Discussion

[fenderbean]

I fear this kind of open feed back will, get out of control. The best way to figure out what people want is to have a forum for ideas and pick the best and do polls. Dont forget u cannot please everyone, thats SOEs problem they listened to all the babies who wanted to be all powerfull. I will never understand why a 2 or 3 hour player per week thought they should be able to beat a 7day a week power player. I like forums I can view them at work I cant get on IRC much. Just add a forum topic and read/discuss till everyones had there say

[IG-EightyEight]

ive beena member for over a year, but i just recently started posting on this new forum (i think its been up a few months now). But I don't really go on IRC all that much. Is it a big help to be on IRC as well? I am not one who begs for results because I can't imagine the work that goes into this I figure you guys are doing all you can. But If every extra person on IRC helps, i'll be glad to hop on it.

[fenderbean]

yeah I wish i could do more myself, but im no programmer. Only thing I can do is say what a perfect game would be. I can do that on the forum all day

[Jaidden]

I think it's a couple of things:

This is a big one. Lack if updates as to what exactly is being worked on, and how far we are in the process of these things being worked on. A simple post every few days, or once a week on what is going on, problems that are associated with these issues, and what's being done to fix it... Things like this would be a big confidence builder for the community. Not everyone has all day to spend in IRC waiting to get a sliver of information on what's going on.

New members that come here are not greeted with friendliness, but rather ridicule. This goes hand in hand with IRC. If someone asks a question in the wrong channel it's a flaming field day.

I think a lot has to do with the various server sites that have popped up as well. Players seem to spend a good amount of time on the forums and IRC of the server that they will be playing on.

[JDM4000]

I will admit that the treads here are not as many as we would like but look at it this way.

We moved 3 or 4 times and each time we started from scratch with treads. If you look at all the threads and discussions that existed from prior instances of out forum we are really talked out. We know where each of us stands and the various ideas. In some cases we had the same argument several times. In addition, SWG is not without an end. There only exists soo much that can be said.

Hows your day bob?
Good jim, hows your day?
Good bob, hows your day?


Granted we have new threads now and then but we need to come up with ideas that were not said hundreds of times before.

[Jaidden]

Originally Posted by Bloodfin182

Yeah not meaning any offense to anyone, but I think this "problem" (if thats even really what it is) is a direct result of the such strict attitude that was always kind of surrounding the forums. Its definitely much much better now, but on the old forums anyway, you could hardly say/ask anything without fear of flaming or a ban. I think that makes everything intimidating, especially for new members, and almost discourages questions/ideas/etc.

That said, I dont like it more then anybody else when a noob comes in and asks the most stupid questions, when they obivously havent read anything at all.

/agree

No one likes questions that have been answered a million times over, but taking the time to answer the question goes a long way toward building friendliness in the community. Basic rule of thumb is that if you don't have anything nice to say and are not willing to help, keep your opinion to yourself.

[Ramsey]

NOTE:

I have put my time into this and I hope you guys read my responses to your questions. I am trying to spur discussion about how we can improve. Please read!

I read the forums everyday. I don't, however, usually make any posts, because 90% of what I read on the forums are people getting trashed for asking a question.

What do you think the SWGEmu staff can do to better deal with new people or a flow of like 100 questions a day?

One thing I would love to see here as and when applicable, is for the folks who will be running the servers, set up their own threads and/or independent pages/sites, for their specific server. Then we can get a feel for what direction each of them wants to take in principal, then apply ourselves to whichever one or many that we will consider playing on. Instead of what seems so far to be a very jumbled set of ideas and conflict of those ideas

Well the reason we have disabled a forum for this purpose is to hold people back from creating more communties for servers that do not exist yet. Its way to early for a server admin to start a community with no software. A couple weeks before core3 1.0 we'll do something like this and help server admins get started.

One thing that I thought would be fun and informative would be a guided chat like what they used to have at Stratics at the beginning of swg. where moderated questions by smusatto or one of the other admins would be posed to the devs. as long as it is controlled, it could be great. anything you don't want to answer can be ignored, etc.

So mabye having bi-monthly Q/A Sessions? sounds like a good idea.

its not that a new guy comes and just ask any question that makes sense and would need answering. Its the people that are to lazy to just search around the forums abit an overall use there brains. I'm proud to say i have never needed to post a question on here because most or all questions are answered as simple as possible.

I know. That is the reality the staff lives with everyday. Dealing with people that dont search around before posting. However there is nothing we can do, and I guess the best course of action would be to just help people out. No point in fighting human stupidity.

2) Do at least a weekly update on the main page, even if it is just for an itty bitty tidbit of progress or no progress at all, just to let the people who dont have time to get on IRC or check the forums, or perhaps are less proficient in navigating IRC or forums, know what is going on without making them read between the lines for updates or go digging.

This ties into the bi-monthly Q/A sessions. I think its doable, we just have to remember to do it .

4) Find legal ways of getting the word out such as advertising in any means necessary...even if that means putting up fliers in the window of your local Wal Mart. Considering there were over 300,000 SWG players in Pre-CU, someone is bound to see it. This may seem impractical, so why not find legal ways to advertise in gaming magazines or on gaming sites (if at all possible) using donated money? Im sure there are plenty of ways to get the word out that we arnt doing, because I tell probably 1 or 2 Pre-CU players a month about the emu and theyd never even heard of it.

Do you, or anyone else reading this thread, have any experience with advertising small projects like this? I'd love to hear about way's we can premote this project outside of existing members telling their friends.

