A fruitless tree can still be beautiful

About a week ago I mothballed all of my null-sec small to medium-sized gang toys, grabbed a handful of frigates and moved to low-sec where I joined a small but active pirate corporation. I’m seven days into my 30-day assessment period during which I must meet certain objectives: a specific number of activity points (where solo kills are double and losses are half), a specific number of solo kills, a successful ransom and earn criminal status (-5.0 or lower).

Years ago I would have balked at the idea of becoming a criminal. But during my solo experiments and now having joined a criminal organization I see how criminal status is often a catalyst for PvP. I’ve really been enjoying my time doing solo and unstructured micro-gang roams and I can see myself doing this for a long time.

I think I’ve also grown to the level where I enjoy the experience and not just the result. With small and medium-sized gang roams the reward has always been the kill(s); but with solo the hunt and fight are a big part of the reward even if it doesn’t yield a killmail. In fact, the most interesting fight I’ve had so far didn’t result in any killmails on either side.

After several days of flying with wingmates, I decided to go it alone in a relatively tankless kiting Tristan. The fit is similar to what I posted in my last entry but I’ve reconfigured it to fit a Warp Disruptor II for the added range. I’ve had occasional difficulty keeping point and the extra 4 kilometers of range allows me a huge fudge factor. I undocked the Feitur Maður IV and headed on a lonely journey through Placid and into Black Rise and then started back again. On the return trip I passed through a busy system I might normally ignore — but having gone so far without results I gave the system a once-over.

After a few warps I located an Enyo with a five-degree scan to a small faction warfare complex. A fight with an Enyo, I thought, would be extremely one-sided; the favored side would depended on whether I could move out of scram range once I dropped out of the acceleration gate’s influence. And so with some trepidation I warped to the acceleration gate activating it as I dropped out of warp.

The acceleration gate dropped me roughly 5 kilometers from the target Enyo and I urged my ship directly away from his while activating and overheating my microwarpdrive. An instant later the Enyo managed to activate a warp scrambler and my microwarpdrive faltered, but the momentum already generated by my supercharged drives carried me out of range and the drive sputtered back to life.

During the time it took me to achieve range the Enyo had chewed through my shields and melted half of my armor with the kinetic and thermal energy of his deadly small blasters. But range and the tracking disruptor soon began to mitigate any danger from those short-ranged weapons and his solo drone was a mere nuisance easily dispatched with my own blasters.

Five angry drones burst from my Tristan’s launch bay and began to tear into the Enyo’s shields while I frantically scanned for signs of any rescue attempt. As I gained the upper hand I began to relax, watching my drones eat into his armor faster than his nanite-fueled repair module could regenerate it. I could almost see the blinding flash as he realized he should be eliminating the drones swarming around his Enyo and began to target them; this realization coincided with the exhaustion of his nanite paste as his repairer cycled off and began a lengthy reloading process.

As one, then a second and finally a third drone was torn apart by his blaster fire I realized I should be disrupting his tracking instead of range as I had been for most of the fight so i tapped in a code to replace the tracking disruptor’s optimal range disruption with a tracking speed disruption script. The change was enough to slow the destruction of a fourth drone and allow my remaining robotic minions to compromise his structural integrity to the point I could see atmosphere venting from the once-sturdy craft. The joy of victory swept through me and I became overconfident.

Thanks to http://evelog.mikk36.eu for the damage graph.

Suddenly his armor level jumped dramatically, covering the gaps in what remained of his hull. Had it really been a minute since his module had gone offline? It had been more than two minutes. Seconds later he skillfully performed a maneuver that put him outside warp disruption range and out of my grasp. As soon as his own supercharged microwarpdrive had put enough distance between our two craft he warped out of the complex leaving me to collect my battered drones and mourn the victory snatched from my outstretched arms.

I spoke with the pilot after the fight and he acknowledged that his remaining structural integrity was four percent. We both made mistakes during the nearly four-minute engagement. And I think for both of us it was an exhilarating experience.

I learned a number of lessons during that engagement about how to best apply my vessel and its implements. But most of all I learned that even a fruitless tree can show a rare beauty.

