Bam Stroker
Corp/Alliance: Van Diemen's Demise/Pandemic Legion
Country: Australia
Internet Radio: Eve Down Under
Web site: EveMeet
Twitter: @bamstroker
Interviews:
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I'm perhaps best known among the EVE community as the organiser of EVE Down Under but I've also organised dozens of smaller, local player gatherings and have been involved with in-game communities like Redemption Road. I've appeared on nearly 100 episodes of the EVE Down Under internet radio show, I hatched the idea that led to www.evemeet.net and I've helped grow the AUTZ into the biggest and most engaged community of EVE players in the world.
It has been an amazing and rewarding experience, but along the way I've learned that building a community has many challenges, particularly when it comes to matters of administration and discoverability within the client.
I know better than to promise "if elected I will make CCP do X" because I understand that's not how the CSM works, but if I have a seat at the table I can advocate for practical, realistic improvements that would enhance the quality of life for the community builders who bring us all so much content.
I humbly ask for your support.
Hey guys, my name is Bam Stroker and I want to represent all of you on CSM X.
TL;DR (I think these go better at the top than the bottom) - 6 year Eve vet, organiser of EVE Down Under, does a weekly live internet radio show about Eve, helped to build the AUTZ into an active community that punches well above its weight, mastermind behind evemeet.com, EVE Bet marketing duder, foamy-mouthed crazy about getting Eve nerds together to foster relationships and generate content, friends with literally everyone. (Yes, even you.) I’m seeking a seat on the CSM to use that platform however I can to empower other community builders and special interest groups. Community, community, community! Also: community.
I rolled my first character in 2004 and spent several years in a cycle of unsubbing and resubbing a few times a year until Eve finally “clicked” for me 2009. I’ve been playing pretty much daily ever since.
Since then my in-game journey has taken me from mining and mission running in hisec, to small-gang PvP in Syndicate and living in low-end WHs to my current home as a line member of an AUTZ corporation in Pandemic Legion flying in sov.
But it’s the things I’ve done and am passionate about when I’m not actually undocked which are why I’m putting myself forward as a candidate for CSM, because as much as I love this stupid game about internet spaceships the thing that really engages me are the people that I share it with.
By now the role of the CSM and our understanding of it has matured beyond the early days of it naively being treated like some kind of fantastical wish-granting factory: i.e. "if you vote for me I'll make CCP do X". We now all better understand the CSM’s role as a stakeholder in the development process and its limitations. That said, it's reasonable to expect that each candidate brings their own particular priorities to the CSM and I'm no exception:
With apologies to James Carville: “It’s the community, stupid.”
MY PLATFORM
The engagement and interconnectedness of the community is as important to the long term health of Eve as the resist profile of an IHUB, addressing AFK cloaking or the distance a capital ship can jump.
In-game special interest groups (or as I’ll call them: “societies”) are entities that come together around a particular activity, interest, language, location or external social platform. These are things like NPSI communities, Incursion communities, lore and RPing groups, players from the same city or timezone, forums, Twitter etc.
These societies have a tremendous impact on the game. They generate content for players to exploit, whether those players are members of the society in question or or just third parties that encounter those groups out in space. Beyond in-game content, these societies foster and maintain relationships that keep players engaged and logging in which feeds back into the generation of content.
Societies are also a boon to the retention of new players, providing many of them with a place to get assistance or mentoring and expose them to the wide variety of experiences that Eve has to offer which they simply don’t find out about from the tutorials. *IF* new players know they even exist or how to find them, that is.
The biggest problems facing these societies (or would-be societies) right now are a lack of robust administration tools and a complete lack of discoverability within the client.
Meanwhile, real-life player gatherings are an extension of these in-game societies into the real world and they are an enormous amount of fun and incredibly powerful in solidifying bonds between players. As someone who has either organised or supported countless player gatherings ranging from small pub meetups to major, multi-day events I’m acutely aware of the challenges faced by people trying to get an endeavor like that off the ground.
Community often gets overlooked in CSM campaigns though because the burning issues that many players are seeking attention for relate to high-profile, single issue mechanics or balance problems (eg. fixing sov, Ishtars).
The CSM shouldn’t be so myopic though. Although those other issues are important, remember that CSM X will have 14 members. Even if you don’t get out of bed to vote there’ll still be predictable mix of representatives from nullsec, lowsec, hisec and WHs as well as a couple with special interests like the new player experience or third-party tools.
But I need your support to bring a dedicated community focus to the council. I’ll put community first and will look at matters brought before the CSM through the prism of how the community will be affected and advocate for anything practical that will improve the experience of community builders like myself, which in turn will benefit Eve players at large.
