FAQ

How can I apply for the Player Council?

If you meet all requirements mentioned above and are willing to represent your language version, you can announce your candidacy in the designated thread. Simply create a post with a short description of yourself and publish it before the given deadline. Any eligible applicants will then be listed as potential candidates on the forums and in the in-game voting.

How many members will the player council have?

That depends on the number of players volunteering for this project. Two to five players can be elected per language version, meaning that the Local Councils combined cannot have more than a maximum of 115 elected members at any given time (23 versions represented by 5 players each). However, we are aware that some countries may not be able to send the maximum number of representatives, so the overall number may vary with each term.

For the Inner Council we have a set number of 1 representative and 1 substitute per version, so a total of up to 23 "vocal representatives" and 23 silent deputies, who may read along and keep themselves informed but may not join the discussions actively to avoid unnecessary chatter.

The Council Advisory Board will consist of 3-5 members of the Inner Council and may be rotated over the course of the term, e.g. to have 5 members join one special event and 3 other members join another. However, this decision is solely made on the Inner Council's discretion.

How many consecutive terms can a council member be elected for?

Each council member is elected for 6 months. Their membership can be extended if they are re-elected for a second term. A third consecutive term in direct succession is not possible, because we also want to give other players the opportunity to join. However, after a break of at least 6 months (1 term) they may apply for candidacy again.

Can a single candidate run for a post for several language versions?

Although candidacy is open for all active players of the respective language version, each candidate should choose one language version to represent. Dual candidacy is only possible for one language version and beta, it will however still only be possible to take up one position. For the other version, a runner-up candidate will take the position. If dual candidacy is declared, we will add a disclaimer to the respective candidate's profile on the voting page.

How can I identify candidates that may have had previous affiliations with InnoGames?

Although we do believe that there should be no bias associated with previous (volunteer) work for InnoGames, we do recommend that each candidate states their previous involvement with such activities so that other players know and can make better judgements regarding their experience. If anything, previous involvement with InnoGames shows their dedication to the game, given that they used their spare time to do something for the community and help other players.

Can current team members (forum moderators, supporters, wiki admins) apply for the position?

No. Seen as current team members are in direct contact with InnoGames through their supervising Community Managers, they can already have their feedback forwarded to us. Therefore any player council duty is reseved solely for players with no current affiliation.

What happens if we cannot find enough candidates for our language version?

In the unfortunate event that a language version cannot find at least two candidates to represent them, players of that language version can still participate in discussions on the beta forums and shall be represented by council members for the beta version of the game.

What happened to Grepolis United and the Beta Focus Group? Isn’t a Player Council a similar approach?

In 2013 we started a project to be in more frequent contact with our player base - Grepolis United. In addition to this project, several smaller initiatives were launched, including the Beta Focus Group. Some of these initiatives are still being used today, such as the DevBlog. Furthermore, the development team aims to include at least one community request in every update and follows a rule which stipulates that a certain (low) number of non-critical bugs should not be exceeded before an update is released.

However, several important aspects of these projects were started under different circumstances and by different teams and eventually slowed down to a point where they were no longer actively pursued, mainly due to the fact that the game team could not keep up with these time consuming projects any more. With the new Player Council we wish to start a fresh attempt with a different approach, keeping the current staffing situation, development focus and overall possibilities in mind. We hope that the new Player Council will successfully continue the tradition and legacy of Grepolis United and all the positive elements it has brought to the game and to you, our players.

Do Community Managers not already fulfil the role of Inner Council and Council Advisory Board members?

Yes and no. Community Managers have insight into our official communication channels, so they pretty well know about the ideas, concerns and problems of players who contact them in a more personal manner, e.g. via support tickets or private messages on our social platforms. They collect your feedback and communicate it in regular reports to our development team.

We believe a Player Council can act very similar, but may also represent the player base in a slightly different way. Players who do not have any official position with InnoGames potentially look at certain ideas or issues concerning the game from a different angle. They are usually very active and aware of things that are not necessarily shared openly in our communication channels and/or with official representative of InnoGames and can therefore help us getting a better idea of what is going on by sharing their own experience with us.