CUEmu - Thread Posts

Bajeezus

Thu Feb 26, 2004 2:46 pm

Like national economics or seasons or weather patterns, activity on the SWG forums, including any one forum or all of them as a whole, has a cycle, ups, downs, periods of chaotic or highly energetic activity, great enthusiasm or wild antagonism,always mirrored by periods of lower activity, dulled hopes, mild moods. Its during the times of lower contact with the devs, and always in the spring every year for the past four years after the holiday rush to provide the marketplace with something to buzz about and before the final crunch forE3 and the summer school-out selling season, that you can count on a feeling of restlessness, of feeling left out of the loop, of feeling ignored coming over the fans and players on the SWG forums. The sense I get from this looking at the posts on this forum currently is that we've entered that season here, that inevitable cycle down that follows closely along like a low-pressure system behind a giant storm-front. We've had our storm, with the initial implementation of Player Cities and our profession, the Politician, and now as the attention will shift to a combat re-design and to development of the Space Expansion, we need to deal with the low-pressure system. It's just how it is, and when you have seen the exact same pattern repeat itself often enough, you can feel the inevitability of it repeating itself again in the future.

Now, what's the purpose of the Politician Forum during a time like this, when we'd have to be blind not to notice that the devs are very, very, very hard at work on other portions of the game, stuff that is going to drive this game into its future? When I first started as correspondent, I took many, many threads on bug reports and made replies that although I could email these reports and bring them to the correspondent's forum, that was not the avenue for getting bug fixes done in SWG. It would be like wanting to make a call, and instead of using your phone to call directly to the person you wanted to talk to, you called your neighbor and asked them to call their landlord who would then be expected to communicate your message to the final target. The message might get through, but that is not the most direct way to connect.

Likewise, the business of this forum cannot be communication with the devs. There are too many messages here, and the devs have too few seconds in the day to interact with us here. This forum can not even have as its primary purpose being the big end of the funnel to the correspondent's forum on the small end of the funnel. Yeah, we can do that here, and it is a part of what we do every week, but if that is all you are here for, to funnel messages through me to Thunderheart for him to funnel down into yet a smaller funnel to the devs working on the game features and systems, you are going to be a very, very frustrated group of posters. And yes, I can see that you are suffering that frustration to some degree already.

The SWG devs are trying to listen to their players, trying to maintain a level of contact with them in order to meet their needs and demands on a scale completely unprecedented in MMORPG live development, but still, that can not be seen asthe primary purpose of this forum or your posts without making this whole thing into an excercise in frustration.

So, if the primarypurpose of this forum isn't for reporting bugs, and it's not for communicating with the devs, and it's not for funneling informationthrough me toThunderheart and then on to the devs, then what should the primary purpose of thisforum be?

In my opinion, its about politician players communicating with other politician players. We can only do one top-five list every several months, but we can do a new "This week in politics" every week. We can do some fun, creative feature wish stuff like "Ideas for involvement in factions" every day if we want to, and the value of that is not in the reaction we get from Thunderheart of the devs or how fast we see our ideas implemented, its in the community that forms around the spirit of creativity and love of the game and love of the concept of building virtual communities for the entertainment and enjoyment of thousands of other players in the Star Wars universe.

If you would like to be a part of that community, then posting here will provide inherent rewards that will keep you posting and reading threads with satisfaction for years to come, I know I'm going into something like four years here on the SWG forums, and it is that feeling of the combination of creativity and community which keeps it always new for me. If you want to influence the direction of the development of the game, you can join here with like-minded players in discussing the best ways to do that, but waiting for acknowledgement or results from the devs can not be the end you are seeking. Stay, pull out your keyboard tray, pump out your experiences, your hopes, your frustrations, your jokes, your proposals, your arguments and debates to share with other players who share with you a love for Star Wars, a drive to build and to interact with other players, and above all, stay here to have fun.

Bajeezus

Thu Feb 26, 2004 2:54 pm

#2

Feel free to make suggestions about the future direction of our activities on this forum, where you would like to see us go, what purpose you would like to see this forum serve, or how you could best be served by it. This is your forum, and it will go the direction you all drive it.

