Bioware AUSTIN has some PR issues right now.

[Nickious]

No matter which side of the "issue" you fall on, that music video parody was GREAT!

 

What's the video? Post a link.

[TheNahash]

No matter which side of the "issue" you fall on, that music video parody was GREAT!

 

It was.

Except for the fact that I've been humming "you're beautiful" all day long.

[DOHboy]

Hey Ansalem,

 

I can assure you that it would never be our intent to post something where forum goers felt they were being spoken down to in a condescending way. I felt the post they made on Friday was just an honest assessment of where our development team feels the class is. I apologize if that rubbed some folks the wrong way though, since upsetting players with our post would never be our goal. Especially since the point of the Class Reps was to begin a dialog, we certainly don't want to jump that off on the wrong foot.

 

Like I said prior, I think the timing and the way the post was handled could have been done better by us and it is something we will be careful of moving forward. Certainly I will take even more care with Class Rep top 3 responses in the future to insure that there is even less room for someone to misunderstand what we are saying and take offense.

 

-eric

 

To anyone who says BW customer service is poor, well we currently have a raging forum fire and with a few simple eloquent posts the fire should essentially be squelched and we can go on arguing about Cartel Market or why no Torguta race yet. Feelings may still be hurt but....wait for it...Nope cant say it.

[Ansalem]

Hey Ansalem,

 

I can assure you that it would never be our intent to post something where forum goers felt they were being spoken down to in a condescending way. I felt the post they made on Friday was just an honest assessment of where our development team feels the class is. I apologize if that rubbed some folks the wrong way though, since upsetting players with our post would never be our goal. Especially since the point of the Class Reps was to begin a dialog, we certainly don't want to jump that off on the wrong foot.

 

Like I said prior, I think the timing and the way the post was handled could have been done better by us and it is something we will be careful of moving forward. Certainly I will take even more care with Class Rep top 3 responses in the future to insure that there is even less room for someone to misunderstand what we are saying and take offense.

 

-eric

 

thanks eric. I look forward to followup you get from the combat team with the feedback. Also very interested in the shadows and merc top 3 next month

[-IceHawk-]

Ok IceHawk now i am wondering how you came up with this. Sorc DPS does not out-perform Merc DPS in NiM end-game content. Maybe in some boss fights with a lot of AoE (16m NiM OP9 as Lightning) or boss fights where you can AoE and multi-doT (Lightning spec as well like 8-man NiM Cartel Warlords).

 

How extensive is your DPS PVE experience as Lightning sorc in niM content? I am wondering why you think sorcs outperform Mercs (as DPS) in the same content.

 

Mercs out DPS' Sorcs according to raid parses. They are both "hybrid" classes with healing and DPS specs. The question is asking how they plan to address this, if they even address it and see it as an issue at all. That is what we are trying to find out and a good opportunity to do so given t his Developer-Forum communiation program that they are doing.

 

Considering everything, Sorcs out-perform Mercs as Healers and DPS in PVP, are superior PVE Healers, and only trail Mercs in DPS output at End Game by 2-5%.

[Andryah]

Certainly I will take even more care with Class Rep top 3 responses in the future to insure that there is even less room for someone to misunderstand what we are saying and take offense.

 

-eric

 

Please to note gentle forum readers Eric did not promise that no player will be insulted by future Class Rep Top 3 responses. Sorry.. but this needs to be pointed out...for when he is "accused of negligence" sometime forward.

 

He is doing what good Community Managers do well: 1) pay attention 2) show care and consideration in the face of flame throwers.. 3) while maintaining clear boundary between dev comments and self-combustion effects within players in response to dev comments.

 

TL;DR he will personally make an effort to make sure future responses are sulfur free.....but cannot guarantee you don't self combust anyway after reading the responses. He cannot be sure you don't have your own stash of sulfur.. for personal use, nor prevent you from using it.

Edited August 27, 2013 by Andryah

[TUXs]

Please to note gentle forum readers Eric did not promise that no player will be insulted by future Class Rep Top 3 responses. Sorry.. but this needs to be pointed out...for when he is "accused of negligence" sometime forward.

 

He is doing what good Community Managers do well: 1) pay attention 2) show care and consideration in the face of flame throwers.. 3) while maintaining clear boundary between dev comments and self-combustion effects within players in response to dev comments.

 

TL;DR he will personally make an effort to make sure future responses are sulfur free.....but cannot guarantee you don't self combust anyway after reading the responses. He cannot be sure you don't have your own stash of sulfur.. for personal use, nor prevent you from using it.

