Leskit Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 ...and this update from massively [update: SWTOR Community Manager Stephen Reid has today changed his LinkedIn page indicating that his tenure with the studio ended in May 2012, suggesting that he might be one of those affected by these layoffs. We'll keep you posted as we learn more.] His posting on the official forums was extremely lacking. For a senior community manager he has done a very poor job keeping the community updated or relaying information. The official forums are where BW employees are supposed to communicate with the community. He has failed to do that for many months and as a senior manager he should be at the forefront of that effort. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trenter Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 Hire the guys who invented the original Star Wars Galaxies for Yoda's sake, make TOR a good game please! Just trash the corridor planet concept and do it the SWG way for lvl 50-100 You think hiring new people is what they'll be doing next? Yeah... right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amentis Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 Was CM Steven Reid Caught Up In The Layoffs? http://www.gamebreaker.tv/mmorpg/swtor-layoffs/ His Linkedin status shows he no longer works for Bioware Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeramieCrowe Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 Was CM Steven Reid Caught Up In The Layoffs? http://www.gamebreaker.tv/mmorpg/swtor-layoffs/ His Linkedin status shows he no longer works for Bioware It's sad. He was AWESOME keeping the community updated. Hope this doesn't mean a slowing of communication... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oredith Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 His posting on the official forums was extremely lacking. For a senior community manager he has done a very poor job keeping the community updated or relaying information. The official forums are where BW employees are supposed to communicate with the community. He has failed to do that for many months and as a senior manager he should be at the forefront of that effort.i didn't mind the guy, but i hope, for the sake of the game, that EA/BW uses this as an excuse to put someone in his void, who will change the way BW communicates with the players. like, actually addressing the concerns, not just the "fluff" concerns. there are HUNDREDS of healer posts with specific, and detailed concerns that dated back to pre 1.2, which went completely unanswered. i really hope they do not place Allyson Berryman in his place. she does not strike me as a person who is open to opinion which are not her own. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord_Karsk Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 (edited) Think JovethGonzalez did a much better job talking to the community on these forums. SR was no were to be seen last months. Edited May 22, 2012 by Lord_Karsk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dezzi Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 Yikes. Layoffs typically mean you're getting rid of people and not replacing them. How can this be good news for us lowly players? Just more fuel for the fires, I guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir-Coffee Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 It's sad. He was AWESOME keeping the community updated. Hope this doesn't mean a slowing of communication... We had communication? When? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mashy Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 We'll probably never know, but some devs have been oddly silent lately. I'm usually not one for tinfoil hats, but the 400k sub loss, EA placing this game in priority below Tiger Woods, and EA just being pure evil... I'm wondering if EA will do to BioWare what they did to Westwood Studios... I'd say that's a fair call. They did get voted worst company in the world for a reason. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jagdfalke Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 Is Daniel Erikson still in? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeramieCrowe Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 We had communication? When? Dev Tracker, Twitter, and FB. If you don't want to keep up with the times of communication avenues, that's hardly BioWare's fault... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeramieCrowe Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 I'd say that's a fair call. They did get voted worst company in the world for a reason. I've gotta baaaaaad feeling about this... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir-Coffee Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 Dev Tracker, Twitter, and FB. If you don't want to keep up with the times of communication avenues, that's hardly BioWare's fault... Oh, yes, of course, my fault. You're right, they have always communicated to the community, I am so sorry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corbanite Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 (edited) Dev Tracker, Twitter, and FB. If you don't want to keep up with the times of communication avenues, that's hardly BioWare's fault... I liked stephen but I can see some merit in he should of been more active on the forum. They are the tradtional methods of communication with the playerbase. The control on these forums has been appallingly bad. They just let chaos reign when what these forums needed was someone guiding them and I think Stephen could of