Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: Tonight's DE meeting on Ahazi
I'm the guy you all like to hate because my chat channel was broken.
I just attended the DE meet on Ahazi, and to be honest...I'm not sure what to think.
What actually was accomplished here tonight? We've been patiently waiting for changes to our profession since June officially. Did tonights Kum-by-ya garner enough attention that the devs are going to hop right to it and fix us?
Let me tell you what I was naively expecting:
What was yer impression, and please, feel more than welcome to flame me.
We don't hate you matey. was just an unfortunately run of events.
Aye, the first half of the meeting was mainly showboating, though there are reasons behind it all, though I'm hesitant to discuss at this time.
The second half though did cover something that is starting up but will soon effect a great many of us. Mainly Pricing and hte DEA. For the servers they are on, I am hoping they become more intertwined. As said in the meeting, I'm not hoping for price setting. Merely that the DE community educate those coming into it and accepting them. That way they can learn to respect the profession and the reasons we sell for higher than the standard 3 CPU an' all that.
That was the big msg I was hoping to get across. In the mix as well we got an insight into what our Correspondent does, and it seems he is trying as hard as he can to help. I have full confidence in his decisions on the matters.
It seemed to me that all the price-fixing discussion ocurred after the meat-and-potatoes of the meeting.
Why is everything so hush-hush with this profession anyway? As far as the insight to the correspondent thing, I'm still clueless. The only awesome thing I've seen from Drashk is all the testing he's done, and he did that before he was our correspondent. Don't mean to sound heretical (hell, it was more than Sintrosi did).
Oh my God! I've just blasphemed!
Well, I read the chat log (or I kinda did). There was too much chat going on and I couldn't read it all. It was kind of like my wife nagging and my mind just kind of tunes out.
What was the jist of the whole thing? I saw a bunch of ayes onscenario one, which Iwill protest all to all h e l l and back, but it was so hard to read I couldn't tell what the tallies were.
What was the overall consensus on all topics? I always forget these meetingdeals and would have came if I had over half a brain I could depend on.
As was mentioned at the conference, this is the only profession to have such a unified inter-galactic assembly on a regular basis. That in itself is pretty amazing.
It's true that much of the material covered in the conference is already listed here on the forum. And no magic wand will be waved to correct the profession's bugs. But just like a real world trade show, part of the reason for having the event is to meet people face to face, and to see what comes up in spontaneous conversation. I thought the aye/nay polls were very good for getting a snapshot of opinions that is not possible in the forum medium.
It was pretty amazing to have all those DEs in one place. But I agree it that the format could have used less formalities and more discussion with some appropriate structure. Twothings that emerged (I'll wait for the vote counters) werethe number of people interested droid certs and Drashk's info about a system he is pushing for. Part of structure is sticking on topic.
I was one of those guilty of too much chatter, but at the same time I feel like voices should be raised about the state of the profession. We were all blown away by our massively underwhelming love in Publish 6, but we did not air our voices on it at the meeting. Waving to the devs for a screen shot is not as cool in my mind as direct feedback on how to fix this game.
I think part of the trouble was also the SWG interface. Channel chat quit working for me even thought it worked at first. I could not see tells and spatial chat in the same window. And I had a differnt window open for channel chat when it was working.
A handful of IDEA members stuck it out afterword and had a productive chat. We may schedule meetings in the future on Intrepid. You can blow your steam off there for sure Foo.
-Sodan
That's pretty much par for the course, Foo.
It's even more difficult to hold any kind of productive discussion live in a chat channel than it is here on the forums. At least here people have the time to think, and to some extent, to take turns. In a live chat channel there's just too much flying by all at once for anyone to be able to process it all. That's why they have to be so rigid.
I wasn't able to attend tonight - a friend who hasn't been able to play in ages was finally around for a while so we went hunting on Endor - but I was listening in the whole time and sent those few comments that I had directly to Woodrow and Doughbacca during the proceedings.
As has already been said, the mere fact that so many Droid Engineers came to the meeting - FROM OTHER SERVERS - is a very significant event in a MMORPG. You guys created new characters on a server you don't normally play on just to come to a meeting about the profession we all play. That's very cool and it sends a pretty strong message to the people who are working on the game.
Plus it's just fun to see that many Droid Engineers all in one place at one time. 
LOL this is kinda funny... I was going to bring this same issue up with woody in private.
It was nice to see all the DEs there, to meet some of the vocal ones on the forums *grins* but I honestly didn't think it was productive at all. Maybe after it sets in somewhat, but I doubt it.
My two cents.
I think the format is the problem. And I agree with Kolos that is the nature of chat in SWG. Large meetings are difficult to accomidate and still have coherance.
