No one can deny that CCP is repeating work on game systems they've previously designed, released, and found problems with GÇô problems that in most cases were quickly identified and repeatedly brought up by the community throughout the beta period. There's also no denying that the need to rework any part of a product usually means that time and manpower was wasted initially. We're now seeing CCP fix many of these gameplay issues, but if they do not fix the core community engagement problems that allowed those issues to take root in the first place, we'll find ourselves back in the same unhealthy place time and time again.

This isn't to say there aren't a few shining examples of teams working to improve this situation. A few have stepped forward and taken full advantage of the feedback process, and have shown marked improvements in their area of the game. As a result, they become instantly beloved by the community. A few have worked with the CPM and taken feedback from our meetings to heart, coming back to us with massively improved results. However, we simply cannot afford to leave this up to individual efforts. Communication needs to be both standardized and endorsed by management as a "standard operating practice", and applied consistently across the entire development structure..

A proper, standardized communication platform should consist of the following minimum critical elements: Patch notes no later than a week in advance of a release, dev blogs for the major feature changes that require the most explanation, and stickied forum posts with follow-up participation from devs for upcoming feature changes that have yet to reach code freeze. The first two elements of this communication platform have begun to fall in place, but the third is sorely lacking, and it continues to create an unnecessary backlog for designers and unnecessary toxicity for the community teams to manage. Players consistently find stickied forum posts insulting if they're posted up after the time has passed when anything can be changed before a release, as if their opinions are being asked for only as a token gesture.

Balancing passes deserve special consideration here, because we've consistently heard that balance work is not tied to a code freeze, theoretically being something they could iterate much more rapidly on than other systems. Unfortunately, we've also seen resistance to using this powerful tool. Either way, there is enormous potential here being squandered. If CCP can indeed make more subtle balance adjustments on a week-to-week basis, until they hit a "sweet spot", then this should be done.

If for whatever reason this isn't viable (and they choose instead to include all balance work in a monthly 1.X release) than the same standard should be applied for other feature changes GÇô proposed balancing work (including all affected stats) need to be posted and discussed prior to code freeze. This is the communication standard that CCP has set for itself elsewhere in the company, and the standard that the community expects out of Shanghai as well, especially where balance is concerned. CCP can draw upon their own experience with Eve Online to examine the incredible progress that can be achieved with proper communication and community involvement when making balance adjustments.

In the end, we're all in this together. CCP has at its disposal hundreds, if not thousands of players who are able, willing, and ready to do whatever it takes to help improve Dust 514, asking no more from CCP than a chance to participate. The deep levels of interaction between player and developer have been one of the keys to the success of Eve Online that has earned CCP the devout following they have gathered over the past decade. This success is something CCP needs strive to emulate with Dust 514 to foster that same strong relationship with their customers, encouraging them to keep playing and spending money for years to come.

In the meantime, there is no sense in sugarcoating either the fact that the community's patience is at an end, and the attitude problems that have created the current situation remain unchanged. We request, again, that someone in management step up and take public responsibility for ensuring consistent communication moving forward GÇô for the health of the game, and the health of the community. Swift action is necessary in order to successfully convince the community that their participation is still necessary and relevant to Dust 514's future.

At the time of this writing, a very loose commitment has been given to better involve the CPM more closely in planning stages, but we want to impress upon CCP the severity of the larger communication problems and trust issues at hand. Without substance or detail, a simple pledge to communicate more often is frankly not good enough to dissipate our fears and concerns. As a council, we cannot afford to sit idle without hearing concrete plans to for improvement. We are told that there are meetings in the works to form such plans,and we look forward to hearing from CCP regarding this and working with them to create a solid foundation moving forward.

Thank you for your time and consideration,

The members of the Council of Planetary Management

The CPM are our "elected" officials, they represent the voice of the community. They need to have just as much say in the development of this game as anyone on the dev team.
The dev teams needs to eat their own dogfood / live their own code. They don't but the CPM does, thats why they need a say.

A fair enough point.

This is part of the reason we call ourselves CPM0, and not CPM1. But, ask yourself this ; Isn't the core part of the infrastructure, the process by which the CPM interacts with CCP? Establishing a voting process right now would be entirely meaningless, because CPM1 would just have to trudge through all same the roadblocks we're trying to clear for them. There has been progress, albeit slow in regards to setting up procedures that allow us to communicate, but many of these processes are not being used by CCP as well as they could be, which is yet another roadblock.

That being said... any player could say exactly what we have collectively drafted as a group and posted in the OP. Most of it is observations that any outside observer could make. It's simply a statement of how things are, since the information chain & feedback process is the integral function of the CPM institution, and people need to know where it stands.

This is pretty much an accurate summation of the current situation with the game. But what the CPM and CCP are having to deal with is that poor decisions made two years ago are still having a ripple effect within the game and have slowed the pace of development within it.

Uprising 1.2 should've been the beta build first released to us for evaluation, so by my reckoning this game is roughly 1 year behind where it should be. There has been a catalogue of errors in design judgement made by CCP and left in the game too long before fixing and compounding other problems in later builds.

Without exception, every one of these mistakes could've been prevented with faster communication and feedback to the players in the forums, an actionable plan drawn up with a publicly accessible and regularly updated roadmap for the game on the forums, much like the one for Planetside 2.

I find it encouraging however that in recent weeks there seems to be a increase in community interaction from some members of the Dev team (no need to name them, we all know who they are) and this seems to be spreading to other members of the team as they begin to see the benefits of player feedback earlier in the design phase.

