Player Councillor Elections

[FtXCommando]

Please read /viewtopic.php?f=2&t=17392 before posting in this thread.

Hey everyone,

This thread will serve as the place for candidates to present themselves and explain why they should have the position. It also serves as the place for where potential voters can ask questions about candidates and inquire about platforms. For the sake of fairness, I will not personally try to moderate anything that goes on in this thread as I am also running, and so I will leave it up to the moderators to decide what crosses the line.

Applications will be open until the voting period starts next month. At that point, this thread will be closed.

So, if you wish to apply, please state (at a minimum) the following information below in a forum post:

- Your FAF Username
- Your conception of the role of Player Councillor
- What you plan on doing as Player Councillor
- Any skills/experience that prove you are capable for the role
- A pledge (can be an individual one or just the general Player Councillor one)

Councillors may come in and ask their own individual questions about candidates. Anything that officially comes from the Council as a whole will either be posted by me in this thread and clearly mentioned as such or by Sheeo.

Good luck to all that apply.

https://voting.faforever.com/vote

Vote is live

[FtXCommando]

So as it turns out my talents for complaining don’t really mesh well when I’m supposed to be making myself look good. I’ll try my best to explain what’s been going on the past year, though.

When I took the spot of PC last year I was very interested in the challenge of creating as objective of a process as possible on subjective matters. Whether that came from looking over community interests, reforming various aspects of tournaments, or the ever well-loved ladder pool system.

However at the same time as we’ve progressed along the year I’ve noticed some flaws in the way I’ve implemented things and have tried to fine-tune the systems I’ve put in place to meet the general needs of the playerbase.

Let’s start by looking at perhaps the most basic of the three groups that the PC is responsible for overseeing: trainers. The training team hasn’t seen too much change outside of the updating of the list of trainers so that people would no longer be looking for long-gone names. The biggest changes that have come to this aspect of FAF was the inclusion of new training guides on the FAF wiki.

I don’t expect too much to be altered on the training aspect of FAF as for the most part it’s a relatively hands off process. My role is centered on making sure the information and ability to contact trainers while also independently learning FAF exists and can be reached in an easy manner, and for the most part that’s what we currently have.

I do plan on updating some forum threads to take players to the wiki and adding additional segments to the current guides we have there, though.

After trainers we have the next group: Tournament Directors. Like trainers, I’ve spent time updating both the rules of tournaments to prevent the controversies that started arising last year as well as the list of TDs so that people could contact active, available hosts. I’ve also established a Discord chat to allow TDs to make last minute coverage requests in the case they are required.

One major difference between trainers and TDs at the present moment is that we’re certainly nowhere near a point of overabundance of TDs. I’ve tried to lower the barrier of entry as much as possible for TDs and am hopeful that the coming year will lead to some more organizers.

Other than providing funds and some input for tournament design, I try to go with the philosophy of “every TD a king” and keep my interference in their events minimal unless arbitration due to a rule violation happens.

And now the last but perhaps most ‘dense’ role: Ladder Team. There’s probably nothing quite as controversial as making ladder pools.

Pool too big
Pool too small
Old Maps stale
New Maps pale
Pool too green
The PC mean
Something change!

So anyway over the year I’ve done some refining of the automation formula in order to meet as many interests as possible. I’ve increased the minimum quality required for a map to be implemented while also adjusting weights for rating values and having fewer unconventional maps per pool.

Now some of you may be wondering why this TRASH system even needs to exist. Why not just pick 10 of the top 25 maps for the rest of FAF’s existence, who cares? Well for one, ladder serves several purposes and I’ve always felt that maintaining a pool of only the generic classic GPG maps that people are used to seeing for thousands of games isn’t exactly beneficial to the overall community. That may satiate some competitive elements within ladder but some people enjoy being able to get a map that breaks the typical mold. Likewise, I try to include new maps that show some promise in order to have some subtle encouragement for mappers. The maps designed for 1v1 that do not see ladder play have a very hard time breaching a few dozen games and I’d like to be able to show that the FAF community does value their local contributors by giving them the recognition of making a map worth playing.

As always, I’ll continue to adjust the variables to improve pools while taking into account the ladder poll survey results in order to see whether the veteran and more casual ladder experience coincide in values.

BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE! Funny enough a lot of the grandiose ideas I had in my initial PC application last year have only just started. Why is that you may ask? Well, ICE is no longer soon(tm) which means that a lot of the promised groundwork for features like team matchmaker has now been laid. But why does this matter?

Well, imagine you were PC and had to deal with making pools that were held to the same scrutiny as the current 1v1 pool is. Now imagine having to do that all the way up to 4v4 games. Now imagine having to do that manually. While some people might have grievances with the automation process of pools, I am a firm believer that it is necessary for the longterm benefit of both FAF player experience and the sanity of PCs. It is simply going to be far too much regular work to maintain this quantity of pools by hand. So, overall, I not only plan on optimizing the current 1v1 pool selection but I also plan on branching out into selecting teamgame maps and rating them for their gameplay in order to get a gauge on how to realistically structure these future pools.

