Developer Blog: Busting Bugs and Fixing Exploits

[Karnyvor]

I'm pathetic and a straw man, that's cute and all. Every mmo I have ever played has had issues at launch. Whether it was ten years ago or last year or this one. I didn't about know forum deletion that's pretty effed up. I don't understand how you compare a product like a car to something that costs 60 initially and $15 a month but some people have weird views on economics. What is it that is concerning all of these people? I'm only experiencing the little annoying things that really don't make much of a difference to my play so I'm happy. I'm a happy strawman and you sir, are a namecaller.

 

Clearly you misunderstood my post and have never heard of the term "straw man argument." I encourage you to look it up. I am not attempting to troll or talk down to you. Nor did I say you were pathetic... I said your argument is pathetic. Please don't personalize.

 

My point is that the dev blog post seemed to be an excuse. IMO, and its just my opinion, if the devs were sincere, they would immediately implement a customer service structure that doesn't close tickets unresolved. Or in the case of tickets that are genuine bugs and/or those tickets that get escalated, keep them open until its determined its a bug then close them. As a follow up, post the bug into a known issues section of the forums so people stop making tickets for known issues. This simple solution will drastically reduce the amount of redundant tickets their team will have to sift through.

 

The car thing is something in the english language called an analogy. Clearly this is also something that is new to you. I also suggest you google it. Not hatin, just trying to educate where I can.

 

I am glad you are happy with the game, and while there are many in the forums who hate to hate, there are more who are presenting valid issues and are frustrated by the devs for dismissing them. Then they have to deal with the players who haven't experienced their issues who troll them and tell them to quit QQing and go away.

[Liquidacid]

It's like they think we are all five year old children....lol *** we are not retarded BW Thanks for the post that we need to read when the game came out and Are still beta testing for you with you unfinished game that looks like something we should have seen in 2005 GG guys.

 

maybe if you stopped acting like retarded 5 year olds and making posts like this they would stop treating you like one

Edited February 1, 2012 by Liquidacid

[Mallorik]

So now we know why they are slow, still doesnt fix the problem of people running from this game like its a burning building.

 

Fix it faster, i dont know how many all night eternity vaults i can get my guild to do if it takes us 15 tries to get an ancient pylons reset that doesnt bug out.

[Lorealin]

Hello everyone! We’ve posted a new blog from Richard Vogel that talks about busting bugs and fixing exploits. Click here to read the blog!

 

So yeah...

 

Had this game had 16 weeks of beta with real players not "friends and family or fanatic idiots" they would be so much further ahead. Right now this game is like 6 weeks prior to release of Rift quality. I understand pressures from management and finance but guys really? 2 months out still fixing basic I mean basic entry level MMO stuff. Fail.com

 

This to me as a developer reads like "cover thine assets". He is not being honest just being as truthful as he can be given his management.

 

Bioware Star Wars Lore A++

Bioware Star Wars Image (graphics) A++

Bioware Star Wars Lore (story line ) A++

Bioware Star Wars UI (D-)

Bioware Star Wars QA (F)

Bioware Star Wars Dev © at best...(basic counting in bags? filtering still does not work...epic fail..you were on my team I would fire you)

Bioware Star Wars Customer Supper (F) - I can't say enough about this level of failure ....the worst in the industry.

[Karnyvor]

No I wasn't calling you a hater actually, that was aimed at the actual ones. I guess I didn't word that well enough.

 

I'm not saying I am bashing every single person that doesn't agree with me. A lot of the people I've seen pointing out problems may be passionate but they at least make Valid arguments and reasons as to why they believe what they do and such and such, like you.

 

I was talking about the people who do NOT provide any kind of constructive criticism. Or anything constructive at all. The people who simply post just to bash the Dev's or the people who dont bash along with them. THOSE are the people I cant stand. The ones who know only the bad parts of life and the only time they will ever praise something is if it is to spite another thing they hate more.

 

I appreciate your reply, I apologize that I misunderstood your post and response. That said, I completely agree with you based on this post.

[Perihelion]

Haters gonna Hate AMIRITE? Thats all they ever gonna do because thats all they can do.

 

 

 

Also +9001

 

I think it's great that they are fixing the bugs. And despite what every single needlessly-hateful person on these forums has to say, they ARE fixing them. They just dont like not having something to hate about.

