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Hello Capsuleers!
As we move into CSM 17, I wanted to briefly highlight some of the meetings and impact that CSM 16 had to better understand the role of the CSM for both voters and potential candidates alike. I would like to add that these summaries are by no means exhaustive; some subjects were redacted. Similarly, weekly meetings are only a portion of the CSM duties; each member is also on our internal CCP Slack where daily conversations occur over a variety of subjects. Those conversations are archived, but not recorded here. Moving forward, our aim is to have slightly more robust breakdowns once a quarter, to better keep the voting public abreast of ongoing conversations.
July 2021
July was focused primarily on administrative tasks and planning for the term; introduction to teams, deciding what topics are crucial to talk about in the short and medium-term, and chatting with Team Axiom. Topics included the return of the Alliance Tournament, a discussion about the ESS Reserve Banks with the design team, and a formal intro with Game Design Director CCP Muppethunter. CCP Goodfella, EVE’s Brand Manager, also worked closely with CSM on the July Status Update Blog.
August 2021
August saw some more focused looks at Resources in general, talking about the general strategy for the economic rebalance as well as soliciting feedback from the CSM on pain points. Team Odyssey introduced the new AIR NPE, as well as discussed planned additions to the new tutorial and early game. Following that – the CSM met with teams to discuss what was coming in EVE’s 3rd Quadrant. August ended with a high-level chat about the future vision of EVE with senior leadership at CCP - Director of Product CCP Rattati and Creative Director CCP Burger.
September 2021
September is CRAB season! Roughly four hours of discussion with the design team to chat about the CONCORD Rogue Analysis Beacon, where ample feedback was given at a relatively early stage in the design process. Concerns were aired about proximity to moons & citadels, and a lot of back and forth with the balance of CEQs. Immediately following that was a discussion about IHUB upgrades & sovereignty, with a much longer focus/vision. September ended with CCP Explorer and CCP Tuxford giving a breakdown of No Downtime Pt 2 and what CCP learned from the experiment. Then a bit of administrative planning to discuss summit options with COVID restrictions in mind, where it was decided that there would be no in-person meeting in 2021.
October 2021
October was one of the busiest months in terms of meetings, with close to 7 hours across 5 meetings. CRAB talk extended into the first week of October, where the CSM and Team Talos spoke more concrete details; ship size discussions, rewards, beacon build cost, fitting requirements, and spool-up times. Later in October, The CSM met with the Live Events team (Team Ra) to look at upcoming in-game events, what players found rewarding in events, and a brief overview of what the CSM felt would be important to include in the new Daily Login rewards. This was very early on in the design process. After this, the CSM met with Team Little Things and exchanged notes for small quality of life suggestions that the team could work on. The CSM had prepared for nearly a month for this, however, they were not the only source. While there was much overlap, much of the time was spent giving feedback on prioritization, such as filaments in multi-fit.
The Player Research team was next, where the topic was generally on the User Interface but also extended into yet-disclosed features. Rounding out October was a meeting with Team Tech Co to go over a topic not yet disclosed, as well as a high-level look at what information would be useful to see in the client in areas like local chat. Unrelated, but a go-cart was also featured in this meeting.
November 2021
The largest issue for November was focused on the mining changes in the New Dawn Quadrant. The entire month was consumed by ample back and forth regarding the mining ship rebalance, resource doubling, mining residue, compression pain points, and everything encompassing the New Dawn Quadrant update. This includes not only discussion on the topic but also focused on messaging with the EVE Brand team.
December 2021
No formal meetings for December, though conversations from November continued through Slack during the holidays. Seasons Greetings!
January 2022
New year, new set of meetings! The headline for January is future topics, with a focus on the New Player Experience and Photon UI. For the New Player Experience, teams discussed retention metrics compared to the KPIs for the revamped New Player Experience, as well as a demonstration about the underlying tech developed for the AIR NPE. The CSM then looked at the mining segment of the NPE (later released in March), as well as discussing what is coming after. The NPE team then discussed future topics for the NPE and compared notes with the CSM.
Following that, the CSM met with Team Pathfinder to talk about the new UI and had a very detailed discussion surrounding how new features would be rolled out with the opt-in feature.
February 2022
February saw additional meetings with the New Player Experience team to follow-up on the previous meeting. The CSM then looked at the new Opportunities system, as well as chatted about various tools and tests aimed at improving new player retention. Finally, the CSM gave feedback on the upcoming devblogs and communication strategies from the Brand team for the Road To Fanfest blog series and updates.
March 2022
March was a very busy month for the CSM. Senior Leadership from CCP, CCP Hellmar and CCP Orca, spoke with the CSM about the upcoming PLEX4Good campaign to gather feedback and sentiment. Next on the docket was the Prospector’s Pack – where the CSM aired community sentiment and their universal disapproval of the pack. Immediately following that meeting, CSM met with the Senior Monetization Designer in the first of their guaranteed meetings going in the future, as well as Director of Product CCP Rattati refining the For New Players By Veterans program.
April 2022
The home stretch! The CSM had a meeting with CCP Emerald and CCP Rax to discuss the upcoming price changes, including discussion about the timing and importance of mutli-account discounts. CCP Psych and Team Europa were up next to discuss Siege green release, blueprint, and ample back and forth over material costs, and some discussion about the new citadel reinforcement timers. Finally, the CSM spoke with CCP Rattati about the progress of the Heraldry system and the IBC. A few meetings postponed for the Easter break and Fanfest prep!
May 2022
Post Fanfest meeting included a retrospective on Fanfest as to what the CSM thought and what they’d like to change. Discussed that the next CSM elections are open and having a transition summit/meeting to pass things over with the new CSM. Also discussed opening the floor to who the CSM would like to meet next in terms of who they’d like to hear from next.