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 Niko Lorenzio.
 
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.
My name is Niko Lorenzio, also known as Nikolai Vodkov and Valkyrie D?ark.  I joined EVE in 2004 and have since experienced many different aspects of the game, including but not limited to:

• Living in HS, LS, NS and WH space.  I would say my heart lies with low sec though.


• I have ran and been part of corps/alliances both small and large.


• I love all forms of PVP.  I have FC?ed small/medium gangs and been part of larger NS and NPSI fleets.


• I played solo for my first year, roaming New Eden, charting, exploring, smuggling and freelancing.


• I spent about a year in Amarr Faction Warfare.


• I have been involved with industry for many years including setting up and running of production chains, POSes, reactions, mining fleets and trading conglomerates.


• I have extensive PVE experience including HS/LS/NS missions, level 5s, FW, Incursions (WTM), COSMOS, Storyline, static plexes, exploration, mining, C1-4 Wormholes, etc. etc.


• I regularly visit career system, helping newbies understand and experience the beauty of EVE.

• In the early days I moved our corp (UED) to Khanid LS.  We were very green and facing fierce opposition from veteran pirates who were decimating the local constellation.  We persevered and managed to not only survive but establish our medium sized corp (~50 players) as a local regional power.  This period is what I would call my golden age in EVE.


• In 2010 I reformed UED as a HS Industrial corp.  It has been running successfully without interruption since.


• In 2011 I founded Pro Synergy Salvaging Service corporation.  Today Pro Synergy is the largest independent corporation in EVE, has helped hundreds of newbies find their calling, serviced thousands of missioners and processed several trillion ISK worth of loot.


• I kinda, sorta, not really soloed a PVP Cyclone in a Bestower.

• Social Interaction Tools - Corp, alliance, fleet and other communication and organizational tools need much improvement.


• Death is a serious matter - Risk and losses are important because they gives assets and relationships value.


• Meaningful Choices - EVE should be about long term strategic planning and choices should carry meaningful consequences.


• Emergent gameplay - Game mechanics and features should give rise to creative, unscripted and unpredictable behavior.


• Specialists - Interdependence between players enriches the universe and fosters cooperation, which leads to stronger communities.


• Player freedom/control - Players should be given the freedom over how they experience both the EVE client and New Eden.


• Player agency - Over the universe but also over the game's development and direction.


• Persistent Universe - Players? investments should not be undermined without careful consideration and debate.


• Communication - As curators of New Eden, CCP needs to be open and communicative with content creators (players).


• Conflict drivers - Limited resources, limited space, strategic locations give value to holdings and provoke conflict.