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Player/DEV "Town Hall" summit needed
voicesdark
Member Posts: 0 Arc User
I want to start off by first inviting and asking that Branflakes please take a look at and follow this thread as it is focused on a "quality of life" measure for all STO players.
Recent and continuing behaviors by select individuals, organizations, and also recent and continuing situations/issues have lead to the conclusion and proposal outline herein this thread.
Proposal:
A monthly "Town Hall" meeting conducted by players and the Dev team to cover issues and situations submitted and voted on before said meeting commences.
Some examples of issues and situations that could be covered:
1) Ineffectiveness of the policy of fleets being "self-governing" when it relates to interactions with the general player base.
2) Long standing bugs and other issues: what's being done about it and why some haven't been corrected yet.
3) Lack of proper Customer Support services and Customer Support Quality
4) Proper discussion and feedback on different systems in game (ie smaller fleets, multiple rep/ multiple characters, mail)
Format:
1st week of the month a new thread is created from the players to post issue topics to be discussed that month.
2nd week of the month players vote on the top 5 issues from the previous weeks thread.
Town hall meeting:
1st portion of the meeting would be the meet and greet introducing the person or persons from Cryptic/PWE joining this months meeting. This would also be the time that any information or discussion Devs or PWE wish to share.
2nd portion would be focused on the issues that were submitted and voted on by the player population.
3rd portion would be focused on general Q&A.
The entire meeting would be via live chat. however, the chat would be moderated so for example say @insertplayername here wanted to submit question they would have to PM the moderator to submit their question. For a real world example it would be like press raising their hand to be selected to ask their question and then have it answered.
This would also be the standard format allowed for the 2nd portion of the submitted issues by the player community. If someone has a counterpoint or question about an answer given regarding one of the issues they have to PM the mod before being given permission to speak.
I understand the initial logistics of setting up a chat forum of this nature, and overall the core of the feature is no different than a regular chat room which is easily setup (many free website creation/hosting avenues have chat room features) there would need to be a few customizations needed.
I'm not saying this is something that could be setup and started tomorrow, but it is something that needs to be seriously considered and implemented for the benefit of us all; players and devs alike.
Since not everyone that plays STO visits or participates in the forums an in-game multi-instance map could also be created to serve the purpose of this event, and having it in game would also increase player participation.
As I stated above this is a "quality of life" feature I'm proposing for the benefit of all players and devs alike so I would really appreciate constructive player and dev feedback, support and suggestions.
Recent and continuing behaviors by select individuals, organizations, and also recent and continuing situations/issues have lead to the conclusion and proposal outline herein this thread.
Proposal:
A monthly "Town Hall" meeting conducted by players and the Dev team to cover issues and situations submitted and voted on before said meeting commences.
Some examples of issues and situations that could be covered:
1) Ineffectiveness of the policy of fleets being "self-governing" when it relates to interactions with the general player base.
2) Long standing bugs and other issues: what's being done about it and why some haven't been corrected yet.
3) Lack of proper Customer Support services and Customer Support Quality
4) Proper discussion and feedback on different systems in game (ie smaller fleets, multiple rep/ multiple characters, mail)
Format:
1st week of the month a new thread is created from the players to post issue topics to be discussed that month.
2nd week of the month players vote on the top 5 issues from the previous weeks thread.
Town hall meeting:
1st portion of the meeting would be the meet and greet introducing the person or persons from Cryptic/PWE joining this months meeting. This would also be the time that any information or discussion Devs or PWE wish to share.
2nd portion would be focused on the issues that were submitted and voted on by the player population.
3rd portion would be focused on general Q&A.
The entire meeting would be via live chat. however, the chat would be moderated so for example say @insertplayername here wanted to submit question they would have to PM the moderator to submit their question. For a real world example it would be like press raising their hand to be selected to ask their question and then have it answered.
This would also be the standard format allowed for the 2nd portion of the submitted issues by the player community. If someone has a counterpoint or question about an answer given regarding one of the issues they have to PM the mod before being given permission to speak.
I understand the initial logistics of setting up a chat forum of this nature, and overall the core of the feature is no different than a regular chat room which is easily setup (many free website creation/hosting avenues have chat room features) there would need to be a few customizations needed.
I'm not saying this is something that could be setup and started tomorrow, but it is something that needs to be seriously considered and implemented for the benefit of us all; players and devs alike.
Since not everyone that plays STO visits or participates in the forums an in-game multi-instance map could also be created to serve the purpose of this event, and having it in game would also increase player participation.
