Kael Decadence
Country: United States
Character Created: 2006/09/09
Corp/Alliance: Entropy of Annihilation/Legio De Mortem
Podcast: The Mind Clash Podcast
Reddit: kaeldecadence
Twitter: @KaelDecadence
Eve-Who: Link
Eve Forum Posts: Link
zKillboard: Link
Media Appearances
Statecraft CSM Debates - Day 2, Session 1
Ballot Statement
I am a "No-Sec" candidate that wants to help EVERY player have a voice to CCP. I do not believe that only BLOC candidates should be on the council, and that someone needs to be a voice of the people. Let me be that voice.
I have been playing this game on an almost daily basis since 2014 after I finally realized that I should give this game a second look after first creating a character in 2006. Im glad I did and I haven't looked back since. For those that know me, I am in love with this game and have been actively participating in the game and in the greater community for years now.
Whether its by writing articles, hosting or guest staring on podcasts, or by engaging with new players in the help channels, I am there. I recently started an initiative called "EVE an Hour" to help put veteran players in a position where they can guide and mentor new players. This was right after the Ascension release.... which I felt went horribly.
Over the past few months I have been very vocal with my disappointment as to how CCP has conducted this change and feel that new players are not as important to them as they should be, or its just that CCP doesn't understand what they are doing wrong. I want to be that voice in the ear of the devs that tell them when they aren't on the right track, when they forget about the casual player, or don't take into account a brand new player.
I feel that CCP is missing the mark and will slowly decline unless they start focusing on the future of the players, and stop trying to make features better in the eyes of the veteran players.
Greetings all,
After much thought and discussions with my wife and friends, I have decided to finally put in my ticket as a candidate for the twelfth installment of the Council of Stellar Management. I actually intended to start campaigning this year for CSM XIII but I think there is no better time than now to see if I can gain more traction by running this year as well.
Who is Kael Decadence?
Well I’m glad you asked. While you may see that my character has been active since 2006, I wouldn’t say that I started playing EVE Online until 2013. Like many players, I found a free trial of the game, installed it and made my character, and had no damn idea how to play the game. It didn’t make sense and didn’t play like any other video game I had ever played. So I gave up. Every so often I would get an email from CCP letting me know that there was a free weekend for returning players to come check out the game again and see what was new, so I would install the game and recover my password only to be again disappointed and still not understanding how to play this game.
It wasn’t until I was in Afghanistan for my 4th deployment that I saw on a real news source, something about an EVE Online battle that costs tens of thousands of dollars. When I read about the Battle of 6VDT-H, I knew that I should take a second look at EVE Online. While I waited to get home to install the game, I took the time to start watching YouTube videos and learn everything that I could about how to play before I even stepped back into the game.
Since then I have been in a few corporations while I learned how to play for really the first time, and took longer than I would have liked to start feeling like I got it. Searching around on Google for a ship fit one day for an Algos, I came across a fit on a site for the High Drag Podcast. I knew what a podcast was, but didn’t realize that this game had one. So I started listening to everything they had. Then I realized there were more podcasts about this game I was starting to fall in love with. Then I found EVE Radio and DJ Big Country, the Podside Podcast, and so many more. I was hooked.
One Friday morning in Germany (which was when Podside with Manny Bothans aired live on Thursday stateside) I was invited to fill in as a guest for my favorite EVE Online Podcast, Podside’s Thirsty Thursday Edition. I kept coming back week after week to lend my voice to the show, even when the time changed and it was at 4 am for me. I didn’t care, I loved talking about this game that I loved now. I joined a Wormhole corp with Kazumi, one of the hosts, and learned so much more than I had to that point.
After making the rounds as a guest host on ever edition of the Podside Podcast before it shut down, an appearance on the Open Coms Show, and starring on Manny Bothans is Primary, I decided to start my own podcast with Meredudd. Nearing its 23rd episode, our show is now over 10,000 downloads and is syndicated on Crossing Zebras. Not only that, I have been a writer for Imperium news ever since I started a campaign called EVE an Hour.
Why am I running?
Over the past few months I have been very vocal about how the game needs to adapt to allow new players to more easily learn how to play the game. For a long while, even before the new NPE and Alpha Clone State, I had been adamant that CCP needed to make some changes to help new players get into the game. In 2016 I hosted an player meet up and started talking to new players (and recruiting prospective players) in the game, culminating in me starting the EVE an Hour campaign to help bridge the gap between veteran players and new Alpha Clones.
It amazed me how many players were joining the game and were in the same boat I was back in 2006. They joined the game because of all the advertising on game news websites about being free, but just a few hours into it they had no idea what to do. I decided to do the new “NPE” and started talking to people in the Rookie Help chat about it. From what I gathered by doing it myself, and from talking, nothing had been changed to REALLY help anyone want to continue with the game. If that had been the NPE that I experienced in ’06, I still would have left the game. It did nothing for me as a veteran, and wasn’t doing anything for these new players. Hence I started doing what I could to help new players find their way through the game.
What I found was that the ISD, Game Masters, and “official” representatives of CCP and EVE weren’t very helpful in the help channel and that the best help was found from players watching streamers and talking to other players. One day in rookie help I had been answering questions and pointing people to my Discord channel for two hours before a GM finally chimed in and said I couldn’t advertise my unbiased help in a help channel. TWO HOURS and I was the only person giving help and advise in a help channel before I was told that I wasn’t allowed to give that help.
If I wasn’t vocal about my desire to help new people before then, I was now. So if I have a platform at all, its to help new players. This is what I want to do.
What will I do if elected?
- Be a voice for those who still are learning to speak
- Be in a position where my help is taken more seriously and be legitimate
- Advocate on behalf of new players and help make the game more easily learned
- Show veteran players that its not their way or the space highway
Look, I know being a CSM doesn’t mean being a Junior Dev. I know that I can’t force changes onto CCP. What I can be is be a voice of reason when the developers are planning on, or have done something, that just doesn’t work for the entire player base. Having lived in every area of New Eden and tried my hand at everything, and having gone through the rough self taught method that I did, I feel that I am more able to present the ideas and frustrations that a new player might have.
In some respects, I still consider myself new and have so much more to learn, but at the same time I think my perspective and viewpoint is enough in line with the Alpha mindset that I can effect and provoke a strong dialogue. That is really what I want to be able to do, open the dialogue and bridge the gap between the old and new as I am somewhere in between.
How to Contact Me
Although I have made myself very accessible, there are probably a lot of people who don’t know how to contact me and might want to ask me questions. If you want to chat or ask about my thoughts on what I can do for you and CSM, reach out to me though the following methods;
@KaelDecadence on Twitter
@KaelDecadence on Tweetfleet Slack
Kael Decadence#0732 on Discord
/u/kaeldecadence on Reddit
And you can always reach out to me in game or here on the forums.
Thank you for reading my post and I wish good luck to all of the candidates for this CSM session.