With piratical intent

A year and a half ago I put some energy toward trying my hand at solo combat; I experienced mild success with a draw and a kill and soon after faded out of EVE in a wash of apathy. The apathy worked itself out and I’ve been back just over a month now. I’ve been racking up kills with our fleet operations but still would like the courage to commit to engagements on my own — I think that can only come with experience. So, having piratical intent, I grabbed the frigates I had left-over from the last experiment, stripped them and rebuilt them.

Frigates have changed quite a bit since I last saw them. Neither the Merlin nor the Tristan have the historical split weapon systems — and they fly quite a bit differently than when I started this experiment.

My first Merlin met a sad fate at the hands of local criminals[1]. The second had better luck, but only against a junior opponent (and very good sport[2]). It was during this second encounter that I gained even more enthusiasm to commit to solo — not because of my success, but because of the conversation that accompanied the kill. Taylor Caby hasn’t been playing long [this time] and still has an infectious rookie enthusiasm. On top of that, he has been doing his research and understands PvP better than most rookies — it’s a good combination that pushed me to really engage with the solo experience.

After spending some time talking with Taylor I went back to my alliance chat and got some great advice from a member of my alliance who is decorating our killboard with lots of pretty engagements. These conversations culminated with me realizing that my Merlin had a very limited selection of engage-able targets and more importantly that this was bad. The only suitable targets are other blaster-fitted frigates or cruiser-sized turret platforms — that is a huge limitation I didn’t need when trying to get my feet wet with solo. Armed with this knowledge I set out to increase my options.

My first attempt was an Algos. It was excellent at killing unfitted ships, but performed less admirably when tangled up with an acceleration gate while being pursued by a Stabber Fleet Issue. I liked how the ship performed despite poor luck. But, having lost it, I wanted to add a frigate to my arsenal. I still had plenty of Tristan hulls laying around and something about that hull just makes me want to fly it. I worked up several potential fits, but I only felt comfortable building this drone-reliant kiting fit:

[Tristan, Feitur Maður II]
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Damage Control II

Limited 1MN Microwarpdrive I
Balmer Series Tracking Disruptor I, Optimal Range Disruption Script
Faint Warp Disruptor I

75mm Gatling Rail II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
[empty high slot]
75mm Gatling Rail II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S

Small Polycarbon Engine Housing I
Small Tracking Diagnostic Subroutines I
Small Semiconductor Memory Cell I
Hobgoblin II x8

The fit looked like a winner, but I had to put it to the test. So I set out to find a target. This time, spurred by fellow bloggers and rookie zeal, I actually put effort into finding an engagement in the target-rich environment of faction warfare low-security space.

I ran into Miura Bull of Brutor Bullfighter fame flying a Rifter. He warped off the gate before I could land a tackle, so I followed him toward a novice outpost; as I landed, the acceleration gate whipped him into the complex. I decided that following him in, thus landing at zero, would result in a negative outcome. After a little fruitless poking around in system, I followed Miura to a second system.

With two Rifters on scan, I picked one at random (mental note to remember ship names next time) and warped to a small complex at 20 km. I landed at the perfect distance from not Miura Bull. I applied the warp disruptor and spat out some angry drones. Mid-fight a Thorax landed and moved toward me, but I wouldn’t be denied my first kill of the night and kept at it. I was rewarded a few seconds later with this Rifter wreck. I managed to grab some of the loot before fleeing the scene.

I never did catch Miura — but I’m probably better off for that.

Several jumps later I found an Executioner who didn’t want to be caught (this seems to be extremely common with complex farmers). After chasing him around for a few minutes, I warped to a complex out of scan range. As my warp brought me near enough to scan the complex, I detected a Caldari Navy Hookbill. Landing near it, I figured I might as well give it a go. After applying point, dumping drones and orbiting for a bit, he exploded. Given his Scourge Javelin Rockets can hit out to ~21 km, he really should have been able to chase me off pretty quickly — I can only surmise that he forgot he was carrying them.

Since that night (which I would probably call the first real solo roam I’ve had), the original Tristan fit has served me well against other targets so I plan to keep it around — but I’ve diversified to keep from being too predictable. I have a couple different variants of Tristan, a new Caldari Navy Hookbill and a replacement Algos (Note: I need a replacement for the replacement).

