An open letter to Bioware.

[Cerion]

What does "open letter" even mean? I see this from time to time and it makes no sense. Aren't all letters open? All posts?

[Urael]

Right. It's either or with these people. Damned if you, damned if you don't, with the common thread between them being that some people on this forum just can't stand that the game gets criticized.

 

/agreed.

[curzen]

The game is bad and BioWare should feel bad for having released such junk. Server transfers, whenever they may happen, and other quality of life updates will give this game baseline playability, but to make it a competitive product that can stand up to MMOs currently on the market or about to be released changes would have to go so deep and content would have to be churned out on such a massive scale to make up for the current shortcomings, it just won't happen.

 

Seriously now, just look at the E3 announcements. A raised level cap, likely to be in the 2 to 5 level range, one planet, one operation, one warzone, one spacemission. One week of play to get done with leveling and unless you'll grind that Operation it's apparently back to do a handful of daily missions.

That's it? I should pay 15$ for that every month? I won't.

 

BioWare has let me down enough with high flying announcements pertaining to this game which didn't come true. From fully interactive Flashpoints of which Black Talon and Esseles have remained the only ones, to my personal story which will be so damn interactive that it's still effectively the same outcomes as for anyone else playing the same class, to monthly content updates which haven't happened. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice - well it will remain at once, I cancelled.

 

You guys had buckets of money, six years for development and 6 months after going live to make a good game and can't retain subscribers worth a damn. You blew it.

Edited June 5, 2012 by curzen

[alastairc]

What does "open letter" even mean? I see this from time to time and it makes no sense. Aren't all letters open? All posts?

 

This may help:

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/open+letter

[Edgedy]

It's ironic, Bioware was so concerned we blew through the content of 1.0 and 1.1 that they added time sinks so we'd do it slower and spend more time unlocking Warzones, raids, and legacy.

 

The problem is? We don't want to deal with that level of effort because the return does not match the reward. Simple Reward theory if you want us to play the game and enjoy it don't make us run in a hamster wheel to get a treat ;p

Edited June 5, 2012 by Edgedy

[QuiQuaeQuod]

Bioware should hire OP.

 

Very well written, I agree with (as far as I recall from all the detail he gave) everything he's written. Putting his recommendations into action would do a helluva lot to help the game.

[JaeOnasi]

Alastair, thanks for the courage in posting this, despite the fact that there will likely be many non-constructive trolling posts. Just skip past those.

 

--I think World PvP has great potential if the devs put more rewards in, balance it to a certain degree so one side doesn't completely overwhelm the other, and fix the graphics problems that caused people to disconnect. Incentivize people to play there, and they will.

 

--Simple fix to make End game gear more meaningful again for PvP--add expertise to Tionese, Columi, Black Hole, and Rakata gear.

 

--Be more aggressive in dealing with PvP hacking. We have a few on the Sith Wyrm server, and I've reported them. Every time I'm in a match against them, I nearly hit the button to quit the queue. I know other people do quit when they see certain hackers, just because it's impossible to win and get any kind of decent medals.

 

--Add in some cool costume gear! LOTRO has a great system where you can equip your regular gear, but any gear that you've earned in special events or in game can be put into a special 'costume' slot so that this costume's appearance is what shows in game, while keeping the stats of the main gear. I love the amazing detailing and artwork in Columi gear, but I despise the ugly shoulder and vambrace pads on my Consular. If you implement the costume appearance, I guarantee you it'll get used. This would be a great way to add in more legacy unlocks (legacy 10 lets you guy Cool Hat A, legacy 20 gives you Cool Hat B, etc.), crafting opportunities, special event rewards (like the containment officer outfit for the Rakghoul event, and so on.

 

--Do more world events like the Rakghoul plague!!! That was SO much fun, I logged in to play those quests nearly every day of the event. I loved it and want to see more like it. Recurring yearly events (like Canthan New Year or Wintersday in Guild Wars, or Spring and Summer Festivals in LOTRO) would be great fun and encourage the community to get together.

 

I agree on the in-game tools. It is brutally difficult to get some guildmates to go look at our own forum event calendar. Operations and PvP signups in game would keep them in game and make life a LOT easier for us guild officers.

 

I love the social points feature--it encourages grouping. Consider adding more social gear options for costume appearances, and perhaps more social weapon skins, too.

 

More mini-pets would be great!

