Ok, I'm leaving this as kind of a bookmark for myself to update people (if they're interested) on any developments and furthering ((is that really a word?)) thoughts on and responses to that.

You can find all the questions and answers of my conversation with Brad Wilcox here, and feel free to ask me (in time) if I've heard anything more back on something there.

So, what can I tell you so far?

Well, as you all know by now Virrago is already going forum crazy getting everything all nice and running for us again. I did send a PM to Virrago which goes into a few of the things it was suggested I talk to him about, so the main thing that is going to be shown is that message and his response (which I had to laugh about, not in a bad way either)

Hi there!

As I wasn't subscribed at the time (due to upteen number of issues) I missed firstly giving you a nice hello and welcome to the most mad crazy obsessed community ever

I was always on good terms with Raijinn, and in the end mainly thanks to my work on the Station Launcher beta stuff. I'm going along a hopeful idea of getting on good terms with you as you're the poor chap that has to get things done around here now, so really best of luck with that!

As you've probably noticed, I've been busy getting a big list of community questions answered by Brad Wilcox (but also with the lovely Sharon putting in her comments about things too!) and it was heavily suggested that I contact you via PM's to discuss a number of the issues that they suggested you'd be able to help with.

So where to start?  (I'll try to split this up into general broad groups to make this easier for me to write and you to reply hehe)

I know that you've started right off with sorting numberous website issues that we have and that's going down a treat as it's been missing love for way too long now.

On a more detailed note, as with any community, there's lots of different bits and pieces that could be used to really help promote this game and show people really what they're missing out on. Brad said that things like a myspace page and also a youtube page could be set up, however it could require a certain level of work between yourself and legal to get that sorted.

The youtube idea could work. In this, the game cinematics could be uploaded to it, along with the original game adverts (they're around somwhere still, I know because I've seen them recently on the boards... I'll go searching). Oh and also player submitted works could be added to this (see below).

The MySpace page could be a lot more in-depth. There could be soundtrack music from the films running, also things like screenshot of the week stuff that could be nabbed from Rarebit's live event stuff but also through player submitted works (see below). Equally, it would be another great place to put up those story summaries that Rarebit writes. Naturally, everything would need to be linked back to our forums here so that people who came across it could easily find out more information.

However, before that starts, there's the legal issues.

Now, it's an obvious point that this game isn't just under SOE's domain. We also have to be eternally aware of Warner Brothers too. So, how to deal with this?

I'm not someone who would know all the exact in's and out's about this but it was clear from Brad and Sharon's input to me that there is regular communication between SOE and WB regarding all sorts of aspects in this game. Storyline being the most obvious thing that needs to be ok-ed but thankfully our excellent Ben Chamberlain and Paul Chadwick are given a lot of "wiggle room" and trust in their direction on this. 

The player submitted works for things like (what they'd become) The Official MxO YouTube and MySpace pages would generally have to work like this (according to Brad):

1. Firstly, you'd have to set up the competition. That would include initial discussion between you, the devs and the community over what they'd like to see. Examples of this would be player submitted content into the game (clothing designs, gun designs, item designs etc), video competitions that could be uploaded onto those sites and showcased here on the forums - like putting a link to download the winner on the top of the boards (the greatest example in recent times is the player-run YouTube MxO Commercial competition) the same logic runs on submitted artwork, as we have a LOT of talented artists in the community who now have upwards of 2 years experience in drawing the matrix online world (even Rarebit does it!)
2. A set of clear legal statements would have to be included so that the player knows what they're getting themselves in for if they submit something. That would include giving it over for SOE to host it online off the server here for the boards and obviously shown through a YouTube & MySpace pages (see how much of good idea they'd be? )
3. As a result, the winner gets their work shown on those sites and also here, as well as getting a reward in-game for their efforts (in the example of the player submitted content, they'd have their item made uniquely just for them to have in the game)

Now, obviously these would come out not so much weekly on some of them, especially if it was a competition for a player submitted content competition, that would have to be something like once every other month (as the devs have enough work to do already) but the player submitted artwork and videos could be done once a month, to which the winner gets a special rare item that could be designed just for the winners of the competition. Their work is openly showcased during that month on the boards (maybe even put it in-game on the billboards...) and then another thread would be setup to leave permanent links to the work.

You should know that this sort of thing can be setup, SWG has a similar system for player submitted works of various types.

*takes a breath* Right that's that big out of the way. The next one that was needed to be suggested was that (as we really don't have a budget for a LET) we really need more open advertising to make players aware who their liaison's are in-game.

Currently, if you play the game, the only thing you'll see is this image that does show you who's where but it's really tucked away in the corner of the UI and is never explained. I can tell you now that I've lost track of the number of times I've had to explain to new players firstly what our liaisons do and then who are they!