I also do in fact plan on creating a pool public vote immediately once the election is over and adjusting the pool to those results.

So now that we got the “jobs” out of the way, there’s still the general issue of communication. Contrary to popular opinion, there are in fact two major highways of information for the PC to relay. He is not only giving player concerns to devs and organizing/preventing potential issues they may face, but he’s also explaining why certain things are done the way they are on FAF.

I’m not going to lie, I basically came into this position with zero real knowledge on how things were structured internally, why things were worked on when/where they were, who was working on what, what their potential talents are, how to properly utilize the knowledge of certain aspects of the community, and many other things. I’m definitely not claiming to be a master at it now, but I definitely DO think there was a reason I was so in the dark before my PC position. I was constantly active on just about every FAF medium (outside of slack but I still read it occasionally) before my term but I still didn’t know anything about who to talk to for certain things. Now that’s changed.

I’ve made it a major goal of mine to keep anyone curious about FAF informed about why things are the way they are. Balance changes, client updates, ladder work, moderation controversies, council news, financial concerns, anything. Whether it’s the forums, aeolus, discord, or slack I’m present as much as I possibly can be to at least provide the underlying logic for why actions occurred. As in the end everyone here is working to improve and play in a community they hope to see prosper and helping people see the vision of others is necessary for people to cooperate rather than antagonize strawmen they develop in their corners.

Overall, if you like the way things are or you think they are going in the proper direction but could use some adjustments, I’m still willing to put work into the position and I’m always open to taking some extra help.

As a nominee for The Players Councillor, I pledge that:
- I will spend at least 4 hours per week working on These Responsibilities.
- I will be available at least 2 hours every other week for a voice call to discuss these Responsibilities and the responsibilities of other FAF Councilors.
- I will use and be available on the FAF Slack (chat) as much as possible.
- I will do my best to help the other Councilors perform their responsibilities.
- I understand that if I am unable to perform these duties, I will resign or be replaced.

[Cuddles]

Nominating Blodir.

Also bad ftx taking first spot on the thread giving yourself unfair advantage.

[Morax]

What is Blodir going to do that FTX is not? He has a chance to write if he likes, just as anyone else does.

Now, the council deciding who can run is another matter...

[FtXCommando]

You cannot make a pledge for someone in their name. That in itself makes proxy nomination impossible.

[Bennis-]

I am applying for Player Coucillor

- Your FAF Username

epic-benniS
- Your conception of the role of Player Councillor

Be a spokesperson for the players, manage the ladder map pool, forward balance issues from the active player base to the devs, be an interaface between faf player base sentiments and moderation team


- What you plan on doing as Player Councillor

Reduce map pool size

- Any skills/experience that prove you are capable for the role

I am an active streamer, player, I was clan leader in a few online games and I play faf alot, care about it alot, im online all the time etc.

- A pledge (can be an individual one or just the general Player Councillor one)

all the cool people

[BigBob]

I nominate myself

- Your FAF Username

Klongress

- Your conception of the role of Player Councillor

middle management. being the bridge between the Moderation and Player base, whilst making sure either sides terrible ideas don't make it to fruition

- What you plan on doing as Player Councillor

Promote a more rigorous method towards banning people to limit misuse by Mods to fulfill personal Vendettas

- Any skills/experience that prove you are capable for the role

I have skills communicating and relating with the mentally and physically handicapped

- A pledge (can be an individual one or just the general Player Councillor one)

Do you Breathe?

[Syndicus]

ftx versus bennis is like hillary versus trump

hillary is the incumbent that supports the stagnate boring balance brought about by his friends. Wants power at all costs.

trump is the wild change agent. A crazy person that's ultimate goal is the will of the people. He might even get heaven back into the game, 30 percent of faf is lost without heaven. He might hurt some feelings on the way.

[Laticlave]

Figured I might as well just apply.

- Your FAF Username
Laticlave

- Your conception of the role of Player Councillor
A mediating role between the FAF administration and the player base. Also a tool in giving the FAF admins a feedback on player experience and concerns.

- What you plan on doing as Player Councillor
Act in any way I can to ensure everything is set to promote a steady and consistent community growth, make sure to identify blockroads or new player experience matters more advanced/confirmed players kind of naturally forget. Most of the focus will be on playerbase growth, retention rates and making the game more competitive in the long run with healthier amount of high skilled players.

- Any skills/experience that prove you are capable for the role
I speak several languages (French, English, Spanish), I have experience programming and knowledge of how modding and game engines work. I have a realistic idea of what the reality of game development is, especially when done for free by a community. I'm aware of the issue faf faces while also being a relatively newer addition to the faf community. I am willing to work seriously for faf and identify some of the issues the game is facing right now and I feel these are nowhere near insurmountable.


- A pledge (can be an individual one or just the general Player Councillor one)
Sup mom

[FtXCommando]

Made my post.