Another day, another CSM candidate gets back to me with their answers to the questionnaire I sent out.
Helen Highwater is currently 1st alternate in the current CSM and has done a little of everything, from running a POS and manufacturing to 0.0 PvP.
Do you have a website/blog, if yes what is its address? If not, where can people go to find out what you stand for?
My CSM platform is available here
I also have a games industry blog at http://www.antipwn.com/blog
How long have you been playing?
I started back in Feb 2007 so just over three years now.
What drew you EVE in the first place?
The scale of the game and the idea of taking part in massive PvP battles with hundreds of players on a side.
What are your main activities in EVE, what do you spend most of your in game time doing?
The character I mostly log in with these days is my industrial alt. He turns over invention and production jobs while the copy alt manages a hi-sec POS and churns out BPCs. My combat main (Helen) sits in 0.0 and I generally only log her in when there’s an op running. When she is online she’s generally in a fleet and fighting, I don’t rat because my hi-sec operation pays for her losses.
What is the thing that you like most about EVE?
The scope of the game is definitely the biggest draw for me. You can play in so many different ways and in so many different niches within the game, it really does have a lot to offer all kinds of playstyles and preferences.
What is the thing you hate most about EVE?
Without a doubt it’s the UI. It’s almost impossible to work out how some parts of the game work without reading third party guides and there’s a lack of consistency across the UI design that makes it very hard to intuitively figure things out for yourself.
If you could have one thing guaranteed to be implemented in EVE what would it be?
A ground up UI redesign.
Do you participate the EVE blogging community and the associated twitter ‘tweetfleet’?
Not as a blogger, I do read a lot of Eve related blogs however.
What is your opinion of the above?
Sturgeon’s Law applies here; 90% of everything is crap. The other 10% however is well worth the effort to discover.
What is your position on the current ‘No Local’ exploit and what would you recommend CCP do about it, and to those that have used it?
I’m pretty vehemently anti-exploiting. If there is an actual exploit here then CCP need to fix it as soon as possible and to take clear action against the people who have abused it. As someone who’s worked on the other side of the screen, I can appreciate that it might not be as easy as that however I do think that CCP need to bolster their reputation for shutting down exploits and dealing effectively with cheats.
What would you most like to see changed about hi-sec, lo-sec and null-sec space?
If we’re talking generally then I’d like to see the borders blurred some more between them so that hi-sec activities that drift over into lo-sec and lo-sec activities fall over into hi-sec and 0.0. At the moment I feel that these three areas of the game are too compartmentalised and could do with being looked at as a whole.
Independently then I’d like to see more rewards put into lo-sec as an encouragement to hi-sec dwellers to live more dangerously, I’d like to see the fleet lag fixed which will largely be a 0.0 buff and I’d like for hi-sec industry to get a boost in the form of Meta 0 loot from missions being rebalanced.
Do you think the Sovereignty changes in Dominion were a good or bad thing, and did they achieve the aims that CCP set out for them?
I don’t think that they did achieve the aims that CCP set out but I also don’t think that they were bad changes. I do think that there is a lot of work to do on them however before they match the vision that CCP put forwards in the dev blogs prior to the Dominion release. The core changes were a step in the right direction however many of the stated design aims have not yet been met. If CCP continues to tweak the mechanics that were put in place so that 0.0 can support more players per system and adjust the SBU mechanics so that it’s possible to take systems from an enemy in a different timezone then we’ll be well on the way.
Once those two core issues are resolved then it will be much more attractive, not to mention possible, for smaller alliances to get a foothold in 0.0 without needing to rent from a larger entity. None of this however fixes the underlying issue that there’s little reason for people who already own space to try and conquer more. That needs to be addressed.
What affect, if any, do you see the current lag situation having on the ability of the 0.0 alliances to prosecute their wars?
It’s huge and it’s an issue that CCP need to be seen to be on top of. When pushing a fleet into a system to make it crash becomes one of the best tactics for defending then there’s clearly something very wrong. I was on the wrong side of the Y-2 massacre and I’ve also been in fights where I was shooting people who clearly hadn’t loaded grid yet. That’s not what anyone wants the game to be.
How would you encourage a shift from big fleet battles to small gang warfare, in order to combat lag, and also to allow more players to play a more meaningful role in 0.0 warfare?
Distribution of targets is pretty much the only way to achieve that. Currently the most reliable way to win is to bring more guys than the other side. That’s never going to change but if several targets have to be attacked and defended simultaneously then there’s a reason to not simply pile everyone in and curb-stomp a system.
What makes you different from those that went before you and how do plan on maintaining some form of continuity?
My professional career has been focussed on the same kind of work that the CSM is tasked with. As a community manager, my job amongst other things included taking the concerns of the player base to the devs in a manner that was clear and easy to digest. Likewise it also involved communicating back to the players why some of the things they wanted weren’t possible and what was being worked on.
A major part of my job was to look beyond the symptoms that players were reporting to the root cause and suggesting a fix for that. In general players are good at telling you what their issues are but they don’t always identify the right reason for it or they don’t think through the consequences of the change they’d like, thus you get very bad solutions that are worse than the problem they are supposed to fix. I have the design experience and the community experience to get to the root of the problem to make workable and effective suggestions.
How do you intend to publicise and promote the work of the CSM?
Through constant communication on the Jita Park Forums, I will also be making a public blog to keep players informed as to the work of the CSM and my role in it.
What would you consider your top priority as a CSM member?
To resolve the outstanding issues with Dominion and to work closely with CCP on the rollout of Tyrannis to make sure that it receives the continuous development that it needs.
If you are one of the candidates who has been on the CSM before, what would you do differently this time around?
More communication and a better way of reporting to the players how CCP is working with the CSM. A lot of players don’t think that the CSM achieves anything because there is such a long lead time before changes brought up by the CSM are seen in game. While a lot of CCP communication is under an NDA, there is still a lot more that can be done to show how the CSM is helping to shape the future of the game.
Crazy Kinux recently posed the question of how to encourage more female gamers to play eve as part of his monthly Blog Banter. What do you feel EVE is missing that would encourage more women gamers to play, or is it simply a case of changing the marketing and not the game?
There are a lot of women playing Eve already, I feelthat the game doesn’t need to change but that the presentation could be improved. Firstly by improving the new player experience and the UI (which would benefit new players of either gender) but also to do a better job of emphasising the other aspects of Eve apart from combat. Not that girls aren’t interested in combat of course but by pointing out all the other gameplay options in Eve there’s more chance of attracting those girls who aren’t primarily interested in spaceship combat.
If you could only pick one issue currently on the first page of the Jita Assembly hall forums, which one would it be and why?
I would say the t2 close range ammo rebalancing is the proposal with the most merit on the front page at the moment (26th April).
Purely hypothetical, and only because its a question that was put forward by a lot of people when I asked the tweetfleet what they would ask each of the candidates; how much do you think a vote in these elections is worth (in ISK or otherwise)?
Everyone’s vote is important but the value of a vote is relative. The difference between my position as 1st alternate and the lowest full delegate was only 19 votes. Those 19 votes would have been worth a lot more to me than 19 random votes for Elvenlord who was elected as chairman by a decent margin.
Is there anything else you would like to say to prospective voters?
Voting for me is a vote for professionalism and a voice on the CSM that understands both sides of the discussion. I bring a unique perspective to the CSM and I would like to use that for everyone’s benefit.
