Community Representatives.

[admin]

Captains.

As we come closer to the release we need to add additional ways we gather feedback from the community.
One of the tools some MMOs use Community representatives who are elected by the community and have direct line to devs.  (referred there after as CR)

We think it would be a good idea and are looking for ideas on this

• What do you think could be a good method to elect such representative
  • (community vote, or appointment or merit (for example size of the clan, or new player retention in a clan - or a mix of all three)
• What do you think should be the requirements for a CR?
• What should be responsibilities for such CR?

 

 

 

[Kloothommel]

Having done a mix of things as a moderator/serverhead in a previous game (NavyField Europe) I suggest the following:

- Representative per nation

- Good language skills (speak english plus dominant language of that nation)

- Weekly community meetings with the representative and leaders of clans in his/her nation: Discuss issues/bugs/ideas.

- Weekly reports to the devs on status of game, bugs found, attitude of players to the game, feedback/ideas etc.

- Elected by the nation on the forum, using in-game names to vote.

- Player has to be experienced, lots of game time and knowledge of the workings of the game.

Edited April 30, 2018 by Cornelius Trash

[z4ys]

Requirements:

- never was banned in chat or in-game or in forum or punished for exploiting

- is active in forum and game

-----------------------

What I think what's most important is that the CR are part of a wide community spectrum. 

Let's say we would take the biggest clans only it will be biased very soon.

Edited April 30, 2018 by z4ys

[Kloothommel]

1 minute ago, z4ys said:

Requirements:

- never was banned in chat or in-game or in forum

- is active in forum and game

 

Indeed! Good behaviour is a must. No (serious) infractions should be a thing.

[Slim McSauce]

Hand picked by current staff. Active on forums, x amount of hours in game, communication skills etc. Initial draft by  community vote as nomination followed by application process then a dev interview or something along those lines.

 

Edited April 30, 2018 by Slim McSauce

[Batman]

No shit-talk or trolling in National News or Tribunal . If you are to represent NA ingame and on forum, trolling will backfire at the devs.

 

Suggestion: Look at players often active in help channel.

Edited April 30, 2018 by Batman

[Capt Jubal Early]

Preference on community driven players. Long standing clan running, lots of activity on forums, clean history (no bans) that sort of thing.

Not 30 day switch nation players with own agendas.

What slim said basically get the current mods to draft up some lists.

[Percival Merewether]

2 minutes ago, Slim McSauce said:

Hand picked by current staff. Active on forums, x amount of hours in game, communication skills etc. Initial draft initial community vote as nomination followed by application process then a dev interview or something along those lines.

 

I think hand-picked by the current staff defeats the purpose of a community representative - he is to represent the community, not the current staffs opinions. but if the current staff could give us someone to vote for, I think that'd be great.

[Njord]

I urge you to be very careful with selecting these representatives and when in doubt decide yourself where the game should be going. I think you have the right vision for NA but just a bit too hardcore sometimes. Casual players are the lifeblood of any mmo, so if you let people who play 24/7 or those that always complain and are too lazy to adapt decide how the game and its mechanics will unfold, then it will probably do more harm than good. 

You should only choose respected and by vote selected members of the community that are deemed reasonable aswell as having a perspective for all kinds of players in NA.

Edited April 30, 2018 by Sovereign

[Angus MacDuff]

You also might consider real world geographic representation.  Perhaps by time zone or continent.  Different viewpoints to be had.

[Slim McSauce]

10 minutes ago, Percival Merewether said:

I think hand-picked by the current staff defeats the purpose of a community representative - he is to represent the community, not the current staffs opinions. but if the current staff could give us someone to vote for, I think that'd be great.

Community picked isn't much better. The community picks 12 people who all have the same opinion, are all large clan leaders, the people who already run the game PVP and popularity wise.

Hand picked the devs can themselves get a pool of people from all walks of the game, instead of leaving it to what is essentially a popularity contest for the already most powerful people in the game who can get everyone in their clan to vote for them, not what we want from community representitives who are the voice of the people, new, old, casual and hardcore. PvP, PvE, RVR and OW players, traders crafters and all else.

Not that the community should have no say in who is picked, they definitely should, but it shouldn't be decided that way without vetting from current staff. Merit first.

Edited April 30, 2018 by Slim McSauce

[z4ys]

6 minutes ago, Slim McSauce said:

Community picked isn't much better. The community picks 12 people who all have the same opinion, are all large clan leaders, the people who already run the game PVP and popularity wise.

Yes like the old alliance system. One clan ruled it all. We have to be really careful.

"CR/Team must ever have any personal interest in any game situation." Is in my opinion one crucial point.

[Hethwill, the Red Duke]

A team represents the entire game as a whole. Each member may represent a "niche" of type of playing. Together they bring voice to all parts of the game, as complex as it can be.

First:

- languages CRs

- server CRs

Then...

Any member found of having used diminishing discourse with the intent of infatuating own ego or making a "player leave the game" would make a horrible CR for a start.

Any member found of using upset battle chat examples as a "badge of badass" would be out IMO.

A good CR starts and ends with being correct, polite and up to standards.