 

Move to mega-servers or merge servers. We have way too many low-populations servers. The PR hit sucks, it'll suck if I have to change names, but you know what? It'll be better for the entire community in the long run.

[Xtrema]

Great, well thought out post OP, ignore the trolls.

 

Regarding the warzone recommendation, they've already admitted that cross-server is a last resort to them, what they need now are server merges. As a quick example, out of boredom last week I signed up for Star Trek Online (STO, also an MMO) and was simply amazed at how populated every planet or sector I went to was, there were ships everywhere, PvE queues popped just like that. I then did a quick search on the approx number of players currently on STO - someone had stated a month back that it's roughly 40k (granted it seems like a guesstimate but it shouldn't be too far off so lets roll with it), and got to thinking...STO at 40k and everywhere I went felt crowded (the good kind), but on SWTOR they claim to be over 1mil subscribers and I see 20-30 at most at the fleet during peak hours?

 

TOR can be just as populated as launch day if they would only redistribute the population, as of now there's WAY too many servers. The longer they wait the more people they lose to other games, this I believe needs to be expedited above all else. People won't stay to play an MMO when there's no one else around - the part that baffles me is that there ARE other people around, just separated into a whole bunch of tiny islands.

 

10. Gear frequently fails to match the Star Wars tone: We don't play Star Wars to look like transformers, nor to have oversized WoW shoulderpads inflicted upon us. Realistic costumes and some normal looking clothes and armours would be better.

 

Seriously...I can't believe some of these looks actually get approved. Someone MUST have been high as hell when they gave the green light =P

Edited June 5, 2012 by Xtrema

[Valkirus]

Why do people always feel it's necessary to list the games they played in the past as if that bestows some special sense of privilege or insight into MMOs?

 

For the same reasons many like to list tv's..cars, trucks, washing machines. It is a opinion based on thier experences. Does not make them a expert, but it can still be useful information.

[Cerion]

This may help:

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/open+letter

 

Yes...which is pretty much any thread started in a forum.

[pironic]

/signed

 

i agree with many points of this message and as a guildmaster know that a lot of our members in our guild would agree with a lot of points here.

 

Once the hype of Diablo3 has settled, a lot of our players are finding that not playing SWTOR for the last month hasn't left them with a void in their lives. They arent hurrying back to the game... Addressing some of these issues would def help with this.

[Urael]

It's ironic, Bioware was so concerned we blew through the content of 1.0 and 1.1 that they added time sinks so we'd do it slower and spend more time unlocking Warzones, raids, and legacy.

 

The problem is? We don't want to deal with that level of effort because the return does not match the reward. Simple Reward theory if you want us to play the game and enjoy it don't make us run in a hamster wheel to get a treat ;p

 

Any way you look at it, MMORPGS are just Skinner Boxes.

[Masturomenos]

Why do people always feel it's necessary to list the games they played in the past as if that bestows some special sense of privilege or insight into MMOs?

 

Why wouldnt you list your experience. Id hate to see what your resume for work looks like if you dont add in all your experience.

[Kalfear]

Wow. It didn't take the blinder-wearing fanboys very long to derail this thread, despite the OP being a very well-reasoned and constructive post. So I guess this is just proof that it doesn't matter if your content is constructive or mouth-foaming, the fanboys will shut you down.

 

How unfortunate.

 

OP, great post. Though you bring up a lot of what people have been saying before, I think the more people that say it, the less the developers can afford to ignore it. Thanks for your insights, OP.

 

Yup, I think the fanbois drive away more subscribers that are on the wall then anything else.

Its a shame EA so delicate they need these types to boost their egos (not just a TOR problem, EAoware forums has always been plagued by rabid fanbois that refuse to allow any and all actually have a conversation or point out short comings of the game.

 

Anyways yes, well written and well thought out. Not sure about players claim on experience only going back to 2005 as thats means they entered in the WOW age. But OP seems to be one of the few that does think past the standard WOW design era and understands the genre more completely.

 

Great post, shame about all the trolling allowed after it.

[Rezakh]

You may well have good reasons for some of the above concerns, and be confident you have others in hand.

 

I really hope that their just oversights. If there's any intentions in their design failures, than turning a profit and being a success stopped being their goal long before they released the game.

 

This game has turned out to be such a major disappointment, that it rivals failures like spore and hellgate...and it may even surpass them over the simple fact that they had a fool proof IP set in an era that empowered them to be a 6+million subscriber capable MMO.

