynamics.  Doing sequences like that make those injectors so, so tempting.

CSM Autocorrect Quiz

Okay, so here are the answers.  Joffy Aulx-Gao got all of these right except the first:

Were Ducking  -> Wardeccing
Torah but she don't  -> Tora Bushido
Laura expert -> Lore Expert
Game McKennas  -> Game Mechanics

Good Hunting out there, and don't forget to vote!

CSM XI Ballot

CSM Election ballot - I know that posting it this late means that only the stragglers will see it, but real life has been kicking my butt lately during the day and happily I've had plenty to do in Eve at night that leads me to undock rather than blog.  Check out the end of this blog post for a special bonus CSM Autocorrect Quiz!

CSM X has gotten knocked about for the drama of some members and the removal/resignation of others.  Some of this is an unfair comparison, as those of you who familiar with the history of CSM will know - or those who listen to Declarations of War.  Previous CSMs have commented how by the end of a year they only had 4-5 active members, and now we're complaining that we had to kick a few.  It's the classic problem of thinking a problem is worse because you have more transparency on it.

Nonetheless, CSM XI will be defined by people's current expectations.  The goal should be a productive, engaged, and low-drama CSM.  Some of that cannot be avoided given that we have Imperium candidates who are both guaranteed to be elected and who are going in with the pretty explicitly stated goal of causing drama.  The question is what CSMs will be elected by the rest of us in the game.  So let's get to it.

Top of the Ballot

1 - Apothne:  You could argue for him foremost as a PVP mechanics expert, but the reason he's on the top of my ballot is attitude.  He has strong opinions but he's also clearly willing to reason with other people and keep open the possibility of his mind being changed.  He also already has a strong relationship with CCPers which can help him be a bridge with the CSM and the rest of the community.

2 - Steve Ronuken: Steve is one of the rare incumbents this time around, and he has a history of being level headed, productive, and a representative for those players who don't play the game for the pew.  If anything I expect his vote count may be even higher after Sion's clumsy attempt to throw mud at him.

3 - DoToo Foo: Another non-pvper, what is Eve coming to?  Here we have another consistent, competent, level-headed communicator. We're about to have the industry and market of Eve turned upside down (particularly with these recent posts about making NPC stations unattractive to use).  We could use someone with this kind of sharp mind that isn't paired with an unnecessarily sharp tongue.

4 - Mr. Hyde: Okay, back to the PVP.  I think Mr. Hyde would be higher on my list but for the inevitable comparison to Apothne, who edges him out by having additional skills and existing contacts.  I hope that there is room for both of them on CSM XI, and I'm not overly worried that he will instigate changes that would eliminate the frigate menace.

5 - Joffy Auix-Gao: I've been impressed by his campaign and his approach to the game and to CSM.  I'm sure he is going to face a lot of challenges to community given his physical limitations, but I'm willing to put my vote of confidence in that he'll figure it out.

Good Candidates

Jin'taan: I think Providence deserves a CSM and unlike the Goons I don't know if they are guaranteed one without outside help.  The real tough choice for me was between him and Utari Onzo.  If I want to help make sure Provi gets a CSM, I should vote Jin'taan higher, but...

Utari Onzo: There are shades here of Ashterothi's run last year.  Lore cannot be the main driver of a CSM candidate - that's just not what they do - but it does show a particular love of the game for its creative universe that I think is valuable.  Throw in Utari's other skills and experience and he gets a spot on the ballot.

Diana Olympos: Here is someone who just seems to love absorbing data and analyzing it.  I've seen this in our CZ writes slack channels, and he spoke of it in his interview.  The problem I'm worried about with Diana is coming out of that analysis mode and communicating clearly.

Kyle Aparthos: I wasn't amazed at his interview, but I've been very impressed with him all through the campaign.  Given the terrible time that SMA has been having I've been impressed with how clear and composed he has been in the midst of Reddit, and that's a great sign of maturity and professionalism that is lacking in other candidates.


CapriSunKraftFoods: Part of me can't believe I'd vote for someone who would choose a name like that for their character.  As I said in my review, I came away impressed from his interview.  I just worry that away from the election process he might revert to a troll.

Nash Kadavr: Similar to Utari, player events are just not something that the CSM is lined up to work on.  Voting for Nash is voting for something he didn't run his candidacy on: that he knows what it take to create and run a successful lowsec PVP organization.  With all the other things he does, the question is: has he been aware from that so long that his information is stale and misleading?