helped with that. Fairly regularly I see James Ohens name on a sticky asking for feedback. I would of liked to of seen something similar from stephen keeping the playerbase up to date on developments in more than 144 words. Edited May 22, 2012 by corbanite Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeramieCrowe Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 Oh, yes, of course, my fault. You're right, they have always communicated to the community, I am so sorry. It's okay, it happens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leskit Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 Dev Tracker, Twitter, and FB. If you don't want to keep up with the times of communication avenues, that's hardly BioWare's fault... Dev tracker should be the first place any information relating to a BW product gets relayed. Twitter and FB are secondary avenues which are fine to pursue but the first responsibility for a senior manager is to the company cutting his check. Twitter and FB should be where people working under him relay information to if BW feels it's appropriate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaverickXIV Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 Was CM Steven Reid Caught Up In The Layoffs? http://www.gamebreaker.tv/mmorpg/swtor-layoffs/ His Linkedin status shows he no longer works for Bioware I was typing this up as the other thread closed... The video portion of that article drastically contrasts with the text beneath it. The video (and its hyper-enunciating host) follow modern-day journalistic practices and sensationalize and exaggerate facts for better ratings (or, in this case, hits). We don't know specifically who they are, but we do know that there are some big names, some key people, within the company that have been laid off...you know, people that we've interviewed and that we've seen on podcasts, media interviews...that sort of thing. So you have no idea who's been laid off, but you know that they are "key" people? Furthermore, you know that these are people that you, yourselves, have interviewed and have seen on what I assume you meant to say were official BioWare videos. Maybe you should cross-reference these lists; they wouldn't contain that many people, after all. Unless, of course, this is just a blatant lie to spice up the story. Regarding whether or not this is cause for concern: Within MMOs, when any game launches, for that matter, usually a few months after launch we see a round of layoffs...things drop off, you know? It just happens. Money dries up and whatnot. The interesting thing is BioWare has been touting the line that 'things haven't changed' and 'we're still growing' and that sort of thing, and then we see something like this...it makes me wonder what exactly is going on. It's that last line that I love. "It makes me wonder." This is the poorest, most deceptive journalistic slight of hand in the books. "I don't know why this news report is so terrible. It makes me wonder - maybe all of the people involved are clones of Hitler? Obviously this has no basis on reality, because my rhetoric, while appearing like legitimate news because I may have reported some unrelated, accurate facts in the last segment, is actually entirely speculation meant to trick stupid viewers, but it just makes me wonder." BioWare seem to bark back at all of the financial advisers and stock market people...Do they bark back, though? Or do they just respond normally and the phrase "bark back" sounded more confrontational and sensational? Would you have used the phrase "bark back" if the company wasn't currently laying off people, or would you have used a more subdued phrase? I'd bet on the latter. I was going to go through the rest of the video but I just don't have the heart. I sadly don't think there's any credible, respectable gaming news outlets anymore, and everyone involved in the modern gaming news scene should be ashamed of themselves. News shouldn't sound like a random Ventrilo channel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeramieCrowe Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 (edited) I liked stephen but I can see some merit in he should of been more active on the forum. They are the tradtional methods of communication with the playerbase. The control on these forums has been appallingly bad. They just let chaos reign when what these forums needed was someone guiding them and I think Stephen could of helped with that. Fairly regularly I see James Ohens name on a sticky asking for feedback. I would of liked to of seen something similar from stephen keeping the playerbase up to date on developments in more than 144 words. Yes, it would have been nice to tie some of the stuff from Twitter and FB to here. Problem is, most of the Twitter responses were just responses to fan comments. Wouldn't have made sense if it showed here, too. Bottom line, though: the information is out there, and usually did get posted here by players and mods. Also, you people act like it was totally up to SR what to post where and when. Don't fool yourselves, it wasn't... Edited May 22, 2012 by JeramieCrowe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xenofex Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 (edited) We had communication? When? Stephen Reid has been gone since May, and in fairness we had quite a bit of communication from him before then and a lot of posts pre-release. Sad to see him go and I hope he finds better work elsewhere. Have to say it's knocked my faith in the game further (if that's even possible..). Reid was one of the best members of staff, didn't get the feeling that he was just saying a load of BS to promote the game when he talked, and he actually seemed to know about the game unlike some of Bioware's members who I can't understand how they make mistakes in interviews etc about key facts about their game. Edited May 22, 2012 by Zilrota removed rude Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DecanAndersen Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 George Lucas, you made one HUGE mistake. EA Games. Should have had UBISoft MAKE a new engine instead. But no, you picked EA, and they bough a old crappy engine, messed it up even more, and gave it on to BW. With no support or sandbox Dev options. BW got screwed in this deal, big time.