Why did Jeff Hickman lie to subscribers about the future of the game?

[tanerb]

Honestly I don't think any ops or FPs or any content update were coming with 2.2. Probably some small patches/updates along with more cartel market stuff. Now, based on the feedback they may try to change that. If we see post soon that says 2.2 is postponed, I wouldn't be suprised

[DarthTHC]

Thank you for the response, but it actually isnt about the wording, its about the perception that EA/BW cares more about making money off CM, then it does about subscribers.

 

Now I think the developers are trying to insinuate that there will be a lot of in game stuff in the next patch. But that does nothing to stop the complaints today. Heck even something like "Subscribers get 1 week of free customization" or "subscribers get 1 free dye of their choice that is bound" and Id guess a ton of people would have been completely fine with it.

 

Basically for a few measly cc you could have earned a tremendous amount of good will with your player base.

 

Why isn't, "Subscribers get 50% off the Kiosk plus 500-600 cartel coins a month so you can do a crapton without spending a dime over your subscription provided you don't spend your coins on gambling packs like a crack addict" good enough?

[Benfynyn]

Or if players could just remember the recent past and imagine the near future based on what the community team communicates, there would have been far less complaints.

 

There are probably numerous reasons that 2.1 and 2.2 were separated. 2.1 was an "off cycle" patch. We all seem to be forgetting that.

 

I didn't forget that at all. I'm saying they could have held it back and released the two together. Would it have been possible to combine the two? Only they can answer it but I don't see why not. They could have updated the back end stuff like adding the dye slots to gear, changes to the tooltips (that look awful), and the placeholder for the kiosk etc. in advance of the patch if it would have helped. But I think it was a poor decision on their part to release such a huge CM update by itself regardless of where in the cycle it fell.

[Shoogli]

Now I think the developers are trying to insinuate that there will be a lot of in game stuff in the next patch. But that does nothing to stop the complaints today. Heck even something like "Subscribers get 1 week of free customization" or "subscribers get 1 free dye of their choice that is bound" and Id guess a ton of people would have been completely fine with it.

 

Or you remember what we were given during X-mas...

[jamesvasquez]

Why isn't, "Subscribers get 50% off the Kiosk plus 500-600 cartel coins a month so you can do a crapton without spending a dime over your subscription provided you don't spend your coins on gambling packs like a crack addict" good enough?

 

It may be because we don't have unlimited access to receive as many cartel market items as we can carry without paying a dime all at one time so we can flood gtn with useless cosmetics... that's what i'm reading.

[Tekeda]

Back to pinning my hope on the next game in this case Everquest Next.

 

If the Everquest team dev model follows the Planetside 2 dev model it should be an amazing game.

 

Being able to influence the direction of the game and have actual communication with the lead devs has been a breath of fresh air.

I remember Matt Higby riding shotgun in my tank after a update came out. He wanted to see the players reaction to the patch and if they were enjoying it. That was an amazing experience.

Unfortunately it is not my cup of tea to play fps shooters.

Edited May 17, 2013 by Tekeda

[jamesvasquez]

Bye. You'll be missed. By someone. Odds are.

[Tekeda]

Bye. You'll be missed. By someone. Odds are.

 

Don't really care if I am missed and also yay for ignore list.

[Mevan]

What sets you folks apart is your monthly stipend which will allow you to purchase those features at no additional cost should you choose. I realize with your stipend, and with all the features we have, you may not be able to get it all at once but you can get it in time as a subscriber.

 

Clearly not been reading the complaints we subs have...

[chriscshunter]

So what were the last 2 content updates that subscribers got?

 

I have been away a year and recently resubbed. I was hoping that some of what I disliked would be fixed.

 

The problems I had mostly dealt with the actual combat experience. Abilities not firing off and and the global cooldown activating anyway stuttering animations and animations that activate but do not activate the ability. (example is Flame thrower showing the animation but the channel does not start and I end up pressing the button again to get it to work.

 

These are basic combat mechanics that continue to be broken a year after I left and I will not be resubbing.

Yeah its funny, I was in the military and had left the game for 8+ months. When I discharged and came back to the game early this year I was saying the same thing.

 

A lot of the things I was hoping would be improved/fixed has not been touched, instead you got this silly cartel market and these stupid coins so you can make your character prettier. I honestly don't care if you continue to improve the thing because I'm not going to waste my money.

 

I'm not complaining about the micro transactions, I am here to complain about the lack of improvement on the core elements in the game that have been lacking polish since the beta. Do the devs even look at the suggestion forum? I swear to you there were bugs in beta that I see to this very day in game... In beta I was like, huh well its a beta not that big a deal, but the game is going on 2 years now and its like... woohoo i can change my hair color or i can be a cat person for 10$ but was it worth bogging down the game with all this cosmetic crap when your core value of the game is slowly but surely being put into hindsight?

