It's Crunch Time!

Welcome to the nineteenth installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed to crazykinux@gmail.com. Check out other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

This months topic comes to us from @evepress, and he asks:

The CSM: CCP's Meta Game?

'The CSM, an Eve player's voice to CCP, right? In the grand scheme of things, yes, the players bring up issues and the CSM presents them to CCP. But in its current iteration the CSM was supposed to be given small authority to assign CCP assets to projects that the CSM thought needed work on. As it has not come out this was not the case. So fellow bloggers, is the CSM worth it, has the CSM improved the game in any way, or is it just a well thought out scam by CCP to give us players a false sense of input in the game? What's your take?'


For anybody that is in the dark about the reasons for the CSM being the focus of this Blog Banter, let me bring you up to speed with recent events:

- The election results for the 5th Council of Stellar Management were released at the end of May.

- The CSM members were invited to a three day summit meeting with CCP in their Iceland offices, in order to discuss Eve player's recommendations and look at what CCP have planned for the development of the game. This took place at the end of June.

- On the 12th of July CCP published the documented minutes of the summit meetings. These minutes were approved as a correct record by both CCP and the CSM.

- After reading through the minutes the majority of the Eve playerbase couldn't help but notice that many of Eve's issues or areas of Eve that were considered broken are not likely to be fixed by CCP any time soon. In fact there were hardly any issues brought up by the CSM that CCP committed to working on in the current development cycle. The overwhelming view was that CCP were focusing on new Eve features, rather than fixing and refining existing ones.

- The discussion has raged on ever since then, aided by the release of CCP Zulu's Dev Blog and the ongoing comments by Devs in the accompanying thread.

So there we have it. As Eve players we are concerned that CCP is neglecting already existing features of the game in favour of new shinies, and also that they are ignoring the CSM's calls for issues to be fixed. Thus, many people are wondering whether the CSM is really worth it.

Now I've posted before on this blog at length about my enthusiasm for the CSM. Despite current events my views on this remain unchanged. The CSM still remains an excellent opportunity for Eve players to take advantage of and get their opinions heard. In fact, if it wasn't for the hard work and dedication of the CSM, we would be in the dark concerning CCP's plans.

The reality is that this furore is a product of the developing CSM process. It has taken 5 consecutive CSMs to reach a point where the current CSM has the power and leverage to take CCP to task for not acting on issues that have been raised consistently by all of the CSMs.

There is now no excuse for CCP. They have had ample time to react to some of the major player concerns, and enough of the playerbase have bought in to the concept of the CSM to force CCP to take note. Thousands of people voted for the CSM and hundreds of proposals have been raised. What we are seeing is the culmination of 5 CSMs worth of work, both raising support and forwarding proposals.

In short, this is crunch time.

This is the crossroads for the CSM, and it's the reason I can't answer the question as to whether the CSM is worth it or not. Because ultimately that answer lies with CCP. If they listen to the CSM speaking on behalf of the players, and if they show us proof that they are acting upon player's recommendations, then every single CSM will have been worth it. If they don't, then it's been one gigantic waste of time and money.

I'm a realistic person. I'm not expecting a multitude of game changes. I'm not even expecting game changes anytime soon. All I want to see from CCP is that you're acting as a result of listening to the CSM.

I voted for the CSM. I read the Dev Blogs. I read the CSM meeting minutes. I read the summit meeting minutes. I even tried to read most of that Dev Blog threadnaught (44 pages and counting)!

I've bought into this whole CSM thing. CCP, please can you too?

The Blog Banter Reviewed

The response to the special edition Ladies of New Eden Blog Banter has been huge. This post is for those of you that don't have time to read all the blogs, or who are struggling to remember who said what. If I've missed you out, or you think I've misrepresented what you said, write me a comment. This post will be added to as I read through the blogs.

Women Are Different!

Ombeve kicked off the Banter by stating that the problem we were up against was a sociological one. There are fewer females in Eve because the majority of females are not interested in gaming or the sci-fi genre. Astral's Eve Trial by Fire agreed, and suggested that maybe the key difference was that males enjoy destructive gaming while females prefer constructive gaming. It was thought that Planetary Interaction might encourage this urge to build. The same thoughts were shared by Learning to Fly who suggested that Incarna was another addition that might also make the game more accesible to females. Vikings of Eve felt that a woman's desire to create and nurture, rather than destroy, was not catered for in Eve.

