Portal:News/IRC Transcripts/25 June 2010 1

25 June 2010 Chat with Cindy "Abigale" Bowens, Senior Community Manager for Rift: Planes of Telara. Terms used on the wiki have been converted to article links to assist in understanding.


 *  So nice to see everyone today! :)
 *  I probably won't be able to answer a lot of game related questions... we are still hammering out plans for release of info. That's a pretty big job!
 *  But I can let you know a little more about community plans :)
 *  RELEASE OF INFO?!
 *  THERE'S STILL HOPE!
 *  But I can let you know a little more about community plans :)
 *  Hurray!
 *  Yes, Skythe... we have lots more to reveal... just planning out the process :)


 *  What info are you planing on releasing to the comunity in the upcoming months? :P
 *  Well, one thing I am working on is an Offical Fansite program....
 *  Once we have our official fansites in place, we'll be releasing exclusives to them... like regular screenshots and dev interviews


 *  How many of you were around in the old Vanguard community when I was there?
 *  how old are we talking?
 *  just make sure its for actual fansites and not company run sites pretending to be fansites.. aka curse network.
 *  *hand raise*
 *  From the current guild? About 9 of us
 * <WarpCode> I was a part of the old vanguard ocmmunity
 *   I think I might have been, but I'm not sure. e_e I wasn't really active in the VG community.


 * <Ciovala> non revenue-generating fansites?;)
 * <Abigale> I'm already working with TC, Gith... that's why we are using their chat room. To help promote them :)*<Abigale> Warp... PR handles the big fansites now. I am here to work with the real fansites :)


 * <Abigale> I want to tell you guys that I have been working with the team this week to get people set up to talk with you on the forums and in future IRC chats an podcasts. And I have been bragging to them about what an awesome community we have :)


 * <Skythe> Can you say which sites your targeting ?
 * <Abigale> @Skythe: Right now, I am open to working with any sites that are interested. We WILL have some guidelines and standards for sites we support. Those are the things I am getting lined up now.


 * <Draegan> Abigale, do you have an email address, or does your group have one, regarding fansites?
 * <Abigale> @Draegen: I will have that very soon. I am working on getting everything in order and then I'll make a post letting interested sites know how to get in touch with me


 * <Ayonyx> Abigale: can you talk of any post launch systems related to exposed character, item, and guild information?
 * <Abigale> @Ayonyx: Not something I can address. But I will soon have people talking to you who can ;)


 * <Abigale> By the way.... I will not intentionall ignore anyone in here. I will just try to keep up and answer what I can. Please don't take it personally if I don't get to your question. And please excuse my typos. No spellcheck here :P


 * <Goremarr> Dear Abi, Has there been any talk of doing something like a weekly screenshot on the official site now that E3 is out of the way? Or is that going to be covered under the fansite releases? Signed, The Great One
 * <Abigale> @Goremarr: Both. You will see us releasing regular screenshots and getting some to the fansites as well. We are in the process of getting new shots taken and through the approval process now


 * <Teljair> Abigale, are you jealous I have an iPhone 4?
 * <Abigale> @Teljair: No. I just got my first Droid this week. I am a smart phone newb :P


 * <Draegan> Do you have any nice screenshots of the rift events in the pipeline? Looking for something but a shot hasn't surfaced of exactly what I'm looking for.
 * <Abigale> @Draegan: Working on that :)


 * <Faelor> Abigale - Are fansites expected to go through a similar process as they did for Vanguard when applying to become an official fansite? Or perhaps list things an official fansite would bring?
 * <Abigale> @Faelor Yes, but the requirements are pretty simple. They just have to be active and updated and a few little things like family friendly. No porn ads or anything ;)


 * <Kindair> Abigale, you must have missed my question, so I'll repeat it. We had a little talk earlier about names, but what will your policy be on names of characters and guilds?
 * <Abigale> @Kindair I don't know about eh naming policy yet. Maybe in the future I can get someone in here to talk about that :)


