An open letter to our players

[Andryah]

Complaints from customers are not inherently bad, or whiney, or illegitimate.

 

The issue here is not complaints -- it's tone, and venom, and irrational backlash.

 

Players have been begging for Bioware to communicate, but once again, when Bioware tries to communicate, they get roasted for it. Even if one believes the attempt was poor, it's an opportunity to engage with Bioware productively, and keep trying until we get the sort of open and forthright communication we wanted.

 

An opportunity which a certain set of players has once again made sure will be wasted -- because evidently they didn't want communication, they wanted someone from Bioware to come in here and listen to them rant and take a ritual beating.

 

Or the silliest reaction of all -- "I'm quitting because of your attempt to communicate."

 

^^ Indeed.

[Max_Killjoy]

You think "attempting" - your word, to communicate gives them a free pass from critique? Granted the bile from some posters in this thread is ridiculous, you cannot possibly believe that people don't have a right to judge this letter how they see it?

.

 

No, I don't think it insulates them from critique. I don't even think the letter was all that informative -- it was thin on detail and had a bit too much marketing-speak.

 

However, I do think that as customers, we can choose to view this open letter as an opportunity, and reply back with constructive feedback in an adult manner -- rather than what some are doing, which is 'This isn't exactly what I wanted Bioware to say, so I'm quitting." or "This isn't exactly what I wanted from Bioware, they're all a bunch of bleepity-bleeping bleep-bleepers."

[Andryah]

What I'd like to see them do next is open up a Q & A. Give people a week to submit their most urgent questions, take another week to sort through them and pick the most recurring/common questions and do an elaborate post or hour'ish long Twitch in which those questions receive genuine answers.

 

Yeah... that unfortunately does not work well. People send in questions, and then when their particular pet question is not answered, or not answered to their liking, they rush to the forum to start a thread to vilify the studio over it.

[Andryah]

No, I don't think it insulates them from critique. I don't even think the letter was all that informative -- it was thin on detail and had a bit too much marketing-speak.

 

However, I do think that as customers, we can choose to view this open letter as an opportunity, and reply back with constructive feedback in an adult manner -- rather than what some are doing, which is 'This isn't exactly what I wanted Bioware to say, so I'm quitting." or "This isn't exactly what I wanted from Bioware, they're all a bunch of bleepity-bleeping bleep-bleepers."

 

Worthy of re-quote for emphasis.

 

A common observation in MMO gaming forums is that many either do not know how to, or don't want to, criticize in an honest and objective manner.

 

Constructive criticism is a well established communications practice and follows certain common themes: State the issue, explain why it's an issue, offer reasonable suggestions for possible solutions, then follow-up with non-inflammatory comment and discussion of pros/cons of all statements.

 

MMO forum criticisms of a game and it's studio much more closely the model of communications practices of frustrated Chimpanzees..........throwing backside excretions at anything and everything.

Edited April 20, 2016 by Andryah

[Max_Killjoy]

Convenient isn't? Convenient to use as an argument for (sentence had against before I corrected it) bad communication: "Remember that one time when allegedly an idiot threatened a dev over class changes? Well, that's why we continue to exhibit poor communication, even though nothing changed from before or after."

 

This excuse is dead in the water, because the matter of fact is, that incident whether it really happened or not, it didn't change a pattern, it just created an excuse for people like you and me to bicker about on the forum while they continue their operandi modus.

 

The only rare time I ever saw a true communication on their part is something I can't talk about (the irony of the NDA...), but even then there is so much to criticise about that as well.

 

The incident in question is just the far extreme end of a reaction I've seen to almost every Bioware attempt at communication since I started reading these forum. Someone almost always goes off in the most vile manner they can think of, directed at the individual people working at Bioware.

 

Bioware is not blameless, they've also been bad at communicating -- but improving that very real problem is something of a two-way street.

[TUXs]

No, I don't think it insulates them from critique. I don't even think the letter was all that informative -- it was thin on detail and had a bit too much marketing-speak.

 

However, I do think that as customers, we can choose to view this open letter as an opportunity, and reply back with constructive feedback in an adult manner -- rather than what some are doing, which is 'This isn't exactly what I wanted Bioware to say, so I'm quitting." or "This isn't exactly what I wanted from Bioware, they're all a bunch of bleepity-bleeping bleep-bleepers."

