EVE Online Players to Appoint Democratically Elected Council of Stellar Management
By Stephany on Wednesday, March 19th, 2008 at 10:17 AM PST In Computer, Game Companies, Game Platforms, Gamer Life, Games, Games Industry
CCP has announced the formation of the Council of Stellar Management (CSM), which is the first democratically-elected governing body in a virtual world. Its inception marks a decisive leap in the evolution in online worlds, especially in terms of how a publisher interacts with its community. For EVE Online, the council encompasses the next logical step in the complex social and economic systems for which EVE is well known.
According to Pétur Óskarsson, CCP Researcher and project lead for the Council of Stellar Management for EVE Online:
“The voice of the player has always been an integral and driving force in the maturation of EVE Online, so the institution of the Council of Stellar Management is natural at this point. The CSM will empower players with a formal communications channel to directly impact the development of their society as it grows more and more advanced.”
The CSM will consist of nine representatives and five alternates, each elected by popular vote from EVE’s player base, a population of cyber citizens that’s nearing the quarter-million mark. The call for candidacy opened March 18 and will be followed by a two-week long election period slated to begin May 5 and ending on May 19. During their six-month term, delegates to the council will deliberate on issues of importance to the EVE community and work with representatives of CCP on the future evolution of EVE Online.
Hilmar Veigar Pétursson, CEO of CCP. had this to say about this groundbreaking announcement:
“EVE Online has evolved from an MMORPG to a virtual world with a virtual society. It is our role as its caretakers to evolve our approach as well, through economics research, political science or other aspects of operations or development. A democratic election process of representatives is one of mankind’s greatest inventions. We are bringing a version of that to EVE now with hope of it allowing us to expand EVE Online in a similar way to what we’ve seen on Earth.”
The idea behind holding elections came about because allegations of dev misconduct in EVE Online last year. Because of the misconduct, players complained on the forums and basically stated that they had lost their trust in the CCP.
More on the architecture and logistics of the Council of Stellar Management can be found here.
Via: Press Release