No Change!

The mood was lightened by Evoganda. Who sarcastically suggested such measures as kittens and a 'Nagger Class Cruiser' to attract females to the game. But ended seriously by suggesting that game changes for the sake of attracting females would be bad. The Nomadic Gamer also thought that game changes were not an option and instead looked for the playerbase to change by becoming much more welcoming to females.

Change!

However, many blogs were in favour of actual changes to game design. A number of key Eve issues that hinder females enjoying the game were picked up by The Ghost Report. These included a lack of individuality amongst players and a cumbersome and non-immersive UI. Linked Dreams added to these issues the lack of combat support roles and not being able to bond with your ship as you might an avatar in another game. Along these lines, Diary of a Garbageman suggested a larger focus on 'career paths' was needed to both aid and monitor player training.

Go Casual

Some blogs felt a game like Eve was just too 'hardcore' for general consumption by women. In particular Vive Virtual who felt that, as a result of their upbringing, women would be predisposed to dislike a harsh and complex game like Eve. Eve SOB talked about his experience of trying unsuccesfully to get his wife to play Eve and suggested that the lack of females may be due to the game not being casual enough. Garhead took this idea and ran with it, suggesting a number of ideas for Eve to encourage casual play.

Stay Hardcore

Mandrill disagreed with the idea of making the game more casual. Changing the game or marketing towards women was felt to be condescending and was a product of stereotyping female gamers. This was a trap that The Hydrostatic Capsule also refused to fall into, but instead stated that the liberty all players, regardless of gender, have, to rise all the way to managing vast alliances, would be an attractive prospect to female gamers. WfSeg claimed that making the game more casual could possibly alienate existing players who prefer Eve as it is.

Go for Visuals

The visual aesthetic of Eve was the key issue that need improving for Prano's Journey, who also issued a plea for the remembrance of Eve widows, the wives whose husbands played Eve all day long. Record of Alva Dyson agreed that visual changes would be worthwhile, such as bright ship colours and glittery module effects. Being a woman and having never played Eve, Draco Horizons also suggested a large list of female-enticing game changes, many of them cosmetic, that would convince her to play.

Go for Marketing

Making cosmetic changes was a view opposed by many, who rather thought that Eve was fine, but the way it was marketed needed changing. Errant Thoughts was one blogger who felt that rather than adding glitz and glamour, the non-combat activities in Eve needed greater publicising. Life in Low Sec expanded on this by appealing to CCP to market Eve more intelligently towards females, who might be attracted towards roles in Eve that are kept out of the spotlight. A similar view was held by Where the Frack is my Ship?, who used the examples of several notable female Eve players who were involved in different aspects of the game. A Little Bit of Blue also championed this idea and highlighted the importance of playing with friends in order to overcome the learning curve.

More Gentlemen Needed!

Bloggers weren't unanimous in blaming CCP, some targeted problems with the playerbase. Rantuket was one who placed the blame squarely on the head of CCP for bad marketing. But while La Vie d'une Capsuliere agreed that Eve marketing needs to change, it was also claimed that a male dominated playerbase could be intimidatory and repellent to women. Along these lines Max Torps warned CCP against making Incarna too male oriented and 'seedy', but rather take time to enhance the position of female role-models in Eve. Depths Unknown echoes some of these views when claiming males in Eve often act in a way that females find repulsive and that only the toughest of females can survive. Using many in-game experiences Talk Nerdy to Me highlighted the challenges some women could face as a result of trying to join an uncompromising male culture.

What's the Big Deal?

Eve's Parity Bit had just one question, what's the fuss about? If females like the game, they will play it, if they don't, then that's fine.

Sorry, No Pink Spaceships Here Please

Welcome to a special installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always good fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed to crazykinux@gmail.com. Check out other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

This month's Blog Banter is on the subject of women, who at present make up only 5% of Eve's playerbase. The big question is:

What could CCP Games do to attract and maintain a higher percentage of women to the game. Will Incarna do the trick? Can anything else be done in the mean time? Can we the players do our part to share the game we love with our counterparts, with our sisters or daughters, with the Ladies in our lives? What could be added to the game to make it more attractive to them? Should anything be changed? Is the game at fault, or its player base to blame?

My personal Eve experience doesn't qualify me to speak on this subject at all. The corp I belong to has one female that I know of, and she is the sum total of my interaction with females in Eve so far. But if you were hoping for a short blog post, then I'm afraid I am going to disappoint you. Here then are my views, backed up with zero evidence or experience.

