Introducing: The DDO Players Council!

[Cordovan]

Click here to find out more about the DDO Players Council, and get the application.

Click here to read our FAQ and NDA.

What is the DDO Players Council?

The DDO Player Council is a group of players selected to provide targeted feedback and valuable suggestions to the DDO Team. This will involve participating in surveys, focused discussions, as well as highly structured and targeted developer chats. Often the topics covered will be elements of game design at their earliest stages, well before they are committed to development or appear in our preview programs like Lamannia.

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. Membership in the council is intended to be yearly, and new members will be added annually.

We will be taking applications for this year's Players Council through Monday, January 20th. We expect to use the week of the 20th to select our applicants, and hope to launch the Council the week of the 27th.

If you have questions or comments about the council in general, or the application and process, please let us know in this thread by replying below. Have fun, and we look forward to seeing your application.

[Cordovan]

NOTE: To assist with feedback, the following is a copy of the Introduction and Application page available here.

We are launching a new effort called the DDO Players Council! Please read this post (and FAQ), and decide whether you’d like to apply. Have fun!

What is the DDO Player Council?

The DDO Player Council is a group of players selected to provide targeted feedback and valuable suggestions to the DDO Team. This will involve participating in surveys, focused discussions, as well as highly structured and targeted developer chats. Often the topics covered will be elements of game design at their earliest stages, well before they are committed to development or appear in our preview programs like Lamannia.
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. Membership in the council is intended to be yearly, and new members will be added annually.

Requirements for Applicants and Nominees:

• Be 18 years of age or older at the time of their application, nomination, or selection for the council. Maintain an active play style during the council’s term of service. (“Active” to be determined by Turbine at its sole discretion.)
• Be in good standing, with no significant violations of Turbine’s Terms of Service, End User License Agreement or Community Guidelines. Accounts must remain free of said violations during the period of service.
• Be from any geographic region officially supported by Dungeons & Dragons Online.
• Council business will be conducted primarily in English. Therefore we request applicants have the ability to communicate with the team and each other via written and spoken English.
• Be able to interact with other members of the Council and Turbine employees in a mature, constructive, and mutually respectful manner.

Acceptance and Participation:

Council members must agree to the terms of our NDA, and agree that any information will not be shared out of the program at any point during or after their service. Violation of the NDA will result in immediate removal from the council and exclusion from all future NDA programs, including beta tests. 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. Real names will not be disclosed to the public without member consent.
Council members serve for the stated calendar year. The 2014 Player Council will serve for all of 2014, etc.
Each Player Council member will be asked, near the end of their term, to nominate fellow council members to a Small Council. This group will be responsible for bringing ideas and suggestions about the performance of the Player Council Program to Turbine’s attention.
Members of the press or those acting in a journalistic/editorial capacity are not eligible to participate on the council.

Members of the Player Council shall:

• Serve for the calendar year in which they are elected.
• Participate in private chats and other scheduled events with the DDO Team.
• Provide feedback to the DDO Team as requested.
• Comment, from time to time, on aspects or elements of upcoming changes before they have reached an Alpha state, and prior to their testing on the Lamannia preview server.
• Participate, from time to time, in the Lamannia Preview Program (and be subject to the rules of that program as well.)
• Assist the Community Team in identifying suggestions and recommendations from the community that match the goals set for the Council.
• Make suggestions and recommendations in accordance with goals set for the council by the DDO Team.
• Participate in and help design focused feedback surveys for the council and the general community.
• From time to time, be asked to help draft a report on the council’s activities for publication to the entire community.
• Recommend players to participate in the Small Council.
• Be guaranteed access to all Beta tests during their term.
• Be provided a private discussion area for interacting with the DDO Team.
• Receive courtesy invitations to player parties or other similar events that take place during their term. (Travel and other expenses associated with these events are the responsibility of the individual.)

The Small Council Shall:

• Participate in a meeting with the DDO Team and Turbine staff if asked.
• Provide feedback to Turbine and the DDO Team on the performance of the Player Council Program.
• Suggest changes, improvements, or revisions to the Player Council Program.

