Please, Bioware, something needs to change- An open letter.

[Nathan_Cousland]

I remember those four hours.

 

Four hours, of driving through the fall hillsides and turnways, past state borders and towns that always seemed to have at least one good diner by the road. It wasn't the roadway that caused the drive to be memorable, but rather, the cause; after spending over five hours on the phone with Best Buy's customer support and corporate line, I was going to be damned if I was going to let a four hour drive to their home office stop me from getting my Collector's Edition, paid in advance and in full, of the new MMO coming out. No, I would not miss out on this quasi-spiritual sequel to a game series I used to play among and along my friends, called Star Wars: The Old Republic.,

 

That was one of my first memories of my time with The Old Republic, a battle to get my $150 game that literally took me to the doorstep of one of the biggest electronic retail chains in America. The funny thing was, it was worth it to me. The game was glorious. I had never played a MMO before, or at least, never extensively. I had experience with Bioware games as many of my friends had, with Jade Empire, the obvious Knights of the Old Republic, even Neverwinter, the surprise hit Dragon Age: Origins, and my personal favorite, Mass Effect.

 

It was my first experience with roleplaying that sealed the game for me as an actual element to my life. I have long been a dreamer- or at least, that is the optimistic and romantic way of saying I was always distracted in life, wishing to write tales of swashbuckling adventure, or harrowing action, sublime fantasy, whatever tune struck a chord at the time. Here was my chance. I found a community of fans, of fellow nerds, of people who wanted to create and share adventures with each other, while enjoying amazing storylines and awesome new twists to a galaxy we loved, and no matter how long ago it existed, it was never so far far away. In fact, the only thing that often kept me from my new-found pastime was a faulty security key from a certain special edition of the game.

 

I have been with the game since then, having enjoyed a fought-for Early Access, having survived countless inter-player drama, having earned my Founder title and VIP wristband, just as many on this very website have, or the literal hundreds of other accolades and signs of devoted time and energy and adoration from fans that countless others have acquired. In truth, I have spent too much time, perhaps, in these digital planetscapes, and certainly too much money (I admit to being a loving sucker for Cartel packs). Still, the latter point mattered little, as I had found a way to enjoy myself, express myself, and make friends that have lasted the entirety of The Old Republic's lifespan, even getting invited to (and attending) a wedding two swiftly connected flights away.

 

Without any doubt, though, this personal testament, this editorial on my time spending far too much time and credits on dye modules and armor pieces matters little to the average reader here, and this is something I do not think I can argue. I understand, TL;DR. Still, it is my hope that, out there on the other side of a computer screen framed by empty cans of Red Bull and carpeted with broken wrappers to Mackintosh Toffee, there might be an employee of Bioware who reads this. Who reads this, and then listens.

 

Something needs to change.

 

The Knights of the Fallen Empire could have been what we all had hoped for. With a focus on new characters and storylines, with the ability to create level 60 characters and jump into the new content, with so many accessible and open flashpoints and hard modes and tacticals and even new group finders and social quality-of-life improvements, we'd be once more able to forge a new path in the galaxy far, far away with extensions of the epic tales we've already played through, not to mention the newfound content for roleplayers to jump into (sorry PvP'ers, I guess it wasn't 'all' of us).

 

But it isn't working.

 

Despite the quality of the campaign, and the genuine awe and zeal of new Bioware tales, the game has become an almost laughable series of missteps and quality control boggles during recent months;

- Level 60 character tokens not working, and worse, not being refunded in a timely manner for those affected.

- Companions whose romance stories have been seemingly randomly forgotten due to a bug, leaving our character stories sometimes held for literal years missing a prime component.

- Companions missing; Torian, Scorpio and Xalek for the most part, with reports of miscellaneous others.

- Special weapon animations failing to work during combat, entire weapons and gear blanked and becoming textureless.

- Numerous players stuck on certain characters, or unable to load specific characters.

- Companion 'confusion': Vector talks with Kaliyo's voice, Bounty Hunter companions summoning wrong companions, Sith Warrior companions glitching out during summon.

-Subscribed players being listed and treated as preferred.

- Players unable to reload back into chapters, various glitches and bugs keeping players from being able to finish chapters, similar but rarer issues with old content from before Knights of the Fallen Empire.

- Companion gifts not working as intended, and/or ignoring romance flags for affection tables.

- Class missions missing from basic 'vanilla' game content.

- Countless instances of visual lag at heightened graphics settings. (This has been in place since before 4.0)

- The companion terminal being unusable.

