EVE Online will elect a governing body through an in-world democratic process, called the Council of Stellar Management. Nine representatives and five alternates were elected by popular vote from EVE's player base, which CCP says has reached about 225,000.

The next step is a two-week long election period beginning May 5th and ending May 19th. Each elected council member will serve a six-month term, during which they will discuss issues important to the community and liase with the game's operators at CCP on the future evolution of the world.

Said CCP CEO Hilmar Petursson, "EVE Online has evolved from an MMORPG to a virtual world with a virtual society. It is our role as its caretakers to evolve our approach as well, through economics research, political science or other aspects of operations or development. A democratic election process of representatives is one of mankind's greatest inventions. We are bringing a version of that to EVE now with hope of it allowing us to expand EVE Online in a similar way to what we've seen on Earth."

It's a fascinating move -- with one foot in MMO community management tactics and the other in the social replication attempted in non-gaming virtual worlds, it stands to be a move that benefits not only EVE players, but the game's operators, who will get feedback from community-elected representatives. It's also a furtherance of the viability of online communities -- if an online game can elect a council to deal with matters of gameplay and economics, perhaps virtual worlds can develop complex democracies for self-governance.