DDO Player Council Application

If you would like to apply or nominate someone to participate in the DDO Player Council, please submit an email toddocouncil@turbine.com with the following information:
1. Real Name
2. Email address
3. Country
4. Are you over the age of 18?
5. Primary Character Name
6. Primary Class
7. Primary Server
8. Primary Guild
9. Maximum level achieved
10. Forum Name
11. Do you use any of the following: Twitter, Facebook, Google+. If so, which?
12. What is your primary play style/focus (raiding, reincarnation, PvP, static grouping, etc. Multiple answers is fine.)
13. During your time with DDO, have you been a Free player? Premium player? VIP? What is your current status, and for how long (approximately?)
14. Do you currently own any of the expansion packs? If so, which (Menace of the Underdark and/or Shadowfell Conspiracy?)
15. What topics are you most interested in discussing?

16. Please provide us with feedback as well!

Please read the following proposal to improve the Adventure Compendium, and give us your feedback and thoughts on the idea . Positive and/or negative comments are fine:

Overview

The current Adventure Compendium UI does not currently address a variety of important quest features. Raids are not listed out separately, and there’s nothing to track the either the new sagas or the new XP ransack. We want to update the Compendium to deal with these issues, without changing the basic concept of the feature (i.e. it’s a bunch of sortable lists of quests.)

Goals:

• Enable you to check your raid timers and raid completions via the Adventure Compendium UI.
• Enable you to check your Saga progress via the Adventure Compendium UI.
• Enable you to check your daily XP bonus or ransack for a particular quest.
• Enable you to find level-appropriate quests that have both Epic and Heroic difficulty.

New Tabs:

Two new tabs would be added to the Adventure Compendium: Raids and Sagas.

The Adventure Tab would change as follows:

• Split the Level column into Epic Level and Heroic Level columns that can be sorted separately. This deals with a long-standing complaint about not always being able to find quests for your level if they have both Heroic and Epic difficulty.
• Add a new XP Bonus/Ransack column. This would be shown as a percentage, ranging from 120% (you’re getting the daily bonus) to 10% (fully ransacked.)
Raids would no longer be displayed on the Adventures Tab, as they would now appear on the Raid tab instead. The Raids Tab is very similar to the Adventures Tab – it has the Search box, the Find Group button, etc. –but has somewhat different columns:
• There’s a new “Completions” column that displays your raid completions out of the 20 needed to get your guaranteed loot.
• There’s a new “Timer” column that displays a countdown timer showing how much time remains before you can play the raid again. There’s a UI option to click and “bypass timer” using shards; the raid bypass timer item from the Store is also still an option.
• There is no XP Bonus/Ransack column (since the raid timer prevents this from being very useful information.)

The Saga Tab is similar in spirit to the Adventures/Wilderness/Raids tabs, but of course is very different under the hood due to the special nature of sagas. The main Sagas Tab displays information on the sagas themselves – that is, on the saga quest chains, and not on the specific quests within the sagas.

The columns in the Sagas Tab display are:

• Saga Name.
• Type. Whether the Saga is made up of Heroic quests or Epic quests.
• Status. Whether this Saga is currently Underway or not.
• Quests Completed. If the Saga is Underway, how many of the Saga’s quests have been completed for this run-through.
• Saga Points. If the Saga is Underway, how many saga points the player has earned so far for this run-through.
• Skips used. Only relevant if the Saga is Underway.
• Skips used as VIP. Only relevant if the Saga is Underway

Sample screen layout for the Sagas Tab:

Search:
Saga Name	Type	Status:	Quests Completed:	Saga Points:	Skips:	VIP Skips:
The Blue Saga	Epic	-	-	-	0/1	0/1
The Green Saga	Heroic	Underway	7/12	24	1/1	0/1
The Red Saga	Epic	Underway	3/24	6	0/1	0/1
Double click on a saga to see the quests in that saga

To see information on the specific quests within a saga, you double-click on the saga’s name on the Sagas Tab. This brings up the Saga Quests Display (ideally in a separate window) which shows the individual component quests in that saga.

[Cordovan]

NOTE: To assist with feedback, the following is a copy of the FAQ and NDA found here.

FAQ

Here are the answers to some Frequently Asked Questions about the DDO Players Council:

What is the DDO Player Council?

The DDO Player Council is a group of players selected to provide targeted feedback and valuable suggestions to the DDO Team. This will involve participating in surveys, focused discussions, as well as highly structured and targeted developer chats. Often the topics covered will be elements of game design at their earliest stages, well before they are committed to development or appear in our preview programs like Lamannia.

How many members will be part of the council?

The DDO Player Council will consist of not less than 10 and not more than 30 players at any point during the term.

What is the “Small Council”?