To me, this whole question hinges around a key game design issue. What is the motive behind creating a game? Do you design a game to appeal to a certain group of people, or do you design a game because you think the core idea is good? When Eve was dreamed up, was the initial motive to create a game that would appeal to sci-fi loving, space-hooked, young males? Or was it not the case that Eve was created because a huge, massively mutiplayer, open-market, harsh, cooperative, spaceship simulator was just an amazing, bold and daring idea?

You see, when you decide to make a game, it should be based on the merits of the idea itself. It should have nothing to do with needing to fill a gap in market, or trying to appeal to a specific type of person.

A demographic should be created for a game! Not a game for a demographic!

So what has this got to do with females in Eve?

My point is this. Don't change Eve purely to appeal to some demographic, whether it be females or pre-adolescent kids or grandparents. Instead, change Eve to make it a better game! This is surely the only variable we should consider when making a game change. Now sometimes making the game better will induce a change in the demographic. For example the inclusion of tutorial missions made the game more accesible to younger players. That's brilliant! But making all ships have 100% insurance might also have the same demographic affect, that doesn't make it a good game change!

The truth is that I'm not a huge sci-fi fan. I have only a cursory interest in spaceships and space travel. If Eve was created to appeal to a demographic, then it definitely wasn't aimed at me. Instead I play Eve because it is a fantastic game, full of innovative ideas and creative game design.

So, I'm really sorry females but I'm not going to start suggesting game changes purely so I can see more of you play Eve. That's not a sacrifice I am willing to make. But before you label me as a cold-hearted and a close-minded individual; changing the game to suit a demographic is only half the story.

The other half is you, or me - all of us. The community.

Eve is a game that requires player interaction if you want to get the most out of it. The game is great, but would it be even half as good without the community we are part of and the interaction we enjoy? This is a key part of Eve, just as important as the game itself. So although I've ruled out changing the gameplay purely for the sake of attracting females, I have no objection to the community doing all it can to increase and boost the female playerbase.

None of us play this game just because we are sci-fi loving spaceship nerds - most of us probably aren't. We play the game because it is fun and it has an active and vibrant community that gives us both camaraderie and friendship. There is no reason why any female shouldn't be attracted to this.

So my advice is keep interacting. Keep blogging. Keep chatting. Keep twittering. Keep showing that there is more to this game than spaceships.

The strength of our community will attract female players, and hopefully some of the changes to make Eve better will also do the same. I'll leave you with one last thought:

Any gaming community that has the strength and cohesion to even begin to address this subject sensibly and at length is surely on the right track.

Other Banters:

1. Ombeve - The Ladies of New Eden
2. Astral's Eve Trial by Fire - Is Eve a Man's World?
3. Evoganda - Chicks 'N Ships
4. The Ghosts Report - The Girls Who Fly Spaceships
5. Eve SOB - It's Not About Fluffy Bloody Kittens People!
6. Max Torps - Space Boobies Are Bad, m'kay?
7. Learning To Fly - I like Girls
8. Garhead - Making Eve More Casual
9. Prano's Journey - What Women Want...
10. Rantuket - I Wish My Wife Played Eve
11. Eve's Parity Bit - Is There Something Special About Women?
12. La Vie d'une Capsuliere - Banter
13. Linked Dreams - CK's Blog Banter
14. Mandrill - The Female of the Species
15. Diary of a Garbageman - The Ladies
16. Record of Alva Dyson - Women Who Want Eve
17. The Hydrostatic Capsule - Tech 2 Stilettos
18. The Nomadic Gamer - New Eden Doesn't Need to Change for Eve - Adam Needs to Get Over Himself
19. Errant Thoughts - Eve Online and ... women (sorta)
20. Life in Low Sec - Think Outside the Spaceship
21. WfSeg - Women, Women, Women
22. Depths Unknown - Girls Just Wanna Have... Guns!
23. Where the Frack is my Ship? - It's a Woman's World (They Just Don't Know it Yet)
24. Draco Horizons - Notebook Banter (click Blog)
25. A Little Bit of Blue - Don't Change Eve for Me!
26. Vikings of Eve - Getting in Touch With Our Feminine Side
27. Vive Virtual - Women in Eve
28. Talk Nerdy to Me - Where are Teh Laydeez of Eve?