I
n thesummerof 2019 a groupofOlympians
assembled in Atlanta, Georgia, to discuss
development of the god-themed MOBA, Smite.
The Olympians were players halfway through
their year-long terms as council members, each
there to represent player interests across Smite’s
multiple modes, platforms, and community niches.
The idea for using player councils originated with Smite’s
sibling game Paladins in the run-up to the 2018 Hi-Rez
Expo event. The Paladins team were focusing on quality
and community, explains brand director Alex Cantatore.
Their thinking was, “It would be great to actually just get
[the community] involved in the decision-making process
and give them early looks at the things that we’re doing
and find out if this is something we should be doing.”
There had also been a slight shift in the workforce.
“We have some people on staff here that had worked for
CCP for a long time,” says Hi-Rez CEO Stew Chisam.
“They had some insights into how valuable [player
councils] could be.” CCP’s space MMORPG EVE Online
has an elected Council of Stellar Management (CSM). The
CSM works with devs to improve EVE which is what
Chisam is referencing, although in EVE’s specific case the
CSM is also an occasional inflection point in massive
digital interstellar warfare.
Anexampleofcommunityfeedbackinactionat
Hi-Rez is the Paladins champion Raum, a demon with a
minigun. The team only started working on Raum
because they were taking a break from a champion the
player council hadn’t warmed to at all. “We were excited
about this champion concept,” says Cantatore. “We were
like, ‘Man, this is going to be our best champion ever!’”
After weeks of internal hype the dev team put the
champion onscreen to show the player council and were
met with... nothing. They didn’t even hate it. “It was the
worst, like, no reaction, you know?” says Cantatore.
So the team stepped back from that character for a
while and Raum was the result. Meanwhile, the
unannounced champion has gone through multiple
iterations and feedback cycles. “We showed them the
most recent concept and they were ... blown away. But it
took lots of back and forth,” says Cantatore. And even with
the concept now in place there will be plenty more
discussion as the council decides how she actually plays.SMITE AND MAGIC
For Smite there isn’t a big champion-level point of impact
from the player council. Instead the developers point to
masses of smaller effects threaded through the whole
process. AJ Walker, Smite’s lead game designer, lists bug
reports, feedback collection, detailed information on gameSmite’s 2019
Olympians attend the
first annual summit
at Hi-Rez Studios.Useful
feedback
With no shortage
of ways players
can voice their
opinions about
game
development,
being able to
separate what’s
insightful or
helpful from the
digital noise is
vital. Some devs
prioritise what
early adopters
have to say via
Kickstarter and
Early Access
programs, and
there’s the
cocktail of
subreddits, player
data, customer
complaints and
more.
Community
ambassadors are
yet another facet
of that complex
puzzle.COUNCIL CULTURE
How HI-REZ is tapping into its community for game insights
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PCG INVEST