Dear BioWare, why don't you explain your events to the 'common people'?

[jstankaroslo]

Check your mail options in your account settings (Basic information > Sign up for email updates > "Sign up to receive Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ updates by email."). I received an email advertising Life Day event with a link to this page:

 

http://www.swtor.com/info/in-game-events?utm_source=(not_set)&utm_medium=crm&utm_campaign=sor_bwa-crm-t-en-LifeDay-2&sourceid=sor_bwa-crm-t-en-LifeDay-2

 

It doesn't get more clearer than the explanations on this page.

 

Holy Stars, the page exists! Just to think that after more than 2 years of playing the game I see the event explained fort the first time.

Yep, I'll modify my settings.

Still, I bet there are tons of players who just don't participate because of poor advertisement

[PavSalco]

I think the information in the game is necessary as I always see people complaining after BBA is finished that they can't return their contracts. Kinda annoying. I understand that casuals don't give a damn about the site, dulfy or facebook and I would like to see them getting informed as it's exhausting to see their whines in chat. Edited December 18, 2014 by PavSalco

[demotivator]

And I thought figuring stuff out was part of the fun. Seems I was mistaken.

 

This. First of all, things are not hard to figure out. Through trial and errors you can easily understand the mechanics.

 

It takes two people to throw balls at the same droid to realize that as long as it is not your buff on that droid you can throw another snow ball for another roll and so on. Figuring out things with random people is part of the fun... and it is not hard.

Edited December 18, 2014 by demotivator

[desertwolph]

And, I would kill for an in game calendar of upcoming events.

[Warrgames]

Dear BioWare

Would you please hold my hand through the in-game. I know you have events listed on launcher with a link of what to do. But I don't want click on it. I know you advertise the event on fleet. But I don't want to go to fleet. I know I see other players doing event related things during the event. But I don't want to ask them or go to forums or fan sites to find out what going on. Would you please hold my hand through this event? Please not that after the 3rd time of trying to hold my hand through this event I will disable this feature and be back on the forums next event complaining about how I didn't know.

Thank you for your time

Lazy Player.

 

There are plenty of things BW does to advertise the events and explain them. You choose to ignore them. Why should BW waste resources, creating another way to advertise and explain events since you are just going to choose to ignore what every they do. No one can protect you from yourself.

Edited December 18, 2014 by Warrgames

[g_land]

Yes must have my entertainment spoon fed to me... wait! They already do that because it's on the damn launcher which literally every single person who plays this game sees. Edited December 18, 2014 by g_land

[Icebergy]

Thanks

But this just reinforces what I wrote. I didn't scan the website, so I didn't get the full info.

 

I mean what percentage of SWTOR players frequents this web page?

 

So how far do we need to go, really?

 

You can't be bothered to check a 3rd party site for info.

 

You can't be bothered to check the official website for news.

 

Where do you want the info? Perhaps burned into your brain via radio waves while you sleep?

[Ivy_Blackrose]

the events are actually quite well done and adequately explained on dulfy there really is no need for bioware to explain them as well

[KyaniteD]

Holy Stars, the page exists! Just to think that after more than 2 years of playing the game I see the event explained fort the first time.

Yep, I'll modify my settings.

Still, I bet there are tons of players who just don't participate because of poor advertisement

 

I agree with you on them under-utilizing their options with regard to communications. But event advertisement is the least problem IMO. I'm more alienated by the lack of communications regarding important information about the game in general, things that are only announced in the forums and hit the majority of players by surprise, like the removal of training costs, for example. Or the fact that Tutorials have not been updated to reflect important changes to existing game features/aspects, or players being left alone figuring out the changes to the crafting system, not knowing what's a bug and what's working as intended.

 

There is also a basic game guide available on Origin that few people know about. This or a link to the new player's guide could be sent to newly registered players in a welcome email and answer a number of questions frequently asked in general chat.

 

The in-game communications options are also sorely lacking. Players who have the time (and nerves) to frequent the game forums, Reddit, Dulfy etc. and collect information could transport and distribute that information much better with in-game options like guild mail or guild calendar (because people who don't want to spend their game time visiting the game forums or dulfy won't visit other external websites like guild websites, either). As GM of a casual guild I do want to inform my guildies, but sending out individual mails for information that requires a bit more space than the MOTD window provides seems rather tedious.

