Introducing the 2013 LOTRO Player Council

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Originally Posted by StavroMuellerBeta

There are a few outspoken critics among the names I recognize, so it's not exactly the fan club that so many (myself included) were certain that it would be.

Honestly, when I applied, I was certain that my name was already blacklisted for being a naysayer. Since I actually made it on the council, that gives me some hope that they're looking for meaningful discussion and real criticism, not just fans who sign off on everything they propose.

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I'm finding myself in full agreement of this.

@MrWarg- that is good to hear.

My concern at the moment is the niche group of the most experienced raiders in the game. I am not one of those, but their voices are important.

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Originally Posted by Exion_Blade

That's ALOT of people from landroval.
iirc Landy is an RP server? I suppose they were picked because of their love of RP?
So are the majority of players RPers?

Just wondering.

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Three from Landroval are from the large kinship the Lonely Mountain Band, which is light RP; some heavy RPers would not consider them 'real' RP, but that is another debate entirely and not one I am going to get into with this thread :) They were likely selected because they do a lot of community-organized events that are very popular with non-RPers to even some heavy RPers (myself included in the latter), though their focus audience is definitely the lighter crowd IMO.

I am hoping that Laurelin's and Belegaer's RP representatives are heavier. And I am hoping that someone, anyone, on that council likes /e RP and understands the love of wonderful description =P

So, no, the majority of council members, and people who play this game, are not RPers.

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Originally Posted by trancejeremy

The only name I recognize is a very big Turbine supporter. That doesn't give me too much faith in this council, when people like that will agree with whatever Turbine does and be enthusiastic about it.

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I saw at least three to four names of large Turbine critics, including one from Landroval.

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Originally Posted by Rohan1240

gratz to those who made it

1 question though, why did some servers get more representation than other servers? like E only has 2 yet has a very large population while Landroval has 7 members and Brandywine has 6 which from my understanding have about the same population if not less.

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They weren't aiming for an even or proportional number of representatives per world. They just happened to have some on each world.

I have a request of the council members. Could you convince Turbine to let you take turns writing (and translating) a short monthly summary of council activities?

I realize this would have to be heavily censored to avoid inappropriate disclosures, but I feel it's important for the community to be periodically reminded that the council is actually doing something.

Perhaps one council member could also volunteer each month to have a profile featured in this report.

Gratz everyone, hope you guys can put Turbine back to its good moments.

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Originally Posted by Delmore

Congrats to all! I will hopefully be focusing mainly on PVP, and trying to make pvp a massive enjoyment for everyone and bring more people to the moors, get some goodies out there, so on and so on.

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Yicky, please try to make Turbine help the PvP soloers too, solo play at moors is almost dead right now. I know the moors have focus on RvsR, but some solo wont hurt nobody, just give moors more diversity.

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Originally Posted by Fredelas

I have a request of the council members. Could you convince Turbine to let you take turns writing (and translating) a short monthly summary of council activities?

I realize this would have to be heavily censored to avoid inappropriate disclosures, but I feel it's important for the community to be periodically reminded that the council is actually doing something.

Perhaps one council member could also volunteer each month to have a profile featured in this report.

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I believe the Player Council announcement mentioned that council members would "From time to time, be asked to help draft a report on the council’s activities for publication to the entire community."

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Originally Posted by CraZYMuffin-IPC

I believe the Player Council announcement mentioned that council members would "From time to time, be asked to help draft a report on the council’s activities for publication to the entire community."

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I have a memory of this as well.

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Originally Posted by bastiat1

As far as I can tell not a single representative from this player base was appointed to the Council.

That's a minimum of 360 players that Turbine couldn't find one spot for on the Council. I know for a fact that a couple of individuals from different raiding kinships cited above were nominated and applied. I know one that was nominated by several individuals. I accept this as a very deliberate indication that LoTRO no longer intends to support challenging raiding gameplay as part of its overall service.

I was holding out for two glimmering hopes that this wasn't the case. I thought that if someone from Vanguard, or Ramble, or Shock, or Ascension, or Legion or Krieger were on the Council it would be an indication that LoTRO hadn't yet abandoned these players. My second hope was that Turbine would have learned a lesson from the last two expansions and decided to announce a new raid with Helms Deep. Oh for two.

As they say, "It is, what it is, yo."

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I'm sorry you do not feel represented. I can assure you that, though I do not raid (mostly because of sub-standard hardware), I am aware of some of the Raiding Community's concerns. I agree with them on several points. I plan to advocate for any of the various groups here that have valid concerns. You must have a little patience, though. We've only just been formed. I think we will all have a bit of an adjustment period before things get in full swing. If you have concerns, bring them to us in an appropriate manner.

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Originally Posted by bohbashum

I'm surprised to see evernight got 2 players I've never heard of :o

I guess we got the casual reprasentatives, which is all fairness are the cool cats on the game :cool:

I hope there are PvMP and raider/instance representatives out there still, meh, we'll see how it goes...

good luck :)

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well i guess I can comment on pvmp anyway, but yes guess you'd be right to call me a casual player

Got to hand it to Turbine for including every sub-community. They even included one of our most famous griefers to represent the troll interrests.

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Originally Posted by Sapience

The following individuals have been selected to participate in the LOTRO Player Council program. They represent many play styles, countries, and walks of life. .

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43/69 are from North America
26/69 are from Europe

Some servers have up to 6 representatives
the most active European servers have 1 or 2

Yup :) representative... sure

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Originally Posted by Palentian

I'm sorry you do not feel represented. I can assure you that, though I do not raid (mostly because of sub-standard hardware), I am aware of some of the Raiding Community's concerns. I agree with them on several points. I plan to advocate for any of the various groups here that have valid concerns. You must have a little patience, though. We've only just been formed. I think we will all have a bit of an adjustment period before things get in full swing. If you have concerns, bring them to us in an appropriate manner.

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While we are sharing their names, please remember that council members cannot discuss their actions or activity as a member of the council.

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yup... you cant do anything... fairly represented we are not

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Originally Posted by CraZYMuffin-IPC

I believe the Player Council announcement mentioned that council members would "From time to time, be asked to help draft a report on the council’s activities for publication to the entire community."

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Hopefully those letters will be more common than the "monthly" producer's letters.

If the council has the kind of power that it's implied to have, they should be able to encourage Turbine to get those letters out at least every 1-2 months. If they don't even have the teeth to accomplish that, then it's doubtful that they'll be able to accomplish anything more meaningful than recommending the default color for the My Little Pony costume of the month.

If you see the official letters, you'll know exactly what's being accomplished. If you don't see the letters, "silence speaks louder than words".

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Originally Posted by Palentian

I'm sorry you do not feel represented. I can assure you that, though I do not raid (mostly because of sub-standard hardware),

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You may be aware that I T2 raid on what most people would consider extremely sub-standard hardware. You're certainly welcome to give it a shot sometime and see if you can handle it. I've helped a number of players tweak things so it's comfortable.

That's an open invite to anyone on Riddermark who may feel their hardware isnt up to snuff, at the very least most players should be able to set foot into T1 without their PC going into total meltdown, and I'd be happy to help do what I can to improve that.

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Originally Posted by bastiat1

I was holding out for two glimmering hopes that this wasn't the case. I thought that if someone from Vanguard, or Ramble, or Shock, or Ascension, or Legion or Krieger were on the Council it would be an indication that LoTRO hadn't yet abandoned these players.

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I don't know about the other kins, but I'm pretty sure that no one from my kin even applied.

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Originally Posted by Crell_1

You may be aware that I T2 raid on what most people would consider extremely sub-standard hardware. You're certainly welcome to give it a shot sometime and see if you can handle it. I've helped a number of players tweak things so it's comfortable.

That's an open invite to anyone on Riddermark who may feel their hardware isnt up to snuff, at the very least most players should be able to set foot into T1 without their PC going into total meltdown, and I'd be happy to help do what I can to improve that.

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Nah, this isn't just self depreciating. My box gets a good solid 11 fps in Bree and Galtrev. Though i have seen it up to 25 out by myself. In the wilds somewhere. I'd be happy to give it a shot, but I'm afraid I'd get us all killed. I'll get a better one soon, then I'll take you up on that offer. Thanks.

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Originally Posted by jevvy

43/69 are from North America
26/69 are from Europe

Some servers have up to 6 representatives
the most active European servers have 1 or 2

Yup :) representative... sure

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To be fair, the content is identical across servers and countries, so I doubt the concerns are going to be wildly different from one server to another (other than translation issues of course). And if the twitter feed can be believed, the plan was for 43 US, 32 International, so I'd wait for those final slots to be filled before calling out any lack of representation.

'Grats to the others who made it on.

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Originally Posted by Aelonaith

Gratz everyone, hope you guys can put Turbine back to its good moments.



Yicky, please try to make Turbine help the PvP soloers too, solo play at moors is almost dead right now. I know the moors have focus on RvsR, but some solo wont hurt nobody, just give moors more diversity.

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Noted. I'm sure being that I said PVP, myself and the other pvpers will get loaded with stuff. Bring it ON!! :)

Looking forward to working with the council and others on this! I predict a messy but fun project.

Great, now fix the game.

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Originally Posted by Palentian

Nah, this isn't just self depreciating. My box gets a good solid 11 fps in Bree and Galtrev. Though i have seen it up to 25 out by myself. In the wilds somewhere. I'd be happy to give it a shot, but I'm afraid I'd get us all killed. I'll get a better one soon, then I'll take you up on that offer. Thanks.

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You're right, you probably wont find the experience very enjoyable in your current state. Sounds like you're on a netbook, and I probably can't eek too much more out of that sadly. I will say that T1 the current raids are undermanable, and I've on more than one occasion given a player special instructions so that they can perform a useful task while not bringing their computer to its knees like it'd normally do if they were doing what the rest of us were.

Hope your new PC will give you the opportunity to look at lotro with new-eyes and enjoy things you may never have imagined taking part in before =)

There's no reason anyone should let their fear of wiping the group stop them from giving raiding a shot. Just be up front to the person leading!

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Originally Posted by ArcticAurora

'Grats to the others who made it on.

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And to you!

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Originally Posted by bastiat1

These are the kinships that beat Orthanc on T2C on level.

Anduin - Avorthalier
Arkenstone - Noldor
Belegaer - Beleaffen, Legion der Freunde
Brandywine - Entropy, Shock and Awe
Eldar - The Illuminati, The Mellowship
Elendilmir - Apex, Off Peak, Ramble On, Vanguard
Evernight - Ascension
Gladden - House of Elders
Maiar - Nedh Anwar
Morthond - Amlug Herth, Erznemessis, Krieger des Lichts, Sturmbringer Rhovanions
Vanyar - Divide et Impera, Mixed Raid Alliance, Soldurii
Sirannon - Unquale
Snowbourn - Element Zero, Paprotniki

Another 14 or so kinships have beaten the Battle for Erebor T2C, which includes some from above plus...

Maiar - Zorn der Maiar
Meneldor - Methestel
Nimrodel - We Got This
Snowbourne - Resurrection
Vanyar - Hecki Hecki Pateng

If I left anyone off, I apologize.


What's the one thing that all of these kinships have in common?

As far as I can tell not a single representative from this player base was appointed to the Council.

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This makes me sad. Not a single person who is in a kinship beating the hardest content in a council of this size is incredibly poor form, and quite indicative of the direction this game has taken.

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Originally Posted by Tarenius

This makes me sad. Not a single person who is in a kinship beating the hardest content in a council of this size is incredibly poor form, and quite indicative of the direction this game has taken.

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We were talking about this in vent. I was joking saying I should have said I was in my 50's instead of 20's and that I had walked my dog daily instead of killing creeps to R15. We concluded that this is the target marketing concept and the hard core players are already hooked to lotro regardless of how the raids change. I guess it was time for market diversification!

Nonetheless their selection does carry kind, caring and helpful individuals and was stated in prior posts some critics. I suppose we can't have everything.

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Originally Posted by Tarenius

This makes me sad. Not a single person who is in a kinship beating the hardest content in a council of this size is incredibly poor form, and quite indicative of the direction this game has taken.

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All that this says was that players from these particular kins were not selected. Does that mean that none of the players on the council have done and completed T2? Maybe they are someone that runs along side the kin but doesn't join. Maybe they used to be in one of those kins. Maybe being that you are using forum posts as a baseline, not all kins that have beat it have posted on the forums.

There are many variables. Just because you don't see anyone from those kins in the council, does not mean that the council does not have end game raid players in it.

:)

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Originally Posted by Lestache

I don't know about the other kins, but I'm pretty sure that no one from my kin even applied.

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I did, TL. :P

I also wrote in my application about wanting to represent the raiding community and for raiders to get not only challenging content, but rewarding them with the best loot in the game because they've put all the work and effort into it.

It does certainly feel like with recent content (hytbold), ease of first ages in skirm camps, etc..that raiders are being phased out or short-changed, if you will.