Toxic Yaken

Character Created: 2014/03/12

Corp/Alliance: The Dickwad Squad/Legion de Mortem

Reddit: ToxicYaken-

Twitter: @Toxic_Yaken

Eve Who: Link

Eve-O Forums: Link

zKillboard: Link

Media Appearances

Crossing Zebras - Ashterothi Interview

Statecraft CSM Debates - Day 1, Session 3

Talking in Stations - Soundcloud - YouTube

Ballot Statement

I’m Toxic Yaken, and I’m running for CSM XII as a Highsec candidate. If elected, my main interests would be focused on wardecs, the new player experience, PVE, and ganking, while focusing on being a front facing and community serving member of the council, focusing on organizing discussions, roundtables, and interviews with the interest of gathering feedback on all subjects important to Highsec.

I’m Toxic Yaken, and I’m running for CSM XII as a Highsec candidate.

I have been playing EVE for about three years now, mostly as a Highsec pirate, ganker, and wardeccer. I’m currently flying with friends in Legio de Mortem in Nullsec as well as learning how to FC for Fly Fearless in Highsec.

Since running for CSM last year I realized that I wanted to be a community focused CSM member and decided to get myself into more projects, including the Wardec Project, as well as hosting a Wardec roundtable for informing the CSM of issues and ideas for wars. I’ve also been trying to keep up with small time interviews with Highsec players to gain a better perspective of what other Highsec players like and dislike.

For those interested on my focus, my interests include making improvements to wardecs, the new player experience, PVE, and ganking. That said I’m still happy to hear all suggestions and complaints regarding Highsec. My campaign thread includes more detailed thoughts that can be found below.

This year more than ever, we need Highsec representation on the CSM. That is why I am encouraging anyone who wants to see at least one Highsec council member to vote for myself, Commander Aze, and Roedyn as their top three picks. Even if your favoured of these three picks is not elected the other will stand a better chance within the voting system to get that seat. It’s time to vote strategically and vote for Highsec.

Campaign thread: https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=509164&find=unread

Contact Information:

Twitter - @Toxic_Yaken

Reddit - ToxicYaken-

Tweetfleet Slack - Toxic Yaken

Ingame - Toxic Yaken

Campaign Post

My name is Toxic Yaken, and I’m running for CSM XII as a Highsec Candidate.

About Me

I currently live with old friends in Nullsec as a member of the Dickwad Squad, part of Legio De Mortem and the larger Phoenix Federation in the South. I also maintain my Highsec funtimes with an alt in Fly Fearless trying to help newbros and learning how to FC against wardeccers, as well as having a ganking alt for funding my activities.

I’ve been playing EVE Online for about 3 years, with the vast majority of my time spent in Highsec as a scammer, pirate, ganker, and wardeccer. When I first heard of EVE Online I was enticed into the game by the prospect of “Being the Villain,” though I somewhat ironically ended up mining ice in Highsec. I lived in a bubble for my first few months, not really talking to anyone or learning anything, until one day I was ganked by CODE. for afk mining. This became a major turning point for me to actually delve deeper into the game to get revenge. After being part of several disappointing corporations that promised to teach me how to PVP, I came across the Belligerent Undesirables blog and was taught the ways of Highsec dickery. I started awoxing corporations and ganking to feed my addiction to building an ever-growing pile of loot, and friends that I made along the way also led to me joining wardec corporations, to better learn how to hunt and PVP. While I think I've softened a bit over the last few years, I still see Highsec as my home.

Last year, I ran for CSM to represent the ganking and wardeccing communities. I wanted to be honest to myself and represent the playstyles and lifestyles that I enjoy in EVE Online in spite of them being pretty small communities to draw support from. Knowing that I would run again this year, I tried to use my spare time to experiment with different projects that I thought would provide players with opportunities to communicate their opinions. During the summer, I started doing interviews with Highsec players to get a better grasp of what these players thought of different aspects of Highsec gameplay and posting these conversations on a blog. While these interviews were enjoyable and helped me gain a better perspective of what players thought about the game, I didn’t really like the format as means of collecting information, and many of the interviews that I started with players were never finished due to challenge of being online at the same time (My schedule wasn’t amazing.) During the Fall I organized a wardec roundtable for players and the CSM to discuss several issues with wardecs, which turned out great and was well received by those in the CSM that attended. As a follow up I also rebooted the Wardec Project, (originally conceived by Jason Quixos and Tora Bushido) where players are free to participate in discussions on the subject of wardecs and ways to potentially improve them on our open Discord channel and ideas are recorded for future referencing and discussion. (Feel free to hop on and join the conversation)

Communication

Over the course of the last few months there have been some complaints about visibility and communication of CSM XI with the community. A lot of work and discussions occur behind the scenes, and seeing CSM activity for oneself is a matter of knowing where to look. If you’re not part someone actively following along on appropriate media or with the CSM members themselves it can be kind of hard to find. The CSM website doesn’t even provide a good impression of the CSM’s activity or thoughts – most of the postings are almost a year old. On top of that, every elected candidate is going to have a different opinion of what their role in the CSM is supposed to be - we can look at Jin’Taan and Mr Hyde as an example. Jin’Taan has been actively organizing townhalls, slogging through chats, and trying to be at the forefront of relations with the community, while Mr Hyde’s stance has been that he was elected as a representative of his voters and when he needed other player’s opinions he would search for those he believed had a strong understanding of the subject matter. Neither of these styles of representation is ‘bad’, but they may not align with the expectations of some players. If elected, my plan would be to make the CSM more visible to the community by focusing on pushing out more community based discussions, including townhalls and open chats like I have for the Wardec Project, and working to expand promotions of these discussions for a greater participation.