Edited December 18, 2014 by KyaniteD

[TUXs]

the events are actually quite well done and adequately explained on dulfy there really is no need for bioware to explain them as well

 

Well, except for the fact that Bioware runs the game, not Dulfy...It's kinda their responsibility to inform their customers of events...not Dulfy's. Bioware is who people pay money to, not Dulfy. Bioware hosts the official site/fourms, not Dulfy...so...yeah...but other than that, Dulfy does fantastic work.

[KyaniteD]

Well, except for the fact that Bioware runs the game, not Dulfy...It's kinda their responsibility to inform their customers of events...not Dulfy's. Bioware is who people pay money to, not Dulfy. Bioware hosts the official site/fourms, not Dulfy...so...yeah...but other than that, Dulfy does fantastic work.

 

I agree. Dulfy.net is not an official (verified) resource, no matter how accurate and reliable it has been proven to be in the past, and there is nothing officially directing (new) players there. So players cannot be blamed for not knowing about it or not visiting it regularly. When I pre-pay for a service I expect the service provider to inform me pro-actively about changes and updates (which they kind of do with the email updates, although not to the full possible extent). Not everyone is idly checking various third party sources because there *may* be some news, and I don't blame anyone who doesn't want to spend their game time chasing the possibility that there may be news somewhere.

Edited December 18, 2014 by KyaniteD

[Ivy_Blackrose]

Well, except for the fact that Bioware runs the game, not Dulfy...It's kinda their responsibility to inform their customers of events...not Dulfy's. Bioware is who people pay money to, not Dulfy. Bioware hosts the official site/fourms, not Dulfy...so...yeah...but other than that, Dulfy does fantastic work.

 

 

Except I refer you to Elder Scrolls, Elder Scrolls purposely leaves their games Bland so as to give the community at large and their modders something to do, it is a very good strategy and has created a HUGE loyal playerbase over the years.

 

in that same token Bioware also likes to give their community things to do as well.

[Transcendent]

I once missed the Bounty Hunters week as I was adventuring on Hoth instead of loitering on Fleet. Someones work went to waste that time.

 

...while you enjoyed someone else's work adventuring on Hoth...

 

The good thing is some of the events are repeated (well okay not all of them ) This is what guilds are for to be fair, you get pulled into the events when your guild is actively participating in the current game.

[Jeweledleah]

do you people not get e-mail notifications? becasue I do. they are usually a day after event started, but I still get notices for everything other then recurring bounty event.

[Warrgames]

do you people not get e-mail notifications? becasue I do. they are usually a day after event started, but I still get notices for everything other then recurring bounty event.

 

You have to have email notification selected to get them. Everyone see the launcher and every event shown on the launcher with a link to event page. Its player choice to ignore this.

[TUXs]

Except I refer you to Elder Scrolls, Elder Scrolls purposely leaves their games Bland so as to give the community at large and their modders something to do, it is a very good strategy and has created a HUGE loyal playerbase over the years.

 

in that same token Bioware also likes to give their community things to do as well.

Um...we're talking about MMOs...not single player games. Bioware isn't doing this to give the community something to do, they do it because they are absolutely terrible about communication. They always have been. This isn't new and it's not some form of incentive to get others to do the work for them.

[Jeweledleah]

You have to have email notification selected to get them. Everyone see the launcher and every event shown on the launcher with a link to event page. Its player choice to ignore this.

 

good point!

[Andryah]

Dear BioWare

Would you please hold my hand through the in-game. I know you have events listed on launcher with a link of what to do. But I don't want click on it. I know you advertise the event on fleet. But I don't want to go to fleet. I know I see other players doing event related things during the event. But I don't want to ask them or go to forums or fan sites to find out what going on. Would you please hold my hand through this event? Please not that after the 3rd time of trying to hold my hand through this event I will disable this feature and be back on the forums next event complaining about how I didn't know.

Thank you for your time

Lazy Player.

 

There are plenty of things BW does to advertise the events and explain them. You choose to ignore them. Why should BW waste resources, creating another way to advertise and explain events since you are just going to choose to ignore what every they do. No one can protect you from yourself.

 

Hehe... interesting times on the forums..... I agree with Warrgames. Just yesterday, he agreed with me on a post. We don't normally do that sort of thing.

Edited December 18, 2014 by Andryah

[Andryah]

Where do you want the info? Perhaps burned into your brain via radio waves while you sleep?

 

Oh I know!! Magic marker to the forehead, and tape a hand mirror to the back of their hand so they can read while they watch their fingers hit the keys.

 

Of course the text will have to be written in mirror image or they will be right back here complaining that it is unreadable.