 

I think everyone who uses GTN will agree... it is a god awful beta placeholder... Group Finder is GTN's retarded cousin, buggy as all hell

 

If you put the same quality you do into the cartel market your game would be so amazing, but I just don't see it happening. I will be happy when the The Elder Scrolls Online is out... on the day of preorders, Bioware is going to lose a lot of people, and better be hoping that Bethesda isn't doing things right... but looking at what they did with Skyrim... I'd say they better start packing their bags for EA's layoffs...

 

The loyal fans who love the cartel market and back these guys are not seeing the big picture. Sad but true...

Edited May 17, 2013 by chriscshunter

[WillCaedes]

Hey folks,

 

I will just be as honest as I can here, it was a poor choice in wording on our part. I know that players have made decisions around whether to remain a subscriber based on those words which makes it all that much more sensitive. I apologize if you feel that you were misled by what we said in that blog. Since this blog I feel we have been more consistent in our messaging that you can expect things like cosmetic and convenience features (like Appearance Designer) are the types of things we usually place on the Cartel Market.

 

It has always been our plan that as new content is released,(such as Flashpoints, Operations, in-game events, daily hubs, etc.) that subscribers will get access to these pieces of content. This is unlike a free-2-play player who will need to purchase access to that content. This is why we stated subscribers gained "unlimited" access to that content, because you get that as a part of your subscription.

 

For Cartel Market items, you have access to purchase all of them, as do F2P players. What sets you folks apart is your monthly stipend which will allow you to purchase those features at no additional cost should you choose. I realize with your stipend, and with all the features we have, you may not be able to get it all at once but you can get it in time as a subscriber.

 

With that being said we have definitely heard your frustrations around Game Updates and the value you feel as a subscriber. I don't have details today but we are continuing to look at options moving forward to make sure that you don't feel that way.

 

-eric

 

So was Cory Butler using a "poor choice of words" when he mislead customers into believing the Collection system was going to be different than what actually came out? Great to know you have time to answer this thread, yet not the other one about Collections. Hmm, I wonder why.

[seekerofpower]

but looking at what they did with Skyrim...

 

I love Bethesda games (though I am not at all excited for ESO), but Skyrim was a bug riddled disaster that they still haven't completely fixed. One of the reasons I will stay away from ESO is that every Bethesda game is a bug riddled disaster. The games are fun as hell, but they are not stable or polished in any way.

Edited May 17, 2013 by seekerofpower

[TalkingDinosaur]

yes. According to the OP you should be crucified.

Burn the heretic!

[seekerofpower]

There have been way to many of these "poor choice of words" statements and "admin errors" to explain away the blatant lies that have been coming from the site and from people who work for the company. Maybe you guys need a better PR person that actually vets these statements before they get released.

[WillCaedes]

I love Bethesda games (though I am not at all excited for ESO), but Skyrim was a bug riddled disaster that they still haven't completely fixed. One of the reasons I will stay away from ESO is that every Bethesda game is a bug riddled disaster. The games are fun as hell, but they are not stable or polished in any way.

 

Ah but the modding community is to your rescue! Seriously, the Nexus sites SAVED Skyrim on my computer, ENB, DOF an other visual tweaks, and the unofficial bug patches...which is odd because I've never seen a bug in Skyrim o.O Yet everyone keeps talking about them... hmm still though. Skyrim fully modded to ones tastes is addicting.

[WillCaedes]

There have been way to many of these "poor choice of words" statements and "admin errors" to explain away the blatant lies that have been coming from the site and from people who work for the company. Maybe you guys need a better PR person that actually vets these statements before they get released.

 

They won't hire one. They'll just ignore any thread that attempts to call them out on their credibility, just look at the thread in my signature, 260+ posts, no Bioware presence. Funny aint it?

[Mevan]

They won't hire one. They'll just ignore any thread that attempts to call them out on their credibility, just look at the thread in my signature, 260+ posts, no Bioware presence. Funny aint it?

 

It's called cowardice. They have it in abundance.

[Tekeda]

ESO has some great ideas but I doubt they can execute them if the recently leaked beta footage is any indication.

 

But check this out.http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/04/27/tattered-notebook-eq-next-and-storybricks-sitting-in-a-tree/

Edited May 17, 2013 by Tekeda

[CommanderKeeva]

 

I realize with your stipend, and with all the features we have, you may not be able to get it all at once but you can get it in time as a subscriber.

 

 

We can buy two random dye packs each month! In a year, maybe we can buy enough packs to get the dye we actually want. In just a short 7 years, you can have your entire armor set recolored from your monthly stipend!

[Skaol-dirtyd]

Bye. You'll be missed. By someone. Odds are.

 

Here

[Andryah]

We can buy two random dye packs each month! In a year, maybe we can buy enough packs to get the dye we actually want. In just a short 7 years, you can have your entire armor set recolored from your monthly stipend!

 

That's not what the dye packs, or cartel packs are there for. Eric was referring to the various customization unlocks released in 2.1

 

All those dyes and all those pack contents will be up on the GTN, courtesty of players who like buying and opening kits/packs and who are not averse to spending for coins. Some people like buying and spending coins, some do not. I personally do not, but I understand others do. In any event, in a very large player base It's a symbiotic relationship, courtesy of Bioware making all the stuff tradeable (unlike some other MMOs that make it all bind on aquire).

