With the developers trying to come up with new, creative content to put into each and every patch, I can imagine that the creative teams for quests, gear, monsters, and everything in between is feeling the stress.

I also know that after the game's crushing launch, the best thing for the game right now is the community, both within the game and in the forums, that has kept the people interested in the game. And the team also needs to work hard to keep people interested in this place and the game's community.

One possible to help the creative team provide more visual content (non base system stuff), as well as strengthening the community, is to have Content creation contests. The idea is basically, if the development team needs a new concept for a boss, they open up a contest for the best design. If they need a new side quest line they start a contest for the best written sidequest. Anything they need they could involve us in.

It would strengthen the community, as well as give SE a cheaper way to provide the most content possible.

Prizes for now would definitely be seeing your creation in the game (and of course all bragging rights). But after the game becomes pay to play they could make the prize be a free 30 days of FFXIV among other things.

What do you all think? Do you think this would be a good way to improve the communities relationship with the developers and add some user creation to the game. Honestly I think that this would be a real draw for people who want to see good player developer interaction.