Equally, players often get dis-heartened when they don't get any interaction between the liaisons because:

1. They don't know who to contact
2. Even if they do know who to contact they don't know when they will be online in the game
3. Because of this they miss events and other activities in the game

Everyone in the community knows that LESIG is run be players and that it's all over-seen by Rarebit. We know that, as they're just players doing it for free, that they'll never be on all the time. That being said, the players would dearly love to know a little bit more details about when is the best chance to catch their liaison to talk with them.

Here's what was suggested:

1. Firstly, have something on the top of the page, in that boxed off bit, which gives you a direct link to a thread detailing information on the liaisons (Thread titled something like "Contact your Liaison today!"" width="15" height="15" />
2. In that thread, it would need to be stickied and locked to normal players you have a link to that image above and you also give the players advice on how to contact them (like using /tell and email system in-game and contacting the liaisons via PM's on the boards)
3. Then, as I know a lot of them would love this, get the liaisons to create a sort of dossier post that would be uploaded onto that thread by their respective game bosses. By that I mean, group the machine liaisons together, their details posted by Agent Gray, The Merovingian ones with Flood and Zion ones by Tyndall.
4. Each post contains some simple details. In-game handle, server, organisation affiliation, forum handle, small background (just like what you get in-game), an image and (most importantly) BEST TIME TO CONTACT THE LIAISON!!!

Not only would this then become a great resource but it also makes it more clear as to who players need to contact.

This moves me nicely onto the next point about events. 

I know that you're now actively starting to hassle players into contacting you to show what player run events are being done and that's great! I'm talking about the storyline events.

Ok, now what we don't want is to have a mass spamming of events however, at least basic guaranteed details would help.

Again, I know that these events are planned (forthe most part) in advance so what would be another good point would be to do this:

1. Have a link at the top forum page banner thing (you'll have to tell me what the best name for that is btw) which links to a thread labelled "This Weeks Story Events!" (or something to the like)
2. In that thread, have a simple post saying which player group has an event on what day that week. Don't give out any more details just have something like, "11/24: Chapter 9.1 event - Machines - Recursion" they say to the player to contact their liaison for more details and link to the thread created above (see how all of this comes together?)

Ok! There you go, a whole host of issues all under one roof for you to have a look through. If you want to discuss anything in more detail, really don't hesitate to contact me. I'm a really nice guy, just ask Brad and Sharon  I know a lot about this game and I really do have a passion for it and I want to see the best done for all the players (otherwise I'd never bother with something like this).

Anyway, I hope to hear your thoughts on all of this, it's taken me long enough to write it all out

Speak to you soon,

Shadow

PS. Hope you had a great Thanksgiving!

Wow! that's a lot of stuff to read.. Let's try to keep it to a paragraph in the future as I'm always pressed for time and it wouldn't do you justice to have to skim over your messages like I just did.

Let's just start with what my priorities are right now.  Keep in mind that my position is Community Representative (technically i'm not a manager yet) and all my primary focus will be concentrated on Community building type things. Along with bringing up the communities concerns to the Producer and Design team.

#1 would be the player spotlight / Operative Profile - I'm sure you read my thread about this.

#2 getting a player guide section up and running.

#3 Re-invigorating the Fan Art page ( http://fanart.station.sony.com/?pag...ery&gallery=mxo ) - This is the best way to get player made art on our site but it takes weeks to get an image approved by WB to allow us to host it.

As for you topics, one is covered by the fan art page. The youtube and myspace thing would take months to work out between WB and SOE legal teams. (I do like the idea of youtube ingame movies though)

Anyway... i'm out of time but once I have my 3 priorities up and running smoothly. Then I'll have time to venture into some new things.

/discuss

Wow!

Good work once more TheUnknownShadow!


You have done a great job getting our voices heard in the SOE ranks and you should be applauded for all your hard work and effort.


Thank you!

Ha! The things I do in my free time...

oh and don't applaud, it's hard cash, remember?

I'm only doing this so I don't have to write the stuff down and equally then wade through my PM's to find something easily

Oh god I kind of feel sorry for Rarebit for having to read that PM I've just sent him. This was a big one, if Virrago thought he was getting it bad, Rarebit isn't getting off easy either.

I'm waiting for a while though before I post it as I'm not sure exactly how the conversation is going to pan out so I'd rather post everything as once. Keep watching this space though (well, not this space exactly, it'll probably be on a post below this one somewhere but you get my meaning)

To those who have supported me through this, this is the final time you'll ever hear anything from me. From here on in, you're on your own. I'm moving on over to Pirates on a permanent basis, so I won't be here to deal with any of this kind of thing anymore.

Do remember this though. I am just one person. I am just a normal player who just like you pay your subscription to play this game (right up until now that is). Your strength as a community can be insurmountable if you stand up as one voice you will be able get things done if you simply contact the right people. If there's something up with the boards, contact Virrago. If you have a good idea for something in-game or you have a question or a problem, contact Rarebit or 9mmfu. If there's some technical fault with the game, contact TSRChrisL or 9mmfu. If you get a problem over how people are treated or how things are being run, talk to Moonlite or if you feel the need Brad (email is [email protected]) DONT just sit here and either mope on the boards about nothing in particular. Contact these guys, they're here to help you!

