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I am a mentor to newbies and facilitator for their learning. I see firsthand how players struggle with EVE's learning curve, and how individual guidance and mentoring can transform them into confident, empowered players excited about EVE. I want to give every newbie the same opportunity to become excited about the game that I am only able to give a few dozen newbies at a time today.
CCP should hear from members of small groups about achievable objectives for small gangs and restricting power projection by incumbent groups. I will make the perspective of the small pirate corp/alliance that wants to plant their flag in null one day heard in the dialogue with CCP.
I have the expertise to hold CCP accountable to realistic goals, and to translate player demands into clear and reasonable requests to CCP. I will be unapologetic about calling out vaporware bullshit promises without delivery, and will hold CCP's feet to the fire about making progress towards a healthier, more stimulating game.
Greetings, fellow capsuleers.
I've been playing EVE for approximately two and a half years, since May 2012. My experiences are fairly diverse - I do everything ranging from 50-100 person fleets helping contest sov, 5-20 person small roams/local defense, wormholes, teaching classes to newbies, and running moon reaction farms. However, I feel that I am most qualified to speak about the challenges of being a small, independent entity PVPing in nullsec, and about the struggles of newer players.
Since August 2013, I have led one of the smallest and least veteran-heavy alliances active in sov nullsec, Of Sound Mind. We have lived in Providence, lived in wormholes, lived in Curse, lived in Syndicate, and most recently have been a part of the HERO Coalition living in Catch. However, my sovereignty and bloc isn't my identity -- my identity is as a mentor to newbies and facilitator for their learning first and foremost, regardless of who we fly with and where we live. I have maintained an active killboard since the very first week I've played EVE, and always have a boots on the ground perspective as to things that are fun/working well and things that are resulting in a stagnant game.
My perspective is unique because of my ongoing individual work with the new players we train every single day. I see firsthand how players struggle with EVE's learning curve, and how a little bit of individual guidance and mentoring can help transform them into confident, empowered players excited about EVE. I want to make that scale, and give every newbie joining EVE the same opportunity to become excited about the game that I had, and that I am only able to give a few dozen newbies at a time with the resources I have today.
My experience isn't merely the sum of my ingame activities. I have the expertise to hold CCP accountable to realistic goals, and to translate player demands into clear and reasonable requests to CCP. I have previously worked in the MMORPG space as a software engineer/anti-botting/anti-cheating czar working on Puzzle Pirates. I have substantial project management skills as well as software engineering skills, so I can easily determine whether something is realistically possible for CCP to implement, or whether it would suck time away from more important development work for comparatively little gain. I will be unapologetic about calling out vaporware bullshit promises without delivery, and will hold CCP's feet to the fire about making progress towards a healthier, more stimulating game.
In keeping with what I said about my experience, I won't promise things as part of my campaign platform that I am unable to deliver. I won't promise you REBALANCED SOV NOW!!!oneoneone, but I will promise to make the perspective of the small pirate corp/alliance that wants to plant their flag in null one day heard in the ongoing dialogue with CCP about evolving game mechanics. I won't promise you REDO ALL THE TUTORIALS, but I will be insistent about pointing out to CCP the pain points felt by the new players I work with every day. I won't be able to fix power projection with a snap of my fingers, but I can speak to the ways in which I feel that current power projection mechanics help/hinder fights today, and speak up if I see instances in which Malcanis's Law that "changes designed to help new players help experienced players/incumbents more" may be coming into play. Furthermore, I am always willing to open-mindedly listen to perspectives that I initially disagree with, and am comfortable advocating for the overall position of the community rather than only presenting my own views.
Some of my past writing on sov mechanics, coalitions, and force projection may give you an idea of my views on things that are working and not working about EVE's mechanics today.
Here are some overall principles that I will adhere to when speaking to CCP if I am elected:
I look forward to answering any questions that the community may have for me. I'll collate my answers in a post below this one in order to make reading them at once easier.