 

I know there are a lot more bugs than these, and I know there are a lot more that people fail to report. These bugs are keeping people from, in the least, enjoying the game, and at worst, keeping players from continuing stories they are paying through subscriptions to experience, and even people unable to play the characters they gave good money to play. Alone, this is troubling. Alone, this is disappointing, but these issues are not alone.

 

There is a distinct lack of communication right now on the forums. I checked the most recent pages of the various bug threads on the forums, and of them, only 4% had Bioware responses. Not only that, but if my understanding is correct, then when bugs were brought up during recent live streams, they were either outright ignored or told they were not being addressed during the livestream. This cannot stand.

 

You are going to upset your fans, more so than they already are. You are going to lose customers. You are going to lose our faith, and our dollars, in your endeavors. No one in these threads want you to fail, the mere fact that they, and even I, for that matter, are here shows you, Bioware, that we want you to succeed, but this launch has been a parade of QA issues, and failures in community communication. One of those two faults, if not both, needs to be addressed, either in better testing, or better communication with your customers to help try and alleviate the concerns they have. I know, I know, it is at times a 'damned if you do, damned if you don't' situation with fans, but trust me here, while some measure of 'market research' may show that silence can avoid fan backlash, the backlash is already here.

 

I used the very last of my 60 day time cards this week, but after that, I am done. With me, are four of my friends and fellow players in my closer play group until these issues are addressed, as we just cannot support the combination of missteps, mistakes, and reticence that has befallen our favorite game, and at this point, we do not know if we can speak any louder than our wallets, than our patronage, and there are others on these forums expressing the same. Please, Bioware, talk to us, talk to your fans, speak to us about these issues, show us that our faith has not been misplaced. Please.

 

Because something needs to change. And if it is not you, then it will have to be us.

 

- A very dedicated customer, player, and fan

[Uruare]

It was a long read, but actually turned out to be well worth it.

 

Is half expecting to find something here vituperative me would've felt the desire to punchkick, but... to my sincere surprise, I'm in agreement with you, OP.

 

As much as I'm enjoying the new direction, more than a few things show signs of being half done and sometimes just plain broken.

 

That can happen on a project when deadlines, being short staffed and/or being mismanaged raise their ugly heads in any combination, but I can only guess at what the actual reasons for it are.

 

I don't know and I never will.

 

What I do know is that I hope someone upstairs takes the time to read your letter.

[Jackosaur]

Tl : Dr

[ivanhedgehog]

It was a long read, but actually turned out to be well worth it.

 

Is half expecting to find something here vituperative me would've felt the desire to punchkick, but... to my sincere surprise, I'm in agreement with you, OP.

 

As much as I'm enjoying the new direction, more than a few things show signs of being half done and sometimes just plain broken.

 

That can happen on a project when deadlines, being short staffed and/or being mismanaged raise their ugly heads in any combination, but I can only guess at what the actual reasons for it are.

 

I don't know and I never will.

 

What I do know is that I hope someone upstairs takes the time to read your letter.

 

having an actual beta test would help, instead of 30 "special" playtesters that are just there to figure out what to make a tons of credits with with insider information.

[TX_Angel]

Despite the quality of the campaign, and the genuine awe and zeal of new Bioware tales, the game has become an almost laughable series of missteps and quality control boggles during recent months;

 

This isn't new... 3.0 was a mess at launch as well, and many issues took years to fix (remember the crash to desktop for years from Esseles and Black Talon?)

 

This is not the Bioware you remember, that company was in Canada. This is Bioware Austin, a new company formed in 2006 in Texas to make this game. It also was purchased in 2007 by EA, so frankly nothing is left of what made games like Jade Empire so good.

 

While I agree with much of your rant, it will have no effect. But I hope you feel better now.

[Icestar]

- Companions whose romance stories have been seemingly randomly forgotten due to a bug, leaving our character stories sometimes held for literal years missing a prime component.

 

What were supposed to happen?

 

Some of my characters got a few mails from the romance companions.

 

I have enjoyed playing the expansion with several characters through the nine chapters so I have not been affected by the bugs that much. I had to go to go back to the planet one time because I could not start the chapter from fleet or my stronghold but that is about it.

[Mikahrone]

There are a lot of bugs, but youll just have to be patient, if they fix one thing but break 10 other things isnt much of solution.

 

To some of my friends i give this advice: if you arent good with tolerating bugs, just wait with playing until couple of patches have been rolled out after big release.

 

Its annoying for sure, but after almost 15 years of playng MMOs, i just accepted that its the way things are and i cant do much about it except get high blood pressure, and it aint worth it

Edited November 6, 2015 by Mikahrone

[Spyderwoman]

- Level 60 character tokens not working, and worse, not being refunded in a timely manner for those affected.

