Changes to the bulletin board

[Cz]

We've had the bulletin board at the current state for some months now, and I think it's time we shake them around a bit. This is our proposal for changes, and I would very much like your feedback on them.

The proposed changes

• We rename the the In Production group to Future Anarchy, and merge the In Progress and Envisioned forums into one forum named Suggestions. This because the two forums really don't serve their purpose very well, and you players should have a proper place to post and discuss suggestions.
• We merge the two Organisation Politics and Organisation Recruitment forums into one, named simply Organisations, and move this to the Community group. Recruitment is such a central part of organisations that keeping it apart from the rest has no need.
• We also merge the Story, Player Events and In-Character forums into one new forum named Role-Playing, which also will be in the Community group. All the three forums deal with role-playing on Rubi-Ka, and should not need to be separate. We will also very soon have another feature for covering player events.
• The current Role-Playing group is then empty, and will be removed.
• A Player Polls forum will be added under the Community group. This will allow everybody to post polls, but to limit bumping we will disallow replying. Only voting will bump the polls. If you want to discuss the topic, use another forum. (Putting a link between the poll and the discussion is a nice thing.)
• The Bulletin Board forum will be deleted. Suggestions, questions and comments about the bulletin board can be sent to the team by e-mail, or we might add a thread for feedback in the Community Corner forum.
• Everything else remains as it is now.

After these changes the forum list will look like this:

Funcom Official
Funcom Talks About... (threads by Funcom, everybody can reply)
Official Polls (polls by Funcom, no replies)

Future Anarchy
Next Patch
Suggestions

Game-Play
Beginners' Corner
The World of Rubi-Ka
Rubi-Ka 1 Exchange
Rubi-Ka 2 Exchange
PvP Conflict
Game Mechanics
Game-Play Bugs

Community
Community Corner (threads by Funcom Community Team, replying depends on topic)
Role-Playing
Organisations
Player Polls (polls by everybody, no replies)

Professions
Adventurer
Agent
Bureaucrat
Doctor
Enforcer
Engineer
Fixer
Martial Artist
Meta Physicist
Nano Technician
Soldier
Trader

Test Server
Test Server Bugs
Test Server Discussions

Exploits
Exploits (threads only viewable by Funcom and original poster)

Off-Topic
Non-AO Related

So, let us hear what you think. Suggestions are very welcome, and I am sure you have some.

PS: No, we will not add a rant forum or a war forum, so just forget about it.

[__________Thehardway]

If these changes will make it easier for the FC repesentatives to respond I'm all for it.



Otherwise...

Meh........

[_____________n0th1ng]

im all for it

[Hajkster]

Same

[Cz]

Originally posted by Thehardway
If these changes will make it easier for the FC repesentatives to respond I'm all for it.

Oh yes, hopefully they will. They should.

Mainly the idea is to make sure the forums serve their purpose. Having forums for e.g. envisioned changes when the associated page is not updated very often, and the forum is used for other purposes, is kind'a wasted.

And when several forums, including the Envisioned forum, is used for posting player suggestions, we want to simply turn those forums into a place for exactly that.

This again makes us (all of Funcom, not just Community) able to go look for suggestions in that dedicated spot, and also ask for suggestions for the game in that forum, instead of having to roam all across the bulletin board for it. (Not everybody here reads the whole bulletin board like Cosmik does. )

The other changes have similar reasoning behind them. And the purpose of this thread is to see whether our reasoning has holes which you, the users of the forums, can fill.

[Bionitrous]

One note. The Story and Roleplaying are not the same thing. I worry that people will think they have to be in-character or something when discussing the effect of the Story (if it ever reappears) on their characters.

The Story is the Story. It is the tale that FunCom is supposedly going to tell us over the next 3 years.

Roleplaying is Roleplaying. People may roleplay within the context of the Story and infact should the Story ever reappear it will be easier to Roleplay.

However, they are not tied at the hip.

