Jump to content

Announcing The Old Republic Guild Summit


CourtneyWoods

Recommended Posts

I think you missed my explanation about why a casual guild leader is far, far less likely to have the time, money, or interest for a "Guild Summit" than a hardcore guild leader.
I am a casual guild leader and am hoping to get picked. I am married and have a job. However I will pay my way to go see it

 

Re. Negativity/feedback: Exactly what purpose is served by gathering feedback in this way, when even a cursory understanding of human nature is enough to realize "this might be a fundamentally flawed tactic"? Saying "this isn't likely to go well" isn't being negative. That's being realistic.

I think many people are doing the

 

"This is doomed way to go bioware" type of response rather then just giving positive or negative constructive feedback. Not saying you are. As for it being "realistic" that's from your point of view. There are many other points of view that think it is a great idea.

 

Re. WoW and raids: You can argue the whys and wherefores all you like. WoW's numbers peaked during the expansion all the hardcore players called "too easy". Their numbers dropped sharply during the expansion all the casual players called "too hard". Neither of these is deniable. I did posit, without the data to prove, that I think WoW's numbers peaked because all players had goals they could work on. But that's tangential to the main point I'm trying to make: "hardcore only" equals "no subscribers". Casuals aren't just the majority of the player base, they're where the *money* comes from. (Side note/other tangent: There is a true workaround for this, but it involves the dreaded "microtransactions" model instead of a flat subscriber fee)

I think the hardcore and casual players have one thing in common. They are in a guild. My guild is all in support of me going and we are pretty casual. We still try to stay competitive. However we only downed SOA on hardmode and that's it. The raid group i am in raids 1 to 2 nights a week.

 

Bioware said they selected guilds of all types before making this public. To me that means they picked guild leaders who were running casual, RP, PVP, hardcore guilds.

Re. raiding in general: I'm inclined to agree that "people got tired of doing the same thing" and left WoW because of it. But that "same thing" is raiding. There are only so many ways to make players jump when you say "jump". At some point, the very principle of "large # of people dodging ground effects while one 'tank' keeps the big bad guy's attention and four healers spend their night turning yellow bars into green ones" is going to start feeling tired and stale, no matter how you slice it. Reskinning raids to have light sabers doesn't change anything. The declining numbers in WoW suggest (to me) that it's time to move on. There were hundreds of directions a Star Wars MMO could take; raiding doesn't need to be a sole focus, or even a main one.

 

I agree with this 100%. I wish I could redo my survey options because one of my feed backs was about raids. However , after asking my guild what they would ask if I got a chance to go, they talked about a lot of stuff in our Team Speak server

 

Things like end game content with companions, pod racing dailies, fleet ships, and multiple topics about endgame that was not about raiding.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 684
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Things like end game content with companions, pod racing dailies, fleet ships, and multiple topics about endgame that was not about raiding.

 

Yes, I like all of these.

 

I also like these ideas which have been put forth by other people:

* Group space missions.

* Space raids. Take 15 of your friends and face the death star. (Really? BW didn't even think of this? ...really? I asked about this at their PAX booth last year, and the dev looked at me like I was from Mars! It was very nearly the Jenna Marbles "How to Avoid Talking to People" look.)

* Ship appearances being customizable, inside and out. They're effectively player housing from level 17 onward.

* Cosmetic professions that do things like customize ship appearances, inside and out. And character appearances, for that matter. I mean beyond the 70s/emo hair styles. I want my Chiss Sniper to get a facial tattoo!

* Open "sandbox" style planets.

* Repeatable missions, even daily quests, with tangible light/dark side gains, and corresponding rewards for things like "go from full light to full dark" or vice versa.

* More battlegrounds. The ability to board factions' ships and PVP there as a battleground.

* Guild space stations, where the guild not only designs it, but gets to implement security, and groups of players can assault them.

 

...and so on.

 

All I'm seeing, in this thread and elsewhere, is whether or not raids should be hard. That's a bit like looking at a real city, asking its residents "how can I improve this city," and restricting the answers to the shape and accessibility of the sports stadium.

Edited by Thug-Ra
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Curious....

 

If you say that you selected those that contribute the most constructive feedback on the forums anyway, then why have a guild summit? Why not just take the ideas/suggestions that they had already posted on the forums?

 

Curious....

 

To be honest, you moderators and such have deleted the majority of everyone's threads that had something to say about what they disliked with this game. All you did was select the people who always has something good A.K.A "constructive" to say about what you have created.

 

I know of the guilds that you selected and I have seen them talk about it outside of this thread. To be honest, non of them are SMALL guilds.

