The Faction Warfare Candidate Problem

  

As many of you may be aware I have been interviewing various candidates for the CSM. One thing that seems to crop up is the desire to represent FW in the CSM. However, there are some particular concerns about having a single representative for FW. Today we discuss this problem further, and speculate on some solutions.


Tags: Ashterothi, CSM 12, Factional Warfare

About the author

Ashterothi

Ashterothi has spent the last five years learning and teaching EVE Online. He is a host on the highly successful High Drag and Hydrostatic Podcast.


  • Viince_Snetterton

    Right, a single rep for FW, but it is OK to have ZERO reps for high sec.

    • Ashterothi

      I never suggested such a thing. The last two CSM have had a HS rep, and this year there is a very interesting coalition of HS reps forming. I wish them the best of luck.

      • Viince_Snetterton

        A high sec rep? You talking about about Steve? Not a chance. And if you are talking about Mike, a wet paper towel has more strength of character when it comes to fighting the RMT cartels.

  • Joe

    I think Hans was a very honest person and think he tried to do what was best for faction war as a whole. The problem was his input was primarily from Minmatar because that is naturally who he flew with. So many of the issues minmatar thought were problems were the problems he raised with ccp. (giving for defensive plexing, severely reducing the vp per plex, not making bugs that prevented plexes from spawning a huge priority, not recognizing the huge impact rabbit plexing had etc.) The whole sliding in plexes was only an issue with fweddit because they were new to faction war. The rest of the amarr militia knew they were just ignorant of the mechanics.

    Its not clear that people who are in faction war now would be a good rep to help faction war.

    Faction war has been broken by rabbit plexers for many years – actually its been that way from the start. The people still in faction war, and care about sov as a whole at all, are essentially playing such a small niche game that it is far from clear that implementing thier views would be good for the overall health of fw or eve. It seems to me that CCP has to recognize why so many people have become disenchanted with faction war and do not find fighting for sov fulfilling. That is not to say that the plexes are not fun – they are. But the plexes are just as fun for pirates as they are for fw players. And many in faction war don’t really care about gaining sov for thier faction or gaining tiers. Its just more or less random pvp.

    There are allot of people who understand the mechanics of faction war very well but have decided they are horribly broken. They often leave faction war. CCP has promised to fix these issues with timer rollbacks and better intel tools but they never followed through with their promises.

    Over time the pvpers eventually got tired of the majority of sov being decided by rabbits and left fw and or eve altogether. Their voices have been ignored so long they gave up. And many people who don’t really mind sov being a race of rabbit plexing alts are still in fw.

    Just like if you only ask people who tip cows whether cow tipping is worthwhile you will get a different response then if you ask a larger community. Or again I remember reading a study that said a large majority of Catholic Priests thought the celibacy oath was not too stringent. Well of course they thought that, or they wouldn’t have taken it. So it seems to me that the faction war community is not necessarily a good place to find someone who can help faction war.

  • Luhen Ostus

    I believe that the current issues that are in FW are shared among all the factions. One of the major problems that faces everyone is awoxing fellow friendly faction members and taking faction standing hits. I think everyone in FW would agree on this and that we want to be split into four sides and not just two.

  • Grimwood

    If someone wanted to be a FW rep, you would have to have little to no reputation among the existing FW members. Consider someone high profile like Yuri Antollare running for CSM, this dude has called calmil and other lowsec people every awful name under the sun. This causes deep rooted animosity that you cant just “LOLCSM” away.
    Current example: Scylus Black leads Templis. He hates people who work against (Kill) his organization in the militia, however when his leadership/members do the same thing he turns a blind eye. Even as a Calmil rep, he does not have the support of all of Calmil #Subsparx4CSM

  • Joe

    I thought I posted here before but perhaps the comment was lost. If it comes back you can delete the first one.

    The rep should know about faction war mechanics but it would not need to be in faction war. This is because faction war just needs a few minor but very important tweaks. The overall structure of plexing and gaining vp to capture a system is a good one.

    Hans was and honest person and I am confident he was not just trying to help minmatar. Everything he did I am fairly sure he thought would be for the good of fw as a whole. The problem was he was normally on coms with minmatar so natrurally the views of the minmatar is what he would hear most often. So he ended up trying to ensure things that helped the minmatar would stay ahead (they had a huge lead during his term). For example he pushed the following things that all helped the winning side: give lp for defensive plexing, made sure it took more vp (plexes) to capture a system, did not prioritize having ccp fix a bug that prevented plexes from spawning before inferno changes hit so minmatar could prevent amarr from taking systems, concured with opinions that said farmers were not that big of a problem and the losing side (amarr) were just crying, pushed for changes to end the cashout which lead to a more stagnant game. On the other hand he did do some things that benefited amarr. He pushed to make sure the rats were balanced (but this was really late in the game) The whole gate sliding issue was only an issue with fweddit. They were new to faction war at the time and were simply ignorrant of the mechanics.

    The main problem I see with a fw member being on csm is fw has been broken by rabbit plexers for so long I am not sure anyone who still does faction war has a decent perspective on the problem. For every player who still cares about faction war sov there are probably hundreds who have become disenchanted with the broken system. CCP said they would fix this with timer rollbacks and better intel tools for when plexes are being attacked, but never delivered. In the mean time lots of pvpers gave up on fw and even eve generally. Would those who are still in faction war understand the perspective of so many who became disenchanted? Lets say you ask people generally whether cow tipping is worthwhile and fun game play. Now lets say you just get the opinion of people who regullarly do cow tipping. See how the latter views might be skewed? What ccp did by leaving fw broken for so many years is they have basically created a tiny group in fw that for whatever reason doesn’t mind the major problems that have turned so many other players off.

    I think *any* csm can and should just ask ccp whether they still intend to do what they promised with respect to faction war (1. better intel tools and 2. timer rollbacks) and if they are not then ask why not. Last we heard from devs on this issue was years ago when they assured us rollbacks were still being planned.