Friday, September 17, 2010

Ask not what you can do for CSM, Ask what CSM can do for you.

Well, it has taken a while to pull together, but today marks the publication of the first CSM5 devblog. In it you'll find quite a few tidbits of information, such as what items in the CSM backlog are in the process of being implemented in the Winter expansion, and the news that CCP has invited CSM back to Iceland in October for a special summit aimed at working out the best way for CSM to use its fabled "stakeholder" powers.

To be honest, at this point I don't know exactly what to expect next month -- will our fat asses be kissed, or spanked? But this meeting is a very interesting development, and the request for it originated with CCP, not CSM. We weren't kidding in the devblog when we said that CCP has done more communicating with CSM5 than with all the previous CSMs combined.

This is a very encouraging thing, to be honest. It doesn't mean that CCP will be delivering puppies and kittens to the players as fast as we'd all like, but it appears to represent a significant change in CCP's relationship to the players, a reversion towards the way things were in the early days (or so I'm told -- being a Mac weenie, I only started playing in late 2007).

The trick, of course, will be to get in place procedures that reinforce this new open attitude, and make it obvious to CCP that this new direction is a win for them.

PS: subscribe to the CSM-NEWS mailing list in-game for occasional updates from CSM about such things as mass-testing.