Oh, I take it very seriously. And I did say that I'd be happy to try any automated services that would accurately transcribe interviews.
You mentioned you ran a company that required transcripts. Was this company for profit?
Perhaps you are unaware that Priority One Podcast is built entirely by volunteers?
The following is our official statement on the matter of transcriptions...
We have given serious consideration to transcribing our shows in response to the previous requests we have read in our forum threads. However, Priority One has neither the internal talent nor the available funding to commit to this service. No one within our organization has the time or the skills to transcribe our shows efficiently. Our research into professional transcription services indicates that a ballpark figure of $100/episode MIGHT be enough.
Each and every one of our formidable capabilities as a podcast team comes 100% from the donation of time, talent, and treasure. If audio needs editing, somebody sits down at a computer they bought with their own money and takes time out of their day to get it done. If someone needs a microphone or a spam filter for our website comments or a flag for a microphone, either one of our generous listeners chips in a few bucks or we take up a collection internally.
If it gets done by P1, it gets done because somebody steps up and says "Let Me Help."
This is a Star Trek forum. Those words ought to be ringing a bell right now.
We understand that an audio format does not lend itself to ease of reference or inspection. We understand that our content is entirely inaccessible to STO fans with hearing impairments. We are aware that we are not the only podcast that has been asked to transcribe a show. We are aware that these requests range from polite inquiries to surly demands. We are aware that these requests are prevalent when devs are interviewed.
We are unaware of any effort in the community to organize either the time, talent or treasure to accomplish this task.
Priority One will be happy to assist in any concerted, community-wide effort to accomplish this. We do not have the personnel or the funding to take this on alone. If anyone wants to help us out, contact me via our website http://priorityonepodcast.com.
Thank you.
Well, you seem to have figured out how to raise enough cash to send your team to Vegas.
Kudos on that.
However, you'd probably need half that to pay a grad student to transcribe your podcasts for a year.
Taking yourselves to Vegas shows you take a professional attitude to your journalism.
You can build on that professionalism by considering access a bit more important.
Well, you seem to have figured out how to raise enough cash to send your team to Vegas.
Kudos on that.
However, you'd probably need half that to pay a grad student to transcribe your podcasts for a year.
Taking yourselves to Vegas shows you take a professional attitude to your journalism.
You can build on that professionalism by considering access a bit more important.
There is still an opportunity to add more funding to Priority One through our campaign. I invite you to donate so that we have enough remaining funds after reporting on STLV for our listeners. Then, we can actually have a "budgeting" meeting for the rest of the year and consider paying for a service like transcriptions.
There is still an opportunity to add more funding to Priority One through our campaign. I invite you to donate so that we have enough remaining funds after reporting on STLV for our listeners. Then, we can actually have a "budgeting" meeting for the rest of the year and consider paying for a service like transcriptions.
Do you one better.
Price up the transcription service and ask for those funds specifically.
Ring fence the money and ill donate, but I'm not buying you a margarita.
Please, no offense, but lose the $$$ sig. The first 12 minutes of the show are asking me for cash, so the sig doesn't exactly compliment the show. I am a fan of the show.
But I am also a podcaster who has to pay my own way. No offense intended, but this could be more tactful. Seriously, from one colleague to another, I hope. Lose that sig.
Lets not go off that kthx, and lets lose the argument about transcribing.
Yes, I'm that Askray@Batbayer in game. Yes, I still play. No, I don't care. Former Community Moderator, Former SSR DJ, Now Full time father to two kids, Husband, Retail Worker. Tiktok: @Askray Facebook: Askray113
I think trusting the podcast community is a GREAT move! There is so much quality content out there that everyone can participate in...
Well, depends what you mean by 'participate'.
As to trusting podcasters, well of course.
Subject to the usual caveats regarding any and all forms of journalism.
Problem is, podcasting (an essentially one-way form of communication) is not a replacement for a written forum (an essentially two-way form of communication).
Seems to me this is really just a calculated move towards controlling the message.
And while a certain amount of that is probably always with it, its not something to be celebrated either by players or wise developers.
I am not gonna hate on Smirk the ways some others are. I do have to point out though that if most other people said I don't know this often, we'd wonder why they were even in their job.
I am not blaming Smirk for this though.
I keep seeing this "Redacted" theme presenting over and over again with STO. It started happening with Bran Flakes and now it is happening more often with information released about the game.