Notably Missing - No Drama, Thank You

Bobmon: With all of the accusations and drama around Bobmon and EN24, it just isn't worth the risk to put a vote down next to his name.  Between that and how CCP is a bit shy of the "gaming media" right now I'd have to put strong odds on him being kicked out of the CSM somewhere during the year.

Gorski Car: He's a self-declared candidate for drama, if tongue in cheek.  Even though he's done good work by all reports, that's just not what we need right now.  I think his PVP experience will be covered by the likes of Apothne and Mr. Hyde.  I hope we'll see a lot from him during the year, just from the role of a player rather than a CSM.

Bonus: CSM Autocorrect Quiz:

Can you decypher autocorrected Eve?  I used my commutes and other random times to listen to interviews, which has meant taking notes on my iPhone using voice transcription.  This has led to some amusing autocorrection of Eve terms.  See if you can guess these four phrases from their autocorrected spellings:


Were Ducking

Torah but she don't

Laura expert

Game Mckennas

CSM XI Candidates, Part 5 (Final)

We come to the last of these wrap-ups of CSM candidates - delayed more than I'd like because RL has been kicking my butt.  Anyway, I think it's reasonable to have a slight bias against candidates who are just showing up now.  While there are are possible reasons to be this late to the interview game, it does make it sound either like you didn't really care but decided to do it at the last minute or you were disorganized enough that you only just got around to the interview.  And if the candidates are like me and have RL slowing them down so much they can't do an interview, then maybe they should reconsider how much time they'll have to be a CSM.  So I went in not expecting much from this final batch.  In at least one case, I was happily surprised to be wrong.

(Note: the links for previous posts have been updated to point to the analysis shows that have now come out)

Top Notch Candidate

CapriSunKraftFoods (forum) (interview) (analysis show)
Not just a reddit shitposter - that's pretty much all I was looking for in this interview.  Instead I found someone thoughtful and realistic about the role of the CSM.  One quote I particularly liked: "If you have an idea you should write it down, read it over, and have other people read it." This is the heart of a design review process used by people who want to get something right.  Not off the cuff "hey I'll tell you what I think", but considered thought.  He has a realistic view of the CSM as a persistent and broad-reaching focus group.  I don't know if I'm thrilled about his stated opinions on how nullsov should work (leaning away from small gangs and back to massive fleets), but I don't play in nullsov and he has a straightforward on the ground experience that sounds very realistic and not driven by a meta-agenda.  I also like his bias for CSMs being people who actually log into the game and play (the unspoken comparison being those who only metagame).

Interesting Candidates

Xavier Azabu (forum) (interview) (analysis show)
Xavier is stepping in as a small gang pvp-focused player stretching from null to low sec.  Unfortunately that's a crowded space this time around, with people from Gorski Car, Apothne, and Mr. Hyde in the running.  So does he have the ability to stand out compared to them and communicate strongly amongst the kind of people who are going to be in the CSM next term?  Being a representative from the Far East timezone is is nice touch, and for that constituency I could see them wanting a home-time representative.  I liked hearing his tale of what it was like to be in Pizza when AegisSov rolled out, but it didn't come across as telling me what he'd contribute.  I don't quite seem him rising to the top this time, but he also sounds like the kind of reasonable voice I'd love to hear build a presence towards future elections.

RF Gnaeus Crassus  (forum) (interview) (analysis show)
We're used to seeing candidates from many different alliances, but I must say I wasn't expecting somone from Red Frog.  As someone who has done some contracting and trading I certainly can see the need for improvement there.  It's just hard to see a CSM with such a tight specialization.  I had passed on some feedback when Sugar Kyle had asked about the topic, and if any active CSM picked up her book full of player feedback they could probably push it along (Steve, please?).  He had a great quote arguing for why space trucking AFK and non-AFK is much the same: "If I'm at the keyboard, I just get to see how my ship gets shot."  If CCP was to start a focus group on industry and trading then I'd love to see this guy at the top of the list - I just am having trouble seeing him as a CSM with a inherently more general portfolio.

Not Worth Your Time

Chiimera (forum) (interview) (analysis show)
His work as a Aussie TZ community organizer (Oceanic Assault) was interesting, and it's kind of a shame (but predictable) that he then had to spend of a lot of time distancing himself (gently) from Sion and the drama that his fellow GSF had stirred up recently. In the end, perhaps because he's trying to balance so neatly, he doesn’t seem to have a lot solid to push forward.  He had a lot of disclaimers about “can’t say more without the information that’s under NDA.”, though the things he did put forward were generally a list of F&I items: more bottom-up income for nullsec, ECM rebalance geared for small-gang warfare, killmails for logi ships. This is all a "mom and apple pie" list as we might say here in the US.  So it's hard to see him as a particularly interesting candidate.

