I was going to post this in the Complaints Forum, but I thought it might do just as well here, seeing as the last few comments have touched upon the subject of my own.

First off: I think PlaneShift is great. Congratulations to everyone who has worked on it. With that being said, I see lots of room for improvement.

In my opinion, the most glaring defect in the overall development strategy is a lack of clear communication and mutual cooperation in the community which leads to a split between the development team and the player group. As I see it, the development team is trying to manage PS as though it were a finished product, probably in the belief that such behavior is in the best interests of the player community. In my opinion, this is an extremely counterproductive position.

Everyone who downloads PS is a potential tester. Yet they are not being recognized as such. They are neither given sufficient documentation to do the job of testing, nor are they given direction or task lists to help with the project. They are kept largely in the dark regarding what goes on 'behind the curtain', and a result, their feedback ranges from inadvertently useful to a complete waste of time for those who bother to reply to it.

Why is the general player base being alienated from the process of participating in the development of the game? Why isn’t more being done to gather information from players? Why isn’t the potential represented by the player community towards moving the project ahead being maximized? Why is the development of the project being hidden behind closed doors when this is supposed to be a community effort? Why aren’t specific project lists being made public with suggestions as to how players can help? Why isn’t active recruiting going on for members to help with specific development-related tasks?

I know there is a bug-tracker database. But as far as I can tell, players are invited to send in information related to any bug they detect from anywhere in the game. Doesn’t that seem rather undirected and perhaps even counterproductive? Why aren’t we focusing on specific areas as a group and working in concert to attain bug-free zones and then slowly expanding them? Why aren’t we actively requesting that ideas and possible solutions for current problems or areas of development be sent in for review?

As a long-time member of other open-source volunteer projects, I have witnessed first-hand that those projects which have strategies encouraging initiative among users, viewing them all as potential contributors, are the most successful ones. Those that put restrictions upon knowledge regarding the project, upon who can contribute, when and in what form either fail generally or stagnate to the point of becoming non-growth enterprises.

I would love to help with this project in any way I could, but I don’t feel qualified for any of the positions being offered in the development team. I think many others feel the same way. I am a fairly creative person, and I’m full of ideas. I’m also willing to learn new skills if it means helping the project. But I just don’t see any open channels for interacting with the development team in an efficient and productive manner.

I would like to see more effort go into:

• Maintenance of the forum. Forum maintenance is vital for a project like this. Old threads need to be gone through, their valuable information collected, and then deleted. More how-to’s need to be posted and then kept up to date.
  
  
• Coordinating community involvement. Having 10 people testing the same area or NPC at the same time has to be better than having 10 people testing 10 different areas. Create a section of the forum where this kind of information is readily available to people so they can participate in improving PS.
  
  
• Inviting community participation. Instead of letting people post their wishes 'blind', it would seem more efficient to let people comment and make suggestions on specific areas of development which are currently being considered by the development team. Use the player community as a source for ideas and suggestions at the appropriate time.
  
  
• Discarding the notion of "spoilers". I know this is a touchy subject for the development team, but frankly, the idea of there even being such a thing as "spoilers" for a game in development is counterproductive. Testers cannot do their job unless they have all the information they need. In this phase of the project, that information which could be considered subject to "spoiling", e.g. the quests, is really secondary. The primary issue is making sure that the mechanical side of the game really works and is bug-free. Once that is established, then secrecy is called for during the creation of new quests which build upon the tried and true mechanical base. As it stands, I think "spoilers" should be available to anyone willing to work as a tester.
  

Well, I didn't mean to imply that I asked every single NPC - hence the word "seems". As the quest requires I get these from someone, I'm pretty sure that there is at least one other NPC who knows what they are. The problem is, the hint as to who that NPC is was also less than ideal in terms of clarity.

With that being said, confirmation that some other NPC knows is encouraging. Perhaps I let myself be led off in the wrong direction. I'll redouble my efforts and try again. (Perhaps spending 2 hours with Zak in the dungeons beneath Hydlaa has me a bit frazzled. I apologize if I came across as pessimistic or anything.)

Thanks.