I'm curious...

 

Do you sincerely believe there's that much "bleepity bleep" going on by people? I've read most posts here and I can only think of a few that were crossing the line in any way...maybe they've been removed, maybe we read things with different tones...?

 

I've seen people give feedback. I've seen players being skeptical. I've seen people praising them...I just haven't seen much "bleepity bleep".

[Andryah]

The incident in question is just the far extreme end of a reaction I've seen to almost every Bioware attempt at communication since I started reading these forum. Someone almost always goes off in the most vile manner they can think of, directed at the individual people working at Bioware.

 

Bioware is not blameless, they've also been bad at communicating -- but improving that very real problem is something of a two-way street.

 

Yeah.. the really bad thing about that incident is that it came at a time when the studio was once again trying to improve it's communications and transparency with the player base. This one incident had a pretty chilling effect on that effort.

 

Of course the vocal foam distribution network simply must dismiss this.......as the only entity at fault surrounding the game is the studio. Players are apparently all perfect angels.

Edited April 20, 2016 by Andryah

[Max_Killjoy]

I'm curious...

 

Do you sincerely believe there's that much "bleepity bleep" going on by people? I've read most posts here and I can only think of a few that were crossing the line in any way...maybe they've been removed, maybe we read things with different tones...?

 

I've seen people give feedback. I've seen players being skeptical. I've seen people praising them...I just haven't seen much "bleepity bleep".

 

I've seen at least 6 people who've said "I'm quitting because this open letter is such BS."

 

I've seen quite a few posts in which the person calls Bioware a bunch of liars, or incompetent scum, or whatever. Some of them were over the top enough that they very well could have been deleted by now.

[JennyFlynn]

Well... since this is a gaming forum, and not a financial disclosure, we can safely say .....

 

Past behavior IS a good indicator of future behavior.

 

It still amazes me sometimes how many people live in a constant state of negativity and complaining.

 

Wasn't always that way but it's become a trend over the past years in online communities in general. Everything has to be snappy and fast, it has to be flawless and people jump from one shiny to the next. Attention span is shorter, demand and expectations higher than ever while patience is a near non-existent virtue these days.

 

Now I have no issue with constructive criticism and certain complaints are most definitely warranted, even when they're not voiced in the most sensible way. But that last part, communicating your concerns/issues in a sensible manner is also a problem. It appears there's a large group of people who simply don't know how to communicate in a decent manner. How to word their issues without insults and false claims or how to react to someone else's opposing opinion without taking offense and ripping into that person.

 

It's disappointing at times..

[Pagy]

You people continue to be delusional.

 

SWTOR is thriving and the reality is they did so without having to make new operations.

 

You're going to have to get over it.

thriving with empty servers, apparently.

[helpmewin]

Good to hear dat devs have plan on the game, but players don't have it and leave this game. U've never heard ur community.

[znihilist]

Of course the vocal foam distribution network simply must dismiss this.......as the only entity at fault surrounding the game is the studio. Players are apparently all perfect angels.

 

That's a very insidious thing to say, and you are perfectly aware what you are doing: to shift the blame to a "vocal form distribution".

 

It is really a shame to see you say this, while I don't agree with some of the stuff you say, however, to see you cast such a net to stifle the dissent is really uncharacteristic of you.

Edited April 20, 2016 by znihilist

[casirabit]

Thank you Ben.

 

I am glad you took the time to write this as it was solely needed due to some posters going around stating the game is dying, (which they been doing since day one). I appreciate what you are trying to do even though there are times there are bugs that aggravate people but things will never be perfect.

 

The one thing I would like is some group content (not operations or pvp or heroics) just something two people can do, like my boyfriend and I, and not have to do things twice. We love playing together and when we both can play together this would be something I would enjoy.

 

Again thank you and have a wonderful day and keep up the good work.

[JennyFlynn]

Yeah... that unfortunately does not work well. People send in questions, and then when their particular pet question is not answered, or not answered to their liking, they rush to the forum to start a thread to vilify the studio over it.

 

Hence the second part of my post that you quoted;

 

Of course it would help if the community was receptive to that too and wouldn't abuse the opportunity to chop away at the BW team some more or throw a fit afterwards because their own specific question wasn't highlighted.

 

I'd like to see more communication but it's reactions like you described in your response and like I mentioned that just kill any opportunity we might get to really sit down and talk with the dev team.

