Bold Pilot Log, Entry #3
How very typical of people. My dear friends, it's now official. EVE Online is no longer a game!
It used to be that you logged in did whatever you wanted and logged of. It used to be that you set an alarm clock for a CTA and put it out with the other eleven hundred. But that was all play. Even if it was serious business. Even if some people stated it's a lifeform, it, in truth just was a game.
Before you stop reading because I'm confusing you, let me elaborate. This far EVE politics consisted of major alliances spouting propaganda. Now it has begun. The CSM elections. This year it's different. No longer the CSM are hitchhikers to Iceland. They are now player representatives, stakeholders, whatever. In one word, it's politics. True politics. They are competing for your votes. They are doing so with campaigns. They are doing debates on blogs, podcasts, etc. They propagate themslves in every possible way in order to win 'the most expensive free trip to Iceland you'll ever get'.
It is a bit humorous, though. Because it was really predictable that a lot of peple will want in on the cake when they know for sure it's delicious. I don't mean to insult them. They probably all mean well. But I would like to warn them if I could. It just struck me that with this transition, the CSM is transforming to what very much resembles a senate. They will be elected by players, they will be watched, their words will be hung on. It is a good chance to make the voices of everyone heard. But it has another potential.
They will gain popularity in the process, and that is an ethically slippery thing to climb on. People tend to change, tend to turn. And the whole CSM business can turn with them to something different. It can turn to groups trying to advocate ideas that benefit only them. Some people laughed at the CSM before because they seemed to be a 'PR stunt', they saw them as meaningless puppets. Then the former CSM's, with the fifth beign the more successful, proved otherwise. Now many people of those think that the CSM is indeed useful. And that is dangerous. They will want to use them, but not in the ways they meant to be. The ways are that of greed, egoism and malice. If that comes true, I will laugh at them. All of them.
I play computer games to challenge my wit, to have me thinking of new trinkets, of new ways to use what I have. Turning CSM into true politics is a step in the direction of ruining my fun. It will then depend on CCP and whether give in to the attempts of make the game easy for some people. When that happens I'm totally quitting. But that's going too far forward. I suppose we'll see what this spaceships politics would bring.
Sessym out.
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