A Message from the Community Manager

[Rogoo]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but we've been hearing the same "we will communicate more with our fans" mantra since launch. :|

 

The thing with you Bioware folks is, that the vast majority of things that were promised, have NOT been delivered because the game flopped hard. All those promotional videos telling us "the future of SWTOR" ?

 

Monthly content updates ? It's exciting! BALLS TO THE WALL ? Chat bubbles (lol) ?

 

You (Bioware) have very little credibility left so I'm very sceptical about all this "we will" and "soon" talk.

 

Now, this of course isn't the Community Team's fault. Just saying though.

Edited August 10, 2012 by Rogoo

[TheCoffeeFiend]

Now, this of course isn't the Community Team's fault. Just saying though.

Obviously, it's not their fault.

However, it does not take a genius to realize that even their best pep-talk is going stale over the course of the following weekend if not backed up by solid information.

Thus, if they had any substantial information to dispense, they would have started with that, rather than the usual sweet and soothing words.

And since they very well know the effect disappointment and crushed hopes have on the community (which is worse than mere resignation), they probably had be ordered into it.

[Jestuh]

I`m sorry, but players should not have any saying in class balance. Each "main" will try to buff its class and nerf the others... and subjective feedback is not really what`s needed.

 

So, please, use your "metrics", IF they exist.. and do your OWN balancing, based on whatever "targets" your classes do or do not achieve. ASSUMING you folks actually test and not theorycraft all day.

 

This is a ridiculous argument. Meeting the internal metrics is a fairly simple process. Determining whether those metrics are desirable and best for the game is something that gets worked out between the developers and the players. The same way developers don't anticipate every possible contingency to min-maxing (i.e. the original acid blade 50% debuff, stacked with BH/Rakata gear, stacked with the original biochem buffs one-shotting level 50s). Each of those things met the internal metrics but combined one certain players in specific instances it was an unforeseen problem which was addresed.

 

 

As far as community communication since the big shakeup, I am very pleased at the number of replies and feedback by the new community representatives.

 

Am I irritated at how long things have taken to get to this point over the life of the game? Absolutely.

 

But now that we are here, there has been huge turnover in the staff, and there appears to be a concerted effort to change things (i.e. class feedback threads posted in every class specific forum, solid, frequent, and consistent community support), I'm willing to wait a few more months to see if this game finally meets its potential.

 

The other thing I think is funny is that people assume if developers or representatives are out doing PR that they somehow aren't doing their jobs or working to make the game itself better. Between email, texting, conference calls the average office worker can do a lot of things at once. The average manager or ceo can make normal office worker multitasking look like childs' play.

 

Look, the game is not living up to its potential right now. Its lost hundreds of thousands of subscribers. You know it. I know it. They fired a ton of people so they know it (they just can't say it for a number of reasons). But serious steps are being made to change things (F2P, requests for class feedback, frequent update/patches/bug fixes (like every Tuesday almost), and excellent community coordination).

 

So while it's your right to complain (and trust me as a DPS operative I've complained a lot), I think we should give it 2-3 months and see what this new team comes up with. Restructuring and retooling something this large takes time. If you don't like that then quit. Or just play it when it's free. Otherwise just be patient and don't shoot the messenger (the community people). They aren't in charge. They work for people that make the decisions just like you and me.

[Elfindreams]

This document is already managed internally and maintained by us. Keeping track of every single bug reported is no easy task, to be sure. It'd be unrealistic to have this document publicly, but we DO make sure to address major bugs and issues with the Known Issues thread (maintained by Amber).

 

A couple of points.

 

1. The Known Issues thread has been a joke. It is seldom updated and when it is bugs that have been known for some time by many people and reported frequently that happen to a large number of people are frequently omitted. In addition we have seen bugs disappear from that list that aren't fixed with no explanation. Plus it has no status... no "We can't seem to reproduce this, can someone give us more information?" or "We have identified what the problem is but it is a tricky one and we are working on fixing it."

 

2. I am going to hope against all hope you are being imprecise when you state that a "document" is managed internally. If you have (like most of the software development houses out there) a bug tracking system, it should be relatively uncomplicated prospect to generate a weekly report from that of open bugs, descriptions and their current status (minus things like dev name/etc) and post it. The only trick is someone has to be vigilant about making sure the description is something that is actually descriptive and safe for public consumption.

