A Message from the Community Team

[jorill]

Bioware has always been pretty tight lipped about releasing info about incoming content. That really doesnt work in a subscription based mmo format. They need to at least say what is being worked on. You dont need to include dates so to speak.

 

There is enough variety in ops that i at least those are going in a good direction but they need to revamp space combat in a major way. You need something unique to draw people to your game and i feel this is the best area to do that in. Also having storyesque type dailies would be a big improvement. Maybe some defend the position type ideas or escort missions. This kill 10 mobs is getting old.

 

Just my two cents

[jorill]

All I hear is talk and no action.

 

You need to start delivering more content like you promised and faster like you said. Diablo3 already made a dent in the community in terms of online players, now you need to convince the rest of the players why they should stay here and not go with Guild Wars 2 / Mists of Pandaria when it hits in August.

 

I've been playing since beta and I hope this game pulls through but I think in the next few months you guys have a lot to prove to your customers.

 

They have been pretty decent with new content to be honest. Two ops since launch. A new wz. Anything like a new open world planet or anything involving new systems will take major work to implement

[kithsyn]

Thanks for the update.

 

Do any of the new initiatives include free game time or money back for advertising Pvp but actually being unable to provide it on low pop servers? I think this would be the only fair thing to do. Advertising a promise but unable to deliver.

 

Would love to know your thoughts!

 

Hoping for a transfer soon before 1.3.

 

Lonely on kinrath spider,

Hopeful

Edited May 24, 2012 by kithsyn

[-Backdraft-]

I don't give a damn what you guys do, it's a hard world we're living in and bad things happen all the time. Just give us the free character transfer now so we can play the damn game again. I'm tierd to sit around on an empty server, I just logged into my server and it's like 10 online..... I'm sick of this, for me it's pretty much early summer now and we still haven't heared anything..... We need this now, they said announcement would be made this week about server transfer; that means its not coming this week eather and it's prob awhile there. Stop sit on your char drinking coffee and start do something.... We don't need the whole patch, the main issue is the empty server right now forcing people to not beeing able to do anything. We don't need the que system; it worked well to stand on the fleet and yell "LFM blah blah blah"

 

So get the character transfer ready NOW.......

[Freor]

In the upcoming weeks, we’re going to be making a few changes and working on new initiatives in order to enhance our relationship with you, the fans, and with our developers. We’ll also be reintroducing the team so that you can get to know us a bit more.

- -

Rest assured that the community team is still here, still listening: whether it’s here in our forums, on our official twitter account, one of the many fan sites, or the SWTOR subreddit.

 

With new things/changes coming as you say, may I suggest making this official website the go-to place for players looking for news about the game, specially on it's coming updates. So far most of the info has been on third party sites first at least, and it feels pretty stupid having to follow them to look for news, instead of the game's own site.

 

By all means keep giving interviews and such, but give the content here as well, or at least a link.

[Tarn_Sirun]

oh sorry what was that? another MMO company learned yet again that listening to the customer during beta is the only way to succeed, while ignoring them and putting out "your vision" gets subscriptions to drop by almost half within the first year?

[Niennnasil]

First you start losing your customers and now your employees..

 

After all i guess this game is just dead end.

 

Yea you can flame me now but you 'll see BioWare ( sorry EA ) will slowdown development in 6 months and after 1 year this game will totaly dead.

 

"BioWare and the BioWare logo are trademark of EA International" ... after all. Would you expect more ?

Edited May 24, 2012 by Niennnasil

[Rassuro]

By all means keep giving interviews and such, but give the content here as well, or at least a link.

 

Agreed. For example, I shouldn't have to find this interview by PCGamer in a thread posted by other players:

http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/05/23/the-old-republics-daniel-erickson-talks-legacy-system-update-group-finder-and-adaptive-gear/

 

In my opinion, one way which I think would work very well, is for whenever there is an interview somewhere, someone from the community team posts a discussion thread with a link to the interview it in the General Forum.

This way, everyone who would be interested in it finds it easily because it shows up in the dev tracker, then it shows up again in the weekly dev tracker summary, and it gives everyone a place to discuss the interview.