- Companions whose romance stories have been seemingly randomly forgotten due to a bug, leaving our character stories sometimes held for literal years missing a prime component.

- Companions missing; Torian, Scorpio and Xalek for the most part, with reports of miscellaneous others.

- The companion terminal being unusable.

- A very dedicated customer, player, and fan

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=8594182#edit8594182

-They working on token thing for level 60.

 

-Your romances are still there but your companions lost you, you were gone for five years. Who is to say they still love you? Some sent mails saying they did. You must wait for content to bring them back.

 

-Scorpio isn't missing if you did story. Xalek isn't missing if you did recruitment quests. Some others are still waiting o story.

 

-They have stated they are working on companion terminal they know its bugged.

[StarMagus]

Here is the thing, Bioware has always had piss-poor QA because they are so afraid of their "story" leaking out, they have stupidly small Beta Tests for expacs. As much as I hate to use the example, look at how big of a Beta-Test WoW goes through. Way more bugs get caught ((and they still don't catch them all)) raids and other important events are hammered over and over in Beta to make sure that basic functions of the final boss don't completely fail ((Like the final solo fight in SoR, even today it still bugs out, just way more rarely)) and the like.

 

Of course the down side of that is that the story is all over the net months before the game releases. Bioware on the other hand has decided that massively buggy but less spoiled stories are the way to go. In effect the Beta for the expac happens during the first few months of actual release.

[Makillda]

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=8594182#edit8594182

-Scorpio isn't missing if you did story. Xalek isn't missing if you did recruitment quests. Some others are still waiting o story.

 

Yes, Xalek is missing. Just ask my Inquisitor. These bugs are real but do not effect everyone.

[ForceWelder]

OP ...

 

Long but reasonably good read on your initial post.

 

I haven't even started the expansion yet due to my own reservations on quality control. There are always issues after a major expansion. Especially one that changed as many things as this one. This is the way it is with all video games whether single player or MMO. But by waiting I give the studio a chance to fix the major issues and gives me a chance to learn where the short comings are so I can avoid them.

 

Please don't take that last line as a defense of BW, it isn't intended as such. It is more intended as a warning to players that some reservation needs to be considered when being one of the first to tackle on new content. But part of the problem is lack of testing. In order to keep their expansion a surprise, the studio limits access. And unfortunately this is always to the detriment of the player base as some things simply don't get tested enough or not at all. And as a result the forums quickly fill with threads of player issues just like this one.

 

Yes, there were times I quit a game (temporarily) because it simply wasn't playable due to the in game bugs.

 

When Star Wars Galaxies came out, it was an unplayable mess. Sony simply didn't expect the player base to be as large as it was. It probably took them a good month to get the backend of the operation functional enough to manage the player base - and that is not even counting the bug squashing that had to be done in game.

 

And of course everyone should remember WoW's poor release. Blizzard suffered the same problem as Sony. Larger than expected sales led to over stressed servers unable to go a day without complete game lockups. Just going off of memory, I want to say it was three months before the servers stabilized.

 

But because of how those two major studios poorly handled those game releases, I have always taken game releases and expansions with a grain of salt and delayed jumping in. And in this case, that delay was well founded.

Edited November 6, 2015 by ForceWelder

[SweetAcacia]

I couldn't agree with this more. Bioware seems to have a special gift for not only dampening enthusiasm, but almost squashing it entirely.

 

Hyped, not delivered:

 

- 60 tokens have become a MAJOR bone of contention (new character - NOPE)

- New schematics with no color crystal slots rendering them pretty much useless (new schematic - NOPE)

- Gearing for some characters is the most challenging content in the game as you try to get what you actually need based on the items not matching icon/description (new gear - NOPE)

- Challenging content? Our progression group literally wandered out of our OP dragging our sabers behind us with loot in hand. The EASY BUTTON was pushed very hard and it's completely disheartening. (Operations - NOPE)

 

Now mind you, the cinematics and story is fantastic. Quality of daily life as a player? Not so much.

 

I WANT to love it. Problem is the devs don't seem to understand just how thoroughly and completely they have screwed up the very things we looked forward to the most.

[monster_cody]

encountered some bugs in a herioc star fortress, for me atleast the click the thingie to jump to platform didnt quite worked allright

stayed in combat after dying multiple times

dueled the person i invited for the herioc and he was able to kill me which in a duel should never happen

said players was still red to me and i was red to him.

yesterday in the voss starfortress herioc

 

the quality is soooooo amazing /SARCASM

Edited November 6, 2015 by monster_cody

[Mikahrone]

I couldn't agree with this more. Bioware seems to have a special gift for not only dampening enthusiasm, but almost squashing it entirely.