 

Keep up the good work Bioware and dont listen to the Peanut Gallery. The people who actually matter know your doing what your suppose to be.

 

The people that matter are the ones that pay for their sub. No one else. And those include all the people complaining on the forum. In fact, if I were Bioware I wouldnt give a **** about all the thanks, and great game blah blah blah posters because they have your money. You will pay them regardless. They are trying to keep the complainers subbed and happy. Not you. They are not doing this out of the goodness of their hearts. They are doing this because they have to.

 

PS, I'm not saying Bioware are doing a good job, I'm just saying those happy with the product are the irrelevant ones here.

[Karnyvor]

So yeah...

 

Had this game had 16 weeks of beta with real players not "friends and family or fanatic idiots" they would be so much further ahead. Right now this game is like 6 weeks prior to release of Rift quality. I understand pressures from management and finance but guys really? 2 months out still fixing basic I mean basic entry level MMO stuff. Fail.com

 

This to me as a developer reads like "cover thine assets". He is not being honest just being as truthful as he can be given his management.

 

Bioware Star Wars Lore A++

Bioware Star Wars Image (graphics) A++

Bioware Star Wars Lore (story line ) A++

Bioware Star Wars UI (D-)

Bioware Star Wars QA (F)

Bioware Star Wars Dev © at best...(basic counting in bags? filtering still does not work...epic fail..you were on my team I would fire you)

Bioware Star Wars Customer Supper (F) - I can't say enough about this level of failure ....the worst in the industry.

 

Its funny you bring this up. Everyone was calling for an open or large scale beta and were ignored. However, if an Open Beta or large scale beta that lasted more than a weekend had happened, a lot of these issues could have been avoided.

 

Trufax: Most of the time during the closed beta there were like 2-3 beta servers up and those were not full.

[Nightsong]

Well I don't know about after cata came out, but prior to that, every interaction I had with WOW customer support was both friendly and professional. Further, if they escalated my ticket, they did not close it. It was geniunely escalated and followed up on. Once that happened, they would contact me with the resolution.

 

With regard to the forums... there aren't even designated community representatives that interact with the community... they dont even have server forums.

 

Stephen Reid is the guy in charge of community for the forums, go to the dev tracker and you will find his posts.

 

Server forums would be nice, but perhaps they will be added later, there have been changes to the forums since they have launched in their new state.

 

I'm glad you had no issue with Blizzard support, you are the only person I have heard of not having issues. And as for the forum, the amount of dev ego there is legendary. You had devs insult people there as well as saying that every bug and exploit was "working as intended" even when it was clearly not.

 

Bioware has won me over by admitting when they screw up. All of my tickets are answered, and if you had one of yours dropped, resubmit it. I'm sure it was a bug in the system and not someone just deleting it out of hand.

[Xumagai]

Clearly you misunderstood my post and have never heard of the term "straw man argument." I encourage you to look it up. I am not attempting to troll or talk down to you. Nor did I say you were pathetic... I said your argument is pathetic. Please don't personalize.

 

My point is that the dev blog post seemed to be an excuse. IMO, and its just my opinion, if the devs were sincere, they would immediately implement a customer service structure that doesn't close tickets unresolved. Or in the case of tickets that are genuine bugs and/or those tickets that get escalated, keep them open until its determined its a bug then close them. As a follow up, post the bug into a known issues section of the forums so people stop making tickets for known issues. This simple solution will drastically reduce the amount of redundant tickets their team will have to sift through.

 

The car thing is something in the english language called an analogy. Clearly this is also something that is new to you. I also suggest you google it. Not hatin, just trying to educate where I can.

 

I am glad you are happy with the game, and while there are many in the forums who hate to hate, there are more who are presenting valid issues and are frustrated by the devs for dismissing them. Then they have to deal with the players who haven't experienced their issues who troll them and tell them to quit QQing and go away.

 

No i have heard that term i just think it's dorky. Calling my statements pathetic isn't even slightly personal you're right I apologize. /sarcasmoff

 

You are indeed talking down to me. Actually I am not 100% with the game (i think the space arcade is terribad tbqh i mean we couldn't get one more unique mission?) but I see potential. Maybe I'm just being a herd animal or something but yeah, I'm not having any major issues other than space combat makes me want to start up starfox64.