ChoNaguriai

Thu Feb 26, 2004 2:57 pm

#3

Excellent post. I agree with your assessment of what this forum is all about... fun and community. And in the midst of all this sharing of ideas, experiences, and frustrations, there will sometimes come a small nugget from the devs... a little piece of mana from heaven in the form of a Politician improvement. And we will rejoice in those moments!! Huzzah! In the meantime, let's enjoy the game.

Cho Naguriai / Project G.H.O.S.T.
Dark Jedi Knight - JediQuest Blog

LashoonStillwell

Thu Feb 26, 2004 3:20 pm

#4

I like hearing what other mayors are dealing with and thinking. I often get on my speeder bike and search out the mayors of my planet's city for a chat. This just gives me a wider view.

________________________________________
Lashoon Stillwell - Galactic Response Team
Master Weaponsmith - Master Artisian - Architect - Gunfighter

Visit Freedom Plaza!! Oceanview, Talus -2387, -6409
Lash-Mart Weapons, Deeds, Furniture, Tools, and Weapon Mods. Always in stock, always low prices. Taking custom orders.

Mkappus

Thu Feb 26, 2004 4:27 pm

#5

Bajeezus,

Excellent post. I used to be very vocale, now I just skim over other posts and answer a question or two. At the moment I don't see a lot of value here. My town is up and running and doing great. I agree that we are in a lull before the devs get back to us. Once the Devs do glance our way again I will hop on most threads and voice many opinions.

Goliath
Master Shipwright, Master Architect, Master Artisan
-=V=- Shipworks 3 Locations Theed, Coronet and
Tatooine by Krayt Graveyard 5909, 4373

3 vendors at GF6 11/11 - Shipwright, Architect, Resources

SacredNemesis

Thu Feb 26, 2004 6:14 pm

#6

The purpose of the Profession forums is to discuss our issues and then have those issues relayed back to TH and then to the Devs. I have never seen a post by TH that the purpose of these forums were to have "fun".

I call your attention to the following...

Thunderheart posts...

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=Development&message.id=734293&highlight=correspondence#M734293

Im reading the forums and working with the correspondents. For specifc things, I am encouraging you to work with the Player Correspondents. These folks work really really hard to gather up the issues and bring them to me. They play a vital role in this process. I am working close with them...

Thunderheart posts...

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=Development&message.id=760131&highlight=correspondence#M760131

Im hammering out the Correspondent Program so that we can work with all the players to get the issues all to the front...

Thunderheart posts...

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=Development&message.id=760024&highlight=correspondence#M760024

Again, get ANY and ALL critical issues to your Player Correspondent.

Thunderheart posts..

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=Development&message.id=765595&highlight=correspondence#M765595

All of this information will get to me if you work with the Player Correspondents...

Thunderheart posts...

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=Development&message.id=932683&highlight=correspondence#M932683

My goal is to get the top issues from you guys through the correspondents and JustG and the team have really committed themselves to acting on your input. The Vehicle Patch is making things crazy around the office, but next week-ish, when thats finished, Im having a meeting with Blair, JustG and the Live Lead Designer to go over how we can handle this.

Im also going to be working with the correspondents to get information out to all of the forums and put a companion post in the Development forum.

Thunderheart posts...

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=Development&message.id=932806&highlight=correspondence#M932806

I know that many share this and for this reason alone, Q-3PO, Xahn and I had to reject the idea of expanding the correspondent team because we dont want it to feel like a members only club. Even still, the program as it stands its a valuable tool and helps create informational funnels to get info out to you and from you to them to me....

Thunderheart posts...

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=Development&message.id=999404&page=5

Everyone is free to participate in the professions forums and thats what they are for.

Thunderheart posts...

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=dev_archive&message.id=4734&highlight=correspondence#M4734

Player Correspondents play an important role in the development of the game and the “Top 5” is a key part of the process. The player correspondents and I interact and talk about player issues; game play, rules, technical challenges and a great many things.

***************** In this same thread, TH posts and addresses EACH professions TOP 5 Issues... EXCEPT THE POLITCIANS... THIS THREAD IS DATED DECEMBER 23rd.... he goes on to say....

