Right, so I rarely like to engage in these discussions, but in this case I feel that there's a lot of misinformation and assumptions being made. These are not being helped by those of us who use Slack yelling 'get with the program', so here's another perspective.
Let us do away with the following terms: friends with Falcon, CCP contact, interaction with DEVs. Slack does not provide these any more so than existing channels, indeed it has only facilitated what I would term 'pointless' discussion in the medium itself, like the Icelandic weather or story devs cackling like a Lord of Change over our tin foil discussions.
Let us also do away with terms form the other side: search and you will find, everyone knows about X. These are not helpful and the existence of this thread immediately highlights the fallacious premise upon which such statements are made. Those of you, like I, who use slack and have collaborated on ideas may feel attacked, but you are not under any threat here. Let's calm down.
So, to discuss what slack does and does not do. It does not give us an avenue to be buddy buddy with devs in a realistic and game changing manner. We discuss ideas openly with our peers and CCP essentially sits on high, much as they have done in the Summit and more recently in the IGS. It is a content aggregator, where our random thoughts can flow. Some fall off the end of the archive capacity never seen or to be seen again, some get our attention and we collaborate and some get CCP attention and they run with it. Twitter, Facebook and in game mechanisms all have a similar role in this - they are windows onto player created content, not an altar at which we make offerings to CCP.
That Slack gave rise to the recent Drifter corpse collaboration is almost coincidental. It facilitated the discussion of Anslo, Miz, Kalo and Kyber. Much of this collaboration happened behind closed doors, to the point where I did not even know Kyber was involved till the report came out. At some point someone on slack suggested they mail it in to CCP (as we once did for the faction actors), and they did. They got a response not due to the medium that forged their team or allowed discussion with outside elements, but because of the perceived quality of their work. It was good content, in line with the current storyline (which is all CCP have the resources to deal with I'd wager) and respectfully vague/hypothetical, allowing CCP to mold it to their whims.
The report itself was compiled without CCP input and Slack only provided the basis for these people to get in touch. It is not a magical tool for content generation, but it is a direct IV of player hypotheses and banter that anyone, CCP staff included, can peruse at their leisure. And this is the important point - the tool makes it simple to view potential content. Ease of viewing means ease of potential integration when you find a piece that you think matches, and CCP is rightfully driven to integrate player stories in every way due to the recent successes they have had marketing that aspect.
Slack is not the path to godhood some are selling it as or believe it to be. No more than any other means of contacting CCP. Consider this analogy: closed content submission to CCP is like a pipe. They want good stuff but in the pipe only a few things are visible form the end at a time. To get more you need more pipes, which means more observers. The bandwidth on content aggregation is low. On an open medium, such as social networks, forums and Slack; the content is viewable moving past you in open water. You can wade in and pick what you want. If you're not watching when something flows past, too bad - the content creator may resubmit or think of a new idea entirely and so that potential content flows off the end into nothingness. When choosing a medium to interact with, the time limited and resource constrained nature of CCP story line development involving our interaction will push them inevitably to the open medium. And yet they have still maintained a professional personal distance from us.
TL;DR: Slack is a workflow stream lining tool that is like IRC but with inline imaging and is a good way for players to discuss things WITH EACH OTHER. Do not expect CCP involvement or response unless they want ownership of your idea. It is not required for interaction - post good content anywhere and it is likely that those of us who ARE using slack will link it just because we like sharing cool things to do with our EVE passion. But obviously the more content streams you dabble in, the higher the chance of being spotted.
I hope this clears things up and I would appreciate if my fellow Slackers could assist anyone interested in using that medium to do so. Keep up the content creation everyone - those contributions that shine are promoted by the players, not selected by CCP form an altar of offerings - and by getting our attention and respect for a job well done, you market yourselves to CCP.
To make a point in a grandiose fashion: Look not to CCP for they look upon us dispassionately, but instead look to your fellow players, for when they clamor for your idea to be heard, then CCP knows they have something they can take to market.
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Topic: "Out of Game" and le devs (Read 14397 times)