Niko Lorenzio (forum) (interview) (no analysis show yet)
So he's an old-school candidate who wants to put things back the way they were? I don't know how much backing he's going to get to want to put the clone grade system back in.  Do we need a CSM who's going to constantly just tell CCP to stop doing new things and put the Eve roadmap into reverse?  I'm not sure he's convincing me from his interview.  No be fair, he does like the split of the carrier into range-damage and fax-machine under his slogan of increasing and honoring specialization.  I think the real killer for me though is that his attitude suggests someone who is going to rage and then fade away as a CSM.  If you want to back an advocate for conservatism in game design, you probably can find another who is more engaging and persuasive.

Annexe (forum) (interview) (no analysis show yet)
Annexe is a nullsec (Imperium / TNT) PVPer and director.  Looking at his forum thread I see considers his CSM run as a #YOLO why not.  That pretty much knocks him immediately to the bottom of my list as not being serious.  If he's still around and wants to run next year and looks like he's taking it seriously then he may be worth taking a new look at.

Aryth (forum) (interview) (analysis show) (DoW panel)
Let's face it: if you are a good little Imperium member then you're voting for Aryth, and if you aren't an Imperium member then Aryth doesn't need or want your vote.  He has been very clear on this latter point in his interview with Declarations of War.  He was pretty clear again in his CSM Watch that he isn't there to represent "pubbies."  His competence and value as a CSM candidate is pretty irrelevant for the purpose of this review

CSM XI Candidates, Part 4

Voting is open!  Time to try to sprint through the remaining candidates I suppose, though we have until March 25th to cast those votes.  So don't be in a rush quite yet!

Top Notch Candidates

Am I being pickier this year, or are the candidates not as strong?  Another round with no candidates solidly in this category.

Interesting Candidates

Utari Onzo (forum) (interview) (analysis show)
I found him an interesting combination:  a former Amarr FW player who is now in Providence (but not an official Providence candidate, which appears to be Jin'taan if anyone), who also claims wormhole experience, logi FC as his favorite role, and is a lore-focused part-time roleplayer as well.  This is a stronger position for a lore expert than we saw with Uriel (see part 3).  When he discussed some of the problems the RP community has had in the Intergalatic Summit forum it gave me a glimmer of why such a representative might be valuable as well.  His real push is for increasing interactivity between the players and the Eve universe, which isn't strictly just about lore, but included an example of players getting excited that their in-game activities showed up in a Scope video.  With more talk about increasing rat behavioral capabilities it seems this could be a good time to have someone with such an area of interest in the CSM.

Nash Kadavr (forum) (interview) (analysis show)
As the head organizer of #Eve_nt perhaps it's not surprising the Nash is running as a community and live event candidate.  He's passionate about this but ... what exactly does that have to do with the usual CSM duties again?  How does that inform being a sounding board for new sov mechanics, FW changes, or ship balancing?  The frustrating thing is that Nash's experience as a leader of  Kadavr Black Guards / The Bastards is a great statement on that which he didn't get to at all in his interview.  Fortunately he isn't as shy about it in his forum thread, so at least people who read that might have more reason to vote for him.  He might have been Top Notch in my opinion except for the way he responded to the whole mess with IWantIsk.  I'm not as worried about what IWI said about him, and I buy his version of the events (which also doesn't speak well of Bobmon) but it made me wonder how he would handle strong disagreements with another CSM.  "Never doing business with them again" isn't an option I want CSMs to be exercising in this particular case, though it might work well for Eve_NT.  I think the Analysis Show concerns about his time availability are pretty solid here, given all that he does.  It all adds up to not quite being Top Notch, though I expect he may well end up on my personal ballot.


Sogor (forum) (interview) (analysis show)
So he's got a lot of ideas, seems he can communicate them, and has a lot of things he is interested in, and I appreciate that he's trying to present himself as an unbiased "scientific" candidate.  However, that same approach makes him very much of the "Features and Ideas" candidate who seems to want to present a lot of things for CCP to do.  We can look at his ideas as an indicator of the way he thinks, though, and that's better than some of the candidates who were so bland in their avoidance of any position that they don't provide any clue of what's going on inside their head.  On the other hand, it seems like he hasn't thought deeply about the CSM work side (see the "how to build rep with CSM" and "how to communicate" parts of the interview).  In the end, his positive attitude bumped him up into this "Interesting" category though I think what this really means is that I hope he works harder on this and we see him again next year.  ProTip: don't start your CSM interview by saying that you're running because "why not, I can say I tried it." 

