An open letter to the devs and Bioware / EA

[ConceptOverload]

Please note: Everything that follows is a personal opinion. Consider it an opportunity for improvement or at least something to consider.

 

Moderation and Respect.

 

They are lacking somewhat in the game and need to be addressed.

 

Right now only Megaguilds really can win a world and there are always enough megaguilds to take every world in Strongholds plus the vast majority if not all of the top 10 spots.

 

You are not respecting people wishes to be grouped with like minded individuals in smaller to medium sized guilds and are basically forcing people to be in a megaguild if they want to win a world or be in the top 10.

 

The frequency of events needs to be moderated. The game becomes nothing more than event after event after event, the things that made the game "fun" get removed and it becomes a job.

 

One event outside of Strongholds a month, tops and no longer than one week.

 

Strongholds events (and those happen weekly right now) maybe do twice a month, not every week. They become too all consuming and candidly we are seeing a lot of burnout and apathy.

 

As a subscriber I just want to have fun and candidly, with strongholds, I'm not having fun. The game has become like a job where I feel if I don't push myself to try and get the conquest points to try and get my smaller to medium sized guild in the top 10 I'm letting down the team.

 

At this stage I'm not renewing my subscription when it comes up in a Month for a variety of reasons but the long and the short of it is that, to me, you've ruined what was fun and need to moderate it back.

 

Suggestions:

 

Have staged rewards and lists such that the number of subscribers in a guild determine the level they are at strongholds wise and they compete against other guilds in that range. The top 25% complete, the next 25% below that compete etc..

 

Please note: The # of subscribers on any given server vary.

 

Get rid of the ad nauseum events. Let people enjoy the game for what it is not be forced to do things they don't want to do. Don't make it a job make it a fun game we play.

 

Limit strongholds a lot more. Twice a month max and no matter what tier you are in you can only win once out of every 4 events (right now call it once a month). You can get the personal rewards but not the "Controlled by" and the frameworks etc (personal reward not guild reward) to try and share the wealth. Oh yes,make that retroactive as well so that those megaguilds that have won week after week are locked out for a long time now.

 

Make the reward for winning a world worthwhile so that winning a world and not being able to be in the top 10 the next 3 passes balance out.

 

To prevent guild hopping for rewards make it so that winning a world is tied to a toon AND the guild such that if your toon is a member of a guild that won a world you personally on that toon in that guild are locked out from winning a world no matter what guild you are in as is the guild.

 

There is a lot going on in the game, in chat, that is disrespectful and we don't see anything you do to try and make it better. We don't see or hear about people being given a warning or 3 days in the park or banned, we don't see anything being done in gen chat to tone it down and we don't see candidly any investment from EA/Bioware to try and fix longstanding issues in the game (HK on the Foundry pretty much from day 1, need we say more) and the opinion that you will fix story mode but nothing beyond that is disrespectful to your endgame players.

 

If you create the content and in your system no one else can you are responsible for it so put in some quality assurance and fix the bugs for all modes and do testing first (and yes, I know about the PTS but honestly not enough). The memory leaks in the game are monumentally annoying as well.

 

We haven't had a new operation or new level in a long time. Adding content like GSF (for those with hand-eye coordination beyond the limbless and blind) and Strongholds is great for those that want the diversion from the main game but that isn't an excuse to not bring out additional content especially endgame content for the main game.

 

Please note: a flashpoint is not what I call end game content. That is strictly operations. The only way a flashpoint becomes endgame content is if something of ops level drops gear wise that is a boost to ones gear otherwise it's a diversion.

 

The Main game is the PVE game. The PvP and GSF aspects of the game, while important to those that use them, has a great deal less content than the PVE game and also a great deal less players who do this type of content. Expanding that content is important as well so that maybe it promotes those aspects of the game but honestly if you have to look at it like a balance sheet put the money where the return is and the return is in PVE. This also means expanding the current content. When was the last time we saw new branches on the storyline at he lower end, additional planetary missions not specific to an event. Pretty much never. Using Strongholds as an example consider adding new quests to the existing base PVE line like decorating a room. Some of the rooms are pretty sparse so expand them (Quesh by way of example could use a lot more content).

 

Give people options on a world instead of forcing a single path down their throats. Let people do a variety of quests to get off a world that are spec / choice / light / dark based rather than everyone does the same thing for a given faction.

 

Make sure the foundation for your building is sound and expands as required to support additions.

 

In summary:

Please respect the players of the game and the game itself and moderate some of what you are currently doing. Respect guilds at all levels and respect endgame content. Please moderate Strongholds and events to do at least some of this and please fix the bugs in the game.

 

This last part is something I want you to make sure you never do. Never, under any circumstances, water down content to the point where it's irrelevant. Make the quests being done by players important all the way through. Don't make the early stages of the game so easy that you can get to level 50 (or eventually higher) with zero effort. Make sure people see, live the story the quests give so that the game doesn't become irrelevant or just endgame content. Don't let people start at level 50 or higher either if they subscribe.

 

I know this is a business but don't ruin the game by trying to cash out with cheap tricks and pandering to the lowest common denominator. Keep the game challenging and give people a sense of accomplishment when they do a quest or win a match or battle or make it through an op.

[Wolfninjajedi]

/Sigh...

 

Wrong forum section for this..