 

I'm sure PCGamer would also appreciated the extra traffic which that would drive to their site.

Edited May 24, 2012 by Rassuro

[limenutpen]

First of all I start this by saying good luck to all those who lost their jobs. And I hope a better future awaits them in the horizon.

 

The people here are a bit disrespectful to this game.

 

I remember a post one week ago, when an article said that the DA team was to SWTOR equals doom due to the floop that was DA2.

 

Now is official that BW fired some people from SWTOR development team equals doom.

These people in one way or another have something to do with the way you complain about this game.

 

Whatever they do the reply is always the same; WE ARE DOOMED.

The posts over here actually make C3PO look as an encouragement moto.

 

Now to be truthful some people had to be axed for this game and I will say why, I hope without being disrespectful.

- Ilum Open World PvP flop

- Ranked WZ delay

 

Now whoever was responsible of this had to be fired.

 

Ilum should never had to be stopped. Or if they stopped it they should have put back Tatoone as Open World PvP for the 50s or something else.

Yes Ilum was laggy but it developed excitement to the players. It needed a dozen improvements but still players where excited about it. I was excited about it too, going nearly every day to the place.

The ranked WZ cancellation in less to a day of 1.2 being launched was another disrespect, and 9 of 10 players that left in 1,2 are because of this.

So I hope with this reshuffling in SWTOR, the team addresses these issues ASAP which has annoyed players so much.

[silky_soft_]

*** get rid of SR, lolfail. How about Gabe Amatangelo or Daniel Erickson?

[Freor]

In my opinion, one way which I think would work very well, is for whenever there is an interview somewhere, someone from the community team posts a discussion thread with a link to the interview it in the General Forum.

This way, everyone who would be interested in it finds it easily because it shows up in the dev tracker, then it shows up again in the weekly dev tracker summary, and it gives everyone a place to discuss the interview..

 

Yep, that would work well. Seen another MMO that I play(/ed) do it exactly like this, and it works well. Key thing is that the devs/community reps/whoever posts the link asap when the interview/news is available. So it's not the player's job to find the info

[Darth-Malice]

Please stop addressing us as "Fans" Were paying subscribers. Feel free to use "Customer" it's more accurate.

[TheronFett]

Please stop addressing us as "Fans" Were paying subscribers. Feel free to use "Customer" it's more accurate.

 

QFT

 

I'm starting to believe that the entire mindset at BioWare is screwed up. They've somehow managed to ignore the entire MMO aspect of this game on multiple levels by ignoring the community.

[Bloodstealer]

Good news across the board. EA got mad at the way the community was being handled. Changes are being made now. This is good news for the game, good news for the community, and good news for both BW and EA as companies. I am saddened to hear of the departure of dedicated individuals, but the current direction of SWTOR community outreach was not good. These are the most venomous and vitriolic forums I have ever been a part of for MMOs, and that is NOT the fault of players.

 

Lolz... you really think EA took that decision based on how we feel as a community.. I think you need to wake up and smell the diasies..... EA simply took a look at the books and decided to cut a chunk of budget from the BW arm to ensure going forward its costs to run, develop and support the game does'nt impact on their magical profit threshold - they are not stupid, they see the diminishing subs so they have re-balanced their costings against it... if the subs keep declining......... well we all know what tends to happen there, especially with an EA game..... * whistles *

Edited May 24, 2012 by Bloodstealer

[wolfmith]

In the upcoming weeks, we’re going to be making a few changes and working on new initiatives in order to enhance our relationship with you, the fans, and with our developers. We’ll also be reintroducing the team so that you can get to know us a bit more.

 

This is the part I liked the most in all the post. I do think there are few answers from you part to all the posts... Somethings can be discusses between us, others need your participation and there's only a few new posts I see on Developer Tracker every day.

[Pscyon]

I’ll start off by calling out the elephant in the room:

Elephant in the room? Hrm. You mean you're looking at ortolan concept art? If you're working on ortolans then I guess... OOH! New playable species inbound!... right?

