Powerplay Powerplay Annual Summary

[DNA-Decay]

Powerplay Annual Summary

Please read the linked doc (kinda long).
https://community.elitedangerous.com/news/03/06/2016/Powerplay-Annual-Summary


Who wrote this?

No really - is this what FDev think happened in the last year?
There's no attribution so I guess it's "Official"

Is that what FDev think the players did?
Is this what drove us?

Did the Alliance have a fairly quiet year?

Did the Pirates not really do much?

Was Sirius' biggest contribution helping the Feds to find some wreckage?


I dunno,
I think FDev should really look at having a PowerPlay Producer.
Someone who knows what is going on. Someone who can articulate the things that actually happened.

Like this:
Right click > View Image. then click plus to zoom.

 

[PanchoAMD]

Translation of the summary to Spanish here: http://www.unioncosmos.com/foro/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=136

Cheers!

 

[Rudolphus]

wat is interesting that is stated 400 billion is spend, that tell us how less people play pp,

 

[Tataboj]

And what would you want to be there? "Reddit leaders of Aisling Duval were arguing with Reddit representatives of Denton Patreus on the internet, regarding princess's lost systems."

 

[Agony_Aunt]

Just gave it a look. Looks like mainly info taken from statistics with a little blurb wrapped around it.

If you want to write your own Powerplay year in review, go ahead and write it.

 

[Marra Morgan]

Like this:
Right click > View Image. then click plus to zoom.

http://i.imgur.com/Pnq8I1q.png

Yours is much better than anything "official"!

 

[Apos]

I like it and I dislike it.

I like it because it does have some player content in there, like the Pegasi War and the Mahon-Federal conflict.

However, I also do not like it because it once again shows that only a miniscule amount of important player actions make it into the game and not in their entire context either.

Certainly room for improvement and a long way to go, but there have been some steps forward compared to a little less than a year ago.

Federal matters and Sirius finding the ship, etc, shouldn't even be there as well. They were not related to PP in any form and PP certainly didn't influence the outcome of those either. And everyone is still left to wonder whether PP influenced the new emperor choice as well.

 

[Rubbernuke]

If anything, these bulletins should be monthly or even weekly, to sum up what has recently happens in an RP style to tell the story.

 

[AreZee]

the thing that bothers me the most is this preparation part, because it shows once again how FD doesn't understand the community involved in PP.

The supporters of Princess Aisling Duval surpassed the spending of all other powers, accounting for over a quarter of total spending by fronting approximately 110 billion credits to spread her propaganda materials far and wide. In contrast, supporters of Senator Denton Patreus fronted the fewest credits, providing approximately 15 billion credits to distribute the senator’s marked arms.

sure that might be what happened. But why is that? Nothing mentioned about "providing better shields to lure in prep grinders". I understand that it's hard to make this info into a somewhat related news post. But how about bringing in numbers of defecting players in a power? How about telling these numbers too? How about putting in numbers like "effective merits per cycle". Overfortication is a big thing and it hits powers with a higher play count more than a low player count. And why is that? Because the lack of tools provided by FD to coordinate player actions INGAME.

A statistical approach to sum up annual powerplay data is really nice. But like always: "never trust a statistic you didn't make yourself!" Writing some text about numbers without context like it was done here is wrong. It baffled me once again how FD misinterprets powerplay completely.

 

[DNA-Decay]

And what would you want to be there? "Reddit leaders of Aisling Duval were arguing with Reddit representatives of Denton Patreus on the internet, regarding princess's lost systems."

Just gave it a look. Looks like mainly info taken from statistics with a little blurb wrapped around it.

If you want to write your own Powerplay year in review, go ahead and write it.

I'll just file it with all my other unfinished projects.
There's a ripper day by day video takedown of what happened in Wolfberg. There's a decent player history of The Alliance.
There's a funny one about what happened on that first Onion Head run.

And yeah, it's kinda toxic keeping up with the PowerPlay Reddits, but it's the only way to know what is actually going on.

How about The White Templars UA bombing Harma?

How about - no I won't start but there's a whole player history that is being ignored here.
The GalNet post reads like a couple of Devs playing with their puppets for an afternoon, meanwhile thousands of people have slogged it out staying up till 7:00am every Thursday to bring those puppets to life.

I just wish someone at FDev really "got" PowerPlay the way senior PP leadership does.

 

[Rubbernuke]

As Cadoc found out, when you attempt this it turns into a full time job and it sucks the joy out of the game. You get no time to play while the weekly pressure just increases.

