3.0 information today?? PLEASE!!!!!!!!

[Phatbeard]

As a replacement to said update, I will accept a public-lashing of whomever was responsible.

 

A twitch feed will suffice.

 

 

I hear there's websites for that!

[Infernixx]

Not good enough. You know what level the next expansion will take the game to. You know how many operations with how many bosses there will be. You know whether there will be any new warzones. You know how many planets will be involved in the expansion. THAT is the sort of into that you can and should release.

 

If you don't know that sort of information then the game is seriously, seriously screwed.

 

Did you 'really' expect those sorts of details before October? Seriously?

[SebastiaanZ]

Did you 'really' expect those sorts of details before October? Seriously?

 

Yes ... if the timetable is like the RotHC expansion, they should've released info 2 months ago already. They by then already told us of the level cap increase to 55, they by then told us about the Makeb planet being the next one ... now you again.

[ZionHalcyon]

This is a great question (or questions?), that I think are on a lot of folks minds. As you can imagine I can't go too deep into the rabbit hole in talking about our internal processes but I can give it a go.

 

In short, the process we go through internally to announce something as big as an expansion is actually quite complex and extensive. Although you are correct in that the end process may be a video, a landing page with some copy, etc. the process to get there requires a large amount of moving parts across multiple teams. Aside from just the assets and webpages there is arguably one of the most important aspects of these types of announcements, the game!

 

By the time we announce we have to have a concrete idea of what will be coming in the game with the expansion, what types of perks we might give our subscribers, etc. Unfortunately with so many moving parts, we can sometimes run into the scenario like we did today. If we are not 100% confident in what we are going to put out, for a multitude of possible reasons, it can lead to a delay of announcement.

 

I would caution not to read too deep into what I said above. It is somewhere in the cog of those moving parts that this delay happened, but ultimately our goal remains the same: to get you as many details about this expansion as soon as we can!

 

-eric

 

 

I'm not buying it. I think the decision was made once it was known you guys were going to have a cantina crawl in New York, that you would do it at that time because you would be able to do it in a big city and a very large setting. Pure marketing.

Edited September 29, 2014 by ZionHalcyon

[Darth_Wicked]

I hear there's websites for that!

 

We're subscribers.

 

We expect such lavish display as a perk. This week. Soonish.

[Elminster_cs]

By the time we announce we have to have a concrete idea of what will be coming in the game with the expansion, what types of perks we might give our subscribers, etc. Unfortunately with so many moving parts, we can sometimes run into the scenario like we did today. If we are not 100% confident in what we are going to put out, for a multitude of possible reasons, it can lead to a delay of announcement.

 

 

Sorry but... WHAT?!?!? Your are 2/3 months to launch and there are people inside BW that are not 100% sure of what we will see??

 

Tell me WHY there are so many MMO and similar game that KNOW and pubblish what player are going to see a year before... :eek::eek:

[Infernixx]

Sorry but... WHAT?!?!? Your are 2/3 months to launch and there are people inside BW that are not 100% sure of what we will see??

 

Tell me WHY there are so many MMO and similar game that KNOW and pubblish what player are going to see a year before... :eek::eek:

 

Because if they release info and something forces that info to change, people tend to freak the hell out over it.

 

Like you.

[justinplainview]

Because if they release info and something forces that info to change, people tend to freak the hell out over it.

 

Like you.

 

"something forces that info to change"

 

We aren't asking for specifically what crafting mats we will get. We aren't asking what changes will occur to class balancing. We are asking for a general release window, an ACTUAL announcement of the expac with title, general plot outline, and vague explanations of content "a new operation, a new pvp zone, blablabla". I can understand a delay, but your phrasing is a little odd.

[Infernixx]

"something forces that info to change"

 

We aren't asking for specifically what crafting mats we will get. We aren't asking what changes will occur to class balancing. We are asking for a general release window, an ACTUAL announcement of the expac with title, general plot outline, and vague explanations of content "a new operation, a new pvp zone, blablabla". I can understand a delay, but your phrasing is a little odd.

 

You see how these lunatics are freaking out over a 'delay' in the full announcement? You see this rage and fury and foaming at the mouth insanity?

 

Now imagine something important being announced and then it changing. Imagine how these people would freak out over something actually 'relevant.'

 

Sorry, no. This is a prime example of why BW doesn't release info before it's set in stone.

[ZionHalcyon]

You see how these lunatics are freaking out over a 'delay' in the full announcement? You see this rage and fury and foaming at the mouth insanity?

 

Now imagine something important being announced and then it changing. Imagine how these people would freak out over something actually 'relevant.'

 

Sorry, no. This is a prime example of why BW doesn't release info before it's set in stone.

 

so then you justify a few ruining it for everyone. Glad you're not a terrorist negotiator.

[Deewe]

This is a great question (or questions?), that I think are on a lot of folks minds. As you can imagine I can't go too deep into the rabbit hole in talking about our internal processes but I can give it a go.

 

In short, the process we go through internally to announce something as big as an expansion is actually quite complex and extensive. Although you are correct in that the end process may be a video, a landing page with some copy, etc. the process to get there requires a large amount of moving parts across multiple teams. Aside from just the assets and webpages there is arguably one of the most important aspects of these types of announcements, the game!

 

By the time we announce we have to have a concrete idea of what will be coming in the game with the expansion, what types of perks we might give our subscribers, etc. Unfortunately with so many moving parts, we can sometimes run into the scenario like we did today. If we are not 100% confident in what we are going to put out, for a multitude of possible reasons, it can lead to a delay of announcement.

 

I would caution not to read too deep into what I said above. It is somewhere in the cog of those moving parts that this delay happened, but ultimately our goal remains the same: to get you as many details about this expansion as soon as we can!

 

-eric

Fair answer although from a player point of view there's quite a difference in pointing at certainty and holding back the topping for subs.

 

Nobody's asking for all details now and by giving all details while still being under development could lead to issues for sure.

Edited September 29, 2014 by Deewe

[GrandLordMenace]

Only jokingly, but imagine if the subscriber perk was...

 

THE ANNOUNCEMENT!

 

Get this, the announcement has an early access! You have to log into the forums to view the announcement and it filters based on whether you are subbed or not (Non subs get a "Soon " banner.

 

Joking aside, hurry the **** up bioware, take my money!

[Infernixx]

so then you justify a few ruining it for everyone. Glad you're not a terrorist negotiator.

 

That's how life works. The few 'always' ruin it for the many. Again, welcome to society.

[MKnightRider]

This is a great question (or questions?), that I think are on a lot of folks minds. As you can imagine I can't go too deep into the rabbit hole in talking about our internal processes but I can give it a go.

 

In short, the process we go through internally to announce something as big as an expansion is actually quite complex and extensive. Although you are correct in that the end process may be a video, a landing page with some copy, etc. the process to get there requires a large amount of moving parts across multiple teams. Aside from just the assets and webpages there is arguably one of the most important aspects of these types of announcements, the game!

 

By the time we announce we have to have a concrete idea of what will be coming in the game with the expansion, what types of perks we might give our subscribers, etc. Unfortunately with so many moving parts, we can sometimes run into the scenario like we did today. If we are not 100% confident in what we are going to put out, for a multitude of possible reasons, it can lead to a delay of announcement.

 

I would caution not to read too deep into what I said above. It is somewhere in the cog of those moving parts that this delay happened, but ultimately our goal remains the same: to get you as many details about this expansion as soon as we can!

 

-eric

 

What does it say to have you saying you guys aren't confident enough with the content of 3.0 to be able to release just an announcement in a timely fashion. I'm sorry but if you still have faith that BW will deliver 3.0 by the end of this year, then you're crazy.

 

And if they do somehow manage to get it out without massive bugs and some semblance of class balance by the end of the year, then I'll bet anything content that should've been in 3.0 will be pushed back as far as 3.5.

[justinplainview]

You see how these lunatics are freaking out over a 'delay' in the full announcement? You see this rage and fury and foaming at the mouth insanity?

 

Now imagine something important being announced and then it changing. Imagine how these people would freak out over something actually 'relevant.'

 

Sorry, no. This is a prime example of why BW doesn't release info before it's set in stone.

 

Yeah, Bioware has been trigger shy on announcements since all the EV/KP issues and the ranked 8s situation. I get that. But most current complaints are about a lack of communication period. If you rarely communicate, it's FAR more obvious when you are incorrect or you change direction with content. If you're constantly communicating, if only just to be a unified message (i'm not begging for them to interact back and forth every day), and something changes, it can go much more positively than things are now, because the situation can be more fluid. The community can feel a part of the process, without having anything to do with it, just due to more communication. That's IMHO the main issue. You're gonna have people go rabid when they rarely get communication from people and when they do it is often bad news.

[justinplainview]

What does it say to have you saying you guys aren't confident enough with the content of 3.0 to be able to release just an announcement in a timely fashion. I'm sorry but if you still have faith that BW will deliver 3.0 by the end of this year, then you're crazy.

 

And if they do somehow manage to get it out without massive bugs and some semblance of class balance by the end of the year, then I'll bet anything content that should've been in 3.0 will be pushed back as far as 3.5.

 

I'm almost positive that his phrasing was meaning that if they aren't confident in WHAT content will be in 3.0 (like is there a FP that has to be moved to 3.1 or something), as opposed to not being confident in the QUALITY of 3.0. I'm 99% sure that's what he's meaning by that, but I could be wrong

[ninjonxb]

Lets do a little lesson in software development.

 

Software (In this case the 3.0 Expansion) is a large collection of features. It is not one single feature that they design, code, test, and finish feature 'A', then design, code, test, and finish feature 'B', and so on to feature 'Z'.

 

Instead Features A-Z are broken up into smaller parts and feature 'Y' is merged with Feature 'Q' to make an 'Apple'.

Feature 'E' is designed, coded, almost finished, and cut for possibly many reasons. Good portion of this done in parallel.

Feature 'O' is designed, coded, tested, pushed to 'master'. Later deemed to not fit with another feature. Taken out of master, redesigned, recoded, retested, again pushed to master. And sometimes later it is pulled once again from master and just cut or delayed completely.

 

It is not unheard of to be a couple months away from launching a product (especially a product that will have patches later on) and saying "these features are nice but we are going to put them on hold and delay them so we can finish these other features"

 

Welcome to Agile development.

Edited September 29, 2014 by ninjonxb

[orpheus]

I think the Devs need to wake up and realize they made a real big mess of this.

 

you should quote them again in case they didn't see the first 12 quotes.

[DrewFromPhilly]

This is a great question (or questions?), that I think are on a lot of folks minds. As you can imagine I can't go too deep into the rabbit hole in talking about our internal processes but I can give it a go.

 

In short, the process we go through internally to announce something as big as an expansion is actually quite complex and extensive. Although you are correct in that the end process may be a video, a landing page with some copy, etc. the process to get there requires a large amount of moving parts across multiple teams. Aside from just the assets and webpages there is arguably one of the most important aspects of these types of announcements, the game!

 

By the time we announce we have to have a concrete idea of what will be coming in the game with the expansion, what types of perks we might give our subscribers, etc. Unfortunately with so many moving parts, we can sometimes run into the scenario like we did today. If we are not 100% confident in what we are going to put out, for a multitude of possible reasons, it can lead to a delay of announcement.

 

I would caution not to read too deep into what I said above. It is somewhere in the cog of those moving parts that this delay happened, but ultimately our goal remains the same: to get you as many details about this expansion as soon as we can!

 

-eric

 

With all due respect, that doesn't amount to anything other than "we made a mistake" mired in quite a lot of semantics. I've seen other game studios deal with all of these same issues as described and still meet or exceed the expectations of players. I stopped playing SWTOR as often to play GW2 and the way ArenaNet handles those issues is by far and away more professional, more timely, more relevant, and more informative. They released several, extensive videos and website posts detailing specific changes to classes, game modes, and so forth (several months before the actual update, I mean i think it was like six months+) - and then addressed player concerns on the forum directly instead of one or two responses just for the sake of showing a presence.

 

To be completely frank, the expectations I have from BioWare at this point are nowhere near what it was at release. As i see guild members and friends leave this game for greener pastures, with a naive and oblivious BioWare posting 30 second videos telling players absolutely nothing about actual content - content that players have been waiting for over a year to play - I'm wondering why I'm still here at all. If this is what we can expect moving forward, no communication, no information, no professionalism, you are going to be in for a rude awakening if you expect people to wait around for another year and a half between 3.0 and 4.0. BioWare, simply put, no longer deserves the benefit of the doubt.

