Kotaku put out a piece over the weekend on Brian Schoeneman, one of the many players currently running for positions on EVE Online’s Council of Stellar Management. It’s basically the student council for the game, only the members could potentially wield considerable influence over the game and have traditionally been flown to Iceland to meet with CCP to advocate for the playerbase, or at least its more powerful factions. So yeah, basically like real life.
Schoeneman, however, made headlines because of his day job: Kotaku characterizes him as a “career politician” and lobbyist.
“If you replace ‘government’ with CCP, ‘union members’ with the playerbase, and ‘country’ with the game world, I’m already basically a CSM,” he reportedly said. “It’s literally my day job.”
Interesting tidbit for old school Star Wars Galaxies players: It sounds as if Schoeneman was also a member of the player senate there too as one of the profession reps.
Refreshingly, he blew off the interviewer’s suggestion that he might be embarrassed about his gaming hobby (he considers himself something of a rank-and-file grunt in the game itself).
“I’m not out getting drunk every night, I’m not cheating on my wife, I’m not paying off hookers $130,000… I’m sitting in my home, playing video games. […] Maybe 20 years ago this would be weird, but given how mainstream gaming has become with Twitch streamers and YouTube stars making millions of dollars, how can anyone say ‘You’re throwing your life away playing these games? I’d rather be attacked for playing EVE than for being a liar, or for doing something truly bad.”