Don't Waste Your Time

Erika Mizumi (forum) (interview) (analysis show)
One of those folks I hate to put in this category, but it's for the best.  If you're unsure about her, read her forum post and don't listen to her interview.  Having an industrial representative could be a good thing for the CSM, but her more interesting (if niche) element is for high usability for the disabled.  As with Joffy, I think this also argues well for being high usability for all players.  For instance, her argument for better visual indicators of fleet commands could help with cross-language fleets as well as the hard of hearing.  But the bottom line is that the interview made me think that she could not communicate consistent and persuasively, which is a key attribute for the CSM.  That may be nerves, it may have been a bad run of things, but if so I hope we'll see her again in future CSM runs.

Borat Gureen (forum) (interview) (analysis show)
With a focus on solo and "microcorp" he certainly catches my attention.  The idea of someone focused on the assymmetrical "guerrilla warfare" in Eve is a good one to have around.  This could definitely be seen as a slightly different niche than the solo or small-gang play that would be covered by Apothne, Gorksi, or Mr Hyde.  However, the farther he goes in the interview the more I scratch my head.  His comments about the role of the CSM in the design of the ESS makes me think he hasn't listened to the multiple DoW episodes where Ali Aras talked about the topic.  His comment that he would only work for his constituency (instead of the whole of Eve) is a big knock.  Then we get into his ideas about players having a right of privacy for their lossmails, but he wants CCP to provide him a list of who voted for him so he can better communicate with them, and he has some big ideas about disclosing who is the alt of whom (as if CCP even has that info, as they've commented before).  So some interesting ideas, but it seems generally if you're interested in him you might find better candidates elsewhere.

Bait'er De'Outlier (forum) (interview)
He is a highsec wardec candidate who definitely comes across as passionate.  His cry to "undo the nerfs on Eve" reads as a bit of touch, though at least he clarifies that he doesn't mean the ship-balancing nerfs ... just the anti-ganking ones?  His attitude really seems to convey that he's not in the more modern Eve, but still represents the "everyone should play my way" mindset that was more common a couple years back but which you don't generally see in CSM candidates anymore.  He's also another candidate who seems to feel that a it's a valid communication strategy to just have people eve-mail him if they want to communicate with him.  I do have to give him a nod as a fellow Star Fleet Battles player from back in the day.
Edit: Sheesh, now I see he's not even on the official candidate list.  He really is "that guy" - what a waste of my time.

Billbert Lashlily - apparently another person who bothered to do an interview, but not get on the official candidate list.

CSM 11 Candidates, Part 3

CSM Candidate interviews keep on rolling in.  The staff at CSM Watch are doing a great and admirable job and I just get to sit back and try to process it all - which is actually tough as the incoming rate seems greater than my available time to listen to them.  My workload has gradually changed so that I no longer consistently have lunch hours I can use for writing.

I recommend checking out Declaration of War's two CSM panels (panel 1, panel 2), but I think that their approach last year was better.  This time I felt like they were covering the same broad question approach as CSM Watch, just in a panel setting.  Last year the panels were focused on a topic, which I think really brought out more depth in the candidates.

CSM Watch's Analysis Show 4 just was posted.  I've updated my last post to add links for those candidate reviewed therein, though I haven't listened to it yet.

Here is a very nice index to all of the candidates: CSM Watch 11.  

Top Notch Candidates

None this time - though I was pretty on the fence with Hyde and Diana.

Interesting Candidates

Mr. Hyde: (interview) (analysis) (forum)
A CSM to end the frigate menace? Seriously though, Mr Hyde came across very well in his interview. He was well composed and realistic about what the role of the CSM is. That said, his strength is clearly around ship balance and secondarily about the range of playstyles he's tried in his long Eve career. When we have a CSM election that has Apothne and Gorski car (and probably some others I don't know about) then is the ship balance expertise such a great strength. The risk for those who are into solo/small-gang is that all of these candidates will cannibalize each other enough that none get on. That said, the STV system means that this isn't as much of an issue as first past the post voting.

