cRush and Shotter made some very valid points.
From the outside, it seems to me that you guys are trying to mimic SOE or any other big company, when this should be an emulator project based on the community.
We've all met the guy who decides to start a business.. he rents an office, buys the furniture, the cool "CEO" leather chair, gets pen with the company name on them, business cards and all the rest made.. but then if you ask him what he's selling, or what is business plan is, he can't really give you an answer.. because he didn't think of that yet.
And in my experience, those guys don't go anywhere in the business world.
Now I'm not saying that's what you're doing, but unless you plan to turn this team into a commercial software company in the immediate future, I don't understand some of your choices.
Not to mention you don't have to coordinate 300 people. If you had to, then all those sub-teams and area leader would make sense.
The way I see it, you should have dev staff+dev leader, community staff+community leader. Period. And the "leadership" on top should only make sure everything is working as planned and everyone is doing their job.
And you have to listen to the community and allow them to help when help is needed. As long as the goal is clear, there's no problem whatsoever with the community helping.
Just keep the goal in mind: 14.1 SWG. So you can and should ignore jedi haters, cm haters, rifleman haters and the likes, because your goal is to recreate a working version of 14.1, with the good and the bad sides.
Nerfs and such should only take place (if the community so desires) afterwards, on fan servers.
Also, from the outside, it look like you lack a figure of authority who is respected and appreciated by the whole staff. And you do need one.
That person shouldn't act as a dictator, but he should be able to mediate between staff members when needed and should keep the strong egos in check.
From the bits and pieces I got to read in those documents, on the forums and on IRC, it is clear as day that you have some people with a very strong ego that are not being handled properly (don't mean to sound disrespectful, it's the best term I can think of and english isn't my primary language).
I evaluate and manage people for a living and I think I know a thing or two: from the outside and the limited information we have, that's what it looks like.
So I hope you have the right person in your staff to step up and take THAT role, which doesn't necessarily involve a lot of power but only works as long as the person has the full trust of the team. If you don't have such a person in your staff, I hope one of the future members will have what it takes.
So far I've seen a lot of double standards, of Staff members coming out with embarassing posts or remarks on the forum and on IRC, lack of moderation when moderation would be really needed, lack of answers when the community is very confused (answers we end up getting from players who are in contact with staff, most often.. when they want to share the info with the rest of the players).. well, you get my point.