The problems as I see them: we have a disconnect between the story that FD envision, the players story in PP or otherwise. We can create history and lore but only if it fits, which leads to frustration. I know many people (including myself) who would love to write lore for the game, we know our Powers inside out but get disheartened when nothing official ever gets produced.

When collapse is introduced, and we get a churn of smaller powers who die within months, who will invest in creating lore / content for them as well? Hardly anything official has been written about the Kumo or Antal- was this the reason why?

Another example: Utopia expanded to Takurua and Maia, real events that tested Powerplay to its limits. We even fortified Takurua fully (30k plus over 340Ly)- did that make the news? No....but Imperial fluff did.

 

[Apos]

As Cadoc found out, when you attempt this it turns into a full time job and it sucks the joy out of the game. You get no time to play while the weekly pressure just increases.

The problems as I see them: we have a disconnect between the story that FD envision, the players story in PP or otherwise. We can create history and lore but only if it fits, which leads to frustration. I know many people (including myself) who would love to write lore for the game, we know our Powers inside out but get disheartened when nothing official ever gets produced.

When collapse is introduced, and we get a churn of smaller powers who die within months, who will invest in creating lore / content for them as well? Hardly anything official has been written about the Kumo or Antal- was this the reason why?

But that wouldn't be a valid reason to avoid creating lore either. If Antal collapses, it should be known why. If, for example, it ends up that some Imperial power took part in Antal's demise, that should be history. It should be public knowledge and not exclusive to reddit clubs. Powers should carry the consequences of their actions through time.

Winters pledgers has been sniping powers they claimed as neutral repeatedly and yet she still gets to be advertised as a benevolent leader, without any doubt towards her honesty and true allegiance/motives created. Is the liberal party still sure that Winters represents them and not Hudson?

 

[Rubbernuke]

It's a collective problem, we have precious little information in game, so it makes it difficult to write about too.

I do wonder how Power play would have gone if powers could see who is attacking, and what it would have done to undermining.

 

[DNA-Decay]

The Player History is a real problem.

The Takurua and Maia expansions were an amazing, funny, clever and stoopid endevour.
And not something that anyone at FDev have taken on board as part of Antal's persona or character.

Yet it's something that those who follow PowerPlay consider part of the Antal thing.


Fdev need a PowerPlay producer.

Someone who gets it.
Who knows "who's who".
But who can also check the back end and know:
"Oh that's a feint" "This other mob are doing that"

 

[Rubbernuke]

The Player History is a real problem.

The Takurua and Maia expansions were an amazing, funny, clever and stoopid endevour.
And not something that anyone at FDev have taken on board as part of Antal's persona or character.

Yet it's something that those who follow PowerPlay consider part of the Antal thing.


Fdev need a PowerPlay producer.

Someone who gets it.
Who knows "who's who".
But who can also check the back end and know:
"Oh that's a feint" "This other mob are doing that"

This would have been so easy if the whole stratification of player, faction, power and superpower was done right. If Powers as we know them were just larger player minor factions the problem would go away, as FD would deal with the top level Fed / Alliance / Imperial cold war /aliens stories, and then players could write what they wanted in the mid tier regarding their power.

Both would be separate, and so allow players to develop lore freely in a space for them away from any potential major story issues.

 

[Cori]

I have to say, a lot of this "summary" doesn't match my reflections, or at least omits large amounts of what actually happened.

 

[DNA-Decay]

@Rubbernuke - I don't know that more separation is what is needed.

I think FDev should have someone on-board who's gig is to sort out PowerPlay and keep the content reactive to the curve balls that players are throwing.

Someone who can make Mahon more like what the Alliance Office of Statistics are like.
Someone to take the infighting and craziness and grinder burden of Aisling and turn it into story.

Like you pointed out it's a full time gig staying on top of this, and if you don't -then the Summaries and Reports are just padding around the raw data.

Even just keeping up with who are the leaders is a busy job.
Back in November I realised that I didn't know who were the leaders outside The Alliance.
I thought one page of a spreadsheet would be enough.
But it soon became a big sprawling mess.

Rising stars, leadership burnout, defections, outright lies about their own importance, people who are important in closed groups, but don't say as much in public, people with thousands of posts but who command just two buddies and their cat, people who really burn hours over the strategy spreadsheets, and who's polite requests are followed by scores or hundreds.
Reddit identities, forum identities, CMDR Names, who's on the IHC anymore? Is that leadership group that Antal started got any credibility? Which player groups actually count?

