It's not the bugs that are killing it for me, it's the lack of urgency to fix them.

[artilleryshell]

Numerous, small, very arguably insignificant fixes.

 

The first few months of a MMO typically make or break it; and is the most critical time to address the playerbase issues and make it very clear they are doing everything they can to COMMUNICATE and make it seem like they are avidly trying to fix everything they can. I just dont feel that with this game is all.

 

On zone in, i have to re-equip every piece of gear or suffer 1/3 reduction in effective health.

 

This is not small or insignificant. this is game-breaking.

[gormanster]

On zone in, i have to re-equip every piece of gear or suffer 1/3 reduction in effective health.

 

This is not small or insignificant. this is game-breaking.

 

Exactly.

 

At the very least, i'd be nice for a dev to come out and have a list of the "currently being worked on things". At least that way i'll know SOMETHING is on their radar.

[JediMasterShake]

@madrax

 

Best sig ever.

[RealAeiouy]

You wrote all that because you think Bioware doesn't want to fix bugs?

 

I can guarantee you they are working the bugs. You need to stop accusing.

 

This.

 

I didn't read all the original post because the initial premise was so far off base. The implication that the OP somehow knows that Bioware is not actively and urgently working to fix bugs is completely without merit.

[RealAeiouy]

By the way nobody should play a game where they think the developers are not working on game breaking bugs.

 

If someone really feels that way (by the way it is a very insulting position towards the developers), then you should cancel your subscription and walk away. You have no oene to blame but yourself if you feel that way.

 

Normally, this kind of rudeness towards developers is intended to try and illicit some sort of response. it is juvenile at best.

 

I would not spend two seconds playing a mmog where I believed the developers had no interest in fixing bugs in the game. Anyone who does has a serious problem.

[gormanster]

This.

 

I didn't read all the original post because the initial premise was so far off base. The implication that the OP somehow knows that Bioware is not actively and urgently working to fix bugs is completely without merit.

 

Again, i'm not saying they are just not working on anything. There just is such a lack of communication is nauseating. No one has any clue what is being worked on or not, or if they should just repeatedly report the same thing on a weekly/daily basis. While i understand WoW has a much greater resource base; they are absolutely great in the customer service department. If you make a ticket, and are logged on, you get REAL communication and interaction back and forth with a REAL person. Not some automated response saying your bug was forwarded on to a team and then have your ticket closed.

 

It's the blatant lack of knowing what their plans are is what sucks.

[Skoobie]

Again, i'm not saying they are just not working on anything. There just is such a lack of communication is nauseating. No one has any clue what is being worked on or not, or if they should just repeatedly report the same thing on a weekly/daily basis. While i understand WoW has a much greater resource base; they are absolutely great in the customer service department. If you make a ticket, and are logged on, you get REAL communication and interaction back and forth with a REAL person. Not some automated response saying your bug was forwarded on to a team and then have your ticket closed.

 

It's the blatant lack of knowing what their plans are is what sucks.

 

http://www.swtor.com/blog/word-bugs-james-ohlen

 

There you go. Bioware saying what many of us already knew, to appease the "lack of communication" folks.

 

They are working on the bugs. They will be fixed as soon as possible. Weekly patches.

Edited January 4, 2012 by Skoobie

[Lauski]

“Good evening, this is protocol droid c2-az2. We have received you’re transmission and really don’t care about the bug you submitted. We’re busy at work fixing emoting during vehicle travel. Your bug has been sent to our compactor, and will be purged from the system within 30 minutes.”

 

 

Hah. Oh man. Good stuff. Genuine lol. So you sir, receive a bump, on me.

 

 

Read your entire post though. Well put together. I am still in the "patiently waiting" camp, but also definitely am in the "please impress me with a patch soon" camp because they have been lack-luster.

 

 

Everything big you noted plus the FPS performance enhancements going live on the servers will be a great day.

[Palanor]

The fixing of a issue is usually the shortest part of the Software Development process. The important thing to remember is that all teams have a finite capacity for fixing issues. A team has to manage this capacity very carefully.