 

If you do not use a bug tracking system... I worry. The reason such systems exist and are so widely adopted across the software development industry is that without them bugs get lost/forgotten and fall through the cracks. Since what we the users have been observing is bugs being lost/forgotten and falling through the cracks (often from as far back as beta), perhaps you should rethink your internal processes and bring them in line with modern programming practices. They also have the added benefit of taking less time to maintain and use than manually maintaining a bugs list and can often be used to create/populate patch notes (do a report on all bugs fixed in a given release and their descriptions and boom, patch notes.)

 

There are many free and easy to maintain bug tracking systems out there if you don't have one, there are also many commercial issue/bug tracking systems if you want to spend the money and have corporate support behind the product. Either way something is better than nothing.

 

3. The generic form people get saying "Thanks for the bug report, but don't expect to hear back from us..." is frankly inappropriate customer support. In every software house I have worked over the years, cases are attached to bugs and once a bug is fixed the customers who logged the bug get notified (sometimes even automatically) that their bug is fixed in a given release. What you do is frankly dismissive and rude, it makes it seem like our concerns are not important and that your customer service people have more important problems to deal with than deal with customers. Combine that with a tendancy for some of your customer service people to be dismissive makes for a very hostile customer service experience frequently.

 

For a concrete example of what I mean by support being dismissive, recently I logged a case that I just finished a random operation (again) and didn't get black hole comms. They replied with something to the effect of "make sure you are using the system right and if not log a case with these many pieces of information that you don't likely have access to anymore and in the mean time I am closing this case.

 

On the one hand they should have all the information they need in that case to look at it: the character I logged it from, the time I logged the case and the logs should be sufficient to search on. On the other how difficult is it to update a case with "can you reply with the following information" and /leave the case open/ since the issue is obviously not resolved yet instead of just dismissing the person as not worth the support person's time.

 

Hopefully the above is constructive and specific enough to make my feelings known. To be clear, I love the game and it has been relatively bug free compared to other MMO's first years but the lack of appropriate communication both on bugs and support issues make it feel to people like the game has no attention paid to it and makes people feel like there are more problems with it than there might actually be.

[aristein]

I am going to be blunt. You sound like a politician. You use a lot of words to say very little and commit to nothing specific that you can be held to. Communication is good, hot air is not.

[DarkZeron]

Yeah well the community team fails as always because they are the blastdoor between you and the devs. They wont give you more info then before, because they are not allowed to.

[SveinEternity]

Hi everyone,

 

For those of you that don’t know, I’m Joveth Gonzalez, Community Manager for Star Wars™: The Old Republic™.

 

As most of you know, over the past few months, our team, our studio, and our game have undergone quite a few changes. Through it all, we’ve remained committed to the community and have worked with the development team to make sure that your voices were heard.

 

I wanted to take some time to reassure you all that my team, the community team, is still committed to you folks. As part of this commitment, we’re excited to let you know that we have been developing a brand new strategy for our team that focuses on developing new ways to bring you more information about the game and the people involved with SWTOR's development.

 

As we progress towards the recently announced Free-to-Play experience, you can expect more frequent updates to the game (which means more information coming to you) and more developer interactions.

 

The Star Wars: The Old Republic community is large and spread across many outlets, but rest assured that our team is scouring the forums, Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, fan sites, and anywhere that SWTOR is being discussed to make sure that we get your thoughts, comments, questions, and general feedback. Know that we are listening you, no matter where you choose to participate in the SWTOR community.

 

In the upcoming weeks, you’ll be seeing elements of our new community strategy as they appear on our site. One of our primary goals with this is to ensure that new information about the game is communicated as quickly and effectively as possible.

 

Last but not least, I will be re-introducing the rest of community team along with this new strategy. You may have already seen them here on the forums or on the website, but you will learn more about Allison Berryman, Eric Musco, Courtney Woods, Amber Green, Lars Malcharek, and Antonio Moreno.