 

Eric is worth every freaking cent he gets paid...and many more that he doesn't. He has a knack for saying just the right things in just the right tone...he's damn good at his job and without doubt, the best I've seen in any game.

[Avicii]

Hey Ansalem,

 

I can assure you that it would never be our intent to post something where forum goers felt they were being spoken down to in a condescending way. I felt the post they made on Friday was just an honest assessment of where our development team feels the class is. I apologize if that rubbed some folks the wrong way though, since upsetting players with our post would never be our goal. Especially since the point of the Class Reps was to begin a dialog, we certainly don't want to jump that off on the wrong foot.

 

Like I said prior, I think the timing and the way the post was handled could have been done better by us and it is something we will be careful of moving forward. Certainly I will take even more care with Class Rep top 3 responses in the future to insure that there is even less room for someone to misunderstand what we are saying and take offense.

 

-eric

 

Nice job Eric, although to a degree you guys are receiving a beating for something you dont deserve. A text answer can be perceived in different tones and when you tend not to agree with what someone says you tend to take the tone as more negative or condescending something to keep in mind although I am sure you are aware of that.

 

That said, hopefully you will be in Seattle for the Cantina tour I look forward to speaking to everyone there and pressing the issue of NO balance changes till 2.5 or 2.6 which is a huge mistake and is a major perception problem. With the way the PTS has gone half of the players feel like if they arent a Jug tank, OP healer, Mara DPS cant find a niche comp they cant compete in arenas. The perception needs to be the exact opposite for Arenas to flourish with no cross server matching.

 

However waiting on balance changes still leaves the same perception that X,Y,Z are the strongest classes by far and its hard to argue unless you wear rose colored glasses, that this isnt the case as one team of Jug, 2 x Rage Mara, Op healer are like 106-4 or something like that.

 

Making small balance changes can help open the doors to arena's, without this you are creating an arena system that will have the RWZ teams playing it on the FoTM classes and that is it. Bad move and I implore you guys to really think about the communities current perception of class balance and what can be done to help. I would say there almost isnt anything more important then this if arenas are to succeed.

[Andryah]

Eric is worth every freaking cent he gets paid...and many more that he doesn't. He has a knack for saying just the right things in just the right tone...he's damn good at his job and without doubt, the best I've seen in any game.

 

/Agree with you on that TUXs.

[Arkerus]

I like honest assessments and I have no real problems with what was sent out last Friday.

 

Albeit the TONE could have been better but I really can't complain about people just telling it like it is.

 

I felt it was "intern-ish" but still, it was fine.

[DOHboy]

I like honest assessments and I have no real problems with what was sent out last Friday.

 

Albeit the TONE could have been better but I really can't complain about people just telling it like it is.

 

I felt it was "intern-ish" but still, it was fine.

 

I will be the first to say that Geeks do not make great "people person" types, this side or other side of the screen. Those of us geeks who become Engineers/Programmers are even less so. Not saying all are, but we tend to be more so than other geeks. Mix in people raised on the internet and modern "language" and its recipe for disaster and miss-communication.

 

People skills have become a lost art and Kudos to Eric, Courtney and the rest of the GOLD Colored Posters having to deal with both sides

Edited August 27, 2013 by DOHboy

[JimG]

Eric is worth every freaking cent he gets paid...and many more that he doesn't. He has a knack for saying just the right things in just the right tone...he's damn good at his job and without doubt, the best I've seen in any game.

 

Agreed. Being a community rep for a MMO is a thankless job. There are far too many people that expect community reps to coddle and kiss up to them and pat them on the head. Eric does a fine job. Nobody in that job can avoid the self-imagined insults that people create in their minds. There is absolutely nothing that anyone can say which would 100% satisfy this player-base. Every player has their own expectations, opinions, etc. The disgruntled, vocal minority on any issue is always going to be the dominant presence in the General Discussion section of the Forums on that issue.

[Andryah]

I like honest assessments and I have no real problems with what was sent out last Friday.

 

Albeit the TONE could have been better but I really can't complain about people just telling it like it is.

 

I had a momentary flashback to Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men.

[Darth-Malice]

Eric is worth every freaking cent he gets paid..

 

That's debatable.

[TUXs]

That's debatable.

 

You know what they say about opinions...we all have em.

[Joesixxpack]

Please to note gentle forum readers Eric did not promise that no player will be insulted by future Class Rep Top 3 responses. Sorry.. but this needs to be pointed out...for when he is "accused of negligence" sometime forward.

 

He is doing what good Community Managers do well: 1) pay attention 2) show care and consideration in the face of flame throwers.. 3) while maintaining clear boundary between dev comments and self-combustion effects within players in response to dev comments.