 

You don't just fix issues as they come instead before a issue is identified as a candidate for fixing there is an assessment that is undertaken, represented here as questions:

- How reproducible is the issue?

- What is the severity of the issue? Crashing, data loss,

- Is there a work around?

- Is the issue in server code or client code or both?

- Is it class specific?

- Is it quest specific?

- Is it zone specific?

- How fragile is the area of code?

- What is the testing impact of the fix?

- How long will it take to test?

- Does helptext or faq or knowledge base need to be update?

- Will the fix require localization?

- Does this issue need to be fixed immediately or can it wait?

- Is the system the issue is present in going to be rewritten soon? If so can the issue be ignore till the rewrite?

- How risky is fixing the issue?

- How long will it take to fix?

 

These are just a few of the questions that need to be answered before you can assign a priority to a issue, let alone hundreds or thousands of issues. Once a issue has a priority, it is scheduled into the existing workload. and put on the release calendar. However once a issue has a priority it can always get bumped in priority by a new, more serious issue.

 

Then the issue is fixed by the developer, and putting in the testing queue. Testing is probably scheduled by release window. It appears the regular patch window is sync'ed with the Tuesday maintenance window. So I expect the testing timeframe is end of day Wednesday. The patches then need to be built and tested and that probably happens Thursday/Friday.

 

I’m pretty confident, based on my work history, that what I’ve described is very similar to the process being employed by BioWare. They probably have a backlog of issues they want to address from beta, as well as all the issue that are coming each day from players. Each issue is assessed and place in a queue. Now there are probably queues for each team but I doubt there are any teams that have a zero issue backlog. Some teams might have easier issues to fix than others and that might be why the nature of changes that we’ve seen in the last two patches are not particularly satisfying. I would expect the number of issues corrected as well as the nature of issues corrected to change over the next 2-3 weeks.

 

Sorry for the wall of text but I hope this helps.

[gormanster]

The fixing of a issue is usually the shortest part of the Software Development process. The important thing to remember is that all teams have a finite capacity for fixing issues. A team has to manage this capacity very carefully.

 

You don't just fix issues as they come instead before a issue is identified as a candidate for fixing there is an assessment that is undertaken, represented here as questions:

- How reproducible is the issue?

- What is the severity of the issue? Crashing, data loss,

- Is there a work around?

- Is the issue in server code or client code or both?

- Is it class specific?

- Is it quest specific?

- Is it zone specific?

- How fragile is the area of code?

- What is the testing impact of the fix?

- How long will it take to test?

- Does helptext or faq or knowledge base need to be update?

- Will the fix require localization?

- Does this issue need to be fixed immediately or can it wait?

- Is the system the issue is present in going to be rewritten soon? If so can the issue be ignore till the rewrite?

- How risky is fixing the issue?

- How long will it take to fix?

 

These are just a few of the questions that need to be answered before you can assign a priority to a issue, let alone hundreds or thousands of issues. Once a issue has a priority, it is scheduled into the existing workload. and put on the release calendar. However once a issue has a priority it can always get bumped in priority by a new, more serious issue.

 

Then the issue is fixed by the developer, and putting in the testing queue. Testing is probably scheduled by release window. It appears the regular patch window is sync'ed with the Tuesday maintenance window. So I expect the testing timeframe is end of day Wednesday. The patches then need to be built and tested and that probably happens Thursday/Friday.

 

I’m pretty confident, based on my work history, that what I’ve described is very similar to the process being employed by BioWare. They probably have a backlog of issues they want to address from beta, as well as all the issue that are coming each day from players. Each issue is assessed and place in a queue. Now there are probably queues for each team but I doubt there are any teams that have a zero issue backlog. Some teams might have easier issues to fix than others and that might be why the nature of changes that we’ve seen in the last two patches are not particularly satisfying. I would expect the number of issues corrected as well as the nature of issues corrected to change over the next 2-3 weeks.

 

Sorry for the wall of text but I hope this helps.

 

I appreciate the well typed out response. I am fully aware of the process that typically happens, but i'm glad you posted for others benefits .