Suggestion: community manager

I am curious... Does the Design Team read these forums?

I don't think they should read these forums to be honest. They have to develop card ideas focused on the set they are working on, and this is a scatter-shot of ideas.

However, I suggest there be a member of the design team whose task is to read these forums. Ideally this person would not be responsible for designing cards, but instead to facilitate the sharing of ideas.

A lot of these card ideas presented on these forums have a good kernel of an idea that could be developed. There are also a lot of new and interesting ways of looking at things.

The game can benefit a lot from these ideas, and a formal way to include the community discussion in the design process will go a long way.

This is a good idea. There have been volunteers in the past that have offered to mine the card idea threads and create a database of cards and ideas. However, it is a huge undertaking and none of the volunteers ever followed through.
Is this something you are will to do?
If so, we can discuss possible ways to proceed.

Thanks,

With respect, why do we need yet another volunteer to do this?

Why not just state in the various Design Team position's job description that this is something that they need to do? If someone doesn't wish to commit some of their personal time doing this, maybe they aren't the type of person that best fits on the Design Team.

Yes, the Design Team are volunteers. But if they have such a busy social and/or family life and/or work schedule then I would submit that perhaps they aren't sufficiently dedicated to the design process as they should be.

Hi Kevin,
If there was money to pay someone to look, I bet we could find someone. But for now, volunteers is all there is.
I have asked a few people about researching the new card threads. My favorite reply had to do with preferring daggers in the eyes.
It is a daunting amount of material to wade through. I guess that is why everyone that says they will do it, does not follow through.
What I am hoping to get is a data base of cards to use as a resource for future design. LSJ had such a data base and as I understand it, it was a great resource when it came time to design new sets. If V:EKN had such a thing, I think it could be very useful.
If you have time, or know someone that does, please contact me.
Oh, and I do not write the design team job descriptions. Although I may volunteer to do so in the future.

Thanks,

I really wish I could help out, but I don't have a good track record of following through on projects, and I am not an organized individual which would be a desirable trait.

And one of the problems with asking an existing designer to read through the forums is that it's hard to be objective about giving criticism and offering suggestions when you are one of the people designing the cards.

The reason I suggested this idea, is because I play a couple of MMOs, which uses the forums as a feedback mechanism. They have people whose jobs it is to read the forums and bring back feedback to the designers. I would also like to note that it is not the ONLY feedback, they do have their own in-house testers as well raw data gleaned from the servers.

While this may not be a computer game, there are some techniques that could be adapted to the development of a CCG, especially one that will be a print and play set.

I am beginning on doing some preliminary research into Google docs. It looks like you can create forms, where someone can input data and you can view the results as a summary or a spreadsheet.

It looks like it might be a good way to create a database of card ideas in which anyone can submit the ideas. When I have more time I will create a form and try it out.