Cornak Firefist

Ballot Statement

I post weekly blogs on topics of relevance to the EVE Online community, which can be found under About>News and Updates on my site. I also invite you to explore the various sections of my platform, under the platform header. Note that the CSM is a feedback entity, and thus this is designed to demonstrate my views, rather than to say ‘this will be done.’

While I live in null, I have a great love for a few sections of the game in particular, namely Wormholes, Faction Warfare, and the AT. Without these, I would not be where I am today, Brave would be a dead alliance, and thousands of people would not be playing. The lack of attention to these is a priority to fix.

Once elected, I plan to maintain my high rate of town halls, as well as the weekly posts, as I feel community engagement is a key component of the CSM, and really the whole reason it exists. Do not hesitate to contact me if you have questions or want to hold a town hall, I’m at several dozen held, and am always ready for more.

Campaign Post

Greetings, loved ones.

My name is Cornak, and as many of you likely know from the last 8 months or so, I am running as a candidate on CSM 14. I’ve been doing town halls and writing posts for the last few months, but I’ve been holding off on officially posting here until CCP announced the details of the CSM, so here I am.

I’ve got a campaign site I’m quite happy with, which contains a whole lot of info. I do wish to stress, however, that my platforms are not things I expect to see implemented, but rather a way to get a view into my feelings and priorities. The CSM is first and foremost a feedback entity, not a game design team. You can explore the site here: https://www.voteforcornak.com 1

Who Am I

I’m Cornak Firefist, I’ve been playing EVE on Cornak in a variety of locales since 2013. I have, at various times, lived in highsec, lowsec, FW, and wormholes, with RVB, Brave, TEST, and COF. I’ve run both Brave and Dreddit, Brave during the end of 2015/beginning of 2016, and Dreddit for the last year and a half or so. I’ve also had quite a lot of fun with the tournament scene in EVE, and was very sad to see the AT go this year. You can read more here.

Why Am I Running

There’s a few reasons. First and foremost, I bring a whole lot of experience to the table. I’ve had long stints in every major section of space, and have had an active role in leadership in half of them. I’ve seen a lot of things and met a lot of people, and I have a high degree of confidence that I can give solid feedback on just about any issue that comes up, as a significant portion of being on the CSM is being able to give feedback on a wide variety of things without breaking the NDA.

The other big one is that I feel a significant portion of the game is very reactionary, and prone to exaggerating the actual impact of changes. For many people, everything seems to be either ‘the end of EVE as a game’ or ‘the greatest thing to ever happen.’ I want to see a more moderating voice on the council, and I am that moderating voice.

What Are My Biggest Concerns

The below is taken from the ‘Our Goal’ section of my site:

Before anything else, it’s important to note that my platform is based not around what I expect, or even intend, to see implemented, but rather to demonstrate my priorities and my view of the state of EVE. The CSM isn’t a game design team, it’s a feedback team, and so it’s important to acknowledge the limitations of that. CCP has expressed a desire to expand the CSM’s role, but until that happens, I want to ensure expectations are realistic, as it would be easy to misinterpret this site as ‘things that will be done.’

While there are a lot of specific issues with EVE, one of the points that overwhelms just about anything else is the lack of continuous balance. There have been stops and starts before, but the balance team really is key to this, along with CCP being more willing to make changes outside of big patches. Single ships should not remain overwhelming dominant for months at a time, and issues like citadels that affect everything at a base level should be a lot more adaptive.

In my opinion, it’s worth potentially having some short term imbalance issues due to a speedier implementation, as that can be corrected quickly when balance is on a shorter cycle. When balance is stuck to multimonth periods, you can go far too long with a ridiculously overpowered or underpowered ship or module controlling the meta. Plus, it gives more time to work on underloved ship classes like Black Ops that have been waiting for years, as well as Tiericide, which seems to have ground to a halt.

The other prime problem is the abundance of botting. Due to the ease of spooling up new accounts, ratting bots have become far easier than every before to run even when accounts get banned. While certain groups overstate the scale of the problem, it cannot be denied that it is in fact an issue that affects us all. EVE’s economy is still predicated on humans, so when you introduce the ability to create isk without any human labor, you start to see drastic effects, such as the uptick in ratting bounties, as well as the increased plex demand to fund these accounts.

While reporting bots is a key part of this solution, part of the responsibility also lies with groups harboring bots. When corps can collect taxes from botters, that’s an easy way to launder isk. Obviously, players don’t have the tools at the same level as CCP to detect these things, but it is still viable. I take great pride in nuking bots from TEST when I find them, and I hope to be able to push other groups to do so, instead of encouraging non-reporting.

Finally, and this is a pretty big deal to me personally, we really need the AT back. You can read more in my blog entry on the subject, but it’s a core part of the EVE experience, and one of the most enjoyably components of the game.

How Can I Learn More About That Sexy Guy Named Cornak

Well friend, I’m glad you asked. You can contact me in the following manners:

Discord: Cornak#0148

Slack: cornak_firefist on Tweetfleet

Twitter: @CornakFirefist

Website: voteforcornak.com or cornak4csm.com

Be sure to check out my weekly blog posts here.

I’m also very willing to do a town hall with your corp, alliance, or fish people collective. Just hit me up and I’ll be down to set up a time in the TZ that works best for you. I’ve done 33 town halls already, across every major nationality and time zone in EVE, and the campaign hasn’t even started yet technically. If your group doesn’t speak English, it’s no issue, I’ve done Chinese, Korean, Russian, German, and French town halls via translator.