 

I know that you will delete this, or you will send me a warning, but at this point it would just give me even more reason to unsubscribe and while I'm at it to take my entire guild with me back to League of Legends.

 

Sure, you won't miss us initially....

 

But, I can guarantee that the community that I brought with me from Tempest would eventually soon follow...

 

You have a community of good players here whom have been crying out to you over and over on the forums. To select the Elitist Jerks and Hoard guilds from every server will get you no where and fast. The crazy thing about it is, those guilds don't even really care....they will all be in Guild Wars 2 or Diablo 3 when the time comes.

 

Good luck at your guild summit.

 

Pink

Edited by PinkSugar
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

All I'm seeing, in this thread and elsewhere, is whether or not raids should be hard.

 

To be fair though...we both know how MMO forums are. Most people that come here complain, I have not heard from any of these guilds that are going.

 

But from biowares response it seems they took notice to guilds that were also active and helpful in the community

 

not just the people that gripe 24/7 and state things like "make it harder! fix your bugs first!"

 

I have high hopes for this summit for these reasons. I like all your ideas and, if your guild leader is planning to submit a survey, you should inform him or her your concerns.

 

good luck!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

While I fully support Q&A between players and Devs, a meeting in texas is not my idea of effective operation.

 

Like so many people say, all the real issues have been posted on the forums over and over and over again.

 

Why not gather all these problems, stick em in a form with a vote system in it, send it to ALL the players and let them tell you what has prio over what. That way you'll have your feed back faster and more accurate than letting a handfull of people decide over the fate of the entire community. It makes no sense at all.

 

Not the mention all the elitism that will spawn from only inviting certain people.. and only guildleaders?? Just because they have an imaginairy title it doesn't make them the best people to ask by default.

 

But what ever BW decides to do, at least in the name of of that is good in this world, LISTEN and ACT accordingly. Don't do what you do now on forums and with tickets... Wich is nothing.

 

You've put a lot of money in developing the game, now let us help you keep it alive.

Edited by Noxard
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've noticed a number of Guild Leader hopefuls out there that are hoping for an invite to this summit and also some that may have received an invite and are unable to afford or make time to attend. I wanted to offer my voice up to those people. I will be attending the summit, and while I have a laundry list of items that my guild is looking to address, I'm more than willing and happy to add more to my list. Not only does this give a voice to some people that are otherwise unable to attend in person, but it also assures that each time I am called upon to address the masses as it were, I'll have something to bring up that hasn't already been asked and answered.

 

I've already sent some PM's to the authors of some posters in this thread, but honestly I didn't read through all 65 pages to sort through the BS to get to the diamonds in the rough so to speak either. If you're interested in adding your list to mine, please send me a PM and I'll get you an email address to send them to. If not, no big deal. I just wanted to put this offer out there so that those that cannot speak have a voice.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've noticed a number of Guild Leader hopefuls out there that are hoping for an invite to this summit and also some that may have received an invite and are unable to afford or make time to attend. I wanted to offer my voice up to those people. I will be attending the summit, and while I have a laundry list of items that my guild is looking to address, I'm more than willing and happy to add more to my list. Not only does this give a voice to some people that are otherwise unable to attend in person, but it also assures that each time I am called upon to address the masses as it were, I'll have something to bring up that hasn't already been asked and answered.

 

I've already sent some PM's to the authors of some posters in this thread, but honestly I didn't read through all 65 pages to sort through the BS to get to the diamonds in the rough so to speak either. If you're interested in adding your list to mine, please send me a PM and I'll get you an email address to send them to. If not, no big deal. I just wanted to put this offer out there so that those that cannot speak have a voice.

 

That's pretty cool of you , thanks for doing it. It further proves the point that guild leaders wont be going in there and just saying

 

"MAKE IT HARDER!". I will send you my list after the 15th in hopes that I get picked :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

65 pages of responses some in favor many against this.

 

I personally plan to attend this guild summit just because i look forward to the insite it will give into the game developers mindset. There are alot of issues with the game but alot it has done really well and I would love the opportunity to help expand that list of things done really well. I am already making a list of items I hope to get an opportunity to talk about and many of the items come from my guildies and other guild leaders I am friends with that already know they cant go. No one should be upset about an extra opportunity to express concerns with the dev's even limited communication is better than none. Everyone spends so much energy complaining about everything but never really offer and insite into what they feel should be done to actually solve the issues. its always easier to say FIX IT NOAH DEV"S or im unsubscribing.