 * <Kalbuir> Abigale, what kind of approval process for screenshots is that? do they all get a pass over for quality, leaks and such?
 * <Abigale> @Kalbuir We have someone take the shots. Then they have to be approved by art, dev and marketing/PR. Then we sort them out as to who gets which shots. Then we start doling them out. We have been trying to get this done since we got back from E3 but everyone is still pretty swamoped. I'm working on getting it going though ;)


 * <WarpCode> willl Trion be at PAX? (penny arcade expo)
 * <Abigale> @WarpCode Yep! We'll be there! I think we are even going to host a community event. No promises on that but we are looking into it


 * <Skythe> Are we gonna see any new rifts any time soon?
 * <Abigale> @ Skythe I hope so. They are working on the new rifts but it there have been no decisions yet about when they will be revealed publicly


 * <Braen> I know you ahve a section in Austin, any chance ya'll will be doing any events down there?
 * <Githil> Abigale, I know this is in the future, but you mentioned of a community event, I'm guessing somewhere in California? or something more centrally located?
 * <Abigale> @Braen & Githil: We are talking a lot about doing different events in different areas. I would love to be doing fan events all over the country again like I did for SOE. But we'll have to see how things play out. It will depend a lot on the interest of the community :)


 * <Skythe> Abigale, how do you feel about the fact that I love you?
 * <Oabe> Abi i know its down the line but 1st ingame event, Simon hunting... every one vs simon :)
 * <Abigale> @Oabe & Skythe lol


 * <Ciovala> any plans for some european events or event attendance?
 * <Abigale> Actually Cio... we are looking int planning an event for GamesCom. We'll let you know the details on that as it progeresses :)


 * <Almalexia> yeah we proposed that where Simon event, where Simon will have 1 million HP and when we kill him we all get an achivement :p
 * <Abigale> I will be sure to let Simon know how loved he is ;)


 * <Ayonyx> Abigale: in my experience with a few games, often times a developer will appoint players as representatives of the community, these volunteers are directly responsible for building reports related to what players are interested in and complaining about. Do you have any plans to support a system like this?
 * <Abigale> @Ayonyx: We are still discussing that. That particular system has good and bad aspects. We will see how things develop. Not ruling that out but not sure we will do it either


 * <Chantweaver> Abigale: Who at the studio is the best MMO player: other then yourself of course
 * <Abigale> @Chantweaver I don't know. But it would be interesting to ask that question around here. Might cause some fights. Cus there are LOTS of great MMO players here ;)


 * <Sablehawk> Abigale, I realize you can't tell us alot right now, but do you have an idea on the eta for release of crafting information?
 * <Abigale> As far as I know, in game events are stillbeing discussed. So not something I can really comment on. Sorry
 * <Abigale> @Sable I am actually going to talk to the rest of the team today to find out when we can talk about crafting. I know you guys are anxious to get more info on that. Just not sure if they are ready to release much yet. But I am staying on top of that and as soon as they give me the greenlight, I'll get you the info :)


 * <Ayonyx> Abigale: is that also the case with PVP?
 * <Abigale> @Ayonyx Yes. Some systems are still getting a lot of work and testing. We don't want to release details and then have to come back later and say it has changed. We want the systems in place and ready to go for the most part before we start telling you the facts :)


 * <Raevin> @Abigale - Are there any plans at the moment for a "Guide" program like EQ, EQ2 and Vanguard have?
 * <Abigale> @Raevin That's a good question. I don't know the answer to that yet. I'll be traveling to Austin in a couple of weeks to meet with the CS team. I should have a better idea on that after that visit. I'll see what I can find out and let you guys know
 * <Abigale> I am a former guide myself. So I love those programs :)


 * <Faelor> Abigale - Recording in-game footage and uploading videos for the masses to view has grown a lot thanks to sites like YouTube and software making it easy to record+edit. Are there any plans to let Fansites possibly release videos they record in beta? I know a few videos were approved for Vanguard, though that was late in beta.
 * <Abigale> Good question, Faelor. But sorry, I don't know that answer. I'll have to check on that


 * <Skythe> Abigale-are you going to have any CG trailer or relying on game-graphics only? (since they pwn so bad.)
 * <Abigale> @Skythe I'm sorry, don't know that for sure either.


