Musician Archive

1. Devs come up with a new idea.


2. Devs tell the Corr's about the idea.


3. The Corr's take the idea to the forum community and get feedback.


4. The Corr's give the results back to the Devs.


5. The Devs inform the Corr's of any changes so they can adjust the message and get new feedback.


6. The process repeats until both sides are happy with the end result.

OR

1. The Community comes up with a really good idea.


2. The Corr's submit the idea to the Devs, who give their opinion on it.


3. The Devs immediately post on the idea's thread to give it more publicity and stimulate growth of the idea.


4. The Corr's feed the Devs new ideas as they come up.


5. The Devs give their feedback on the plausibility of it all and the general "neatness" of the idea.


6. Rinse. Repeat.

Basically a constant level of attention across all fields.

What's happening right now is the devs are putting all the focus into one system while generally ignoring others. Of course, this probably has to do something with marketing. The GCW is dead until the revamp. The three most famous Star wars professions (Smuggler, Bounty Hunter, and Carbineer) are so broken that no one wants to play them. Crafting is pointless unless you're a master and have millions of credits to your name. All the attention grabbers (AKA money makers) are shot to hell except for one system--Jedi. Jedi will still bring in the $$$ so they want to flash that in everyone's face.

Which is the completely wrong way to go about it. If they want to make money, they should fix the GCW now since that is what 90% of the people playing SWG got the game for. Also considering this Jedi flashing is going to backfire once the next LucasArts Jedi game comes out, which should be KOTOR 2, and that's not too far in the future.

Kodo' Bonodawieedo
Master Musician and First Class Soldier!
"Every time someone gives a post one star GarVa kills a kitten."
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So those are some thoughts on the state of things. As for where we go from here, I sure wish they'd get JTL and Jedi and the Revamp out of the way, but I have a depressing feeling that it's all gonna swallow everything for months.

Message Edited by NewJedi on 10-04-2004 01:53 PM

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NewJedi wrote:

*Snip*

About to go do it in my top-five thread, which TH has asked me to convert into a top-five list shortly

*Snip*

I sure wish they'd get JTL and Jedi and the Revamp out of the way, but I have a depressing feeling that it's all gonna swallow everything for months.

Message Edited by NewJedi on 10-04-2004 01:53 PM

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Do we really have to, AGAIN? *Sighs* Ok.....I will gear myself up to help, again. /chuckle

I have that same feeling. I am glad that you confirmed it....I thought I was just getting sick. Time for some _________ ( Insert favorite prescription drug here )

One of these days I am going to break down and make a real sig.....but then again, one of these days we will have some new content

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NewJedi wrote:

Well, I've been reflecting more on this question, which is a good one. At the outset,I will say that the dev-player interaction here (which is nonexistent in this forum) isfar less robust than it is between devs and Correspondents. If I post a thread in the Correspondent forum, it's almost certainly read by the devs, and as often as not it garners one or more dev replies. I give the devs credit for communicating pretty well with us Correspondents. But yes, their level of direct communication with the players is a different kettle of fish.

On the one hand, this is understandable: there are tens and hundreds of thousands of posts here, and only a handful of devs. I spend a minimum oftwo hours a day monitoring just this forum, the Correspondent forums (there are more than one), the dev tracker, the other entertainer forums, the dev tracker, the Chilastra and Test Center forums (and occasionally now the Bria forum), as well as forums also of interest to me as a player and consumer -- Politician, Jedi. I can't imagine trying to cover all three dozen professions, all the In Dev and In Test and In Concept and In Live threads, etc. -- and trying to come up with answers from the people who actually write the code or design the game. And I acknowledge what Thunderheart always says about this game compared to other MMORPGs: most MMOs have nowhere near this level of dev interaction. So on one level I understand why the devs increasingly seem to rely on us Correspondents to "get the word out," to carry their water for them (which sometimes is rather heavy water, heh), and to distill player commentary into digestible feedback for them.

On the other hand, the devs have raised expectations about communication here, by establishing a Correspondent program and feedback threads and a huge smorgasbord of feedback forums.Unfortunately, players are increasingly and understandablydisappointed when those expectations aren't met. If I were a red name, I'd routinely post a brief follow-up note in each ongoing thread, just to let people know I'm still reading. (I do that in my own threads here. About to go do it in my top-five thread, which TH has asked me to convert into a top-five list shortly.) At a minimum, the devs need to do more of that. If they lack the resources for more than that, then they should explicitly assign a Correspondent to "moderate" a thread they start. (To react to posts, ask questions about suggestions, summarize player feedback as it accumulates, etc.). I dunno, they may be reluctant to do that for for legal reasons; MMOs have sometimes been slapped with lawsuits by player "volunteers" who later seek compensation. If that's the case, then they either need to invest more time and resources into posting on these boards, or lower expectations, or both.

As for the Correspondent program, in some ways it's improved, in some ways not. It was smaller, less bureaucratic at the start. More informal. Sometimes I got info more directly from the source it seemed. But sometimes no info at all. Now it's more formalized, more like a somewhat more open version of these boards. The info we do get is more reliable, but it comes less often. And we are asked for player input less often, which isn't so great. Top-fives once a quarter, not once a week or once a month. OK, weekly top-fives proved unworkable, but I still miss that early burst of dev enthusiasm for player input.

So those are some thoughts on the state of things. As for where we go from here, I sure wish they'd get JTL and Jedi and the Revamp out of the way, but I have a depressing feeling that it's all gonna swallow everything for months.

Message Edited by NewJedi on 10-04-2004 01:53 PM

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NewJedi wrote:

Speaking of NDAs, JTL has made things harder too, since JTL has its own NDA covering things like Ithorian Musicians and in-space entertainment.

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You corrs always make me curious. . I've always been a dancer and only dabble in musician. I'm master entertainer so I have the mandovial, of course, but have only ever had enough skill points to go to knowledge III in musician. So, I know the joys of the bandfill and chid horn. But, the more I play, the more I feel like I desperately want to be a master musician. So, whether that means I make another character on another server, or I pursue force sensitivity to get a second slot, I am determined to become a master musician. And, I've decided that it will be an Ithorian. So, now I'm obsessively curious about the Ithorian musician issue.

I have played the JTL beta, which I am allowed to say, even though I can't say anything about it except what the public already knows. But, I made a master musician Ithorian on JTL to try it out and I love it. So, um, as soon as you have any "bites" on the Ithorian musician issues, I am anxiously awaiting info! (and of course in space entertainment!)