 

something for all the people complaining about it being invite only and being in texas take a moment and consider that this could be a simple test gathering to see how it works out and how well it does. If it goes well and they can work out the logistics easy enough there is no reason it couldnt open up the opportunity for more meetings like this and eventually hit a point to be as big as Blizz con or comic con. Everyone of those conventions started small and built up from there.

 

I appreicate anyone that took the time to read this post.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

After further thoughts and reading the replies to my message, I agree that my previous post was more about venting my own frustrations and not very insightful or realistic.

 

BW, I do not believe that it is too much to ask for the following:

 

1. Release the selection criteria that you are using to select guild leaders.

2. Release a list of guilds that you have invited and what server they represent.

3. Provide a method, even if it is only a recorded or written transcript of the event, so that any active subscriber can have access to what was discussed over those few days.

 

There should be no reason for you to refuse to release the information as to what guilds were invited, what servers they are from, and what criteria you used to select those guilds. Refusing to provide this information is kind of like pleading the 5th isn't it? You fear releasing the information will show guilt because you were not fair in your selection criteria or you have no set selection criteria and knew exactly who you wanted to attend this meeting for your own agenda. There is also no reason why you cannot release a transcript or recording of the event. It is not that hard to record all the audio and then have it transcribed. That would not be very expensive and would allow all of us access to the information that was exchanged.

 

Thank you...

Edited by eschuler
Link to comment
Share on other sites

To all of those whining that this should be more "open to everyone" stop and realize for a moment what you are asking:

 

1 million players

 

All of them given 1 minute to express an idea to bioware

 

1 million minutes is 16,666 hours... which is 696 days

 

You just asked bioware to spend 696 days of continuous face time to give every person in the game a chance to give 1 minute of feedback

 

http://www.linkedin.com/in/vincentbeers

 

You are right, there is no way they could have a meaningful discussion if they even allowed 1000 people to show up.

 

But there is no reason why they cannot provide a recorded or written transcript of the event if they do not want to go through the expense and production of providing live access through the internet or conference-call.

Edited by eschuler
Link to comment
Share on other sites

You expect me to believe that inviting a hand-selected group of 'elite' guild leaders to meet with you in Austin will provide you with a better understanding of the issues than the forums do? Everyone has access to the forums and can post their comments about the game. How are you going to get more information from a sub-set of users that probably is not even .05% of the user base?

 

I wonder what your definition of 'elite' is. As a guild leader who was invited, I do not consider myself anywhere near 'elite'. If you are speaking in terms of in game proficiency, know that I am no PvP god, I don't hardcore raid (my highest toon is currently 38), and I take Flashpoints as I can get them. And as far as the Official forums go, I read them but I am not actively engaging in topics. But that is my own personal choice.

 

My guild leader lives 2,000 miles away and I have never met or spoken to him. But I am supposed to think that he knows what my issues and priorities are for the game? What about the other 20, 100, 500, 1,999 users in the guild depending upon how large it is? You said you invited guilds that had over 2,000 members. So how is that one person going to present the ideas for the other 1,999? They cannot; it is completely impossible. Even if the guild leader tries, and gives the majority's view. In a guild of 2,000, that means there could be 999 people that disagree with what will be presented to you. How is that fair and how are you going to get a better feel for what the community wants as a whole in this meeting? Do you really feel like this is a better use of your time and money than communicating with us on the forums?

 

It sounds like you have a communication issue with your guild leader, if that's the case. My guild started in WoW. Since then, we have expanded our efforts to have a presence in other games, like Rift, EVE, and now SWTOR. Our individual count of guilded toons is roughly 1800 toons on the Imperial side, and 600 on the Republic side. We have forums that we utilize to communicate with each other as well as an email address that all Officers have access to, and the ability to respond. I have created a thread in our forums asking for input from our members. I have also used other social media, like G+, Twitter, and Facebook to gather more questions. My task as a guild leader is to take all the info I gather, and take it with me to represent our membership.

 

 

If you really want to improve things, hire or dedicate people to the forums. Where they provide daily updates and interact with us. Why are some forum postings completely void of employee input and others get a response maybe once a week if we are lucky? Instead of inviting select people and by default making them 'elite' members, why don't you use that money and time more effectively and hold online meetings based upon the topics in the forums? Would that not be more productive than this? Wouldn't you get more information and more suggestions on how to fix different aspects of the game if you selected one issue a week and held a web-meeting or forum event in real time? Wouldn't this give you more information about the issues and concerns your customer base has over a small meeting in Austin?

