With the Council of Stellar Management (CSM) Elections coming up soon we at EVE NT have contacted all the running candidates who have announced their intentions to run and provided them with a standardised interview template. The goal of this is to give each candidate a set of standard questions for them to respond to with the aim of helping you, the voter, to choose a candidate who best represents you and your play style to CCP. The same questions have been asked of every candidate as to allow easier comparison. The responses posted are unedited and will be published in the run up to the opening of the voting period on February the 29th in the order that they have been received.
Today's candidate is Apothne.
 
1. Please start by giving us a short introduction to who you are and your history within EVE Online. Include how long you have been playing and the groups you have been involved with.
I created my character in 2010 and promptly stopped playing because training skills to train skills for 3 months wasn't a fantastic game mechanic. In 2012 for some reason I decided to try the game again whereupon I joined E-Uni as I wanted to learn about this crazy complex game. I went on my first PvP, loved it, then found out that the next one wasn't for a week and decided I wanted more fleets, so hell, I was going to make them happen. I FCed over 100 fleets in the space of 3 months and really fell in love with that aspect of EVE, and after 8-9 months in Uni I wanted to further my PvP learning and then moved to SniggWaffe. I continued learning about FCing and PvP, role my way up the FC ladder there and was then introduced to EVE Tournaments during ATXI. After 18 months in SniggWaffe I graduated to Sniggerdly within Pandemic Legion, where I've further expanded my interests in the 15 months I've been there.
 
2. Who would you consider to be your key constituents? Who you would best represent within the playerbase?
I?m not from a voting bloc, and I?m not running to be someone that represents the whole PL alliance, I would not be qualified to do that. I would say that my direct experience best represents that of FCs and players who enjoy roaming gangs, not necessarily the micro/small gang scene but the 10-40 size fleets that tend to be forgotten, despite how prevalent they are across all alliances in the vast majority of space. Further, I represent this content creation across all levels of SP, not just 10 day old vs 10 year old, through my contacts through EVE-Uni to Waffles to PL and beyond, I feel I have a good handle on how players experience these game mechanics through their progression as a player, not just one specific playstyle or attitude to it. Naturally I?m also an advocate for the EVE tournament scene, through my work on the Alliance Tournament and #EVE_NT.
 
3. Please summarise your platform.
I don't really believe in platforms, my answer to questions 2 should summarise my primary areas of expertise, but running with a specific set of changes, which platforms tend to eb, seems a poor and naive way to go about it. Past and present CSMs have confirmed this as well.
 
4. Why have you decided to run for CSM this year?
I love this game. I have the passion and motivation to truly commit to the CSM project, and I feel I have reached a point in the game where I have the experience and contacts to do a damn good job of it. I want to help to make this game even more amazing for all of us, so running to be a part of the CSM is a natural step in that.
 
5. Have you run for or been a member of CSM in the past? If so please list each year and if you were elected.
I have not.
 
6. What makes you a unique representative when you compare yourself to other candidates?
I think the most unique selling point I have is that thanks to my AT work I already have a good working relationship with CCP and their developers. I;ve worked with them and they've worked with me. Obviously a year on the CSM is a much larger project than a month of Alliance Tournament, but in CSM11 where one of the key issues is the CSM having a solid relationship with CCP, I think this gives me an advantage over the vast majority of other candidates.
 
7. Do you have any out of game experience and skills that make you a good candidate?
In real life I am working towards a degree in mathematics, and for extracurricular activities I am involved in dramatic/musical performance. I also have a part time join teach maths and physics at GCSE and A-Level (that's ages 14-18 for the non-brits). All of these involve a great deal of intensive group work and the ability to articulate and communicate the things I am passionate about. This, I believe, gives me a good background to operate in the CSM.
 
8. What areas of EVE are you weakest at knowledge wise?
PvE content. I make my ISK through the Jita marketplace, and while I have ideas and opinions on how the PvPers and the PvErs interact in space, I really don't have any perspective on the viewpoint of pure PvE itself.
 
9. If you were offered unlimited development time - what's the biggest change you would lobby for in EVE?
That's really tricky, CCP seem to be tackling the biggest hurdles we have in capitals and sov iteration at the moment. I am a massive fan of the ongoing module tiericide and ship rebalancing however, so if I had supreme executive power and the funds to hire 10 des to work on a specific project, it would probably be that. This is a spaceship game, and for the vast majority of the players the spaceships themselves form the core mechanic of how we play, so a focus on that seems like a good choice.
 
10. If you could wind back the clock - what feature or change would you remove from EVE?
As far as I am concerned CCP have pretty much been knocking it out of the park since I have started playing. There are always clamours form the community of want this that and the other, but it feels like that we want more, rather than the stuff we are getting is bad in almost all cases. There have been mistakes and things that need to be looked at, but I can't think of anything I'd want to flat-out remove. FOor example, the Svipul is currently OP as balls, but I wouldn't want to remove T3Ds from the game entirely, just iterate on the design a little.
 
11. If you could pick one candidate to be elected with you who would they be and why?
In my CSMWatch Interview I said MrHyde113, so here I?m going to say Gorski Carr. Despite his eccentric sense of humour and enjoyment of trolling and joking around in a more casual environment, when it's time to put in the work his is exceptionally knowledgeable, a damn hard worker and one of the first people I go to if I ever have any questions about the game. He has a fantastic record on the CSM already if you listen to Jayne Fillion talk about him on the CSM Watch Analysis Show 3.
 
12. What is your favourite memory in EVE and why?
There are a lot of candidates that come to mind, but my desktop background is the group picture taken from the stream taken at the end of ATXII when we all came into the room and so is the one that immediately comes to mind. That was a fantastic fortnight and one I will remember for the rest of my life.
 
13. What platform(s) do you use currently to engage with the wider player base? If someone wanted to contact you what is the best way to do this? (Include Twitter/Emails/Skype/Slack etc.)
Ingame to my main at ?Apothne?, I?m on slack as ?Apothne?, you can see my articles on crossingzebras.com, I?m on twitter @CallMeApoth and i post on reddit as /u/eXeApoth.
 
14. If people wanted to find out more about your platform - where is the best place to do so? (Include blogs, forums posts and podcasts)
I collect all my CSM stuff in my campaign post on the EVE-O forums here.
 
15. In short - what is your closing statement.
Vote for who you believe in. Whether that's me or not, if you want the CSM to work it should be filled with people the players we believe in, not just whoever your alliance leader wants to put there.