I already sent you a mail about something like this when you asked two weeks ago. Did you get, and/or read that? I can re-send if you want. But let me know, and don’t leave me hanging and wondering.

As for the idea of this, can I give some advice, based on experience?

* Don’t recruit too many people for this, and be careful where the choices are coming from. If you get too many, everyone’s going to be a cacophonous (or in this case, male reproductive organ-of-bum) ****ing match that forms cliques, and it’ll just be a microcosm of the mixed messages you already get about shaping Dom. If you recruit more than, oh, 10, be aware it’ll be extremely hard unless you’re prepared to be a calm, decisive, hard-headed leader who is good about making your thoughts and goals clear at all times.

* Be careful about where people are coming from. The hardest-core Dom players often have a hard time seeing outside of their own personal goals and viewpoints. Also be careful about people who don’t give much of a damn at all, but would accept the position to get an “in” on developments for whatever klan or group they’re in. The best way to choose people for this is to figure out their personality based on the character and intelligence of their past forum posts. As it turns out, basing it on who plays the most or wins the best doesn’t at all result in good advice or ideas. Look for productive and level-headed personalities, not accomplishments or veteran statuses.

* Be aware that you’ll end up with some people who seemed like great choices, but who will turn out to be total ****.

* You’ll have some who can make good criticisms, but can’t and won’t offer alternatives or ideas. Sucks, but criticism should be welcomed.

* You’ll have others who are FULL of ideas, but it’ll be up to you to weed out which ones suck, and let me tell you, it’ll be the majority, and they’ll get ****y at those ****ty ideas being “ignored.”

* You’ll also have some who don’t do much of anything and you’ll wonder are alive or not. Confront them about this and cut them if they don’t pick it up. Don’t leave dead meat on the team.

* You’ll maybe have 1 or 2 who really wish the game were friendlier to everyone and will basically want to make everything a commie love fest where a brand new player can compete on almost every level with a person who’s hardcore and been around for years. Don’t listen to the latter aspect, but do listen to their ideas about making the game friendlier to new players.

* For every ten, you’ll get 2 or 3 who you will thank your lucky male reproductive organ extension for, and which you agree with almost always. Be aware whether you like them for their ideas, or because they’re like-minded. That’s the thing you need to temper by the couple who’ll criticize you harshly.

* Be aware that the 1-3 really productive, rational people will end up carrying most of the group on their shoulders. They’ll get bored and burn out easily. People will accuse them all of having an unfair advantage. You need to keep these people around by offering them some sort of tangible, not ****ty reward scaled arbitrarily to their contributions.

* Over the months, some of those really awesome people will prove their worth, and ET should consider hiring them in some capacity, for real money.

I wish you luck with your development team.

—Bashy