The move that CCP have made that gives me real hope and a raises my opitislm is that CCP Flying Scotman is now in Shanghai and part of the Dust team. With one of CCP's most senior designers now in place we should see a real change in the pace of development of Dust. But the positve effects of him being over there is unlikely to bear real fruit until 1.5/.6, so I would ask the players to give him a little time to get settled and see what changes he has to make before giving him any static.

That said however CCP should still be free to come up with ideas and plans without feeling that they should check with the CPM and community for EVERY design choice. It gets dangourously close to design by committee which is never a good thing and I believe goes slightly beyond the remit of the CPM should that end up being the case. CCP should bring in comment from the CPM and by extension the community after preparatory work is done on a feature but BEFORE resources are committed to actioning them. That way a healthy balance is struck and CCP can save time and money if the CPM can tell them that it needs more more work or if there is a problem with it.

Now, there are a number of players still out there who think that statements like this are not what CPM0 should be doing and all they should only be concerned with coming up with a way to elect CPM1.

They're entitled to that opinion but I feel that they have missed the point of CPM0 entirely. There is little point in coming up with an election plan if by the time that elected body starts their term, they're being stonewalled by a undifined process of communication and protocol for dealling with CCP. CPM1 should be able to start work on day one of their term doing what they're going to be elected to do without having to discuss who and how they should be talking to to get something done.

As someone who has decided to stand to for CPM1 when the time comes (and yes, that time will come naysayers) I'm incredibly grateful for the work that CPM0 have done so far and glad CCP didn't pick me for the gig. I would've had to say no anyway. Getting DUST University up, running and stable was something that I felt would be a better contribution for me to make to the game in the long run. Particularly as the game has zero NPE at this point, something I will be pushing very hard for should I get elected.

As to the calls from some, for CCP to start again, well thats just impracticable at this point. 18 months ago it would've have been viable once details of the next gen consoles were known (one of those ripple effect decisions I spoke of earlier) but now it would be the death of Dust.

So broadly speaking I support this statement from the CPM and the recent posts since from members of the CPM since its posting regarding conversations that they've had with CCP is encouraging and seems to have lit a fire under Shanghai.

Get your priorities right Buster. The last thing we need is any interruption to the processes being created as they are now.

And no, it's not a given that an elected body with zero experience of these things would be able to work 'just as effectively' as CPM0 are at this stuff. It's not even what CPM1 should be doing and definitely not what many would be signing up for or being voted in to do if there were elections today.

Because the whole point of our statement was to highlight the areas where CCP needs to improve their working relationship with the CPM, to bring it to the level that everyone's come to expect from the CSM over the years. In other words, they're NOT using us anywhere near as effectively as they could. Replacing us with elected individuals won't magically make CCP integrate us into their development process anymore than they do now. It just means you'll have a new CPM who's make-up will largely be determined by a popularity contest, that still has all the same challenges ahead convincing CCP to work with them. And depending on the individuals elected, CCP may be more or less willing to respect their feedback (After all, the players could elect trolls or large alliance leaders that may or may not have the capability of remaining professional and effective in a time of crisis).

In other words, if there's no working, established, functional CPM body to begin with (with a structured way that CCP engages them regularly, and proof that this process is working to get player feedback considered by the devs in a timely fashion) elections may very well be a step backwards, not forwards.

If you elected a body of individuals who are entirely clueless as to what their CPM duties are how things are done and how to talk to CCP to work with them it would be a step backwards because they can easily be just as hostile as the IRC is and any attempts to talk to the CPM by CCP or vice versa could be an entirely unproductive process, nearly undo the entire process that CPM 0 has been trying to set up and possibly severely damage damage the CPM 2 and beyond. What if all of CPM1 decided to screw the NDA and release things without approval? getting fired and all.

There are many way to represent players as a whole though the best deal though is good amounts of varying opinions and coverage of ideas. Just because one individual may think the flaylock may be in good place, doesn't mean that it is yet that doesn't invalidate his representation of players who also feel the same way whatever their reasons are.

Politics aside the players elected should only be entering the election process with the best intentions in mind, I wonder how many of those people who were also vetted when the War Council was first brought up that are no longer with us today? Or those that called for replacement of members before and after the term started? What sort of credibility those people have now? Trust me whatever reasons they have left for, had they been in the CPM then they would have left much sooner than that.

The CPM is not fun and games, it consumes a crud ton of time, can keep you up late at night just typing away and making reports. Waking up at odd hours just to make a meeting or getting personal contact with members of CCP and takes serious amounts of dedication more so than the hardcore players who are tipping over 20 million just now, and this is just trying to interact with CCP alone, interacting with the community is nearly just as humongous in time consumption and most of the work done within the CPM will be thankless, silent victories, and secreted wins that individual or the entire CPM will never be credited for. Some victories to which may not bear fruit well until after that council is dismissed for end of term.

CPM 0's job is to ensure that CPM 1 will not be the LAST CPM elected and rushing to getting those guys elected now would almost guarantee that.

Once again Buster, if you're so committed to the idea that we're not representing the player base via our recommendations to CCP, put some effort into it, start a thread and state your case using linked, verifiable examples. Otherwise you're going to continue to look fairly silly ranting about repression, dictatorships and government - the last of which (government) is hugely indicative of your lack of understanding about our mission in the first place. The CPM does not exist to govern anything, really. We're a volunteer community advocate group. Ultimately, its the community that gets to decide whether we advocate for their needs, not just you. If the feedback to your comments in this thread is any indication than its pretty clear that you are the one that is out of touch with the majority here, not the CPM.

Thanks to everyone else in the meantime for keeping the discussion focused and constructive.