Star Trek Online Advisory Council Formed

[Rekhan]

We're happy to introduce the Star Trek Advisory Council, where we speak to members of the Star Trek and Star Trek Online community to learn more about what our fans want from the game. Read on to learn more.

Link to the news article.

[ChargerIIC]

Soooo...we are giving a small number of fans greater input than the rest of us because......

[Cost]

Ugh, you have to be careful with these sorts of things. You're mostly going to hear from the noisy minority, as the majority of players will be in-game... Not on those sites, or on these forums.

Will they actually pay attention to what's going on in-game? Hard for me to tell. All I can say is, don't go saying things like [example removed to avoid starting a debate] again that are just not quite the truth.

If you really want to get in touch with your playerbase, put something in the game that they can't miss, but won't be a pest. Something like a single yes/no/unsure/don'tcare question every once in a while.

[Edgecase]

Originally Posted by ChargerIIC

Soooo...we are giving a small number of fans greater input than the rest of us because......

Presumably they're responsible for filtering and distilling the chatter down into a Cryptic-usable form.

I know it says these are the charter members and more will be added, but I see three U.S.S. names and one "Starfleet"... Klingons gonna have a fit again.

[shikamaru317]

Originally Posted by Rekhan

We're happy to introduce the Star Trek Advisory Council, where we speak to members of the Star Trek and Star Trek Online community to learn more about what our fans want from the game. Read on to learn more.

Link to the news article.

So, do we need our own website to join, because all of the current members have one? Is this something we can all join, or what's the deal? I'd love to give my feedback for the game. I am very dedicated to doing so, which is why I made the Comprehensive List of Suggestions that can be found in my Sig.

[The.Grand.Nagus]

Absolutely TERRIBLE idea. Every paying customer of this game deserves EQUAL say, and creating some "player council" means you are giving the people who are on it MORE say than those who arent. No one speaks for me but MYSELF, and the same goes for every other member of the community. If you want player feedback, you should get it through official polls and surveys where EVERY member of the community can give their input, not some elite few. The people who are on that council do not represent ANYONE but themselves, and they never will.

I can accept the fact that the game was launched too early, because that may have been out of your control. What I CANT accept is you giving a handful of players more of a say in what happens to this game than the rest of the community. What makes it even worse is the fact that you completely IGNORED the wishes of your playerbase when this idea was proposed a week or so ago and it recieved an overwhelmingly negative response from the community. This is literally the biggest BLUNDER you have made thus far, and if I didnt have a LT sub I would probably cancel because of this outrage.

*edit*

Tell Cryptic exactly what you think here:

Should STO have a player council?

[Sir_James_of_Cadiz]

i think the idea is great. but i also think there should be one rep from EVERY fleet in the council.

[Askarr]

Interesting - what's the aim here? Condense feedback? Expand the number of people looking at discussions about the game (effectively a volunteer service)? Just some people's opinions? The article is a little light on details e.g. do these people meet? how often? with specific aims? or specific remits?

I'm leery of giving specific people power over the game that effectively silences portions of the playerbase they personally disagree with. How do you intend to combat this?

I'm intrigued by the implication that the council goes beyond STO players to the wider Star Trek community (which is fairly diverse in its strongly held opinions ). I am presuming the focus would be on the question of 'is item X sufficiently Star Trek?' rather than gameplay details?

The above is a lot of questions, so if I had to pick one for you to answer: why exactly is this superior to repeated surveys of the entire playerbase?

Potentially good stuff - it'll be interesting to see how this evolves.

[Eagledraco]

We've been suggesting you use in-game polls since closed beta. Instead, we now have a few "ambassadors" that are supposed to represent the player base? Zinc already said STO is a polarizing game and now you've thrown player politics into the mess. Bad move in my opinion.

[Sir_James_of_Cadiz]

out of those four listed, three are very commercial sites.
they would therefore have a possibility to increase sales and/or donations based on this fact alone.

not sure i like this now. ive stood up for cryptic many times, but i really think this is overboard with who you have picked.

so now your advertising a site, they are advertising a stie and now get free revenue from sales or donations. meanwhile, true fans and other fleets dont get a say cause they are not as commercailized on thier sites...