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 Toxic Yaken.
 
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.
My name is Toxic Yaken, and I am a Highsec pirate. I started playing about two years ago, and spent my first four months mining, mostly by myself. I had aspirations to eventually become a pirate, but I was told that doing so was fairly expensive and that I would need a lot of isk to start out and I eventually got stuck in a loop. I was eventually ganked after leaving my keyboard while mining in my new Mackinaw, and came back just in time to watch it pop. I was infuriated by that loss, even though I had more than enough isk to replace it. I wanted to get revenge and started looking for corps to teach me how to PVP, but every corp I joined ended up being a disappointment. After one such corporation, wherein the CEO told me I would need to train skills for a month before I could even start PVP, I came across the Belligerent Undesirables blog. My eyes were opened to the world of Highsec piracy, and I started to awox industrial corporations - the first in just a Thrasher. After a few months of awoxing, I started wardeccing, either by myself or with small or short lived mercenary groups such as Amarr Squad, Logitech Blasters, The Dickwad Squad, Resolute Supremacy, and Plunder the Wrecks. Over that span of time I also spent time ganking, scamming, and helped with hyperdunking. More recently, I wanted to expand my experiences and try out Fozzie Sov by joining my friend and Rabble Inc. and A Few Brave Men in their crusade to take Sovereignty in Geminate.
 
2. Who would you consider to be your key constituents? Who you would best represent within the playerbase?
My key constituents are those who live in Highsec; whether you like to mine, wardec, run missions, gank, trade, or run industry, I want to represent Highsec as a whole.
 
3. Please summarise your platform. (Preferably using key bullet points)
My main interests for Highsec include:
-Reworking wardecs to incentivize interaction
-Making the bounties and the bounty system relevant
-Improving the new player experience by providing some sort of education on aspects of PVP
-Implementing social groups
-Improving corporate UI and improving corporations as a whole
-Adding new missions and procedurally generated missions
-Implementing new activities for piracy
 
4. Why have you decided to run for CSM this year?
I decided to run for CSM this year because I wanted to represent the Highsec PVP community, because it doesn't normally have representation, but Highsec needs representation as a whole.
 
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.
This is my first time running for CSM.
 
6. What makes you a unique representative when you compare yourself to other candidates?
The biggest difference between myself and other candidates is that I?m actively trying to engage my constituents to get their opinions for improving Highsec. I?m not waiting for them to come to me, I want to get their opinions, so I?m trying to reach out to newbros, industrial corps, mercenaries, everyone! It's been exciting how many players have opened up and shared their ideas, some of which I've added to my platform.
 
7. Do you have any out of game experience and skills that make you a good candidate?
Outside of EVE Online, I?m an Acting Lead Hand for a large supply chain, so I supervise our team if one of our supervisors can't cover their shift. I also handle training of our new associates and get to help with a lot of large projects. As a result I have experience with exchanging feedback and needing to approach problems from different angles to ensure our tasks remain efficient.
 
8. What areas of EVE are you weakest at knowledge wise?
My greatest area of weakness is wormholes. I've only ventured into them a couple of times, and the most recent time I needed to use Signal Cartel to get me back out.
 
9. If you were offered unlimited development time - what's the biggest change you would lobby for in EVE?
If I could have unlimited development time, I would really like to see improvements made to the wardec system. As it functions currently, there is little incentive for Highsec corporations, especially newer ones, to engage their attackers. Often times the response of these corporations is to disband and reform, stay docked for the majority of the war, or simply not play at all. Defenders should have a reason to fight, beyond the simple interest of fighting which oftentimes doesn't exist. I want to see a wardec system with more options for the defenders, such as mercenary advertising for those who don't want to fight, or developing a system that rewards corporations for activity, especially during wartime.
 
10. If you could wind back the clock - what feature or change would you remove from EVE?
If I could prevent any feature, it would be the introduction of faction police. They don't serve much purpose now outside of punishing the slow or foolish criminals and FW folks, and I would much rather see more of this responsibility on players themselves. If anything it could be a good step towards a functional bounty system that rewards blowing up criminals.
 
11. If you could pick one candidate to be elected with you who would they be and why?
If I could see any one candidate elected alongside me, I would choose Joffy Aulx-Gao. He's been super friendly and supportive, although he sometimes makes fun of me for using a Mac. I think he'd do an awesome job supporting the lowsec and disabled communities.
 
12. What is your favorite memory in EVE and why?
My favourite EVE memory comes from a while back - I joined up with some of my friends to try and take over an island of Highsec space with an alliance. We declared war on the residents, ganked the others, and after a few weeks we saw corporations deserting their homes. Despite initial success, a lot of our PVP pilots burned out, and we lost one of our major industrialists and had to abandon the campaign. While disappointed, I visited the region almost a year later and pilots still recognized me, one even thought I was scouting for another invasion. It made for a good chuckle.
 
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.)
If you want to contact me, you can use any of the following:
Toxic Yaken (IGN)
Toxic Yaken (Tweetfleet Slack)
@Toxic_Yaken on Twitter
Toxicyaken@gmail.com
 
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)
If you want to read up more on my platform you can check any of the following:
CSM Platform
CSM Watch Interview
EVE-Guardian Interview
Declarations of War Roundtable Interview
 
15. In short - what is your closing statement (no more than 500 words please!)
Thank you for taking the time to read these interview responses. Whether you agree with my opinions or not - please make sure to take the time to read up on the other candidates and vote! On another note if you live in the Greater Toronto area and are free on March 12th, come on out and grab a pint with us at Amsterdam Brewhouse for EVEMeet Toronto! We?re celebrating Alphax45's birthday, and giving out a bunch of swag door prizes. I?ll also be there to discuss ideas for the future of Highsec and throwing paper gank catalysts at attendees.