The small council is a group of 5-7 council members who will be tasked with providing feedback on the DDO Player Council Program and making recommendations for how to improve it in the future.

Does Turbine determine the makeup of the DDO Player Council?

All members of the council will be selected by Turbine in accordance with the eligibility requirements listed in the application. Any player who meets the requirements may apply for a place on the council. Any player may nominate another player for a position by submitting an application on their behalf.

The forums are only one portion of the player base, how will the larger community be heard?

We will extend invitations to some players based on internal research, participation in other feedback groups, and other means we feel appropriate to determining their ability to be a good sample of the general player base on the council.

What if I don’t live in North America?

You may still apply to be on the Council. The goal is to create a diverse group that accurately represents the player base in terms of geography, play style, and interests. We do ask that all applicants be capable of participating in the council in written and spoken English.

Will my participation be kept private?

The DDO Player Council will be covered by a Non-disclosure agreement that all participants must agree to before being added to the council. However, we will publish a list of all players participating in the council. This list will not reveal your real name, but will include your forum name and main server of choice.

I haven’t played DDO in a long time, but I really want to be part of this!

We’re very sorry, but the Player Council is for active players who have been playing DDO regularly within the previous six months. Once you meet those criteria, we’d be happy to have you apply!

How do we know Turbine will listen to us?

All feedback and suggestions provided by the council will be reviewed and considered by the DDO Team. When possible, we will make note of the fact that certain features, changes, or additions are suggested by the council. We may also discuss some aspects of council actions in Developer Chats or developer diaries.

How will the Council be held accountable to the full community?

The role of the council is to provide feedback as requested, and suggestions as appropriate. It is not an elected body answerable to a constituency. Our expectation is that members of the council appreciate their role as a special representative group and seriously consider the interests of all community members when making their suggestions and providing their feedback. We believe the size of the council is sufficient to ensure the majority views are well represented.

How long will the council serve? Can you be on the council forever? Who has oversight of the council?

The council will serve for a period of one calendar year. No player may serve on two consecutive councils. Towards the end of each year the council will be responsible for making recommendations for a small council that will be responsible for suggesting changes and improvements to the council system.

What about players not accepted into the council?

Applicants who were not selected for the council may be called upon to fill vacancies in the council should they arise. In addition we may, from time to time, reach out to the applicant pool for feedback to check the accuracy of council feedback or to provide additional feedback . Also, players not selected must reapply in the future; applications are not carried over from year to year.

How can the general community help bring issues to the attention of the council?

While the Council is not an elected group responsible for aggregating and escalating live issues to the developers, they may reference discussions from the community during Council discussions. Council members are permitted to highlight existing community discussions in order to clarify opinions and feedback in relation to topics they are asked to participate in. We recommend well written, well considered suggestions as the most likely to catch the council’s eye.

What if I’m chosen for the council and people harass or grief me in game because of my participation or if they don’t like suggestions the council made?

Harassment is harassment and a violation of the EULA, TOS and Community Guidelines. Players engaging in this behavior for any reason are subject to action based on the existing prohibitions against harassment.

---

NDA and Confidentiality Reminder

Your participation in the DDO Player council is voluntary and carries with it a non-disclosure and confidentiality agreement in addition to the normal terms of service, EULA, and community guidelines. During your participation in the DDO Player Council, you will have access to non-public information concerning the Game, including without limitation the Game design, look and feel, computer software, game concepts, storylines, features, screen shots, characters, graphics, audio, images, virtual items, Feedback, business methods, Turbine updates, release schedules, information about other players or other information that is not generally known (collectively, the “Confidential Information”).

The Confidential Information is proprietary to Turbine (or its affiliates, publishing partners, licensors or licensees), and you agree to treat as confidential all Confidential Information of which you become aware in connection with your participation in the DDO Player Council, regardless of whether it is in written, oral, electronic or other form.

As a participant, you must maintain all Confidential Information in strict confidence, may not disclose or permit access to Confidential Information to anyone other than Turbine, or discuss Confidential Information with anyone except within the DDO Player Council’s private discussion boards located at www.ddo.com/forums.

[ComicRelief]

I'll nominate GeoffHanna. He's advocated one of these for a while and I think he'd be a good member.

Mind you, I have no idea if he's already applied, or if he would even WANT to be on the team, but that's irrelevant as far as my nominating him, now, isn't it?

[Teh_Troll]

I nominate myself. For obvious reasons.

