Rainbow Six Siege: The Community Blueprint

0:01 To know that my voice represents a broader community in discussions,

0:04 it's a big task, but it's like something that you hold with pride.

0:08 This sort of situation is different than just reading feedback online.

0:12 You see the reactions, you see the body language you see the excitement...

0:15 I think transparency is key between the community as well

0:17 as the developers as well as the content creators.

0:22 It's such a rare thing to be so directly connected with the developers.

0:27 This connection is really what kind of fuels

0:30 how we make games and why we make games.

0:57 Ten years… We've already talked a little bit about this.

1:00 The fact that...

1:02 It's been such an amazing journey with all of you and we're always learning.

1:07 And year ten was a big learning for us as well.

1:11 I'm here with Joshua Mills, who is the new creative director.

1:15 So please...

1:21 We're hosting a big event right now with a bunch

1:23 of our content creators to show them the next

1:25 season of content and also actually show them the roadmap

1:28 of where we're going for year 11 and even beyond.

1:30 Ultimately, we're connecting with our community about the future of Siege.

1:34 Very excited about the new Black Ice Packs.

1:38 That's really sick.

1:39 Will we potentially see different variants of Black

1:43 Ices and Alpha Packs in the future?

1:45 Siege X didn't go obviously the way that it was intended.

1:49 It wasn't received the way that it was hoped for within the Siege community.

1:53 I think Siege X itself was setting a foundation and so,

1:57 people didn't feel listened to.

1:59 So coming here and knowing and seeing that the community

2:02 really are being listened to, the communication is so vital.

2:06 So it makes me so excited for the future of Siege,

2:09 because I think the community will understand and see that, yes,

2:12 they are being listened to.

2:14 To know that my voice represents a broader

2:17 community in discussion it's a big task,

2:18 but it's like something that you hold with pride

2:21 because I value myself on seeing what my community thinks.

2:25 You know, pushing them to make their thoughts heard in the comments whether it's

2:29 positive or whether it's negative because that stuff

2:32 has a contribution you guys listen to.

2:35 And I like to give them that platform,

2:37 because I'm fortunate enough to have a platform where my voice can

2:40 be heard but some people don't have the capabilities to do that.

2:43 They don't have the confidence to do that so they can

2:45 vocalize theirselves through me I think that's a very important thing.

2:48 When we get an opportunity such as the Six Invitational to sit down

2:52 and work with content creator and maybe

2:54 brainstorm different ideas sometimes we think hey,

2:57 that's great, we satisfy that feature.

2:59 Other times it gives us some pause.

3:01 We need to go back to the drawing board and well,

3:03 make some changes before we bring that feature alive.

3:45 Well, we live in a digital world

3:47 where everything's about content and reaction to it.

3:52 I think that on the internet you're always

3:54 going to get a broad spectrum of people.

3:55 There’s people who are there to ragebait.

3:57 There's people there to voice an opinion out of passion,

4:01 but maybe it's misplaced and they don't really know how to say it correctly.

4:04 And then there's people who do say it correctly.

4:07 I do think there are some instances where people are just you know,

4:10 you can understand the anger, you can understand that I agree with you

4:14 that maybe this isn't the best it can be.

4:17 But then there's also a way of saying that there's

4:18 a way of doing it in a nice way.

4:20 There's a way of doing it in an understanding way.

4:22 And...

4:24 I think that's going to be just the modern climate of the internet forever.

4:27 And as long as you've always got these good people

4:29 who can stand up and voice their opinion in correct ways,

4:33 I think that speaks more words than the others

4:35 who are kind of not really contribute into the conversation,

4:38 both positive and negative.

4:40 I think sometimes, especially during Siege X there was backlash in places

4:44 and there was quite a lot… I say quite a lot.

4:47 There was an immense pressure on the devs,

4:49 especially with the <i>Save Siege</i> movement as well.

4:52 So I think being able to tell

4:54 the devs that actually the community does appreciate you.

4:57 We know you work hard, we know you are listening to us now is a very good thing.

5:03 I think, and hopefully encouraging for them as well to know

5:05 that like we do see them as people who work really hard.

5:12 Siege is ten years old.

5:14 It's identity is set.

5:17 We're always working on evolving, on improving the tools,

5:20 improving the graphics and improving the offers.

5:25 But it's listening to the community that makes Siege what it is.

5:30 It's understanding how we improve the gameplay.

5:32 It's understanding what people want to customize,

5:36 how they want to customize their offering that makes Siege what it is.

5:49 Game development is...

5:50 A lot of people think like, oh, why don't the devs just do this?

5:53 This, this, this...

5:54 There's a lot more time and effort that goes into it than people think.

5:56 And when you change one thing, it might break something else.