 

Also if I have not experienced issues that you have how can I possibly even know how bad it is? As far as performance issues go- smoothest launch I've ever been in. And that is a personal experience. I really don't want to fight with you as you seem passionate about the game I simply have my own opinion. Don't talk to me like I don't have an epeen and you do that's just making you seem even more condescending.

[Dosris]

The people that matter are the ones that pay for their sub. No one else. And those include all the people complaining on the forum. In fact, if I were Bioware I wouldnt give a **** about all the thanks, and great game blah blah blah posters because they have your money. You will pay them regardless. They are trying to keep the complainers subbed and happy. Not you. They are not doing this out of the goodness of their hearts. They are doing this because they have to.

 

PS, I'm not saying Bioware are doing a good job, I'm just saying those happy with the product are the irrelevant ones here.

 

So your saying we cant be happy with it's strengths while still acknowledging it's problems and also acknowledging it will take time to fix them and in the meantime actually ENJOY the game? Instead of simply stewing on the forums like these problems are permanent and can never get fixed in any way while bashing BW constantly and unnecessarily even though they are indeed working to fix things?

[Uruare]

Hello everyone! We’ve posted a new blog from Richard Vogel that talks about busting bugs and fixing exploits. Click here to read the blog!

 

 

Thanks for the informative blog post! This is exactly the kind of feedback I'd call a vital component of establishing and maintaining good community relationships.

 

I know quite well there are a lot of things you folks aren't at liberty to discuss or even mention without 1d4+1 other peoples' approval, and lots of other things that just aren't good topics to get caught up in, but this here's good.

 

And again, I thank you for it!

 

Cheers!

[Nightsong]

Its funny you bring this up. Everyone was calling for an open or large scale beta and were ignored. However, if an Open Beta or large scale beta that lasted more than a weekend had happened, a lot of these issues could have been avoided.

 

Trufax: Most of the time during the closed beta there were like 2-3 beta servers up and those were not full.

 

There were large scale tests, the last three weekends where massive, being in part stress tests as to how many people could fit on a server. Besides, you could test for months and not catch everything. I'd be more concerned if they weren't fixing bugs, but they are, just not in a fashion that is as timely as some would like.

[Perihelion]

So your saying we cant be happy with it's strengths while still acknowledging it's problems and also acknowledging it will take time to fix them and in the meantime actually ENJOY the game? Instead of simply stewing on the forums like these problems are permanent and can never get fixed in any way while bashing BW constantly and unnecessarily even though they are indeed working to fix things?

 

All I'm saying is that they aren't doing this because people are happy with the game. Why waste the manpower trying to fix this, and the cost involved trying to fix the bugs? I am irked by the poster who said only the happy customers are the one that matter which is obviously not the case. I'm sure they are delighted that you are happy with the game, but it appears they are also very concerned about all the complaints. And the blog post addresses the complainers. Like I said, they have your money anyway.

 

My point about PAYING customers is the valid one. And that includes all the complainers, which represent a significant dollar value. Without the complainers nothing would ever get fixed. They will make or break the game.

[Dosris]

All I'm saying is that they aren't doing this because people are happy with the game. Why waste the manpower trying to fix this, and the cost involved trying to fix the bugs? I am irked by the poster who said only the happy customers are the one that matter which is obviously not the case. I'm sure they are delighted that you are happy with the game, but it appears they are also very concerned about all the complaints. And the blog post addresses the complainers. Like I said, they have your money anyway.

 

My point about PAYING customers is the valid one. And that includes all the complainers, which represent a significant dollar value. Without the complainers nothing would ever get fixed. They will make or break the game.

 

I'm not saying critique is bad. In fact it's absolutely necessary for any MMO to thrive. But the way in which most people do it could certainly use some improvement. Most just spew out their displeasure while offering nothing back, nothing in return that could possibly help alleviate problems of any kind and serve only to clog up the forums with pure hatred.

[gaskull]

We do care about new content. Game is not as "broken" as some forum posters say.

 

Ive been playing since Dec. 18th and havent run into 1 gamebreaking bug. I have run into a few regular bugs. I submit my report, and continue having fun. I dont run to the forums and say the sky is falling we're all doomed!!