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this new experience. But what has surprised me the most is that combat is only half of it — the rest is player interaction. These kills (and even missed kills) have sparked interesting conversations with other players of a kind I haven’t had while flying with a larger fleet. But conversations tend to make me empathize with my targets. And because of that I probably don’t make a very good pirate having given as much in isk as I’ve taken in loot. I have the piratical intent, I just don’t have the mercilessness.

[1] I knew what I was fighting and was fairly certain I would lose — but nothing else would engage so I just went for it anyway. Enough blogs have beaten it into my head that you don’t always know what’s going to happen once you engage.

[2] I didn’t catch Taylor, but during our conversation he decided it would be a good experience so he ran to get a ship he thought might match mine. He had seen the earlier loss and knew what I was flying. The battle was pretty close.

[3] All of my pvp ships bear [Google translated] Icelandic names. This Tristan’s name is “Fat Man II”, the first having died to Quake590 so long ago.

Disrupting the nerve center

In January of 2012, a CCP developer started a thread in the Features & Ideas Discussion EVE Online forum soliciting ideas for new modules. Over a year and 87 pages later, players are still adding to the suggestions. Spurred on by my thoughts in this response to a different post, I added a few ideas to the torrent of mostly bad ideas — maybe mine should be included in that judgement. This post will look at just one of the three I posted.

Before leaving the game over a year ago I spent some energy to advocate restricting warfare links to a single grid — the grid where the link ship was flying. I did this because I firmly believe that any ship influencing the fight should be on the grid where the fight is occurring. Cloaky tech 3 link alts just make me queasy as I don’t think they really add anything to the game.

Before my lengthy break I never saw a Rote Kapelle gang that used off-grid links this way. We always brought along a command ship or combat capable strategic cruiser with the appropriate warfare links for our fleet composition. Now that I’ve returned I’m seeing this infestation everywhere. On any given night it’s about  fifty-fifty whether our links will be in a cloaking, interdiction-nullified strategic cruiser or something with combat capability. I’m also seeing these more frequently with other gangs; it’s become the go-to solution for everyone. The word on the street seems to be that CCP game designers would like to see this change — but there doesn’t seem to be any concrete evidence of this.

There is evidence that CCP is not happy with the balance between Strategic Cruisers and Command Ships when it comes to warfare links.

Regardless of whether links are restricted to a single grid, the Network Disruptor helps pilots counter the benefits of warfare links by disrupting communication to and from the target ship. The disruptor would completely negate any bonus on the target ship from nearby warfare link ships. Additionally, when used against a ship with active warfare links reduces the effectiveness of the warfare link bonuses by some percentage.

I see this as an active mid-slot module which puts it alongside other standard electronic warfare modules. The module should have a targeted effect against a single target with a very short range (~10 km, similar to a stasis webifier).

Maybe the disruptor could have the added bonus of interfering with the directional scanner — just because that’s cool and when CCP eliminates local chat as an omniscient intelligence tool it will be that much more interesting. Not that I think local is going away any time soon, but I can dream.

Plight of a small gang

Recently, because of my comments on the forums and Mord Fiddle’s blog, I was asked to post feedback for an idea about objectives for small gangs in the EVE Online Features & Ideas Discussion forum. So I did. And then I thought to myself: “What better way to get back into writing on my blog than the lazy cut and paste way?” And now I’m cross-posting a modified version of the forum message here on my blog.

I am a relatively minor member of a non-sovereignty holding alliance. We pride ourselves on being very good at shooting things in space and not caring about much else. Our general way of life in EVE is to fly small gangs with very competent pilots and engage other gangs. We will often up-engage against larger or heavier fleets. We do this because we believe in our pilots. We won’t turn down a gank — it still results in a killmail — but as a general rule we go out looking for a real fight because that’s what makes us better. I can count the number of times I have participated in a Rote Kapelle gate camp on one finger.

A fleet usually starts with the FC putting his head into the map to look for a bright spot that might mean a gang in space. Sometimes this works. Sometimes it doesn’t. I’ve seen other organizations work this way and so I don’t think it is unique to us.

So it’s with this bias that I think about objectives for small gangs in space. What can be done to cause more clashes between competent gangs in space?

