Biomassed: Who are you? Who do you play DUST 514 with, and what style of play do you enjoy?
Dystopia: Greetings, I am dyst0pia (dy5t0pia). I am a closed beta vet, a former CEO, and former executor of an alliance. I also served on the player-established PFC Council with two CPMs before PFC was dissolved due to the DNS 100% takeover of Molden Heath.
In the almost 3 years I have been playing DUST 514, I have had the pleasure of squading up and playing with and against some of the greatest players in this game, all with their own unique (and sometimes hilarious) personalities. I have been in squads with members from top-ranking corps, like Songs of Seraphim, as well as members from casual corps like my good friend Devadander. I have ran games (and PCs) with the Latino corps, French corps, Russian corps, corps from the U.K. and more. To summarize, playing DUST 514 has led me to meeting a lot of really awesome people!
Since beginning my career as a mercenary in New Eden, my play style has changed over time. In the start of my career I tried being like Rambo and would always try recklessly charging at my enemy/enemies which would usually result in my death due to being outnumbered. Over time I have honed my skills and changed my tactics. I am a scout of course and have been since Uprising 1.3 (few may remember me from my Mimatar Logi days). The scout is my most preferred role which complements my most preferred style of play: stealth. When I’m looking for fun and a few laughs I like to throw on a Minmatar assault melee fit.
Biomassed: Tell us a bit about the “real you”. Who is the man (or woman) behind the merc?
Dystopia: Besides gaming, I enjoy reading, writing, and researching into subjects of interest. I am very much into electronics and make a living repairing people’s computers/phones/pads. I program as a hobby, I also enjoy a good game of chess. I live in beautiful sunny Southern California and try to enjoy the beach whenever possible, I also enjoy camping, fishing, hiking and other outdoor activities. Recently I was interviewed on the news because my next door neighbor’s house caught on fire while no one was home and I ran in and rescued the two dogs that were trapped in the house without thinking of my own safety, if that says anything about my character and the kind of person I am.
Biomassed: Why did you decide to run for the CPM this year?
Dystopia: With the release of the PS4 in the fall of 2013, and with it now being the beginning of summer 2015, we all know that the PS3’s lifespan is dwindling rapidly. Sony will not keep the online services going forever on the outdated hardware that comprises the PS3. What does this mean for the future of DUST 514? Will DUST 514 even have a future?
For these reasons and more I have decided to run for CPM so that the communities voice about a port to another platform are heard in its entirety, so those annoying bugs and glitches can be examined and dealt with as swiftly as possible, and so content that was promised to us can be discussed and the importance shown as to why it should be implemented into the game (i.e. pilot suits, etc.).
I believe as a CPM I can make DUST 514 a better game by listening to the community and their opinions by opening discussions on hot topics and having good debates about the pros and cons of the topic being discussed. Only then can we get down to the core issues and devise a way to either fix or enhance certain aspects of the game. If elected, I hope by the end of my term that I will have been able to accomplish everything I set out to accomplish.
Biomassed: What are the strengths you think you can bring to the CPM? What is your biggest weakness you’ll need to contend with?
Dystopia: Communication is a must, a great CPM has to have the ability to communicate rational coherent thoughts and ideas to not only the community, but to CCP as well.
Being able to communicate is great, but it means little to nothing if you can’t tell when it’s best to just listen. When we listen, we here perspectives and ideas on subjects of importance that would more than likely never have occurred to us otherwise. The community is filled with players that have great ideas and insight that can be brought forward and implemented into the game, effectively enhancing user experience, all we need do is listen.
Anyone who has come across me on the battlefield knows one thing about me, I am very persistent. I am not one to quit easily and I am always trying to push forward. I think a CPM needs to be persistent when it comes to important issues that should be looked at, discussed, modified, enhanced, or done away with completely.
These qualities –communication, listening, and persistence– are my strengths and the strengths I would bring to the CPM if elected.
Confidence, is something I do not always have, more specifically confidence in myself; although I will not let that deter me from my goal of representing the communities thoughts, ideas, fears, praises, and suggestions and communicating that to CCP.
Biomassed: What do you feel is the role of the CPM?
Dystopia: The simple answer is that the CPM acts as a buffer between CCP and the community, much in a way like how a potato acts as a buffer between zinc and copper ions allowing electricity to flow from one end of the potato to the other end to help complete a simple circuit. The CPM has the responsibility of gathering feedback from the community regarding ways to improve DUST 514 and delivering it in a more constructive manner to the developers.
Biomassed: How do you feel about the previous CPM? What was done well, and what could have been done better?
Dystopia: I feel the current CPMs did a great job and accomplished a lot during their term! CPM1 started their term not long after the announcement of Project Legion, player numbers had dropped drastically, and DUST 514 was basically being considered a dead game. To me it seemed CPM1 was confronted with the task of figuring out ways to draw back not only players that had left the game, but to also draw in new players as well. So the CPM and CCP devised such things as drop boxes and decryptor keys, daily challenges that reap nice rewards when completed, putting BPOs and SKINs in drop boxes, great discounts on items in the in-game market, more BPO options, the balancing of weapons and suits, the addition of and balancing of the APEX suits (which helped increase Faction Warfare play), and the newly added skins along with the power core idea that has recently been being discussed.
