Yep.
This meeting is specifically to help Frontier identify problems with Powerplay. It's not about group mechanics. Would it be helpful if Frontier explained why they chose specific groups? Probably. But to me common sense dictates that they selected the most prominant, open door communities for each of the powers. These communities being ones that do not require you to ask permission to join and place no requirements on their members for participation.
Not to mention, all of these communities are originating from Reddit, which when powerplay launched Frontier themselves encouraged using Reddit for power organization before we had power forums here on the Elite forums. Also it would be unfair to ignore the fact that all of these groups are subject to the community management guidelines of Reddit, a neutral entity that is completely indifferent to Elite.
If we ever do get group support, and have a meeting on group mechanics such as guilds etc, then I'll be first in line to ask for all factions to have a representative present for a meeting. But this isn't what that is about and trying to brand this as something it isn't is wrong Jezza.
I honestly do not understand why people who are apparently in the leadership of their own power are so keen on complaining about the selection process here rather than internally in their own community. If they were Mahon pledges, I'd be ripping into them in private for that, because that's where it belongs. This also means that if I'm not the Mahon representative at the meeting, it could be because I didn't have time, I was sick, I had connection issues or because the Mahon community doesn't trust me to do it properly - which one of those is the cause is, quite frankly, not anyone else's bloody business.
Utopia doesn't have a leader. We do not discuss power-wide things in private. I can't speak for others but I dont have an issue with the selection process...but more about the need to have a selection to begin with. I think it would look pretty bad on FD if they are honestly coming to us saying they need insight into what we have an issue with in powerplay. That just tells the players that they are unaware of a year's worth of forum posts that largely are repetitive in what people are not happy with. And I dont see any point in having a meeting about correcting what just happened in the last cycle, it's way too late now. So my only issue is that if you're not meeting to decide on near-term actual fixes to actual PP problems, then why are you meeting at all?
To make FD better understand their own creation so that their own long-term and short-term planning and decision making actually starts making sense.
That is not a viable solution and you know it.
Words
this is, at its core, an attempt to initiate a dialogue with the aim of protecting PP, by discussing and highlighting its problems from a players perspective, and the best way to represent the players perspective, is by putting forward the individuals who spend most of their time researching, sifting and gathering data, compiling spreadsheets, and producing the meaningful direction that allows PP to prosper. this dedication alone, has allowed groups of all sizes, coalitions that have formed, and the powers they support, to operate in an organised, productive manner, that has advanced PP beyond the disarray and chaos it could easily have become. i understand, and respect, the mindset and ability of the nameless individuals, who week in - week out, do the number crunching, they are by nature, reserved and unassuming individuals, who very likely put more time into PP than most others.. its almost a full time job. it also makes sense that other senior members of groups that work closely with the analysts are there as well, as they have the pulse of the players enacting the actual operations.. this isn't about ego, its about common sense and convenience.
If people continue doing this I am going to report your posts to the moderators for derailing the thread. This thread was created for discussion of the powerplay meeting, and repeating the same anti-jezza arguments over and over is simply a way for people to avoid answering the questions and change the subject.
So once again, the need for meeting with anyone at all seems moot. Are you saying "Hey, we can't be bothered to pay attention to the forum we created, nor anything on reddit so could you 10 people summarize a year's worth of issues and solutions for us that we'll in no way suggest that we'll actually act on anytime soon?" Or are you saying they are looking for something else that hasn't been mentioned in the thread yet?
because as great as all that information is and how many ideas there are, it is a very public, 1 sided, conversation which is very speculative, in that as players we have no idea of how frontier have, or want to develop PP. this problem wont be solved by throwing ideas at a wall in the hopes that something valid sticks, because we have no idea what valid is. on top of which this offer isn't about developing PP, its about trying to resolve and prevent the current issues from happening in the future. so ideas about the direction PP should go and the content it needs are relevant to this process of repair and prevention how exactly?
this is about creating a formal, detailed conversational level dialogue between frontier and a small number of players, all of whom understand PP in great detail, and are actively involved in PP and its community. it also allows frontier to create, control, and coordinate the entire process, with set guidelines and any other requirements that are needed to protect the game.
It has come to my attention that several self-appointed powerplay "representatives" from various powers have hoped to set up a meeting with FD in order to influence developer decisions regarding powerplay.
Whilst I agree that the powerplay system could be much improved, this kind of lobbying by self-interested parties is unacceptable and should not influence FD policy.
I urge Frontier not to attend any meeting except one which is public. Being selected arbitrarily by whomever is organising the meeting should not be a requirement for being able to speak with the developers.
Regards,
Jezza
- Patreus was put into turmoil, by a bug, and cannot get their preparations