Jerba Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 (edited) I'm not playing WoW since more than 5 years, but from other Blizz games it seems their web sites are up to date mostly. I don't know for other MMO's, though. In any case I do think having a website out of date for 2 years and more is an embaressment that should never happen. It shows this game and BioWare in a really bad light, imho. Yes, there are players who are unhappy with some of Blizzard's decisions but in general it is in a much better spot than SWTOR. It just has a lot of developers who are passionate about the game, who are posting on the forums on all important issues and you have a feeling they know what they are talking about. SWTOR's community team just doesn't know the game very well, you can see that when watching how they play on the livestreams and when they don't know the answer to player's questions. It is their job to talk to all developers, be on top of every decision made and tell that to the players. If every answer they give is "I don't know" or "I'd have to ask a developer on this" they either did not pay attention during the meetings or they are not qualified for this position. Maybe it is EA's policy to not talk that openly but in that case I feel I'd rather support a game with a more open policy. And of course, WoW has a much bigger budget. Both SWTOR and WoW try to appeal to a broad playerbase from casuals to progression players, PvE to PvP, roleplayers to gamers. But only WoW has the resources to actually develop all those things at the same time, SWTOR can only focus on one thing. Best example is how they treated GSF last summer. Anyway, my passion for Star Wars and the players I met will keep me tied to SWTOR until the servers shut down and then I'll happily go to WoW. I know some other players who played WoW for 10 years are burned out on it but since SWTOR was my first MMO, I have no such problem. Edited March 4, 2015 by Jerba Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
undiess Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 I honestly do not see how Bioware Austin employees and/or managers keep their jobs. I would not be allowed to keep my websites this out of date. Can we get a shuffle of Bioware teams from different locations? Are any employees of other Bioware teams willing to come and improve this dysfunctional Austin team? Customers of today are not prone to accepting these excuses anymore, they see through them and can tell the state of the game based on the attention to detail provided by the team supporting the game. Customers are smarter than Bioware Austin give them credit for, and know things are not right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TUXs Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 I honestly do not see how Bioware Austin employees and/or managers keep their jobs. I would not be allowed to keep my websites this out of date. Can we get a shuffle of Bioware teams from different locations? Are any employees of other Bioware teams willing to come and improve this dysfunctional Austin team? Customers of today are not prone to accepting these excuses anymore, they see through them and can tell the state of the game based on the attention to detail provided by the team supporting the game. Customers are smarter than Bioware Austin give them credit for, and know things are not right. Sadly, it doesn't seem as though SWTOR is of any long term concern to EA. EA is used to console games that have a 12 month life cycle and can be reboxed and sold again with minor tweaks. 3-years for ONE game must seem like an eternity to EA...I believe SWTOR is disposable to EA. And more than that, I believe Austin is on the chopping block as well - they just cancelled Shadow Realms and they've let SWTOR wither to where it is today...what value does Austin have? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Papazmurf Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 Well no matter what they think of the game, they aren't just going to turn it off if it is netting a profit. That's just bad business. It seems do what they can with as minimal resources as possible. They just put out a promotion to get people back too. It might been half arsed, but they are doing something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarthDymond Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 It takes way more than one person to update those pages. All those pages contain both text and images, so while the text is easy enough to write (provided you do a lot of research to use the correct terms), filling in the images takes a lot of work. They have a lot of marketing images but if they are missing an image for something, they'll have to set up a test server and go in and take a screenshot, then photoshop it and put it on the page. Also, keep in mind that the whole website is available in English, German and French. So once they finished creating the English version, they first need to send it to the translators and the translators also need to consult their in-house database to ensure that all terms are translated correctly and that e.g. each operation is translated just like it is called in-game. And whenever an image shows part of the interface, they also need to take a German and French screenshot so that the interface is shown in the correct language. Only when the English, French and German versions are finished and proofread can they upload them to the public, so that's why something as simple as publishing the 2015 Roadmap can take a long time. The point about translations probably has some merit to it, but doesn't account for those pages being this out of date. The issue of images, however, doesn't really fly. There are plenty of promotional images from the SoR expansion page, the various Cantina Tour Flashdrives that were promoting SoR, or just screen-grabs from the trailers they put out. Even if they were thinking that reusing the same images on multiple pages was less than ideal, that recycling would certainly be better than leaving the pages updated. I get that they seem to be in triage mode there - spread too thin either because they're just understaffed in general or because things were probably pretty chaotic and tense throughout the studio as they were trying to save Shadow Realms before ultimately having to pull the plug. I have some sympathy for that, but in the midst of some genuine efforts to promote the game (the Choose Your Path promotion, the aborted