New PlaneShift SkunkWorks Department: Recruiting

[Eliseth]

PlaneShift SkunkWorks Department

The PlaneShift project has always prided itself on being free and open source, open for anyone to contribute to. The reality is, however, that many players don’t really believe that it is. For a portion of the playerbase, the project seems closed to a large extent and not very open to community contributions.

The forum wishlist is full of excellent ideas, ideas which, unfortunately, often get lost in between all the not-so-good ideas. This makes players feel extremely discouraged because it appears as though their voices are not being heard.

The fact of the matter is that although we have very good ideas, the development team simply does not have the time to develop as well as sort through the masses of ideas to arrive at a workable plan.

It’s time to take action! In an attempt to remedy this age old problem, a new department has been launched and is now looking for team members. The PlaneShift Skunkworks department, based on the well known skunkworks project, initial brainchild of Lockhead (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skunkworks_project), will be responsible for bridging the gap between players and developers.

This team will run independently from the rest of the team, allowing them to think completely out of the box, away from coding restrictions, away from the cans and cannots unintentionally imposed by the dev team.

Skunkworks are a group of free thinkers, their job is to hear what the players want and to put it into a workable solution that the dev team can run with.

We are now looking for creative thinkers to help in this endeavour. In order to qualify for this team, you need to be at least 18 years of age (exceptions can be made if appropriate maturity is displayed by the applicant) and you must have an adequate amount of in-game experience.

To apply for a position please send me a PM with the following attached:

PlaneShift SkunkWorks Application Letter

Thank for attempting to join the SkunkWorks, please fill in the following questions truthfully.

Please provide the following details:
  - Full name:
  - Age:
  - Main character name:

How long have you been playing PlaneShift?

What makes you a fit candidate for this team?

If you could be any fruit, what fruit would you be and why?

Open comment section:


Thank you for taking the time to fill in these questions, your application will be considered carefully and we will contact you as soon as we possibly can.

If your heart is telling you to go for this, I urge you to apply. I look forward to a bright new future for PlaneShift.

Regards
Eliseth

[Overtherainbow]

  - Full name: Overthe Rainbow
  - Age: At least 100
  - Main character name: Timmothy Perriwinkle

How long have you been playing PlaneShift?
Like 3 years or something.

What makes you a fit candidate for this team?
Everyone loves me because I'm awesome and also cute and they like me, also.

If you could be any fruit, what fruit would you be and why?
What if I already am? Is that homophobia? Are you saying that people can't be fruits? Is that against the Planeshift community policy?

Open comment section:
I like things.

[verden]

If you could be any fruit, what fruit would you be and why?

This seems similar to that one logon message in the client, something about the "computer needing to be on to enjoy PlaneShift."

I know stuff like this seems cute, but it gives a completely and totally wrong impression to people who are reviewing the project.

[Eliseth]

OTR... Clearly the most obvious candidate. Though learn to follow instructions. I said PM, not reply.

Verden, for you maybe. This question is actually there for a reason, if you can't answer it, then the skunkworks department is not for you. Lesson to all, do not judge a book by its cover. I've had applicants already who have taken it as seriously as any other question, which tells me a lot more about the applicants than they realise.

[verden]

People will continue to judge things by their first impressions no matter how many polite requests they get not to do so. Its simply human psychology, its not rational. Not that it really matters to me...

[Sarras Volcae]

obviously you wouldn't make the cut, verden. picky, picky! besides, they might be trying to avoid people like you described.

i would sign up if i weren't so lazy. or busy. or whatever. i'm so busy that i'm too lazy to do anything but bizzyness.  

[Talad]

This is really a great initiative ! 

I think organized player feedback will be the best way to see some wishes fulfilled, and to improve the game.

Please use our pswiki as base of operations, so any other player can access it and read what you guys will be up to. Avoid using any closed or password protected system or forum.

If you need anything from me, let me know.

Let's improve PlaneShift together! 

[Illysia]

This is really a great initiative ! 

I think organized player feedback will be the best way to see some wishes fulfilled, and to improve the game.

Please use our pswiki as base of operations, so any other player can access it and read what you guys will be up to. Avoid using any closed or password protected system or forum.

If you need anything from me, let me know.

Let's improve PlaneShift together! 

Please… it was done earlier and you were not so happy and interested with it. However, I do think people that still enjoy playing the game should try to help as the game is desperate need of it. What’s wrong with it is far more than putting stuff somewhere other than on a wiki which Talad feels he understands better or something. You can still openly read the other stuff without a password Talad, you just don’t want to.

