Council of Stellar Management

The Council of Stellar Management (CSM) is a player-elected council created to represent the views of the players to CCP.

Players can raise issues to the CSM for consideration, and obtain support for the CSM to raise issues to CCP.

Information on this page was originally created by Pétur Jóhannes Óskarsson on behalf of CCP. The original pdf document can be found here

"Since the opening of Tranquility, EVE players have had an indirect say in how their virtual society is run. While player feedback has been central to the game’s evolution, this enabler relied upon the discretion of CCP to derive generalizations about society issues and player concerns. With the population of EVE exceeding 390.000 individuals, the time has come to empower players with a formal communications channel to directly impact the development of their society.

The means of accomplishing this goal will be through the implementation of a modified version of 'deliberative representative democracy' in EVE."

The scope of the CSM

The purpose of the CSM is to represent society's interests to CCP. This requires active engagement with the player community to master EVE issue awareness, understanding, and evaluation in the context of the “greatest good for the greater player base”. The scope of issues is restricted only to EVE, its ongoing development, and limited meta (out-of-game) issues that have direct relevance to the EVE universe. It is important to keep in mind that the CSM will not have formal powers within CCP – they will have a voice inside CCP.

Community elections for player representatives

A council of ten player representatives will be democratically elected by EVE players. The CSM will be headed by Officers; a Chairman, a Vice-Chairman, Secretary, and Vice-Secretary. This group is responsible for managing the operations of the council.

Each Officer will be elected by the council with an internal vote. If there are two candidates for a position, the winner is determined by a simple majority vote; if there are multiple candidates, then multiple ballots are cast, with each ballot eliminating the candidate with the least number of votes. In the event of a tie between any two candidates, the representative who was elected to the CSM with the highest ranking from the election will cast the tie-breaking vote.

Summary of representative responsibilities

The CSM is a “flat” organization, and Officers do not have special powers, only additional responsibilities. The responsibilities of the Chairman and Vice-Chairman are to handle official communications between the CSM and CCP, and they are expected to be particularly active in interacting with the community. The responsibilities of the Secretary and Vice-Secretary are related to the production of official CSM publications such as the CSM Summit Minutes. Thus, CSM Officers are expected to be the most active members of the CSM.

In cases where a member resigns from the Council before the end of their term, the candidates that weren't elected may be asked to join the Council in a reverse order of elimination.

Benefits for CSM members

While serving on the CSM, all members of the Council are eligible for free Omega status on up to five accounts. They are also eligible for free admission to any CCP run event such as EVE Fanfest, and digital rewards associated with them.

Candidate eligibility

Anyone who has held an EVE Online account for more than sixty (60) days is eligible to campaign for a representative seat on the CSM, with the following exceptions: employees, volunteers, interns, affiliates, strategic partners, employees of other gaming companies/games and family members of CCP are all ineligible. Characters on both Alpha and Omega accounts are eligible to run.

Elected members of the CSM must maintain their eligibility during their term in order to remain on the council.

Also, players with a serious warning or ban on any account in their possession can be excluded from candidate eligibility. However, in-game behavior or public opinions, regardless of play style, will never be a criterion for candidacy unless the rules of the EULA and/or TOS are violated.

All candidates must verify their identity to CCP before they can officially be acknowledged as a candidate. All candidates must be 18 years old or older in order to qualify as a candidate and have to hold a valid passport at the date of the candidacy evaluation that allows for international travel and admission to Iceland and participation on the CSM. CSM 17 is first open to players who might not want or be able to travel to Iceland after the previous CSM was not able to hold a summit, but remained productive. In the past, players were required to run for the CSM under their real name, but that requirement no longer exists. However, players with multiple characters may be required to run under the identity with the most reputation in the EVE Universe.

Icelandic citizens are only required to submit a driver’s license or other valid photo ID. All candidates have to be able to travel to Iceland; CCP will not arrange any permits to enter the country should a visa or similar be required.

Warnings for serious EVE-related misconduct might bar the person from running for candidacy.

After a candidate receives receive confirmation that they have been greenlit as a candidate, they must create a campaign thread in the CSM section on the EVE Online forums. Candidates are expected to be active on the CSM forums and participate in the discussion of topics. They are also expected to adhere to the EULA/TOS and carry themselves in a manner that sets an example for other players to follow. In addition, they must be willing and able to travel to Iceland once during their term for a direct meeting with CCP developers. Transportation to and from Iceland, plus lodging, lunch, and dinner will be provided by CCP. Candidates are responsible for all other expenses incurred during the trip. Elected representatives are required to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) before commencing their term.

The election process

When an election is officially announced, candidates may campaign for player votes using any means at their disposal during the period between the election announcement and the conclusion of voting, provided that they comply with the EULA and TOS.

The voting system is single transferable vote (STV). CCP doesn't specify the exact variant. In past elections they used the droop quota and the method for the surplus vote transfers could be gathered from CCP's published data.

A player may cast one ballot in which he ranks up to as many candidates as there are seats for each personal account with Omega status that has been active for at least thirty consecutive days in the past. This includes reactivated accounts. All votes are strictly anonymous.

Term length and duration of the CSM

Each player council of representatives and alternates lasts for twelve months, beginning one week after the declaration of election winners. Campaigning and open voting for the next Council will begin four or more weeks prior to the expiration of the current CSM’s term. Election winners will be determined before the sitting Council’s term expires. Starting with CSM 15, three year term limits have been imposed, after which candidates must undergo a one year cooldown period before they can run again.

Topic presentation and management by the CSM

Anyone can bring a topic to the attention of the CSM, and comment on any number of existing topics. Moderation rules for posting in the CSM section of the forums are the same as all other boards operated by CCP.

A topic can be anything that a player considers important.

Further reading

• CSM 19: Shaping the Future of New Eden!
• CSM 17: Meet your candidates
• EVE Community: CSM
• EVE Community: Current CSM
• EVE Community: Meeting minutes