I think I know why they are doing it though.
When I first started playing, the STO Dev team would often talk about all sorts of things they were thinking about adding to the game. As with most games, some things were added while others were not. Sadly, this lead to many players freaking out and yelling "You promised us X!" Simply talking about something is in no way a promise. Some players see it that way though so the Dev team is gonna get knocked one way or the other. Also, I think CBS might be asking them to keep things mum for a little longer...and the end result is a Cryptic employee like Smirk looks like he has no idea what is going on.
I am sure he does, but when you have your boss and your boss's boss telling you to not talk about...well, pretty much everything that is coming, you tend to sound clueless.
At this point, I take pretty much everything anyone says about the game with a grain of salt. I am not hating on anyone here. Just an opinion is all. I also want to make clear that there is no evidence that this is what is happening. All we can really do is speculate.
Let us all not forget though that Smirk and the rest of the STO team are people who work for a living just like the rest of us. Let's not give them too much grief.
No, I am not who you think I am. I am someone different. I am instead a banana.
It's difficult for me to point the finger at Priority One, however, there is nowhere else to point.
I respect Priority One's willingness to devote time and money to providing information to the playerbase. They are doing a service out of what I can only imagine is the same passion I also have for the game.
If I'm requesting transcription services from a completely volunteer organization like Priority One, it's because they are one of the few places PWE/Cryptic is willing to go to lend information to be consumed by the playerbase.
That is a problem. Because Cryptic/PWE is pushing the accountability onto P1's shoulders, and not their own (where it should be). Cryptic/PWE should be responsible for the release of information in a format that can be consumed by the entire playerbase, not just those who have ears which 'work as intended'.
As Tacofangs pointed out already, it isn't Al Rivera's fault, nor is it his responsibility to ensure there is transcribed interviews to be digested in a text format.
It is Mr. Rivera's fault, and for that matter the fault of Cryptic Studios and PWE that they choose to work with P1 despite knowing there are players with hearing impairments who are blocked by this language barrier. It is their fault for knowing beforehand this is an issue and has been an issue for some time now. It is their fault for not doing anything about it other than pointing to P1 and say "We're just the ones being interviewed! P1 are the ones you want to take to task!"
It is the fault of PWE that Smirk also works with P1. It is the fault of Cryptic and PWE that they do not use their own funds and paid labor hours to provide a transcription of information for the playerbase.
It is the fault of Cryptic/PWE that Smirk and other 'official' communications consist of non-answers.
It is the fault of the players (including myself) that we have encouraged them to remain tightlipped and to stay away from the forums and to rely on third parties in order to inform us.
However, it is not our responsibility to step up to bat and volunteer our own time (or money in some cases) to support P1. While I am aware that is very much a desire for P1, unfortunately they are the ones who are in the position of being the fall guy for Cryptic/PWE's anti-information policies. I dislike being in the position of having to 'blame the victim', because P1 is the victim here. They're the victim of PWE/Cryptic's willingness to 'pass the buck'.
We are giving PWE/Cryptic money. Money that is used not only to develop the game, but money that is used to inform us about what to expect from the game and where that money is going to.
Where is my information at, Al? What about you, Trevor? Does the money of the hearing impaired matter little to your company? Do we not buy enough zen, gold and LTS to encourage payroll to set aside labor hours for transcription services? Is PWE that unethical that they would rather me focus my criticism on a volunteer organization so they don't have to spend the money for better information access?
Because if they're a volunteer organization, just think of what PWE can do with paid labor hours as a service to their own customers.
I shouldn't be forced to provide feedback to P1 for information that should be on the forums. I shouldn't be forced to relentlessy and determinedly get my point across that transcriptions for all dev interviews is just as important as the work of P1 actually conducting those interviews.
I shouldn't be forced into the position of being 'that guy' who has to guilt trip money spent on a trip to Las Vegas for the simple request of being able to read developer interviews.
P1 is just as passionate about the game as I am. So why am I trying to fight for my right, and the rights of others who play the game to access the same information in a text format?
Because while the accountability for transcription rests with P1 -- the accountability for forcing my hand lies with PWE/Cryptic and their refusal to provide easy-to-access information for all players on their own website and forums which I (and others) help pay for.
