Class specific MVPs - Blue Tracker

#0 - Oct. 14, 2010, 5:28 p.m.

I was wondering what people think of the idea of class MVPs. The current MVPs we have do a great job of community discussion and keeping things on topic (or at least as much as they can with some people that frequent these forums). Their information is generally very helpful or keeps discussion going in good taste. But it's generalized.

Many years ago I played a game called Shadowbane. It was a hardcore PvP game that some people may be familiar with. One of the things the devs did for their forums were to choose very knowledgeable people to represent a specific class. This election was in part submitting an essay to the developers about their knowledge of the class and why they think they would be good as the Class Leader as well in part as how that person behaved on the forums. The class leaders would be the premier go to person to learn things about your class and to get help in furthering their knowledge. Also the class leader was the direct voice of the players to the devs, often times meeting with the devs to bring the latest concern of the player base to their ears.

The way the WoW forums are now, a person asking for help with something, rather they be new or a vet trying to understand some new aspect of the game, is met a lot of time with derision, name calling, or posts that quickly degenerate into discussion of how that person's gear sucks so they could not possibly be a good player and cannot therefor be helped. I know there are many people who are helpful and try to answer questions with good taste, but often time these voices can be lost in the crowd and not seen by the people looking for help.

So I propose the idea of Class Leaders for the WoW community. People who are very knowledgeable in the class, who conduct forum business with exceptional taste, and who can bring the voice of the player base to the ears of the devs. They would have a colored name like the MVPs, but perhaps a different color (in shadowbane they were pink names). In this way someone can easily see the response of the Class Leader and trust that they will get direct help, or at least pointed to where they can find the information.

TL;DR: The idea of class specific MVPs with a different colored name then general MVPs, who can help people with their class with good conduct. Also be the direct liaison of the playerbase to the devs.

Nethaera

#3 - Oct. 14, 2010, 5:52 p.m.

Q u o t e:
I was wondering what people think of the idea of class MVPs. The current MVPs we have do a great job of community discussion and keeping things on topic (or at least as much as they can with some people that frequent these forums). Their information is generally very helpful or keeps discussion going in good taste. But it's generalized.

Many years ago I played a game called Shadowbane. It was a hardcore PvP game that some people may be familiar with. One of the things the devs did for their forums were to choose very knowledgeable people to represent a specific class. This election was in part submitting an essay to the developers about their knowledge of the class and why they think they would be good as the Class Leader as well in part as how that person behaved on the forums. The class leaders would be the premier go to person to learn things about your class and to get help in furthering their knowledge. Also the class leader was the direct voice of the players to the devs, often times meeting with the devs to bring the latest concern of the player base to their ears.

The way the WoW forums are now, a person asking for help with something, rather they be new or a vet trying to understand some new aspect of the game, is met a lot of time with derision, name calling, or posts that quickly degenerate into discussion of how that person's gear sucks so they could not possibly be a good player and cannot therefor be helped. I know there are many people who are helpful and try to answer questions with good taste, but often time these voices can be lost in the crowd and not seen by the people looking for help.

So I propose the idea of Class Leaders for the WoW community. People who are very knowledgeable in the class, who conduct forum business with exceptional taste, and who can bring the voice of the player base to the ears of the devs. They would have a colored name like the MVPs, but perhaps a different color (in shadowbane they were pink names). In this way someone can easily see the response of the Class Leader and trust that they will get direct help, or at least pointed to where they can find the information.

TL;DR: The idea of class specific MVPs with a different colored name then general MVPs, who can help people with their class with good conduct. Also be the direct liaison of the playerbase to the devs.

While it's a noble idea, (of which I'm very familiar with the concept in more than just the game you mentioned) we generally like to have our MVPs chosen based on their overall community contributions. I'm not saying it couldn't ever happen, but it's a very large burden to put on any one or two people in a large community such as this with so many ideas of what is "good" or "bad" for each class. You'll also notice that the MVPs we do have are somewhat forthright about their own classes and professions and we are always open to adding more MVPs to the program should we find the right people. While we may not call them class MVPs, having people who are familiar with the various classes and able to hop in to various community threads is always helpful.

Nethaera

#13 - Oct. 14, 2010, 6:15 p.m.

Q u o t e:

Neth, I don't care what color your text is; you are an MVP to me.

Awww, Thanks!