"For anyone surprised, when you become a Correspondent, you aren't magically gifted with knowledge. You aren't shipped any database files or anything. No books with all the details and secrets. You are just a player, who collects Feedback for the DEV team." --- Auraboron, GCW Correspondant
"How do you feel about that?" --- Bull-Moose, Ahazi Imperial Confederation
"I'm completely honored to have the opportunity to shred the DEVs design documents on major concepts long before it gets anywhere near live (to be shredded by all of you). I'm honored to have access to a forum where a DEV might actually answer my question, or seriously listen to, and consider,what I might have to say. I'm honored to be able to create a thread about an issue, and see it resolved in LIVE in a week or two (sometimes).
In short... I'm completely grateful. I don't need to know all the secrets. I'm a volunteer gamer for heck's sake. It's not like I'm on the payroll. I'm just some gamer out there, and they are doing something completely unprecedented (to my knowledge), by actively including me, and other volunteer gamers, in the design process. I mean seriously... have you ever heard of any other game designers doing this? I've been playing video games since Pong.. literally. Pre-Colecovision, Pre-Intellivision.. all down the line with a PC full of games, Xbox, PS2, and agame library of over 100 games easy. I've never seen anything like their Correspondent program.
Every single aspect of it is a gift, and I am thankful for every moment of it. Even dealing with the hatefilled poo-flingers who spend all day complaining, and probably not a moment of being thankful for all the amazing things surrounding the little imperfections they happen to be gnawing on that day.
I wouldn't trade the opportunity for the world. I'm loving it." --- Auraboron, GCW Correspondant
I listed the above quotes from the GCW Forums because I think they go straight to the heart of something I have been increasingly concerned about.
Is the role of the Correspondant to condense information and pass on, to champion the ideas of the constituency, to champion their own agendas, or a combination of both?
It appears that Auraboron views the position as something of a gift bestowed by the devs. My concern with this, if this is how all or the majority of correspondants view the situation, is that there is a tremendous opportunity being missed here. SOE and SWG has through the Correspondant position the ability to be a very flexible and reactive organism. The ability to listen to the community and adapt the game to change based directly on their input is an amazing differentiator between SWG and similar offerings. Furthermore it would represent the cutting edge of online gaming customer service.
For example, the community could express varying viewpoints on a specific topic. The Correspondant could consolidate this information and present it in a formal business proposal to the dev team. The dev team would be receptive to the proposal and depending on the results of discussions concerning the plan allocate resources and time to implement the key elements of the proposal. A Correspondant would play a significant role in the evolution of SWG by actively championing the ideas of their constituency with the devs to ensure that the execution of the patches are in line with the needs of the community.
Furthmore, increased disclose to the correspondants about game design and capability would enable them to resolve community questions and issues more effectively. Simple questions posed in the GCW forums could not be addressed by the Correspondant because the Correspondant was not necessarily granted any more detailed information than any other player. Should the Correspondants be granted more access to factual information about the mechanics of the game and of upcoming patches and publishes the communities needs would be more met in an unparelleled fashion.
Most importantly, the license granted by Lucas bears with it a certain expectation for excellence. An emphasis on community relations and customer service should be part of that level of excellence.
I am calling for discussion on this, and possible ways to clarify the responsibilities and privelages of the Correspondants, as well as to enlarge the scope of their responsibility.