The CPM heard the community’s cries for a fix to matchmaking and delegated that to CCP, unfortunately it was not deployed well and people are now ending up in uneven matches and new players are still ending up against proto stomping squads, but the CPM cannot be blamed for that. I would have liked to have seen more bugs addressed, but can understand that during their term other issues took precedence.
Biomassed: What are your thoughts on communication between the players and CCP? The CPM and CCP? The CPM and the players?
Dystopia: Communication all around has improved since the start of the CPM1 term. In my opinion, there has never really been a lack of communication from the community, but I will say that at one point there was a lack of well thought out and coherent arguments (or ideas) put forth, which made it difficult to accurately deduce exactly what the community wanted.
In the case of CCP communicating with their community, since Rattati has come aboard communication has been tremendously better, although they can’t go wrong with communicating more and keeping their community more in the loop as far as development and the future goes.
The CPM also seems to be communicating regularly with the community and ascertaining as much feedback as possible and sharing what the community’s ideas and concerns are with CCP; examples are such things like Myofibril Stimulant jump height addition, SKINs, and the soon to be added Power Core feature.
Biomassed: Where do you hope to see the game by the end of your term?
Dystopia: If elected, by the end of my term I would obviously like to see the announcement of a port made. Bugs taken care of, not only gameplay bugs but communication bugs completely worked out. I would like to see faster deployment into matches with an even number of players on each side. Tiered matches would also be a great addition, along with bringing back corp battles. I would like to see not only features we have been promised and have yet to receive, but new and exciting features deployed into the game itself. A better new player experience should also be one of CCP’s priorities, because they can port DUST to every platform available, but without a sleek new player experience set up they will fail to attract attention to this awesome and unique game!
These are just a small number of ideas I have, that I would love to see implemented into the game before the end of the CPM2 term.
Biomassed: If DUST is able to be ported to another platform, which platform would you prefer, and why?
Dystopia: I personally would love to see DUST ported to the PS4 only; but I believe to help with the popularity, longevity, diversity, and prosperity of DUST in the long run it would be in CCP and the community’s best interest to cross-platform port DUST 514 to console and PC.
Of course PC gamers and console gamers each have their own opinion about why their platform should be home to the DUST port. PC gamers like to point out the fact that updates and patches would be streamlined and deployed much faster. Another point PC gamers will make is that the PS4 will eventually be replaced by a PS5, and that support for the PC will be easier to maintain.
The first point about streamlining updates and patches I agree with, but the second point I do not. Technology changes and gets better every year and to say the PC you have now will outlast the next gen console as far as hardware and being able to run the game smoothly, is wishful thinking in my opinion. Yes, you can upgrade your RAM, swap out your graphics card, and put a brand new upgraded CPU in, but that will only get you some extended time. Eventually the architecture of OSs change, and hardware becomes much more advanced than what your PC can handle and you will have to upgrade, and CCP will have to update/re-write their code to be able to run on the latest architecture of the OS. So in my opinion it seems that with either console or PC, they will always need to be updating/re-writing code for the latest thing out there. Yes it is a little extra work to have to port to each next gen console but in the long run I believe it to be worth it for the company.
A great point that is made by those in favor of a port to the PS4 is that if DUST is ported to a PC then it will be easier to exploit. I agree with this point, but CCP has been dealing with this for years with their signature game EVE and seem to keep a pretty tight ship when it comes to making sure their game is not exploited. Although, I still am concerned, because the community has been asking for modified controllers to not be allowed for years, and yet people are still using them and it does not seem that CCP has any plans of changing that.
DUST 514 has been on the console for over 3 years. It has also built up an alright sized player base who have supported this game since the beginning. Some of these players (in fact probably most) are strictly console players, and although it is CCP’s prerogative to do whatever they wish with DUST 514, turning their backs on an large part of their community and announcing that the DUST port will be exclusive to the PC would be a PR nightmare for them as it was after the Legion announcement.
It’s also my personal opinion that FPS’s are much more enjoyable on a console platform.
Despite my personal opinion about which platform I would prefer DUST to be on, it seems to me that the game would do a lot better overall if it were offered on more than one platform. So for the reasons I stated at the beginning of my answer to this question, I believe it to be in the game’s best interest, CCP’s best interest, and the community’s best interest to see DUST 514 ported to PS4 and PC.
Biomassed: How can players reach out to you if they have further questions for you?
Dystopia: Besides contacting me in game, you can find me on Skype by searching for dystopia8627. You can send a tweet to @dystopia8627 on Twitter. I can also be reached by email, and that address is dyst0pia (at) me.com.
