Hello.
I am not sure if any of the developers or community managers will read this, I do hope they will. This is how I see things; it is just my humble opinion. Ultimately, I wanted to add my 2 cents and be vocal, I think it's important for customers to voice their discontent.
TL; DR:
• To the players: Value your money, do not settle for little and few. EA Games is filthy rich, if they really wanted SWTOR to STRIVE they would have invested in their developers.
• We should not settle for a few crumbs of update here and there.
• We should not believe in false promises.
• We should demand better communication (which I see people doing, that’s great).
• We should not fall for the illusion that is this patch (or “expansion”).
• Bring back the real “play the way you want” in SWTOR.
• Developers/Producers: Do not ignore the people that are calling you names, read through the words of anger. There is disappointment and frustration, do not turn your back on it and face the responsibility of your actions. Communicate with us. Listen to us.
Full version:
Let me start with something positive:
For 10 years, you’ve managed to keep this game alive and relatively speaking, kicking. Which, given how much the SWTOR team has shrunk over the years, is impressive.
I don’t like blaming only the developers like people usually do, I believe that they are doing what they are told even if they don’t agree with it. Sadly, however, I feel like these same devs are lacking love when it comes to this game, the passion died and heck, I understand. I’ve worked on the same project at my job for years and it takes its toll. But ultimately, it IS our job to push for QUALITY and CONTENT.
Now to the people that keep shilling the developers:
Value your money. I’ve been like you, cheering and hoping that the game will never die and that more people will join. Open your eyes. You ARE the customer, you PAY for a service that is CLEARLY not being delivered as it should be, I admire those of you who still hope though, after all these years, I feel like my hope died.
To the very upset people (like me):
Threatening and calling names won’t help anything other than making ourselves feel better. Be concise, I understand your frustration, I understand your disappointment, after all you are all subscribers, paying for content and quality, expecting nothing less from the developers, and we keep being deceived year after year, given crumbs and they expect us to just enjoy it.
To the Developers and especially the directors of EA Games:
Please, respect your players/investors’ opinions and feedback. If the point is making this game better, so far, it is not working, the higher ups need to know this. I’m not jumping ship until the servers are shutdown, I made this mistake back in SWG and I stopped playing before it died, and I couldn’t experience its last days, so I’m sticking to SWTOR until death do us part. But again, please respect your players (whom, I repeat, are also your investors).
A note about MMOs and GAAS:
I’m not particularly fond of how subscription fees work, be it on an MMO or a “Game as a Service” genre. I strongly suggest watching “Game as a service” is fraud video on the Accursed Farms channel on YouTube. You’ll understand what I am trying to say.
Basically, all the money we - players that have been around since day 0 of SWTOR or newcomers - invested, is just never coming back to us. And even if you bought the Collector’s Edition back in the day, it doesn’t give enough return for 10 years of subscription.
For comparison: I’ve been a subscriber since day 0 and never stopped paying. That’s 120 months x 20 dollars-ish. That’s around 2,400.00 dollars “invested” or spent. And this is not counting on all items bought on the Cartel Market. An investment usually gives the investor a return. When SWTOR shuts their servers down, neither BioWare nor EA Games will ever give us back this money.
This is something, that I believe people know (I’m being hopeful), but don’t take into consideration when they play the game, we the players should not be content with a few crumbs thrown at us here and there, false promises and illusions.
Lastly, I see people here demanding better communication and I completely agree. Communication is K-E-Y.
If EA Games’ plans are to shutdown SWTOR by blaming it on the players, you’re doing it right, continue this path and you’ll shoo the veterans, potential newcomers and returning players.
Bring us back the real “play the way you want” in SWTOR.