Hi all:
While this idea is not by any means revolutionary or different, I think that it may provide a constructive way of generating real feedback over some of the great ideas generated on this forum.
THE IDEA:
Any forum post that receives a set number of comments will receive an official response from an Arena.net developer or small development team discussing the strengths, weakness, and possibilities of implementing the idea. If the idea is not possible, then the developer will tell the community why the idea is impractical or does not fit with developer goals.
PROS:
-This enables Arena.net to crowd-source some of the best ideas. Instead of waiting for paid staff to develop the “next big thing” either in terms of game growth or development, it allows the company to hear and filter through some of the best responses generated on this forum and from its users.
-It brings more users to the forums and this sub-forum specifically.
-It promotes long-term sustainability and growth of the game.
-Crowd-sourcing promotes the type of community involvement that Arena.net would benefit the most from.
-By setting the number of comments needed, Arena.net is able to filter some of the best ideas from others.
-By no means does this guarantee that these features will be added, instead it only promises a response from a team/person who can discuss why the idea will or will not work.
CONS:
-May promote petitions instead of “idea-generating” threads
-Some ideas may not fit into what the developing team actually wants
-Various issues with development, implementation of generated ideas, and developer response.
-Misalignment between the company and the customers/users.
IMPLEMENTATION:
-The user that creates the forum has the ability to edit it and add comments that receive the highest number of up-votes.
-With Arena.net discussing moving from the Living Story to more permanent content and with four teams working in different cycles, Arena.net could take one of those teams and dedicate it to monitoring this forum and investigating responses that meet the cut-off threshold.
SUMMARY:
Implementing this feature on the forum allows Arena.net to crowd-source some unique ideas from its users that it may not have thought of inside staff meetings. Crowd-sourcing is free to Arena.net and the oversight could be done by a small team.
Thanks for taking the time to read my idea and I look forward to hearing your responses on this issue.