This really does sound like a great idea my good man.

This has nothing to do with popularity or lack there-of. The player commission is formed to get ideas moving so they don't sit idle with one or no responses in the suggestions forum. All ideas are voted upon by those chosen to be on the commission. I'm sure the admins/commission leader are going to pick an all around initial crew comprised of vocal people, not just who they favor.

To say 'Poor choice to give in to this' without giving it a chance, says a lot about how you feel about current staff and future commission members.

hmm i cant wait for this i feel there will be alot of changes happening to this world of ours soon and im eagerly awaiting.

I to hope i can offer my 2cents and contribute to the ideas

I'm interested to see how serious the users take this. Personally I hope they take it to heart and use it as a resourceful tool. Many ideas are brought up that start out beautiful but don't bud because they're abandoned.

Time and change can only show if someone sees the potential there to help bring it to light. This should do great things.

I've been debating whether or not to say anything here regarding Arista's comments, given that I have a propensity for being shot for speaking my mind - even here on the OOC forum and, well, I really like this name so I kind of hope that doesn't happen... but then, keeping my mouth shut because I might get shot has never been my way either, so oh well.

Arista, I want to discuss your final line here: "To say 'Poor choice to give in to this' without giving it a chance, says a lot about how you feel about current staff and future commission members."

You are, absolutely, 100% correct. It does say a lot about how I feel about future commission members. Frankly, it says a lot about how I feel about humanity in general. I am, by nature, an incredible cynic. I do not believe in the better angels of our nature, but I WANT to, I do. For all my cynicism I am an idealist at heart and HOPE that this Commission will be an incredible asset to this game and want to see it do well. But I've been burned by people in power too many times to think that's realistic.

The simple fact of the matter is, I fully believe that people in power will either flat-out decide (if they are on the commission) or put pressure on others (if they are not) to deny any suggestion that would make the game better but make things even the tiniest more difficult for them. It is, I believe, simply human nature.

I hope I'm wrong, I do, I really really do.

Whilst I believe that we should wait until this commission is in operation before passing comment as to the success or failure of it, I would like to draw attention back to the process outlined by Squishy in the original post.

Before I start, this is based purely on my own interpretation and could later be corrected by an Administrator. Anyway:

• Users submit ideas/modifications to the Suggestions forum.

This is stage one, where ideas are freely available for everyone to see. This will allow everyone to assess the merits of them and comment upon them - commission member or not,

• It will remain in the users suggestion forum for a few days to gather user input.

Assuming an idea is feasible, I imagine someone within the 13 will sponsor it. This is again going to allow further public scrutiny of any potential idea, allowing everyone to have their say.

• Once a bill has two sponsors it gets moved to the public commission forum. At this point, all of the commissioners massage the idea until it is complete (All public, except for specific math which is private).

The commissioners now get the opportunity to tamper and improve the suggestion until it is something workable. This is following plenty of time for general userbase discussion. Again, it seems difficult that any workable ideas would be discarded without at least reaching this stage.

• It is then put up for a vote, if it meets a certain % of approval, then it is kicked up to myself for final veto if needed.

Unless an idea is completely unworkable, I do not think Squishy will end up veto'ing many suggestions - especially if it is so heavily approved by the userbase.

To me, this system allows too much public scrutiny for all 13 people to suddenly cave in to the pressure of someone else. Frankly, if that occurs, it'll only happen for 45 days until people who actually care about the betterment of the game rather than themselves are elevated to these positions. I know there are people here are not afraid to hinder their personal success for the welfare of the game and I would certainly vote for them, regardless of their player loyalties or my personal relationship with them. Similarly, if others do the same, we will eventually end up with a system that works.

Therefore, the blueprints look good and will hopefully be evidenced by acceptable results in the fullness of time.

~C~

I'll have to take a look at this :D

Interesting concept. I'm interested to see how this pans out.

Is this exiting venture still in development?

(Yes I know 2 months was stated, just interested if there is still significant interest)

Klasky, last time I spoke with anyone, yes it is still going to be happening. I think it is a brilliant idea, it will greatly increase our (players) all ready huge amount of input into the game as well as a bit of relief for our as always overworked admins. As far as abuse goes - there is potential for anything to be abused but i think the way this is being set up will hinder most if not all abuse. As far as intimidation goes - are any of us that afraid of losing a game character that we would let someone get away with that? I would hope not! I would also hope no one would attempt intimidation. This is for the betterment of "our world" that most of us so enjoy, we come back over and over despite disputes regarding how things are being run or the normal person to person occasional disagreements.

So, to our "gods" and others behind this, brilliant as always and am looking forward to it starting!

Excellent! Like a type of User Congress to push or deny changes for the game.

I truly hope this is still happening, as it will speed up important changes and keep the Admins' focus in tune with the players' ideas.

Great idea and way for us all to come together and make the game better!