So I'm cautiously optimistic...

I did not post anything in June...

I did not post anything in July...

I thought of making todays rant titled "Cautiously optimistic vs giddily optimistic" but I am going to stick with cautiously optimistic. Why? Because every other blogger out there lately says the same thing when they do not want to take a stand on something and speak their mind. So I am cautiously optimistic.... so lets set the tone for today's Eve online rant.

I'm an optimist in the sense that I believe humans are noble and honorable, and some of them are really smart. I have a very optimistic view of individuals. As individuals, people are inherently good. I have a somewhat more pessimistic view of people in groups though.

Steve Jobs

I thought that I would at least put out there that I am watching and trying to figure out a lot of Eve things since Eve Odyssey was released. I have at least a half dozen blogs in "draft" form that I wanted to publish but they are very different from what my peers are posting. So much so that it made me NOT want to post them until I could figure out if we were playing the same game anymore. Then Poetic Stanziel pretty much summed up what my thoughts were today over at this post. I will post it here for those that are to lazy.

The CSM, after skipping it for a year, is back to their crowdsourcing initiative. Unlike previous years, where the CSM just went ahead and asked people to vote on development ideas and then those ideas being ignored for a few years, this year CCP has actually asked the CSM to go out and determine what people want CCP to work on. A list of reasonable things. Basically they're little things, but with a tad more scope. The CSM has whittled a list of 1300+ suggestions down to 99 suggestions.
(One of the problems with this list, is that there are quite a few items that repeat previously listed items. Changing characters. Logi on killmails. Ship velocity vectors. Fitting increases. Alliance fittings. Clone timers. To name a few, all appear at least twice. I'm not sure why repeats weren't culled from the final list.)
With CCP asking for the list, and the CSM having a reasonable idea of what sorts of things CCP will look at seriously, there's a good chance a large number of these items will make it on to the winter expansion development slate.
We're supposed to choose between one and ninety-nine of the suggestions (the CSM suggests choosing around ten items), arrange them in an order that is important to us, and then submit them to the CSM.
You can read the entire list, as well as links on how to vote and where to vote at the "Reasonable Things" Evelopedia page.

I find #49 the most amazing in the list:

Get rid of the CSM. If they're not actually thinking and promoting issues they have no value left. CCP already pays game designers.

Keywords: csm, useless
Notes: Selected by 4 CSMs: James Arget, mynnna, Sort Dragon and Trebor Daehdoow

This was selected by 4 of the CSM members. 3 of the 4 that I voted for on THIS CSM and I couldn't agree more!

I went to fanfest this year. A lot of people did. All the hype and all the expectation about what was going on that led up to this years fanfest has NOT happened so far. Not even close. A lot of the bloggers out there have not only been  way off on what they THOUGHT Odyssey was going to bring but they are putting themselves out there as "cautiously optimistic" so they do not look bad on what they DO say. Anyone have enough of this sunshine being pumped up our backsides yet?

Now I love reading everything that Poetic Stanziel blogs about. I would say that 50% of the time I agree with him and the other 50% I would pod him if I could. Either way he writes it as he sees it and you have to respect him for that. I think I am going to do a lot more talking with him in the future if he is up to it since I missed him while at fanfest.

For those that were thinking this post is TL:DR here it is for you.

1. NOT happy with how the CSM is telling CCP what we want.
2. NOT happy with this list of 99 items that they say are important, hell, they didn't even fix the list that they posted for duplicate items.
3. NOT happy with CCP handling things lately with a bunch of "little things" and I can see this coming to a head real soon.
4. NOT happy with Odyssey as an expansion. I have passed the 50/50 mark. I am not at 49% approval rating and falling. I might go into a blog on that later but that is not why you guys come here.

Am I excited about the future of Eve Online? What what I have seen in the latest expansion I am only "cautiously optimistic". If you want more details tell me below in the comments.