 

I hope the community team restructuring results in more info being passed to us and that info will be first available here on the official site rather than on some twitter message.

[Arnianor]

Ok, just had a look on the hire page for BioWare Austin (here: http://www.bioware.com/careers/austin):

 

Marketing

 

CRM Manager

Marketing Analyst - Contract

Product Manager

 

Network Operations

 

Temp Procurement Contracts Assistant - Contract

 

Quality Assurance

 

QA Analyst - Contract

QA Outsourcing Coordinator - Contract

QA Platform Tester - Contract

QA Website Tester - Contract

 

You sure are looking for a great bunch of new people. So no new game designer, most of the guys you're looking for are contracts. What do you think we will expect when seeing this ?

[Rassuro]

So no new game designer, most of the guys you're looking for are contracts. What do you think we will expect when seeing this ?

You shouldn't expect anything at all to be honest.

 

At the moment we see that they are looking for a lot of QA people, and these are normally outsourced or temporary.

 

One of the major issues SWTOR has had lately has been QA, since a lot of patches has brought new bugs, and it's logical to assume that the extra time needed to find and fix bugs has caused other content to be pushed back.

 

Other than that, from the outside we can not know what is going on inside BW, and we can not know where they need new people.

 

Some positions they would never list there at all. When EA got a new CEO, they did not advertise that position on the jobs page on their website.

[RangerRobEU]

You sure are looking for a great bunch of new people. So no new game designer, most of the guys you're looking for are contracts. What do you think we will expect when seeing this ?

Usually the Product Manager is the most important person in deciding the direction of a product not the designers and they are looking for one so that is a good sign. Designers generally just design based on what features Product Management have told them is required in a way that means development can progress their goals.

 

Of course I'm not sure if EA/Bioware work the same way but in most companies I've worked at the Product Management team are the ones who decide what features will be delivered and how they should be prioritized.

 

For what it's worth I was sorry to hear about the team's downsizing. It's always tough to lose colleagues.

Edited May 24, 2012 by RangerRobEU

[Kubernetic]

Thanks very much fort he message, Joveth. I'm sorry you all are going through what you've gone through.

 

Your efforts at community outreach are greatly appreciated. Many of us out here are with you!

 

Good luck in this new phase and we look forward to hearing from you in the coming weeks!

[Culdor]

I am not sure a game that is suffering massively from 'it should have been done a month ago' is in a position where they can lay off a lot of people.

 

Before 1.2 my guild was running 16 man HM's, we had a rated warzone team ready and practicing. Within a week of 1.2 we lost so many people that we could no longer run anything but a flashpoint and we no longer had the people for PvP groups. SWTOR cannot afford another dismal flop like 1.2 and I am not sure how they can avoid it with fewer people.

[GamewizX]

oh sorry what was that? another MMO company learned yet again that listening to the customer during beta is the only way to succeed, while ignoring them and putting out "your vision" gets subscriptions to drop by almost half within the first year?

 

Less than 25% is not almost half.

[_Zhatan_]

Just one question for the comunity team.

 

Can you tell us if you have a clue of How is it possible that guilds that had been in operation more than 5 years in the galaxies are closing now as if there is no future?

 

I mean, whose fault it is ? Why we can run heroics for 3 years everynight in a "dying and outdated game" but we can't stand in this new "shinny modern game" for more than a couple of months?

 

Friends since 2003 are now gone forever because we don't have the will for log in the game.

Is it our fault? Or the game has something to do?

 

What do you think as Community team?

Edited May 24, 2012 by _Zhatan_

[Benfynyn]

In the upcoming weeks, we’re going to be making a few changes and working on new initiatives in order to enhance our relationship with you, the fans, and with our developers. We’ll also be reintroducing the team so that you can get to know us a bit more.

 

 

So... Community Management is "coming soon".

 

/sigh

[G_Vega]

The only place I should have to look for important game updates is the community blog and the dev tracker. I understand exclusivity agreements - linking the content would be fine with me.

 

This 1000 times over.