 

Just looking at the amount of vile that's been posted in this thread alone.. I get the letter may not have been what people wanted to hear. I get it may "sound like..." and I appreciate everyone has their own view but there's a vast amount of sheer hostility that's uncalled for. No matter the underlying intent of the letter, this is the first time Ben himself reached out to the community and it's largely being shot down in flames with people spewing venom left and right. Yeah, really encouraging, good job folks.

[Moonshift]

We had the launch of Knights of the Fallen Empire – 9 incredible story driven chapters, 14 companion recruitment missions, Star Fortress, 5 new player levels, 30 flashpoints upgraded to be challenging again, 50 operation bosses upgraded to be challenging again, too many heroic quests to count, a revamp of the 1-60 levelling experience and a huge number of quality of life improvements

 

9 incredible Story chapter - Feels like one story chapter cutted into pieces. But i like the story.

14 companion recruitment missions - After removed all individual companion skills and dont give us the ability to customize them. m sure it will come in form of customizations in the cartel market. Also gave us an old window dedicated to kotor which not needs much new movie animations.

30 flashpoints upgraded to be challenging again - And again.. and again.. and again... same models, old storys

50 operation bosses - The last operations we got is from "Shadow of Revan" December 2014 (if im not wrong)

too many heroic quests to count - removed the most world drops, also old heroic missions we got since release. Not implemented in the groupfinder.

1-60 levelling experience

and a huge number of quality of life improvements

 

I would like to see new story-driven operations on old planets like Hoth, Korriban or Hutta. Also would be nice to have a gnomeregan-like (from WoW) operation with jawas and ortolans :love: on Tatooine. (i enjoyed the mini quest to getting Blizz)

 

"Oh, i just hear from the background that blizz really want his flamethrower back".

 

I also liked the old rakghoul flashpoint, combined with the darkness of the lost ship where you find the HK- parts would it end in a nice scary operation or new flashpoint with rakghouls. The rakghoul event is not that scary, compared to this, in my oppinion. No shock moments not, much new things.

 

Also i would like to see more relations to the movies cause you have green lights from Disney.

 

At last i appeal on you: Don't remove armor or companion skills, to bring them back in the cartel market. Just leave it what we have (had)... please

Edited April 20, 2016 by Moonshift

[TUXs]

I've seen at least 6 people who've said "I'm quitting because this open letter is such BS."

 

I've seen quite a few posts in which the person calls Bioware a bunch of liars, or incompetent scum, or whatever. Some of them were over the top enough that they very well could have been deleted by now.

OK...I'd agree with that number being roughly 6 "I quit' replies...but is that really "bleepity bleeping"? Isn't it the players saying "I need more details, this is too vague to keep me...I quit"? To me, those are more 'pleas' than rants...

 

Have you ever quit an MMO before Max? I have...several. Know how I've done it? I just cancelled and left...I think the people who are stating they're quitting, probably are...but they're stating that they are because they really don't "want" to...they'd rather be given a reason to stay (reason being HOPE) here.

 

I saw the name calling ones...so we saw that too. I read those as frustrated players wishing for more...I'm not excusing them, I just ignore them...they're few and far between usually imo.

[znihilist]

The incident in question is just the far extreme end of a reaction I've seen to almost every Bioware attempt at communication since I started reading these forum. Someone almost always goes off in the most vile manner they can think of, directed at the individual people working at Bioware.

 

I find it quite weird to liken someone calling people working at BW idiots and morons and that they should be fired to the incident where a dev got threatened with death. As unfortunate as it is, considering the former is rather standard in gaming communities, why does BW find itself digging the hole even more? Why are there companies out there who give a better pretense at communication than the one we have here? This system where everyone has to be punished for the action of few can't be sustained, because the further they dig themselves in the further they create an animosity between them and the people who genuinely don't respond with vile even when they disagree. Someone has to take the step toward improving the situation, I can control myself but I certainly can't control everyone else.

[Frenesi]

The letter is nice... Too bad it's only a letter, and not a bugfix for example. Or new ops. Or class balanse for PVP. Or anything that has been asked to the death since KotFE launch.