 

TL;DR he will personally make an effort to make sure future responses are sulfur free.....but cannot guarantee you don't self combust anyway after reading the responses. He cannot be sure you don't have your own stash of sulfur.. for personal use, nor prevent you from using it.

 

Such cornflated adhominem&ms are faux weaksauce IMO. Please stop pretending that you don't look forward to arguing with arguers in an argument while you argue.

 

Eric's reassurances should inspire a positive resolution to this. It is the time for all participants to share war stories and comradely laughter about their parts in The Great Battle. To reconstruct pillars of harmony from the razed landscape and vanquish any lingering perception problems.

 

If an opponent fell to your deft blows extend a hand, raise them up, and heal them to full. The tomes of history shall not forget this epic conflict nor the names of the unsubbed! They will be etched forevermore upon the walls of the forums, on page 238 by this time tomorrow.

Edited August 27, 2013 by Joesixxpack

[LordArtemis]

I have to say it again, but this may be a minority opinion.

 

I think that any balance changes made with respect to Arena need to remain inside Arena, or at least most of them do. I can see that balance changes could be beneficial (small ones) overall, but making any changes that focus on Arena performance, IMO, will start a balance crusade that will likely never end.

 

Any balance problems discovered from Arena (or amplified by it) need to be viewed across the entire game IMO.

[paowee]

are superior PVE Healers

Right.

2-5%.

Ok.

 

It's been nice talking to you

Edited August 27, 2013 by paowee

[mmjarec]

Yes, mmjarec, we get it Sins have some serious concerns and you want immediate validation from the Developers. Considering that I was leveling a SinTank with a mind towards filling a hole in my Guild's group composition this is not exactly a point upon which the community does not commiserate with you on.

 

Why you think antagonizing the Sorc Community is going to help however stymies me...

 

Hadoken,

Based on the response to Psi's first question the Combat Team considers direct comparisons between Sorcs and Mara/Snipers inherently invalid. This statement was clarified by pointing out that they were dedicated DPS classes and, by extension, Sorcs were not.

 

This denotes a new design philosophy in which Sorcs are being reclassified as a Hybrid Class and the old 5% Standard is being jettisoned as inherently inapplicable.

 

This carries some serious ramifications for the multitude of other "hybrids" including Mercs, Ops, Sins, and PTs.

 

Im not antagonizing anyone but sorcs are in far better shape than sins so should get priority attention. I have both classes at 55

 

And people that say they are a hybrid class doesnt know the definition. They are an advance class. A hybrid would be someone who specs in multiple trees or a combination of two classes which they are not

Edited August 27, 2013 by mmjarec
Sp

[TravelersWay]

I like honest assessments and I have no real problems with what was sent out last Friday.

 

Albeit the TONE could have been better but I really can't complain about people just telling it like it is.

 

I felt it was "intern-ish" but still, it was fine.

 

I would have to agree with that. Usually it's other players telling each other to L2P. In the end, the quality of the questions can be in doubt as well, and if that is what the answer is, then that is what the answer is. No sense in beating about the bush.

[TheNahash]

I would have to agree with that. Usually it's other players telling each other to L2P. In the end, the quality of the questions can be in doubt as well, and if that is what the answer is, then that is what the answer is. No sense in beating about the bush.

 

I don't really think it would be fair for Psi (or the community) to take the fall for what was, admittedly, just a bad, kind of a cop out answer.

 

The question was about defensive cooldowns. To quote Psi's question

"...do you think that this very obvious disparity between sorcerers/sages and every other class’ defensive cooldowns are fair? Or for that matter… is it intended? If it isn’t, is there any plan to give us some sort of damage mitigation?" to which they basically replied that we shouldn't compare ourselves to Snipers/Marauders because they can't heal to full.

 

That doesn't answer the question but at the same time it's not a lie, it's simply irrelevant to damage mitigation. We are a light armor class that has one instant self-heal and can be rooted/stunned/cced easily by anyone with half a brain so the rest of our heals are not easy to cast.

 

I think the main issue here is that they regarded this as a PVP question - which is why they replied that we can heal.

 

And that's true and also VERY helpful in a PVP environment. I can't count the number of times I've won fights by doing just that (stun/CC->heal myself or any combination that involves Force Barrier/grenading/Force running/LoSing and healing)

 

On the other hand, for endgame PVE...yeah, not so useful when you have a limited amount of time to DPS down a boss.

 

However, it was NOT a DPS question. It was a defensive cooldowns question.

