The Xander Phoena CSM Sessions - Nathan Jameson

I wrote previously about Xander Phoena's intention to interview every CSM8 candidate that wants to be interviewed. I would go so far as to say, if they don't want to be interviewed, they're not worth the bother giving them a single vote.

My plan is to summarize, and give my own thoughts, on each of the interviews. I'm not going to summarize to the point that listening to an interview is no longer necessary. I'm not going to cover every detail of the interview, and will give broad strokes in many instances. If you're interested in a candidate, then head to Crossing Zebras to download the interviews.

Now to Xander's second interview, with Nathan Jameson, a wormhole candidate, and executor of the alliance, Talocan United.

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Nathan describes himself as an "enabler", to use the terminology that CCP is now using. He enjoys administration and management. He enjoys helping people get the most out of the game. He wants to enable more communication between players and CCP. He sees himself as a champion of the little guy, and explains that wormhole space is an area of EVE that truly does give space and autonomy to small and medium-sized groups.

Nathan is a wormhole candidate. I don't believe he makes any bones about that, and he doesn't spend much time in the interview trying to pretend he's anything other. He's doesn't claim to be the everybody candidate. His main competitor is Cipreh (who is also scheduled for a Xander interview), and both aim to take the seat vacated by CSM7's wormhole representative, Two Step.

Most of his ideas, on where the game could use the most work, are, not surprisingly, focused on wormhole space. That's not to say that such work wouldn't benefit other areas of space (planetary interaction or player-owned starbase updates, as examples), but he does focus on areas of development of importance to wormhole dwellers.

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Some talk on Two Step's plan to hold a wormhole primary, find a single candidate that all wormhole candidates can throw their voting power behind. Two Step's plan, though, doesn't seem to be getting off the ground, so Cipreh and Nathan decided to jump the gun and get their names out to the playerbase before it was too late.

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Xander asks, if the big ticket items of any wormhole candidate is POS reform, and if it's looking like CCP has neutered POS development for the forseeable future, what does that do to the wormhole campaigns? And Nathan correctly counters that POS changes are neutered, simply the idea of modular POSes. There are still many avenues for POS development that could improve the system dramatically, such as in the area of security and roles. He wants to improve what already there.

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There's some talk on diversity. There was some accusations leveled at Two Step during his term, that as a C5/C6 wormhole guy, he didn't really understand anything about the needs of folks who choose to live in C1/C2 wormholes, or even the C3/C4 wormhole people. Nathan wants to make sure such accusations are never levelled at him. And he gives an example of a change that might seem appropriate for C1/C2 wormhole people that would end up setting C5/C6 wormholers. Wormhole living is diverse, and he needs to respect that diversity when representing the wormhole demographic.

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Then some critiques. Xander points out that, until he decided to run for CSM8, Nathan's web presence seemed to be quite limited. He didn't seem all that involved in the community at large until this year, when it obviously became necessary. Nathan points out that his Asian timezone precluded a lot of community involvement, which I'm not sure is a valid argument. Internet communication is 24/7, especially EVE communication, where the playerbase stretches across every timezone.

It's probably fair enough to think that anybody that wants to win a seat on the CSM should probably spend some time with the community well before ever making that run. Otherwise, you're just some gopher that's poked its head from the ground, and you're not particularly distinguishable from all other gophers.

I'm not sure there was much point calling Nathan out on some supposedly sexist remark he made to a throwaway comment regarding EVE wear. It wasn't as though he were laughing off a serious campaign query.

I don't think Nathan answers well when Xander brings up a comment made concerning politicians being two-faced. Xander points out that Nathan is now a spaceship politician and is he two-faced? Nathan basically stumbles over himself trying to explain away the statement.

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Nathan handles himself reasonably during the interview. Nothing spectacular. What you'd expect from your average gamer. Whether he should be the wormhole candidate, is for wormholers to decide. I would assume most wormhole people know who he and Talocan United are. But it does seem like a contest to be won between Nathan and Cipreh, at the moment. We'll have to see if other wormholers enter the race (which will probably be bad overall, vote splitting will likely mean no wormhole candidate ends up on CSM8.)

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This article is not a transcript of the interview. It's paraphrased. It's interpreted. It's sprinkled with my own opinions. I do strongly suggest taking thirty-three minutes out of your day to listen to the interview yourself.

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Credit to Xander for the interview. He didn't let Nathan off the hook on a number of questions, and also showed that he put some effort in researching the candidate before the interview, as he referenced his research in many of those questions. At any rate, and judge Nathan for yourself.

At the very least, these moments have shown Xander to be an able interviewer, and while interested in being respectful to his guests, he's not interested in giving them a comfortable forum devoid of any challenges.

This series of interviews is definitely a first for the EVE community and a CSM election. It's certainly nothing we've seen before, not even during a CSM tenure. Xander has proven himself to be an able caretaker for this process.