Perspective

While smaller changes may be easier to push for, I want to try and follow the realistic expectation that the direction that CCP wants to development EVE may not align with my own opinions. My hope is that, if elected, I would be able to learn the path that CCP wants to follow and make suggestions that would benefit that vision. I recognize that while the staff of CCP may be willing to hear my opinions and those of the community, it is ultimately their game and their decisions. As such the following opinions on Highsec are my own, and this platform shouldn’t be taken as promises but rather where my mind is for these subjects.

New Player Experience

With the Ascension update we saw an influx of new and returning players and an update to the new player experience. The new introductory arc for teaching players the basics was definitely a step in the right direction, and I’m hopeful that the next iterations will build well off of what they have now. What I would like to see made part of the NPE is a better impression of the impact a player can have on their surroundings and universe. Choices and consequences have always been a big part of EVE, but the NPE as is exists only to teach the fundamentals and basic ways to make isk. With only a couple of hours on average to grab new players, even having the tutorial give examples of the kind of impacts they can make on the game could be enough to keep playing. I’ve also had a few newbros tell me that they thought the tutorial could stand to be longer, or alternatively offer advanced teachings that focused on educating players on more advanced mechanics like fleet UI or corporation mechanics. I also love the initiative that CSM members are making for basic suggested fittings of ships for newer players trying to figure out how to fit, and the flight academy tutorial videos needing to be made more visible to new players who are already struggling hardcore with learning all the UI already.

Corporations Social Groups

I have seen tons of fledgling Highsec corporations that more or less exist because corporations provide the social structure that guilds, clans, and clubs offer in other MMORPGs. Corporations are easy to setup and offer all the tools that the aforementioned social structures provide in other games, but these tools will sometimes be underutilized by those who don’t plan to or understand how to use them. As an alternative for those who are not interested in building up their space, such as taking sovereignty or setting up structures, I think that the introduction of social groups would better suit their interests. Social groups could offer all of the social benefits of a regular corporation, such as private channel, member list, titles, etc. Unlike corporations they wouldn’t have the ability to alter the rate of taxation, anchor large structures, take sovereignty, or engage in wars. Allowing players to be able to join multiple social groups could give rise to more community based groups established in game, rather than outside of it. I know that this idea has been pitched before, but for players whoo are just getting started, don’t plan on having citadels or taking sovereignty, or are trying to avoid the risks that come with being in a corporation, creating a society could become the optimal choice over a corporation.

I like the idea of corporations of an investment of time and effort, so another idea I have been toying with is the idea of corporation specializations. When you start a new corporation you could be presented with a variety of options to develop your corporations benefits – so for example, you could give industrial corporations choices like slightly higher mining yields, improved industrial build times/material efficiency, faster producing/better yields on planetary interaction, etc. Increased rewards of loyalty points and isk could be handed out to those who specialize in Empire protection operations such as missions, incursions, faction warfare, and general ratting. Rather than just choosing which benefits your corporation would receive, the best way to receive these benefits would come from the members banding together to work toward their specialization. With multiple levels of proficiency goals corporations could either attempt to maximize their specialization in a small scope of skills or provide a more balanced approach across different bonuses.

Services

I would love to see the creation of an in-game services hub where players can advertise or look for services; mercenary work, industrial contracts, hauling, intelligence work, etc. Besides giving these services more visibility to the average player, it could also give newer players a better impression of the impact that they can make on the universe. Let’s say you and your newbro friends want to start a new industrial group that wants to create T1 frigates to cruisers – sure, you could always just sell them on the market, but let’s say you instead take a contract building ships for some players in faction warfare. Now there is more visibility to what your work is being used for, you’re communicating with other players and getting a better understanding of their universe, and you’re building relationships.

Wars

Regardless of where you might fly in space, almost everyone has experienced a wardec. For a lot of players these wars were likely underwhelming, with no notable engagements, aside from some careless players getting caught visiting a trade hub. A lot of these wars are declared to ensure content for the wardeccer’s corporation or alliance, rather than achieving a specific goal. To that end wars can be lackluster, as quality wars are those that are created with some sort of intent, whether it be tearing down every public citadel in Perimeter or simply getting revenge on someone who wronged you. But again, these quality wars are the exception, in part because there really aren’t a lot of motivations to go to war over Highsec space.

