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 Vikaram Skjorn.
 
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 have played on and off since beta doing a variety of things. I have spent a ton of time in hisec doing everything from l4s to mining to ganking to hauling. Some hisec groups I have spent time with are TVP, TDF, pro-synergy, CODE fleets, among other things. I have spent about a year in amarr faction warfare, during this time I also spent some time living with CVA in provi. On and off I have spent about 2 and a half years collectively living in Stain on one character or another, being in several alliances out there as alliances come and go, but Stain Alliance and Legio Astartes Arcanum are the most memorably, the latter is going strong. During the jump changes way back I went to sov in a new alliance that wanted to be the new kids on the block down in angel space. We got beat down pretty quick and then I decided to join a major power bloc, where one of my characters rests to this day albeit inactive. The rest of my toons are doing various things in hisec as I plan out my future, mostly hauling contracts and station trading are what I am up to right now.
 
2. Who would you consider to be your key constituents? Who you would best represent within the playerbase?
Hisec players are the core of the people I want to represent, I am going to be willing to advocate for anyone, but hisec really needs some representation. Lowsec would be my secondary because since lowsec is still empire technically, some hisec changes could potentially spill over.
 
3. Please summarise your platform. (Preferably using key bullet points)
*More player events, more esports, more player interaction, regional chat channels
*Fix war decs, make them better for both the attacker and defender
*Continue to work on the new player experience
*Some industry changes to make everyone's quality of life a little better
*A careful look at incursions, with drifters here what is the future of sansha? Rebalance or update perhaps?
*A look at how poses operate in general, but another look at some of the hisec pos mechanics.
*Make bounties actually mean something.
*A careful look at explo, everything from the sites themselves to payouts to loot table, etc.
*Regional chat channels, more ways to interact
*More game-wide events, more esport stuff.
 
4. Why have you decided to run for CSM this year?
Because hisec needs a good strong voice that represents all of hisec, not just a sliver of it.
 
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 never run before.
 
6. What makes you a unique representative when you compare yourself to other candidates?
Because I can honestly say that I represent the entire spectrum of the people I want to represent, I don't just represent carebears or gankers or incursion runners, I want to represent them all.
 
7. Do you have any out of game experience and skills that make you a good candidate?
11 years in management with 80 employees reporting to me has taught me a lot about listening, decision making, leadership, and all the other assets that a CSM member needs.
 
8. What areas of EVE are you weakest at knowledge wise?
I know very little about high class wormholes other than the fact that dread ratting= isk isk baby, and wormholers pvp in alot of bling. Other than that I also know nothing about moon mining other than the fact that dyspro moons=winning.
 
9. If you were offered unlimited development time - what's the biggest change you would lobby for in EVE?
While there are so many things I want to do, if I could only pick one thing to work on it would be game wide events. I would like organize and have more then just 2 or 3 tournements a year that only a handful of players can compete in. I would like to have more then just one gank fest a year. I would like to have holiday events, last man standing thunderdome brawls, races, easter egg style hunts, stuff like that all with an event wide chat channel and voice comms, and sick giveaways during the event and for the winners.
 
10. If you could wind back the clock - what feature or change would you remove from EVE?
I am not a big fan of T2 bpos, since there are here there isn't anything we can do about them, however if I could rewind time I would have implemented the invention system earlier.
 
11. If you could pick one candidate to be elected with you who would they be and why?
Xenuria, because aside from the fact he seems like a good guy, he represents goons and love them or hate them, this game would not be the same without them. They need another good csm member and with one of their current members being unable to run (looking right at you on that one ccp) from what I know about Xenuria I feel he will make a great representation for them and for the entire player base.
 
12. What is your favorite memory in EVE and why?
My first 1 v 1, I was in a garbage fit merlin and he was in a punisher. I never pvp'd before and as soon as he landed on me I thought I was done, but I overheated everything, started to burn out of his optimal (being so new I had no idea what kind of range it had, I just assumed that like my blasters he had like a 2km optimal) and before you know it he was dead. I let his pod go (I didn't start podding for my first few years of eve, now I make a point to kill every pod), looted his wreck, and that million isk in loot i got off him felt like a million dollars IRL, I still have that merlin. I docked it in some random hisec and a year or 2 later I was cleaning out assets and saw it, I checked the contents to make sure it was the same shit fit merlin, A smile came across my face and upon seeing that I never named the ship, I named it Valor, because such a ship a ship needs a strong name. I don't plan on flying it ever again, but maybe one day, who knows. I may need to update the fit though, its so bad lol.
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.)
I spend a lot of time on various group teamspeaks and mumbles, but if I do not know you then an eve-mail will work, then if you want to talk I can give you info for my ts sever and we can talk.
 
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)
CSM forums
 
15. In short - what is your closing statement (no more than 500 words please!)
I'll keep this very short, basically I want more player interaction, that's what all of this essentially boils down to. I also want to be a balanced voice for hisec, because I do not feel that hisec really has that right now.
Good luck to all the other CSM candidates and all Eve players in their endeavors.