(I endorse the Yellow/Green Space Invader)

Democracy has finally hit the MMO world. After a recent scandal in EVE Online, the space trading MMO, where insiders developers meddled with the game’s system, the developer, CCP, implemented a democratically elected player council into the game.

Called the Council of Stellar Management, the group is formed by players, elected by players. Could this be the tipping point for Democracy in MMOs? Not if you ask Jade Constantine, Andrew Cruse, President of the Council of Stellar Management:

And also, CCP, being a European company, is somewhat bolder and more imaginative/daring than most U.S.-based, big corporate clones that would probably be horrified at the thought of allowing their players to be involved in prioritizing development and holding the company to account for its actions. It’s not an exaggeration to describe CCP as a very unique entity in the MMORPG industry and it takes a lot of reckless visionary, daring to take the leap of faith they have with the CSM process.

And if something the global MMO industry is not, is daring. Otherwise we wouldn’t have ten thousand World of Warcraft clones.

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