Changes Coming to Community Streams

[RocketRabbit]

I'm not interested in streaming... Honestly I wouldn't care if you quit streaming all together, it's lost on me personally.

 

 

This. In fact, I find their quips and (not remotely funny) jokes about the bugs/clunkiness/poor quality of their game to be more than mildly off-putting. Would so much rather there be some place where they could make consistent and frequent feedback regarding player concerns. Can't think of any venues they have for that, though.

[fyvcentz]

I just picture the team sitting in the room staring at their cell phones and poking at their tablets trying to think of what they can do to make the community happy.

 

Team member 1: "Maybe we should take another look at the slot machine drop rate?"

(Room breaks out in laughter)

 

Team member 2: "Maybe we could reach out on the forums and ask for feedback about our streaming?"

 

Team leader: "Fantastic idea!!" Now lets move on to the sales figures from the last cartel pack cash grab!"

 

STOP avoiding the community and start reading your forums!

[Rafkin]

What ever happened to Developer Trackers that had posts from the people who actually develope the game?

 

There isn't anything I need or want from a "community team". I want to hear from the person who designs combat, or created this encounter, designed this quest line, the itemization guy, even a hardware guy spouting stuff way over my head would be preferable to ANYTHING a "community team" could do.

 

Don't take it personal, you could be the best "community team" in the world. I really don't know.

[RocketRabbit]

Don't take it personal, you could be the best "community team" in the world. I really don't know.

 

Pretty sure that position was taken by the team that posted more than once a week...

[Drockter]

Dev team can complete a 16m HM Temple

 

You may be onto something here...

 

I'd like to see them complete the Raptus Healing Challenge

 

Edit: My snipping of the Rafkins comments looks a bit out of place... he comment was about if the dev team can complete he'd sub for life. Some of the issues people have been commenting on especially with game play issues... (Underlurker cross (although seems better), Raptus Healing Challenge (still seems wrong), Walkers AOE (still seems a tad high for SM). I'd gladly watch the stream. If I'm wrong... fine... I'll head back and figure out what I am doing wrong... but if they get in here and go '***"... so much the better. So a few above posted they wanted to see them deal with what we deal with... I agree... those are streams I would tune in for... "Community Team takes on Raptus Healing Challenge, live at 9P PST". or Ops "Devs face HM Underlurker"

Edited January 28, 2015 by Drockter

[Darth_Wicked]

You may be onto something here...

 

I'd like to see them complete the Raptus Healing Challenge

 

I see what you did there.

[Drockter]

I see what you did there.

 

May have snipped a little much from the original comment... it wasn't snark... I'd like them to look at the issues reported of discussed on the forums and attempt that specific mission themselves.

[Taramayne]

Here we look to all of you as well. What would you like to see us do differently with our streams? Any and all feedback welcome.

 

-eric

 

I for one, would like you to stop bothering with gameplay streams and devote that time towards real, effective communication about the actual problems your subscribers have been complaining about for months.

 

Thank you.

[LordArtemis]

Game is broken. Management is broken. Communication is broken.

 

........

 

Lets talk about streams!!!!

 

 

I'm running out of aspirin.

[grombrinda]

Here we look to all of you as well. What would you like to see us do differently with our streams? Any and all feedback welcome.

 

-eric

[/color]

 

How about coming and actually giving us info we want? I play the game (and apparently most people that play ,play better than you guys ) so I don't need lessons.

 

We would love to see some people that still care about the game that work for the game. And actual communications instead of B.S. pr talk....

[Vhaegrant]

Hey folks!

 

Let's talk a little bit about our weekly live streams. First, scheduling. We are not going to be streaming this Friday, 1/30 so you might be wondering when are we streaming next? More on that in a second.

 

We as a team have been taking a hard look at our weekly streams and we have all agreed on one thing, we could do a lot better. Although we have a great time doing them, we don't feel like the format is as good as it should be for all of you tuning in. We have a seen a lot of feedback over the past weeks about how and what we stream and there have been a lot of great points made.

 

Here are some of the things we plan on doing differently, when we start back up again:

• Playing Classes we are truly familiar with - We spend a lot of time playing classes on the stream for fun. All that does is show us playing something at a fairly mediocre skill level and doesn't make for good viewership. Not saying we're pros, but we can do better.
  
• A heavier concentration on PvE - I love Warzones, they are my favorite content in fact. However, when we play, it ends up causing a global taunt effect. Someone tuning in is just watching us run out of the spawn area and die repeatedly. Not really a good representation of our content.
  
