CSM 19 Interview with Kazanir

https://forums.eveonline.com/t/kazanir-for-csm19-on-de-blocification/463213

The following text is quoted from a player on one of a few PvP-focused EVE Discords which I lurk in, which I think summarizes the feelings of a wide slice of EVE’s playerbase:

"Fisk Hrin Hakuli: I think what most of this server actually wants, is a null that isn’t held largely by 3 groups - most of us think that the fact that PH holds the insane amount of regions that they do is incredibly bad for the game, and not just for us, but for the null holders that want to go and PvP. It also essentially blocks smaller groups from being independently living in null, especially close to these big null holders. I personally think that a lot of the issues that we complain about would also be fixed, and it would generally be much healthier for null, which is why there is such a big uproar over skyhook changes and ansi changes - we thought that if we interacted with the skyhooks in the gangs we normally play in, along with the ansi nerfs that were introduced at the start of equinox would be enough for the big players to give up a decent amount of sov for other groups to step in and use that space to a much greater degree than they were. I’m saying this all to say, does CCP and the CSM agree at all with us? Do you guys think that the current state of null is where you want it, or do you want much more medium sized independent alliances holding sov and using it actively? Because that’s all I think most people on this server want, at the end of the day."

For two years I have been on a long campaign to try to illustrate the needed mechanics which would support the goals in the above quote – largely focused on the much maligned “passive income” that EVE’s original map game was built on. This may sound odd, as I principally represent one of the large blocs: full of krab power, the Imperium is not the group that requires this type of gameplay to be available. But it is true, and consistent with Goonswarm’s policy dating back at least 15 years: we are not here to ruin THE game – only YOUR game.

And I really want THE game to last for another few decades, without suffering from the cycle of stagnancy that has always afflicted it.

The mechanics required to actually achieve this, though, are counterintuitive at best, and we aren’t there yet. But the launch of the Equinox expansion has provided a framework where this is actually possible in nullsec – where before, it simply was not. Why? Well, before Equinox, there was essentially no map – with the exception of truesec, any given nullsec system was essentially the same as any other. In this environment, it is impossible to provide real rewards simply for conquering a star system – there’s no way of deciding how much reward any given system should be worth! This is also the exact same reason why Dominion-era ihubs could simply install any upgrade – there was no way to limit them or decide “how much” any given system could do. Whoops.

Equinox fixes this, by providing a matrix of resources upon which sov nullsec operates. Many mistakes have been made along the way, but this ultimately should be everyone’s goal: If Equinox can also support a full-on Conqueror playstyle over time, it will force open a path by which the big blocs can be meaningfully threatened, made to suffer for ignoring their borders, and their best PvPers even baited into striking out on their own, and subsequently rewarded for doing it...

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