Overall I feel that the interviews in those podcasts have become more empty than they used to be. A few months ago it seemed like the interview partners used to drop more information, spoilers, hints or talked about what they were planning to do, stuff that hadn't been talked about anywhere else...now it just feels like a bit of empty chit-chat, repeating things that are already being discussed on the boards for a while or have been dropped elsewhere.
So players/Listeners are not allowed to post feedback about a podcast and discuss it in a topic promoting the aforementioned?
That's why I switched the feedback from P1 to PWE/Cryptic. Because the buck has to stop somewhere -- and Askray has determined where that's going (or rather where it isn't going).
Oh, I take it very seriously. And I did say that I'd be happy to try any automated services that would accurately transcribe interviews.
You mentioned you ran a company that required transcripts. Was this company for profit?
Perhaps you are unaware that Priority One Podcast is built entirely by volunteers?
The following is our official statement on the matter of transcriptions...
We have given serious consideration to transcribing our shows in response to the previous requests we have read in our forum threads. However, Priority One has neither the internal talent nor the available funding to commit to this service. No one within our organization has the time or the skills to transcribe our shows efficiently. Our research into professional transcription services indicates that a ballpark figure of $100/episode MIGHT be enough.
Each and every one of our formidable capabilities as a podcast team comes 100% from the donation of time, talent, and treasure. If audio needs editing, somebody sits down at a computer they bought with their own money and takes time out of their day to get it done. If someone needs a microphone or a spam filter for our website comments or a flag for a microphone, either one of our generous listeners chips in a few bucks or we take up a collection internally.
If it gets done by P1, it gets done because somebody steps up and says "Let Me Help."
This is a Star Trek forum. Those words ought to be ringing a bell right now.
We understand that an audio format does not lend itself to ease of reference or inspection. We understand that our content is entirely inaccessible to STO fans with hearing impairments. We are aware that we are not the only podcast that has been asked to transcribe a show. We are aware that these requests range from polite inquiries to surly demands. We are aware that these requests are prevalent when devs are interviewed.
We are unaware of any effort in the community to organize either the time, talent or treasure to accomplish this task.
Priority One will be happy to assist in any concerted, community-wide effort to accomplish this. We do not have the personnel or the funding to take this on alone. If anyone wants to help us out, contact me via our website http://priorityonepodcast.com.
Thank you.
Ok I understand you do it voluntary but how hard is it to take a pen and pad and right down what he says also you asked for money for Vegas what would have been better was be to ask for money to transcript or another option Instead of advertising cosplay see if you can be sponsored by a transcribing service. I would rather not listen to people chatting and find it easier to read and until tthis done there is a few people who can't enjoy P1.
NO TO ARC
Vice Admiral Volmack ISS Thundermole
Brigadier General Jokag IKS Gorkan
Centurion Kares RRW Tomalak
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
*yay* another forum revamp, i mean certainly the last ones were so much fun ....right.
@Smirk. The structure of these forums is a straw-men for the inaccessibility of constructive feedback. Tribble Testing, number crunching, and writing it all up takes a lot of time. Quite frankly after 4 years our return on investment has been at a stable minimum.
Most posters don't bother with constructive feedback, since it too often goes by ignored. Hence all thats left is rants. It was the community team that went down the rabbit whole of having rage post seemingly attracting more attention then well reasoned and structured posts.
Overall lack of solid information on many fronts including design intentions and stealth patching do their part. Once more its not the forum or the forumites who are responsible, throwing new paint on it won't fix, what was within the community teams responsibility to maintain and foster.
Ah smirk I DO so hope that you remember to give STOKED radio as much attention as priority one since Captain Geko will be on it on Saturday and not FORGET like you did last time ..
CVN-65 U.S.S. Enterprise - A ship so badass it survived John McCain.
So, if Al, or Cryptic/PWE in general are responsible for providing a written transcript, what about some STO fan that only speaks Swedish? Are we also responsible for translating the entire interview into Swedish? Hindi? Tagalog? There could be a deaf and blind person out there that still wants the information. Are we responsible for providing an ASL translator to go to their house and translate the interview?
I'm also not trying to put this onto P1. I think the demand of a transcript is unreasonable. I think it would be nice, I think it would be great if they could do it, but I don't think we can demand that they do. As Elijah has said, they would be more than happy to have someone help them in this regard. He's going to investigate the use of technology for this.