Seriously, just hire me Chai, Thrudh, and Cestus. If the 4 of us can agree on something it's gotta be right.

[Cordovan]

I nominate myself. For obvious reasons.

Remember: To actually apply, send in the application to ddocouncil@turbine.com.

[MadCookieQueen]

I nominate myself. For obvious reasons.

Seriously, just hire me Chai, Thrudh, and Cestus. If the 4 of us can agree on something it's gotta be right.

I'll second this nomination...only because the level of chaos and wise brain things only Teh_Troll can bring will be epic ^^


(yes, yes, I know, I know...must fill out application)

[murf201]

Please make sure to pick people who have preferred play styles , As well as a few who like to play everything .

They should have knowledge of the workings of most classes , So maybe people who like to splash . And take some pure build players as well .

Just want to make sure you guys get all sides of the story before you make your verdict !!

[stoopid_cowboy]

Just what we need, another "hand selected" group of kiss a** yes-men that will actually do nothing for the game except kiss the backside's of the dev's who have been developing the garbage that is our current game.
Just take a look at the failure that is Mournlands! Hand selected spineless cowards who will not step up to admit what is ****.

Cordy, you already have your focus group, THIS FORUM! You just need to stop ignoring the players and listen to the feedback (ghostbane).

yuda...

[murf201]

I nominate myself. For obvious reasons.

Seriously, just hire me Chai, Thrudh, and Cestus. If the 4 of us can agree on something it's gotta be right.

I second this , Even though i enjoy this mans humor the most , He makes allot of sense when it comes to the games workings !!!

[Teh_Troll]

I'll second this nomination...only because the level of chaos and wise brain things only Teh_Troll can bring will be epic ^^


(yes, yes, I know, I know...must fill out application)

Your husband should apply for this.

[xTethx]

Just what we need, another "hand selected" group of kiss a** yes-men that will actually do nothing for the game except kiss the backside's of the dev's who have been developing the garbage that is our current game.
Just take a look at the failure that is Mournlands! Hand selected spineless cowards who will not step up to admit what is ****.

Cordy, you already have your focus group, THIS FORUM! You just need to stop ignoring the players and listen to the feedback (ghostbane).

yuda...

Ummm the forums have no productive feedback. All I see is nerf this or don't nerf that, and hjeal meh.

[murf201]

It's nice to get a voice for the people that will have direct communication , Hopefully you will listen to them !!

Unlike allot of the stories i heard from mournlands players who mass rejected certain things only to be snubbed .

[waryJerry]

I think this is a terrible idea and I urge you to reconsider--though it looks like this is going to go through whatever the disgruntled few or many say. While I can hardly argue that some players are more capable of intelligent and thoughtful feedback than others this is really more about player relations than feedback and development. There's already the perception about that DDO isn't listening to the players, am I right or wrong about that? This is especially reinforced by the dismissive ticket responses we so often get when submitting a problem to your staff. A DDO Player Council will also give the impression that you don't want to bother sifting through all the player response on the forums but instead are going to get player reaction and feeling filtered through a few players who are approved by you rather than the players at large. There is such a thing as trolls, obviously, but to depend entirely on a bunch of yes men selected by the devs is just wrong for the game. In terms of development also. Again, am I right or wrong in thinking the devs are responsible for some misses as well as some hits? While I can sympathize with any devs who just don't want to deal with player hostility, I must also say that disrespect is sometimes the appropriate response. And this is also a matter of respecting the players: how would you feel if your game was appointing just a few of the approved to speak for the rest of us? It would be a little more valid if the council were appointed by some sort of election--then at least we as players would in some sense be responsible for who we choose to speak for us. I just think this is a terrible idea and I know Turbine has already received some flack by the game press for already doing the same thing at LotRO.

[ArcaneArcher52689]

I nominate myself. For obvious reasons.

Seriously, just hire me Chai, Thrudh, and Cestus. If the 4 of us can agree on something it's gotta be right.

That happens?


Anyways, I do recommend paying close attention to applications of those that run the fan sites.

[Teh_Troll]

Please make sure to pick people who have preferred play styles , As well as a few who like to play everything .

They should have knowledge of the workings of most classes , So maybe people who like to splash . And take some pure build players as well .

Just want to make sure you guys get all sides of the story before you make your verdict !!

Yes. Everything needs an advocate, get a bard and a paladin fanboi involved.

But with that said err on the side of ubber people.