Well, what elements do we need to form a fight?

In my opinion, we need two non-allied gangs with temporal and spacial locality (they have to be in the same place at the same time) and both with a desire to fight.

There are gangs in space all the time, so finding two non-allied gangs in New Eden is not the problem. But bringing two of them together in the same space, at the same time and both with the desire to fight seems very difficult.

How can we make this easier?

Mechanics are probably relatively simple.

• Put a gang in space with an objective that can best be achieved by combat-fit ships; it’s critical that the objective cannot be better accomplished with ships designed to fight traditional NPC encounters. Let’s call this fleet the objective fleet.
• Broadcast the location and some approximation of the gang size on the map or through some other outlet.
• Delay the reward until completion of the objective.
• Provide a way for another fleet to deny the reward to the objective fleet or claim the reward for themselves. Let’s call this fleet the spoiler fleet.

But we’re not there yet. If the goal is for a fight [and not just another isk faucet] we need a reason for the objective fleet to stick around if contested — if they leave they haven’t lost anything except time. We could require the objective fleet to invest isk or some other valuable resource upfront. Or we could force them to stay on the field by cutting their warp drives off with a gigantic bubble they can’t escape until the objective is completed. I prefer an upfront investment.

We also have to figure out how to keep insanely large fleets spoiler fleets from going on a wild rumpus through New Eden taking every objective fleet‘s goodies. It seems reasonable to allow only a spoiler fleet of comparable weight to enter the objective and then shut the door — some sort of points system based on hull class could get us to this solution.

The mechanics all seem simple enough, but I’m finding it very tough to hang a story around them. I like being immersed in the story; that’s tough when there is none.

It’s worth mentioning that this would probably be a great set of mechanics for NPC null-sec or low-sec, but become less useful the deeper you go into capsuleer-sovereign space because of the security afforded by being so far off the beaten path.

If you can make this happen then more fleets are travelling through space. Either a fight occurs on the way or a fight occurs at the destination. More fights resulting in more exploding ships is an all-around good thing for New Eden. Aren’t exploding ships what it’s all about?

Editor’s Note 1: Until 2 weeks ago I had been out of the game for about a year. I like what’s happened while I was gone. Except that there isn’t much fighting in sovereign null-sec anymore.

Editor’s Note 2: If you did not click on the link for Mord’s blog above, you should. He’s one of the best writers out there writing about EVE Online. But really, if you somehow got here and didn’t already know about Mord I’d be extremely surprised.

Editor’s Note 3: I know this is not a fully fleshed idea; it’s just a frame. I promise I’ll come back to it.

Changing skins

I was poking around on Singularity, the test server, when I noticed that many of the ships have been re-skinned. Some of the changes are dramatic, such as the Lachesis shown here.

The Lachesis finds itself in an entirely new wardrobe.

Others, such as the Crow pictured here are not so dramatic but definitely have more grit and less cartoon.

The Crow keeps its colors thought the markings changed.

I didn’t do extensive cataloging of the ships that had been changed, but here are a few before and after shots.

The Atron now bears a Gallente insignia.

Subtle changes to the Arazu give it a real, gritty feel.

The Keres sports a darker, more sinister look.

Sadly, some ships have lost exciting features — for example the Hawk lost it’s spinny bits, and we all know how important spinny bits are. But overall, things are looking great.

No more spinny bits!

I didn’t see any models that had drastically changed (at least not any that aren’t widely publicized), but the Ishkur’s thruster configuration and front bits have been altered.

Some bits around the Ishkur hull have changed.

The first of Four Deaths

Continuing the quest to break through my fear of engaging targets as a solo pilot, I spent part of last weekend roaming through Placid in Fjögur Dauðsföll (Four Deaths), my shiny new Tristan.

I didn’t have to travel far before I ran into a bright red, flashy Rifter on the Agoze gate in Ostingele. Taking advantage of the relative security offered me by the gate guns in this situation, I observed the ship to see what I could learn. I don’t do this often, because I don’t often need the information, but I thought it would give me a bit of information about this potential target. I noted the spinning barrels indicative of autocannons but nothing else useful.