 

Hyped, not delivered:

 

- 60 tokens have become a MAJOR bone of contention (new character - NOPE)

- New schematics with no color crystal slots rendering them pretty much useless (new schematic - NOPE)

- Gearing for some characters is the most challenging content in the game as you try to get what you actually need based on the items not matching icon/description (new gear - NOPE)

- Challenging content? Our progression group literally wandered out of our OP dragging our sabers behind us with loot in hand. The EASY BUTTON was pushed very hard and it's completely disheartening. (Operations - NOPE)

 

Now mind you, the cinematics and story is fantastic. Quality of daily life as a player? Not so much.

 

I WANT to love it. Problem is the devs don't seem to understand just how thoroughly and completely they have screwed up the very things we looked forward to the most.

 

So to sum it up, you were looking forward the most to:

 

gear grind in super difficult ops with RNG drops that rarely drop what you need with addition of abilty to skip whole game.

 

mmmmkay, yeah

 

Not to mention your post has little to none of what OP is talking about (just lvl 60 token bugs)

Edited November 6, 2015 by Mikahrone

[Aaramis]

Yeah, there's bugs. I don't think anyone is denying it. But hey, sh*t happens, and it happens with pretty much every expansion with every game out there. I don't think I can recall many expansions in any MMO that went live 100% smoothly, and I've been gaming for many years now. Heck, back in EQ, it was common knowledge that every time a major patch came in, or an expansion released, Bards would be broken. It's just the way it was, and it's the way it still is.

 

I'll be the first to admit that in any other company around the world, having these sorts of setbacks would be catastrophic, but in MMOs, it just seems to be the way it is. I certainly wouldn't want to sort through millions of lines of code to figure out why a billion things worked properly, but 4 or 5 others didn't.

 

Long story short : they're working on it. Be patient. Yes, it sucks. Yes, it's disappointing. But the sky isn't falling, Chicken Little.

[SweKaiser]

People need to stop defending Bioware, its really ridiculous. They screw up things whenever there is a patch or whatever and you still defend them? Come on, have a higher standard and start demand a better service you pay for, otherwise it will continue to lackluster and halfdone every single time.

 

Im in total agreement with everything OP said and more. They have been at it for 4 years now and its not getting better, its getting worse every update they release.

[SweetAcacia]

And when all those come along to say, that's just the way it is. It's always like this, blah, blah, blah.

 

You are not the only ones who have played MMOs for years. The "You kids get off my lawn" argument in a non-argument.

 

OP has very valid points and the right the vent them as they see fit. I for one, agree with what they assert and added a few points of my own. It is what it is. I have put in numerous bug reports in support of improving the game since launch and continue to encourage my guild to do likewise. Venting =/= not supporting.

[LoverNoFighter]

Can someone give me the tl;dr version please?

[hadoken]

Can someone give me the tl;dr version please?

 

I think it's "I don't like bugs". I think BioWare is aware of what they need to fix, they're just not really telling us

[Jumajin]

Can someone give me the tl;dr version please?

 

Or, you could read it. Good grief, why is reading such a dying art?

[Infernixx]

Bugs happen. I recommend you try not to get worked up over it as it's not at all a big deal.

[monkeyrobot]

People like the OP ARE the core audience of this game and always have been. They sub since the start, they buy lots of cartel. They have supported this game 100%. But bioware just burns them for some quick dirty cash from the 'here one day, gone the next' gamers.

 

The cartel pricing increase is an indication they've decided they've milked the cows for two long, and it's time to get more cows.

 

I personally feel this entire expansion, was written around their single desire to leave companion gifts in the crappy cartel packs.

Edited November 6, 2015 by monkeyrobot

[Jadescythe]

Bugs happen. I recommend you try not to get worked up over it as it's not at all a big deal.

 

Clearly to the OP it is a big deal. Perhaps the areas of the game you are most interested in are working flawlessly or have workarounds, but you aren't everyone in the game.

[Nathan_Cousland]

Or, you could read it. Good grief, why is reading such a dying art?

 

I was an Enligh teacher once upon a time... this trend saddens me. Now, to be fair, my long post was long. ^.^

[LoverNoFighter]

Or, you could read it. Good grief, why is reading such a dying art?

 

People tend to rant rather than getting to the point.

Hence the tl;dr request.