AeSaar Posted May 23, 2012 Share Posted May 23, 2012 It's hard to have two-way communication with people who just refuse to listen. Many people here get a negative thought in their head and no amount of logic or support can shake that away. I've seen FAR too many posts where people ignore facts, spin facts, or even make up facts to support unconstructive rants. For the first time in all of this doom and gloom, with this sad news I am FINALLY getting my own first real sense of dismay. I hope his next job is one that is actually appreciated. The EA/ Bioware representative's job is not to prove their customers wrong, even if they are in fact wrong. If they are upset, it is their job to do what they can to make them feel better about continuing to use the EA/ Bioware product. It is not their job to tell them that their issues are unfounded or stupid. Their job is to assure them that their issue will be addressed and to convince them that it is a good idea to stick with the program. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aelrail Posted May 23, 2012 Share Posted May 23, 2012 The reason they are locking threads is because there is absolutely no reason to have a 1000 "The game is dying" threads. You can always post your ideas on the existing threads and unless you are being offensive, they will not touch them. Simple as that. This is standard practice on all forums to keep them organized and legible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kthx Posted May 23, 2012 Share Posted May 23, 2012 (edited) The EA/ Bioware representative's job is not to prove their customers wrong, even if they are in fact wrong. If they are upset, it is their job to do what they can to make them feel better about continuing to use the EA/ Bioware product. So the new customer satisfaction paradigm is that as long as you are upset, you should be catered to, even when you are wrong? Edited May 23, 2012 by Kthx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pcolapat Posted May 23, 2012 Share Posted May 23, 2012 Never liked SR to be honest. It sucks that he lost his job. I hate to see anybody lose their job. They need to find a fan to do that job. I don't think SR was a big enough fan of star wars. He obviously wasn't excited enough about the opportunity. It showed. That is what bugged me the most about him. He constantly was talking about other pop culture stuff on his twitter, he had lots of other interests. To do the job he was supposed to do, he would have had to be a total star wars junkie. That type of person would also relate better to the community and understand more their frustrations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kthx Posted May 23, 2012 Share Posted May 23, 2012 (edited) How could he when BioWare's policy is to close all threads that are the Dark side of the force As others have pointed out, the no. 1 reason threads get closed is because people feel they are too special to use the existing threads to discuss a topic. They just haaaaaaaaaaaaave to start their own thread, since the existing one clearly is not good enough for them... There are literally thousands of open threads that are critical of the game or of BioWare. To suggest that they are shutting these down is just silly. Edited May 23, 2012 by Kthx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zannis Posted May 23, 2012 Share Posted May 23, 2012 Blaming the customer is always the incorrect answer. No one would hire you, if you openly thought otherwise. This. In the end, if this were a better game, no one would be getting laid off right now. In a subscription based model, people will not pay month to month for what they perceive to be a sub-par product. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fhrosty Posted May 23, 2012 Share Posted May 23, 2012 I would submit that some of the "blind hate, vicious and non-constructive rants, and vicious rants(which seems somewhat redundant, btw)" were of his own making. If you don't communicate, leave too much to conjecture, ignore the feedback that is constructive, people start to lose their patience and turn up their volume to try and get your attention. Some certainly do it because they are just immature or mean spirited, but not all. You missed the tail end of the part you said was redundant. Basically I was saying, "statement 1", "statement 2", and "people complaining about statement 2". It seemed to me that he was much more open to communication in the beginning, then he dropped off slowly over time. I'd say he just got burnt and burnt out. Granted, I don't deny that that's grounds for being let go. No matter how tough your job is, the moment you say "I can't do it", you quit getting paid... unless you're congress. I'm just saying that I feel the guy's pain, and I hope his next endeavor is a little more realistic. There's a reason I'm into programming instead of PR, and it's not because of my radio face. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meldwyn Posted May 23, 2012 Share Posted May 23, 2012 As others have pointed out, the no. 1 reason threads get closed is because people feel they are too special to use the existing threads to discuss a topic. They just haaaaaaaaaaaaave to start their own thread, since the existing one clearly is not good enough for them... There are literally thousands of open threads that are critical of the game or of BioWare. To suggest that they are shutting these down is just silly. I agree that some/many threads were certainly overly redundant and useless, but they (forum managers) seemed to be indiscriminate about what threads were actually thriving conversations/debates that are closed and redirected to older threads where the conversation had died days before and those that were just one of 10 that needed to be shut down and redirected to control the influx of redundant topics. That to me is poor management and not enough discretion is applied to know what is and is not good policy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarthMaulUK Posted May 23, 2012 Share Posted May 23, 2012 As someone who ran a very successful SWG website and started to piece together something for SWTOR - all I can say is that this community team suck. I had a superb relationship with LucasArts spanning over 10 years and as such, was invited to regular hands on, live developer chats etc etc for SWG. I also attended hands on stuff here in the UK for SWTOR - until EA took over everything. An unnamed Community Manager(NOT SR) told me not to attend the next hands on event and future such