 

Other than that, I agree that they were honest but not as diplomatic as they should have been - but then again, we always ask them to be honest and when they are we complain that they were.

Edited August 27, 2013 by TheNahash

[Inflicktion]

Hey Inflicktion,

 

I am not entirely sure what you are upset about with our Cantina events specifically but I think you may misunderstand their purpose. The goal of our Cantina events was never to make big reveals around game content or anything like that. It would be a weird format to make announcements (typically) since it is only about 150-200 people in attendance. Although, we have certainly started to drop some cool tidbits out there via the thumb drives. As an example, we used the thumb drives to announce TaunTaun mounts coming to the game, certainly that is no small thing!

 

The main goal of the Cantina events is it is simply a great social gathering for players of SWTOR to come out and mingle with each other and with us. At the end of the day all of us in the studio are just gamers like all of you who love SWTOR. We just happen to also work on the project. I apologize if you feel we are not releasing enough tidbits of information at the events but that was never the intent.

 

Plus, who doesn't like getting to eat and drink for free while talking about video games?

 

-eric

 

I wouldn't say I'm upset with the Cantina Events, or even demanding that more information be revealed at these things. The only thing I said was the way you guys are going about the Q&A is horrible. My problem is we're getting the exact same questions with the exact same PR nonsense answer every time. I think the effort to get out there and interact with the community is great, but what you guys are doing with the Q&A is just eyerolling. For your described purposes it'd make more sense to turn that portion into an extended "meet & greet"; rather than letting a few obnoxious people repeatedly ask the same question you guys refuse (and there is some BW has answered that people just won't accept, beast species for example, not saying anything about that) to answer over and over.

 

Edit- All I'm saying is there's no reason to hold Q&A if you have no intention of answering the most popular questions with a straight answer.

Edited August 27, 2013 by Inflicktion

[Andryah]

Edit- All I'm saying is there's no reason to hold Q&A if you have no intention of answering the most popular questions with a straight answer.

 

 

Edit: Nevermind.. I mistakenly thought you were on topic.

Edited August 27, 2013 by Andryah

[EricMusco]

I wouldn't say I'm upset with the Cantina Events, or even demanding that more information be revealed at these things. The only thing I said was the way you guys are going about the Q&A is horrible. My problem is we're getting the exact same questions with the exact same PR nonsense answer every time. I think the effort to get out there and interact with the community is great, but what you guys are doing with the Q&A is just eyerolling. For your described purposes it'd make more sense to turn that portion into an extended "meet & greet"; rather than letting a few obnoxious people repeatedly ask the same question you guys refuse (and there is some BW has answered that people just won't accept, beast species for example, not saying anything about that) to answer over and over.

 

Edit- All I'm saying is there's no reason to hold Q&A if you have no intention of answering the most popular questions with a straight answer.

 

I totally understand where you're coming from on this actually. Two things I can say.

 

1 - The issue with us giving the same answers is in part an issue with us being asked the same questions. Don't get me wrong, I totally understand frustration that we can't answer those questions, but we are continually asked them. Interestingly, before I open the floor to the Q&A, at every single event, I preface the crowd with a few of the staples they shouldn't ask about or they will receive the exact answer they expect. They still ask anyway . I appreciate the persistence though.

 

2 - I agree that this can lead to frustrating experience, mainly for those who are not at the event themselves. When the recap is us answering similar questions which we are always asked. Because of that, the Q&A portion is usually only 30 minutes at most of a 3-4 hour event. This way players are free to spend as much time talking to us 1-1 or in small groups.

 

In the end I think you and I actually agree on some of your points. I hope sometime you can make it out to one of our events and experience it first hand. I think these events are often not what people expect, for the better!

 

-eric

[veyl]

I am not going to play the semantics game with you Andryah.

 

Your posts are as inherently subjective, biased, and rationalized as those you classify as complaints and your continued desire to serve as the General Forum's resident Defender of the Faith, while entertaining as a counterpoint to the more dedicated trolls, provides you in fact with no actual degree of rhetorical authority greater than the one being wielded by Ansalem.

 

The difference of course is that, because you theoretically underpin your statements with the concept that you are somehow "objective," the substantive result is that you are displaying an interesting level of hypocrisy.

 

Why don't you and Ansalem take your party to the PMs where it belongs and clear up this thread for something more topical than his personal offense at the replies and your offense to his feeling offended.

 

Agreed. Also, I'm shocked this post wasn't reported yet.

 

It would be nice if Bioware stopped catering to certain individuals and stopped allowing the continued bashing of the community by said certain individuals.

 

Speaking in no specific players general direction, of course. I mean, that's also a PR issue too, right?