 

I get it, you are working. Good. It's also good to see that you care enough to actually adress community (better late than never, I guess). I guess all of the things you introduced lately took a lot of work. But they look totally insignificant on this end, at least for people who already are angry. New PVP maps are awesome - but they provide nothing but new opportunities to get rekt by FotM. Arena is nice - but doesn't cater to anybody outside of already happy solo-crowd. Server focus is sweet - but doesn't do **** for already dead servers.

[auroroavalor]

Real talk time, what you've given us in 4.0?

 

We had the launch of Knights of the Fallen Empire – 9 incredible story driven chapters, 14 companion recruitment missions, Star Fortress, 5 new player levels, 30 flashpoints upgraded to be challenging again, 50 operation bosses upgraded to be challenging again.

 

9 Story chapters - As much as I want to trash these they were solid and for the most part well thought out and from a cinematic and story standpoint they were engaging. They lack replayability but in time when the story is fully available that may change.

 

14 companion recruitment missions - This was interesting and whilst I'm not feeling compelled to complete all these missions I understand the lure for plenty of players and if there was some more substance to some of these I think they would be a strong source of content for segments of the playerbase, just not for me which is fine.

 

Star Fortresses - A nice idea, perhaps to similar to each other, lacking the depth of the launch flashpoints, missed oppurtunity.

 

30 Flashpoints - Scaled to level 65 was a good idea and executed acceptably however there is no real incentive to do this content. Real meaning gear/story/skill progression

 

50 operation bosses upgraded to be challenging again

 

You should say 9 Operations here, not list the number of bosses. I'm glad you scaled the operations to 65, I've enjoyed them thoroughly, I think you got the balance/scaling pretty much spot on, you've brought the HM's somewhat in line with each other, there's a clear progressive increase in skill required to complete HM to HM which leads nicely into NiM's with some notable exceptions. I won't complain about the lack of new ops because technically I haven't run out of content yet, however I would ask that you would, in good faith confirm that you will or will not continue to produce operations or even single boss instances for 8m ops groups.

 

More recently the Odessen Proving Grounds Warzone, the Rishi Cove Arena, the Eternal Championship and new levels for crafting.

 

New content is new content however I have some gripes with this. Your new WZ's are fun but can be buggy and needed more testing, I'm sick of early access being touted as a good thing when in reality I'm paying to be a beta tester. Lets now look at crafting, I think it's clear to most people this should've gone live with the launch of KotFE and due to time and resources did not take place so I ask you don't try sell this as something you've done for us when you could just as easily be here apologizing for it's delay. Onto the Eternal Championship, now I'm aware this hasn't launched yet so I cannot really comment on it beyond its delay and place in KotFE, when the EC drops I'm sure it will be a success and hopefully it bridges the gap between SM operations players and HM operations players because this is desperately needed, however, the Eternal Championship was needed with the launch of KotFE and should have been available immediately after chapter 9 to provide a reputation grind and to give more then Star Fortresses as new endgame content, I strongly suspect this was your intention in the early meetings for KotFE and was pushed back further and further due to resourcing, so when you tell me everyone supports SWTOR I have trouble believing that is anything more then PR bullocks.

 

The harder part to address, because you have to take my word for it, are all the features and content we are working on that we haven’t yet announced. We have started the early design phase for new, non-chapter, content.

 

new, non-chapter, content.

 

I think there are a lot of people who have varying definitions of content in an MMO, it would seem the SWTOR community and DEVs cannot agree on what constitutes content which is a shame.

 

 

I wanna thank you again for the increased communication since 4.1, even though I find this post to be somewhere between disingenuous at best and PR propaganda, I want to apologise for the criticisms, both mine and others if they feel like attacks. We all love this game, we just aren't sure what the future holds for it and when you've invested the time and money that a lot of us have the uncertainty scares us.

[Mornyr]

I'm not as angry as some are about BW's communication in recent months, but I *am* concerned about it. They seem to always be using a lot of words to say very little concrete things. They only talk in abstracts and superlatives. Serioulsy, it's *this* close to being one of those Donald Trump answer memes, where he blabbers on without actually saying anything, completely ignoring the question.

 

I don't need dates and deadlines, those tend to get pushed anyway. What I do need is something along the lines of "Our plan is to focus on single-player episodic content for the next few months, after which we will shift our focus to other PvE content" or "We have a vision for this game's future and it is, in general terms, XYZ". What I really DON'T need are words like "incredible", "exciting", "amazing", or "cool". These are all subjective terms, and are therefore useless.

