Can You Bridge the MXO Information Gap?
By Neil "Adonai" MacArthur

Let me preface this by declaring I loathe Star Wars Galaxies. Having been a staunch, all things Lucas fanatic, since my back of car conception, Sony Entertainment's crusade against my religion has hit me pretty hard. But if there was one glimmer, one sparkling hopeful promise, that kept me hook, line and sinker, it was a Player Community Advocate.

At this point you'd be more than justified in asking what does Thunderheart, the recently sold out poster child for this position, have to do with the price of cod roe, cup of joe, or MXO?

A Player Community Advocate (herein PCA) is a gamer like you and I, that is tapped by the developers to function as an information bus, between them and us. A middleman messenger that facilitates community networking, expectation, constructive criticism and feedback. The single most important asset to the placement, is that traction, which historically in the gaming industry is an established vertical centered around development, is aligned horizontally, allowing both community and development to work in concert, with the PCA a virtual axle balancing the two wheels. The greatest tangible benefit from the horizontal model is that information from the community can be focused and relayed to the development team, bypassing organizational barriers consistent with the incumbent vertical.

This player evangelist is not an original concept to SWG or SOE, but I have not seen it implemented or function to date, with such inspiring and tangible benefits for all concerned. The hiring of Thunderheart was a master stroke from the SOE marketing men, who had not delivered space, moon and stars in Star Wars nor Jedi, regardless of what was on the box.

Yet the employment of one of us, for us, went along way to widening the ever present bottleneck between community feedback and development patching. Considering this was a triage move by SOE, effectively to buy time and save face, can you envision a legitimate position introduced and up to speed, working for you, sponsored and supported by MXO development?

This two way communication conduit would bridge the grand canyon divide currently expanding in our rapidly growing community. Trickle down scraps of sanitized information coupled with blockbuster releases looming large on Christmas wish lists will not comfort a highly nomadic demographic. The community not only needs an oasis of timely and involving input, but a trusted source, and everyman like peer, that can alleviate real community concerns, nipping ballooning fears and apprehension at the root, and we need it yesterday.

Now a great many of you may point out that the current "teaser" public relations campaign employed by the double Bros. and Monolith is consistent with the very roots of the rich genre we all know and love. The initial push for the highly regarded original motion picture, was stealth like ninja, letting the wire fu, substantive content, and rich evolving tale promote itself on its merits rather than the wholly unnecessary mainstay of Hollywood; big budget tripe/hype. It was high art, something long absent from the heydays of motion picture, a production that stood alone, without direct comment from its progenitors; personal reflection and your interpretation was key.

However I cannot stress this warning enough, gamers have been burned since the industries origins, by silence and hidden agendas. These methods don't play well with our horror stories of tragic releases, and generally nothing being said, all to often means there's nothing good to say. We can all rationalize your need to manage expectation, but the PR machine, city guides and various fansites and developer interviews, don't manage expectation; as a tool they encapsulate hype at the expense of substance. We support the effort to get the golden light from under the bushel and considering the substantial worldwide buzz generated by the recent press day, we need to embrace more such events, targeting the blossoming community personally and directly.

I have long since stated that every community to date is an untapped resource, whose talents and time should be gainfully employed in the birth of the games we love and play. Internally at the MXO core community, we have already witnessed on the official boards large scale and diverse offers of talented signature design and hosting services, for each new redpill.

Surely, if any one current community organized action, highlights the willingness of talented individuals to service the needs of the many, it is the aforementioned tip of the iceberg. The PCA is a first step to realizing our dream and efforts to harness that undiscovered bounty, to the enduring benefit of all concerned now and for those that the future will bring.

If this truly is a next generation of MMOG, together lets bridge the contentious trust divide, that is rife and prevalent in all legacy MMOG's, empowering our community with representation. United let us move onward and upward, from a much maligned and beleaguered belief system, (in development we trust.. ;p) to an open source system supported by personal accountability. My intention with this opinion is to engage our developers in a constructive discourse which lays the groundwork for a PCA within our respective camps, and if this is something you can see as beneficial to our community, you should voice your needs and wants in the forum provided.

Thanks for your time and insights in advance and lest we all forget: 'The Matrix has you...'

Guest Editorials and the opinions expressed therein are those of the author and not necessarily the views and opinions of the staff or editors of The Matrix Online Stratics.

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