Gorski Car: (interview) (analysis) (forum)
Vote Gorksi CSM for drama? Is that what we really want after CSM X? Seriously, I hear from reputable people that Gorski has put a lot of effort and added a lot of value in his two partial CSM terms. At the same time he's been right at the center of a lot of the drama that has left many wondering if the CSM might be disbanded, and he's completely unapologetic about that. His strength is primarily in his solo / small-gang understanding (and as a FW player, let's be clear that it isn't for his FW dabblings), but this CSM election has some real heavy-weights of similar experience such as Apothne and Mr Hyde. So given that, what is Gorski's comparative advantage again?
(Disclaimer: I am a CZ editor and Gorksi is a CZ writer, though I've had little contact with him in that space.)

Diana Olympos: (interview) (analysis) (forum) (CZ articles) (DoW panel)
Diana is a new-ish player, but he has clearly gone out and done a huge amount of research about the CSM and the metagame. He is a pretty good communicator, but when I was listening to the CSM Watch interview I had trouble telling if his tendencies to sound unfocused are more about his command of English or fundamental to his style. I've included a link to Diana's CZ articles so that readers can review his written ideas and presentation for themselves. Since I started drafting this I've also heard his interview on Declarations of War, where he was probably the second most interesting (compared to Aryth to held a pretty dominant position). I'm wondering if someone who has a wide breadth of (perhaps shallow) insight on Eve is perhaps actually a better candidate than a narrow expert. I'm torn.

(Disclaimer: I am a CZ editor and Diana is a CZ writer, though I've only had conversations with Diana in CZ slack.)

Toxic Yaken: (interview) (analysis) (forum) (DoW panel)
He did much better in his CSM watch interview than he did in the panel on Declarations of War, where he seems to tune out and fade to the back - at one point giving an answer that didn't seem connected to the current question at all. I think people will agree that there is a need for a highsec candidate, but he didn't sell well that the candidate for highsec should be focused on the wardec scene - and if you were going for such a candidate wouldn't you look to Tora Bushido? I do like his idea of the wardec fee providing a pool of ISK that the defender can then win for themselves like a bounty on the attackers, but then we're getting into the realm of CSM as junior developer again.

Not Worth Your Time

Uriel Paradisi Anteovnuecci: (interview) (analysis) (forum)

Uriel had a good interview in terms of sounding relaxed, confident, and clear. The problem really is in the content: Uriel is presenting himself as a Lore candidate. The inevitable comparison is to Ashterothi's campaign last year, but Ash could also present himself as expert on factional warfare, teaching new players to PVP, and fairly knowledgeable on wormholes. Uriel has no alternative expertise to draw on. Further, he is also best known for pulling interesting unpublished nuggets from SiSi and Chaos, which seems to be problematic for a CSM under an NDA. Beyond his lore focus, in the interview he rattled off a list of lore-focused features and ideas, while at the same time acknowledging that this is not what a CSM does. I'm left with thinking that this interview was a great plug for a special liaison position to the ISD, but not for a CSM candidate.

Videran Pahedra: (interview) (no analysis show yet) (forum)
So he seems like a nice guy. Sadly, it's a bad sign when that's where the analysis starts and almost ends as well. He claims his constituency is all Eve players, which is the same thing as saying he has no constituency. His area of expertise is PVE industry, with a weak claim to a couple other aspects of Eve. He talks about CSM getting along with each other and with CCP, then names Xenuria as the single other CSM candidate he would want to serve alongside. That's going to plunge him to the bottom for a lot of people - I can just imagine what the CSM Analysis panel on him will sound like.

CSM 11 Candidates, Part 2

Continuing with the CSM Interview reviews - and this was a quite strong batch! The order of my reviews doesn't match the order of the CSM Watch Analysis shows since my podcast player defaults to playing in alphabetical order.  So as soon as I refreshed, Apothne was at the front of the queue.  I'm not sure how I got to Joffy and Jin'taan even before an Analysis Show for them has been published.

As a note again for those who want to just hit the Analysis shows:
* CSM Watch: Analysis Show 1
* CSM Watch: Analysis Show 2
* CSM Watch: Analysis Show 3

I've also added links for the candidates interviews, analysis shows, and their official forum thread both to this and to the previous candidate review blog.

Top Notch Candidates:

Apothne: (interview) (analysis show) (forum thread) (CZ articles)
Frankly, I think that only people who are strongly grrPL would not have Apothne near the top of their list. Well, that and people who are voting exactly as their corporate masters tell them, but I doubt those people bother reading this blog. Apothne has a well-deserved reputation as a theory-crafter and FC that would make him a strong sounding board for ideas from CCP devs. He rightly calls out his advantage of having worked alongside CCP devs at the AT in a collegial manner.  He also is a solid communicator who can get his point across (see above link to his CZ articles), yet is good at listening to other people's points as well.  These three aspects are all critical to a CSM's job, and we rarely seem to see all three in the same candidate.
(Disclaimer: I am a CZ editor and have worked with Apothne there, though so far only on one yet-unpublished article.)


