Ask alterintel (my Intergalactic Councilor Stump Speech)

    alterintel

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    I'm running for Councilor term 3... let the fun begin:

    Allot of candidates are posting “Ask Me” threads in their bid to get elected as StarMade Councillors. This is the logical course of action and should be applauded. This is at it’s essence the very reason to be a Councillor. To seek out and bring to light the opinions and thoughts of you, the player base.

    This however isn’t my style. I’m not a very talkative guy. Uncomfortable silences are not uncomfortable for me. I usually don’t speak unless I’m spoken to, or I believe I have something important to say. I’m probably NOT like you guys. I don’t act the same, and I don’t think the same. However, to quote a senator from the movie Gladiator: “I don’t pretend to be a man of the people. But I do try to be a man for the people”. I do love this game, and I want it to be successful. The best way to do that is to get as many people playing it as possible.

    So here are my goals as Councilor if elected:

    1. Recognize more player achievements: We’ve got a lot of good players that have been around for a long time that have contributed allot. They’ve probably got like 10 to 15 badges under their names. They are all well earned and for this we thank you. But you guys cast big shadows. We’ve got allot of new/newer/newish players that also try really hard to help people, and those actions go largely unnoticed.

      I’d like to look into the badge system. I’d like to the see criteria for badges clearly defined and given to as many deserving people as possible. Maybe even make a couple more badges, so that people can be recognized for their efforts in making this a better game.
    2. Allot more competitions and contests: Not only is this the best way to grow the player base, but it's also a really good way of recognizing the people who don't like to get involved in conversations. right now we get maybe 2 or three official competitions a year. I understand that these events take up allot of shine’s time. Time that we all would agree would be better spent on making the game even better.

      I’d like to see the Council organize more competitions. Competitions of all types. PVP, PVE, Builds (big, small, RP, replicas, originals, esthetics, effectiveness, rails, etc…). But Starmade also needs to reach more players. So we could also have other less-direct game related competitions. Such as: Best Screen shots, best animated pictures, best videos, and best how-to instructions. And each competition winner should get a badge as well :)
    3. The Wiki needs work: With all the awesome updates that happen every couple of weeks, it's often out of date, wrong, and incomplete. To encourage people to keep it up to date, I suggest the badges for wiki contributors be tweaked a bit to better match the community content badges.

    I’m not a big talking personality that you’re going to see on the forums all the time. But I’ll be around, listening, helping, and collecting information. I want to be here, for you, furthering your causes. I promise to answer every LEGITIMATE questions i’m asked, and I don’t make stuff up. If I don’t know, I’ll tell you, and then I’ll do my best to get back to you. I will not answer questions like what’s my opinion on PVE vs PVP, because my opinion isn’t important here, yours is. If PVP is important to you, I’ll make sure you’re represented. If you don’t like PVP and would rather stick to PVE, then I’ll make sure you’re represented as well.

    A vote for me is a vote for yourself.
    If you've already voted... don't worry you can change you vote here

    Thanks guys/gals :)

    alterintel
     
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    alterintel

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    cool, 40 views. Hopefully this bump will get me bit more.

    Thanks for reading guys and gals :)
     

    Bogdan

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    Thanks for this. Wasn't absolutely sure what you were standing for, but now I do, you'll be a part of my vote.
     
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    Bogdan

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    1. You mentioned that you want to organise more competitions or at least push for their organisation. Do you not think that this would be difficult as there are not that many servers which could handle major battles or tournaments with say ~40 players on one server battling it out? As I believe the council cannot force a server owner to do something with his server, how would you go about organizing this?
    2. I see countless references to badges
    10 to 15 badges
    the badge system
    couple more badges
    each competition winner should get a badge
    the badges for wiki contributors
    community content badges.
    Of course I am aware that some people believe badges are amazing, and wonderful and pleasing to the eye.....but frankly I do not believe they are a great incentive. In addition, if the way to get a badge is made easier, the symbolic value of having 'a badge' would drop. For reference, I personally would definetly not be inspired to work for say 48 hours on a ship or work for weeks on wiki etc., just for a a badge. I am sure many people who have badges didn't do what they did for the badge. They made awesome builds as they like to build. They improved the wikia because they want to further the community's goals and improve gameplay. Do you not think that some different incentive would be better than a badge?
     

    alterintel

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    Do you not think that some different incentive would be better than a badge?
    Absolutely. However, I have no idea what that incentive would be? It's a tough call because any kind of gift or monetary incentive is highly unlikely, and people tend to value different things (when money and prizes are off the table). Aside from the admiration you would get from your peers, not sure what else we could do... there is definitely room for discussion on this topic. And it is a topic I would very much enjoy discussing.
    I see countless references to badges. Of course I am aware that some people believe badges are amazing, and wonderful and pleasing to the eye.....but frankly I do not believe they are a great incentive.
    I will admit, I do like badges... maybe it's because I don't have very many... who knows. But I don't see them as compensation or as much of an incentive really. I see them more as recognition from my peers. The cool think about badges is that even newcomers can see you've been recognized for your contributions.

    But I do see your point, and I'm brought back to my original thought. More discussion needs to be had on incentives and recognition.

    You mentioned that you want to organise more competitions or at least push for their organisation. Do you not think that this would be difficult as there are not that many servers which could handle major battles or tournaments with say ~40 players on one server battling it out? As I believe the council cannot force a server owner to do something with his server, how would you go about organizing this?
    I love competitions, because they, for lack of a better term, make you put up or shut up. The're also very good ways of letting the quite people step up to get recognized for their skills. I very much would like to see more competitions.

    That being said... I never really pictured live competitions in my head. I know I said competitions of all kinds... but really I was thinking build competitions, screen shot competitions, skin completions... nothing that really required a server. But now that I'm thinking about it. There's no reason why we can't organize a temporary sever to host a competition for say a day or a week out of the month. Maybe we charge an entry fee to pay for server time, or maybe somebody would be kind enough to donate a server for a day or two. Heck, I wouldn't mind sponsoring a competition or two(but I would need somebody to admin, as I don't know how). (In fact I even tried to start up a competition before, but I decided to wait for crew to come out first.)

    Let me close by saying: For me it's all about promoting Starmade. I love this game, and I want to do everything in my power to make it as awesome as possible. In my mind, the best way to do that is to get as many people enjoying Starmade as possible. This means more people playing. I believe that more recognition (badges?) and competition is the best way to make that happen. But I have an open mind and I'd love to here what you think.
     

    MeRobo

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    Will you forward suggestions to the devs independent of who the author is?
     

    alterintel

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    Will you forward suggestions to the devs independent of who the author is?
    Of Course
    Absolutely

    I don't care who the suggestion is from. A good suggestion is a good suggestion no matter who it comes from.

    I also what to get out in front of this and say: I have no faction affiliation what so ever. I have no ulterior motive or agenda, other than to make Starmade the best game out there.
     
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