Hello fellow capsuleers.

My name is Toxic Yaken, and I’m running for CSM XII as a Highsec Candidate.

I’ve been playing the game for about 3 years, with the vast majority of my time spent in Highsec as a scammer, pirate, ganker, and wardeccer. I was enticed into the game by the prospect of “Being the Villain,” which was kind of ironic because I ended up getting hooked to mining ice in Highsec instead. I lived in a bubble for my first few months, not really talking to anyone or learning anything, until one day I decided to step away from my keyboard to use the bathroom… and came back to see my capsule ejecting from my Mackinaw. CODE. decided to stop by and give me an expensive lesson, one that pushed me to actually delve deeper into the game in a quest for revenge. After being part of several disappointing corporations that promised to teach me how to PVP, I came across the Belligerent Undesirables blog and was taught the ways of Highsec dickery. I started awoxing corporations for fun and money, ultimately amassing a small wealth in a couple of days that would have taken months to accumulate from mining. I started to gank as my corporation history became too long for recruiters to ignore, which ultimately led to me developing an addiction to building my ever-growing pile of loot. Friends I made through my time awoxing also led to me joining wardeccing corporations, as well as a couple of Highsec mercenary corporations, to better learn how to hunt and PVP. While I still partake in wars and ganking on alts these days, Toxic has moved with old friends to Nullsec as a member of the Dickwad Squad, part of Legio De Mortem and the larger Phoenix Federation.

Last year, I ran for CSM and my failure to get elected into CSM XI was pretty much expected. I was a nobody who wanted to represent the ganking and wardeccing communities, which are pretty fringe playstyles. But I wanted to be honest to myself and represent the playstyles and lifestyles that I enjoy in EVE Online. Knowing that I would run again this year, I tried to use my spare time to experiment with different projects that I thought would provide players with opportunities to communicate their opinions. During the summer, I started doing interviews with Highsec players to get a better grasp of what these players thought of different aspects of Highsec gameplay and posting these conversations on a blog. While these interviews were enjoyable and helped me gain a better perspective of what players thought about the game, I didn’t really like the format as means of collecting information, and many of the interviews that I started with players were never finished due to challenges in being online at the same time (My schedule isn’t amazing.) During the Fall I organized a wardec roundtable for players and the CSM to discuss several issues with wardecs, which turned out great and was well received by those in the CSM that attended. As a follow up I also rebooted the Wardec Project, (originally conceived by Jason Quixos and Tora Bushido) where players are free to participate in discussions on the subject of wardecs and ways to potentially improve them on our open Discord channel and ideas are recorded for future referencing and discussion. (Feel free to hop on and join the conversation!)

Communication

The CSM website doesn’t exactly give players a good impression of CSM activity and projects – at a cursory glance you might notice that most of the postings are almost a year old. Obviously a lot of work and discussions occur behind the scenes, but seeing CSM activity is a matter of knowing where to look, being a part of the right channels and communication tools, and taking the time to talk with them. My hopes to improve communication between CSM and the community would ideally focus on pushing forward more community based discussions, including townhalls, and working to expand promotions of these discussions for a greater audience.

Communication within the CSM

Every elected candidate is going to have a different opinion of what their role in the CSM is supposed to be. I’ll provide the stark contrast between Jin’Taan and Mr Hyde as an example - Jin’Taan has been actively organizing townhalls, slogging through chats, and trying to be at the forefront of relations with the community, while Mr Hyde’s stance has been that he was elected as a representative of his voters and when he needed other player’s opinions he would search for those he believed had a strong understanding of the subject matter. Neither of these styles of representation is ‘bad’, but they may not align with the expectations from previous years CSMs. My hope for being elected to CSM XII would be the opportunity to push the council back towards more visible activities and discussions to improve the community’s perspective.

Communication with CCP

The improved relations between CSM and CCP this year has been brought up pretty consistently over the last year, and if elected I would hope to continue this trend. Hosting discussions and generally keeping in touch with the community will be crucial for regular meetings with CCP because beyond informing them of player opinions, making a case for change requires an in-depth understanding of the problem and convincing CCP that it is a problem that really needs changing. This also comes down to understanding the direction that CCP wants to take development of EVE, which in some cases isn’t entirely clear, especially with Highsec. My hope is that, if elected, I would be able to learn the path that CCP wants to follow and try to build suggestions upon that vision. I recognize that while the staff of CCP may be willing to hear my opinions and those of the community, it is ultimately their game and their decisions. As such the following opinions on Highsec are my own, and aren’t meant to be taken as my platform for what changes I would like to push for, but rather where my mind is for these subjects.

Opinions on Highsec Activities – My opinions, not promises

Mining

Wars

Ganking

Industry

Trading

Hauling

Missioning

Exploration

Corporations Mechanics