This is not a suggestion for an in-game feature per se. But it's something many other MMO's are embracing and something that I think we would really benefit from as a community.

Essentially, I suggest you create some sort of formal mechanism for us to vote or influence development of the game. This doesn't have to be as restrictive as you might think, but it's been made clear to me you do look to the community for developmental direction. This is a great thing, but to the new player the idea that they can contribute to the direction of the game seems a little crazy, or it's not clear to newer players what exactly is coming next.

I'm proposing you give us some sort of official content voting mechanism to very obviously demonstrate your commitment to the voice of the community and make it easier for the larger player base to feel like they are influencing the games direction.

Even the way suggestions work on this forum isn't ideal. There is a system here that we have, why not formalise it a bit more. For instance, if people post a suggestion, and it gets a certain up-vote to down-vote ratio, it could be put to a content poll for people to vote on an order in which they are implemented.

I know the community is probably going to 1000+ this suggestion, and the devs aren't going to be a huge fan. Please interpret this the right way: I think you're doing a good job in this aspect, but I see potential for it to become a more obvious point of difference for the product. It's great for your marketing to have this kind of stuff on the website and in plain view of the browsing public. It's a good thing to have written on the 'about vendetta' page that you listen to your players, it's another thing to have the proof out there for everyone to see.

TRS.

It's already here, it's called Suggestions. Players can get behind a suggestion and the devs will respond.

Impractical, given the small size of the development staff. There is simply not enough staff for them to be subject to the whim of the players (like it or not). I know we all have our pet peeves about what needs to be added/changed, but in the end, the devs have to create the release roadmap for new features. I'm saying this because sometimes in order to implement 1 major feature, you have to build 10 minor ones that no ones sees or realizes are important in the long run.

It's not already here, Surbius, I'm suggesting a formalisation of the existing structure.

@Keller. That might be the case, but there are still ways to improve the existing work that they already do and make it clearer. I'm not saying the devs should modify their work patterns in any way, just consider reforming the way its presented to make it clearer across the playerbase. It could be done with a simple forum overhaul, this is a pretty basic forum, adding simple polls would be a great start, as an example.

I've always thought of our little home here as being like North Korea :p

-1

Devs should spend time deving the game, not deving voting systems. There is a reason they are the developers and we are the players. When they want feedback, they can ask in the forum, and that's good enough. It's not like we have thousands of people here so that a voting system would be needed to make sense of it all.

I agree with Pizzasgood. If you try to please everyone, you end up pleasing no-one. Better to have a vision, and stick to that vision while communicating it to others. A single well-thought out, well-executed post can have more of an impact than arbitrary +'s and -'s on these boards as it is.

I also wanted to offer a reminder there are options for taking a more involved role in the development of the game; namely, the pcc.

Mecha will be most displeased hahaha

Devs should spend time deving the game, not deving voting systems

Dev's already spend time on product development, which is more or less what this is, and there's no shortage of web developers who can sort out web stuff while the devs code.

It's not like we have thousands of people here so that a voting system would be needed to make sense of it all.

Haha, yeah.. who knows maybe we do they are just all silent on 100.. lol!

Yawn.

-1

It's been proven over and over and over and over that 99% players really have no idea what they're saying when they suggest changes for any game. Game development is *not* a democracy that involves the playerbase, and suggesting it would help to become more democratized is pretty ignorant in my opinion. We can already post here and the developers specifically request for comments on certain issues.

I think it's great that the devs accept and use suggestions, but I think it would be foolhardy to force them into a plan of action based on the number of votes received. Otherwise, player suggestions that are not appropriate for the current phase of development could be voted up, or the devs could simply offer false choices to vote on. Both are a waste of time. they should continue to elicit player opinion, and then make the best choice based on their current situation.

I think some people are missing one very important factor. A voting system would not force the devs to do anything. A voting system apart from +1/-1 could just condense opinion into something easier for the gevs to gauge. A simple poll would work fine like you can do on most forums.

Polls don't reflect the evolution of ideas that happens within a thread.

That is a fair point.

Ryan, you say: "I think some people are missing one very important factor. A voting system would not force the devs to do anything. A voting system apart from +1/-1 could just condense opinion into something easier for the gevs to gauge. A simple poll would work fine like you can do on most forums."

But in your OP you say:

"For instance, if people post a suggestion, and it gets a certain up-vote to down-vote ratio, it could be put to a content poll for people to vote on an order in which they are implemented."

And still I say that the user base (myself included) has no clue as to what is involved in deciding the order in which things are added, or the reasons why the priority might change suddenly.

I have no issue with a vote if the devs would like to put very specific issues to a vote, but if a general ability to vote on player suggestion is put into place - people are going to be disappointed and angry when the thing they voted up is not enacted.

I have no issue with a vote if the devs would like to put very specific issues to a vote, but if a general ability to vote on player suggestion is put into place - people are going to be disappointed and angry when the thing they voted up is not enacted.

I stopped posting on this thread because everyone kinda missed the point, but it seems whistler more or less has the idea. Nobody suggesting that devs should lose their editorial independence or anything like that, but there are certainly things that they could let us vote on, and making this visible and easy to get involved with would be a good product development choice in my view.

That is all.