 * <Frigidman> Abigale, if you have time for a question about fundamentals, I would like to ask how has the team decided to handle core UI functionality? Will there be many user-configurable options that allows people from all kinds of MMOs to have "their settings their way"... or will people be forced to use what the devs thought was best for them?
 * <Abigale> @Frigidman I can't answer that. UI is still being developed. I honestly don't know the final plans. But maybe I can get a UI guy in here one day to talk about it :)


 * <Kalbuir> Abigale, If you guys end up going to GamesCom will we see some familiar faces travel to the EU? Or will only representatives be send because of the travel time and such?
 * <Abigale> @Kalbuir I'll be going as will some of the Dev team. I haven't heard who is being sent yet though


 * <Kindair> abi, if you had to choose your favourite race from any system, what race would it be? (yes obsessed with races)
 * <Chantweaver> Abilgale: this might have been asked already but can you tell us what race and class(and souls) you play?
 * <Abigale> @Kindair & Chantweaver I can't say I have a favorite. I have been playing a few combinations of races and classes. I figured that now is the time for me to try them all out befiore settling on what I really want to be after release ;)


 * <Skythe> Abigale, can you tell us if classes are going to be faction-restricted?
 * <Abigale> @Skythe Hmmmm... I don't really know that answer for sure. I have heard some things in passing but I am not sure enough to give an answer. Ask again another time and I'll see what I can find out in the meantime


 * <Frigidman> Abigale, would you happen to know if there are plans (or entertaining the idea) to allow out-data API's for community fan sites to 'grab' data from in-game (not put nor alter, just get)?
 * <Abigale> @Frigidman I'm sorry, I don't know that yet :(


 * <Abigale> I'm sorry guys... there are just some things I don't really know yet. I have only been here 3 weeks and one of those was at E3! I'm still trying to learn all the details. :)
 * <Abigale> Ok... before our time runs out today, I have a couple of things to tell you :)
 * <Abigale> You know this IRC chat is going to be a recurring event each week, right?
 * <Abigale> I wanted to let you know that next week, I will be bringing in the Lore team to chat with you. Nick & Morgan will be here to discuss Telara lore :)
 * <Abigale> I plan to try to have a dev here to chat with you every other week. :)


 * <Abigale> Ok... my next announcement is....
 * <Abigale> Watch the forums today. Now that E3 is over, some of our devs are going to be visiting the forums and making some posts. Go easy on them. Some of them may be new at this ;)


 * <Abigale> And finally... Our own Miss Arithion is starting a weekly Rift Podcast. I'll let her tell you a little more about the details :)


 * <Arithion> The second episode that I'm working on a bit now - will have Adam Gershowitz on it - where we'll be talking about the class system
 * <Desikis>


 * <Abigale> So... I am hoping with all these new avenues of communicating with the team, you'll gradually get your questions answered :)


 * <Arithion> thanks guys :) It's nerve wracking - I've never had so much support as Abi and Trion are giving us
 * <Arithion> Desi is a casual player, while I'm more hardcore - so we have two different perspectives :)
 * <Abigale> The plans for the podcast are that every other week it will be community focused. The other weeks, we will have a guest from the team
 * <Abigale> Thanks so much to Ari for making it happen. She has been working hard! :)
 * <Abigale> And thanks to you guys who are running these chats. I could never do this kind of thing without your support :)
 * <Abigale> I am having my lunch with Ken Allen today. We have some great community questions for him. It's time for me to print those out and head to meet him :)
 * <Abigale> Thanks for all the great questions. I'll pop in again to say hello when I can. And thanks for your enthusiasm. It's a real shot in the arm for the team :)
 * <Abigale> Bye! :)


 * Original unfiltered logs.