A recent insider-meddling scandal inside the space-merchant game EVE Online prompted the creation of a democratically elected player council called the Council of Stellar Management (CSM). This newly constituted democratic institution is charged with helping the game developers balance out fun with fairness. I’ve often wondered whether democratic player-groups can vote for more fun, even when “fun” includes making the game harder and more frustrating at times.
1UP: When can we expect to see in-game results from the meeting?
AC: Well the immediate results were in the prioritizing of development effort applied to the game changes we advocated to CCP. Directly based on CSM advice, CCP will be rolling out game changes, balance alternations and improvements and additional programming effort on key areas. Of course, some of these things are going to take 3/6/9/12 months to see light on the live server, but a big part of the battle is to start the processing going and to know that we’ve helped to set the priorities for the next year of development for Eve. For me personally, the first big things I’m expecting changes on relate to Faction Warfare (the key content of the Empyrean Age expansion) being opened up to Alliance corporations and incorporating our advise and advocacy on a truly dynamic, open-ended plotline for the game itself. After that, I’m expecting CCP to roll-out improvements to the Black Ops range of Battleships and address issues with 0.0 Sovereignty and its current imbalance in favor of the defending power.
Building a Better Virtual World Through Democracy
(via Terra Nova)