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malice_Nihilim Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 Hehe, Its worse then you all think. Fanboi's are wrong. Several Producers have hung up there hats in the last couple weeks, and then they had a layoff already nuking a lot of contractors, etc....Now they are losing CSR's and QA folks, as well as some dev's, and the next chop which will happen in about 2 months, will be a big gut into the dev staff. SWTOR is losing subs and this is the standard EA method of trying to recover stock numbers, which never works, but they enjoy doing big purges none the less. I give SWTOR 6 months and it will be running in admin mode with a skeleton crew keeping it afloat, just like WAR. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord_Ravenhurst Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 Hehe, Its worse then you all think. Fanboi's are wrong. I give SWTOR 6 months and it will be running in admin mode with a skeleton crew keeping it afloat, just like WAR. Well then, if you are right (which is rather unlikely) TOR would be the second SW MMO that failed. And SWG which was alive for 9 years would look like a mega success compared to it. After all SWG had a far better game concept, even after NGE. Never thought there could be anything worse happening to a SW game than the NGE, but hey, look at things now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kalfear Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 Oh, yes, of course, my fault. You're right, they have always communicated to the community, I am so sorry. LOL, I know. Listen certain posters will spin this (and anything regarding EA) as positive and what not. The posts and updates should have been on forums. Dev tracker makes sense I guess, but I stopped reading it long ago because it was just spin and fluff and no real content. Facebook and Twitter should ONLY be reposting whats posted here on forums. The idea that anyone would blame the players for not following FB and Twitter is laughable. I have FB and I miss most TOR updates there because I have more interests then just TOR, so the stuff rolls by unseen as to many postings appearing. I know MANY people that refuse to do FB for an assortment of reasons. As for Twitter, dont have it, never will. I really dont care where most people I know or following having lunch or what they ate. TOR Forums the official source and should be the first area new items posted to. And in that regard Reid had failed abundantly. I read a post other day that stated Reid had not even logged into forums for over 2 weeks. I dont know if its true or not but I certainly didnt see any posting from him on forums. I dont know about the rest of his job behind the scenes (and dont think anyone else does either, be they hater or fanboi), but for a community manager he was very absent with in the community. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neloth Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 (edited) Hehe, Its worse then you all think. Fanboi's are wrong. Several Producers have hung up there hats in the last couple weeks, and then they had a layoff already nuking a lot of contractors, etc....Now they are losing CSR's and QA folks, as well as some dev's, and the next chop which will happen in about 2 months, will be a big gut into the dev staff. SWTOR is losing subs and this is the standard EA method of trying to recover stock numbers, which never works, but they enjoy doing big purges none the less. I give SWTOR 6 months and it will be running in admin mode with a skeleton crew keeping it afloat, just like WAR. I'm interested in where you found that information? Because to me it looks like you pulled it out of thin air to create a negative mood and stir. Edited May 22, 2012 by Neloth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Improv- Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 My thread was closed so I will post this here. So...Stephen Reid was part of the lay offs. What now? We're going to get even less communcation than we normally do? Why would you lay off the community manager? Second of all, only EA can make an MMO that sells over 2 million copies in a couple of months and has over a million subscribers according to them and not make a killing somehow. ANY OTHER company would be ecstatic to have these sort of numbers but somehow EA overspent so damn much on developing this game and advertising it that they need to let people go. It's management that should be fired. But of course like in any corporation the actual people doing the work are let go and the managers untouched. Now you have less people thus fewer individuals that need to be managed but the same number of managers making big bucks doing nothing but royally screwing over projects. Nice job EA. What Bull. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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