Discussions of the story should be just that. Discussions about the ongoing storyline. Merging this forum into a single Roleplaying forum could give the impression that you want to hide the fact that there has been nothing to discuss regarding the Story since the seemingly random Dust Brigade attacks.

I support all the changes with the exception of merging the Story forum into a unified Roleplaying forum.

[__________LostBoyJim]

I agree with Biotronics here. The storyline is independent of role-playing.

This looks like a move to obfuscate the fact that there has been no storyline.

[______________Barron]

Cz, Im all for the changes too..

However, one thing that has to be done is get more FC involvement on the Profession boards...I dont know if that means hiring a few more folks to help Cosmik wade through everything on them or what, but FC's presence on the profession boards has been hideously lacking of late...

Even if we just get a "Ok, we saw this suggestion/post/whatever and have let the right folks know" kinda reply would go a LOOOONNNNGGG way to helping all the professions not feel so persecuted I think.

Oh yeah, and Im with Bionitrous too...keep the Story and Roleplaying forums seperate. And also try to let us know when/if the storyline is going to be rekindled..it's pretty dead now as it is.

[peterrjg]

Sounds good.

[Lumin]

just make sure you make a backup BEFORE you do any changes .. browsing old threads is amusing sometimes you know

[Downsizr]

Nice changes.

Very happy with Avatars.

Can't wait to see Official Answers back and some regular feedback in profession forums.

Good job.

[Zarrot]

How about breaking the new Organization board into an RK1 and RK2 format like the Exchanges? Since a lot of organizations exist primarilly in one dimension, it would make it easier for players to find an org in their dimension and discuss issues pertaining to their dimesion without having to sift through a bunch of meaningless posts. The boards would be less cluttered and easier to read this way. Just a though...

[______________Barron]

Ooohh..yeah..good idea..it's a total pain in the tuckus trying to figure out which dimension someone is on if they dont say it up front..

[_____________Natelie]

Hi-eeee.

Okay, well i have some very nice and hopefully useful suggestions to make "reading posts" and Organising responses for Funcom more easier and efficient to keep costumers happy, without killing Cosmik, Dai-Galaen and CZ.

I imagined i was a Funcom employee who checkes out all the posts and make simulations of how many replies i could possibly make in 1 houre.

My conclusion: It is impossible to answer suifficient posts to give the costumers a feeling that their being heared.

As for how exhausting it is to read all the posts:
40-50 percent is trolliage.
30 percent of it is suggestive and constructive.
20 percent is entertainment, amusement and irrelevant.

There is no way Funcom can really cover it all up and i'm sure you poeple at Funcom are insulted everyday by these trolls and have better things to do then to just read and read the same suggestion over and over again in many different rude combinations.

SO, this is what i suggest:
We should start politics. We should have "representitives" who speak for the players in a very formal and mature way, with realistic suggestions in constructive ways. These Representitives can then chat with Funcom poeple at IRC or have a meeting with them or simply "chat" on the boards progressively.

Only the VOTED representitives should have the right to reply to a special forum desinged for pure technical AO politics.

There should be a representitive for each profession, and a president who merges all these and makes sugggestions to funcom on how to progressivly better the game without distrupting what Funcom has intended for the game.

These presidents will then post what they have achived/ not achived and update players with what's going on, on the boards to give costumers assurence that Funcom IS actually listening to costumers.

The elected poeple for this job will help CZ, Cosmik and Dai read the posts etc... they will have sub-ordinates who also read the posts and make sensible and To-the-point E-mails to the respresentitives to summarise.

We need a system, only this way will we get things done, unless Cosmik and Co install a microchip into their heads which will make them read 1 post per half a second and type faster then a auto-response machine.

The jobs will be voluntary ofcourse. Unless Funcom decides this is a idea worth undertaking, and actually pays representitives to boost up the moral.

What do u guys think? =)

P.S. The voting system is VERY simple: Have costumers make nominations at a "bumper" post and then u guys at FC can make a poll-post about the nominees. =)
The Nominees with the most bumps get's to be president/representitives..