 

TL;DR save your coins for actual unlocks of things for your account. If you want to buy dye kits or cartel packs.. that your choice too.. but don't complain about the random nature of them, when the contents will be up on the GTN in volume.

 

Separately....

.....props to Eric for posting in this nasty themed thread. Unfortunately, all it did was make the complainers complain louder.

Edited May 17, 2013 by Andryah

[Kilora]

We can buy two random dye packs each month! In a year, maybe we can buy enough packs to get the dye we actually want. In just a short 7 years, you can have your entire armor set recolored from your monthly stipend!

 

Yep. 'cause you can't buy em on the GTN. You can't unify to chest.

 

Those aren't possible, so how dare they do this.

[Hyfy]

Hi eric! any chance you could squeeze some info about possible server transfer out of anyone on the team?

 

Regarding this update, I think the underlying issue is that all we (the playerbase) got to see at the end of this development cycle was a bunch of cash shop items. While its great that the Cartel Market is generating cash flow for the game, can you pass on to someone that cash shop items =/= content? Imho, that is the root of the problem here; we got no real 'content' in this patch at all.

 

Actually this is an off cycle update. The on cycle update should be coming up in another 3 weeks or so. Eric did post about that a few weeks ago. 2.1 was separate from the regular content cycle.

[Fuse_AQM]

Hey folks,

 

I will just be as honest as I can here, it was a poor choice in wording on our part. I know that players have made decisions around whether to remain a subscriber based on those words which makes it all that much more sensitive. I apologize if you feel that you were misled by what we said in that blog. Since this blog I feel we have been more consistent in our messaging that you can expect things like cosmetic and convenience features (like Appearance Designer) are the types of things we usually place on the Cartel Market.

 

It has always been our plan that as new content is released,(such as Flashpoints, Operations, in-game events, daily hubs, etc.) that subscribers will get access to these pieces of content. This is unlike a free-2-play player who will need to purchase access to that content. This is why we stated subscribers gained "unlimited" access to that content, because you get that as a part of your subscription.

 

For Cartel Market items, you have access to purchase all of them, as do F2P players. What sets you folks apart is your monthly stipend which will allow you to purchase those features at no additional cost should you choose. I realize with your stipend, and with all the features we have, you may not be able to get it all at once but you can get it in time as a subscriber.

 

With that being said we have definitely heard your frustrations around Game Updates and the value you feel as a subscriber. I don't have details today but we are continuing to look at options moving forward to make sure that you don't feel that way.

 

-eric

Forget the words used. Look at your features page. It says quite clearly that subscribers get full access to character creation. This is now patently untrue, and as someone who has only been a subscriber for a month I feel like this change without warning was deceitful.

 

Back to pinning my hope on the next game in this case Everquest Next.

 

If the Everquest team dev model follows the Planetside 2 dev model it should be an amazing game.

 

Being able to influence the direction of the game and have actual communication with the lead devs has been a breath of fresh air.

I remember Matt Higby riding shotgun in my tank after a update came out. He wanted to see the players reaction to the patch and if they were enjoying it. That was an amazing experience.

Unfortunately it is not my cup of tea to play fps shooters.

 

I was also bewitched by the PS2 devs. Don't hold out too much hope. The PS2 devs largely ignored advice from veterans. SOE pushed the game live far too early and spends more money on cash shop items than game balance. They've also already started to show a little power creep in the items, but maybe that will be balanced out in a year or two.

 

PS2 can be fun, but it's just a bigger FPS. There's little to no meta game, there are serious balance issues, no resource management, and it's crammed with bugs that have been reported since day 2 of the technical test. Some of the problems can be blamed on reddit, which is a terrible place for devs to foster discussion (with the way people use downvotes as censorship), but most of them are because SOE wanted money more than a good game with potential to keep people playing for a decade.

Edited May 17, 2013 by Fuse_AQM

[Tekeda]

Forget the words used. Look at your features page. It says quite clearly that subscribers get full access to character creation. This is now patently untrue, and as someone who has only been a subscriber for a month I feel like this change without warning was deceitful.

 

 

 

I was also bewitched by the PS2 devs. Don't hold out too much hope. The PS2 devs largely ignored advice from veterans. SOE pushed the game live far too early and spends more money on cash shop items than game balance. They've also already started to show a little power creep in the items, but maybe that will be balanced out in a year or two.

 

PS2 can be fun, but it's just a bigger FPS. There's little to no meta game, there are serious balance issues, no resource management, and it's crammed with bugs that have been reported since day 2 of the technical test. Some of the problems can be blamed on reddit, which is a terrible place for devs to foster discussion (with the way people use downvotes as censorship), but most of them are because SOE wanted money more than a good game with potential to keep people playing for a decade.

 

Well I have a different view of PS2. The only area I am disappointed in is the releasing of weapons that are op.

 

If you look at the progress that has come directly from player input over the 6 months of release the rapid development is unprecedented.

 

I have over 100 days playtime in PS2 and have played all 3 factions the unbalance just isn't there,.