Guild Wars 2

Hi,

I was thinking there could be a couple of players that represent the community and bring certain ideas to the Devs that the majority of the PvP community feels is needed.
I feel there is a missing link between the Devs and the community and this would be a great way to fix that.
There are many issues that I believe most PvPers could agree NEED to be fixed and certain features that need to atleast be brought up.
I think I speak for many when I say that the combat system is great for PvP, however there is a let-down when it comes to actual FEATURES.

There could be some sort of a Player’s Council and at the head a couple of Representatives who would listen to ideas, and bring them up in a monthly meeting with the Devs.

I think Grouch and Holly would be great potential representatives.

What do you think?

In theory, it sounds great, but there are flaws. When you get an elected party together to represent the masses, over time they become corrupt and only look out for their own self-interest. Eventually, they make changes that not only do not benefit the public but sometimes they are actually detrimental to the public they are sworn to represent.

I bet this is already true. Forum posters whose opinions represent what ‘the PvP community feels is needed’ exist. We don’t have to formally select a few to represent the masses (ahem). If the developers are already watching the forums, it is certain that some people have stood out from the rest, in terms of their ability to state valid arguments and promote realistic opinions.

And of course if someone’s very first post is of high quality, it is the developer’s job to find it, print it and bring it to the attention of the dev team.

The only potential missing link between the developer and the community is the former’s inability to properly track the discussions on the discussion board. Personally, I am convinced they are watching the forums and taking our opinions into account.

Finally, do not forget that the developer is the only one who has the ability to make profit off the success of the game’s PvP. At least in the foreseeable future. They will take the community’s input into account only to the extent it helps them meet their internal goals – direct monetization or not.

felivear.1536:

In theory, it sounds great, but there are flaws. When you get an elected party together to represent the masses, over time they become corrupt and only look out for their own self-interest. Eventually, they make changes that not only do not benefit the public but sometimes they are actually detrimental to the public they are sworn to represent.

So what about if the choices aren’t permanent, but rather on some sort of rotating schedule. Something like: 3 players are chosen per every few weeks, then it switches, maybe up the number of players to something like 5 so that you can include at least 1 lower ranked person just for perspective, though the highest tier of players would still be given the strongest voice.

How would they be chosen?

Based on forum activity?
Some sort of quiz?
QPs?
Stream?

Too many variables, and no point.

You already have the forum board, where everyone can share their thoughts and provide input.
Not to mention, the devs actually reply to these forum posts, so there’s your “community link” right there.

There are a already people that represent the community and bring certain ideas to the Devs that the majority of the PvP community feels is needed.

They are called Mods.. they take note of important topics to bring up with the devs on a regular basis.. or atleast thats what I was lead to believe from listening/reading various things on here

felivear.1536:

In theory, it sounds great, but there are flaws. When you get an elected party together to represent the masses, over time they become corrupt and only look out for their own self-interest. Eventually, they make changes that not only do not benefit the public but sometimes they are actually detrimental to the public they are sworn to represent.

This is….accurate.

You do not need representatives or anything of that sort.
The developers gather information in many ways and forms.
They have their own statistics and data, feedback/information gathered from forum discussions(both official and fanbased) and the live discussions with top teams players.
If they require more methods to gather data or feedback then they would had done so by now.

Having said that, what I think they could do, is to have a private forum and invite only “top” players there to discuss upcoming balanced based changes in detail directly with the developers, like blizzard has for starcraft 2.
I know everyone is biased,but nevertheless top players that understand classes more than your average bear,I believe will be able to offer better feedback, without the need to filter through all the rage and stuff.

I wouldn’t believe for a single second that the “top players” would look out for the interests of the majority of people. Being a “top player” has no correlation to the ability to make reasoned and valid points to improve the game.

Look at the number of people who preface their posts/suggestions with “i am a top player with x QP”. Instead of making a good point that people can agree on, it’s as if they were afraid that people won’t care if they didn’t have credentials