In the mean time, there are more than a few people in this thread who are NOT hard of hearing, and would be perfectly capable of doing the transcription work. Why are you not volunteering? For that matter, I am capable of doing the work. Why am I not volunteering? Because I have a full time job, and the free time that I do have, I don't feel like spending transcribing audio interviews. I'm sorry if that makes me a terrible person, but I would guess I am not alone in this regard.
Overall I feel that the interviews in those podcasts have become more empty than they used to be. A few months ago it seemed like the interview partners used to drop more information, spoilers, hints or talked about what they were planning to do, stuff that hadn't been talked about anywhere else...now it just feels like a bit of empty chit-chat, repeating things that are already being discussed on the boards for a while or have been dropped elsewhere.
Well, when we revealed things in Podcasts, we got TRIBBLE for it.
So, if Al, or Cryptic/PWE in general are responsible for providing a written transcript, what about some STO fan that only speaks Swedish? Are we also responsible for translating the entire interview into Swedish? Hindi? Tagalog? There could be a deaf and blind person out there that still wants the information. Are we responsible for providing an ASL translator to go to their house and translate the interview?
Sorry Taco, but this is a strawman argument.
You're conflating basic accessibility with obscure languages.
One could make the same argument as you have about wheelchair ramps.
I mean, if we have to make our building accessible to those in wheelchairs, where does it end? Do we have to make provision for brains in jars?
Thats the argument you just made.
I'm also not trying to put this onto P1. I think the demand of a transcript is unreasonable. I think it would be nice, I think it would be great if they could do it, but I don't think we can demand that they do. As Elijah has said, they would be more than happy to have someone help them in this regard. He's going to investigate the use of technology for this.
In the mean time, there are more than a few people in this thread who are NOT hard of hearing, and would be perfectly capable of doing the transcription work. Why are you not volunteering? For that matter, I am capable of doing the work. Why am I not volunteering? Because I have a full time job, and the free time that I do have, I don't feel like spending transcribing audio interviews. I'm sorry if that makes me a terrible person, but I would guess I am not alone in this regard.
And all this would be valid if the P1 stuff was supplementary to a basic information service on the official forum.
Problem is, that basic information is not coming to the forum.
We still dont have an announcement here regarding 9.5 on thursday.
If the decision has been made to use third parties such as P1 to be the primary source to disseminate your information then you can't just hide behind their volunteer status.
No it's not. Brains in Jars are not things that exist in the world. People speaking Swedish are.
There's quite a few brains being deposited in jars around the world...
Nonetheless, the main point of arguing is the lack of official communication from Cryptic/PWE. As great as you Taco are on the forums, you can't reveal much if anything. You don't necessarily know about things and you certainly can't be asked (by us forumgoers) to write explanatory/additional/needed blogs in here.
If official information is given in podcasts, twitter, facebook, other sites, whatever... Smirk and Trendy (on behalf of Cryptic/PWE) should make sure the information is as widespread as possible and that should definitely include this forum (and transcripts would go a long way in that, btw).
Since that's not the case, misinformation spreads and you may get undeserved flak for whatever is revealed in said podcast/social site/... Then you logically stop revealing anything and the whole thing looses any meaning.
Now I'm sorry if I'm mistaken, but isn't the spread of information (from devs to players, from players to devs, from this game outward ...) the job of Trendy and Smirk? I believe they should be able to do more. More blogs (Summer event was severely lacking in detailed info), more of that relaying of information. It almost seems Branflakes managed more alone than these two CMs.
Seriously, Smirk and trendy, (wo)man up!
TOIVA, Toi Vaxx, Toia Vix, Toveg, T'vritha, To Vrax: Bring in the Allegiance class. Toi'Va, Ti'vath, Toivia, Ty'Vris, Tia Vex, Toi'Virth: Add Tier 6 KDF Carrier and Raider. Tae'Va, T'Vaya, To'Var, Tevra, T'Vira, To'Vrak: Give us Asylums for Romulans.
I volunteer my services to write up all the blogs. Just send the official information this way and I'll make sure it gets out there.
Star Trek Online Volunteer Community Moderator and Resident She-Wolf
Community Moderators are Unpaid Volunteers and NOT Employees of Gearbox/Cryptic
Views and Opinions May Not Reflect the Views and Opinions of Gearbox/Cryptic
No it's not. Brains in Jars are not things that exist in the world. People speaking Swedish are.
