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If the PC does get formed, it's first duty should be getting all of the people on it to post up clearly worded definitions of what they mean by good "balance" - and than they should come to a majority/super majority agreement on what makes for good "balance" that the group WILL accept (in order to have teeth, this must be a thing the individuals HAVE to accept to be in the group). Which obviously doesn't mean you can't have dissenters, but the dissenters would have to consider things based upon said definition. Also, the PC should NOT be bound to use the same defintion of "balance" that the developers adhere to. It's a PLAYER council, for INPUT.
This definition would than HAVE to be posted publicly in the forums; for input AND mostly so that people know exactly what they're getting with the PC. Without this nobody could know what they were getting from the PC.
Without this initial process of deciding on a defintion of "balance," the PC would be nothing more than a smaller representation of the forums... and because smaller, a less representative group. There has to be a reason to have the PC beyond "a group to help absorb the responsibility for decisions."
The PC should be billed as having the decisional power as to *what ideas they will consider.* This should NOT mean that ideas that the PC refuses to consider should be considered unviable - rather that those with such ideas should soldier on in the normal fashion for their ideas (and do so civilly).
Second, everything the PC does should be done in the open, with the obvious exclusions of their private interactions with the developers, their PMS, and their initial discussion of "what is good balance." The player council is for better interface with the players primarily. That said, their discussions where they hash things out initially should, at the VERY least, be somwhere where only THEY can post; or in a private sub-forum, with the discussions in them made public after their positions are decided and approved.
Also, the PC shouldn't be used as an excuse to remove discussions of balance and the game in general from the forums, not even for the most unpopular ideas (as long as said discussions are civil, obviously).
Last of all ... those representing the players at large in the council, besides being on the PC and the duties that the PC strictly involves, SHOULD HAVE NO other privileges. The reason for this is simple - the point of the PC is to have PLAYERS represented - so if the PC winds up being a "notch above" the players beyond their PC duties, you won't have players represented - you'll have the PC council itself represented. This would obviously mean that the NGNG crew and certain other individuals would be UN-nominatable (such as moderators).
Edited by Pht, 15 September 2014 - 06:41 AM.