[FranOhmsford]

[B](approximately?)
Please read the following proposal to improve the Adventure Compendium, and give us your feedback and thoughts on the idea . Positive and/or negative comments are fine:

Overview

The current Adventure Compendium UI does not currently address a variety of important quest features. Raids are not listed out separately, and there’s nothing to track the either the new sagas or the new XP ransack. We want to update the Compendium to deal with these issues, without changing the basic concept of the feature (i.e. it’s a bunch of sortable lists of quests.)

Goals:

• Enable you to check your raid timers and raid completions via the Adventure Compendium UI.
• Enable you to check your Saga progress via the Adventure Compendium UI.
• Enable you to check your daily XP bonus or ransack for a particular quest.
• Enable you to find level-appropriate quests that have both Epic and Heroic difficulty.

Love the Idea of Finally Fixing the Adventure Compendium and Having read the Proposal I would be quite happy to see all of the above done.

However...

What about All the Quests that are at the Wrong Levels in Said Compendium e.g. Chamber of Rahmat {lvl 10 instead of 11 like the rest of the Sands Walkups} or Offering of Blood {Lvl 11 instead of 12 like Chains of Flame and Chamber of Raiyum}.

What about the Threnal Giant Caves? Why are these STILL Left out of the Compendium - Add 1/2/4/6 Phiarlan Favour to each and if this crosses the 400 threshold {pretty sure it won't} make sure the Reward is Working.

What about using this Compendium Update to Fix the Long-Standing issue with Quest Pack Level Ranges:
-Catacombs - Final Quest is Lvl 4 for some unknown reason while all the others are Lvl 3.
-STK - Sacred Helm and Kobold Blockade could be moved to level 4 and Halls of Shan to Kor could too {Making whole pack Lvl 4 instead of 3-5}.
-Waterworks - Just make all four quests Lvl 4
-Depths - Just make all four quests Lvl 4 - Doom and Discord aren't really difficult enough to warrant Lvl 5.
-Tangleroot - Level Range of 3-7 {5-9 on Elite} is Ridiculous - Move first two quests to lvl 4 and last two to Lvl 6.
-Deleras - Move 1st quest up to Lvl 6 to better fit in with the rest of the chain - Difficulty wise it's at least equal to Redwillow's Ruins anyway and far more difficult than Mirra's Sleepless Nights or Dead Predators!
-Sorrowdusk - Same Insane Lvl Range issues as Tangleroot - Same Solution - Move 1st two Quests to 7 and last two to 9.
-Threnal - Yup you knew this was coming - Complete Rework Required but for now just move all Quests to Lvl 9 Base and Have done with it.
-Vault of Night - The Prisoner can easily be moved to Lvl 9 and Haywire Foundry to lvl 10 {Heck moving Tharaak Arena to Lvl 9 would help too}.
-Sands - Already mentioned above
-Harbinger of Madness - Move Entire Chain up one Level to 16 - Difficulty Wise 1 and 4 are on par with Vale, 2 and 3 may need upgrading slightly.
-Lords of Dust - Drop 1st quest to Lvl 15.
-Dreaming Dark - Drop ALL Flags to Lvl 18, Drop Dreaming Dark to Lvl 19 But Upgrade Elite XP to Epic Levels!}
-Inspired Quarter - Move I Dream of Jeets and Mindsunder to Lvl 19 {Upgrade Elite XP to Epic Levels!}.
-Amrath - Move ALL Flags to Lvl 20 and Upgrade Hard/Elite XP to Epic Levels, Move Tower of Despair to Lvl 21 and Upgrade ALL XP to Epic Levels!


For later work
-------------

Servants of the Overlord, Spinner of Shadows, Beyond the Rift - Rebalance and Drop Quest Levels to 15.
Reaver's Refuge - Upgrade Quest Lvls of Flags to 18 and Upgrade Stealer of Souls to 20+Raid Difficulty!

Finally
------
ALL Lvl 19 Quests SHOULD provide Epic Level XP on Elite Difficulties as Currently No-One is running these Quests!

[Teh_Troll]

Ummm the forums have no productive feedback. All I see is nerf this or don't nerf that, and hjeal meh.

Good to know you read my posts.

[xTethx]

Good to know you read my posts.

I need something to do when I pike all day on Khyber.

[FranOhmsford]

Remember: To actually apply, send in the application to ddocouncil@turbine.com.

Link doesn't work!

Neither here nor in Original Post!