As I stated above this is a "quality of life" feature I'm proposing for the benefit of all players and devs alike so I would really appreciate constructive player and dev feedback, support and suggestions.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Post edited by voicesdark on
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Perhaps, but if we can gather enough support not only from the players but also the Devs as well we might just make it worth it for them to do. Considering this would be a rather unprecedented model of Dev/Player communication it could actually serve to draw more players to the game and therefore the potential for making them more money.
There are far too many entertainment and gaming options available and many more on the not so distant horizon, so it is possible Cryptic may see the overall logic and benefit of adding something like this. Their free to play model shows they're not shy about trying new approaches, not sure about the PWE overlords when it comes to something like this though.
Nothing about a Town Hall meeting can force the devs to take an issue or a suggestion more or less seriously then putting it in a forum post does already. Granted, the forums don't allow for a face to face meeting, but having that won't change their response which is always going to be determined by the practicalities of implementing what we ask for and how wanted/needed it is by the community. All it would be is a chance for people to vent their frustrations in a different way, which may be cathartic but it won't achieve anything.
K'ymara, Orion Engineer. Caedera of Borg, Liberated Borg Tactical, Elyza Vix, Joined Trill Scientist. Christina Bellona, Augmented Human Tactical.
T'Lana, Vulcan Scientist. Arbol, Martian Tactical. Ayzer Bryn, Joined Trill Engineer. Hawke, Betazoid Scientist. Karna Valkras, Klingon Engineer. Beth Parker, Human Tactical
Sarel, Romulan Engineer (Federation). Yazuri, Reman Scientist (KDF)
In a perfect world, this idea would go off fine, however, we will get players who act as jerks to devs who will be cryptic in their answers. In the middle will be the two groups who will try to get things done, but wont.
I, for one, want the Devs to focus on polishing and fixing. This includes adding some story elements to the various events. I mean why are the Tholians abducting Romulan ships? Why the are Tholians at Nukara doing experiments? What's with the Sh'mar?
Ask Cryptic was discontinued. Selecting a handful of player decided issues to be discussed each month is fundamentally different from what the ask Cryptic was because this would be topics selected by the players, not just what Cryptic decides they feel like answering, or as was the problem with the ask Cryptic, avoiding what they don't want to answer.
Only a small fraction of the playerbase actually visits and participates in the forums. Not only that but the forums themselves especially lately have become so dysfunctional that many ideas and issues are being completely missed both by the Devs and other players on the forums.
I have no illusions that this is a perfect fix, but if you combine the forums, the ingame town hall meetings and GM/Customer Support it would greatly increase the player/dev interactions and beneficially evolve multiple aspects of the game.
An example I could give albeit an older one, would be the defiant variant c-store bridge pack. (vivid, strategic, and another one I forget the name of) all had an issues with loading a placeholder two tone tan carpet instead of the carpet textures/colors they were supposed to have. Numerous players filed support tickets about the error along with a couple of threads regarding the issue. There was never a Dev response on the forums, nor did Customer Service ever properly report the issue. Despite countless tickets from a group of players the only response from CS was one that had absolutely nothing to do with the reported issues, and again these were bridges paid for with zen.
Considering the amount of people that were reporting this issue it easily could have been one that would have gathered enough votes to have been in an open forum such as a town hall meeting, and could have been directly presented to and addressed by the Cryptic/PWE staff attending that meeting. To the best of my knowledge this issue still has never been corrected, and tickets about this issue are still being ignored.
This is just one example but a more face to face approach definitely does have some very valid benefits.
And this is exactly why it would be a moderated event to prohibit such behavior. There is always going to be some information that for security or marketing reasons can not be discussed, but there's also a lot that gets left out that can be.
Cryptic do not handle that, but PWE.
Thank you for your feedback...
A dev/player regular meeting didn't stop CCP to add $70 monocle in EvE online. Just saying.
Did the Monocle have a map imbedded into the lense that lead to a treasure chest full of gold and jewels? lol $70 for any single virtual item is insane.
Only thing I can say to that is we can only hope that cryptic would take it more seriously.
Unfortunately it appears to me that Cryptic isn't really interested in our input or concerns. The failure of Ask Cryptic kinda shows that. The problem with Ask Cryptic was that they cherry-picked only questions they wanted to answer, and the majority of the answers were "maybe soon".
I just don't think we'll get an honest and open dialogue with Cryptic until some new people are in charge.
... but $50 for a virtual ship with three costumes and three consoles isn't??
The term MICRO-TRANSACTION left the MMO 'Building' looking for ELVIS, quite awhile ago.
:eek:
I Was A Trekkie Before It Was Cool ... Sept. 8th, 1966 ... Not To Mention Before Most Folks Around Here Were Born!