 

We're all excited about the future of this game and with the new focus on more frequent content updates and the introduction of the Free-to-Play experience, you can expect more communication opportunities overall.

 

If you have any questions, thoughts, or ideas, please feel free to send us an email at community@swtor.com. You can also send me a PM here on the forums or reach me on Twitter @joveth. These are three different ways for you to get in touch. We will limit important announcements to only occur on our site, forums, our Facebook page, and/or the official SWTOR Twitter account.

 

Thank you, sincerely, for participating and being a part of our community over the past few months. We look forward to hearing more from you in the future.

 

I am very glad about this! However, I just want to remind you that there is a whole bunch of things people want that you have overlooked just be vigilant to consider our needs. Great work!

[Omicrie]

All they have to do is set a target. Like, 800k DPS per 6 minutes, 75% HP loss per 6 mins and 800k heals per 6 minutes. That way, the MAXIMUM potential for each of the 3 classes (DPS, tank and healer) is set in stone and known (insert any number for any amount of time, based on how fast they need NPC`s to drop, or how slow the combat pace needs to be).

 

----------Snip-----------

 

So what your saying is that they should completely ignore the fact that tanks, dps, and healers use different mechanics. As well as completely ignore factors like: range, stuns, armor class, mobility, interrupts, area of ability's, roots, buffs, de-buffs, cast times, stealth, jump or pretty much anything that makes any of the game classes unique in the least bit and just level a few of the average ability's that the classes have and equalized them?

 

We may as well all just roll sniper dps, powertech tanks, and merc healers then 100% of the time, since everything will be equalized but they have range (which is not in your factoring) . Real smart, i'm sure thats going to keep the game competitive.

 

Furthermore it's often more important HOW the damage, tanking, and healing is done over (per your example) the 6 mins of game play. What you suggest is merely a band-aid for people who don't know how to play their classes in the current PVE, and will completely nuke all competitiveness in PVP (and future PVE). Granted some advanced classes do need buffs, but what they don't need is to be marginalized to the point that there all the same.

[MusedMoose]

Hi everyone,

 

For those of you that don’t know, I’m Joveth Gonzalez, Community Manager for Star Wars™: The Old Republic™.

 

[snip]

 

Thank you, sincerely, for participating and being a part of our community over the past few months. We look forward to hearing more from you in the future.

Thank you for your time in this, Mr. Gonzalez; I know I'm not the only one who hopes to hear more from you and the community team in the future as well. I understand that the community team can't tell us about what the devs are working on unless the devs allow it, but in turn, I hope the devs and all of BioWare Austin understand that the nigh-complete silence we've heard recently is incredibly frustrating to a lot of players. I truly hope we will hear a great deal more from you over the coming weeks.

 

With that in mind, I'd like to ask about something important to me. Many of the recent posts on the dev tracker promise we'll be hearing more about upcoming content. That content is always listed as one or more of the following things: flashpoints, operations, warzones, and space battles. I would like to know about more story content. SW:TOR was promoted on the addition of the "fourth pillar" of story to MMOs, and yet, the game has been out for almost eight months and we haven't seen a single real story update, or heard any news of one since the guild summit in March.

 

SW:TOR's story does a great deal to keep me playing, and it's what separates this game from the others. Knowing that there's more coming, and possibly when, would help a great deal.

 

And while it's not my only concern, I'd like to ask about the inclusion of same-gender companion relationships (SGRs) along with the story content. We were told at the guild summit that SGRs would be coming along with the story update, which would be coming this year. We have not heard a word about either since then. There are many players who really want to see this added to the game, myself included, and many of us are growing frustrated with the lack of news. Anything you could tell us would help, even if it's just the reassurance that SGRs haven't been dropped or delayed.

 

Thank you again for listening, and I hope to hear from you or the other community team members on this soon.

[Tenebram]

I also would really like to hear any updates about when/how we can expect same gender romances to be added. It's been a big question mark since before launch even and we've only been given a couple of vague statements regarding it, nothing definitive other than they will be added.

[Zandilar]

I am also wanting to hear more about same gender romances in this game... and story too. More story is good... But as has been mentioned, we've heard nothing of any substance about either really since the guild summit.