Part of it also was our misplaced hope. Way back when we post-poned meeting until after we got our new droid in January. Well, the better half of the month came and went, and we had nothing to talk about but the same ol crap.
And if Drashk is still advocating for a cert system, that means real change is still in concept, not development or near testing.
/bow
FooGuevara wrote:
Hi!
I'm the guy you all like to hate because my chat channel was broken.
I just attended the DE meet on Ahazi, and to be honest...I'm not sure what to think.
We voted Yea/Nay on the major issues that are already in the forums.
Keep in mind, not all players use/visit these forums.
We all kowtowed to the forum celebrities.
As well you should.
But seriously, that's just us all being cool.
We all waved to the DEVS (for some unknown reason).
...Cause one was there.
What actually was accomplished here tonight?
Hopefully, we learned. If we didn't, some of us weren't paying attention.
We've been patiently waiting for changes to our profession since June officially. Did tonights Kum-by-ya garner enough attention that the devs are going to hop right to it and fix us?
That has NEVER been the intent of the DEA (or any server's DENet). DEA meetings are not a "Fix us now!" gripfest. I hope you didn't think that just because we got together to talk about issues, pricing, etc., that it meant we were trying to (or going to) garner some kind of massive attention by the Devs.
If so, you may have missed the point of why we have these meetings at all.
Let me tell you what I was naively expecting:
I was expecting us to cover the main topics, like we did (and the folks running the show did a good job of it).
You can thank Woodrow for that, mainly. While it's true that the DEA (and our server's DENet) were my idea originally, they are really his "baby". He's made them into what they are...with help from quite a few knowledgable and interested MDEs.
I was expecting some riteous indignation on the part of our correspondent for what was offered for the latest publish (not the complacent 'they're working as hard as they can' that we got...we all know that the things they're fixing this patch could have been a hotfix 5 months ago)
And getting together to have a massive, group gripfest helps us all, how exactly?
Hell we do better at that on the forums than we ever have at any DEA meeting.If you attended to hear some kind of group smackdown of our plight, you miss the point entirely of why the DEA exists at all, I fear.
I was (hoping) for an actual DEV to be there to say that 'YES, you profession is needed in the SW universe'.
They know we're needed. They want us to be MORE needed. And....yes, one of them was there.
The Devs can't openly attend a meeting such as this. I'm pretty sure it's fairly obvious why.
What was yer impression, and please, feel more than welcome to flame me.
It was a reasonably standard DEA meeting. Generally, we have different topics to discuss. The main reason for us to meet is learn, in my opinion. An informed DE is a better DE, I promise you. Usually, the Q and A session is much longer and new DEs learn a ton at the meetings. This time, we were able to get a good idea of the direction our profession might take, if only guided by the votes of the MDEs on the respective servers.
This may, indeed, help the Devs as they forge ahead with our planned changes. We may, even though you don't see it yet, have affected the charting of that very future. It just can't happen overnight.
I understand and know your frustration, believe me. A lot of us do. We've been waiting a LONG time for changes. A lot of professions have.
Respectfully,
So where's the transcript?
/bow
Kollos wrote:
In a live chat channel there's just too much flying by all at once for anyone to be able to process it all. That's why they have to be so rigid.
Yea...this is totally the case. Woodrow and I struggled big-time with how this would all play out. We decided that it was better to go ahead and try to have the meetings that give up over the interface and chat situation. Smaller meetings (for each server) are a TON easier, since the numbers of DEs are much, much smaller.
We may have more for you on this down the line.
I wasn't able to attend tonight - a friend who hasn't been able to play in ages was finally around for a while so we went hunting on Endor - but I was listening in the whole time and sent those few comments that I had directly to Woodrow and Doughbacca during the proceedings.
This is the beauty of having the chat channel. It lets any DEs on the Ahazi server listen in to the broadcast, even if they can't be there. I'm sure that all inter-server meetings will have this kind of thing running. It's too useful not to use.
As has already been said, the mere fact that so many Droid Engineers came to the meeting - FROM OTHER SERVERS - is a very significant event in a MMORPG.
Yeah...that's totally the case. It makes Wood and I very proud (**sniff, sniff**) that this has grown so well and become a true representative meeting of the minds. No other profession that I know of, on ANY server, has this kind of thing up and running to the extent that we DEs do now.
That's a true accomplishment and we are all to be commended for our part in making it happen.
You guys created new characters on a server you don't normally play on just to come to a meeting about the profession we all play. That's very cool and it sends a pretty strong message to the people who are working on the game.
Hopefully. Keep in mind, this is like the 9th such meeting the Woodrow and I have organized.
Plus it's just fun to see that many Droid Engineers all in one place at one time.
Fun and strange.
Respectfully,