Actually, I have a huge surprise for the Politicians. Plinka did a fantastic job, but had to retire for RL concerns.

We wish him well.

We'll have a new Politician Correspondent coming in 12/27-28 and Im very pleased that they accepted the spot and I know everyone else will to. He brings an amazing amount of gravitas to the position, though he wants to announce his arrival.

*****************************
WE resubmitted our top five issues on 1-12-04....
One 2-25, Bejeesus edits his post to include "responses"...

Bejeesus posts...

I'd like to have come back already with a full Top-Five response from the devs, but really I think its better that we let them take their time on getting back to us on some of our big feature implementation issues. A quick answer would be easy, something like: "interesting, but we don't have time on the schedule for those kinds of feature additions." If that were to be the response, I'm just as happy to let it brew for a while.

Let them take their time?... it's only been 2+ months that we have been waiting for a simple "Yes... we have this on our development cycle for the politician".

I don't think it's asking too much to request that some kind of acknowledgement be forthcoming.

v Qabalah v
Nemesis City, Dantoonie, Chilastra
Home to the Rebel's Pride: THE X-WING
Sacred Nemesis PA - WINNERS of the Scavenger Hunt 3.06.04 - www.sacrednemesis.com/SWG
Qabalah PA Leader, Mayor/Master Architect | Nobef, Master Bounty Hunter | Keter, Master Musician

StumanKadir

Thu Feb 26, 2004 6:27 pm

#7

In other words "just chat amongst yourselves whilst the devs do more important things.We'll get back to you in 12 months time if you are still here".

Umm, if that is the case, then why do we need a Politician Correspondent?

Sorry Bajeezus, but whats the point in us doing a "Top 5 things we would like to see happen to politicians" every 6 or so months? We have done 2 so far and nothing has come about from either of them. My feeling is that we can discuss these things calmly and rationally, or get all excited and keen as mustard over them, but that at the end of the day - there is no point in us spending the time and energy on themas NOTHING WILL GET DONE ANYWAY!!!

The whole point of TH coming to the professions and asking "give us your top 5 issues" or "tell us your top 10 suggestions" is that he would then go away and he would go through the suggestions and issues with the Devs and some would get implemented and some would get tossed as being impractical. If that doesn't happen, all we really get out of the exercise is a nice warm fuzzy glow (from the point thatwe appear to have have contributed to the game) that then turns to anger and frustration as we realise what we have suggested is either ignored or set aside from 6 months!

Might it not just be easier for TH to come back to us all when the devs have time to work on these things - and in the meantime we just use thisspace as a simple "How do I do this?", "Why does this happen?" and "A funny thing happened to me in my city the other day" typeForum.

Which I guess is what you are suggesting anyway.

Stuman Anikadir
Maker of stuff - on hiatis until they work out what they are doing to this game
Will be back once the Crafting Upgrade is announced
Sick of playing with kiddies, come play with the old folks, we are just as gamey as the next person

Plzurpilot

Thu Feb 26, 2004 9:55 pm

#8

We can do many things in this forum while we wait for our turn. A few things we have to keep in mind:

1) Politican is the youngest profession in the game. There are 33 other professions that have been around longer than ours.

2) I saw it quoted by a CSR somwehre that we were the profession with the smallest number of players. This is mainly due to uniqueness of our profession. All professions fall under 2 main catagories (Crafter and Combat) with the exception of ours.I have not heard of any other profession like ours in any other game so there is no core to go off of.

Our profesison is very unique and we have a change to make it someting great. We need to keep positive around here. A dev is not going to post in a fourm that is full of negativity and people screaming at them. Would you?

Nostradamus Smyth, Former Mayor: Vodo-Siosk Dantooine
Master Droid Engineer | Master Politician | Master Artisan | Master Architect

Strohm

Thu Feb 26, 2004 10:17 pm

#9

I have to agree with Qabalah and Stuman, we should expect some level of response to our issues and our inputs. This forum should serve both purposes, to share information with other Politicians, and to highlight issues to the developers. I'm very put out about the level of attention the Politician class gets. I actually think the best solution at this point is to abolish it and let anyone be Mayor, and restrict civic buildings by city level. Why should we sit idly by while we invest 77 skill points for next to nothing in return and just smile? I don't understand this philosophy. Someone else hit it corectly, there aren't enough of us to matter. More people are interested in combat first, crafting a distant second, and then player city/ Politician at the bottom. If nothing else, we should expect some kind of answers to the top 5 list, acknowledge that there are issues and give us some kind of time frame for implementation of ideas.