And then the whole thing is in flux, and there's raw data and new strategies.
Does FDev really understand the detail in all these PowerPlay strategies:
SCRAP Request. & Defensive 5C.
Turtle.
Weaponised Expansion.
Collusion Piracy.
Bubble Flip.
Grinder 5C. Different to Offensive 5C.
Merit Snipe.
UA Bombing. / Xenoterrorism.

Figuring this stuff out and tracking it. Sorting the smoke and mirrors of the Forums from the truth of the logs and raw data. And using that to create a PowerPlay that is truly responsive to player actions is what a PowerPlay producer would do.

PowePlay leadership should not be going hat in hand to raise their concerns with FDev.
FDev should know what is happening and GalNet and the in game papers should reflect that.

Yeah, it's a big job. But there are great people out there. "Ed the intern" is a terrific face of FDev and we are all fond of him. But when he was led on a UA Bombing spree, a lot of us a were facepalming for his naïveté. A PowerPlay producer would need to be sharp and cynical and aware that every Player is lying to him or her.

PowerPlay should be a rich tapestry that links ALL the great content that FDev and the players are creating. But first FDev need to have a solid grip on what PowerPlay is today. Then they can begin to really give it some direction and compelling narrative drive.

Zac should be mentoring someone up and the position should have some clout within FDev.

 

[Corrigendum]

Hey all. It's been interesting watching this conversation evolve. Now that folks have had a chance to provide some feedback, I would like to step forward and accept the feedback that applies to the author. The PowerPlay Annual Report was written by CMDR Corrigendum, just like the nearly-regular weekly Powerplay reports. If you want proof it was me, I'm sure Zac can pop in here and confirm if that's really necessary.

PowerPlay should be a rich tapestry that links ALL the great content that FDev and the players are creating. But first FDev need to have a solid grip on what PowerPlay is today. Then they can begin to really give it some direction and compelling narrative drive.

Zac should be mentoring someone up and the position should have some clout within FDev.

This is what I've tried to do when I've written summaries. I've tried to weave ongoing threads in the GalNet story, PowerPlay statistics and the player activity driving it, compatible lore, and as much else as I can make fit. I've screwed up statistics, much to the delight of folks like the Alliance Office of Statistics. I've screwed up lore. I've thoroughly angered folks who are convinced that I do it to push my own agendas, etc. I've spoken with Zac about seeing if FD can take this task on internally using my past contributions as a template to start from. I hope they can do so in the future. Right now I'm afraid the community is stuck with what it can generate itself.

I began writing these reports shortly after Cadoc stepped down as the de facto PowerPlay Guru who wrote similar summaries himself. I patterned my efforts after his and tried to carry on his tradition. I ultimately stopped the statistical reports on Reddit and focused exclusively on providing in-game content. I simply didn't have time to do it all. It's a bigger project than you'd expect.

Anyway, thanks for the feedback. It's given me some things to think about. I'm going to be taking a bit of a break from writing the weekly reports, but I hope to improve them when I get back into it.

 

[Apos]

You've been improving on a lot of aspects, despite my grudges which won't heal easily. And I kinda expected you'd have a part there. I don't expect any of FD's writers to have the necessary understanding of PP to translate player actions.

If there's one thing I'd like to see improved, it would be a shift from the lukewarm approach in trying to not sound biased. You know how the saying goes "trying to keep everyone satisfied ends up satisfying noone." But I can definitely see the concerns behind the approach.

I can only speak from personal experience and point of view, but I remember some extremely successful weeks for Mahon end up being overly average on how they were brought up.

Would it be possible, in terms of time available, to contact power representatives in Thursday just after the cycle to discuss their view on their overall success of their goals and have a deeper sense of context when preparing the piece with the weekend closing in? This doesn't compromise the secret actions some power might have in store for the cycle either, since the evaluation is done after the cat's out of the bag.

Also, we really need to get more in touch with FD regarding how the mechanics actually translate to the world. Because most people don't see the conflict between Mahon and Hudson as a purely economic one. Undermining is indeed a mixed bag, but does that mean that a trading power is hurt from economic hindrances alone? That would be a bit weird. Does Hudson have a signed contact with Mahon stating they are only allowed to hinder him through economic means?

 

[Ant_Solo]

The stats at the top of this are interesting but I'm afraid the rest of it wasn't, if anything it made being involved in Powerplay utterly futile.

Powerplay creates stories and events beyond what is scripted by FDev, this is what is exciting about it. If all that matters in the end is what is scripted why bother playing?

In my opinion these player driven events are what is important and it is those that should be told.