- Natelie

[_____________Kirrana]

Way ahead of you their Natelie on the idea of representitives the post below is a link to a meeting about a player council I am setting up. The council will be made up of about 12 people who each will be looking at different aspects of the game from techincal support, trhough to test server issues.

People on the players council will not only review items on the boards but we will have open floor meetings with the players to discuss what they feel are the current problems.

People selected for the council are based on the area of experice and are seen as the pillars of the players community. My hope is that the players council will be able to meet with members of FC perhaps once a month if not maybe once every two months. Also I hope to allow guests to attend the meeting if they have a point or an idea they wish to raise with FC.

While Dai, Cosmik and CZ do a great job I feel its a bit different playing for real, the aspects raised on the boards do often not reflect the issues felt in game. Also the idea of the council is to make FC more accountable to the players. But the aim of the council is to form a partnership with FC not just to commicate the players feelings but to also work with FC to proved solutions.

I am still waiting for an offical response to the idea of the player council but I do hope to extend the memebers to include 1 person from each proffesion to put there case forward with issues with the class.

http://forums.anarchy-online.com/sho...0&pagenumber=1

I really do hope FC agree to this, it is clear right now things are not working out the way they should be (ie the dead storyline). I believe the way to fix this is to create a stronger link with the players and FC and I see the council as the best way to do this.

Kirrana

[_______________Intra]

"We rename the the In Production group to Future Anarchy, and merge the In Progress and Envisioned forums into one forum named Suggestions. This because the two forums really don't serve their purpose very well, and you players should have a proper place to post and discuss suggestions. "

as long as that discussing of suggestions is not just amongst ourselves then I will be happy.

Players dont come here to make suggestions and discuss them amongst them selves, we want to be able to discuss them with you, find out what you think of them and why.
see where you think the limitations of a suggestion are and why so we know how to improve them or how you guys think about the game.

as it is the players are making suggestions and discussing it amongst themselves and see the game going one way, and then it goes in a completely other direction. and that is when the fuss is kicked up.
it would solve alot of problems if there was open, honest communication

especially on proffession and suggestion boards

[Dhurdahl]

Briliant changes!!

This would make it much more clear where to post and look for info for us and FC.

And thanks for the info about the team, many havn't had that info before!

Thanks!

[_____________Natelie]

WTG Kiranna. =)

I hope ur party does a good job.
It's REALLY good to see poeple really doing things about it and i agree with Intra.

If Funcom responds to this, i am going to be the happiest Rubican citizen on the planet. =)

Tho, Cosmik really rules for opening this forum. It really ups the moral of the players.

*Cheers*

[_____________Natelie]

Oh they already did answer what i wanted to hear......
*Dances happily*

About "filling the blanks":

Nerfs i guess have to be implemented harshly. Nerfing the Freedom Arms..for an example is taking a lolipop away from a baby, but it's just needed to save the baby's teeth.

That doesn't stop trolls from invading the new channels tho, because it is human nature to resent things, when life is made "harder" for them. Hard to get use to...

Thus making the new channels exactly as hard to read.

This is why I believe Kirrana should get some support for what she is doing.

Tho if the message boards are working and all players are civilised and productive, then great.. perfect. All we need is Funcom's smile and reply and wallah. Welcome to Rubi Ka. =)

Just my point of view. Things are going well as they r ATM, because FC is doing something bout the communciation issue.
Only time will tell... *Jumps excitedly*
=)

And now i'ma go play my MA, rest assured. No more feeling "hopeless", no more wondering if Funcom cares, because now i know: They do.

[_____________Natelie]

So sowwy for flooding the boards with me all over it..but just one ubber-last-thing...

Check out "Open letter to COSMIK, CZ and GAUTE.", by Gummizluv at "In production> In progress"

Go near the end of the thread.

Trust me... u wanna see this. =)

I might seem like a total fan-girl now, but i'm just excited is all.

That's all for today... heh *waves*