Biomassed: Who are you? Who do you play DUST 514 with, and what style of play do you enjoy?
Ripley Riley: I am CEO of Incorruptibles and forum warrior or buffoon, depending on who you ask. You will most often find me with my corp mates in skirmish or domination public contracts as squad lead.
I fight for the glorious Amarr Empire, but I sneak away to Gallente FW for dat sweet, sweet freedom on occasion. I am a devotee of the assault dropsuit and have been since character creation. Only recently have I dedicated SP to another role: the Gallente logi.
Biomassed: Tell us a bit about the “real you”. Who is the man (or woman) behind the merc?
Ripley Riley: When not signed into DUST, I am a happily married project manager for a SaaS company. Prior to that, my background was as a technical support representative for PDA/smartphones, mobile broadband modems, tablets, and other wireless services.
My other hobbies include pen and paper gaming (most often Pathfinder) and I love to camp and hike.
Biomassed: Why did you decide to run for the CPM this year?
Ripley Riley: Why is every CPM elect running for CPM? We believe that we can provide meaningful feedback to CCP. I am no different. I believe that part of that process involves communicating clearly and frequently with the playerbase as well as CCP, which I am not only capable of doing, but happy to do.
Biomassed: What are the strengths you think you can bring to the CPM? What is your biggest weakness you’ll need to contend with?
Ripley Riley: My perspective as a CEO of a smaller corporation will be a valuable voice that needs to be represented. I believe I can interpret the underlying causes of player issues then lift up those concerns to CCP in a clear, helpful manner. When emotions run high and the playerbase is frustrated, I believe I can help translate those feelings into useful feedback for CCP.
I am a FPS and MMO veteran that has experience with in-game community interaction as a guild/corp leader.
My weaknesses could be the blind spots in my DUST 514 knowledge. I have not, to date, participated in a PC match or know the logistics involved in PC. This may change with the PC revamp in Warlords 1.2. Beside LOLAV’ing to the objective, I am not a skilled vehicle pilot.
Biomassed: What do you feel is the role of the CPM?
Ripley Riley: A CPM officer should compile not only player feedback in the form of hard data, but also gauge their attitudes on topics. CPM officers should be playing DUST at least often enough to be aware of the common bugs and issues players face. A skilled CPM officer should then package that information into something CCP can use.
Biomassed: How do you feel about the previous CPM? What was done well, and what could have been done better?
Ripley Riley: I believe that no small part of CCP Rattati’s success can be attributed to CPM1’s involvement. Their discussions assisted CCP’s balancing efforts and netted things we never believed we would have, such as Uprising 1.9 and the Warlords expansion.
I enjoy speaking with CPM1 and feel they have done a more than satisfactory job of communicating with the playerbase within the bounds of the NDA. Which is especially impressive considering they could have been silent observers.
Whether this was done behind closed doors or not, I did not feel CPM1 strongly pushed for news regarding DUST’s future off the PS3. This is purely a player’s perspective, of course, but it seemed that CPM1 was flippant post-Fanfest 2015. CPM1 had absolute crates full of Pokey’s Boundless Optimism… but the community was not hopeful. That frustration is the attitude the CPM1 should have projected to CCP since they are our representatives.
Biomassed: What are your thoughts on communication between the players and CCP? The CPM and CCP? The CPM and the players?
Ripley Riley: Players and CCP: CCP Rattati posts [Feedback] threads with regularity, which is huge to me. CCP being interested in direct feedback on their efforts means a lot. Frame and AquarHEAD communicate as well, though I would like to hear more from them and other members of the CCP Shanghai team working on DUST.
CPM and CCP: I believe Rattati’s success is due to the communication between our CPM officers and CCP. That should speak to the quality of dialogue between them.
CPM and the players: Soraya, IWS, Kevall, and Cross are all frequent forum goers and their posts, even the ones I disagree with, indicate involvement with DUST on a deeper level than a simple market focus group. Outside of the forums they appear on Biomassed, where their voices can actually be heard in little more relaxed setting. Overall, I feel they have done well.
Biomassed: Where do you hope to see the game by the end of your term?
Ripley Riley: By the end of my term as CPM, I hope to see DUST with a climbing player population. I hope to see the Warlords expansion fully realized. I hope to see DUST 514 and its community make the migration to a new, better platform.
Biomassed: If DUST is able to be ported to another platform, which platform would you prefer, and why?
Ripley Riley: It isn’t any secret that I believe PC would be the stronger choice for a port.
PC offers a larger audience for DUST 514 which means more new players. New players are the lifeblood of any MMO. A high visibility platform like Steam would give CCP the ability to market DUST 514 passively with sales on aurum and specific packs. Like it or not, DUST turning a profit means a healthier game with more content for everyone.
When dealing with any console, CCP will have to run patches through that console’s quality procedures which represents another barrier between CCP and us. On PC, CCP would not be restricted in this way; they could release patches on their timelines, not Sony’s. These same QA procedures also prevent CCP from offering a DUST 514 test server. Porting DUST 514 would make it significantly easier for CCP to roll out and maintain a test server.
Eventually even the PS4 will be replaced. “PS5” or “Play5tation” or whatever Sony marketing chooses to call it. And then DUST 514 will be right back where we are now. PC will remain through the console generations. It is a platform CCP can count on to last.
Biomassed: How can players reach out to you if they have further questions for you?
Ripley Riley:
Gmail: RipleyRiley.Incorruptibles@
Skype: Ripley.Riley
