I had the good fortune today to sit in on a case study of EVE Online’s player-elected council, the Council of Stellar Management (CSM for short).  I’ve long admired the various player driven societal structures of EVE, ranging from basic corporations and alliances to advanced businesses such as banks and media.  Pétur Jóhannes Óskarsson of CCP explains that the fact that EVE’s nearly 300,000 players aren’t split up on different servers allows these advanced organizations to form.

The CSM is a tribute to the way CCP conducts its business.  In short, the CSM is 9 player-elected representatives who act as liaisons between the userbase and the developers.    These representatives have no additional power, in-game or otherwise, have to campaign using their real-life names, and are flown out to meet with the developers every term (6 months) to discuss important player issues.  Since the CSM began in 2008, over 30 of the topics they have brought up have made it into the game and over 120 have been prioritized or are in the development pipeline.

How many times have I heard players complain that a company doesn’t care about them, or only cares about squeezing as much money out as possible without fixing any bugs?  In my own experience, my coworkers past and present got into the business because they had a passion for games.  In that context, the above players’ complaints seem patently ridiculous – yet they crop up again and again.  And there’s a simple reason this happens: lack of communication and transparency.

Many companies are afraid to admit to any wrongdoing.  Other companies have a mysterious urge to keep things secret as long as possible, sometimes to surprise the users, and other times for no clear reason at all.  While some secrets should be kept (surprises are fun, after all), in a vacuum of information all we have to go on is rumors, and even the most insane claims can appear almost reasonable.  In CCP, we have an example of the developers opening a direct line of communication to their players actual, giving their players a voice that they can hear clearly.  And in return, they’re giving answers and improving their game to match what their userbase really wants.

Point in fact, according to Óskarsson, the changes to the game’s sovereignty system (a central facet to EVE’s PvP) in the upcoming Dominion expansion is based largely on the feedback they received from the CSM.

Even though EVE is an unusually political game, the CSM is not directly tied to any game mechanic.  If another publisher or developer wanted to, they could implement a similar system.  Even if very few in-game changes took place as a result of a player council, at least the users would know they’re being heard, and would have a centralized method of direct communication.

And in the end, what more can we ask for?