 

This game is going to kill careers and that amount of drastic change, at this point, is a good thing so long as James Ohlen and Daniel Erikson do not avoid the chopping block. Those guys are massive game design liabilities after this performance. It's sad to see more developers go the way of Bill Roper, but these two guys really need to if they do not shape things up soon.

 

Get some new/competent blood in the development studio at Austin so we can see this game thrive the way it should. I really do not want to see EA get an excuse to cut the project cause their considering the ROI from this game to be non-existent.

 

EDIT: To the OP, excellent post. Very well thought, constructive, and professional. I will admit those qualities can tend to go by the wayside as frustration mounts, which is the case on these boards and I do not blame anyone but BW, ultimately.

 

I do think you left out a couple of other quite integral design oversights like mod/macro support and video optimization with the game engine.

Edited June 5, 2012 by Rezakh

[Talzed]

Very well said. i like this game. I REALLY want to continue playing it for the next 10 years. However, there are large gaps and miscalculations that may force me to move on sooner rather than later.

 

Crafting, with the exception of Bio is near pointless at level cap.

 

There is also a staggering lack of solo content available. I understand what that MMO means multiplayer-but that is not an option for all. It would be amazing if there were a few instances that could be run solo at endgame with a reward equal to the time and effort needed to complete them. No, running dailies on three planets doesn't count. No all of us like to pvp or do operations. Not asking for the world, but SOMETHING would be really appreciated.

[Star-ranger]

Why do people always feel it's necessary to list the games they played in the past as if that bestows some special sense of privilege or insight into MMOs?

 

Authority to speak comes not from inexperience and ignorance, but from intelligence and experience.

 

Any jackwagon can come along and speak out of their bunghole and pontificate whatever they want. However the only people who merit being taken seriously are those who actually have something to back it up with. I believe the OP did that. He established his credentials, and what he says to a large degree makes sense.

 

Personally having played MMO's since the early 90's and done table top RPG game design since 1980, I'd disagree with his views of the skil trees and classes. I'd place that part of the design in the just OK, not great, category. There are a lot better ways to do the combat than BW took, it was too deriviative of WOW, and SWTOR is a sci-fi universe not a pulp fantasy universe. Nevertheless he makes many good points on areas that need work.

Edited June 5, 2012 by Star-ranger

[Siphorus]

I feel that it is not Bioware that is ruining the game it is EA.

It seems to me that the big corporation guys upstairs are running down and crying for the loss of players and are suggesting that they increase the levelcap/expansion to squeeze the last bit of money out of the community. For starters the game should of been released until 1.1 and it was rushed forward for a early christmas release that messed up the game from the start. This game needs more time to make it better or they should be more efficient with the time they have. Pushing for an expansion is NOT the way to go as this game WILL die if it keeps going in the direction its headed. This news of expansion/level capped release was the last straw for me.

 

TL;DR unsubbed

[Beerburgers]

I agree with every point OP has.

 

I joined this game hoping it would last 10 years, I doubt it'll last a year if BioFail keeps this up.

 

But then again there sure are a lot of biodrones so it might very well last a year.

 

Unsubbed til they get their act together.

Edited June 5, 2012 by Beerburgers

[bradacus]

A lot of the people posting in this thread are pathetic parasites that add absolutely noting of value to this community. I'm very disappointed in the discussion taking place here.

 

OP made a very thorough and accurate post which should have been discussed properly by the community, instead we got the little feeble minded trolls coming to give their two cents, or the bioware defense league, blind to everything wrong with the game, making their posts.

 

OP is right 100% on everything he's said. It's why I've unsubbed. Don't bother quoting me and replying because I won't come back to check it.

 

God, I hate these forums...

[SuzyKing]

I want to continue playing this game, but pretty much for the reasons listed, I've stopped my sub, by the time it's expired, I will have used up the "fun" in this game.

 

It's a shame, SWTOR could have been a real monster and made a super fortune, but for the lack of any sensible decision making process where impact is looked at and "What makes MMO's succeed" ...

 

So... EA/Bioware, if you don't have people able to offer such clear and sensible insights, maybe you SHOULD hire the OP, as he's a voice of sanity and professionalism that would help you make the monies! ^^

[Morsong]

A lot of the people posting in this thread are pathetic parasites that add absolutely noting of value to this community. I'm very disappointed in the discussion taking place here.

 

OP made a very thorough and accurate post which should have been discussed properly by the community, instead we got the little feeble minded trolls coming to give their two cents, or the bioware defense league, blind to everything wrong with the game, making their posts.