I want more of these societies to emerge, grow and thrive so that more players - whether you’re actually involved in a society or not - can benefit from the friendships and content that they provide. If you see the value in that too then I humbly ask for your vote in the upcoming election.
WHY I’M RUNNING NOW
I had previously considered running for both CSM 8 and 9. In the end I deferred and decided that I wouldn’t put my hand up until I felt like I had something to offer the CSM that nobody else could. I hadn’t intended to run this year either, but then Mangala Solaris messed that up.
I had read many of the things he’d posted calling for support for special interest groups in Eve and I spoke to him at length about it at EVE Vegas. Mang and I shared many common ideas and concerns for community support and it seemed to me he was the guy to carry it forward in the CSM. I could rest easy.
But when I found out he wouldn’t be seeking re-election for CSM I knew that I wouldn’t be able to just relax and let someone else take care of all the work - I had to put my hand up if I wanted to see this important agenda advanced to CCP and so here I am.
WHAT I’LL BRING TO THE CSM
In real life I work in subnational government, specifically “non-media communications”. Note the “non-” part before media - I’m not a spin doctor; my job is to articulate and disseminate information to a large body of people and efficiently process the feedback. I’m also used to working in small teams that require frequent and clear internal communication. I can think of few IRL jobs that would have as much relevance to a body like the CSM.
In addition to my IRL skill set, my involvement with EVE Down Under has put me in regular contact with CCP. I have established relationships with many of the developers and already have a respectable understanding of the structure and culture of the company. I have also followed the CSM closely for several years and I don’t expect it to be some kind of special snowflake social club. In fact I anticipate there will a great deal of frustration that accompanies the role, but I’m prepared for that and will do my utmost to deal with everyone involved - CCP, other members of the council and the players - with grace and respect.
EVE consumes a lot of my free time and I actually like it that way. I’ve kept up a constant pace for the last couple of years organising EVE Down Under, handling our social media, attending player gatherings, doing a weekly internet radio show, playing the game itself and working on numerous side projects. People can vote for me with confidence that I’m not going to give up and go afk or burn out since if that were going to happen it would have already happened well before now.
Any organisation I've been involved with has been left better off than when I found it. I have a thick skin, play well with others and there's no task - no matter how small or mundane - that I'm too proud to put time and effort into. I will be a hard working, accessible and reliable member of the CSM - qualities I have already demonstrated many times through the myriad other projects I've been involved with in Eve.
SOME THINGS I’VE DONE
EVE Down Under - organiser of what was the largest player-run gathering in the world last year.
The EVE Down Under Show - a weekly live internet radio show about Eve with an AUTZ twist.
EVE Meet - a site to connect people with local player gatherings in their area.
EVE Bet - marketing and promotions guy. It’s been my pleasure to provide hundreds of billions in ships, PLEX and ISK vouchers to numerous NPSI communities, blogs, podcasts and news sites and to shower nerds with swag at player gatherings around the world.
Appearances on EVE TV and (wow) actual TV:
EVE Vegas 2014 - in which I talk a lot about my feelings about community and player gatherings.
The o7 Show Ep 1 - promoting EVE Down Under.
EVE Fanfest 2014 - promoting EVE Down Under and the AUTZ.
ABC TV’s Good Game - includes some clips of me talking about the community during a story they ran on B-R. I also spearheaded the effort to get this segment produced and on the air.
IN CONCLUSION
Storytime: I was at a player gathering in Melbourne late last year. It was a big event with about 40 people in attendance and I got talking to a player who I hadn’t met before. During the the course of our conversation he told me that a few weeks earlier he had cancelled his subs and was just running down the clock because his corp had gone afk and he’d grown bored. By chance he found out about the meetup while browsing the Eve-O forums and decided he might as well come along.
He went on to tell me that he’d just met some guys from a corp that sounded fun and was going to go home, resub and apply to their corp. His story was one of the main inspirations that spurred me to create evemeet.net to enhance the discoverability of IRL player gatherings.
In some respects the community also functions as a kind of lifeboat providing that extra incentive to encourage people to stick with Eve, even when someone’s going through a rocky phase. Its importance cannot be understated and it deserves the attention of at least one CSM who is committed to it full-time.
I’ll do my best to answer questions if people have any, but if the main things on your mind are “How will you fix sov?” or “What would you do to balance sentry drones?” you might be disappointed. :)
Cheers,
Bam.
Feel free to contact me via evemail or @bamstroker on Twitter.