Necessary: A Community

Most of our "Necessary" pieces to date have called on the developers to consider certain things, to ponder adding particular elements we think are important. This piece is a little different and is directed at the Player Base. Because you, more than any other component, will be the engine that drives Dust 514 above the stratosphere or into the ground. If you're reading this, you will quite possibly be one of the potentially millions of players who will reside in New Eden and you'll also decide if its a place you'll remain.


That being said, we have to start holding ourselves to a higher standard. Many shooter fans have dreamed about a game with true Depth and Persistence, and we've complained endlessly about the current crop of shooters that we have to choose from. Dust has been built up as this Holy Grail of sorts by players who've had an early taste of the MMOFPS genre, with games like Planetside, MAG and others. For many of us the anticipation is almost a year old, as this is quite simply; the game we've waited for all our lives. But we ask you, are we certain we're ready for this level of commitment? Are we prepared for this amount of freedom, consequences and attention to detail? It's something to consider, no doubt. Many of us are, some of us THINK WE ARE, but whether we truly are remains to be seen. One of the first things we can do to help push Dust 514 to achieve its full potential is to become a real and tangible community of players: Citizens of New Eden, if you will.

A person who understands they're part of a community accepts that things won't be done within that society that only benefit them. They agree that decisions should be based on how they affect the entire group. A community shares many of the same values and is cohesive. Railing against a deep training mode, rockets that are too powerful or New Player Experience because you don't need one or think its "unnecessary" doesn't serve the whole and neglects the greater good. Whining about too big (or too small) of a player count, recoil or lack of skill-based gun mechanics serves no one. Especially if they're things all players have to deal with. The majority of players must be considered when making decisions. There's no doubt that we must consider and take into account the minority as well, but changes can't be made that only suit a small percentage of the populace.

The EVE Universe has been active for almost ten years and long-time EVE players aren't rolling out the red carpet. You are not the top of the food chain or at all notable. You may fail countless times before you taste success. ACCEPT IT. Let's not complain about changes in gameplay before we've tried to adapt and alter our usual gameplay style to one that may be more successful. This is a new frontier, it will not be business as usual.

We have to temper expectations and be realistic and reasonable. The game doesn't suck if it doesn't have jetpacks, the hit-detection isn't like MAG's was and isn't "noobish" if it has a low health/high damage weapons balance. Maybe the clan features aren't to your exact specifications, but consider this: Is the gameplay stellar overall? Do you think it has a future? Because of countless broken developer promises, gamers are understandably wary of phrases like "it's a process" or "we're looking into it" but is it possible some of these things may be addressed in the future? If the answer to those questions is yes, stick around. retail launch may just be the beginning of an experience that will be slowly transformed into a masterpiece.

Contribute with a solution if you have an issue. Maybe you think only snipers should have the ability to mark enemy targets or that maps should have grids. Start by contributing your feedback on the beta forums in an organized and intelligent fashion, but understand that just because developers don't respond to your every post it doesn't mean they haven't been read. Most of all, consider the fact that sometimes the thing you want may not be part of the vision that the developers have for the game, and that the answer could be NO. Developers have a vision that they want to deliver, and maybe the tech for grid-based maps interferes with rendering/scaling too much hurting the game graphically. We're speculating here but we have to trust the developers to see the big picture.

FACT: You won't like everything. But have some perspective when it comes to your expectations. Maybe you hate that quick-scoping, grenade arc and knifing are poorly done, but what about the fact that you have a truly persistent game with an in-game economy, a ridiculous amount of weapons and equipment to choose from, in addition to a game so tactical you can place assets on the battlefield where you see fit. Let's make sure we pick our battles. When all else fails list the game's Pros and Cons and then decide if your issues are worthy of complaint, sometimes the thing that we dislike isn't as big an issue as we would believe.

In the end, let's do our part to push CCP to make Dust into the best game it can be by being helpful as a group, as a community. EVE already has the CSM, and we honestly can't think of a better entity to bridge the gap between community and developer than that. Hopefully Dust will have something similar to help foster a true community there as well. Let's organize our concerns, issues and dislikes and help them improve on the great platform they've created. Our blog will do our best to provide a platform for communicating Beta/Community issues. Let's have dialog, and most of all let's have a positive disposition. If you've been waiting for true MMOFPS for as long as many of us have, this could be the perfect storm of developer/longevity/hardcore and the closest we'll ever get to what we want. Let's not waste our opportunity to be a part of something special.