 

OP is right 100% on everything he's said. It's why I've unsubbed. Don't bother quoting me and replying because I won't come back to check it.

 

God, I hate these forums...

 

Pretty much agree with you on this. The OP was offering a valid and well constructed viewpoints which is an integral part of what a forum should be; offering insight to others. I also love this MMO and want to see it improve.

[Akabeth]

I appreciate OP taking his time writing that letter, but I believe at this point it's a matter of prioritization for EAware more than anything else. SWTOR isn't the only game in town and the list of competitors will only grow larger.

 

I appreciate it's possibly arrogant and assuming for me to offer recommendations on how to run your game as someone outside your company.

 

Not when those recommendations are based on real time testing.

 

For example, exploits aside PvP centric players of every level of competence have consistently complained about game play altering performance woes. This includes lag at the ops scale OWPvP encounters, ability lag or stuttering or misfiring altogether due to discrepancies in character animation vs. casting bar, and untimely loss of control of sorts from rapid bursts of key strokes.

 

Testing has also proven that there are evident issues with Bioware's approach towards crowd control. A certain advanced class in the game has been literally singled-out for nerfs due to their capacity of bursting and locking out single targets to death. They claim that this reality has driven players to cancel their subscription -- apparently the big shots forgot that their game was clearly balanced for team play. Because of their assigned values (i.e. perceived worth) the resolve bar provides a very high ceiling for knockbacks, roots, and snares, relative to stuns and knockdowns. This... is... less than ideal.

 

If you take into account the abundance, range and cooldown of abilities belonging to the former category versus the latter, and leap and pull maneuvers on top of all that, we're left with the possibility of:

Players and teams utterly dismantling the other on basis of class, NOT positioning and maneuvers (i.e. my CC and cooldowns > yours, therefore I/we win.

 

To make matters worse, our wonderful PvP lead claims that the game has plans for ranked warzones. This will only compound the issue since in coordinated environments, the game makes it possible for specialized teams to do their objectives merely through the merit of limiting their opponents. The culmination? The SWTOR team is now limited with the variety of maps they're able to produce for ranked warzones and the amount of viable specs and advanced classes able to perform consistently under its expected conditions. Though worst of all they've also -- unwittingly -- subtracted the amount of players who can to participate in ranked warzones effectively -- without even taking guild size, roster, gear, regional latency, and individual player competence into consideration.

 

And the above, is just one aspect of the game. The team claims they have good data. They claim they've heard our feedback. But when core mechanics are left so unrefined and neglected as thus, are they really expecting any PvPer worth his or her salt to treat SWTOR's ranked warzones as anything more than a glancing interest? EAWare, "

."

 

Anyway I'm still in disbelief at how this game's evolving in the past 6+ months. Players have put out so many ideas and suggestions and little has come out of it. To this day the SWTOR team prefers to deflect the difficult questions. I really couldn't give a **** less about PR policies -- this **** is unacceptable. I want the game to flourish but maybe everything I've ever done, thought or written about this game has been misplaced and consequently worth nothing.

 

Pretty much agree with you on this. The OP was offering a valid and well constructed viewpoints which is an integral part of what a forum should be; offering insight to others. I also love this MMO and want to see it improve.

 

x2

Edited June 5, 2012 by Akabeth

[Darka]

Community aspects is one thing that has been MIA since before the game launched. Closure of Community features really herded the direction of the game for many people and something i felt flow on into the game.

The guild features are none, not even a guild mail system. ( The mail system isnt much better in general)

I found it really lacked the tools i came to expect to manage everything, that "lesser MMOs" took for granted.

I understand that yes it is still early, but maybe i just expected more from it,

 

One big issue i feel withholds much of community bonding is the lack of dedicated server forums, the server group forums are helpful but do not offer the ways to mix and mingle as a proper community and really get to know people and help identify with your server of choice.

 

Sometimes I feel the personal aspect of the game is not there, good people make these games great, and a little encouragement goes a long way. As players we control our experience but having the right tools there for us to build that experience on is up to Bioware

 

No matter what the game having a great community of players will make any game a greater experience

Community is the 5th Pillar

[Akabeth]

No matter what the game having a great community of players will make any game a greater experience

Community is the 5th Pillar

 

MMOG or not fme it's more like the unobserved locking mechanisms or embedded chains that binds those pillars in place through good, and bad weather.

Edited June 5, 2012 by Akabeth