Candidate: Soraya Xel

Website   Twitter   Forum thread  

Campaign statement

Experience in Dust

I have played a wide variety of roles since first entering the game during closed beta, just before E3 2012. In my primary role, I am an alliance leader of the Top Men alliance, one of the longest running and most stable alliances in the game. I've participated in Planetary Conquest regularly since it's launch, if not always frequently.

I have the strong familiarity with a variety of anti-vehicle weapons, the medium assault rifles, laser rifles, and sniper rifles. I have over 40 million skill points, and have participated in almost every event CCP has run for DUST. I've also played EVE Online for five years.

More recently, I have started a podcast in partnership with Pokey Dravon and Jaysyn Larrisen about DUST 514 and Legion called Biomassed. We regularly have hosted CPM0 members, CPM1 candidates, and other active members of the community.

Real life experience

I am a full-time System Administrator at a printing company, managing and maintaining web servers, file servers, and user desktops. I have a bachelor's degree in Game and Simulation Programming and have worked with a variety of game development tools including the Unreal 3 development kit. As an aficionado of both MMO and FPS genres individually, I have a strong love for the hybrid nature that DUST 514 is supposed to embody.

Questions

What are the top three issues currently facing Dust 514 and why?

1. New Player Experience Issues - Players aren't sticking around long enough to be drawn into the intense and exciting universe of New Eden. A poor introductory experience, and a sudden wall of difficulty at the exit of the Academy do not leave players wanting more.

2. No Concrete Details on Legion - CCP needs to commit to what they are or aren't doing for Legion, and particularly how they're going to respect the hard work and investment of DUST 514 players. To be clear, that does refer to a community of console players.

3. Lack of Client Updates for DUST - CCP Rattati's hotfixes have done wonders for the game with limited resources, but with the added ability to do client updates, we can ensure DUST 514 does become a truly compelling and quality first-person shooter, if not the hybrid MMO we all wanted.

Why will you be an effective CPM member?

I have a very strong technical background, in both IT and development, and an appreciation for the software development life cycle and the business implications of decisions. I feel that I can help put player feedback in terms that are relevant and valuable to CCP from a business sense, and set expectations at a reasonable level. The CPM needs to help communicate the community's needs in an applicable method to CCP's business strategy.

I am also extremely available online most times of day, and spend a lot of time on forums and chat channels. I aim to be the most accessible CPM, in that I want to be able to respond and engage with every player who comes forward with feedback as readily as possible.

In what way do you think the CPM can be improved?

More regular, more centralized communication with the playerbase. I have a lot of respect for CPM0, and I rarely had difficulty communicating with them when I needed to. But I also had to put in more effort than I should've had to. I had to personally reach out to CPM members to find out what was going on, and communication from CPM could come over a variety of channels: Skype, IRC, forum posts, and more. (CCP has a similar issue themselves.) The CPM needs to ensure everything they have to say makes it to the forums, where it can be found.

In addition, as a co-host of the Biomassed podcast, I want to ensure the community hears from CPM members regularly. I will continue to be an active host of Biomassed weekly, whether or not I am elected, and all CPM members will continue to be welcome there. As mentioned above, this should be an additional format for any CPM communication, but not in lieu of good, well-organized forum posts.

If a player wants to get in touch with you, the best way to contact you is:

The best ways are to reach out to me directly via email (soraya@biomassed.net), Skype (ocdtrekkie), or through the in-game mail system. I will respond as soon as humanly possible. If you'd like to hear my thoughts on any forum thread at any time, please include a link, or directions on how to find it.

What is your opinion on Project Legion?

I am very disappointed with CCP's decision with regards to Legion. I am, actually, primarily a PC gamer, with no particular love for consoles. But the game isn't about the maps and the weapons; DUST 514 is it's community, it's culture, and it's players. And that community is a group of console players. While I am excited for the future mechanics and gameplay Legion may bring, I do not feel that moving to PC is treating their customers who have been with them all this time right.

I hope Legion is a great game, and I hope CCP takes the CPM's feedback strongly into account for the development of Legion. But Legion won't be better because it's a PC game, and DUST 514 didn't fail to meet expectations because it's a PS3 game. It wasn't the PlayStation's fault, or Sony's fault, or the fault of the console community not being big enough or interested enough. It was CCP's fault. And while some PC gamers will claim different, here's the truth: If Legion is a better game, it's because CCP learned from it's mistakes they made with DUST, not because they decided to go with PC instead of PS4.