The Rifter pilot, Thestarling, wasn’t doing much of anything and I assumed he was waiting for me to make the first move — so I obliged. I set up an orbit around him at my optimal range and engaged a warp scrambler, stasis webifier and all of my weaponry. I noted, with regret, that he wasn’t firing back — but I didn’t halt my onslaught. When the Rifter was at about 50% armor, he jumped.

I waited for my aggression timer to tick down and jumped after him, assuming he had decided I wasn’t worth fighting and moved on. When I arrived in Agoze he was still in system but not on the gate. I struck up a conversation in local scolding him for fleeing. I warped around the system looking for any sign of the Rifter, but was unable to locate it. So I parked myself on the Intaki gate and continued to chatter.

For a time I was joined on the gate by a Ishuk-Raata Enforcement Directive Taranis who orbited the gate with me. While we flew in lazy circles around the gate a few other I-RED pilots jumped back and forth patrolling for hostile targets. Knowing that I-RED follows the Not Red Don’t Shoot engagement policy, and that I had never initiated hostilities with them, I wasn’t too worried. I was hoping my friend in the Rifter would show up again. And he did.

When he showed up, though, he was at a tactical bookmark off the gate. It wasn’t worth burning up to him to engage, especially with the I-RED pilots likely willing to engage such a criminal. Eventually the Taranis chased him away and I decided I should get moving. I made a few more jumps and then circled back around to Agoze — when I arrived back in Agoze, all the I-RED pilots had left and Thestarling was still in system, so I struck up the conversation again.

I positioned myself at a station and let him know where I was. Eventually he arrived — but again he was far out of reach. So I headed toward him, slowly. He engaged his engines as well and we were both moving toward each other across the 140 km of empty space; though neither of us engaged our speed modules. I didn’t want him to be certain that I was afterburner fit, and I assume he was trying to keep his fitting a secret as well. So we moved slowly toward one another.

With all of the attention Rifters receive, I had doubts about my ability to win the fight and during the long flight out I pondered fleeing the scene. There wasn’t much he could do to stop me with the station guns on my side. But I stayed on intercept course anyway — running would have been a wasted opportunity; this time I was prepared to lose my ship in glorious single combat.

When the distance was less than 20 km I plotted a course for an orbit at what I considered optimal for my ship — about 8 km — which would give me some margin for error with my warp scrambler and stasis webifier and then I engaged my afterburner. And the Rifter was in range of my warp scrambler, I engaged all offensive systems. Very quickly the Rifter was into armor and I knew I was fighting an armor variant, but my Tristan soon dipped past shields as well. Both of our armor repair systems kicked in and I knew the fight wasn’t yet decided. I toggled the overload for all of my weapons, my afterburner and my small armor repairer and simply hoped — we were both fully committed to the engagement.

His hull finally buckled and the little Rifter exploded. I took a moment to note that flames were trailing from my Tristan yet its sturdy Gallente hull was still at 50%. I quickly scooped what remained of his modules and docked for repairs, thanking him in local for a good fight and my first real one-versus-one kill.

With this first solo victory under my belt, I headed for home and pondered how I had managed to pull it off. So when I arrived at my home port, I started analyzing the fight with all the tools at my disposal.

The initial conditions clearly favored me because his negative security status and the ominous station guns meant I could engage when I chose or simply warp off if I didn’t think I could get into a favorable position. With the early position established and both a stasis webifier and warp scrambler, I could ensure I stayed outside of his optimal range while well within my own. Though the Rifter is faster than the Tristan, the disparity isn’t enough for it to claw into a favorable position before being torn apart by railgun slugs and rockets.

An analysis with EFT showed that, under ideal conditions, the Rifter could outdamage my Tristan at less than ~3 km while it’s damage quickly faded past that range while my Tristan’s rockets and railguns could apply steady damage out to 8 km. Even if he had loaded Barrage the amount of damage would not have been sufficient to bring him a win. As long as I kept the Rifter between 3 and 8 km, a victory was the only possible outcome.

After a good fight and a bit of analysis, my confidence level is up and I’m ready to try it again. I just need to find another suitable target.

Space politics

I’m not much for politics, politicians and the laws they author. I’d much prefer a well-reasoned discussion with all interested parties culminating in an agreement we can all live with. Unfortunately that ideal is extremely difficult to realize. And so it is with CCP and their creation, New Eden.

