CSM 9 Campaign Post
Hi. I’m running for CSM.
For some of you, my alliance ticker alone will be enough to remove any possibility of me being on your ballot. That’s fine, I’m a goon, I’ve been around long enough to understand the reality of being a part of the folks that everyone loves to hate. If you’re one of those people, I’d encourage you to stop reading now and save yourself some time.
For any goons who have for whatever reason strayed here from our forum homelands, I’d ask that you respect your obligation to troll EVE-O, even here.
For anyone goon-curious or interested in what it is to be the chief of staff for a space tyrant in EVE’s largest alliance—or the lead diplomat in that same alliance—well, read on.
Those two broad roles, chief of staff and lead diplomat, aren’t merely titles. But they aren’t particularly comprehensive or illustrative in describing exactly what it is that I do, either. Much has been made about how the fate of 0.0 is decided in the smoky back rooms by a handful of power players as it is on the battlefield. Articles get written, forum posts get posted, and motivations get guessed at, all in an effort to understand why EVE’s actors perform as they do and what it all might mean for the fate of conquerable 0.0. That, to me, is the real meat of the game. The political machinations, the metagame for which EVE is so famous. That’s the kind of game I play.
By play, I don’t mean ‘play at.’ I’m one of the people in that proverbial smoky back room. I’ve literally drawn lines on the map to carve up the empire. I’ve decided the fate of individuals, corps, alliances. I manage the day-to-day work for EVE’s biggest alliance. I have access to the finest intelligence apparatus in New Eden. I’m responsible for the operation of the entire CFC, as a coalition. There is no one—absolutely no one—running for CSM that has my experience and knowledge of what it takes to run a sprawling and diverse space empire from the corp level to the coalition level. And odds are, you’ve never heard of me.
I keep a low profile, and I always have. I don’t desire recognition and don’t much care what anyone might think about me. My work speaks for itself, and I enjoy doing what I do for its own sake and for the sake of Goons in Space. And perhaps more significant is the advice that Vile Rat often gave me: big dogs don’t need to bark.
As for the nuts and bolts of what I do, almost all of it is people-centric management, conflict resolution (or escalation), and creative problem solving. If you’ve run a corporation, you have some idea of what it is to manage what are essentially space volunteers logging in to have fun. But instead of a 60-person corp, I have a 60-person directorate. That on top of a 4,262-person corporation, a 12,413-person alliance, and a 36,275-person coalition. If you want to see how well I’ve done with it over the years, you need only to look at the map. Or if you’d rather something more tangible, look at the CFC’s war machine. That’s what I helped build.
There’s a great deal more to it, of course. But nuance doesn’t translate well into broad strokes anyway, and I realize this is all a touch vague. If you have any specific questions about anything, I’d be delighted to talk with you about it (or anything really) either here, via EVEmail, or via twitter @siggonk. You’re also welcome to check out my articles on TMC if you’d like to get a better sense of what and how I think.
I don’t bring a platform. I bring a skillset and experience.