Smuggler Archive
Thread: Player Correspondent Opening: Smuggler
Why would anyone want this position? What so they could rewrite the top five and ten requests over again, only to have to wait weeks or months to get Thunderheart's reply...."there are things in the works..." I view Thunderheart's treatment of the customers who play smugglers, as down right disrespectful!!! We dont need replacement coorespndents, we need a replacement deveolper who will at least tell us what is planned for this profession, and when will it happen?!!!! I have had enough of this nonsense of waiting and asking and then waiting again for some response ...
An apology is owed to all of us who have spent countless hours and money on playing this profession in the hopes that it would be fixed. We were told months ago that changes were coming shortly, well that was nearly 6 months ago and nearly $100 ago.....All we got was patches that made it even more useless to be a smuggler....Gee thanks......
I will say it again, I would like to see exactly what Thuderheart or whatever otherDev intends to do with the Smuggler profession, and when it will happen!!!
Well said, Solo.I credit youon knowing your own limits and letting us know them.
I agree that the eventual replacement will have to be a person with:
1)thick skin (damn near armor) for protection against bad treatment from both sides.
2) the patience of an immortal being.
3) an affinity for the "art of the deal" (even, and unfortunately most of the time, compromises).
In the following, I hope that I'm wrong:
A) It will be 18 months at the earliest from the time of this post, before this entire game, much less the single Smuggler profession, will be the game that lives in my imagination right now.
B) Whoever takes the Correspondent job will be the first in a line to bear the brunt for us until that time. (Basically, whoever gets the job next will not be "The Chosen One" to lead us to the "Promised Land". That place is, as far as here & now are concerned, "a long time from now in a place far away...." So weshould all take this into consideration when our C-Team can't deliver everything right now or even this year. The SOE Devs have that on lock until... whenever.)
This is not to say that we should "lay down and take the torture passively". Keep up the pressure like a trickle of water on a mountain. It will take time, but we may cut the mountain in half.
And, I really hate to admit this, but, here it is:
If, last June '03, SOE told me that they were trying to develop a game based on Star Wars and they needed me to play-test it AND they also needed me to pay 50 cents per day to do it . Being the sick Star Wars fan who sat in the theaters as a kidwith my brothers in 1977 and never forgot the magic, I'd say "Ok, alright, sure. Where do I sign up?"
My only condition would be that I could drop it at anytime (I can, and did for 4 months) and that I wouldn't have to play the game all the time (I don't). But, I will help to keep up the pressure.
Sorry for turning this into a slightly different thread.
Just wanted to put in my 50 cents...
Solo4114 wrote:
Just a quick response to the one person who suggested that I volunteer. I don't think I'd be a good pick. For one thing, I'm far too critical of the devs. They are looking for someone who can be passionate about this profession, but it's also got to be someone that they can at least agree to work with. I'm more like your Howard Dean kind of candidate here. Good to get the troops fired up, but probably not the guy you want on the Hill since he'll be unwilling to play nice with everyone. I would be unlikely to change my attitudes or approaches with the devs if I were a correspondent, and for that reason alone, I'd be a bad choice. While it's important to kick the devs in the ass and get them moving, it has to be done a certain way and I'd likely be a BIT too forceful with the boot. The other reason is that, frankly, while I am passionate about the profession, I'm also pessimistic about its future and am questioning how long I will remain in the game. You guys don't need someone who's gonna bail again soon the way I likely will when our revamp turns out to be a minigame and I decide to apply my $15 a month to getting more cable channels instead.
Now, as for the one guy who criticized Lodek, believe me, Lodek was a great correspondent. The issue is not so much with the correspondent as it is with the devs. They are absolutely unwilling to communicate with ANYONE about our future, they're unwilling to enter into ANY kind of real dialogue, and all they can do is say "So, what exactly do you guys want? Can you summarize that for me?" And you know what? Even when presented with nice neat issues to deal with, they'll still ignore us. Including our correspondent. But I will say this. Lodek did two VERY important things in my opinion:(1) he made the process translucent, if not entirely transparent, and (2) he went to bat for us on changes that were disliked by the vast majority of the profession and did so in an articulate manner.
I'll echo Solo there on those two points.
First, I'm not interested in being correspondent. There was a time when I would have been, but not anymore. So I'm flattered at the PMs I've gotten about it, but I'm not going to apply.
Second, Lodek was a great correspondent. To be a good correspondent, you don't need to be an encyclopedia of Smuggler information or spend every waking moment on the boards. Qualities that Lodek brought to the table were:
- The ability to make persuasive, articulate arguments;
- An unbiased point of view with no personal baggage orspecific agendawhatsoever;
- The humility to work as part of a team and listen to othersrather than hog the spotlight or force one's own arguments to the forefront at the expense of others;
- A professional, diplomaticattitude developed fromworking a full-time job in the real world;
- The understanding that a correspondent is a secretary and lobbyist rather than a developer; and
- Awareness that it's best to keep plansof action verysimple rather than ornate and extremely detailed.
If we get a new correspondent with those qualities, I honestly wouldn't care if I knew their name, or even if they never played a Smuggler before. The ability to actively listen and digest ideas, then draft demands and responsesin a mature and persuasive way is what matters more than anything else.
Dean eh? I may retract my vote for Caylin if that's true...
First we're gonna get slicing fixed! Then we're gonna do spices! Then we're gonna do a cool minigame! Then we're gonna go with PC missions! Then Master box!!@! Then underworld! And then we're gonna go to Thunderheart's house and dround him inhis fish tank!%^@ YEEEEEEEEEEAEHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
PhoenixOrion wrote:
I vote Caylin, as long as he keeps his Smuggler opinions different from his Rebel Sympathies.
Geeze, some people ask for the impossible... 
Hey TK, saw your resignation 
, it's just not the same knowing you will not be lurking much longer. If it means anything, you were my firstsmugglercorrespondent. Utmost respect to you.
One of the Four Horsemen of the Smuggler Apocalypse! 
well I'm rather new (playing my Master Smuggler a couple of Months now) but after
reading this Forum a lot only thing I see is another loop but nothing done really.
many good Ideas and I figured the smuggler revamp IS in the works already but now
it looks more like nothing was done so far and the next correspondent is invited to
interacted with the devs.
IMO, a Dakrhorse will win this race. I just hope it would be a good one.
Btw, first thing I did when I saw Lodek's retirement post, I PMed Thunderheart, requesting for this thread. Looks like it did the trick. Or may be I'm giving too much credit to myself (blame the Smuggler bravado
) In any case - I'm glad it's here!
As far as Caylin goes.. I'll just quote from braveheart:
"Uncompromising men are easy to admire."
Not meant as a flame. He's obviously done alot of work hashing out ideas and stuff, I just don't think he'd be a good correspondent.