Summary: This week Cari is joined by Ilaadrien, and Rorrg. We talk about the players council, and get a special musical interlude. Audio Version: What We Did in Game Ilaadrien (E-La) Scraids Rorgg Entwood grinding on 2 toons, starting a third Weekly crafting Cari Finished up what I wanted to do of the Anniversary Festival Did some Lowbie Leveling News Player’s Council Announced https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?547180-Introducing-the-2014-LOTRO-Players-Council 2013 Players Council NDA Dropped https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?547387-2013-Player-Council https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WopjmfLnsg4&feature=youtu.be Just a focus group a really early focus group but a focus group. Taking the Hobbits to Isengard Questions https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?539143-Hobbits-to-Isengard-Q-A-with-Sapience-notes-on-what-was-said&highlight=hobbits+to+isengard What do you think was the most positive aspect or influence of working with last year’s Players Council Multiple attachments in email was pretty good. That and probably just really helping to bring the concept of working with a core group of players to the company as a whole. He thinks probably their best achievement is that DDO now has a Players Council, there is an additional year for the LotRO council. And frankly they are seeing really positive things internally coming from this, in terms of the quality of feedback that they’re getting from the group, and expect to get from next year’s council. A smaller group of players like that lets them have more open communication with that group, which helps things too. A lot of people don’t know, but Rowan actually was involved with the formation of the first council before he went over to DDO. Now that he’s back, he’s already jumped in with the 2014 group, who are already hard at work even before they’ve officially announced them. So he thinks that’s one of the biggest achievements – that it’s proven its worth and value internally, which results in really good things for the players externally in the long run, even if some of the things aren’t seen straight out. Question about checks and balances on the council That is not anything the council even represents. It’s way outside its goal and purpose and to have something like checks and balances and veto powers are so far outside the realm of the concept that they aren’t even a consideration, honestly. Any news on the lottery system YES! The previous lottery system no longer exists, and will not be returning. However, he’s supposed to be having a sit-down later this week with a couple of engineers to talk about bringing in an entirely new system. One that works better and functions more like a lottery and less like a raffle. It won’t be out anytime soon, but as long as the scope doesn’t get too crazy they are talking about building a new one. The old system was terribly named because it was more of a raffle – you’d enter and then the system would go in and pick a winner from those who entered. Instead of like a lottery where you’ve got a number and then people who are assigned numbers, and if the two match, you have a winner. There is a slight possibility based on discussions so far that it may function more like a lever pull, but the whole lottery thing is just a really broad discussion at this point. But a discussion will be taking place on what a new lottery should be, how it should function, etc. Also keep in mind the lottery system exists completely outside the game. Comparing the two it could be argued, how are hobbit gifts any different from the lottery? The only real difference is that with hobbit presents you can get extra pulls for a cost, whereas with the new system you would not be able to buy more pulls. With the old system another big issue was that when they’d post a higher valued item, they’d inevitably get a ton of entries, so people’s chances of winning would plummet.