[Tatile]

I also would really like to hear any updates about when/how we can expect same gender romances to be added. It's been a big question mark since before launch even and we've only been given a couple of vague statements regarding it, nothing definitive other than they will be added.

 

If you do bother to approach this question, could we please have something a more definitive than "We appreciate that a lot of fan base expect SGRA's of Bioware, but can only tell you that such a thing is coming Soon"?

[JattaGin]

I read ALL 19 pages of this thread now in a row and was especially focussing on Mr. Gonzales' responses and how they relate to his promises at the beginning of the thread.

 

It is disheartening to see that he only gave one real answer in all his replies: Daniel and this other guy are still working for Bioware.

 

Everything else we got was the usual banter: We will try. We will do. We hope. Soon.

 

I am sorry to say it, but as of now, Mr. Gonzales has proven all our concerns as being right. As someone already said: hot air like from a politician. Every further word of him will make things just worse. Maybe this is why he seems to have abandoned this thread already.

 

As someone else also wrote (actually several): Mr. Gonzales' next repsonse better have some REAL INFORMATION in it. To me, this is a very urgent matter. I need to know if they are actually doing something at Bioware and/or if they at least know what they are doing. I really don't know if they do. And seriously, if you fail to believe that such a company has a clue, this is a bad sign. We are are not talking about a little local company with 2 employees who lost track of their stuff.

 

I am on high alert. Something is going very wrong. And yes, I am sure that Mr. Gonzales is capable of doing his job properly. This leads to only one conclusion: He is NOT ALLOWED to give out any real information. There is no reason why he should not WANT to, at the end, he chose this job (I guess), so he must have an interest in it. Thinking that he is only giving us hollow banter, because he has to... this is the actual scary thing.

 

These 19 pages totally disillusioned me (even further). I will still play the game though, because I still enjoy it. But really... something has to be done. Quickly.

[RobNightfall]

Uh huh. You do realise that we've heard this before, right? Like, the last time you had a "our team has gone through a shakeup" route? Do you remember this?

 

 

 

That was back in May. And in that entire time, you've had even less communication with us. So, we're to believe you now? Too little, too late. You had one job: listen to what we were telling you, then tell the developers, and once the developers gave you an answer, you tell us. You didn't do that. And then you wonder why over one million of your customers went away?

 

Sorry, mate. But I don't believe you, or anyone at Bioware/EA, anymore. The fact that many of you still have jobs is nothing short of miraculous. Somewhere in the Bioware structure, a major disconnect happened. And yet, we haven't had any announcements of how this disconnect was fixed, or who paid the price for it. You no longer have the confidence of your customers, and it should not have come to this.

 

I knew if I kept scrolling through someone would have already stated how I felt about this special announcement lol. "Too little, too late," indeed.

Edited August 11, 2012 by RobNightfall

[Kioma]

I'm seeing a whole heap of cynicism (and worse) here. I posted this in another thread but I'm going to go ahead and repost it here because I firmly believe it's true:

__

I understand where the cynicism is coming from. I get the reasons behind it, I comprehend people's ongoing frustration and I can see how Mr Gonzales's words - very obviously, to my mind, illustrating that he's in a very awkward position caught between developers who won't tell him much of anything and a player base that's sick of not hearing more - might not inspire much confidence in some.

 

But do I think the cynicism, derision, ridicule and outright hostility levelled at the Community Manager actually helps? Most certainly, I do not believe it helps in the slightest.

 

Considering his position Mr Gonzales is, in my opinion, a damn brave man. He's contacted the community knowing he's going to cop it in the face for matters that he has limited control over and he hasn't flinched. There was no way that announcement wouldn't raise ire and yet he's in there talking, trying to reason, giving us what he can even though he knows the majority of people won't be satisfied with it.

 

Cut him - and all the community team - some damn slack. It's not their fault the developers are giving them breadcrumbs at best. Having us howling for blood sure isn't going to help anyone's case.

___

I'll also add:

 

For my own part I'm very encouraged by the renewal of communication. It's true that the community has heard a great deal of Soon and is quite tired of it, but if this is a reboot of communication then it's very early days.