Well, I admit I can be as guilty of hyperbole as the next entity.
However, the point is you have used a slippery slope argument to argue against providing written transcripts of what is becoming the primary source of information to the players.
My admittedly hyperbolic argument was merely a somewhat absurd version of your same argument.
It's not a slippery slope or a straw man or anything.
It's not Cryptic's responsibility to publish the interview in any form, it's Priority One's. People have been asking Priority One to provide transcripts forever, and they've declined, at least once even giving reasons. That's not Cryptic's fault.
It's not a slippery slope or a straw man or anything.
It's not Cryptic's responsibility to publish the interview in any form, it's Priority One's. People have been asking Priority One to provide transcripts forever, and they've declined, at least once even giving reasons. That's not Cryptic's fault.
However, if Cryptic are moving away from using the fora to disseminate information about the game and towards things like P1, doesn't that change the equation?
...talking to players is like being a mall Santa. Everyone immediately wants to tell you all of the things they want, and you are absolutely powerless to deliver 99% of them.
So, if Al, or Cryptic/PWE in general are responsible for providing a written transcript, what about some STO fan that only speaks Swedish? Are we also responsible for translating the entire interview into Swedish? Hindi? Tagalog? There could be a deaf and blind person out there that still wants the information. Are we responsible for providing an ASL translator to go to their house and translate the interview?
The problem with your examples is there are numerous resources out there already for translating foreign language. Google Translate (while usually never optimal), can have entire webpages translated in a loose approximation of a foreign language in a few seconds.
There are no such services for podcasts or other audio-only media that can be translated on-the-fly.
And if your company is running a computer game where you have (in the past) added functionality support for the hearing impaired, then yes, it does inevitably fall in your lap. I need only mention the Breen FE with the musical notes in order to progress in the mission -- which eventually had text annotations added to it.
Not to mention the foreign language translations of STO (which do get updated on a fairly regular basis).
If STO takes an active interest in making the game more accessible from a development perspective, but then refuses to accomodate that same accessibility from an information standpoint, it sends mixed signals.
At best.
In the mean time, there are more than a few people in this thread who are NOT hard of hearing, and would be perfectly capable of doing the transcription work. Why are you not volunteering? For that matter, I am capable of doing the work. Why am I not volunteering? Because I have a full time job, and the free time that I do have, I don't feel like spending transcribing audio interviews. I'm sorry if that makes me a terrible person, but I would guess I am not alone in this regard.
Should it be the responsibility of the players to provide information of the game to other players? Isn't that what marketing is for? I don't know about you, but I see a lot of players distributing the wrong information even without the agenda of informing those without fully functional ears.
I mean you have people on payroll who get paid to figure out what information gets released and when. You have writers who clock in every day whose job it is to write information for us to read.
I am suggesting that this job should include some type of accomodations for the hearing impaired, those without sound cards or speakers, or any other multitude of issue that would prevent them from receiving information.
And I don't think I'm being unreasonable in expecting that.
I don't think it makes you a terrible person, either. Everyone at PWE and Cryptic has a job they get paid to do.
I would say it would make you a terrible person if you expected the STO playerbase to do environmental art assets for you and your team, and if they don't -- then it's their fault STO has no new environmental art. But you don't do that.
Well, when we revealed things in Podcasts, we got TRIBBLE for it.
To be fair, you get TRIBBLE no matter what you do or do not reveal. :P
Overall I feel that the interviews in those podcasts have become more empty than they used to be. A few months ago it seemed like the interview partners used to drop more information, spoilers, hints or talked about what they were planning to do, stuff that hadn't been talked about anywhere else...now it just feels like a bit of empty chit-chat, repeating things that are already being discussed on the boards for a while or have been dropped elsewhere.
So players/Listeners are not allowed to post feedback about a podcast and discuss it in a topic promoting the aforementioned?
Well, when we revealed things in Podcasts, we got TRIBBLE for it.
Its not a new phenomenon. Have you see how the stock market works? After a corporation reveals the latest in innovations, the company's stock goes up or down based upon the news.
You need to grow thinker skin.
100% of the jobs in the creative sector (graphic design, web design, production, etc...) deal with a large amount of criticism. Some criticism is good, and other criticism is harsh. Its the nature of the beast.
