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Daily Column

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Iceland remains in my heart, mind, head, stomach, and lungs today, so my apologies for a late Loading... today as I try and fend off the full-blown flu and get the rest of my articlesposted from EVE FanFest 2008.

The question for today: how much of a role should players have in shaping the future of a game? This was the big, overarching question in the open panel where EVE Online's Council of Stellar Management (CSM) - an elected player council that's had the painful task of standing between dev decisions and player concerns for the last six months - faced a grueling line of questioning from the crowd that was clearly expecting more from the CSM than was delivered.

Items that did make were eventually approved and implemented into EVE, like a suicide ganking nerf and minor ship rebalancing efforts, were weighed and found wanting against larger, unresolved issues like a training skills queue and reducing the spiralling dominance of Alliances with a growing number of Titans, by far the strongest ship in the game.

For their part, CSM members admitted they couldn't come to an agreement on some of the finer points of the biggest issues. Had they done so, they felt that CCP would have taken some form of action and may still do so in the future. To a person, each agreed that the CSM is worthwhile, voicing their belief that EVE is such a complex, sandbox-style game with a playerbase chock full of conflicting interests that some sort of voice of the common player is needed. Otherwise CCP is in greater danger of losing touch with how people are playing the game, which in turn may lead CCP to continue designing for a relatively small portion of the playerbase.

CCP reps tried to stay in the shadows during the panel, allowing the CSM to face off with their constituents, but in opening remarks they also agreed that the process was both instructional and worthwhile. While I'm usually content to play the game that the developers develop and judge it on its own merits, I have to agree when it comes to predominantly player-run games like EVE. If players are helping to make the game (especially through alliances in regions outside empire control), giving them a voicemakes all the sense in the world.

When a new CSM is elected next spring, expectations management will likely be first on the agenda. As in any representative democracy, job one is to let some air out of the promises you were elected upon, and why should EVE be any different?

Premium Members - Be sure to check out our latest offer to jump into the Fusion Fall closed beta. The offer will only be available for an extremely limited time!

Post your thoughts in the Loading... forum, or just email me with your response to the FanFest announcements.

Ten Ton Hammer Epic Thread of the Day

Sometimes they're funny; sometimes they're foolish; sometimes they're flaming;
sometimes they're cool. Whatever this one happens to be, it's
our Epic Thread of the Day.

====================
From our WoW: The Water Cooler Forum

Why are the Ten Ton Hammer WoW forums unique?

It's
just a little thread right now, but since word of mouth is the best
form of advertisement we're not going to hesitate to spread the love.

"What
is it that makes these forums different than most other WoW
forums?" community member SmallDog asks. "Why are these forums
populated with helpful people who do not
make demeaning posts...?" Why, indeed. It's not the moderation--we keep
that to a very bare minimum. Maybe Mikes has the answer to SmallDog's
question in today's Awesome Quote. Got your own answer to share? The
line to suck up to us...er, to express your opinions forms right here.

Awesome Quote from the Epic Thread:

"It is really down to the community, the modding is kept to a bare
minimum and usually held for gold seller ads, so it is really down to
you guys."

- Mikes
====================

Do you have a favorite Epic Thread? Let us know!

7 new MMOG hand-crafted articles today! 56 in November! 2853 in 2008!

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