 

The best thing we can do is not jump down anyone's throat, to wait and to give Mr Gonzales a solid chance at getting us what info he has - while at the same time remembering that if he can't that's not necessarily his fault, and yelling at him isn't going to change the situation.

[Styxx]

I'm seeing a whole heap of cynicism (and worse) here. I posted this in another thread but I'm going to go ahead and repost it here because I firmly believe it's true:

__

I understand where the cynicism is coming from. I get the reasons behind it, I comprehend people's ongoing frustration and I can see how Mr Gonzales's words - very obviously, to my mind, illustrating that he's in a very awkward position caught between developers who won't tell him much of anything and a player base that's sick of not hearing more - might not inspire much confidence in some.

 

But do I think the cynicism, derision, ridicule and outright hostility levelled at the Community Manager actually helps? Most certainly, I do not believe it helps in the slightest.

 

Considering his position Mr Gonzales is, in my opinion, a damn brave man. He's contacted the community knowing he's going to cop it in the face for matters that he has limited control over and he hasn't flinched. There was no way that announcement wouldn't raise ire and yet he's in there talking, trying to reason, giving us what he can even though he knows the majority of people won't be satisfied with it.

 

Cut him - and all the community team - some damn slack. It's not their fault the developers are giving them breadcrumbs at best. Having us howling for blood sure isn't going to help anyone's case.

 

He is paid to do it. The better he does his job, the more players Bioware will have to sell a product to. He is not doing me any favor.. he is paid to make Bioware look good.

 

Now, some of us also paid 150$ for a CE box and a promise that they`ll see more content in the CE store. They didn`t.

Some of us also paid 15$ per month to see monthly content. We haven`t seen content since April.

 

Because, no matter how you look at things, we paid based on a promise that didn`t deliver. SO, yes, we have a right to be cynical and ask for actions and not the same promises since 2008.

Edited August 11, 2012 by Styxx

[Styxx]

So what your saying is that they should completely ignore the fact that tanks, dps, and healers use different mechanics. As well as completely ignore factors like: range, stuns, armor class, mobility, interrupts, area of ability's, roots, buffs, de-buffs, cast times, stealth, jump or pretty much anything that makes any of the game classes unique in the least bit and just level a few of the average ability's that the classes have and equalized them?

 

We may as well all just roll sniper dps, powertech tanks, and merc healers then 100% of the time, since everything will be equalized but they have range (which is not in your factoring) . Real smart, i'm sure thats going to keep the game competitive.

 

Furthermore it's often more important HOW the damage, tanking, and healing is done over (per your example) the 6 mins of game play. What you suggest is merely a band-aid for people who don't know how to play their classes in the current PVE, and will completely nuke all competitiveness in PVP (and future PVE). Granted some advanced classes do need buffs, but what they don't need is to be marginalized to the point that there all the same.

 

I`m saying they should hire COMPETENT beta-testers and do all the above, only IN-HOUSE. Their fancy Devs and whomever thought the skills, trees and armors, should think of the above and setup benchmarks for each class and test them. Because, like it or not, classes SHOULD be roughly equal (at the very least among them = tanks, DPS and heals), or you end up with all the "knowhow" players rolling the FOTM. The only question is what the target is. If it is fixed, then the player wins. If it is "moving the goalpost", Bioware wins, by forcing rerolls for the new FOTM. Classes might be unique aesthetically, but they all are balanced toward the SAME target, whichever that might be.

 

But it depends heavy on the quality of your beta-testing team. Or the ones that test the classes. And it`s cheaper to push a draft then bandaid based on who screams the loudest.

 

Again, I`m not saying you are wrong. But this thing should be done internally, by beta-testers, based on whatever tools that are independent of the general population, or playerbase. And that is Bioware`s responsibility to develop.

Edited August 11, 2012 by Styxx

[DorkTrooper]

He is paid to do it.

 

I wouldn't deal with the bitterness of this community for any amount of money. Good luck to him, sincerely.

[Styxx]

He is paid to do it.

 

I wouldn't deal with the bitterness of this community for any amount of money. Good luck to him, sincerely.

 

So am I to applaud him for telling me the same old? "We have the player`s interest at heart, and we will give him the Moon"?