events. There would be no live dev chats, no assets apart from whats on the website. The idea of a Community team is to build a strong community, provide them with some small bits of exclusive news and interviews OUTSIDE of the normal events they attended. Once I read that email, I withdrew all my support for this game and it was a hard decision to make. Right now, all the community team do here are look at poxy metrics, relay messages from Customer services and even look at this website - no fan kit updates, no fan site links - just a forum. Throw in the poor communication strategy (bits on t witter, facebook, forum, external sites) and is it any wonder the community feel a bit unloved. We havent seen ONE in game live event yet so is it any wonder people are becoming bored and moving on? The job of SR wasnt to post on the forums every day - he has a team to do that - but he would feed back to the Producers/devs about issues bugging the community - well thats what he should have been doing. I dont know why this community team are one of the worse in MMO gaming - was it direction from SR, was it EA not caring - I guess we will never know the truth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meldwyn Posted May 23, 2012 Share Posted May 23, 2012 You missed the tail end of the part you said was redundant. Basically I was saying, "statement 1", "statement 2", and "people complaining about statement 2". It seemed to me that he was much more open to communication in the beginning, then he dropped off slowly over time. I'd say he just got burnt and burnt out. Granted, I don't deny that that's grounds for being let go. No matter how tough your job is, the moment you say "I can't do it", you quit getting paid... unless you're congress. I'm just saying that I feel the guy's pain, and I hope his next endeavor is a little more realistic. There's a reason I'm into programming instead of PR, and it's not because of my radio face. Indeed! You may have hit on the root of the problem. Some times the fire retardant clothing we start with in one fire, doesn't quite cut it in a more intense one. However, I think he created some of this himself, and he was probably put in situations where he no longer even trusted his internal team to deliver what he was supposed to talk about to the community. Those jobs are certainly challenging and it does take a special breed to handle them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zsavooz Posted May 23, 2012 Share Posted May 23, 2012 For those complaining about Facebook & Twitter, please come join the modern age. "Community", especially online community, must encompass these things. As the Community Manager, it was his job to ensure the entire online community was managed and leveraged; not just the official forums. I would imagine SR used Twitter to post snippets he could, while he was awaiting internal approval for more info. give me a break. Many of us use FB and Twitter, but few of us think that's where SW news will be displayed. This is the official forum, not a lame site like MMORPG.com. I don't care if SR posted on Twitter or FB, but make sure it's his family pics or personal crap, not pertinent info. about a game in serious trouble. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tahana Posted May 23, 2012 Share Posted May 23, 2012 As long as I don't see Greg Street on these forums.. I'll be ok and will stay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebigdoubleu Posted May 23, 2012 Share Posted May 23, 2012 I haven't read all the replies, but I want to add my thoughts. I know others have complaints, but I like to give some praise. During the 1.2 fiasco, Mr. Reid was a solid community manager who went to bat for many players who were affected by the early release of the patch. The patch was accidentally released a day earlier, and those who were logging in during the time and download parts of the patch were unable to play the game without significant loss of time to re-download client, patch up, etc etc. I recall the outcry on the forums, especially when the immediate response from BW by one of the community managers seemed to be dismissive that only a "small" number of players affected. This is one Mr. Reid intervened and took our concerns seriously. He kept us up to date on what's being done, and promised the players he would work to get us some sort of compensation. In the end, the affected players were compensated 3-days game time for the 1.2 early release fiasco. Of course, BW/EA should offer compensation for those affected, but I doubt they would have done so if Mr. Reid did not convey to the bosses what we the players felt. I know this is only one incident, but I learned to respect Mr. Reid because of it. I feel he's probably tried to do a lot for us behind the scenes, and this event is just one example where we learned about it. So, best of luck to you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dawginole Posted May 23, 2012 Share Posted May 23, 2012 Something weird is going on. This move obviously wasn't about trimming devs that aren't needed now that the game is published... The game needs a community manager. Either Reid was pushing back against not being able to communicate to the community more and got canned, or his strategy was keeping the community out of the loop until he had solid info. In either case we will know after the next hire. If the next guy never says anything either, then we can probably assume that Reid wanted to talk and was pushing to talk and the betters didn't want that happening and let him go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Helistin Posted May 23, 2012 Share Posted May 23, 2012 (edited) Either Reid was pushing back against not being able to communicate to the community more and got canned, or his strategy was keeping the community out of the loop until he had solid info. In either case we will know after the next hire. If the next guy never says anything either, then we can probably assume that Reid wanted to talk and was pushing to talk and the betters didn't want that happening and let him go. That would make sense then why he used twitter so much. Edited May 23, 2012 by Helistin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phinion Posted May 23, 2012 Share Posted May 23, 2012 Looks like EA/BW have opened their eyes a little and have seen how angry many of the paying customers are with the game. Letting go someone towards the top means the company was not happy with the job he was doing. Whoever the next guy is needs to speed up the content process and speak on the forums with the community. Looks like the company is trying to save whatever is left of the game before it goes any further. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JaeOnasi Posted May 23, 2012 Share Posted May 23, 2012 Part of the Community Manager's job is to bring people INTO the community from outside the game. This includes new players, the media, and so on. One of the best ways to reach out to gaming media and potential new players is on--you guessed it--Facebook and Twitter. I had no problems with him posting on social media to update us. It was extremely helpful when the forums were down, too. I hope he finds a new job very soon! Good luck to all the rest of the BioWare folks who lost their jobs, too. I hope you all find something terrific very soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarthTHC Posted May 23, 2012 Share Posted May 23, 2012 Looks like EA/BW have opened their eyes a little and have seen how angry many of the paying customers are with the game. Letting go someone towards the top means the company was not happy with the job he was doing. Whoever the next guy is needs to speed up the content process and speak on the forums with the community. Looks like the company is trying to save whatever is left of the game before it goes any further. Hahahahahah that's so funny... EA did this because they care about the customer's anything but $$$$.... Bwahahahahah! Also, SR made none of the decisions that make this a subpar MMO offering. He's not "at the top". It doesn't seem (yet) that they've taken out the guy(s) at the top (yet). Sorry. Try again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheronFett Posted May 23, 2012 Share Posted May 23, 2012 (edited) I hate to see anyone lose their job in this ****** economy. It's tough out there right now. None of us will ever fully know what happened, and there's been a lot of garbage thrown around in this thread. One of the most common things I have seen posted are along these lines: Poster 1: He should've been fired! He spent more time updating on Twitter than anything else. Poster 2: Get with the program. Everyone is on Twitter these days. As a business owner myself, I will tell you for a fact that Facebook and Twitter are valuable outlets for spreading the word about your product/service. I've used both since their beginning, and they have helped me market my business. However...neither is as valuable as my own website. As Sr. Community Manager, he should know that. THIS SITE is the number one priority for information and news, Facebook and Twitter are secondary. I can't count how many times I saw info related to this game elsewhere before I read about it here. IGN, Darth Hater, and several others, seem to have the scoop several hours before info is on the main site. That's just poor customer relations. Period. While I don't expect devs to post on the forums or respond to direct questions posted here, it IS the job of the Community Mgt. team to do so on a somewhat regular basis. I know this from seeing it happen in multiple previous games. TOR has failed miserably at this, in fact, their entire attitude has been somewhat standoffish towards its players on several levels. I don't pretend to have knowledge of the inner workings of EA/BioWare. Only common sense and real world experience. Maybe Stephen Reid wanted to communicate more and was axed because he was bucking the system. Maybe he was told to do more, but didn't. Only time will tell, once someone new fills this position. Edited May 23, 2012 by TheronFett Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yescek Posted May 23, 2012 Share Posted May 23, 2012 I'm a die hard Star Wars fanboi, so I'm very forgiving, and I'm pretty much tired of logging in. It wasn't Stephen Reid that should have gotten the axe. I 100% agree with this. I emulate it. It doesn't seem (yet) that they've taken out the guy(s) at the top (yet). Sorry. Try again. Gotta agree here too, sad as it is. And you know the MOST ****ed up part of the whole thing? That little contract between EA and LA giving these blind ****bags exclusive rights to Star Wars MMO's for four more years yet. How much ya'll wanna bet that **** goes up in smoke the second TOR goes under? At one point, I'd have defended this game tooth and nail. Now though.............now all i've got left in TOR is hope that they'll turn it around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blistrich Posted May 23, 2012 Share Posted May 23, 2012 It's EA's standard operating procedure for MMOs: Hype an MMO beyond all possibility of reasonable expectations. Pressure the studio to release the game before it is ready. Sell as many boxes and initial subscriptions as possible. Declare the game a success and ride the initial sub revenues for a few months. As problems develop, declare them to be "expected". After ~6 months strip down to vital resources only and let the game dwindle to extinction. They wrote the book on it. One correction. EA did not write this book. Funcom did. EA just picked it up, scanned through it, and decided to emulate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rafkin Posted May 23, 2012 Share Posted May 23, 2012 So he got off the Titanic before the iceburg. Grats to him. He's better off. I just hope having SWToR on his resume doesn't keep him out of the industry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BadOrb Posted May 23, 2012 Share Posted May 23, 2012 We havent seen ONE in game live event yet so is it any wonder people are becoming bored and moving on? . Wasn't the Rakghoul plague an in game live event , mind you we could do with more soon. cheers, Badorb. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikphobos Posted May 23, 2012 Share Posted May 23, 2012 More excuses made for Stephen Reid, check. Was he the worst commumity manager ever, nope. Did ht not properly do his job by avoiding the forums like the plague, correct. i dont blame him, with the way the community is on the forums all disappointed, mad and full of anger and BW still on its silence and they *soon* stuff.. i bet even you will be terrify to come and say anything on the forums and will avoid them like the plague.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kourage Posted May 23, 2012 Share Posted May 23, 2012 Anybody can be community manager. All you gotta do is keep your mouth shut and post what they tell you to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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