5:59 And they have to go through not only creating this system from scratch,

6:03 which takes a lot of time,

6:05 but actually going through and testing it to make sure it

6:07 doesn't break the rest of the game and then actually launching it.

6:09 So if they think of an idea,

6:11 it might take a year or two years before something actually comes in the game.

6:14 A lot of people don't realize that.

6:19 So that's why when we do workshops with content creators,

6:22 we need to bring the content way ahead of time so

6:25 that our feedback can be digested and brought into the feature.

6:29 Sometimes when they're giving us feedback

6:31 on a feature that's coming the next season,

6:33 we don't have time to make the changes.

6:35 So we have to think about iteration for the future.

6:40 I have my controller.

6:43 This is the PC specific controller.

6:47 I can literally not play on any controller unless it has a back pedal.

6:51 I use this one and this one only.

6:53 I have four but I use only this one.

6:56 It’s a very, very, very big screen.

6:58 I like it that Snake and all his glory.

7:01 Hearing directly from the community about both our live content updates

7:04 and I'll say just in general as well for live content,

7:07 it's fantastic for us as a developer because it's that rapid iteration.

7:10 We get feedback right away and we can enact change.

7:13 This is huge for us, but just as a fan of the game,

7:16 but also, yeah, a long term developer,

7:19 this connection is really what kind of fuels

7:21 how we make games and why we make games.

7:24 Because at the end of the day, they're for people.

7:26 So being able to have that connection and be

7:28 with the actual people that experience what we create.

7:31 That's what it's all about.

7:32 I think I'm actually get...

7:33 One thing I love about Solid Snake,

7:35 is that you can bring a breach and charge for an early push If someone dies...

7:41 We listen to feedbacks and we want to implement every feedbacks,

7:44 to make everyone happy.

7:45 But we also have to think, to the whole community.

7:49 So something can be appealing to someone,

7:52 something else can be appealing to someone else.

7:54 So we have to think for the whole community and offer a diversity of contents.

8:05 Here we have pro players here, we have pro coaches here we have casual players.

8:10 We have like the 1V1 demons here like it is

8:14 a very diverse set of creators and people who are

8:18 in the Siege ecosystem here and they are listening to all

8:21 of us to try and make it as balanced as possible.

8:50 Meeting the dev team face to face is the best way

8:53 of me describing that is it humanizes a lot of the decisions.

8:57 A lot of the the stuff that people maybe don't see

8:59 in a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes.

9:02 There's explanations for why stuff is the way it is.

9:04 And when you start to get those explanations

9:07 you understand how the game is made.

9:08 Every single developer that I've met, whether it's com dev, character design,

9:14 concept art they have been so down to earth and approachable and friendly.

9:19 When you think of game devs,

9:21 you think you know these are these are business people.

9:23 They don't… They don't want to talk to us, the people who play the game.

9:27 On the contrary, every person I've met who's

9:29 worked on Rainbow will happily have a 30,

9:33 45 minutes conversation about their work and what we

9:36 love about it and what we want to see.

9:38 So you'll have 15 minutes in groups.

9:40 First, three minutes is dedicated to you.

9:43 Thinking a little bit about the answers to the upcoming questions, then,

9:47 we want you to discuss those questions

9:49 in groups and you'll have people to take notes.

9:56 You guys are so focused.

9:57 I'm impressed.

9:59 A lot on my mind.

10:09 It's human, it's person to person.

10:12 You see the reactions, you see the body language,

10:14 you see the excitement, and you can have very real conversations.

10:18 I mean, R6, it's giving me that escape

10:22 and that… It gives me every emotion that I need.

10:25 When I want to have fun, I have fun.

10:27 Sometimes you can get angry.

10:28 That's part of the joy as well,

10:30 even at like points where I was like at my lowest, like grieving.

10:34 I lost a family member and then I play Siege

10:35 and I got like a lot of love from the community

10:38 and everything like that, and just that game and the community

10:41 that surrounds it brings together so much that you can, you know, manufacture.

10:49 It was because of the people I met through Rainbow,

10:52 the community, the friends that I picked,

10:53 the family that I've chosen through this community that I'm still here today.

10:58 And every day that I work in this, this community,

11:01 every day I make a prop, a replica.

11:03 It's me trying to give back to prove that I'm worthy of this.

11:07 I'm worthy of their affection, their love and their support.

11:10 Perfect.

11:11 Thank you so much.

11:15 Some of the most surprising, like,

11:17 stories I've heard about how our content influences players

11:20 and how it's experience is actually less in-game or more about

11:24 the reality of what it's done for their lives

11:26 and who they've met playing the game and stuff like this.

11:29 Like the fact that we have players who have met each

11:31 other and gotten married now they have families and stuff like that.

11:34 That's the stuff that is like, I mean, it's the joy that brings it all together.

11:39 And I think that's kind of the real standout for me.