The final result is in for The Mittani's punishment against his ill advised comments at fanfest. To limit the damage Mittens had already apologised to the victim, as he should have, and donated a significant sum of ISK to him as well. Additionally Mittens decided to step down from the position of CSM chairman with the intention of retaining an ordinary place on the CSM.
It appears this plan had failed to succeed to appease CCP. Yesterday CCP issued a statement that Mittens would be receiving a 30 day ban as per their Ts&Cs. As a result, Mittens would not be eligible to sit on CSM7 at all.
So, what does this mean for the CSM? Well, CCP and the CSM just lost one of the most successful CSM members to date. They have also just removed the single most popular candidate ever, regardless of behind the scenes machinations. Let's look at the numbers:
This CSM had the highest turnout of any CSM vote so far at 16.63%, which equates to 59,109 votes. Mittens himself received 10,058 votes which was more than double any other single candidate and around a quarter of the total successful votes. With Mittens' participation excised from CSM7 we might as well cancel out all ten thousand votes he received meaning a equivalent voter turnout of 13.8%.
This equivalent voter turn out is less than the turnout for the highly effective CSM6 but still more than the less effective CSM5. The main thing I understand from CSM5 is that they apparently built a solid foundation for CSM6 but did little else other than mass-resign. So, let's see if CSM7 has the player support to actually do something useful this term now that CCP has removed 23% of their influence. It will also now be interesting to see who takes the position of Chair - Two Step or Trebor.
29 March 2012
27 March 2012
Serious Internet Business
So there has been one hell of a shit storm kicked up in the aftermath of the Alliance Panel feature of Fanfest. The issue in question is that of a drunk Mittani's questionable content during his presentation, and the later suggestion that people may want to go grief a certain player into taking his own life.
There have been calls for Mittens to resign from the CSM, which he has offered to do but so far has not. These calls come both from the player base at large and also from a certain CSM alternate who almost wasn't (umadbro?). In my opinion this whole situation has been blown up to a ridiculous proportion for no particularly good reason other than pretend politicians politicking for their own perceived gain or players who think "Goons Are Evil" ™.
Now it was definitely wrong for Mittens to go down the route of naming this player and suggesting others go gank him to push him over the edge. It is questionable whether Mittens should have included the content at all, but this is the internet and people who air their private lives to people they don't know shouldn't really expect privacy. Mittens himself says being drunk is no excuse and he's correct. Traditionally throughout the drinking world more allowances are given to people who're inebriated unless someone has an ulterior motive to suggest otherwise.
Drunk or not,though, we do need to accept blame for stupid things we do. I bet nobody calling for Mittens' head on a stick can claim to have never ever done something stupid and hurtful to someone else, drunk or otherwise. To expect Mittens to resign off the back of this is somewhat hypocritical.
If you are one of these people calling for his resignation you need to ask whether you want him to resign because what he did is genuinely wrong (and you need to be sure you've never made such a mistake yourself - ever) or if you just want him to resign because he's the head Goon. If the former applies then is it really more harmful to the game to have him on the CSM considering the potential positive benefits he brings to the table? If the latter then you clearly don't actually care about Eve and are just looking to grief Mittens and are, thus, just as bad as the Goons themselves.
Just to be clear, I am not a Goon nor have I ever been one or plan on ever flying with them. I do not agree with their method of playing the game by ruining everyone else's game. I do find their antics amusing from time to time, even if they adversely affect me. I also did not spend any of my votes on Mittens, not that he would have needed them in any case.
What I do think is that Mittens has been good for the CSM and unlike a certain friend of mine I think the CSM does have a role to play in the future of Eve. If CCP use the CSM as a sounding board it is probably one of the most effective ways for CCP to determine if the next great feature idea is actually a great idea or yet another lemon. The big problem is the 'if' is not certain. What is certain is that CCP will not use the CSM if the CSM does not exist or is ineffective at what they are meant to do.
I'm going to leave this now but if you want a much better analysis of this whole issue then Jester has written a long post about this whole situation with even more links to more discussion.