[lilura]

Please… it was done earlier and you were not so happy and interested with it. However, I do think people that still enjoy playing the game should try to help as the game is desperate need of it. What’s wrong with it is far more than putting stuff somewhere other than on a wiki which Talad feels he understands better or something. You can still openly read the other stuff without a password Talad, you just don’t want to.

Actually to me he seemed happy and interested in it - as much as his limited time allowed.  The earlier group wasn't too terribly organized. Hopefully Eli's group will be a little bit more organized and it probably wont fizzle out because its being lead by someone who is willing to give it enough time to start working. Sure the first proposal (the bulletin board proposal) of the earlier group didnt quite work out but then we were also working on suggestions to improve the tutorial and you kinda just left it right in the middle. Some weeks later I took what we had brainstormed and put it on the PS wiki and poked Talad about it, he seemed interested and glad some players took the time to put some ideas together. Now, as far as I know Eliseth is working through the ideas for the tutorial - by Talads request.  

However, I do think people that still enjoy playing the game should try to help as the game is desperate need of it.

 

[Illysia]

We'll see Lilu... we'll see. However, part of why I left is getting brushed off a lot. But then again, avoid saying the evil "R" word and all should be fine. Just focus on mechanics and everything might actually be considered. 

[Minks]

Aww, come on. Don't eat the horse before it's dead.

[Catlemur]

Please… it was done earlier and you were not so happy and interested with it. However, I do think people that still enjoy playing the game should try to help as the game is desperate need of it. What’s wrong with it is far more than putting stuff somewhere other than on a wiki which Talad feels he understands better or something. You can still openly read the other stuff without a password Talad, you just don’t want to.

Actually to me he seemed happy and interested in it - as much as his limited time allowed.  The earlier group wasn't too terribly organized. Hopefully Eli's group will be a little bit more organized and it probably wont fizzle out because its being lead by someone who is willing to give it enough time to start working. Sure the first proposal (the bulletin board proposal) of the earlier group didnt quite work out but then we were also working on suggestions to improve the tutorial and you kinda just left it right in the middle. Some weeks later I took what we had brainstormed and put it on the PS wiki and poked Talad about it, he seemed interested and glad some players took the time to put some ideas together. Now, as far as I know Eliseth is working through the ideas for the tutorial - by Talads request.  

However, I do think people that still enjoy playing the game should try to help as the game is desperate need of it.

 

It is Talad's.I already applied by the way.

[Talad]

Please… it was done earlier and you were not so happy and interested with it. However, I do think people that still enjoy playing the game should try to help as the game is desperate need of it. What’s wrong with it is far more than putting stuff somewhere other than on a wiki which Talad feels he understands better or something. You can still openly read the other stuff without a password Talad, you just don’t want to.

I'm the one that asked you to organize and expand player events, pointed you to resources and motivated you to expand those. I'm puzzled you say I was not interested in that. About the wiki I think it's the best way to work in a collaborative way on the same content. A forum will be extremely hard to edit and maintain. If you are interested sign up!

[Illysia]

Not to quibble too much on details, but technically I was already working on such things when you asked and you just asked me to help Hanix expand the holidays... This is not what I was referring to, but rather than bore people with a tirade about how much regard the group I was trying to direct got, I'll just wait to pass judgment.

If Eliseth successfully gets everybody on task and gets some good suggestions out then way to go. And if you actually listen and set up plans to implement the ideas, yes I understand there isn't a magic wand that magically implements things, then cool.

My problem is that I doubt your ability to integrate ideas that aren't your own Talad. It's not imposable, obviously, but I can't say that I have much faith that there will be any changes to the game. I figure there will just be more ideas floating around that are doomed to becoming dead ends. Feel free to prove me wrong, I don't mind, but I still have my doubts.

And on a side note: forums are easy, I manged to set up one just fine. however; we used google docs work on things like the bulletin board and tutorial proposals. It works like microsoft Word, which nearly everybody is already familiar with. You might want to consider it as it is very easy to collaborate using it (just tell people up front not to edit something as the person is typing it Looking at you geoni. ). For wikis you have to learn how to format everything. The only advantage I see in a wiki is the automatic revision saves that I think allows you to revert back to an older version if something goes wrong.

[Vakachehk]

Ok nice to see some peoples opinions on this. But I think it's a great idea and if Eliseth can stick with it, I will be very happy to help out, and love to see Illysia and taphan proven wrong.

By the way, as this "Department" is (apparently) completely separate from the rest of the team, does this mean that submissions are not under the Atomic Blue contribution license?

Well it isn't completely separate form the dev team as, they are basically developers, just a group of people with smart thoughts to help further players ideas. What Eliseth was meaning is that you don't need to know coding or blender to be one of them. But I would not know if it would run fully under the ABC license or not