 

I believed him when I paid my share for the game and I believed in him and this game by caring enough to pay my sub and still be subbed, in all my bitterness .. and what do I get in return? NO content whatsoever since April, after the previous promises of "monthly content"?

 

Considering his position Mr Gonzales is, in my opinion, a damn brave man. He's contacted the community knowing he's going to cop it in the face for matters that he has limited control over and he hasn't flinched

This is the line I was answering to. He isn`t brave, nor a hero. He is paid to paint Bioware in pink and sell it to as many. The above is true in ONE case only : when Mr. Gonzalez is doing this out of the kindness of his heart.

Edited August 11, 2012 by Styxx

[Kioma]

He is paid to do it. The better he does his job, the more players Bioware will have to sell a product to. He is not doing me any favor.. he is paid to make Bioware look good.

 

Now, some of us also paid 150$ for a CE box and a promise that they`ll see more content in the CE store. They didn`t.

Some of us also paid 15$ per month to see monthly content. We haven`t seen content since April.

 

Because, no matter how you look at things, we paid based on a promise that didn`t deliver. SO, yes, we have a right to be cynical and ask for actions and not the same promises since 2008.

 

He's paid to act as a liaison between the community and the developers, yes. He's paid to disseminate information as and when he can, as and when it's appropriate, yes.

 

I'm willing to bet that nowhere in his job description does it state that he is required to face down hostile, embittered and demanding players, to put up with their outright abuse, as part of his job. On the contrary, simply posting in these forums insinuates the poster understands she or he is bound by the terms of service - and I'm pretty sure you'll find part of it that requires we remain civil.

 

Cynical, sure, but civil.

 

He's not just dealing with those of us that remain civil. He's facing down a horde of angry players and doing it with a largely calm manner - so YES, I think he's owed a bit of respect and a bit of slack for that.

 

I restate (as you appear to have missed it before) - I can understand why people are cynical. I can even understand why people might not believe his words (though personally I do believe he's doing the job as best he's capable). But a 'right' to be cynical doesn't equate to a right to be rude.

[iamthehoyden]

I`m saying they should hire COMPETENT beta-testers and do all the above, only IN-HOUSE. Their fancy Devs and whomever thought the skills, trees and armors, should think of the above and setup benchmarks for each class and test them. Because, like it or not, classes SHOULD be roughly equal (at the very least among them = tanks, DPS and heals), or you end up with all the "knowhow" players rolling the FOTM. The only question is what the target is. If it is fixed, then the player wins. If it is "moving the goalpost", Bioware wins, by forcing rerolls for the new FOTM. Classes might be unique aesthetically, but they all are balanced toward the SAME target, whichever that might be.

 

But it depends heavy on the quality of your beta-testing team. Or the ones that test the classes. And it`s cheaper to push a draft then bandaid based on who screams the loudest.

 

Again, I`m not saying you are wrong. But this thing should be done internally, by beta-testers, based on whatever tools that are independent of the general population, or playerbase. And that is Bioware`s responsibility to develop.

Obviously you are very set in your opinion on this, but I'd like to add that in a game of this complexity, no matter how competant the beta testers, there are going to be adjustments that need to be made based on what the actual population does "in the field" so to speak. It's fairly well known that what the players do with a game and the mechanics at hand cannot be fully planned for - people are remarkably creative.

 

It makes sense to gather data from as many sources as possible when deciding how to make changes. Depending only on one source - in your very clear opinion, the quantitative metrics data - would be as foolish as depending only on the qualitative data that comes from the players. It makes far more sense to take both into account to give the devs a clearer idea of how the game is being played and if the way players are actually playing adds up to fun (which is pretty much the point of a game). To suggest that taking this qualitative data into account would turn class balancing into a "who screams the loudest" contest is rather absurd.

[Jestuh]

So am I to applaud him for telling me the same old? "We have the player`s interest at heart, and we will give him the Moon"?

 

I believed him when I paid my share for the game and I believed in him and this game by caring enough to pay my sub and still be subbed, in all my bitterness .. and what do I get in return? NO content whatsoever since April, after the previous promises of "monthly content"?

