CSM 12 Election: Never Go Full Kanye

Shots were fired yesterday in the CSM 12 election. Surprisingly, not by a candidate, but by a CSM 11 member who is not running for re-election. Apparently Mr Hyde113 does not like rhiload Feron-drake, the creator of the zKill series of YouTube videos. How much? So much he left this post in rhiload's campaign thread.:

As an outgoing member of CSM 11 who, along with Gorski, primarily focused on mechanics, balance, and small gang/solo issues, I must voice my strong opposition to the candidacy of rhiload, and urge those voters who care about these issues to instead back Suitonia, who is vastly more experienced and qualified, to fulfil this role on CSM 12. With the reduction in the number of CSM seats this year from 14 to 10, it is important that 'non-bloc' entities like the small gang/solo community further concentrate their top votes behind serious candidates that can bring a depth of understanding and experience to CCP on these topics, rather than wasting them on charlatans such as rhiload.

The success and popularity of rhiload's meme video series 'Zkill Guides' this year is undoubtedly impressive and has at long last brought a particular style of comedy video popular in other games to EVE. However, this success should not be misinterpreted as an indicator of his knowledge or experience on the topics of balance and small gang/solo PVP, but rather just as a showing of his ability to entertain and satirise. Unfortunately for him, neither of these skills are valuable or necessary in the role of a CSM member and would actually would detract from the hard work CSM 11 did to restore productive and serious relations with CCP by trivialising important discussions on balance topics.

Despite his comparisons to me in regards to garnering a CSM candidacy backing from videomaking success, I respectfully disagree with this false equivalency. I would instead draw comparisons between rhiload and CSM 10 member WingspannTT (Chance Ravinne) who demonstrated how youtube popularity without any substance to back it up, makes for a hollow and useless CSM member. Although I certainly encourage his continued content creation which brings a smile to many-an-EVE player, I want to warn prospective voters on the dangers of letting rhiload's comedic success propel him above his station.

Having spent many hours and days over the past year working with CCP to have game balance taken as an issue seriously, I cannot in good conscious allow an EVE youtube comedian to get away with exploiting his recent popularity to masquerade as an expert on a topic he is not qualified to speak on.

*I understand that rhiload may take this as a personal insult, however, I only voice this opposition because I care about this game and these topics, and have too much respect for the CSM-CCP relationship to allow a meme candidate to detract from the serious work of the council. I do not know him personally and am sure he's a nice person and dedicated player.

I'm not sure what set Mr Hyde113 off. Did rhiload's announcement video ruffle some feathers? Here's a screenshot that may not have gone over too well.

The figure displayed is Mr Hyde113

I'll also include the entire video below so you can judge for yourself.


Sometimes I think members of the CSM live in an isolated bubble. For instance, I believe a lot of posters found the following quote amusing:

"With the reduction in the number of CSM seats this year from 14 to 10, it is important that 'non-bloc' entities like the small gang/solo community further concentrate their top votes behind serious candidates that can bring a depth of understanding and experience to CCP on these topics, rather than wasting them on charlatans such as rhiload."

So here is Mr Hyde113, a member of Pandemic Legion, telling people to not vote for a member of a small, 80-character corporation, TURN LEFT, in favor of someone who belongs to Goonswarm Federation, the biggest alliance in the game. On the face of it, an absolutely ridiculous argument. Out of all those involved, the only one not a member of a major null sec bloc is rhiload. And with the number of candidates currently announced, people are going to look at labels like what alliance a candidate belongs to and use that as one of their first filters.

I kind of feel sorry for Suitonia. He has the handicap of running as a candidate in Goonswarm Federation without the benefit of appearing at the top of the Goon ballot. Now he has Mr Hyde113 pissing off voters looking to vote for a solo/small gang candidate to NOT vote for Suitonia. Will Mr Hyde's unintentional sabotage of Suitonia matter? We'll find out when the votes are announced at Fanfest in April.