Comments
Well, you seem to have figured out how to raise enough cash to send your team to Vegas.
Kudos on that.
However, you'd probably need half that to pay a grad student to transcribe your podcasts for a year.
Taking yourselves to Vegas shows you take a professional attitude to your journalism.
You can build on that professionalism by considering access a bit more important.
There is still an opportunity to add more funding to Priority One through our campaign. I invite you to donate so that we have enough remaining funds after reporting on STLV for our listeners. Then, we can actually have a "budgeting" meeting for the rest of the year and consider paying for a service like transcriptions.
Do you one better.
Price up the transcription service and ask for those funds specifically.
Ring fence the money and ill donate, but I'm not buying you a margarita.
No one is.
Besides... I prefer Mojitos.
But I am also a podcaster who has to pay my own way. No offense intended, but this could be more tactful. Seriously, from one colleague to another, I hope. Lose that sig.
Lets not go off that kthx, and lets lose the argument about transcribing.
Former Community Moderator, Former SSR DJ, Now Full time father to two kids, Husband, Retail Worker.
Tiktok: @Askray Facebook: Askray113
STO Podcasts
Each have their own strengths and cover some great topics!
Marketing and Advertising shouldn't just be about getting new customers/players -- it should also be about retention.
I'm looking forward to his ideas.
What about his excitement over Foundry development!? I'm not even a Foundry afficionado, but thought his passion for its development was great!
Well, depends what you mean by 'participate'.
As to trusting podcasters, well of course.
Subject to the usual caveats regarding any and all forms of journalism.
Problem is, podcasting (an essentially one-way form of communication) is not a replacement for a written forum (an essentially two-way form of communication).
Seems to me this is really just a calculated move towards controlling the message.
And while a certain amount of that is probably always with it, its not something to be celebrated either by players or wise developers.
I am not blaming Smirk for this though.
I keep seeing this "Redacted" theme presenting over and over again with STO. It started happening with Bran Flakes and now it is happening more often with information released about the game.
I think I know why they are doing it though.
When I first started playing, the STO Dev team would often talk about all sorts of things they were thinking about adding to the game. As with most games, some things were added while others were not. Sadly, this lead to many players freaking out and yelling "You promised us X!" Simply talking about something is in no way a promise. Some players see it that way though so the Dev team is gonna get knocked one way or the other. Also, I think CBS might be asking them to keep things mum for a little longer...and the end result is a Cryptic employee like Smirk looks like he has no idea what is going on.
I am sure he does, but when you have your boss and your boss's boss telling you to not talk about...well, pretty much everything that is coming, you tend to sound clueless.
At this point, I take pretty much everything anyone says about the game with a grain of salt. I am not hating on anyone here. Just an opinion is all. I also want to make clear that there is no evidence that this is what is happening. All we can really do is speculate.
Let us all not forget though that Smirk and the rest of the STO team are people who work for a living just like the rest of us. Let's not give them too much grief.
It's difficult for me to point the finger at Priority One, however, there is nowhere else to point.
I respect Priority One's willingness to devote time and money to providing information to the playerbase. They are doing a service out of what I can only imagine is the same passion I also have for the game.
If I'm requesting transcription services from a completely volunteer organization like Priority One, it's because they are one of the few places PWE/Cryptic is willing to go to lend information to be consumed by the playerbase.
That is a problem. Because Cryptic/PWE is pushing the accountability onto P1's shoulders, and not their own (where it should be). Cryptic/PWE should be responsible for the release of information in a format that can be consumed by the entire playerbase, not just those who have ears which 'work as intended'.
As Tacofangs pointed out already, it isn't Al Rivera's fault, nor is it his responsibility to ensure there is transcribed interviews to be digested in a text format.
It is Mr. Rivera's fault, and for that matter the fault of Cryptic Studios and PWE that they choose to work with P1 despite knowing there are players with hearing impairments who are blocked by this language barrier. It is their fault for knowing beforehand this is an issue and has been an issue for some time now. It is their fault for not doing anything about it other than pointing to P1 and say "We're just the ones being interviewed! P1 are the ones you want to take to task!"
It is the fault of PWE that Smirk also works with P1. It is the fault of Cryptic and PWE that they do not use their own funds and paid labor hours to provide a transcription of information for the playerbase.
