Apply for the 2014 LOTRO Players Council

Starting Today, March 21st, 2014, we invite players to apply for the LOTRO Player’s Council. Don’t want to join yourself? Recommend a fellow player you feel will be a positive addition to the council. We may also select players based on their in-game and community behavior and extend an invitation even if they have not otherwise applied or been nominated. Council members will be announced on April 24th.

Edit: I was mentioned that we failed to give an end date for appliations to be accepted. April 14th is the last day to submit your applicaiton. This gives us 10 days to contact and verify the new members before the announcement on April 24th. Sorry for the oversight.

I just wanted to quickly address one concern I'm seeing in a number of applications so far.

We will NOT publish your real name. Unlike last year we will also not be publishing your character name. The only name that will be on the final council announcement will be your Forum Name. This is public anyway as it's displayed every time you post.

What if your character name is the same as your forum name? ;)

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Originally Posted by Rugongrod

What if your character name is the same as your forum name? ;)

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Bad Things, man.

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Originally Posted by Sapience

Bad Things, man.

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This one really made me laugh out loud! :D

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Originally Posted by Sapience

We will NOT publish your real name. Unlike last year we will also not be publishing your character name. The only name that will be on the final council announcement will be your Forum Name. This is public anyway as it's displayed every time you post.

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Last year the 2013 announcement said you'd publish character names. At the time of the announcement we discovered you weren't publishing character names. I was fine with that. This year, I notice you didn't request users include 'Primary World' on their applications. Does this mean you don't intend to disclose that this year either unless the member elects to disclose that publicly themselves?

It was nice to be able to know where players spent the majority of their play time, even if it may have given the impression these players were more of a direct representation to be lobbied by their world rather than users representative of particular styles/thoughts/qualities from the entire player base as a whole.

It's not clear from these guidelines whether there have been any adjustments or rethinking concerning the general level of transparency in the activities of the PC. I know that there are very good reasons to have an NDA, but I think that having some indication, on a semi-regular basis, of the types of topics that the PC is discussing (even if it is in a very general manner, or after the fact) would go some distance toward alleviating the concerns some people have that the PC is some kind of secret society being asked to give their stamp of approval for unpopular decisions. The new Player's Council in DDO appears to permit some indication of WHAT is being discussed, even if very little is said about the ongoing details or directions of those discussions. Is the same likely to be true of the upcoming LOTRO PC?

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Originally Posted by Crell_1

Last year the 2013 announcement said you'd publish character names. At the time of the announcement we discovered you weren't publishing character names. I was fine with that. This year, I notice you didn't request users include 'Primary World' on their applications. Does this mean you don't intend to disclose that this year either unless the member elects to disclose that publicly themselves?

It was nice to be able to know where players spent the majority of their play time, even if it may have given the impression these players were more of a direct representation to be lobbied by their world rather than users representative of particular styles/thoughts/qualities from the entire player base as a whole.

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Players do not represent servers. Players can play on multiple servers or just one. Applicants must be currently active players regardless of server.

Best thing to do is Apply.

I have a question brought up by someone else.

If someone wants to simply send a note endorsing a player for the council, what information does the "endorser" need to provide?

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Originally Posted by TheCrossbow

I have a question brought up by someone else.

If someone wants to simply send a note endorsing a player for the council, what information does the "endorser" need to provide?

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iirc as much information as you can match on the application. If you don't have too much you can send what you know: email, forum name, RL name, toon+server (to avoid name clash errors) or some other identifiers so that Sapience can find them.

Sorry Sapience, I do not currently have enough spare time to be on the Player council so please, stop begging me, but do dye your beard green! And when you dye your beard green, dye your hair hot pink with gold highlights.

Signed Sincerely
~Smeaggol

And on the serious note, what exactly is expected of someone on the player's council. I mean, not that I am running, but I would like to know what they are expected to do.

EDIT

I did not scroll down the other page, I see the duties now, disregard question.

Figures, I am just coming back from a long break away from LOTRO (I quit for a while because I couldn't afford HD, which made me very depressed, and also my computer crashed) and of course I haven't been active enough to even think of applying this year. But I did nominate someone. :)

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Originally Posted by SabrielofLorien

Players do not represent servers. Players can play on multiple servers or just one. Applicants must be currently active players regardless of server.

Best thing to do is Apply.

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Also, posting the "main world" led to the belief that we represented that particular server in some fashion. Not the case.

Sounds great, just one question: I'm turning 18 in april this year, until when can we apply???

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Originally Posted by Finranduil

Sounds great, just one question: I'm turning 18 in april this year, until when can we apply???

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The announcement does not have a cut-off date stated. Only a selection date: April 24, 2014.

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Be 18 years of age or older at the time of their application, nomination, or selection for the council.

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Council members will be announced on April 24th.

https://www.lotro.com/en/game/articl...layers-council

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Okay thanks a lot.

Nice, who's gonna be the next lot to imply lotro isn't for everyone now.

Just out of curiosity Sapience, what are the officially supported countries just to help know which countries would qualify?

I would request that the NDA be less restrictive for 2014 PC.
Show confidence in the direction Turbine is taking LOTRO and allow the PC to discuss this direction openly.
Would also be nice if the 2013 PC were released from their NDA.

There have been "bad times" of late for some LOTRO players... open up the process and shed some light... the darkness isn't working very well IMO.

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Originally Posted by FittyBolger

I would request that the NDA be less restrictive for 2014 PC.
Show confidence in the direction Turbine is taking LOTRO and allow the PC to discuss this direction openly.
Would also be nice if the 2013 PC were released from their NDA.

There have been "bad times" of late for some LOTRO players... open up the process and shed some light... the darkness isn't working very well IMO.

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The players council is a focus group. It is not a PR branch for LOTRO.

PR and the publication of information and the timing of publications remains solely with Turbine. Only Turbine can say what, where, when and how things will be disclosed.

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Originally Posted by FittyBolger

I would request that the NDA be less restrictive for 2014 PC.
Show confidence in the direction Turbine is taking LOTRO and allow the PC to discuss this direction openly.
Would also be nice if the 2013 PC were released from their NDA.

There have been "bad times" of late for some LOTRO players... open up the process and shed some light... the darkness isn't working very well IMO.

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Out of curiosity......how "less restrictive" did you have in mind?

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Originally Posted by SabrielofLorien

The players council is a focus group. It is not a PR branch for LOTRO.

PR and the publication of information and the timing of publications remains solely with Turbine. Only Turbine can say what, where, when and how things will be disclosed.

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I don't believe he was asking it to be a PR branch. I believe he was asking it to communicate so that players can have glimmers of hope that the game is being looked at from the perspective of what the players care about and that at some point we may have hope it will improve from the state it has been reduced to of late.

As to the publication of information and timing, I believe he was asking for that to be eased. Of course it's up to Turbine - that's why he was asking them to release more, including more of what the Council worked on in regards to the direction of the game.

Your post sounds more like a legal disclaimer at the end of a time-share sales pitch. :p

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Originally Posted by Beaniemooch

...... at the end of a time-share sales pitch. :p

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Hey! Don't knock those. I got free cirque du soleil tickets in Vegas from going to one.... :D

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Originally Posted by Beaniemooch

Your post sounds more like a legal disclaimer at the end of a time-share sales pitch. :p

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Here's the pitch: Apply for the 2014 Players Council and then you can check it out for yourself.

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Originally Posted by SabrielofLorien

Here's the pitch: Apply for the 2014 Players Council and then you can check it out for yourself.

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That's even worse.