[Pagy]

Hence the second part of my post that you quoted;

 

 

 

I'd like to see more communication but it's reactions like you described in your response and like I mentioned that just kill any opportunity we might get to really sit down and talk with the dev team.

 

Just looking at the amount of vile that's been posted in this thread alone.. I get the letter may not have been what people wanted to hear. I get it may "sound like..." and I appreciate everyone has their own view but there's a vast amount of sheer hostility that's uncalled for. No matter the underlying intent of the letter, this is the first time Ben himself reached out to the community and it's largely being shot down in flames with people spewing venom left and right. Yeah, really encouraging, good job folks.

my feeling is that "hostility" as you call it can be easily ignored. these are words on the internet.

 

if a few words on the internet from a few people can affect the way you communicate to your remaining customers, then you have a serious customer service problem.

[Tsetso]

Past behavior IS a good indicator of future behavior.

 

That's quite ironical when applied to:

The harder part to address, because you have to take my word for it, are all the features and content we are working on that we haven’t yet announced.

[Icykill_]

The focus of Star Wars: The Old Republic shifted towards Bioware's central competance, heroic stories. Like Baldur's Gate, like Neverwinter Nights, like Knights of the Old Republic, Dragon Age, Mass Effect. All of them are single player games. When the game started it was a broad MMO, set up to have millions of subscribers. It didn't work. So now it's specializing on its own niche and takes into account that they will loose some MMO gamers in order to be as appealing as possible to Bioware's own audience.

 

That's my guess, anyway, it's not like I was attending management meetings.

 

Personally I am perfectly fine with that. As most of the critics point out, World of Warcraft has a lot more, less buggy and more interesting operations or raids, respectively. So why compete with WoW on its own territory? WoW has a lot more throughput than SW:TOR, they'd never be able to catch up with them. Why not for focus what sets the game apart? What does anyone need two games for which are identical except for some paint on top and the fact that roles are not implied in classes? If people really want raids they can simply play WoW, problem solved. Why does this game have to be just like another? That's what I would do if raids were the most important aspect of MMOs to me.

 

World of Warcraft is better at being World of Warcraft than Star Wars: The Old Republic could ever be.

 

A. Because we don't all play wow and are Star Wars fans. Some of us started playing this game at launch because it was a SW MMO and not a solo story game.

B. No one who used to play wow and now plays swtor really wants to go back to a game whose graphics are so dated that they look childish.

C. No one is comparing this game to wow, not sure why you felt the need.

 

 

If you are correct in your assessment of why they are changing the game model from MMO to story, then they should just come out and say it.

 

.

[Pagy]

A. Because we don't all play wow and are Star Wars fans. Some of us started playing this game at launch because it was a SW MMO and not a solo story game.

B. No one who used to play wow and now plays swtor really wants to go back to a game whose graphics are so dated that they look childish.

C. No one is comparing this game to wow, not sure why you felt the need.

 

 

If you are correct in your assessment of why they are changing the game model from MMO to story, then they should just come out and say it.

 

.

good points.

 

im sure many appreciate this letter; and on its own i do too. he's said "we're still here" which means they acknowledge those of use that wondered this fact.

 

aside from that, people are annoyed by "non-information". I can see why they dont want to commit to something and not deliver, but at the same time, non-information isn't helpful either. people will react because they are desperate to hear about flashpoints, operations...and since communication is so rare, this represents not only a missed opportunity, but another what, 3 months until we maybe hear something?

[Max_Killjoy]

OK...I'd agree with that number being roughly 6 "I quit' replies...but is that really "bleepity bleeping"? Isn't it the players saying "I need more details, this is too vague to keep me...I quit"? To me, those are more 'pleas' than rants...

 

Have you ever quit an MMO before Max? I have...several. Know how I've done it? I just cancelled and left...I think the people who are stating they're quitting, probably are...but they're stating that they are because they really don't "want" to...they'd rather be given a reason to stay (reason being HOPE) here.

 

I saw the name calling ones...so we saw that too. I read those as frustrated players wishing for more...I'm not excusing them, I just ignore them...they're few and far between usually imo.

 

I quit WoW... just drifted away. I used a free 7-day pass to go back last fall, and frankly I was so lost that I just wandered off again, utterely confused. I didn't recognize the place.