Dev Update: Ninjas, Ninjas Everywhere
I never thought the day would come, but I guess I’m jumping ahead. Let me back up, restart and do this the right way.
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Welcome to another Trials Fusion Dev Update. I’m your host, ShiftySamurai, and today we are going to be talking about an upcoming change to Trials Fusion. This is a change that has been requested by a branch of the hardest of the hardcore, the skillsiest of the skilled and the ninjaist of ninjas.
Since the launch of Trials Fusion we have had some fairly strict guidelines about how we handle cross-platform user generated content for Trials Fusion. Now with Fusion entering it’s second year we have been given a bit more freedom in how we can share tracks with players on different consoles, which results in us being able to….
Cross-Platform Ninja Tracks.
This will not be an immediate change and we would like the help of the Ninja Community so let’s talk a little about the details and how ninja players can help us make this a reality.
Some general information;
First things first, I know what some of you ninjas are thinking. You think that we are bad at Trials and bad at Ninja tracks, so there is no way that we should be selecting what is cross-platformed when it comes to Ninja tracks. There’s probably a bit of truth in there somewhere (except we rock at Trials, by the way) but we do agree that nobody knows Ninja tracks like the Ninja Community so cross-platform Ninja tracks will be selected by the Trials Ninja Community. Think of this as “Community Choice”, we’ll set up a nominations thread on the forums and will be looking over what you suggest. If it meets some quality standards, then it might just be made into frustra… sorry, it might just be made available for everyone to have fun crashing on… repeatedly.
Ninja tracks will need to conform to some visual quality standards. We will not use the same standards we use for Uplay Recommended but we also won’t be sharing that Ninja track that is made up of boxes floating in front of a white prime wall in the background.
What will we do if you guys request 20 Ninja tracks a day? There has to be a limit on how many can be done in a timeframe. We haven’t determined what that number will be but keep in mind these will be in addition to the weekly drops we already do, so the number will not be large. If the Ninja Community nominates a ton of great ninja tracks, then we’ll have to implement community votes.
Ninja tracks will NOT be placed in the Uplay Recommended feed. As we have stated in the past this feed is for tracks we are recommending to the whole Trials community. The number of players who can complete Ninja tracks is still far too small for us to recommend these tracks to the entire Trials player base. For now there will not be curated ninja feed on Track Central. Cross platform ninja tracks will appear in the ninja feeds now present on Track Central.
Another thing we feel is very important is that the Ninja community comes up with a general consensus as to what constitutes each tier of Ninja track. Not only will this help us in the selection process but it will also assist players who are interested in testing their skills on these tracks for the first time.
This brings me to something that needs to be discussed with the Ninja community. Ninja tracks are hard, incredibly difficult tracks that many people cannot complete. There seems to be a notion by some within the Ninja community that unless you can complete a certain level of Ninja track then you are no good at Trials. This is not a good thing for the Ninja community. We all enjoy watching players beast a Ninja track, but we also want to see more encouragement for players on the forums, as well as other outlets, and to see this portion of the community grow. Who doesn’t want more ninjas? Maybe pirates, I guess.
The Trials Community Team has been throwing around the term “Ninja Community Ambassador”, and it’s pretty much what it sounds like. It is community members who inspire, assist and advocate for Ninja tracks and players in a positive manner. As proven by quite a few threads on the forums you are already passionate about these tracks, so why not allow that passion to help your community grow? Worst case scenario, you annoy a few people and nothing changes. Best case scenario, new players, new tracks, and more competition and content for the Ninja Community to enjoy.
How do you become a Ninja Community Ambassador (complete with forum title)? We’ll be putting some info together in the future, but we’ll also be keeping our eyes open on social media and on the forums for active, passionate and positive members within the Ninja Community.
That was a lot more than I expected to write, so we’ll go ahead and end this Dev Update. Until next time, Ninjas.
-Shifty