• Guild/Streamer support - We are working out the details, but we definitely want to figure out methods to include these folks specifically more on our streams.
  
• Server/Faction variance - We do this a little bit already, but we can look at being more flexible in bouncing around to different servers and factions. Give everyone an equal chance to join in on the fun!
  
• Scheduling - We are gonna take a look at both the day and times that we are streaming. There are likely better time frames, lengths, days, etc for our streams to occur.
  
• A real Q&A - Right now we passively answer questions as we play. It creates a mixed stream where we are kinda playing and kinda doing a Q&A. We want to separate these. Let's spend some time concentrating on playing with you guys and then lets stop playing altogether and just answer questions for a bit.
  

Here we look to all of you as well. What would you like to see us do differently with our streams? Any and all feedback welcome.

 

-eric

 

I try and catch the stream when new features are being teased, such as the Stronghold previews.

Most of the suggestions for improvement look good.

 

I'd query whether a real Q&A can work in a live stream. I've been around long enough to remember the old dev Q&A weeklies. A handful of seemingly cherry picked questions that only complete new comers were interested in answered and then left to lurk on the boards for future forumites to unearth and point back to saying 'Look the devs promised us this, why don't we have it yet?'

The tough questions ignored or given a stock 'Sorry we can't go into that' or 'That's limited by the technology of the engine.'.

 

Trying to conduct a live Q&A, knowing the unrealistic expectations of the audience, that's a whole level of dangerous I wouldn't be brave enough to go near.

[Lunafox]

Game is broken. Management is broken. Communication is broken.

 

........

 

Lets talk about streams!!!!

 

 

I'm running out of aspirin.

 

Gonna need something stronger than aspirin if this keeps up. Stream feedback, lol. What's in their heads, honestly?

[MikeTheDuke]

I would like Bioware to stop screwing around and fix the game.

 

Really, enough is enough. It is beyond hilarious that THIS is what Bioware would believe folks would be concerned with. I know you are just the messenger Eric, but really?

 

Streaming? You really think this is an important issue that deserves attention and feedback?

The Community team cannot fix the issues of the game. They are the front face of SWTOR and I am sure see their fair share of abuse about SWTOR to which they are really only able to pass on to the devs and QA teams. It is important for any game like SWTOR that has a consistent and active community to remain in contact with those on the inside, as seeing them, chatting to them we can hopefully get feedback more quickly or have our grievances, if that is your desire at least noticed, since much of the bile on these forums is more often background noise when it comes to the issues, hence why you rarely see BioWare post anything in reply.

 

I believe for the community streams invite members of the guilds to run through, engage the community directly from within the stream as opposed providing a front. I have yet watch any of the community streams live only due to the time differences, but it always does show how perhaps getting people from the other regions, and I might be difficult to fully comprehend this from inside the boards of the USA but there is more people playing the game than just in the US. Join players from APAC or get onto the Europe servers and play with the lag like so many of see everyday and I am not talking about the perceived lag I am talking about just based on geographic distance.

[Neoforcer]

Game is broken. Management is broken. Communication is broken.

 

........

 

Lets talk about streams!!!!

 

 

I'm running out of aspirin.

 

You would think they would figure out this is were the community is. I don't mind the streams but game is broken, Management is broken, Communication is broken. Is why people are complaining along with countless Bugs and not the Colicoid one's either.....

[grombrinda]

I try and catch the stream when new features are being teased, such as the Stronghold previews.

Most of the suggestions for improvement look good.

 

I'd query whether a real Q&A can work in a live stream. I've been around long enough to remember the old dev Q&A weeklies. A handful of seemingly cherry picked questions that only complete new comers were interested in answered and then left to lurk on the boards for future forumites to unearth and point back to saying 'Look the devs promised us this, why don't we have it yet?'

The tough questions ignored or given a stock 'Sorry we can't go into that' or 'That's limited by the technology of the engine.'.

 

Trying to conduct a live Q&A, knowing the unrealistic expectations of the audience, that's a whole level of dangerous I wouldn't be brave enough to go near.

 

If they don't have the balls to answer some questions , then maybe they should not have taken the job.

 

Sorry man but having a tough skin sometimes comes with the job you pick. Being a chef, you know how many times I have had to face real people and not someone behind a monitor?

[Vhaegrant]

If they don't have the balls to answer some questions , then maybe they should not have taken the job.