Is it a big help to be on IRC as well? I am not one who begs for results because I can't imagine the work that goes into this I figure you guys are doing all you can. But If every extra person on IRC helps, i'll be glad to hop on it.

Indirectly, yes. Getting on IRC premotes community by simply forging bonds between community members. Its a live forum. If a group of people are talking in #swgemu, they learn more about each other. Then the next time a particular person replys to a thread on the forum, another person will go "Hey I talked to him/her on IRC the other day, I know how he/she is!".

No one likes questions that have been answered a million times over, but taking the time to answer the question goes a long way toward building friendliness in the community. Basic rule of thumb is that if you don't have anything nice to say and are not willing to help, keep your opinion to yourself.

Agreed. Thats why Ive taken my time and Im trying to make this work.

[Anakis]

There is no point in advertising for the Emu until it's actually released. Why draw lots of people to this site? Most will just get bored and leave because there is no game yet. The community will have no trouble growing once pre-cu returns.

IRC sucks imo for getting information. Unless you can sit there all day staring at the chat, you're not going to find anything when you come home and look at the 100,000 lines of random text that was received while you where at work/school.

Anyway, I'd like to see WEEKLY (minimum) progress updates from the Devs. On the FORUMS/main page, not IRC. Just type a paragraph about what the team is working on, what's been finished recently, what's almost done, what's next, etc.

You're hypocrites for criticizing the community's communication. Regular updates on what you're doing would keep up community interest. I personally don't participate on these forums much, because the Devs only occasionally tell us what they're working on, and all there is for threads are Jedi system ideas and other stuff that's been beaten to death.

Perhaps you could start threads based on what you're working on or will be working on soon and ask for community input on those systems.

Most of the community probably doesn't care much how you guys do it. We just want pre-cu back the way it was, with less bugs and lag. Extra features are only a bonus.

[Jaidden]

Thank you Ramsey, this is the kind of feedback that the community is searching for.

[Ramsey]

Thank you for your input Anakis.

So what I have gathered so far to improve is:
-bi monthly Q/A Sessions.
-Weekly updates.
-Advertisement of project.
-Lenient Moderation.
-Community participation in helping new members.
-Compilation of ways the community can help.

Keep the suggestions coming.

[Samiwan]

Originally Posted by EVILJUDE

no need to apologize for ignorance on that subject. there was a servers list, but it was taken down since core3 is only on the swgemu TC and any other site/server is running the unstable modded core 1. a list of some of the servers/sites out there are at http://www.swgemuservers.com/.

Cool thank you for the link, have registered back with Chimeara.

Am unsure whether am standing with my original stance or not. The impression from what reading I have done, is that the aim is to get the game live, with content as it was 12.1, and that any other content, would be added and or taken away by the host of each server. Hence my thought of shouldn't all ideas be relevant to a specific server, not to Beta, if Beta, scripting, code etc (like I know what those words mean lol), is purely directed at getting ready for launch with 12.1 as was.

Again please excuse ignorance if I am of the mark here.

[kekeoki]

I don't say anything cuz when i do i get flamed.

[Iovid]

I have to agree with Anakis and I do understand why people who don't think before they speak get flamed or banned. I have tried not to meddle in the affairs of the developers so I wont slow them down but if there is anything that I can actually help with I am always more than willing and I wish there was more I could do.

[JDM4000]

**tosses 2 credits in**

Perhaps in place of shunting people to IRC to chat why not to the EMU?

Have a chat tap that works on all planets for group talk like IRC and have any items you guys say show up like the opening text so could know when you guys are active and provide information or whatever you need.

It also allows the flexibility to talk in the group setting and one on one like we are accustomed to in SWG. At the same time would track active participants and help to build community.

After all in IRC you can only type... in SWG you can type but you can also keep yourself entertained by moving around

[Jaidden]

What do you think the SWGEmu staff can do to better deal with new people or a flow of like 100 questions a day?

New player questions are going to come. There is no really good way to deal with new players posting questions, but a week long ban for people that flame a new player asking a question would be a great start.

So maybe having bi-monthly Q/A Sessions? sounds like a good idea.

I'm not even sure a Q/A session would even be necessary. It would be nice, but it takes up a lot of staff time. A post a week or bi-weekly explaining what is being worked on, what we can look forward to in updates, maybe what you may need help with would be more realistic. I know Teweedo is working his tail off on animations. If you want to enlist the help of someone, maybe toss them a PM.

I know. That is the reality the staff lives with everyday. Dealing with people that dont search around before posting. However there is nothing we can do, and I guess the best course of action would be to just help people out. No point in fighting human stupidity.

(See #1) New player questions are going to come. There is no really good way to deal with new players posting questions, but a week long ban for people that flame a new player asking a question would be a great start.

Indirectly, yes. Getting on IRC premotes community by simply forging bonds between community members. Its a live forum. If a group of people are talking in #swgemu, they learn more about each other. Then the next time a particular person replys to a thread on the forum, another person will go "Hey I talked to him/her on IRC the other day, I know how he/she is!".

I agree, but like someone mentioned before, the waving of the ban stick, and the general unfriendliness of some members causes hesitation in getting involved in a discussion.

There are several very mature members of this community that are willing to help if you just ask. It has to be very difficult with the few guys that you have working on this, and moderation of the boards being done by only a few people.

I also want to reiterate that I believe every member of this community appreciates all the hard work that you guys are doing on this project. You fellas have selflessly dedicated yourselves to a monstrous project out of love for a game and community.