CCP Games announced today the dates for the upcoming Council of Stellar Management voting season, as well as changes to the makeup of EVE Online's democratically elected player council.
The Council of Stellar Management is a council of players voted in by the EVE Online community. This player council acts as the player's voice to the EVE developers, making sure that player interests are heard and incorporated by CCP Games. The Council itself is voted on by the playerbase to 12-month terms with players who seek election to the CSM campaigning in-game for their shot.
CCP Games announced the upcoming campaign season for the CSM 18 voting, kicking off on August 1st with the candidate submissions. August 23rd will see the candidates revealed and the official campaigning period beginning. Voting will take place between September 4th through the 11th, with CSM 18 being revealed during Fanfest 2023.
During the campaign process, players will be able to lobby both in and out of game, taking part in interviews on CCPTV and with various content creators in the EVE community, all aiming to become one of the 12 members of the CSM.
The number of council members is a big change this year, as well as how those last two candidates are chosen. While the player votes will choose the first ten members, CCP Games will select the final two members of the council from those who finish in the 11th through 20th place in the voting. CCP notes that this change is due to the return of expansions and how it allows CCP to plan further ahead, meaning they can "better predict what kind of expertise would be useful to have on the CSM."
"Our selection will be based primarily on what areas of knowledge we perceive to be most valuable in the coming term based on our plans for EVE development. Operationally, there will be no distinction made between the 10 elected and 2 appointed members of the CSM.This means that EVE players will get the benefit of having two additional experienced council members working for them with no reduction in voter agency. As the candidates eligible for selection will have come from a pool who made it quite far into the STV elimination process, they will be people who have significant support from the community, even if not *quite* enough to have been directly elected."
You can check out the full details on the EVE Online website. Back in 2019 at EVE Amsterdam, we looked a bit deeper at the CSM, speaking with developers as well as Jin'Taan, a former member of the Council, about its role in the EVE community.
