The decision to create an NDA is the exact opposite of what the program should be. Where the players would give insight, and have it filtered and then sent to the devs. The first issue was that they only accepted pain points, and this would be changed in their own traditionally ZOS style way. (Which I have already made a thread on)
As stated we cannot directly suggest the changes to remedy the pain points, however currently been given insight from the reps to what potential solutions there would be in real time along with the quarterly meeting notes that they can then refer to the devs. This however won't exist with a stricter NDA and the players would lose even more say directly.
It would mean that the reps are first point of call for any changes. Though I think the reps I have spoke too are solid, there is always a chance that some changes that the overall player-base might/mightn't want could not be addressed correctly if limited to them only. Or a potential issue where the NDA is circumvented in secret as raised in the other thread and "more transparent" information is leaked to a small portion of the playerbase.
Another possibility is that this is just an effective gag. Class reps have been dissatisfied this is no surprise or secret after the murkmire , and by placing an NDA it is a lot easier to stop ZOS looking bad by preventing the majority of the playerbase from knowing and critiquing certain changes and the overall thought processes of the dev team.
The entire goal of this was to be more transparent with the reps, however ZOS is forgetting that they are players first, the point is in the title. Representatives. This is even mentioned in Gina's post: Just as a reminder, the job of the Class Reps is to act as advisers, helping to surface issues important to you all and representing the community’s perspective during discussions with the development team. [...] This change to the program is intended to allow the Class Reps to more effectively fulfill their role as advisers. However an NDA at its core is means that they do the representation and ability to surface issues part worse, (best case scenario the same) not better and doesn't factor in the other negatives.
TL;DR: You have to consider the players that are being represented.
If they do want to improve the system, how about by recording and publishing the voice calls, or opening the ZOS/Rep communication discord as a read only for the public. Then we can see how well they represent us in action and the thoughts of the devs, i.e. changes and justifications. You can't fit all the topics and what-ifs into a single quarterly rep note post, as useful as it is. And since we lost the monthly... quarterly... neverly dev updates by ZOS themselves, it would be nice to hear the discourse from the first party and can know that it is purely conceptual as opposed to when we have it wrote up in patch note form we know that it is intended directly and not much can sway that.
Poll below. What do you think about this. Of course the reasons above are based entirely on skepticism and may be completely wrong, however they do have potential to happen and is worth a proper discussion about.
This thread was created to consolidate opinions and in a poll format as opposed to a basic announcement post so please don't insta close it.
@ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_JessicaFolsom @ZOS_Wrobel Probably worth monitoring
As stated we cannot directly suggest the changes to remedy the pain points, however currently been given insight from the reps to what potential solutions there would be in real time along with the quarterly meeting notes that they can then refer to the devs. This however won't exist with a stricter NDA and the players would lose even more say directly.
It would mean that the reps are first point of call for any changes. Though I think the reps I have spoke too are solid, there is always a chance that some changes that the overall player-base might/mightn't want could not be addressed correctly if limited to them only. Or a potential issue where the NDA is circumvented in secret as raised in the other thread and "more transparent" information is leaked to a small portion of the playerbase.
Another possibility is that this is just an effective gag. Class reps have been dissatisfied this is no surprise or secret after the murkmire , and by placing an NDA it is a lot easier to stop ZOS looking bad by preventing the majority of the playerbase from knowing and critiquing certain changes and the overall thought processes of the dev team.
The entire goal of this was to be more transparent with the reps, however ZOS is forgetting that they are players first, the point is in the title. Representatives. This is even mentioned in Gina's post: Just as a reminder, the job of the Class Reps is to act as advisers, helping to surface issues important to you all and representing the community’s perspective during discussions with the development team. [...] This change to the program is intended to allow the Class Reps to more effectively fulfill their role as advisers. However an NDA at its core is means that they do the representation and ability to surface issues part worse, (best case scenario the same) not better and doesn't factor in the other negatives.
TL;DR: You have to consider the players that are being represented.
If they do want to improve the system, how about by recording and publishing the voice calls, or opening the ZOS/Rep communication discord as a read only for the public. Then we can see how well they represent us in action and the thoughts of the devs, i.e. changes and justifications. You can't fit all the topics and what-ifs into a single quarterly rep note post, as useful as it is. And since we lost the monthly... quarterly... neverly dev updates by ZOS themselves, it would be nice to hear the discourse from the first party and can know that it is purely conceptual as opposed to when we have it wrote up in patch note form we know that it is intended directly and not much can sway that.
Poll below. What do you think about this. Of course the reasons above are based entirely on skepticism and may be completely wrong, however they do have potential to happen and is worth a proper discussion about.
This thread was created to consolidate opinions and in a poll format as opposed to a basic announcement post so please don't insta close it.
@ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_JessicaFolsom @ZOS_Wrobel Probably worth monitoring