Biomassed: Who are you? Who do you play DUST 514 with, and what style of play do you enjoy?
Leither Yiltron: I’m Leither. I blew into DUST on the very original wave that started transferring from MAG (Go Raven!) after having played MAG since its release. The MAG approach to FPS games has stuck with me while playing DUST 514 – I’ve played with corps that take anyone with spirit and willingness to organize, and have been a director and Field Commander for Kill-Em-Quick, Planetary Conquest coordinator for Rise of Legion, and an FC for Molon Labe. Those organizations shared the heart of my DUST philosophy during my membership: If someone’s got the SP and the desire, get them into competitive matches so that they can learn and grow. This game works best when communities have the tools to thrive.
Biomassed: Tell us a bit about the “real you”. Who is the man (or woman) behind the merc?
Leither Yiltron: My day jobs are mathematics and computer programming. Last month I graduated with a BS in Math from the University of Florida, I interned for IBM last summer as a software developer, and this upcoming fall I’m due to start an MSc course at Oxford University (Yes, that Oxford, I’m still amazed it happened myself). In summary: A hopeless ivory tower nerd.
Biomassed: Why did you decide to run for the CPM this year?
Leither Yiltron: I’m running because we’re at a critical crossroads for DUST. Granted that we’re getting a port to a new platform, it’s past time to revitalize discussions on what makes sense for the game in the long term, not just what we can pull off in one month, two months, even six. We need a persistent dialog about what large scale, long term projects deserve priority, and that’s the voice I want to lend to the CPM. I’ve been here since the beginning of closed beta in 2012, and have a track record of sticking to my guns where these long term issues are concerned.
This year in DUST development has been almost exclusively focused on Rattati doing an epic job putting out fires from older bad design decisions. But some of those fires have been put out at the cost of long term design goals. The biggest change we’re getting to DUST in years, Planetary Conquest redesign, wasn’t properly discussed with the community before the decision to commit resources was made. Bandwidth and scanning changes have solved some issues, but both of them have needlessly steepened an already near-vertical learning curve where simpler fixes would have sufficed.
I’m running because I know we’re in a place where we can extend our groundwork for long term CCP-community interaction to handle these situations. We have a huge breadth and depth of insight into these questions running around the community, and I want to help channel that into plans for DUST’s future.
Biomassed: What are the strengths you think you can bring to the CPM? What is your biggest weakness you’ll need to contend with?
Leither Yiltron: I have a couple tricks up my sleeve:
- As a DUST player, I have a unique perspective from almost all the other candidates this year: Throughout DUST’s lifetime, I’ve worked on organizing large communities of players into competitive fighting forces. That means that I’ve seen firsthand, from the battlefield to spreadsheets, from the fresh-faced newbie to the 40m+ SP vet, what the core issues that grind the game and hold back the playerbase from expanding are.
- My personal background gives me a good basis in data analysis (I even wrote a thesis on Topological Data Analysis!), which I think will help given CCP’s current data fetish. That goes hand-in-hand with some experience as a software developer which lets me be on-the-ball where technical requirements are concerned.
- My most effective trick, though, is an ability to admit when I have no stonking clue on a subject (like vehicle balance numbers) and instead redirect to community members who do.
My biggest weakness is that I’m a bitter vet. I can’t say with a straight face that DUST is in a fantastic place, and I’m not going to overplay small changes as having bigger impact than they are. My raw hype for DUST 514 ran out about… 1.5 years ago, after literally hundreds of people that I used to play with went on hiatus for lack of sincere corp-building tools here in DUST. I also have a tendency to tease people on the forums once in awhile.
Biomassed: What do you feel is the role of the CPM?
Leither Yiltron: The CPM can provide all sorts of services to the community and CCP. One thing that I think the CPM and community members at large can do is direct people to resources they may or may not know exist. For instance, the CPM White Paper discusses the role of the CPM much better than I can: http://cdn1.eveonline.com/community/CPM/CPM_White_Paper.pdf (This is mostly a snarky joke for Soraya.)
Biomassed: How do you feel about the previous CPM? What was done well, and what could have been done better?
Leither Yiltron: CPM1 have seen DUST through a tough time, and they’ve done well to start taking advantage of Rattati’s sanity (as opposed to previous DUST leads’ lack thereof) in broadening CCP-community interaction. What needs to be improved is the CPM’s coordination as an organization. It’s flatly embarrassing to the community when our representatives can’t overcome their own personal squabbles to do something as simple as elect a Chairman, which is detailed as a requirement in the White Paper. Some CPM members haven’t been as actively engaged on the forums or other communications media as really makes sense for people in their positions, and I really hope that changes no matter what CPM2’s composition looks like.
Biomassed: What are your thoughts on communication between the players and CCP? The CPM and CCP? The CPM and the players?
Leither Yiltron: Covered in other questions.
Biomassed: Where do you hope to see the game by the end of your term?
Leither Yiltron: By July 2016, I want to see DUST, CCP, and the community in a place where high-level plans for the game feature much more heavily in the discussion, rather than being passed down by fiat from CCP-on-high for a postmortem chat after the direction has already been decided. I’d also like to see community-CCP engagement, and by extension the CPM, set up for the long haul with regularity in things like CPM elections and streaming of Fanfest round tables.
Biomassed: If DUST is able to be ported to another platform, which platform would you prefer, and why?
Leither Yiltron: I can only answer this question as a community member rather than from the perspective of a CPM candidate. If CCP are weighing community feedback on a porting decision, they need to weigh the whole community’s. That being said, my personal desire is to see DUST ported to PS4 first and foremost. I started out my console-FPS career on the PS3 with MAG, have stuck around on the PS3 for DUST, and feel like it’d be a huge disservice to the console vets that have supported DUST for years to leave us out in the cold.
Biomassed: How can players reach out to you if they have further questions for you?
Leither Yiltron: All sorts of ways.
In-game, character name: Leither Yiltron
Skype [Put something about DUST in the friend invite message if you opt for this, damn Skype bots.]: parker.on.skype
Email: leithercpm (at) gmail.com
GChat: leithercpm (at) gmail.com
Twitter: @LeitherY
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/user/leither