It is the fault of Cryptic/PWE that Smirk and other 'official' communications consist of non-answers.
It is the fault of the players (including myself) that we have encouraged them to remain tightlipped and to stay away from the forums and to rely on third parties in order to inform us.
However, it is not our responsibility to step up to bat and volunteer our own time (or money in some cases) to support P1. While I am aware that is very much a desire for P1, unfortunately they are the ones who are in the position of being the fall guy for Cryptic/PWE's anti-information policies. I dislike being in the position of having to 'blame the victim', because P1 is the victim here. They're the victim of PWE/Cryptic's willingness to 'pass the buck'.
We are giving PWE/Cryptic money. Money that is used not only to develop the game, but money that is used to inform us about what to expect from the game and where that money is going to.
Where is my information at, Al? What about you, Trevor? Does the money of the hearing impaired matter little to your company? Do we not buy enough zen, gold and LTS to encourage payroll to set aside labor hours for transcription services? Is PWE that unethical that they would rather me focus my criticism on a volunteer organization so they don't have to spend the money for better information access?
Because if they're a volunteer organization, just think of what PWE can do with paid labor hours as a service to their own customers.
I shouldn't be forced to provide feedback to P1 for information that should be on the forums. I shouldn't be forced to relentlessy and determinedly get my point across that transcriptions for all dev interviews is just as important as the work of P1 actually conducting those interviews.
I shouldn't be forced into the position of being 'that guy' who has to guilt trip money spent on a trip to Las Vegas for the simple request of being able to read developer interviews.
P1 is just as passionate about the game as I am. So why am I trying to fight for my right, and the rights of others who play the game to access the same information in a text format?
Because while the accountability for transcription rests with P1 -- the accountability for forcing my hand lies with PWE/Cryptic and their refusal to provide easy-to-access information for all players on their own website and forums which I (and others) help pay for.
So players/Listeners are not allowed to post feedback about a podcast and discuss it in a topic promoting the aforementioned?
They don't need that. Just get someone to type as they go. Seriously it isn't rocket science
Vice Admiral Volmack ISS Thundermole
Brigadier General Jokag IKS Gorkan
Centurion Kares RRW Tomalak
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That's why I switched the feedback from P1 to PWE/Cryptic. Because the buck has to stop somewhere -- and Askray has determined where that's going (or rather where it isn't going).
Ok I understand you do it voluntary but how hard is it to take a pen and pad and right down what he says also you asked for money for Vegas what would have been better was be to ask for money to transcript or another option Instead of advertising cosplay see if you can be sponsored by a transcribing service. I would rather not listen to people chatting and find it easier to read and until tthis done there is a few people who can't enjoy P1.
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@Smirk. The structure of these forums is a straw-men for the inaccessibility of constructive feedback. Tribble Testing, number crunching, and writing it all up takes a lot of time. Quite frankly after 4 years our return on investment has been at a stable minimum.
Most posters don't bother with constructive feedback, since it too often goes by ignored. Hence all thats left is rants. It was the community team that went down the rabbit whole of having rage post seemingly attracting more attention then well reasoned and structured posts.
Overall lack of solid information on many fronts including design intentions and stealth patching do their part. Once more its not the forum or the forumites who are responsible, throwing new paint on it won't fix, what was within the community teams responsibility to maintain and foster.
a history of sto pvp: 2010 - 2011
a history of sto pvp: 2012 - 2013
So, if Al, or Cryptic/PWE in general are responsible for providing a written transcript, what about some STO fan that only speaks Swedish? Are we also responsible for translating the entire interview into Swedish? Hindi? Tagalog? There could be a deaf and blind person out there that still wants the information. Are we responsible for providing an ASL translator to go to their house and translate the interview?
I'm also not trying to put this onto P1. I think the demand of a transcript is unreasonable. I think it would be nice, I think it would be great if they could do it, but I don't think we can demand that they do. As Elijah has said, they would be more than happy to have someone help them in this regard. He's going to investigate the use of technology for this.
In the mean time, there are more than a few people in this thread who are NOT hard of hearing, and would be perfectly capable of doing the transcription work. Why are you not volunteering? For that matter, I am capable of doing the work. Why am I not volunteering? Because I have a full time job, and the free time that I do have, I don't feel like spending transcribing audio interviews. I'm sorry if that makes me a terrible person, but I would guess I am not alone in this regard.