 

 

[Slim McSauce]

at the very most a CR should get a little icon by their name on the forums and maybe a CR tag under their Right Click>Player Info so people can direct questions and concerns to them without drawing unnecessary attention. The last thing I want to see is more green names on chat that everyone goes gaga over. Save that for the real staff, CR should be the eyes and ears NA, a bridge between regular players and developers, not to be perceived as above regular player status. It should be as incognito as possible so people only want to be a CR for the right reasons.

[Percival Merewether]

2 minutes ago, Slim McSauce said:

at the very most a CR should get a little icon by their name on the forums and maybe a CR tag under their Right Click>Player Info so people can direct questions and concerns to them without drawing unnecessary attention. The last thing I want to see is more green names on chat that everyone goes gaga over. Save that for the real staff, CR should be the eyes and ears NA, a bridge between regular players and developers, not to be perceived as above regular player status. It should be as incognito as possible so people only want to be a CR for the right reasons.

Agreed.

[qw569😳]

@admin

Will  CR work be paid for?

Edited April 30, 2018 by qw569

[Christendom]

A the very least these people need to be active on the forums AND in-game.  We very seldom see green text in global chat these days and the trash talking almost always gets out of hand.

Edited April 30, 2018 by Christendom

[Abram Svensson]

- Devs/admin/mods nominate players they think are good for this position, maybe with a reason.

- community should nominate players too.

- out of the nominations the community votes the CRs.

i agree to the attributes people already posted here.

i dont know if it should be added, that players who were punished by tribunal cant get voted, because that would exclude some good possible players for CR position in my opinion.

[victor]

2 hours ago, admin said:

Captains.

As we come closer to the release we need to add additional ways we gather feedback from the community.
One of the tools some MMOs use Community representatives who are elected by the community and have direct line to devs.  (referred there after as CR)

We think it would be a good idea and are looking for ideas on this

• What do you think could be a good method to elect such representative
  • (community vote, or appointment or merit (for example size of the clan, or new player retention in a clan - or a mix of all three)
• What do you think should be the requirements for a CR?
• What should be responsibilities for such CR?

 

 

 

Appointment

I think they should be chosen by devs. Actually players on forum are just a few and elections will bring ahead just big clan representatives.

Requisite

- being active in game since a long ago (a lot of hours ingame)

- being active in forum 

- each of them having a good experience about at least one aspect of the game (one for trade, one for craft, one for OS PVP, one for RVR, one for generic OS PVE and missions)

function

- gather feedback and propose solutions

Right persons?

- there is no a right person for a new role, trial and error is best way to handle it

- but try to avoid the leaders of RVR conquest involved clans (or the shitstorm about the conflict of interest will never end)

Edited April 30, 2018 by victor

[Capt Jubal Early]

3 minutes ago, Borch said:

Admin, charismatic with strong opinion, also very stubborn person, need a counterpart that is able sometimes to bash bad game ideas out of his head. Very polite person will never succeed in that task. 

Being polite doesn't mean your a snowflake and want to sit around lighting candles and discussing the problems with farming soy whilst weaving your dreadlocks.  

Polite people are more than capable of constructive criticism without shouting. I think being polite is a key indicator of a good community figure.

[StaleMemes]

Community representatives are important, but be very careful and think long and hard about how the selection process will be done.

I witnessed war thunder's attempt at something like this turn into a year long debacle and huge controversy because it became about who had the most youtube subscribers and the biggest social media following, not who is the most dedicated to the game. Obviously war thunder is a different game but similar problems could be encountered. 

Ironically, the super dedicated historians and players were totally skipped over because only a few people knew about what they did. People who spent all their time talking trash got votes because they were the faces people knew. Considering the astronomical amount of trash talking that goes down in global chat between a relatively small portion of the player base, this is a major concern.

The selection process mustn't turn into a general election

[Gregory Rainsborough]

There doesn't have to be a limit from each nation.

Choose people from clans that do most missions (PvE rep), most PvP kills (PvP rep), most port battles (RvR rep), active on forum.

Should also have several thousand hours in-game and been around for a long time.

I will volunteer @Batman

[Batman]

2 hours ago, Louis Garneray said:

That's going to be hard to find when looking at the National News

That's why I suggest to not vote/select any of these people who repeatedly get carried away in these threads. We've seen the same individuals arguing/fighting over and over again with the result that moderators sometimes had to delete half a dozen pages.

Some people may have a lot of posts on their, but there is a difference between being active on the forum and being active on the forum. Simply choosing somebody because of his well known name is not the right way of selecting your Community Representative.

[z4ys]

3 minutes ago, Batman said:

That's why I suggest to not vote/select any of these people who repeatedly get carried away in these threads. We've seen the same individuals arguing/fighting over and over again with the result that moderators sometimes had to delete half a dozen pages.

Some people may have a lot of posts on their, but there is a difference between being active on the forum and being active on the forum. Simply choosing somebody because of his well known name is not the right way of selecting your Community Representative.

guess we all mean when we talk about active that this person is actually providing "good feedback" aka not shitposting in every new thread

[Macjimm]

Effective representatives should be able to listen and clearly convey the preferences of their community.

Having thousands of hours of gameplay does not make a player a good listener or a decent communicator.

Understanding the game is important to providing valuable input, but knowing the community is essential to providing an honest picture of player's opinions.