 

Sorry man but having a tough skin sometimes comes with the job you pick. Being a chef, you know how many times I have had to face real people and not someone behind a monitor?

 

The trouble with that comparison is that as the chef the buck stops with you as regards to the quality of the food.

 

The community team are an intermediary, they can't answer directly on behalf of the devs, only reiterate stock answers, cherry pick questions that pertain to the stock answers they have on hand, or if less scroupulous seed the audience with stooges that can 'ask' the questions the community team can answer.

 

The time would be far better spent looking through the forums at the most active threads/ commonly asked questions. Going to the devs and getting straight answers, and then releasing that information to the playerbase. Sort of what they should be doing now to facilitate communication.

 

An open Q&A session with someone who probably doesn't have authority to give anything other than stock answers to the same over asked questions is just asking for trouble.

[LordArtemis]

Just to be clear.

 

I am aware that the community team does not actually work on the game. My comments point to the folly of seeking feedback on STREAMING, when there is a plethora of important topics (to this community at any rate) to choose to chat about.

 

To seek feedback on this arguable NON ISSUE, when there are so many issues that this community would likely rather see addressed, was foolish at best.

 

The effort had merit. But it's timing was a comically bad.

When you are in a plane that is about to crash you do not ask folks how they feel about the seats.

 

THAT is my issue with this post. This was a non-issue if there ever was one at this point in time in the forum. There are DOZENS of issues that I am sure forum members would rather have addressed.

 

Silence on those, LETS CHAT ABOUT STREAMS!!!!

 

Astounding.

 

Here we look to all of you as well. What would you like to see us do differently with our streams? Any and all feedback welcome.

 

-eric

 

My answer? I want you to stop talking about things that are probably unimportant to most of the community (if the current forums stand as evidence) and instead address more pressing issues.

 

I would speculate, again, if the forums are any indication, that streaming is NOT in the top ten issues on most community members minds at the moment.

Edited January 29, 2015 by LordArtemis

[TheSeventhJedi]

Just to be clear.

 

I am aware that the community team does not actually work on the game. My comments point to the folly of seeking feedback on STREAMING, when there is a plethora of important topics (to this community at any rate) to choose to chat about.

 

To seek feedback on this arguable NON ISSUE, when there are so many issues that this community would likely rather see addressed, was foolish at best.

 

The effort had merit. But it's timing was a comically bad.

When you are in a plane that is about to crash you do not ask folks how they feel about the seats.

 

THAT is my issue with this post. This was a non-issue if there ever was one at this point in time in the forum. There are DOZENS of issues that I am sure forum members would rather have addressed.

 

Silence on those, LETS CHAT ABOUT STREAMS!!!!

 

Astounding.

 

 

 

My answer? I want you to stop talking about things that are probably unimportant to most of the community (if the current forums stand as evidence) and instead address more pressing issues.

 

I would speculate, again, if the forums are any indication, that streaming is NOT in the top ten issues on most community members minds at the moment.

 

My first thought at this was, "People watch streams for anything other than fast forwarding to new information?"

[grombrinda]

The trouble with that comparison is that as the chef the buck stops with you as regards to the quality of the food.

 

The community team are an intermediary, they can't answer directly on behalf of the devs, only reiterate stock answers, cherry pick questions that pertain to the stock answers they have on hand, or if less scroupulous seed the audience with stooges that can 'ask' the questions the community team can answer.

 

The time would be far better spent looking through the forums at the most active threads/ commonly asked questions. Going to the devs and getting straight answers, and then releasing that information to the playerbase. Sort of what they should be doing now to facilitate communication.

 

An open Q&A session with someone who probably doesn't have authority to give anything other than stock answers to the same over asked questions is just asking for trouble.

 

And don't you think the waiter hears a butt load before I do ??

[Vhaegrant]

And don't you think the waiter hears a butt load before I do ??

 

You're that bad a chef? Sorry couldn't resist

 

It's not a great comparison because the diner is sat within easy access range to all parts of the communication chain. If unhappy with the waiters response it can be moved up to the Maitre'd before landing at the chef.

 

With the Community Team there would be a far greater issue in the time frame of response to give meaningful feedback to a question if it falls beyond the remit of a stock answer.

It might work if the Q&A session was to be themed with a full blown Dev there to answer directly with the Community Team fielding questions.

But even then it has issues, in the past Devs have given clear answers to questions with their reasoning behind it and the players have shrugged it off and chosen to ignore it.