Well, when we revealed things in Podcasts, we got TRIBBLE for it.
Sorry Taco, but this is a strawman argument.
You're conflating basic accessibility with obscure languages.
One could make the same argument as you have about wheelchair ramps.
I mean, if we have to make our building accessible to those in wheelchairs, where does it end? Do we have to make provision for brains in jars?
Thats the argument you just made.
And all this would be valid if the P1 stuff was supplementary to a basic information service on the official forum.
Problem is, that basic information is not coming to the forum.
We still dont have an announcement here regarding 9.5 on thursday.
If the decision has been made to use third parties such as P1 to be the primary source to disseminate your information then you can't just hide behind their volunteer status.
You've made them official.
No it's not. Brains in Jars are not things that exist in the world. People speaking Swedish are.
There's quite a few brains being deposited in jars around the world...
Nonetheless, the main point of arguing is the lack of official communication from Cryptic/PWE. As great as you Taco are on the forums, you can't reveal much if anything. You don't necessarily know about things and you certainly can't be asked (by us forumgoers) to write explanatory/additional/needed blogs in here.
If official information is given in podcasts, twitter, facebook, other sites, whatever... Smirk and Trendy (on behalf of Cryptic/PWE) should make sure the information is as widespread as possible and that should definitely include this forum (and transcripts would go a long way in that, btw).
Since that's not the case, misinformation spreads and you may get undeserved flak for whatever is revealed in said podcast/social site/... Then you logically stop revealing anything and the whole thing looses any meaning.
Now I'm sorry if I'm mistaken, but isn't the spread of information (from devs to players, from players to devs, from this game outward ...) the job of Trendy and Smirk? I believe they should be able to do more. More blogs (Summer event was severely lacking in detailed info), more of that relaying of information. It almost seems Branflakes managed more alone than these two CMs.
Seriously, Smirk and trendy, (wo)man up!
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Well, I admit I can be as guilty of hyperbole as the next entity.
However, the point is you have used a slippery slope argument to argue against providing written transcripts of what is becoming the primary source of information to the players.
My admittedly hyperbolic argument was merely a somewhat absurd version of your same argument.
It's not Cryptic's responsibility to publish the interview in any form, it's Priority One's. People have been asking Priority One to provide transcripts forever, and they've declined, at least once even giving reasons. That's not Cryptic's fault.
However, if Cryptic are moving away from using the fora to disseminate information about the game and towards things like P1, doesn't that change the equation?
I dunno. Have you ever actually seen a Swedish-speaking person?
I thought not.
The problem with your examples is there are numerous resources out there already for translating foreign language. Google Translate (while usually never optimal), can have entire webpages translated in a loose approximation of a foreign language in a few seconds.
There are no such services for podcasts or other audio-only media that can be translated on-the-fly.
And if your company is running a computer game where you have (in the past) added functionality support for the hearing impaired, then yes, it does inevitably fall in your lap. I need only mention the Breen FE with the musical notes in order to progress in the mission -- which eventually had text annotations added to it.
Not to mention the foreign language translations of STO (which do get updated on a fairly regular basis).
If STO takes an active interest in making the game more accessible from a development perspective, but then refuses to accomodate that same accessibility from an information standpoint, it sends mixed signals.
At best.
Should it be the responsibility of the players to provide information of the game to other players? Isn't that what marketing is for? I don't know about you, but I see a lot of players distributing the wrong information even without the agenda of informing those without fully functional ears.
I mean you have people on payroll who get paid to figure out what information gets released and when. You have writers who clock in every day whose job it is to write information for us to read.
I am suggesting that this job should include some type of accomodations for the hearing impaired, those without sound cards or speakers, or any other multitude of issue that would prevent them from receiving information.
And I don't think I'm being unreasonable in expecting that.
I don't think it makes you a terrible person, either. Everyone at PWE and Cryptic has a job they get paid to do.
I would say it would make you a terrible person if you expected the STO playerbase to do environmental art assets for you and your team, and if they don't -- then it's their fault STO has no new environmental art. But you don't do that.
To be fair, you get TRIBBLE no matter what you do or do not reveal. :P
You need to grow thinker skin.
100% of the jobs in the creative sector (graphic design, web design, production, etc...) deal with a large amount of criticism. Some criticism is good, and other criticism is harsh. Its the nature of the beast.