Author: by Staff

Thanks to the democratically elected player government, says CCP in a new Gamasutra feature, the development of its MMO EVE Online has taken significant turns, guided by the players. John Turbefield, of CCP Research and Statistics, told Gamasutra that he can "point to things such as the skill queue and the removal of the learning skills as examples of things that were greatly affected by input from the CSM." The CSM is elected by the player base and travels to CCP's Reykjavik, Iceland headquarters twice a year to help the team guide the game's development. The company recently called an emergency meeting of the CSM to discuss controversies surrounding newly-added microtransactions. "They are a key reason for the increased priority given to lag-fixing efforts and for our move towards a more 'staggered' release cycle where we release expansions to EVE in parts rather than all at once," continued Turbefield. CSM5 member Robert Woodhead told Gamasutra that the body often has to balance the needs of the existing high-level player base with the desire to draw more players into the notoriously complex MMO. The CSM often wants the team to fix issues that plague longtime players. "We know that there has to be a balance, but we think there's a lot of benefit to be had by going back and looking at things like low sec or factional warfare, and using the experience that has been gained over the last couple of years and saying, 'Okay, let's do a version 2.0 on this.' The difficult part is figuring which of these issues is the one we think CCP should do first and then actually convincing CCP to do it," said Woodhead. The full feature examines the function of the CSM and possibilities for its future -- and is live now on Gamasutra.