 

Excellent article. Thank you for letting us in on the process. I was actually curious as to how you guys handled these things.

 

Agreed

[Creedon]

Actions speak louder than words.... Posting "Explanations" of your strategy and/or intent is like pitching me some sort of "what i can do for you" speech... after i hired you...

 

I enjoy the game, however there are many mechanics *cough* Jugg threat generation, Ilum PvP/Dailies *cough* that need to be emphasized and fixed ASAP. I can honestly care what your process is, I/we want results.

 

As said, i enjoy the game, but the post was unnecessary and i almost felt like i was being mocked for being a paying customer and you (the developers) allowed the few 'complaints' (aka trolls) out weigh the rest of us.

 

That post seems more like a political PR move than an explanation that we understand the frustration that we have extensive bugs/exploits to your community....

 

I dont need another green weenie inserted.. THANKS!

[EvanSnowWolf]

You got coding problems, I feel bad for you son.

 

I got 99 problems but a bug ain't one.

[Funkface]

How can you sleaze bags have the audacity to post a essay like this knowing full well you've failed to fix even the simplest bugs in this game? Customers will only tolerate being lied to so long before this game gets buried and forgotten forever.

[FarizAA]

As for me, there is one very fundamental problem with SWTOR bug fixing. After each patch game is less and less playable for me. Really, I am experiencing crashes, freezes, lockups, game mechanics broken bugs 10 times more often, than it was in beta.

 

I asked around and it seems it is more my problem that a general problem, yet it spoils my gameplay hugely. This way after couple more "bug fixing" game will be totally unplayable for me. Which is shame, because I like SWTOR.

[Dhurgan]

Woke up this morning at it was repaired...

no time to try it now though... work first...

[Lorealin]

As for me, there is one very fundamental problem with SWTOR bug fixing. After each patch game is less and less playable for me. Really, I am experiencing crashes, freezes, lockups, game mechanics broken bugs 10 times more often, than it was in beta.

 

I asked around and it seems it is more my problem that a general problem, yet it spoils my gameplay hugely. This way after couple more "bug fixing" game will be totally unplayable for me. Which is shame, because I like SWTOR.

 

Agreed.

 

They have no idea how the engine works. Those that remain are just mashing keys and hoping it fixes a problem.

[plompkin]

Is this a joke?

 

Because the customer support you guys have are, at best, completely useless. I've had so many CSRs shrug at me and say they don't know what is going on with your crappy launcher since beta. And it's only been brought to your attention on January 23?

 

I've lost at least 9 days worth of game time due to this issue after every single patch. And it's "not an issue" that so many players are unable to get into the game, but we definitely needed the Founder title. Yeah, that's it!

[Amellia]

Really a lot of BUGS and after new patch 1.1.* i cant update the game at my Win7 64bit. Until now everything working properly after this patch all time the same problem."Unable to retrieve patch data". Let us see how fast they responce to this problem. I try to contacytfrom yesterday but nothing...I post on twiter this problem 5 times i post at forum 3 times and nothing. I post now too.. AARGGHH !! :mad:

 

Oh and something more i use repair utility 5 times and everything is good. !!

++ others games run rerfect so this is your problem..and 32bit patch fine !!

Edited February 1, 2012 by Amellia

[Twin]

Actions speak louder than words.... Posting "Explanations" of your strategy and/or intent is like pitching me some sort of "what i can do for you" speech... after i hired you...

 

I enjoy the game, however there are many mechanics *cough* Jugg threat generation, Ilum PvP/Dailies *cough* that need to be emphasized and fixed ASAP. I can honestly care what your process is, I/we want results.

 

As said, i enjoy the game, but the post was unnecessary and i almost felt like i was being mocked for being a paying customer and you (the developers) allowed the few 'complaints' (aka trolls) out weigh the rest of us.

 

That post seems more like a political PR move than an explanation that we understand the frustration that we have extensive bugs/exploits to your community....

 

I dont need another green weenie inserted.. THANKS!

 

This ^

[Embrosil]

Well I would really appreciate if the bug, which I can see in patch notes as fixed would really be fixed (e.g. we still can not cancel bonus missions from our log and I am still stuck with Stay Frosty). And I know about at least two more which you said has been fixed while they are still present.