And I realize Bajeezus has a tough job, but that is the job, to take issues to the developers and campaign (pun intended!) for the things that politicians need and want. If not that, then what?

Stratus Industries (Talus, -2227,1966)
"Setting a Higher Standard"

Rebuilding!

Hayek Ekon, CEO (M/Artisan, M/Arch) - Kyzafa Bayoun, VP (Merchant)
Vyzryn, Imperial Medical Officer - Ryz Andu, Imperial Soldier

Jonni

Fri Feb 27, 2004 11:40 am

#10

Baj, with all due respect....spoken like a true politician.

though as you say its painfully obvious the devs are working hard which i have never doubted i have to say im with quabalah on this one i think hes hit the nail on the head so to speak.

again i say this with all due respect Baj, id be happy with a dev /lurk just to let us know they have read whats here.

regards

COOLBLACK

JONNI MNEMONIC - S'CAMPI WIVMAYONNAISE - N'CHIPS WIVSAUCE

MAYOR OF LONDON

COOLBLACK

Jware1

Fri Feb 27, 2004 11:53 am

#11

Baj, you are doing a great job man! Thanks for all of your time and concern. Tell the devs I say hey! Great post bro.

Bajeezus

Fri Feb 27, 2004 12:06 pm

#12

I want to make it clear that while I am saying that for all of you the primary purpose of the politician forum can not be communication with the devs without leading to this being a very frustrating experience, communication with the developers through Thunderheart, via email and the correspondent's forum does remain MY primary concern here.

When Thunderheart returns on Monday, I will once again make several appeals, both by email to him and via the correspondent's forum:

1. A response on the status of the Master Politician abilities, "Industrial society" and "Scientific society".

2. A response to our remainingtop five issues. Following a fairly recent request for clarification of our suggestion on "resignation", I will ask if the devs had any reaction to that suggestion in particular. We also had word that city financial reports were on a "soon" timetable, I'll pursue how SOON that can be expected.

3. A respons to our top-ten questions.

I will ask him, even if he is not ready with official responses on those, for some quotable from him for me to post at least, and better yet, ask him to pop into our forum during the week. I can't promise that he will, but I can promise to request it.

My point in this thread is not directed at what the devs or Thunderheart or I should be doing, but at the community building potential of this forum. There seems to be some sentiment that until we heardefinitively from the devson the three issues listed above, that we can't go on to any other business, that we must sit, either quietly waiting or in constant repetition of our request for information on those three points. I don't believe that is the way to allow our group to flurish, to wait and hope and expect something from someone over whom we have no control. We can not control the developers, force them to respond to us, or anything else. We can control how we use this forum, and what purposes we decide to put it to.

My job as a correspondentremains bringing your concerns and issues to the devs through Thunderheart, but at a time when there is a quite obvious lack of attention on our profession and features, I can't leave you with the impression that your primary purpose on this forum should be communication with the devs, that would be plainly dishonest.

Dralar

Sat Feb 28, 2004 1:13 am

#13

I think you're doing a great job Bajeezus. It's a thankless job for the most part and a lot of people seem to vent at you but I hope you don't take it personally. As you pointed out I think the forums are to hammer out ideas within the player community so that our correspondent can then present them in a meaningful manner.

SOE, in my opinion, could do more to improve communication between correspondents and developers, which in turn would improve morale on the boards. The solution? No idea. Clone TH?

Long story short, keep up the good fight. Changes aren't going to happen overnight, and those who stick with it will be rewarded with a great profession.

Eri'Ad She-Akt
Mayor of Talath, Rori, 3684, 3427 (Tempest)
Master Artisan (vendor: Rori, 3672, 3698)
Master Chef (vendor: Rori, 3669, 3517)
Master Architect (former), Master Merchant (former)

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