With the growing realization that players were important to EVE and that they likely had very good ideas about the natural laws within the universe of New Eden, and knowing that conducting discussions on an individual level with every player was impractical, CCP set about establishing a body of advisers to represent the players. This body was created with the explicit goal of giving societal members (players) influence over how society is legislated (read: the order of the ones and zeros that make up New Eden’s laws as ordered by the developers). But this body neither empowered nor burdened with the task of legislation itself.

The goal of CCP is to provide EVE ’s individuals with societal governance rights. In similar fashion to a realworld democracy models, candidates will be selected by fellow peers to be the voice of their interests to the legislator. Once elected, the responsibility of these representatives will be to uphold the society’s views as best they can via direct contact and dialogue with CCP. Central to this concept is the idea that increasing the “utility” of eve’s society will encourage more individuals to join it. (The Council of Stellar Management: Implementation of Deliberative, Democratically Elected, Council in EVE, page 9)

Society, here, refers to all of New Eden’s residents, not simply those who PvP, those who hold sovereignty or those who vote. And from subsequent statements in this charter it is clear that CCP intended this body to represent all players.

The deliberative democracy is a hybrid governance solution which combines consensus decree with representative authority. In this system, every individual is considered equal and has the right to voice an opinion whose relevance carries just as much weight as every other voice in society. Since creating an authentic deliberative democracy is impossible due to the technical means through which EVE is supported, the proposed implementation of this concept will rest more upon representative individuals to steer a common voice. In this way, the consensus of deliberative minds and the open discourse of issues will be the primary vehicle of political change within society. (The Council of Stellar Management: Implementation of Deliberative, Democratically Elected, Council in EVE, page 12)

It is worth noting that the implementation did not match the ideal vision; technical implementation and the real world impeded the idyllic vision. But CCP trudged on secure that human thought and action would drive ever closer to their vision of a deliberative democracy even while the CSM was established as a representative democracy.

The key difference between a deliberative democracy and representative democracies is that Representatives do not rule on behalf of constituents. Instead, they act with the consensus of the entire constituency as they present collective interests to the legislator. Every citizen owes the others justification for the laws imposed upon society; in this way, the theory is “deliberative” because of the social cooperation required to bring issues to “lawful” conclusions before a governing assembly. (The Council of Stellar Management: Implementation of Deliberative, Democratically Elected, Council in EVE, page 13)

The ideas presented are sound when considered in an ideal world where elected representatives are public servants and not self-serving. Sadly, they break down when introduced into a human world — especially one where there are only virtual consequences. CCP attempted to consider the meta-gaming realities that could plague the process but fell far short in their forecast.

There is a metagaming component to the proposed implementation in EVE, particularly where it concerns voting. For example, each real-life individual can hold many game accounts, each of which has at least one virtual persona controlled by a single owner. Although this technically gives more weight to individuals with an external monetary advantage, the impact is negligible in the greater scale of participating voters. Furthermore, the possibility exists that constituents will be apathetic about their voting power, just as in real-world politics but being aware of that possibility is the most powerful weapon in countering it. (The Council of Stellar Management: Implementation of Deliberative, Democratically Elected, Council in EVE, page 14)

Several years later, the landscape looks completely different. The original intent and document are long forgotten. The CSM chair himself has declared that he is not responsible for the cares of the player base, but the cares of his constituents; the constituents that quite obviously have been told to vote and who to vote for. If the mandate is to do what the constituents ask, but you have told the constituents what to ask for, then the society as a whole is no longer served.

The CSM, whether knowingly or unwittingly, have pushed for greater and greater power and responsibility. Along the way they have gained a bevy of willing allies in the most vocal segments of the player base who have become disenchanted with CCP’s direction. What the minds behind many of these voices fail to realize (or fail to discuss) is that the average players are not among them and these voices are not representative of the whole player base. Now, having not quite the power they believe they deserve, the CSM are attempting to blackmail CCP with threats of bad publicity.

