SWG gets a Galactic Senate, we get Community Managers?
by Elizabeth Harper 
Jul 24th 2007 at 6:38PM
And what can a senator do? They get to vote on "legislation" proposed by the SOE community team and can "request a redress of issues by the development team." Very nice -- and an interesting implementation of direct player interaction with the development team. In World of Warcraft, I suppose the system does work similarly -- enough reasonable player complaints on on the forums will get the attention of the CMs who will be able to bring up issues with the developers. And with SOE selecting the senators, they may have no more overall influence than our own forum posters.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Rich Jul 24th 2007 7:07PM
SOE always had stuff like like that. They had their "Scout" program, which were players that worked with the developers to deal with story issues and work to create more community based events and ties. They had the Scout program in EQ and variants of it in SWG and MxO.
There was some serious NDA paperwork that went with it, since it was enabling players access to things the normal player base had. They were going to implement it in MxO and make their "Live Event Special Interest Group" a little more tight lipped after some pretty bad leaks popped up.
RogueJedi86 Jul 24th 2007 7:20PM
I used to play SWG, and the Galactic Senate doesn't too different from the old correspondents program they had. That said, it'd be nice if WoW had something. But with the fierce division among Paladins(both of the 3 Talent specs, and the 2 factions playing them), it'd be hard to pick a single Player Representative for some classes. Having a Lore representative would be nice though, nothing too bad there.
But keeping in mind, you couldn't have the Player Representatives discussing anything behind closed doors(in this case restricted forums). SWG's Correspondents had that for a long time, and it caused a lot of distrust among the players, afraid their concerns weren't being voiced behind the closed doors.
But if done right, it'd work, but there's no sense making it into a major deal, or our hopes would get too high for something relatively minor.
Wena Jul 24th 2007 9:14PM
This reminds me of another game named "A Tale in the Desert" where laws are discussed extensively on their forums and put up for Voting at various voting booths.
Also, in the same game, there were extensively campaigning done to become a Demi-Pharaoh. But there's only so much one can do in-game as a "leader" outside of guild development. Community Development sounds nice but when it comes down to it, there's really not much them as leaders can do to alter a person's game environment other than style of gameplay. Player disputes are extremely hard for them to settle.
finalforeman Jul 24th 2007 9:40PM
I miss this game and would gladly try a re worked sequal, for now wow is king though.
DrunkenPandaren Jul 25th 2007 12:28AM
I don't care what you say, but SWG was awesome Pre-NGE.
Tool Jul 25th 2007 12:43AM
Genius, get players to (picked by SOE) to chose "legislation" to take pressure off SOE it's self and on to other players (senate).
I call the gloom and doom card.
RogueJedi86 Jul 25th 2007 1:46AM
One has to admit that SWG did a few things right. WoW's talent system is just an imitation of SWG's original skill-based class system. And the sad thing is, SWG's NGE added an Expertise system that copied WoW's talent system, which itself did copy SWG's original skill/class system.
fbp Jul 25th 2007 6:31AM
@7
WoW's talent system copied Diablo 2's skill point system, the one with synergies more so than anything else.
I see what you mean though, but I really find them more dissimilar than similar. The thing I don't like is in SWG you could be a competent healer and fairly competent in DPS or tanking. But that game is a nightmare design project that never got completed and I rather not think about.