[LordArtemis]

For those folks challenged by satire, the following is a dramatization.

 

Dark helmet here for space "spheres".

 

Hey folks!

 

Let's talk a little bit about the contraband slot machine. First, we hear you. We understand that some folks are upset that the machine was released in the state that it was in, and others are upset at the extent of the adjustment that followed.

 

We as a team have been taking a hard look at the forum feedback and we have all agreed on one thing, we could do a lot better. Although I provided the only information I had at the time, that is no excuse. I should have been more forthcoming when it came to our plans. We have a seen a lot of feedback over the past week about how and what we did wrong and there have been a lot of great points made.

 

Here are some of the things we plan on doing differently, when and if we decide to release another slot machine:

• Make sure the machine is properly tested and reviewed before release - It is obvious we need to spend more time considering the impact that this kind of addition can have on the game as a whole.
  
• Look for feedback from the community - When concerns are expressed about this kind of change, we should be taking some time to get feedback from the community so we can give it proper consideration.
  
• Communicate better overall - We are working out the details, but we definitely want to figure out methods to interact better with the community.
  

 

Now, with that said, we are not planning on adjusting the current drop rates at this time. However, never say never...we will continue to monitor the slot machine and if changes are warranted in the future we may make adjustments as needed.

 

I appreciate your feedback and I apologize for not properly informing you of all of the changes that were coming. I will try to be more transparent in the future.

 

Here we look to all of you as well. What would you like to see with respect to the current slot machine and any future machines we may introduce into the game? Any and all feedback welcome.

 

-dark helmet

 

 

That is the post that should have been made IMO.

 

Substitute any issue that the community has at the moment. The point is they are talking to us, seeking feedback on important topics.

Edited January 29, 2015 by LordArtemis

[LeglessChair]

Hey folks!

 

 

[*]A heavier concentration on PvE - I love Warzones, they are my favorite content in fact. However, when we play, it ends up causing a global taunt effect. Someone tuning in is just watching us run out of the spawn area and die repeatedly. Not really a good representation of our content.

 

-eric

just roll with a tank healer premade

Edited January 29, 2015 by LeglessChair

[MeNaCe-NZ]

To seek feedback on this arguable NON ISSUE, when there are so many issues that this community would likely rather see addressed, was foolish at best.

 

Maybe then you miss the point? This si all smoke and mirrors to get away from NOT having to do a community event.

 

It's rather clever really. You make posts like this promising changes to keep those that enjoy the streams for what they are happy about the fact they won't have one whilst neglecting to tell everyone the fact they won't have one is they don't want to have to address the 2 MAJOR issues they've neglected.

 

Yes I'm talking Ravagers and Slot Machines but no I'm not talking about what BW will do. I'm talking about the community liaisons or whatever they want to call themselves communicating what is or is not going on with them.

 

Basically those being Eric having to defend his rather monumentally poor wording in his announcement over the Slot Machines and what actually happened to them in the end and the lack of communication since and then with Ravagers why nothing has been seemingly done to a satisfactory level regardless of all the "tracking" he posted was being in hand and also the comments he made in the last stream.

 

It is rather obvious to me this was all done to avoid having to deal with those issues/questions yet that would utterly flood the stream this time around. Judging on the general vibe of the community I don't think some generic "we're on to it, expect something soon" answer would have cut it for the next stream and people wouldn't have dropped it without something more solid.

 

So instead you get some rather empty promises about something that might happen but probably won't all in a means as a smoke and mirror attempt to hide the truth on why they aren't streaming.

 

Bravo Eric but this game isn't played by a majority of 10 year olds, most see through your charade for what it is.

[Pietrastor]

It's rather clever really.

How is it clever if they're being called out left and right in this thread on avoiding hot issues, dogding questions and trying to divert attention? Clever would be increased communication, multiple "we're working on this! we're aware of this" posts all over forums even if in reality any potential fixes were weeks/months away, publishing Producer Roadmap for 2015 right away along with update on "cross-server/faction walls rethinking" stuff they mentioned extremly vaguely last year and promises of fun stuff, making up blah blah.

 

Instead there's scilence, cancelled streams, yellow post in random threads that have never been huge/hot issues and changes to format of streaming which again is hardly a hot issue.

[Heat-Wave]

An open Q&A session with someone who probably doesn't have authority to give anything other than stock answers to the same over asked questions is just asking for trouble.

 

You've never watched a White House Press Conference then...