Reality is now further from the ideal than ever and there is only escalation on the horizon. While it’s easy to blame the institution, I like to think in more human terms and place the onus on the people. As Marc Scaurus phrases the problem, the current CSM membership has been fostering an attitude of us (the players) versus them (CCP) when instead it should be one society working for the common good.

Player apathy is the other end of the spectrum. Not apathy with regard to the game and its content, but apathy with regard to learning about or influencing legislators and their legislation. Though I write this as if the average player may read it, I know that in fact it is unlikely to be widely read. The readers are most likely other bloggers, forum dwellers or the odd space nerd that arrived here quite by mistake.

So if some players care too much, other players don’t care at all and some players haven’t even started playing yet, what is the way forward? How do we represent players who don’t care to be represented? That is why we pay CCP. The ultimate form of influence will always be with your wallet — but be prepared for the eventuality that you are the only player who voted that way.

Afterthought: I hadn’t written this as an entry for the blog banter — rather it was a foot note in response to Rixx Javix and Marc Scaurus. However, it is a direct hit on the topic put forth by Seismic Stan at Freebooted as he continues to push the blog banter forward. So, here is a list of the other participants as pulled from Stan’s current list.

• Seleene’s Sandbox - Reality Check*
• Jacabon Mere @ Dying in Lowsec (One Hauler at a Time) - The Future of EVE (Blog Banter 28)
• Evehermit’s Blog - Blog Banter 28: “The Future of EVE Online, CCP and the CSM.”
• Suicidal Pancake @ Horizon’s Edge - Blog Banter 28: The Clock is ticking…
• Blastradius1 @ Blastrad Tales - (BB28) Consultant
• Tgl3 @ Through Newb Eyes - Blog Banter 28: “The Future of EVE Online, CCP and the CSM.”
• Shadai @ Sleepless in Space - Sticks and Shenanigans (Blog Banter #28)
• Kirith Kodachi @ Inner Sanctum of the Ninveah - I Was There – Blog Banter
• Drackarn @ Sand, Cider and Spaceships - Blog Banter 28: “The Future of EVE Online, CCP and the CSM.”
• Rixx Javix @ Eveoganda - Blog Banter #28: Space, the Final Frontier
• S.W. @ Confessions of a Closet Carebear - Blog Banter 28: “The Future of EVE Online, CCP and the CSM.”
• Cozmik R5 @ Beyond Space - Blog Banter #28: Here’s My Coffee CCP
• The Silent Bleat - Is EVE dying? & The CSM
• Trebor Daehdoow @ Confessions of a Starship Politician - Behind the Power Curve and into the Coffin Corner**
• TeaDaze.net - Behind the Power Curve and into the Coffin Corner – My Response
• Sessym @ Rants from New Eden - Blog Banter 28: “The Future of EVE Online, CCP and the CSM.”
• Kuan Yida @ Random Posts from Auga - ooc: Blog Banter
• Lex Starwalker @ EVE A to Z - Blog Banter Resurrection: the Future of EVE
• MarcScaurus @ Wanderlust - Blog Banter 28
• Ripard Teg @ Jester’s Trek - All of this has happened before
• Helena Khan @ Aggressive Logistics - This is not the CSM you were looking for…
• Orakkus @ 2nd Anomaly From the Left - Blog Banter: Coal Now – Diamonds Later
• Mord Fiddle @ Fiddler’s Edge - Fever Dream
• A Scientist’s Life in EVE - Blog Banter 28: “The Future of EVE, CCP and the CSM.”
• Col. Roc Wieler @ Roc’s Ramblings - Blog Banter – Truth for the Masses
• Corelin @ Haberdashers Run Amok - Consider This Dead Horse Beaten
• Gilbert Hamilton @ Diary of a Garbageman - So, on this whole CCP “thing” lately
• Seismic Stan @ Freebooted - BB28: Fighting Establishments
• PyroTech03 @ Wandering the Void - Blog Banter #28: The future of Eve…
• Poetic Stanziel @ Poetic Discourse - NDAs, Minutes, Other Stupid Bullshit
• Druur Monakh @ Hazardous Goods - A Walk in a Station
• Mike Azariah @ A Missioneer in EVE - BB28 Political Blues
• Myrhial Arkenath @ Diary of a Pod Pilot - Blog Banter 28: CCP, the CSM and the Future