 

Forums are a good tool, but is not the only one. It takes time to read a reply, then compose a response. When you have more popular threads where there are multiple posts over the course of an hour, factor in the time it takes to read, sift out the non-troll style comments, and address what are the important issues, you are looking at a considerable amount of time spent before a CM can chime in. A face to face interaction provides instant answers without having to spend copious amounts of time reading. The summit is just another tool to gather information. As I have stated previously, I would rather have too much info than limiting myself to just one mode of communication. But that's just me. ;)

 

Come on guys and gals, use your heads over there. I know you can do better than this. Why do you want to alienate so many members and create a possible rift between the 'elite' that get to voice their issues, concerns, and recommendations? Why not come up with a way to involve more of the community using the tools of today? Web-casts and webinars are routine now. You already have the forums in place and on occasion, someone at BioWare responds. Why not use what you have to the fullest to get a 'real' pulse on what our issues, concerns, and desires are for the game we love?

 

I believe the powers that be have a plan for disseminating information during the guild summit, but they are keeping that close to the chest for the immediate time being. Have faith and patience. :)

 

There is so much more I can say and believe me, I have said and deleted it 20 times trying to craft my post. All I am asking is that you do not isolate me or anyone else. I can only speak for myself, but I cannot be the only person feeling this way. I do not know my guild leader personally. I cannot trust or distrust someone I have never met and gotten to know. All I can say is that he/she will give the information that they think is best. But the information my guild leader gives you might not be what I have issues with.

 

Again, maybe you are in the wrong guild if you have no means of communication with him/her. To me, that is an important part of keeping a guild strong and alive. Any member of my guild has the tools available to communicate with anyone, myself included. I think the only isolation that is being done is by your guild leader, just going solely on what you have stated.

 

Please give me the same opportunity you give everyone else. I know just hearing that someone will get the chance to meet with you and voice his/her opinions about the game where I do not have the same opportunity upsets me a little. What makes these people more 'special' and their ideas more 'important' than mine? I have a guild, I pay the same amount of money for my subscription. Why are they 'elevated' to a higher status and given special access? You say you chose fairly but you cannot give us anymore information because we would start thinking you were bias in your selection. I do not know about anyone else, but when someone tells me they cannot give me all the details about how they came to a decision, but I am supposed to 'trust' that they were fair, makes me very suspicious. If you have to tell me that giving me more information will make me question your motives, that by default means I should probably question your motives.....

 

They are giving you an opportunity. Form your own guild, and submit an application. If you get selected, awesome. If not, hope for the best for those that were selected and that the Dev summit yields positive results. If so, they may have future events that you will be able to attend. If it is a massive failure, which I doubt it will be, then they can say they tried it and move on to a different method of communication or fall back to the forums. As far as the selection process, they are not obligated to define anything. If they did, then I am sure someone would find a reason to feel slighted. It's the nature of the beast.

 

Anyway, thank you for this 'attempt', but by not allowing equal access for all members, you really have elevated the status and 'importance' of the selected individuals over the rest of us. These selected guild leaders do not pay more money than I do. My guild and its members are just as capable of providing input and suggestions as anyone else. By not allowing everyone to participate in this meeting, by default you are saying that my ideas and concerns are not as important as those you have selected. If you are going to elevate other people and their ideas above my own, then perhaps I should reevaluate my relationship with your company? Maybe everyone that is not invited should evaluate if they want to continue paying their hard earned cash to play a game that only values the voices of your hand-selected 'elites'.

 

I hope you really know what you are doing because right now, I personally do not see where you gain anything positive from this meeting. I seriously hope the information you gain from meeting with your 'elite' members is worth the possible backlash from alienating the rest of us and our opinions.

 

Have a little faith that they know what they are doing, even if they are not as forthcoming as people would like. There are reasons to not release every little detail, due to the level of scrutiny that everyone places on a post. And if you really would like a concern/question/suggestion raised that is affecting you personally, I would be happy to take it with me. If that is the case, feel free to drop me a private message. :)

Edited by Pelell
Link to comment
Share on other sites

What I am asking for is one of two things....

 

1. Let anyone who wants to fork out the money join in person. I would go as a spectator just so that I could see what is being offered up by my guild leader if he gets selected.

2. Maybe let anyone go and they submit 2 to 5 questions each. BioWare answeres the top 10 or 20 questions presented by those in attendance that are not 'invited' participants. The bulk of the summit can be Q and A for the 'invited' elite.

 

...

 

But I guarentee that if they opened the doors to any paid member that wished to travel to Austin, they would not get 1 Million. 50 to 100K, maybe. If that many showed up, then obviously, it would be spectator mode for all the non-invited people.