There have been calls for Mittens to resign from the CSM, which he has offered to do but so far has not. These calls come both from the player base at large and also from a certain CSM alternate who almost wasn't (umadbro?). In my opinion this whole situation has been blown up to a ridiculous proportion for no particularly good reason other than pretend politicians politicking for their own perceived gain or players who think "Goons Are Evil" ™.
Now it was definitely wrong for Mittens to go down the route of naming this player and suggesting others go gank him to push him over the edge. It is questionable whether Mittens should have included the content at all, but this is the internet and people who air their private lives to people they don't know shouldn't really expect privacy. Mittens himself says being drunk is no excuse and he's correct. Traditionally throughout the drinking world more allowances are given to people who're inebriated unless someone has an ulterior motive to suggest otherwise.
Drunk or not,though, we do need to accept blame for stupid things we do. I bet nobody calling for Mittens' head on a stick can claim to have never ever done something stupid and hurtful to someone else, drunk or otherwise. To expect Mittens to resign off the back of this is somewhat hypocritical.
If you are one of these people calling for his resignation you need to ask whether you want him to resign because what he did is genuinely wrong (and you need to be sure you've never made such a mistake yourself - ever) or if you just want him to resign because he's the head Goon. If the former applies then is it really more harmful to the game to have him on the CSM considering the potential positive benefits he brings to the table? If the latter then you clearly don't actually care about Eve and are just looking to grief Mittens and are, thus, just as bad as the Goons themselves.
Just to be clear, I am not a Goon nor have I ever been one or plan on ever flying with them. I do not agree with their method of playing the game by ruining everyone else's game. I do find their antics amusing from time to time, even if they adversely affect me. I also did not spend any of my votes on Mittens, not that he would have needed them in any case.
What I do think is that Mittens has been good for the CSM and unlike a certain friend of mine I think the CSM does have a role to play in the future of Eve. If CCP use the CSM as a sounding board it is probably one of the most effective ways for CCP to determine if the next great feature idea is actually a great idea or yet another lemon. The big problem is the 'if' is not certain. What is certain is that CCP will not use the CSM if the CSM does not exist or is ineffective at what they are meant to do.
I'm going to leave this now but if you want a much better analysis of this whole issue then Jester has written a long post about this whole situation with even more links to more discussion.
26 March 2012
On Building T3s
After a long training queue, Dhal is finally in a position to start building T3 subsystems for Tengus. The skill for building the actual T3 hull, Cruiser Construction, is a slightly long one so is on hold for now while I get the skills to build all the different faction T3 subsystems.
Until this year Dhal had pretty much been wandering the universe with no point or purpose. Even though he's been a capsuleer for many years he had yet to focus on any single career. With Orea moving away into wormhole space it was time to actually focus on some other aspect of the game and industry seemed a good choice.
The interesting thing about low skilled industry is the margins are generally quite low. Randomly picking something to start building can be a bad decision and I quickly discovered there is nothing to be made building frigates or cruisers. Even if you do all the work from scratch - mining, refining, research, building, selling - the return on time is rather low.
To actually make decent ISK from the manufacturing venture I had to sit down with spreadsheets and work out potential profit per month. This was a very organised method compared to the fail method of randomly picking interesting things to build and giving it a go. Ammo is the eternal cash cow and by sitting down and making a proper plan I now turn a tidy profit. All of which has been funnelled back into the T3 business.
Unlike last year, Dhal now won't be seen anywhere near an asteroid belt or near a refinery. I now just buy materials as and when I need them. I guess the next plan is to start using buy orders to further improve the profit margin.
Until this year Dhal had pretty much been wandering the universe with no point or purpose. Even though he's been a capsuleer for many years he had yet to focus on any single career. With Orea moving away into wormhole space it was time to actually focus on some other aspect of the game and industry seemed a good choice.
The interesting thing about low skilled industry is the margins are generally quite low. Randomly picking something to start building can be a bad decision and I quickly discovered there is nothing to be made building frigates or cruisers. Even if you do all the work from scratch - mining, refining, research, building, selling - the return on time is rather low.
