Interview With CCP Leeloo II

The wonderful CCP Leeloo once again sat down with me to answer a few questions about the CSM (as well as other topics), this time with questions sourced from the r/eve subreddit. Enjoy!

Q1: The most upvoted question from /u/withoutska was to do with the new ruling in the whitepaper with regards to gaming media sites. There has been a lot of community interest in this over the last few days. Specifically, the new rule prevents those who receive real money from sites that cover non-CCP titles from running for CSM, notably invalidating current CSM 10 member Sion Kumitomo from running for CSM 11. Sion has claimed that he has privately been told that this new rule was created specifically to target him, can you comment on whether or not this is accurate? It seems that CCP would just be well within their right to say they wouldn’t want him on CSM any more and block him directly if that were the case.

CCP Leeloo: I think I’ve already answered this a few times. If we would want to exclude someone in particular… well, we’d have done that 🙂

Q1.5: So you are saying that he was not told the rule was made about him by anyone from CCP?

CCP Leeloo: Someone may have told him something like this, but it’s not true, and certainly not something anyone at CCP would say.

Q2: Further, /u/withoutska goes on to ask what the difference is between TMC, EN24 and CZ is in the eyes of CCP when it comes to being “gaming media” sites, can you please clarify the CCP position on that and what specifically differentiates them?

CCP Leeloo: TMC is an actual business, unlike others, who are just fansites. Also a very important thing is the fact that TMC is covering other games apart from EVE.

Q3: /u/ Hootenheimer asks whether being interviewed by a prospective CSM candidate (#ApothneForCSM11) worries you, that it may show favouritism or bias towards some candidates over others for the upcoming elections. What is your stance on this?

CCP Leeloo (rom reddit): Nope. I’ve not denied a single interview request this year and not planning to. If a CSM candidate also happens to make sure people can throw in their questions about it – I don’t see it as a problem.

Q4: Directly from /u/HendrickColie; “Are you fine to run for the csm if you are a ‘shareholder’ for a gaming website that covers materials besides EVE?”

CCP Leeloo: Nope. Your application would get rejected.

Q5: /u/BlueNexus3D asks; “What is CCP planning to do in retaliation to the destruction of those two citadels?”

CCP Leeloo: I can’t comment on that at the moment. Wait and see (:. The destroyed “Citadels” were platforms for Citadel construction, not actual Citadels.

Q6: /u/Stupid1324 asks possibly the most important question in the thread: “What is your favourite cheese?”

CCP Leeloo: Anything that goes well with that w(h)ine on reddit 😉

Q7: /u/Hanzo44 is worried about doxxing, he asks “Do you think that the change to CSM policiy in regards to who can join the CSM could lead to doxxing attempts during the campaigning process?”

CCP Leeloo: I don’t think so, besides, it would be quite challenging as the only information we reveal is a character name. I also think that a lot of people will reveal their real names on their own, it’s something we’ve seen happening last year.

Q8: One for your colleague CCP Kitteh, /u/vladcetes asks “What is your favorite treat? Favorite spot to sleep? And best place to receive rubs?”

CCP Leeloo: Hm, so his favourite treat would be chicken, spot to sleep – on top of CCP Falcon and the place to receive rubs – tummy.

Q9: A somewhat indirect approach, maybe he’s a little nervous, /u/jeffraider asks if you’ll come on his podcast “THE JEFFRAIDER SHOW” also known as “Under the Mango Tree with JEFFRAIDER”?

CCP Leeloo: He can throw in a request to media@ccpgames.com will definitely look into it 🙂

Q10: /u/Physics_Prop asks “What’s it like organizing CSM members in all the different time zones/schedules?”

CCP Leeloo: Terrible. I have this huuuuge table where I mark preferable time slots for each CSM member and then I just try to force people to stay late at the office to hit most of these slots 😀

Q11: From /u/ baltakatei “Players devoted to which type of gameplay would developers like to see more represented on the Council? Highsec haulers? Lowsec small gang PvP? Highsec miners? Station traders? New player trainers? Some other group?”

CCP Leeloo: That’s a good question. Ideally I would say one of each.

Q12: /u/Barlk wants to know a bit more about how CSM 10 has done, asking “Looking back on CSM X, what do you think went well compared to previous CSMs and what do you think needs to be changed? Specifically with regards to policy changes you made from CSM 9 to 10 and changes you are planning on making from CSM 10 to 11.”

CCP Leeloo: One big thing that we need to look at is how the CSM fits within our internal processes, which is what we are working on at the moment. Removing chairman and other roles from the CSM proven to be a good approach. Also releasing meeting minutes proven to be a great change as well as the new CSM portal.

Q13: /u/Gustace starts a lengthy comment chain on whether the CSM is worthwhile at all, asking “Given how used, abused and useless the CSM has been, what’s the point of spending resources in it?”. Further, what would you say to players who have lost faith in the CSM or believe it hasn’t served a useful purpose at all thus far?

CCP Leeloo: This one is very simple, the moment we decide there is no value in running the CSM will be the moment we stop running it. So far though, even with all the communication issues CSM is an incredibly powerful tool for both CCP and the players.

Q14: We have a question about promoting the CSM, making sure as many players as possible are aware of the CSM and its elections, to get maximum voter turnout possible. /u/Jenshae_Chiroptera asks “Why aren’t CSM details put into every Local like a MoTD before elections?”, further, is there anything new we can expect to see this year in or out of client to promote people voting in the upcoming elections?

CCP Leeloo: It would be great to put a big red banner that says “vote or get banned” but I don’t think that’s the approach to promote the Council. I don’t think we should be forcing it on people, firstly, because we would get random votes and secondly because there is an ethical side to it. We will be promoting elections of course, but to the sensible limits, it’s more important to show why you should vote than just rub it into players’ face.

Q15: Finally, /u/ineshidi wants to ask, how cute is this?

CCP Leeloo: