We’re very pleased to announce the LOTRO Player Council!

[Sapience]

Well maybe that makes it less attractive for some instant-reward people but still, doesn't make it much less of an incentive that might work against the goal.

No one is going to get rich off it. It is intended only as a thank you, not as a form of payment for service.

[Feoktist]

To all: I have to apologize for making too many populist shout-outs and too little sense in my past few posts.

So I went back to our community forum and started raising awareness about the Council and its functions, gathering much precious feedback. Once people read the Council statement (I had to translate it), 8 out of 9 said they want players from Russian servers in the council (for those capable of reading in Russian, here is the link to our official forum).

The problem is our communities know too little of each other, and this puts us way more behind in this selection than the server version or whatever.

Finally, the “plea” – which sounds pathetic I know, it should rather be called an “Address to Turbine and the global community” – has been drafted to put our intentions into readable format. It has a bit of context that explains what gives our community grief, mentions the heroic efforts our localization team and finally has a suggestion to Turbine that would allow RU.Lotro players to have equal treatment with global players. We do think the time played on Russian servers should be accounted towards the “active” time. Although such information is not readily available to Turbine, it can be obtained from our Administrator and not legally impossible. The number of applications from the Russian players I am aware of is half a dozen, give or take, so that shouldn’t be a difficult task. The has benefits for all parties: trigger the integration process between our communities, help Turbine meet the representation objective set initially, lift some weight off our localization team.

Interesting that somehow a few Russian players currently on global found out and went to support this Address. I love this one comment:

Russian LOTRO community is large and passionate, it's a considerable consumer niche and as such, I believe, it deserves representation.

I think there’s nothing wrong with sharing the link to the ipetition since it’s much different from the frustrated enraged messages we typically send out via petitions (gosh I hate this “plea” xD): http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/u...nity-plea-for/

In Moscow, April 19th has come already =) No matter whether any Russian player is picked by Turbine or not, I do hope this day will come once.

[Kerin_Eldar]

No one is going to get rich off it. It is intended only as a thank you, not as a form of payment for service.

So all expenses paid trips to Turbine aren't a big enough 'thank you', they get in-game advantages too?

Ok.

[Ravdor]

I am very excited about this announcement and i think this will be a great way for the LOTRO community to provide some very important and insightful feedback to the Turbine Staff.

Best of luck to everyone who applied and i hope those chosen will do their best to provide feedback for LOTRO.

best,

Rav

[Annariel]

So all expenses paid trips to Turbine aren't a big enough 'thank you', they get in-game advantages too?

Ok.

Only the small council (5-6 people, if I remember correctly) would get paid for these trips - the rest would not even get invited. (To any Turbine meetings, that is - for conventions, there will be no-expenses-paid invitations.)

Also, there won't be any in-game advantage that you couldn't get for yourself for just a few dollars, or, if you prefer, several hours of grinding TP. In fact, perhaps we should think of it that way - being a council member is just a different way to grind TP. (I don't suppose it will be very efficient.)

[Annariel]

[B]Finally, the “plea” – which sounds pathetic I know, it should rather be called an “Address to Turbine and the global community” – has been drafted to put our intentions into readable format. It has a bit of context that explains what gives our community grief, mentions the heroic efforts our localization team and finally has a suggestion to Turbine that would allow RU.Lotro players to have equal treatment with global players. We do think the time played on Russian servers should be accounted towards the “active” time. Although such information is not readily available to Turbine, it can be obtained from our Administrator and not legally impossible. The number of applications from the Russian players I am aware of is half a dozen, give or take, so that shouldn’t be a difficult task. The has benefits for all parties: trigger the integration process between our communities, help Turbine meet the representation objective set initially, lift some weight off our localization team.

I think the big problem is not that Turbine wouldn't want to listen to Russian players, but that it's essentially not their 'jurisdiction' (for lack of a better word). Turbine cannot make any changes to the Russian servers, so this is not the right place for you to give your input... it would be a bit like going to Burger King to complain about a Big Mac.

Would it not be more practical for the Russian servers to have their own council? And of course those councils should compare notes every once in a while, but that way, the input would go to the people who have the power to change something.

[Grimdi]

Would it be possible to
- give people a confirmation that their application has been received at all (mail interaction between Turbine and players isn't exactly known for reliability unfortunately)
- provide people with feedback in case their application is rejected / needs refinement for whatever reason
- provide a (estimated) date for application deadlines (a week? a month? christmas?)
- provide a (estimated) date for ending the selection process
The last two are of course to saitsfy personal curiosity, but also I'm a bit worried that if the council doesn't start within the next 6-10 weeks it won't have enough time left to actually do it's "job" as it still has to establish the foundation (getting NDAs signed, setting up comm channels, getting to know each other a little, establish "work" parameters, ...). I've seen this type of committee set up in other (similar) contexts, and this organizational work really requires time, esp. for the first group on the job as they have no reference.

[SabrielofLorien]

- provide a (estimated) date for application deadlines (a week? a month? christmas?)

- provide a (estimated) date for ending the selection process

Application deadline is listed as 4/19/2013

In another thread Sapience indicated that the announcement of who made the council might be a bit longer as they are still evaluating applications.

[Feoktist]

In another thread Sapience indicated that the announcement of who made the council might be a bit longer as they are still evaluating applications.

This:

No I wasn't referring to player council stuff. Although, we may move that announcement back a week as we're still reviewing applications (about 90% done) and want to make sure everyone's application is considered and reviewed.

Thought I'd stick it in here to save the others some effort. Guess the results will be announced.. Soon? =)

[feel_so_dumb]

So, does anyone know who made the list? Or do we need to wait longer to know whether or not we got accepted to the council? Just asking...

[Fredelas]

So, does anyone know who made the list? Or do we need to wait longer to know whether or not we got accepted to the council? Just asking...

Sapience posted in another thread (sorry, I can't find it now) that due to the large number of applications, council members won't be selected until later this week. More than 2,000 players applied!

[Crell_1]

Sapience posted in another thread (sorry, I can't find it now) that due to the large number of applications, council members won't be selected until later this week. More than 2,000 players applied!

Can I ask where you got the 2000+ applications reference? I saw the +Sapience has only gone through 90% of the applications post, but no sign of a specific number of applications referenced anywhere.

[Whiteberry_Laurelin]

Can I ask where you got the 2000+ applications reference? I saw the +Sapience has only gone through 90% of the applications post, but no sign of a specific number of applications referenced anywhere.

https://twitter.com/rickheaton/statu...58058214195200

[Annariel]

Sapience posted in another thread (sorry, I can't find it now) that due to the large number of applications, council members won't be selected until later this week. More than 2,000 players applied!

It took me a while, but I found it.

I do think it's a bit odd that nothing official was posted to this thread... this is the official discussions forum, after all.

[Sapience]

Sorry, I thought I had posted here. We're delaying until the end of this week due to the sheer volume of applicants. Currently I think the list has been narrowed down to about 250, but we still need to pare that down to the 30-50 we announced.

[Christuilos]

Sorry, I thought I had posted here. We're delaying until the end of this week due to the sheer volume of applicants. Currently I think the list has been narrowed down to about 250, but we still need to pare that down to the 30-50 we announced.

Thanks for the update, Sapience! We'll all quit checking our email every 5 minutes now.

[Fexalicious]

I'll make a google + account if you want :P

*Pick me pick me!*

((let it be noted I did not offer cookies so this is not bribing))

[Exion_Blade]

Sorry, I thought I had posted here. We're delaying until the end of this week due to the sheer volume of applicants. Currently I think the list has been narrowed down to about 250, but we still need to pare that down to the 30-50 we announced.

I'm curious as to how exactly you "narrow them down".
Specifically, what is it you look at? In-game activity? Forum or other social media postings? Do you record and read their in-game interactions (chat) ?
(hopefully not, im a naughty boy in tribe chat, but not public chat lol)

[SavinDwarf]

In almost any social structure things tend to be driven by the vocal minority, because the silent majority has to become very pissed-off before it decides to open its mouth and speak. Any MMORPG gaming community faces the same problem on a daily basis.

To make matters even worse we have two sub-groups -- those which assist LOTRO in funding the game and those that don't. I'm not saying there is a right and wrong group, just that there are two groups. Since the vast majority of us would like the game to continue to be available and well supported it seems logical that the vast majority of players (paying or free) would like LOTRO to keep the paying members happy and will to continue to support the community with their funds. Most of us would like the game to increase the number of paying members since that provides more funds. That doesn't mean that the free to play group aren't important, but common sense says any other strategy is stupid for all of us - free or paying.

Based on that I think it would be stupid for all of us if council members were also not paying members -- notice I did not say subscription members.

Having said this, its still an imperative that the council consists of people who are able to put the overall good of the community ahead of their own personal agendas. The profile of the perfect council member would include:

1) Articulate and able to write well.

2) Able to analyze problems and pick solutions that will improve things rather than make them worse.

3) Good communicator that work well with others.

4) Able to check their personal agendas at the council door and put the good of the community first.

5) Able to be a voice to the general player community that takes input and gives feedback without allowing things to become personal.

6) Good knowledge of some aspect(s) of the game (since its unlikely that we will find people with good knowledge of all aspects of the game.)
7) Are able to devote a significant amount of time to non-playing activities (probably 10+ hours per week) and not feel like they are losing out. This probably means they enjoy writing and analyzing.

8) A sub-set of the group will probably need to be good with mathematics.

The above list is not exhaustive, but it is a little different to what was described by LOTRO in some subtle ways -- especially in its emphasis. Another way to think about the Player Council is they are like political appointees in that they are meant to be representing the community and not worrying about filling their own pockets (so we are talking about less than 10% of the average politicians we elect LOL!!

Where am I going with this? Based on the above I suggest the following: (maybe LOTRO are already doing some of these things??)

A) LOTRO should decide in advance the types of working groups that should exists in the council and the minimum number of members per group. For example, we may need a working group for each CLASS and probably three members would be a minimum on each group. Without doing this analysis LOTRO will be unable to know how many members are really needed and what skills/knowledge they need to have.

B) The council should come from groups that fund LOTRO. If there is a significant number of people funding LOTRO through the store that are not subscription members then maybe that group needs a voice as well (??). [BTW I'm a VIP subscription member)

C) LOTRO needs to work out which sub-groups need representation. Raiders, Soloers, Crafters, Merchants (make money from trading), Role players, etc. LOTRO should know their sources of income from each sub-group. If they don't already know this they need to hire a good MBA and fix their business model.

D) LOTRO should make a list of skills needed within the group and the minimum number required for each. Skills maybe not be things you would readily think of such as economists, social engineering, behavioral analysts, ergonomic designs analysts, etc. If they don't do this they will end up with a council that is missing major skills.

E) LOTRO needs some form of vetting process to make sure that council members can do the job (write, communicate, work well with others, think things through, etc.). It can't just be trial and error. If the initial council ha more than 40% of its members that shouldn't be on the council it will all fail.

F) LOTRO needs to build a more complete job description for a council member so that people understand exactly what they are expected to do. This hopefully will frighten away egomaniacs who don't want to do any work.

G) Assuming they are missing information to make the above selections intelligently LOTRO may need to have some additional surveys or other means of collecting data.

I think the council can be a huge resource to the community and LOTRO but only if its well organized, has a capable set of members that put the community first, have a clear mission/vision and have the tools to communicate to the players. AND I mean all the players, not just the vocal minority, not just the ones that come to the forums, etc.

I'm sure many will disagree with above, I sure everyone can improve it. I hope the above at least gets the player community thinking about what we need to do to make the player council a success.

Savin the Dwarf,
short of brains,
short of stature,
long on loyalty.

[Sapience]

Just wanted to give everyone a quick update. We're just about there. We're trying to get down to the final 50 and we're a bit stuck. There were so many applications and so many really great applications that we might just increase the size of the council by about 50%.

Tomorrow would be a good day to check your inbox.

[Rucagorn]

Just wanted to give everyone a quick update. We're just about there. We're trying to get down to the final 50 and we're a bit stuck. There were so many applications and so many really great applications that we might just increase the size of the council by about 50%.

Tomorrow would be a good day to check your inbox.

Cheers for the update friend, nice to hear more peeps will be in!
Looking forward to see the Council ''work'' give some fruits
''GL'' all!

[RicardoFurriel]

Just wanted to give everyone a quick update. We're just about there. We're trying to get down to the final 50 and we're a bit stuck. There were so many applications and so many really great applications that we might just increase the size of the council by about 50%.

Tomorrow would be a good day to check your inbox.

I'm sure this was answered in the past but will the members of the council be announced to the public? Or is it a Palentir type of closed beta?

[Garan]

I'm sure this was answered in the past but will the members of the council be announced to the public? Or is it a Palentir type of closed beta?

The list of coucil members will be posted, either by forum name or character name.

EDIT: It was stated in the "Acceptance and Participation" portion of the application page: http://www.lotro.com/en/game/article...player-council

A current list of all council members will be posted to the official forums. Council Members will be identified only by their forum/community name and server name.

However, like the Palantir program, they will be bound by an NDA.

[''Cris''']

Good morning.

Is there still hope for one to apply today and get concidered for the counsil or at the very least for those extra members?

I do indeed know that there has been a long notice for this and though I wanted to send an application back then, I had not make my mind up at the time and later I got myself busy with work and other matters of my own and so it passed out of my heed for a while but now I would welcome the chance to send an application that will get read.

Thank you in advance.

[Lilka]

I'm curious as to how exactly you "narrow them down".
Specifically, what is it you look at? In-game activity? Forum or other social media postings? Do you record and read their in-game interactions (chat) ?
(hopefully not, im a naughty boy in tribe chat, but not public chat lol)

I think you're a bit paranoid. Maybe they just look at 2-3 applications and choose the best of the three? And again and again until 3 becomes 1 and 30 become 10.