Edited September 29, 2014 by DrewFromPhilly

[davidp_newton]

Did you 'really' expect those sorts of details before October? Seriously?

 

YES.

 

That is not information that should be in doubt this late. The sort of thing that may legitimately be in doubt this late would be things like class balance or new class abilities or the mechanics of boss fights. Fundamental design decisions like the new level cap and the number of operations should have been locked down weeks, if not months ago.

 

This decision stinks from a PR point of view as it not only ticks off a reasonable section of the player base, but it also places a substantial seed of doubt in the mind of those players and potentially also others as to whether the timescales for release will still be met. If there is going to be a public test of this new expansion then it is going to be awfully tight to fit it in before release date assuming it is before the end of the year. The new operation or operations will need testing. Any new flashpoints or flashpoint modes will need testing. Any new warzone or warzones will need testing. Class balance changes will need testing. Any new abilities will need testing.

 

If they have to postpone the full announcement, then so be it. Some raw, basic details of the expansion need to be released otherwise they are going to lose players over this. I will not be stopping playing in the meantime, but there will be those who will unsubscribe, whether temporarily or permanently. This sort of thing makes it even less likely that nightmare ops players are going to return to the game in substantial numbers. This sort of thing makes it even less likely that serious PvP players are going to return to the game in substantial numbers. I suspect that it will also mean that some more HM ops players may leave the game.

 

Personally speaking I do not now believe that we will get this expansion in 2014. The timescales are just becoming too tight for it to happen.

[Andrellma]

I personally think this is awesome.

 

Hilarious, even.

 

I honestly hope (not even trolling here) that they keep "delaying" the announcement, and telling us nothing. And then BAM! You go to log in one day in a few months, only to see that the game is downloading 3.0.

 

My reason for hoping they tell us nothing is not because I don't want to know, but because these posts about demanding information, or crying because they delayed the announcement are hilarious.

[MatthieuTremblay]

Have to have all the cogs working as one, totally get that. Thanks again Eric!

 

I just think it might be a CGI trailer with Revan But I will probably be disapointed XD

Edited September 29, 2014 by MatthieuTremblay

[ghoul_drool]

It's probably as simple as the release date. Like I said, if someone missed a deadline and the release date is now uncertain, there's no point in announcing it without the date in place.

 

I don't buy that 'unsure what to put in' for a minute. I read that as 'unsure if it'll meet the release deadline'. Ergo: we don't announce something without the release date firmly in place.

[Jamus_Divinus]

This is a great question (or questions?), that I think are on a lot of folKs minds. AS you can imagine I can't go too deep into tHe rabbit hole in talking about our internal processes but I can give it a go.

 

In short, the process we go through internallY to announce something as big as an expansion is actuallY quite complex and extensive. Although you are correct in that the end process may be a video, a landing page with some copy, etc. the process to get there requires a large amount of moving parts across multiple teams. Aside from just the assets and webpages there is arguablY one of the most important aspects of these types of announcements, the game!

 

By the time we announce we have to have a concrete idea of what will be coming in the game with the expansion, what types of perKs we might give our subscribers, etc.

 

K...a...s...h...y...y...y...k

 

Thank you Eric. You managed to slip some info in anyway.

 

/Deepbow

Edited September 29, 2014 by Jamus_Divinus

[MKnightRider]

I'm almost positive that his phrasing was meaning that if they aren't confident in WHAT content will be in 3.0 (like is there a FP that has to be moved to 3.1 or something), as opposed to not being confident in the QUALITY of 3.0. I'm 99% sure that's what he's meaning by that, but I could be wrong

 

I know exactly what he meant. Part of the quality of an expansion is what new content it brings. If they can't say they're confident enough to talk about what is coming in an expansion that is supposed to be only 2.5-3 months away, then what all do you really expect to get in the expansion.

 

I don't know about you, but I'd be surprised if they have time to add even one new WZ, one new FP, one new OP, and get the class changes right and somewhat balanced (at least better than 2.0) and make sure there's no extraordinary bugs. Even if they delivered those 4 things right there, that's still quite amazingly inferior to the amount of content added with 2.0 considering the size and playtime of Makeb. Yet they claim it will be of a similar size to RotHC.

 

All I'm saying is it doesn't sound to me like this expansion has the chance to be anything that they claim its supposed to be.