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.

Hi. I’m Brianum. I started playing EVE in 2010 and since then I have been in different places. As many did, I stayed some time in highsec, bothered with mining and missions. For a while our corporation was part in an alliance, that tried to settle in lowsec, but failed due to leadership inactivity. Another highsec period followed, but only a short one. As a heirloom from our previous alliance, we had a lot of wardecs and so I decided to move into null security space where I have been since then. In the first place, we were part of the alliance “Gatekeepers Universe” and were living in the region of The Spire until the war between Vanguard and Geminate Coalition started. Again the alliance died due to leadership inactivity and bad management and I once again moved. For another year or so I have been with The Bastion in Vale of the Silent. When World War Bee started, I moved again to join a group of friends and since then we are living in Geminate and running our own small alliance.

 

2. Who would you consider to be your key constituents? Who would you best represent within the playerbase?

I do a lot of industry and PvE activity, also I am (co-)developer of some third party sites. My main interests are getting industry in a more healthy state, as right now you are being punished by system cost indexes for settling in a specific location. Also previous CSM candidates were mostly PvP-focused and industry lacks some well-deserved attention.

For PvE I consider getting more group PvE content important, which EVE is lacking right now. Right now, for groups the only real option of doing things together is doing PvP, but most of the PvE stuff is done solo and it hurts if you have someone join you, for instance you get lower ticks when ratting together and things like that. The only exception to that is Incursions, but those are only “high-level content”. EVE is lacking a social PvE component, like raids in other games, so not only those who like PvP enjoy the game and stay, but also those more interested in doing stuff in a group without PvPing. Also there should be more ways for social groups to play together in high-security without groups getting pushed apart by wardecs for the sole purpose of farming people.

 

A third pillar of my candidacy is third party development and better communication between CCP and the playerbase in regards to bugs and their fixes, as well as making CCP aware, that they can not ignore bugs and QoL annoyances, with a focus localization issues.

 

 

3. Please summarise your platform. (Preferably using key bullet points)

Industry, Third-Party development, Social Groups, PvE group content

 

4. Why have you decided to run for CSM this year?

It is one thing to complain about things, it is another to go out and try changing them. I just decided to give it a try.

 

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.

No.

 

6. What makes you a unique representative when you compare yourself to other candidates?

Only a few candidates have a background, that is not mostly centered around PvP. I don’t dislike PvP, but in a healthy sandbox other things should be considered more balanced as well. Same goes for consideration of more casual players, versus those of us who log in daily and alarm-clock for timers.

 

7. Do you have any out of game experience and skills that make you a good candidate?

I have decent skills in programming as well as some management knowledge.

 

8. What areas of EVE are you weakest at knowledge wise?

To be honest, I haven’t done anything with wormholes so far. Also I am worse in terms of PvP, which does not mean I dislike it but there are more skilled individuals.

 

9. If you were offered unlimited development time - what's the biggest change you would lobby for in EVE?

I’d make a list of all those little bugs, that are in the game as long as I remember and would not rest until they’re all fixed. Examples? Try dragging an item from a corporate hangar floor into a trade window. Works in Citadels, but not in stations. Why? Another annoying thing: Fit a probe launcher, drag probes from your cargohold window on the probe launcher module. Only one is loaded. Drag probes from your cargohold window onto the center of the fitting window and see how it magically loads all eight probes. Again, why?

Among all those issues, a special focus needs to be given to localization issues, as they are a real barrier to all those with not so good english-speaking abilities.

 

10. If you could wind back the clock - what feature or change would you remove from EVE?

I have experienced capital ships before the introduction of the Phoebe jump changes, however I would not roll back that entire feature, but make some aspects of it a less painful experience. For instance, make the math behind it a lot easier to understand.

The same goes for Aegis sov, which is not generally bad, but has too many exceptions of the rule, to many special cases.

 

11. If you could pick one candidate to be elected with you who would they be and why?

If there were only us two on the CSM, I would chose someone with a heavy PvP and wormhole background to balance out my weaknesses. I haven’t really checked out all the other candidates, but I would really enjoying doing this with Rhiload, as he has a really cool style making videos and decent knowledge in field where I still have to learn. He isn’t one of those bittervets either.

 

12. What is your favorite memory in EVE and why?

One of the most emotional things is seeing friends who I have played with for a long time leaving the game.

 

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 am rather conservative in terms of not having accounts on every single web site. Probably the best way to reach me is using ingame mail, but I can also be reached by the means of email (brianum@brianum.de), skype (Brianum) and I do have a jabber account (brianum@brianum.de) on a federation-enabled server. I am not hiding behind an ingame nickname, so if you really desire, you can also find out who I am with relative ease. Postcards welcome, especially if they are from Poitot, which is … you probably know ;-)

 

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)

Most of it has been said in this interview and is written down in my campaign thread on the EVE forums, which is also available in german. If you have questions, that are not answered, don’t hesitate to ask. I will certainly answer them as good as I can and if I deem them really important, I will write them down for others too.

 

15. What is your closing statement (no more than 500 words please!)

Not much more to say, If you would like to see me on the CSM making everyone’s life in New Eden better, go out and vote me. If you don’t agree with my positions, go out and vote nevertheless, find a candidate with a different focus, but don’t sit in your basement and just complain about all the mean things.