Leither Yiltron
Ahrendee Mercenaries
852
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Posted - 2014.03.26 19:23:00 -
[1] - Quote
I find it disheartening that no dev response has been directed to this thread by now. If it wasn't clear a few days ago it should be more than evident now that Spanish and Italian speaking D514 players are hugely dedicated members of the community.
This post here by Logibro has been the primary response: https://forums.dust514.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=1971141#post1971141
In it, he tells us that Shanghai is making budget cuts and that language support is one of the things that's going. And yeah, I think everyone understands that sometimes tough business decisions have to be made. Reading between the lines what you can guess is that all of the GM staff who were assigned to Dust were let go and this group happened to include many of CCP's bilingual GM's. The only languages left over are those supported by Eve; who thinks that all the GM's in Reykjavik got a memo informing them that they'll be taking on Dust 514 support in addition to their usual duties? The point here being that CCP didn't specifically let go people because their associated language group was deemed "too small"- they probably just fired everyone.
I'll eat a hat if there's anyone surprised that Dust's taking some cuts in order to continue development. After all, the community left playing are the die-est of the die-hard. For that exact reason returning support to Dust's launch languages needs to be one of the highest priorities when more funds become available. The Spanish and Italian communities have stuck with Dust despite a growing number of setbacks in development. The grizzled veterans left playing deserve just as much respect from CCP if not more than everyone else. They've supported CCP despite quite a lot of good reasons not to do so, both by playing the game and by buying AUR/packs. CCP owe them that high priority.
Until then I feel like it's our responsibility to keep this issue in the dialog between the community and CCP. Not by spamming the forums, but by keeping it near the top of every list of issues with the game. Every single one. Otherwise it's way too easy for CCP to let it slide and put it off for something that only seems more "mission-critical" because they don't have anyone around who can read the protests to the contrary. Player-retention is the most critical aspect of Dust that needs to be improved. Alienating large swathes of the remaining community is not a step towards that improvement.
Meanwhile, I'd like bolster a request made by others in this topic and direct it towards Logibro and Saberwing. I know you guys don't have much direct decision-making power for this sort of thing, but this issue sharply underscores the need for ISD moderation infrastructure's extension into Dust. Flying had a worry about accusations of bias stemming from this. As far as I know these are nipped in the bud by giving volunteers ISD-only accounts and requiring them to avoid revealing their participation in the program. It's obviously worth the tiny risk of bias and corruption to make a good first impression on new forums members who don't speak English. You can't defend the stance that ANY chance of bias/corruption is unacceptable by this point. CCP made the decisions that have gotten Dust to this point despite the support of the community. If you can't support us for a little while, fine, but at least let us support ourselves.
Have a pony
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