Edited December 18, 2014 by Andryah

[jstankaroslo]

 

Quote: Originally Posted by Icebergy View Post

Where do you want the info? Perhaps burned into your brain via radio waves while you sleep?

 

Oh I know!! Magic marker to the forehead, and tape a hand mirror to the back of their hand so they can read while they watch their fingers hit the keys.

 

Of course the text will have to be written in mirror image or they will be right back here complaining that it is unreadable.

 

if it makes you feel better, please go on

[Tamanous]

No need to read dulfy:

 

http://www.swtor.com/info/news/article/20141216

 

 

 

 

You missed the point about simply logging into game and having this information available. The vast majority of players rarely visit the main website and forums. Mmos have suffered from this issue for ages. Immersion is entirely about entering and game and having every single resource (including information) available inside that environment. It enhances the game experience having the internal systems available to emulate real life resources.

 

Is alt-tabbing out of the game to visit an external webpage part of playing that game? It certainly isn't. It is lazy programming. Where are the fleet intercom messages advertising this? Where are the in game signs and alerts for advertising like there would be in real life? Lazy programming. Poorly designed mmorpg development.

 

This is the core principle behind mmo immersion and why Swtor lags behind other developers. A true mmo should provide no reason to exit a game and search for information elsewhere for simple things as to where to even begin new content. Guides for completion are another beast entirely. How to play the game should be within the realm of the game itself.

 

The simple fact remains that with each new content addition I see endless players asking the most basic questions in chat on how to even begin events. That is an issue. That is an immersion break. What amazes me is that the very first event (or close to it ... Rakghoul) had fleet broadcasts informing you of what was going on (in an rp friendly way) yet later events went off at times with some players not even noticing they hit the game. It can be done better ... far better.

 

Future mmos (i.e. Camelot Unchained) is using html to create their UI. You want information in game? 3rd party sites conforming to content rules could simply be access in game. Imagine the Dulfy site simply being part of Swtor as if part of the Star Wars universe (written from that perspective of course). Developers had these tools before but never bothered to use them. TSW touched upon this but it could be taken further.

Edited December 18, 2014 by Tamanous

[Knightsire]

You missed the point about simply logging into game and having this information available. The vast majority of players rarely visit the main website and forums. Mmos have suffered from this issue for ages. Immersion is entirely about entering and game and having every single resource (including information) available inside that environment. It enhances the game experience having the internal systems available to emulate real life resources.

 

Is alt-tabbing out of the game to visit an external webpage part of playing that game? It certainly isn't. It is lazy programming. Where are the fleet intercom messages advertising this? Where are the in game signs and alerts for advertising like there would be in real life? Lazy programming. Poorly designed mmorpg development.

 

This is the core principle behind mmo immersion and why Swtor lags behind other developers. A true mmo should provide no reason to exit a game and search for information elsewhere for simple things as to where to even begin new content. Guides for completion are another beast entirely. How to play the game should be within the realm of the game itself.

 

The simple fact remains that with each new content addition I see endless players asking the most basic questions in chat on how to even begin events. That is an issue. That is an immersion break. What amazes me is that the very first event (or close to it ... Rakghoul) had fleet broadcasts informing you of what was going on (in an rp friendly way) yet later events went off at times with some players not even noticing they hit the game. It can be done better ... far better.

 

Future mmos (i.e. Camelot Unchained) is using html to create their UI. You want information in game? 3rd party sites conforming to content rules could simply be access in game. Imagine the Dulfy site simply being part of Swtor as if part of the Star Wars universe (written from that perspective of course). Developers had these tools before but never bothered to use them. TSW touched upon this but it could be taken further.

 

Thank you. I wish more people understood this point of view and I hope future MMOs do evolve to incorporate these features. Some MMOs already do.

[KyaniteD]

You missed the point about simply logging into game and having this information available. The vast majority of players rarely visit the main website and forums. Mmos have suffered from this issue for ages. Immersion is entirely about entering and game and having every single resource (including information) available inside that environment. It enhances the game experience having the internal systems available to emulate real life resources.

 

Is alt-tabbing out of the game to visit an external webpage part of playing that game? It certainly isn't. It is lazy programming. Where are the fleet intercom messages advertising this? Where are the in game signs and alerts for advertising like there would be in real life? Lazy programming. Poorly designed mmorpg development.

 

This is the core principle behind mmo immersion and why Swtor lags behind other developers. A true mmo should provide no reason to exit a game and search for information elsewhere for simple things as to where to even begin new content. Guides for completion are another beast entirely. How to play the game should be within the realm of the game itself.

 

The simple fact remains that with each new content addition I see endless players asking the most basic questions in chat on how to even begin events. That is an issue. That is an immersion break. What amazes me is that the very first event (or close to it ... Rakghoul) had fleet broadcasts informing you of what was going on (in an rp friendly way) yet later events went off at times with some players not even noticing they hit the game. It can be done better ... far better.

 

Future mmos (i.e. Camelot Unchained) is using html to create their UI. You want information in game? 3rd party sites conforming to content rules could simply be access in game. Imagine the Dulfy site simply being part of Swtor as if part of the Star Wars universe (written from that perspective of course). Developers had these tools before but never bothered to use them. TSW touched upon this but it could be taken further.

 

You know, I totally agree with what you wrote there. It's secret wish of mine, ideally everything would be available in-game and I could play non-windowed full screen for better performance and immersion. I'm glad someone else feels the same way. But I'm too much of a pessimist to even hope and too much of a realist to ask or even demand it. I'm afraid it's too much to ask for, given how resources are too scarce to even fix or fully develop the existing game features.

 

In the current example, they could have simply sent an in-game mail. In general, the tutorials could be more extensive and it would be beyond awesome if all the information on the "Holonet" could be accessed from within the game through a, you know, holonet terminal. A lot of basic information is also hidden in the codex, but a lot of the entries need to be discovered before they are available and that just shouldn't be the case for information regarding basic game mechanics and features.

 

But to be fair, people are also very lazy and inattentive. For SoR they did send an in-game email with information how to start the new content. Many people just didn't bother to read it. Even with the Rakghoul Resurgence, where there's a news droid on the fleet giving the details on the location of the outbreak people still keep asking in gen chat on fleet where it is this time... Same with the codex. Right from the start you start collecting codex entries, there's a menu at the top of the window to open the codex, the tooltip for the icon reads "Open the Mission Log and Codex", yet at level 20+ people still don't know they even have a codex they can open and read whenever they feel like it. Bottom line: Even if the information were available in-game, people would still have to have a basic drive to look for information because not everything can be right in your face all the time.

Edited December 18, 2014 by KyaniteD

[jstankaroslo]

...

But to be fair, people are also very lazy and inattentive. For SoR they did send an in-game email with information how to start the new content. Many people just didn't bother to read it. Even with the Rakghoul Resurgence, where there's a news droid on the fleet giving the details on the location of the outbreak people still keep asking in gen chat on fleet where it is this time... Same with the codex. Right from the start you start collecting codex entries, there's a menu at the top of the window to open the codex, the tooltip for the icon reads "Open the Mission Log and Codex", yet at level 20+ people still don't know they even have a codex they can open and read whenever they feel like it. Bottom line: Even if the information were available in-game, people would still have to have a basic drive to look for information because not everything can be right in your face all the time.

 

Of course there has to be some reasonable borderline of helping the players. I just feel that the events are not sufficiently covered in-game. They should do more to let people know that

a) events are present (and BH Week isn't sometimes even on launcher, as it is outshined by new exciting hypercrates)

b) how to do them

 

That doesn't mean they should cater to every lazy player. But in this case I feel they could do more.

Even in this very thread there are number of people feeling this isn't done right. And I suppose users of this forum are among the best informed among the players. Now imagine your Average Joe Player. Or a new player of this huge game.

Edited December 18, 2014 by jstankaroslo

[Kahldor]

I see people on every planet asking "what is an OHD?"

 

As a returning player who has played on and off since day 1 (mostly subbed), some may argue the very thing that buried this game at the start was the solo aspect - the feeling that we were all playing a solo game 90% of the time while leveling. They did a very poor job of pulling us all together during events on planets unless it was a quest in a instanced area.

 

Now, I return and am completely lost at times. Yes. I have a 55 and several toons between 40-55, but I still haven't jumped into a lot of the event content because my idea of fun doesn't involve reading third party websites for information on how to enjoy a game. So I typically ask in chat or whenever once I feel up to it. But nothing really leads you to the events unless you want to talk to every single triangle on the fleet that is trying to give you a warzone, op or fp quest.

 

People say they don't want their UI cluttered or chat cluttered. Well it already is. Why doesn't the Cantina in the center of the zone draw people in with the events. Or why not just send an in-game mail to us. Heck I get plenty of in-game mail from Gold Sellers. What is another one with actual useful information. Take this opportunity to restructure events to actually draw the community together in an MASSIVE Multiplayer Online type fashion.