Joffy Auix-Gao:  (interview) (analysis show) (forum thread)
I was very impressed with Joffy. I think he should push more that improvements for disabled players are things that help a wide variety of able-bodied players as well.  His lowsec PVP credentials are a good match for a CSM that is losing incumbent lowsec reps, and the backing of Rixx Javik certainly doesn't hurt either.  The story of Joffy's background and how he plays Eve is amazing and inspirational, but you would be write to say "great story, but how does that make him a good CSM candidate."  Reading over this forum thread provides a good look in on this, including an exchange about Joffy's inability to physically attend summits which includes Mike Azariah's assurance that he feel Joffy is up to it.


Dotoo Foo:  (interview) (analysis show) (forum thread) (Foo's blog)
So let's hit this right up front.  What happens when you have a very competent, level-headed, good communicator for a candidate - who happens to not have a natural constituency that can slavishly provide thousands of votes?  If Steve Ronuken wasn't running then he might be a shoo-in replacement as someone who is super competent on industry and markets.  He has clearly invested a lot of work to widen his experience over the past year, but is his area of focus too narrow?  Is his self-imposed focus on communication through his blog too narrow?  Foo sounds like a great candidate to me with a independant mind that could be great for providing feedback on the future of Eve out to CCP Seagull's vision of player-built gates.  I think he's going to end up getting on my ballot, but I also fully expect that he's more likely to not make it this time but perhaps be positioned even better for next year.  And he is enough of a patient planner that perhaps that's what his plan is too.

Interesting Candidates:

Noobman:  (interview) (analysis show) (forum thread)
His interview started off shaky and I think that mentally I was ready to write him off, but then he pulled it all back together.  He is a wormhole candidate, which is a playstyle that we definitely need represented on the CSM, as well as flying with PL which means lowsec and nonsov null experience.  His commentary on wormhole I found enlightening and insightful, though I do that from the POV of someone who only uses WHs to get somewhere else.  His presence on the capital focus group is also a strong positive, particularly given his analysis on what is working or not working there. I think the big challenge for Noobman is how he compares to other candidates with WH experience such as our next candidate, Sullen Decimus.

Sullen Decimus: (interview) (analysis show) (forum thread)
His interview was solid, his demeanor was serious and thoughtful. He plays with one toon in WHs and another in nullsec (Bastion, part of the Imperium).  In his forum thread he also answers competently about high-sec incursions.  Interestingly there is also a back and forth where Vic Jefferson comes to pick a fight with him for being part of the Imperium.  This points out a real challenge for him: many won't vote for him as a "goon pet" and unless he is on the official CFC ballot then he won't get their votes either.  In the CSM Watch Analysis Show #2 the panel got a bit wrapped around the axle around his reserved posture towards the NDA and his real-life work.  As they summed up there, it is unfortunate that behaving "like an adult" is a feature for a CSM candidate rather than an expectation.

I have a feeling that either Noobman or Sullen Decimus, but not both, will end up on my ballot eventually for the way they span WH and another playspace, but there are plenty of candidates left to go.

Jin'taan:(interview) (analysis show) (forum thread)
Good quote here that "this time we're not just voting for CSMs, but also for whether or not the CSM project will continue." It's clear that there is a voting bloc out there this time that is voting to burn the CSM down. Being a representative for ProviBloc and the NRDS engagement rule is good, and I get that game changes can impact NPSI and NRDS, such as the example he gave, but when compared to other candidates FCing competently isn't really a marker that makes a candidate stand out.  If you're looking for a sampling of his analysis of the game, see his EN24 article on Battlecruiser rebalance.  I think he sounds solid, but I'm not yet sure if he is exemplary enough to stand out in the horde of players running.

Not Worth Your Time

 Nameloading: (interview) (analysis show) (forum thread)
I was surprised to hear the argument that all players should be working their way to nullsec; I thought that old-null-school bias was pretty much dead. That puts him off my list for people's consideration right away.  The nail in the coffin is his opening comment in the interview that part of his motivation was to make his mark of Eve?  Even if people are running to try to become space-famous, usually they're clever enough not to say it out loud.