 

 

This is the line I was answering to. He isn`t brave, nor a hero. He is paid to paint Bioware in pink and sell it to as many. The above is true in ONE case only : when Mr. Gonzalez is doing this out of the kindness of his heart.

 

It's pretty clear at this point that you're just trolling.

 

But in defense the community team for the last 19 pages of general hate and ire directed at them, the community team works for everyone else at the company. They don't get to march into Bioware or EA's office and demand answers from CEO's and developers team because someone posts on the forum that they want their jedi hood to be up or down. Developers take care of creating the game, liaisons convey the information that has been finalized and decided upon by devs. Liaisons don't get to call the shots, they do what they are told and say what they are allowed.

 

There's a lot this game lacks right now, and a lot of problems with it, but they've taken huge steps towards trying to make things better by cleaning house. You can't take a game the size of SWTOR and completely remake it within 2-3 months if you are serious about delivering a quality product. If you're going to complain about something, complain about how the devs don't allow community team to say anything or complain about the sluggish pace of the devs' content releases and terrible class balance. But don't shoot the messengers.

[Styxx]

He's paid to act as a liaison between the community and the developers, yes. He's paid to disseminate information as and when he can, as and when it's appropriate, yes.

 

I'm willing to bet that nowhere in his job description does it state that he is required to face down hostile, embittered and demanding players, to put up with their outright abuse, as part of his job. On the contrary, simply posting in these forums insinuates the poster understands she or he is bound by the terms of service - and I'm pretty sure you'll find part of it that requires we remain civil.

 

Cynical, sure, but civil.

 

He's not just dealing with those of us that remain civil. He's facing down a horde of angry players and doing it with a largely calm manner - so YES, I think he's owed a bit of respect and a bit of slack for that.

 

I restate (as you appear to have missed it before) - I can understand why people are cynical. I can even understand why people might not believe his words (though personally I do believe he's doing the job as best he's capable). But a 'right' to be cynical doesn't equate to a right to be rude.

 

I fully agree with you on principle. BUT...

 

He has every right to ignore or delete rude messages, or messages that are covered by the TOS.

 

However, just as some other devs came and posted on these very Forums, before the game was launched, so the same devs can now, which will cut the middle-man, aka Mr. Gonzalez. Even this is their own problem and not my right to criticize.

 

But Mr. Gonzalez has 2 attributions: be the liaison, as you said. But being a liaison means to relay information, or facts, not politician words, as someone has said. His attributions FOR Bioware is to relay what the playerbase wants. His attributions FOR the playerbase is to answer the questions, not avoid them.

 

For our issue right now, ALL he has to do is provide facts. Name the future content, provide clear deadlines and generally answer the "tough questions" and all the rude and cynical players will forget the past and applaud him.

 

But, in all honesty, what he does has been done since 2008. And it`s really getting old. Promises over promises, when all he has to do is do his job. So, just as Bioware or EA (ultimately, I don`t care, because I am playing SWTOR, not Electronic Arts, or Bioware Austin) are cynical enough to sell me monthly content and actually keep it back since April for the future F2P move and rude enough to market me a sub to play game just to switch to something else... so can I, the player, ask them about their past promises.

 

[EDIT]@Jestuh - I never shot the messanger. I replied to a post saying that he isn`t brave. The only things I wrote in here were about class balance, one question asked about 3 times and not answered to this day, and general ideas about why it is heard before and not changed what he is writing. We are still to see real feedback, instead of promises of feedback.

Edited August 11, 2012 by Styxx

[Styxx]

snip

Fair enough. They have had their feedback and about one big balance already, if we are not counting the smaller ones. Can we agree that, 7 months in, they have enough data to do one last balance that should last them until this game ends?

[iamthehoyden]

Fair enough. They have had their feedback and about one big balance already, if we are not counting the smaller ones. Can we agree that, 7 months in, they have enough data to do one last balance that should last them until this game ends?

Lol, if they do, they'll be miracle workers. No MMO I've ever seen is ever really done with class balance.

 

What I would like to see on class balance is fewer big adjustments in favor of smaller tweaks. There have been too many cases where a number of fairly large changes are implemented at once with very unfavorable results.