In recent months, the relationship between CCP and it's customers
has been the subject of some controversy. The player-elected Council of
Stellar Management has played a key role in these events, but not for
the first time they are finding CCP difficult to deal with. What effect
will CCP's recent strategies have on the future of EVE Online and it's
player-base? What part can and should the CSM play in shaping that
future? How best can EVE Online's continued health and growth be
assured?
I think the question is not so much about how the creators of a video game are going to best interact with their consumer-base, I find that this question has bigger implications. The EVE player-base is critical to CCP's success. Without those who play the game, the company fails. From a player-standpoint, when a company stops providing the best product for its consumers, its time to find a new producer. Thus, it makes sense that CCP created the CSM.
When the CSM has difficulty dealing with those it is present to deal with, it creates a strange situation for CCP. Lets remember that the CSM is groundbreaking, an idea that (to my knowledge) has never been done before. No other video-game producing company has gone to such lengths to hear-out their players. The idea alone used to be enough to keep some people going with CCP. "They care about my opinions, which is why they have the CSM."
CCP needs to be clear - the CSM is, for better or for worse, the embodiment of the entire Eve Online Player Base. If CCP smites an idea of the CSM, or worse, a concern that the CSM brings up, then they are in turn smiting the entire Player Base.
I think that the CSM should be as key a portion of the CCP team as the Design team, artwork and story teams, etc. For something to break ground with CCP in a release, the CSM should have a hand in it. But as such, CCP need to broaden the CSM horizons further. If E-Online's continued health and growth are to be assured, then CCP must ensure that the CSM consists of people from ALL walks of Eve Life, not just Goons, Test, BDeal, and the ebil Russians. There needs to be input from smaller alliances, corps, and new players - what will cause Eve to grow is these smaller groups being able to grow with ease, rather than having tools in place to sustain the big-guys. Ideally, it should be harder to maintain super-alliances... but that is a different topic altogether.
If Eve is to continue to be a cutting-edge game that we all know, love, and hate... then CCP needs to ensure that the game is taking some directional advice from the most important people around in the universe - the players.
CCP, always be ignorant of your players wishes... unless you're literate. Never be literate. #sarcasm