What I really don't understand is how he can say that the game "sucked so much ass" and also claim that terms like "epic fail" and "we owned you" are off limits.  Khad has really discredited himself on this one; seriously I was expecting something more funny.

Apparently, Khad considers everything up for a hearty slagging except SA. 

The stereotypical "avatars" bit was a nice attempt at snaching a win from the gaping jaws of fail. (I admit, the one he used for UtM made me chuckle. Mine, on the other hand, was so utterly ironic that Khad quickly had me once again laughing at him instead of with him.) Too little, too late, I'm afraid.

[Is the rogue going to be able to make a statement detailing the reasons behind his actions? We know he wanted his brothers released from prison, but precious little besides that.]

I'm all for a good roasting now and then. But at least make it creative. This came across to me, not as "How bad does this suck?", but rather as "How lame can we act in-game and get away with it?". You can read their research thread here: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=2919963

Btw, I agree with LigH: a real "non-starter". 

Perhaps I should start up a "scientist guild" to go around examining the nature of Yliakum reality and reporting all anomalies (on the bug tracker.) It would be a kind of in context explanation for out of context activities. "yes ..I am repeatedly jumping up onto this box because I have detected that there is something quite abnormal about it and I am trying to ascertain its essence to publish in the Journal of Yliakum science" or "yes I am baking this sword on the grill because I am trying to understand the process that cause it to turn to gunk." It could be doubly rewarding. Perhaps the GMs would be tickled into designing an event around my guilds activities.

Why not? We know that PS is an evolving world. And our characters must also realize it to some degree. Quirks, bugs and developments in the game - such as the addition of a new map, a new NPC, etc. - can not go entirely unrecognized by our characters. I see no harm in finding creative ways to explain certain out of context activities and/or realities in the context of our characters and their settings. For example, the quarantine in Ojaveda is a great in context explanation for the out of context reality regarding the areas beyond the currently playable ones. Being able to explain to a newcomer that a part of the city is "under quarantine" is a lot more interesting for RP than having to jump out of character and tell them [it hasn't been implemented yet]. Of course, we could RP our way around many things, but this is a 3-D RPG, and as such, the built environment is one of the characters. Otherwise, we could go back to playing table-top pen-and-paper or card-based RGPs and have the same experience.

To get back to the main topic: I would think having official or municipal guilds/occupations would be a common desire for both PLers and RPers. PLers should experience some small though noticable advantage in joining an official guild and "leveling IC" - for example, official guilds could have access to information and/or resources that would otherwise be very difficult to obtain. And the RPers in such guilds should be able to incorperate such behaviour into their own RP as they go about managing the life of their guild. In the real world, people joined guilds for various reasons - some to get rich and/or powerful quickly, some to experience and enjoy comradery among like-minded individuals, some to give their lives purpose in a grander scheme. People will play PS for various reasons, and official guilds could be one way to bring people with different interest together and have them cooperate towards common goals.

Regarding the 'reward' issue: In my opinion, RP is self-rewarding. That implies, however, that I am going to regard any situation or event that allows me to experience a wider variety of RP as a "reward" in itself. As far as I can tell, both Dreamcrafter and Mythryndel would agree with me. From my perspective - as a player who likes both leveling up and role playing - official, municipally sanctioned guilds would offer a great way to combine both of those interests.

Right now I am focused on questing in order to gain as much knowledge as I feel necessary to RP with others at a level which satisfies me personally. I'm gaining lots of experience points, and will start training specific skills soon. But I RP often, typically in combination with some task or quest I need to accomplish. My Kran was practically born with a pickaxe in his hand, and he would love to join the geological survey department of a miners guild. 

Farren Kutter,

Very nice tip! That is a great work-around for what I was worried about.

I guess I should have thought of that myself... 

Thanks again!

-B.

Mythryndel,

Thanks again. The thread you posted to is a good one to have handy for new players. 

Do other people notice any problems with "dialogue jumble"? If it happens, do you ignore the jumble and go with the last coherent statement, repeating if necessary? (I noticed this worked well with one player in the Temple in Hydlaa.) Is this just something that works itself out with time in this community? Am I thinking/worrying too much about this?