Forever a STO Veteran-Minion
Case in point? Ask Cryptic is gone as we knew it. Once Cryptic realized that the community was clamoring for answers to the same difficult questions each month, Cryptic decided to 86 the the whole thing. Most interestingly (or was it insultingly?), the rational for the change was that we kept asking the same questions for which the answers were mostly nebulous--not that Cryptic kept choosing to answer those questions.
Remember, it was Cryptic who picked the questions from the pages upon pages of community submitted queries...
Very true, but the problem with the ask Cryptic was it was all Dan Stahl. The real question is how much of it was Dan not being willing to actively communicate with the community and how much of it was limitations placed by PWE.
Dan seems to have the same mentality that bioware had in that it is the development team sole responsibility to develop gameplay and storyline based on what they want and how they think it should unfold and for the players to either like, love or hate it.
Bioware got the huge wake up call that they deserved when it came to the player outrage over the ending of Mass Effect 3, and now perhaps something like this proposal of mine could serve as the same for Dan and Cryptic.
Please don't misunderstand I'm not one of those elitist entitlement types, but it doesn't mean jack if the devs are happy with something and the majority of players aren't. If this proposal were to happen, it would be just one of many ways to make sure it doesn't come to something like that.
Although to your point Cryptic has proven in several ways they don't care about true player feedback as they don't allow votes or petitions on the forums nor do they conduct regular player surveys. So perhaps you're right and something like this would fail, but isn't it better to try and fail than to never try at all?
Cryptic devs have repeatedly told us to stuff it and they'll make whatever game they want.
PWE customer service is completely awful, but I guess if you're F2P you get exactly what you "pay" for.
I'm done giving them RL money though...except for my recent purchase of the Legacy Pack and I only got that because it'd have taken me forever to save that much in stipends.
There are probably good reasons for them dodging most of our questions.
A) They don't know the answers themselves Even being a dev, you can't possibly know how long until a bug will be fixed, or exactly when X feature is going to be looked at or developed if it is not on the table yet.
C) It maybe to technical to explain Seriously, How many of us know about Shard coding and the mechanics of game programming? Who would WANT to sit through a long winding explanation on how decoding and fixing a bug works in a typical interview?
This is just what I came up with off the top of my head. These are perfectly valid reasons for wanting to withhold information from an audience.
What I have found with all games is that developers only like to hear ideas that are in line with their own model of what the game should be. They also tend to clam up and hide when players bring up the issue of bugs that have been there for a long time and haven't been resolved. The answer for those bugs is simply they do not experience them when they test for them on their system or the bug is known, but no matter how hard they try they cannot fix it. And one thing I have never in all my years playing MMO's is a developer admit they were wrong or that they were less than perfect.
As for PWE, they don't care what the devs and community think as long as the ideas can generate more profit. And with as many games as PWE operates if the game starts losing them money, they axe it and put those devs to work on projects that do.
There are a ton of issues out there that have been there since the game launched:
Unfixed Bugs
Lack of End Game Content
Player Interaction issues
Proper and Effective Tech Support
...
The list goes on and on and the Devs know the issues, the players know the issues, and PWE knows the issues. And yet, PWE is making a profit while the players buy the $50 ship packages, The Devs are in their own little world and provide us with dev blogs that feature issues they have worked on are proud of and want praise for. This is the MMO world as it always has been and probably always will be.
Now, if you can figure out a way to get the Devs and PWE to listen and come up with a system that works and is adhered to that produces results, then I have great praise for you because you will have gone and conquered where many have traveled and the debris of their shattered dreams lie under your feet. And believe it or not, I do have respect for your idea and truly hope you succeed.
I wholeheartedly agree there is far too much petty BS that goes on in the forums, and it would be an overwhelming challenge to try to keep a town hall type forum properly moderated to prevent such clutter. However, the same petty and irrelevant clutter is what's also making the current forum dev/player communications ineffective. Too many important issues, and viable suggestions are getting lost in the mix. This very discussion for example got tossed all the way to page 6 in the matter of an hour, and mostly because of listings that were moved, merged, or so completely irrelevant.
I suggested a town hall meeting style event because direct communication is always best to make sure issues and suggestions don't get missed, but perhaps there is some middle ground between direct communications and the standard forum type of communication.
Nabreeki and I have had our spats in the past and even one fairly recently, but it's because we care about the game so much that some time we just butt heads. Personally I'm glad we do because if everyone agreed then there is nothing new to be learned, and that and when we do agree and cooperate together we are so much the stronger for it. This is true of many of us on the forums, that we do truly care about the game. So how do we elevate those of us that truly care about the game and the player population en masse and get our suggestions and concerns better voiced and addressed by the appropriate people at Cryptic/PWE without it seeming like an elitist segregation from the everyday clutter.