To actually make decent ISK from the manufacturing venture I had to sit down with spreadsheets and work out potential profit per month. This was a very organised method compared to the fail method of randomly picking interesting things to build and giving it a go. Ammo is the eternal cash cow and by sitting down and making a proper plan I now turn a tidy profit. All of which has been funnelled back into the T3 business.
Unlike last year, Dhal now won't be seen anywhere near an asteroid belt or near a refinery. I now just buy materials as and when I need them. I guess the next plan is to start using buy orders to further improve the profit margin.
23 March 2012
Visions Of New Eden - IX
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| No, I'm not flying Minmatar. Yes, that is a wreck. |
21 March 2012
Recruiting
It has been an interesting time in the corp recently as we've been recruiting. Recruiting is always an interesting time as, for me, it gives equal measures of intrigue and trepidation. Are the new people coming into the corp genuine? Do they want to steal all our ISK (not that we have vast sums)? Are they just wanting to mess with us? It's all the fear of the unknown, of course, and completely irrational (maybe).
This time we are being very aggressive. We normally only recruit between three and five new members, expecting only two or three to stick around. This time we are going for closer to 30. I imagine that we expect about 20 to stick around and this represents a significant increase in corp size.
So with this in mind I shouldn't be too concerned when I turn on comms and don't recognise a few names. At least getting chatting eases my concerns as these new recruits seems nice enough. I really don't spend enough time socialising with everyone recently due to other commitments so I guess I shouldn't be too hard. Well, maybe just my normal level of taking the mick - no point giving a false impression now. Anyway, I should have an evening of drunken piloting coming up real soon so they new guys will get to know me better then...
So, interested in wormhole life? Join the "Z3R0 Return Mining Recruitment" comms channel and come chat with us. We're almost at the end of this round of recruiting but it's always better to come find out about us in advance.
This time we are being very aggressive. We normally only recruit between three and five new members, expecting only two or three to stick around. This time we are going for closer to 30. I imagine that we expect about 20 to stick around and this represents a significant increase in corp size.
So with this in mind I shouldn't be too concerned when I turn on comms and don't recognise a few names. At least getting chatting eases my concerns as these new recruits seems nice enough. I really don't spend enough time socialising with everyone recently due to other commitments so I guess I shouldn't be too hard. Well, maybe just my normal level of taking the mick - no point giving a false impression now. Anyway, I should have an evening of drunken piloting coming up real soon so they new guys will get to know me better then...
So, interested in wormhole life? Join the "Z3R0 Return Mining Recruitment" comms channel and come chat with us. We're almost at the end of this round of recruiting but it's always better to come find out about us in advance.
19 March 2012
Atmospheric Flight
So, being stuck out in hisec I decided to refresh my atmospheric flight skills. Handily I had been shopping in Jita and the best Temperate planet I know for atmospheric flight has to be New Caldari Prime which, funnily enough, is in the New Caldari system right next door to Jita.
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| Small Blue Marble |
It was relatively trivial to hire myself a small aircraft for my little challenge. I registered a little surprise at a capsuleer booking such low-tech transportation, but I guess that's only to be expected. I also assume I was grossly overcharged but the extra cost probably means more to the owner of the aircraft than me so that is also not a problem.
Once on board the airplane I had to undertake a series of manual checks. I mean, I'm not in a pod so if this baby goes down it's probably going to hurt... or worse. Everything seemed to check out fine which is what I would expect when paying good money to hire something All that was left was for me to taxi to the runway and take this ship, sorry, plane up into the air.
I really enjoy the extra mental challenge required by having to balance real forces against each other. In my Tengu I pretty much point and click where I want to go (mentally, of course). In the aeroplane I have much more to consider: speed, altitude, attitude, am I upside down?! There actually feels like some skill is involved in just flying this thing. I would dread to think of the extra workload required to do all that whilst also getting involved in combat. Now that would be some challenge, eh?
Clearly I survived my little jolly otherwise I wouldn't be regaling you with this tale, but I'll leave you with the following set of pictures to ponder just how I managed it. Now, who want's to try this in a Rifter?
16 March 2012
Visions Of New Eden - VIII
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| Sleeper Information Sanctum |
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