Holy crap, son. I know that Texas has this reputation of being big, but exactly how big do you think it is? There literally is no venue in Austin that could hold 50,000 people at once, let alone a hundred thousand. Well, okay. Maybe the stadium at UT. But that's hardly an intimate setting, is it? Bioware's not going to rent out a place like Cowboys Stadium (though coming up here to DFW would be easier on my wallet) to hold an information gathering session. Events like that are for dissemination only. At that point, it's a convention, which is exactly what Bioware does not want.

 

Some people just do not want to be in a guild and they like solo play. No one should flame them for that. This is the first MMO with single player content. It is breaking ground in new territory. Previous MMOs were guild dependent. This one can be played and enjoyed solo if you wish. Those of you that are flaming these people, do you really feel that your voice is more important than theirs because you are in a guild?

Who is flaming people that aren't in guilds? Back when I started hanging out on the Internet in '95, we saved terms like "flame" and "troll" for situations that actually warranted their use. There is no flaming going on, or, it's so little that it's not even worth talking about.

 

The simple fact of the matter is that the Bioware offices have only so much space. By law, they can fit only so many people in a certain square footage. So, they had to come up with a way to limit who was invited, one that was quick and easy: guild leaders. No one is saying that people that aren't in guilds are somehow less than those who are, especially not Bioware. People need to understand that. I think it's fairly disingenuous to claim otherwise.

 

I also think it's disingenuous to believe that there's not a guild leader out there who shares the solo player's concerns. Hell, there are guilds out there made for the purpose of solo players having someone to chat with while they solo. And, honestly, what concerns can a solo player have that a guild, by the mere state of being a guild, cannot? Everyone solos, whether in a guild or not. Everyone. And those concerns that you have are shared by pretty much every other person that solos in the game.

 

But, for the sake of argument, let's say that you have a concern with the game that no one else has. Honestly, at that point, it's a non-issue. If only one person has a problem with something, it's not worth devoting development time to correcting.

Edited by JacenHallis
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think it is a little silly to think a "Guild Leader" has no clue what the interests of a solo player are. I am a GM, and I solo things. Since I am often on at odd times (2 children under 2 FTW) I am frequently the only person on in my guild of 30.

 

I'd be interested to hear what "Solo Player Issues" I lack insight in to. Inability to find groups, lack of solo content etc. are all things I have experienced to varying degrees.

 

That being said, I do believe that they are PLENTY of issues that are present in guilds that solo players would have ZERO insight in to, as I did not before I became a GM in that other game years ago.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm a GM of a highly competitive raiding/PvP guild. I love the idea of having a GM and developer conference, but my big complaint about this is that it is not being done with VoIP over the internet, so those of us who attend University, Work full time, and have a life can't fly out to Texas for this crucial conference.

 

I believe the dev's should hold a live webinar conference for us GM's with a life and responsibilities. I have numerous concerns to voice about future development and implementation of new content in the upcoming months.

 

I'm sure the end game competitive guilds would have the most input to offer considering current issues and future aspirations toward the game. Timelines, projected goals, and hot issues would all be great information to talk about with the upcoming months.

 

There are so many bugs, exploits, and just down right programming failures that need to be addressed by our entire community not just the few with money and no life to head to Texas.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ugh. Guild support should have been built into the game from the get-go. The amount of effort it took to design what's actually in the game right now, I could've done for the price of a latte. It's ultimately just an extra chat window.

 

This PR publicity stunt in Texas is just to get us to buy a couple more months subscription. They don't care what we have to say. They'll present some BS they promise to implement someday soon and send everyone on their merry way. You watch, that's exactly what will happen. Seriously people. Don't you know a MMO when the suits take over when you see one?

 

Application to attend? Why? Answer: Because they want to screen people like me out. They only want cheering fans, not anyone with an actual opinion. The application process is closed. Bioware, take down the post!

 

... And by the way, the designers of the game live in the Bay Area of California, not Texas. That alone should tell you something.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ugh. Guild support should have been built into the game from the get-go. The amount of effort it took to design what's actually in the game right now, I could've done for the price of a latte. It's ultimately just an extra chat window.

 

This PR publicity stunt in Texas is just to get us to buy a couple more months subscription. They don't care what we have to say. They'll present some BS they promise to implement someday soon and send everyone on their merry way. You watch, that's exactly what will happen. Seriously people. Don't you know a MMO when the suits take over when you see one?

 

Application to attend? Why? Answer: Because they want to screen people like me out. They only want cheering fans, not anyone with an actual opinion. The application process is closed. Bioware, take down the post!

 

... And by the way, the designers of the game live in the Bay Area of California, not Texas. That alone should tell you something.

 

It's not called 'Bioware Austin' because it's in California... it's because it's in Texas.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...