If the aggressors have one advantage, it is the ability to control the length of war. Over the last year I’ve seen a lot of discussions regarding giving wars an objective for both sides to fulfill in order to end a war, because for a lot of players a war is essentially just keeping them from playing the game they want to play. The main idea has been focused around giving the attackers a structure or citadel module that can be destroyed for the war to end. I’m personally not a huge fan of turning all wars into a kind of attack and defend like game, partially because of the potential of throwing the whole wardeccing and mercenary culture into disarray. I’ve personally raised the suggestion of a system wherein players could shorten the overall length of the war by meeting preset activity thresholds tied to their corporation’s specialization, as a way to fight the war without actually fighting. All in all, this is still a pretty big subject of discussion within the Wardec Project discord.

I don’t want to see every Highsec corporation fold at the sight of a wardec notification. The players that tend to live in Highsec usually have little recourse when faced with experienced wardeccers intent on invading their space, and even thought this is no different than being attacked in any other space, there really aren’t a lot of clear options. The greatest advantage for defenders is their ability to recruit allies to their defense, but who do you hire and where do you find them? Again, I would love to see the creation of an in-game services hub for players to find this support, as well as providing links to it in both the wardec notification and on the war report so that any players that at least take the time to read can have some idea of what to do next. I’d also like to see an improvement to diplomatic options for wars, such as options to change the length of wardec protection from the aggressor, or allow for an exchange of assets/structures. But for the most part, being a defender means taking more precautions.

The removal of watchlists last year heralded in another big change for a lot of Highsec wardeccers, generally breaking down some of the smaller and more hunting focused groups in favour of larger blanket wardeccing groups to ensure consistent content. Lord Razpataz of Devil’s Warrior Alliance created a big thread about it on the EVEO forums, and has since been actively calling for the return of watchlists or a rework to locator agents which would at least tell if a player was offline or not for a fee. Though I’m generally under the impression that there is little chance that CCP would ever return watchlists in any capacity, I would be happy to see locator agents have some sort of rework to better serve wardeccers.

Ganking

Ganking is true non-consensual Highsec PVP and I love it. Players gank for different reasons - I gank for profit, I know groups that gank the neutral freighters of their enemies, and some even gank out of ideological beliefs. CCP clearly recognizes the need for ganking as a way to punish taking risks in Highsec, but the way that they rework ganking mechanics is very hands off. It feels like they view the ganking community as wolves and the rest of the players as sheep, and as if they think the wolves are getting too out of control they will make the sheep a bit harder to eat. I’d like more clarity on what CCP thinks of ganking as a whole if elected but for now I want to focus on some of the common arguments against ganking.

The main complaints that I hear related to the ganking are:

1. Ganking has a negative impact on newer players

2. Ganking is a low-risk activity for the ganker

3. Ganking offers little opportunity for interaction

The first complaint is valid to an extent. I know that my activities have made players quit, and though I don’t target players by age, I have definitely blown up newbros hauling everything they own. My personal experience with being ganked proved to be a turning point for me in EVE, and even CCP has pointed out that retention is higher amongst players who are blown up in their initial time playing… but obviously not everyone is going to have the same reaction to losing their possessions.

The second point is also valid to an extent. In classic EVE tradition, gankers have min-maxed the hell out of ganking to the point where CODE. provides a spreadsheet for calculating the amount of damage needed to break the tank of any mining barge or exhumer based on fittings. The complaint is similar to complaining that Highsec incursion runners have too low-risk for their reward - It’s generally safe because they have optimized their fits and operations to ensure optimal clearing of otherwise challenging sites. Killrights and a negative security statuses can be detrimental for some types of ganking or trying to enjoy other activities, but otherwise don’t matter to those who live the -10.0 ganking lifestyle. You can try to change the values of hull hp, change criminal timers, change concord response times, and so on, but gankers will inevitably adapt and mix-max their way back to relative prosperity.

The final point is where I think there is the best opportunity for improvements to ganking. While there is counterplay to some aspects of ganking, such as counter bumping a bumper to try to free a freighter or trying to jam ships to ensure they can’t finish off their targets, it’s usually not much fun. Trying to disrupt a gank doesn’t even feel like you’re doing more than whoring on a kill most times. I would love to inevitably find a way that allows players to try and police gankers rather than the NPCs to some capacity while not imposing on a gankers ability to kill someone, but in all honesty I feel like the crimewatch system in needs an overhaul before we can reach that point.

Missions

I know that this had been talked to death - Missions are repetitive, and lack a lot of substance. Some people enjoy them, but for a lot of players it is simply part of their grind to earn isk for other activities. It would be nice to see more variety and challenge introduced to missions with the newer Drifter AI for those that enjoy running them, but what I would really like to see is challenging missions that require small groups to run. Restrict the number of players that can run the mission to a certain amount and give these players that like PVE something more interesting to do than just running the same missions together on easy-mode.

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Thank you for taking the time to read my platform. If you have any comments, concerns, questions, etc. feel free to post in this thread or contact me:

Ingame: Toxic Yaken

Twitter: @Toxic_Yaken

Tweetfleet Slack: Toxic Yaken

Also please consider checking out The Wardec Project Discord!

Fly Fearless.