With that in mind, I give you my parting gift.

This was a PM I sent to Rarebit just now (I've been busy with Pirates setting up my Society, my apologies) which is aimed to encompass every part of the questions I gave to Brad Wilcox to which Rarebit could answer. A fair ol' chunk of this stuff is things that you haven't read in the main thread before, as I didn't include it as it was information I had to send to Rarebit directly.

So here it is, for you all to read in full. The questions and potential solutions (as thought up by Brad and Sharon) to everything LESIG. To shamelessly rob off someone,

Enjoy, won't you?

Shadow

First off, I'm not going to go into a big rant about the LESIG program because for me I'm personally rather thankful that we have that rather than nothing. I'm someone who's (apparently) quite lucky in that I have 3 liaisons, 2 of which I see on a regular basis as they cross over into my timezone. However, you know that isn't the case with every organisation on every server. Now, one of the things that gets people about the whole situation is that either they don't know who they're meant to contact easily and even if they do know who to contact, they very rarely (if at all) get any interaction because of timezone differences. This in turn leaves them feeling left out of the game experience and also can potentially mean them missing an event. Funnily enough though, Brad asked me to ask you about this (as he wasn't sure) about ways to either 1. Get around it or 2.At least make it clearer to people.

Now, everyone in the community knows that LESIG is run by players and that it's all over-seen by your good self. We know that, as they're just players doing it for free, that they'll never be on all the time. That being said, the players would dearly love to know a little bit more details about when is the best chance to catch their liaison to talk with them. So, the suggestion was why not create something public on the boards that all the players could have access to. This was suggested as currently the only way of seeing who your liaisons are is to go into a menu that comes up through a tiny button on the user interface and then to select the world events (not sure on wording) button. Not exactly easy to see right now.

(if you read the stuff below this would probably have to be a locked thread initially while it's setup... I'm not sure how things like this would work 100% though so I'll wait to see how you think it would work best... oh and stickied!)

So, in this thread you have a link to that image above or include it at the top of the thread and you also give the players advice on how to contact them (like using /tell and email system in-game and contacting the liaisons via PM's on the boards)

Then, as I know a lot of them would probably love this if they're into their role-playing (and if they're not they really shouldn't be there, right?) get the liaisons to create a sort of dossier post that would be uploaded onto that thread by their respective game bosses. By that I mean, group the machine liaisons together, their details posted by Agent Gray, The Merovingian ones with Flood and Zion ones by Tyndall. Now, if that's too much, I'm sure the liaisons could organise and then post there themselves, although it would still need to be organised on there so that the players can see how the liaisons are grouped together.

Each post could contain some simple details about the liaison. In-game handle, server, organisation affiliation, forum handle, small background (just like what you get in-game), an image and (probably most importantly) BEST TIME TO CONTACT THE LIAISON!!!

Not only would this then become a great resource but it also makes it more clear as to who players need to contact. I'm not sure as to how the last point would come about over best time to contact them as by them posting that it wouldn't serve if it then puts pressure on the liaison to be online during that time... but I can just imagine there being a link to this liaison thread up on the top banner for the forums, so that everyone knew who they had to contact.

I'd suggest taking a sedative and maybe having a coffee break after reading through all of that, my apologies but I had a lot of information to get across there.

So, onto the next little thing. I was also discussing a lot of things with Brad about how this forum is organised and run in one way or another and something rather random came up in the conversation is that nothing in-game in the tutorials ever mentions going to The Matrix Online forums to find out up-to-date information about events and everything else.

The reason I know that this is going to be an issue in the future (with Station Launcher providing free trials to The Matrix Online) is that I have a friend here that I persuaded to download the Station Launcher to get the free trial. They downloaded that, they downloaded the game and then they started playing the game. The first thing they asked me, "Well where the hell do I go to ask for help with things and find out stuff because I haven't got a clue!!!" I had to then sit them down and explain to them about these forums that do have loads of information on them but I'll be damned if you're told about it in game.

So here's what was suggested. I said that, from my time since joining I know that in the Archive missions, you can get things like email items and messages from Sati etc etc sent to you during a mission. When I said this, the agreed suggestion was "Why not come up with something that is given to new players in the tutorial (along with an explanation of the item) which provides the new players with links to vital things on the forums from within the game?"

The 2 important ones that were said were clearly the live events thread so they can get up to speed on existing storyline and then the redpill rescue section so that they could ask any question that they wanted to.

I know that, even since I've been here, the starter content has been going through a bit of a revival, no doubt because of the Station Launcher and I think that this would be another great addition to that.

Well, I've said all I wanted to say on this and all I have ideas on and all that I was given by Brad to hopefully discuss with you. I know that, sadly, that sentence doesn't read anywhere near good English but you'll have to forgive me as I'm writing this late on in the evening.

Hope to hear your thoughts on all of this soon,

TheUnknownShadow

(who thinks if I'm not careful I'll be given custom rank of pain in the *CENSORED* )