So there have been repeatedly complaints that PGI doesn't listen to the player base on changes.
Thus, we don't like the results of PGI looking through player suggestions and implementing stuff.
PGI asks us to put our own consensus together on what changes we need.
Someone has to actually put the consensus together - you can't "vote" on a bunch of general ideas.
So here are some quotes from Russ on what they're looking for and why. He's already posting in the 'player council election' thread so as to 'is this what PGI wants' that's pretty clear. Here's some quotes from Russ Bullocks responses in the
nomination thread:
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I have heard a few requests to wait until around Tuesday for a poll, sure that is fine with me.
There as also a fair point for those concerned about having a group speak for them, remember they will need to present a full proposal and you the players will read it and get to vote. So I think you can feel secure in knowing that the proposal is really going to have to speak clearly to a portion of players.
We will also discuss that 80% more to ensure it isn't just those that spend time on the forums but that they have significant play time which are stats I can easily gather. We will figure that part out.
As to the PPC conversation that just popped up, super tempting jump in and share all the history and logic which I am sure many would love to hear. But first things first, staying on topic we have chosen this ECM subject as our test case. I happen to think it is a great starting point.
I to do not care for the fact that many groups including competitive ones won't take any spiders except the ECM version. That to me does smell not quite right, never has.
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This looks like one of the more advanced threads on the subject. Wish you continued luck and just let me know If you need a poll for any of your decisions.
Here is the original quote:
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Okay how about this, this is what many of you have been waiting for:
Well first a question: Do you think you the community can come to an agreed upon consensus? One in which if the changes are implemented everyone says great job PGI on listening to us now we feel great about ECM and your ability to listen to feedback?
If the answer is Yes then I suggest the following:
You the community decide how your going to present a proposal, nominate a peer that you feel has the best handle on this, put together your own player council whatever you like but present a proposal that your peers vote on. The vote would likely need to be far greater than just 51% in favor. Perhaps something more like 80+%
At that point PGI will analyze the proposal, if we see any technical problems or balance problems that we feel perhaps you didnt see, we will point those items out to you. Then if necessary you can adjust your proposal and put it to a vote again, if successful PGI will again analyze and repeat if necessary until we have a final design solution for implementation.
PGI will then communicate how long it will take to implement with full explanation as to why, and we will patch the changes in upon the agreed upon delivery date. Once complete if this whole process has gone smoothly and civily we will proceed with doing things like this far more frequently or at least for other areas of the product that are controversial.
What do you say?
So would you rather it be one person or a council?
We've already nixed the idea of an elected group of players with any authority. Still, Russ made it clear he wants either one or a few specific people to deal with. Not a mob.
I'm trying to get a link to the poll put into the launcher or something similar. If what you want is some 'in game community chat' you're out of luck. Mechanically that's not going to work, all matches are on independently created virtual servers as needed. It's also insanely out of scope for what's going on here.
So, again.
We've been offered an opportunity to put a selected group of our peers together to present a player consensus on ECM to PGI for them to implement. That's what's on the table.
That's it. That's the option we have. Our choices are take it/don't take it. Spending a month arguing over how to set it up is going to just burn it to the ground. This one is a test case. I don't care if it's 1 person or 10 people, I don't care who they are so long as they can speak intelligently and are invested. If we don't make this work and do so effectively all we're going to do is slap down our chance to open an avenue for having player consensus drive game changes.
I don't know how else to put this -
There is no option for 'not having a group of peers selected by the community present the proposed changes to ECM to PGI'. There is only 'do that, or leave things exactly as they are'. There is not a 'do this instead' option. It's not on the table.
If the consensus is that we don't want any direct voice in game changes then, well, we're a bunch of total idiots. The absurdity of that boggles me I admit.
We'll see how it shakes out though.