Ves, because of the kind of open ended, sandbox game EVE is, it is almost imparative and a maybe a little bit unavoidable that a highly involved player community exists.

Now as to CSM being unique, I would agree that no other games have anything as structured for player representation. But I think that most games have quite a bit of player/develeoper interaction through their forums. I would further argue that much the same things that are accomplished at the annual CSM summit, can also be accomplished on official forums. Granted, it would take much longer and there would not be as much of the player base that would feel involved and informed about the player/dev interaction.

I think one of the best things about CSM is the minutes from each meeting which clearly tell the usersbase at large what is being discussed and what we can expect from these discussions.

I think one of the worst things is the election process, because I feel like I have no real idea about who the candidates are and what the differences are between them. The only place you real hear much about the elections is on the forums. I wish there was better in-game integration of the campaigns and elections.