attempt at an ESL tournament - which is its own SNAFU) things like this aren't doing the game any favors. There was certainly a project for the appropriate team when they put together the SoR Expansion page. Even if they didn't have 100% of the specifics yet for what needed to go on these other pages when they were working on it, they should probably have rolled the image selection and most of the text (including translations) into that project so they could roll it out with the expansion's launch. I don't consider a sub-page of a sub-page being out of date to be a game-breaking, 'OMG the TORtanic is going down!' issue (they probably looked at the page view counts for them and placed it on their priority list accordingly) but it is still something that should be addressed - especially during their promotional pushes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZeroOneNine Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 The PvP WZ info looks like it is the most up-to-date, since it is only missing info on the Quesh Huttball WZ. Then I think about what that really means, and it makes me sad.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarthDymond Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 The PvP WZ info looks like it is the most up-to-date, since it is only missing info on the Quesh Huttball WZ. Then I think about what that really means, and it makes me sad.... Nothing on the 4 Arena Warzones there either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth_Wicked Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 (edited) Nothing on the 4 Arena Warzones there either. That's because, as inferred earlier, all further updates ceased following the release of game update 1.4 and 1.6, which introduced Terror From Beyond and Ancient Hypergates, respectively. That was in September 26th and December 11th, 2012. Ever since then, nothing new has been added to the Operations and Warzones pages. Still, neither is as bad as the Flashpoints page, which was last updated with the release of Lost Island, game update 1.2, in April 12th, 2012. Again: We definitely don't like seeing out of date information on the site! To quote Artemis, "shenanigans". Edited March 4, 2015 by Darth_Wicked Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TUXs Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 We definitely don't like seeing out of date information on the site! To quote Artemis, "shenanigans". This is all starting to make sense now...that's not "shenanigans", it's a reason...it's the reason they avoid the forums so much and so seldom post! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joesixxpack Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 (edited) I honestly do not see how Bioware Austin employees and/or managers keep their jobs. I would not be allowed to keep my websites this out of date. Can we get a shuffle of Bioware teams from different locations? Are any employees of other Bioware teams willing to come and improve this dysfunctional Austin team? Customers of today are not prone to accepting these excuses anymore, they see through them and can tell the state of the game based on the attention to detail provided by the team supporting the game. Customers are smarter than Bioware Austin give them credit for, and know things are not right. The usual reasons why a company or branch can be such a permissive environment/culture of mediocrity fill a pretty short list. They're not even making decent efforts to blow smoke anymore, which is an even worse sign than when they were doing that regularly. Adding up the indicators suggests that this game isn't intended to have any notable handling or investment for the foreseeable future, even for the typical MMO maintenance/updating that players generally expect, and that the game staff is well aware of that. Edited March 4, 2015 by Joesixxpack Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth_Wicked Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 This is all starting to make sense now...that's not "shenanigans", it's a reason...it's the reason they avoid the forums so much and so seldom post! They avoid the forums because... they're hard at work, ever improving the main website then? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AshlaBoga Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 [quote=Darth_Wicked;8064233 Still, neither is as bad as the Flashpoints page, which was last updated with the release of Lost Island, game update 1.2, in April 12th, 2012. Again: To quote Artemis, "shenanigans". Quoteth the Sha'al, "Shenanigans" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AshlaBoga Posted March 31, 2015 Share Posted March 31, 2015 Yup! Although Woods has moved to the writing team it is still a project on our team to get things in a better place. We definitely don't like seeing out of date information on the site! As someone quoted earlier from Courtney's post, we are working on it but no timeline right now. Thanks! -eric It's not just the out of date info, returning players keep asking in fleet chat where their skill tree went, since it's still on the Holonet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth_Wicked Posted March 31, 2015 Share Posted March 31, 2015 (edited) And April 12th fast approaches. When it does, three years have passed since the last time they gave a damn about the Flashpoints page on the Holonet. Ever since Lost Island, the following FP's have been introduced: Czerka Corporate Labs Czerka Core Meltdown Assault on Tython Korriban Incursion Depths of Manaan Legacy of the Rakata Blood Hunt Battle of Rishi Also, there's no reference whatsoever to an HM difficulty settting for the following: Hammer Station Athiss Mandalorian Raiders Cademimu - - - - Go, go! Edited March 31, 2015 by Darth_Wicked Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Code_Airwolf Posted March 31, 2015 Share Posted March 31, 2015 (edited) That's because, as inferred earlier, all further updates ceased following the release of game update 1.4 and 1.6, which introduced Terror From Beyond and Ancient Hypergates, respectively. That was in September 26th and December 11th, 2012. Ever since then, nothing new has been added to the Operations and Warzones pages. . Which can mean only one thing. The person in charge of the website was either a) a Mayan or b) is still in a bunker, somewhere. Edited March 31, 2015 by Code_Airwolf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth_Wicked Posted March 31, 2015 Share Posted March 31, 2015 Which can mean only one thing. The person in charge of the website was Mayan. Ha! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AshlaBoga Posted March 31, 2015 Share Posted March 31, 2015 And April 12th fast approaches. When it does, three years have passed since the last time they gave a damn about the Flashpoints page on the Holonet. Ever since Lost Island, the following FP's have been introduced: Czerka Corporate Labs Czerka Core Meltdown Assault on Tython Korriban Incursion Depths of Manaan Legacy of the Rakata Blood Hunt Battle of Rishi Also, there's no reference whatsoever to an HM difficulty settting for the following: Hammer Station Athiss Mandalorian Raiders Cademimu - - - - Go, go! How freaking hard is it to add: "*HM Available at 60":confused: Is this some sort of, "ugh, we lost our Admin Holonet password so we can't edit the Holonet" issue? Because I'm starting to think someone forgot their password and security question answer and just doesn't want to admit it:p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heat-Wave Posted March 31, 2015 Share Posted March 31, 2015 Stuff such as this clearly shows otherwise. RotHC was released almost two years ago, which was when that page was either first updated or introduced. There's not even mention of DF or DP, which were released in October 2013 -- nor the new gear accompanying them. I mean, you don't even have half of your operations listed in the main site, as seen here. The latest operation there is Terror From Beyond, which was released in 2012. There's not even a reference to the fact NiM is available for it. Seriously... Yep, that makes me wonder if Eric either is really that clueless, or is intentionally blowing smoke, or just doesn't care. It would be nice to have a real honest reply, "We know it is out of date, but frankly don't have the time or money to fix it, so it won't likely change". I could at least respect that answer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AshlaBoga Posted March 31, 2015 Share Posted March 31, 2015 (edited) Which can mean only one thing. The person in charge of the website was either a) a Mayan or b) is still in a bunker, somewhere. Actually a Mayan would probably have viewed 2012 as a good thing. The whole "end of the world" thing is a gross misinterpretation of Mayan calendars. It's actually more along the lines of: Dawn of a New Age. Edited March 31, 2015 by AshlaBoga Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SplashNOR Posted May 13, 2015 Share Posted May 13, 2015 (edited) This is embarrassing, to be honest..... Which can mean only one thing. The person in charge of the website was Mayan. Ha! LMAO!! I was choking with laughter when I read your post, hahahaha!! Edited May 13, 2015 by SplashNOR More info Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WorldSmasher Posted May 13, 2015 Share Posted May 13, 2015 (edited) Since they already have people on the payroll who I would assume should have been doing this, why would they hire more? It's not like Courtney was too busy doing other things all of last year, before she left, to finish what she had promised...I know I don't know the full extent of what Tait, Eric, Pokket or Courtney do (did) all day, but with 4 people and a lack of any other massive project that we know of, I fail to see how they were unable to accomplish it last year (or the year prior). 4 people who posted less than one post a day (between the 4 of them) and they couldn't get it done?! I just don't think more people are what it takes to get it done...the game needs new management. Perhaps EA/BW are so damned cheap, that Eric, Courtney and the rest are not only forum monitors, ambassadors, website updaters, and whatever else it is that they do. Maybe EA/BW also have them doing the payroll, dictation, data entry, secretarial work for the big wigs at EA/BW, setting up massage appointments for the CEO, as well as go-fors. Going for coffee, going for donuts, doing all kinds of other duties that take up all kinds of their time that don't allow them to focus on the gamers on the forums. I sound facetious, but it's possible they are doing all kinds of administrative jobs that doesn't permit them to spend the time needed to - do their job. If that is the case, then EA/BW are truly cheap and really freakin' do not give a phlying phuck about the gamers. Edited May 13, 2015 by WorldSmasher Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AshlaBoga Posted May 13, 2015 Share Posted May 13, 2015 (edited) Perhaps EA/BW are so damned cheap, that Eric, Courtney and the rest are not only forum monitors, ambassadors, website updaters, and whatever else it is that they do. Maybe EA/BW also have them doing the payroll, dictation, data entry, secretarial work for the big wigs at EA/BW, setting up massage appointments for the CEO, as well as go-fors. Going for coffee, going for donuts, doing all kinds of other duties that take up all kinds of their time that don't allow them to focus on the gamers on the forums. I sound facetious, but it's possible they are doing all kinds of administrative jobs that doesn't permit them to spend the time needed to - do their job. If that is the case, then EA/BW are truly cheap and really freakin' do not give a phlying phuck about the gamers. I might not like EA, but even I suspect they don't have to set up massage appointments for the CEO. That's stretching it. Everything else? Possible, but I hope not. Edited May 13, 2015 by AshlaBoga Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AshlaBoga Posted July 28, 2015 Share Posted July 28, 2015 Yup! Although Woods has moved to the writing team it is still a project on our team to get things in a better place. We definitely don't like seeing out of date information on the site! As someone quoted earlier from Courtney's post, we are working on it but no timeline right now. Thanks! -eric I'd love a timeline on this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth_Wicked Posted July 28, 2015 Share Posted July 28, 2015 I'd love a timeline on this. We can hope the site will be fully updated once KotFE / 4.0 hits. * fingers crossed * Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AshlaBoga Posted April 17, 2016 Share Posted April 17, 2016 We can hope the site will be fully updated once KotFE / 4.0 hits. * fingers crossed * Wicked, you crossing your fingers for 5.0 then? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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