An open letter to our players

[Opaknack]

Hi there!

 

My name is Ben Irving, Producer for Star Wars: The Old Republic. I don’t often make posts in the forums, in fact, this may be my first ever post. Despite that, our whole team, myself included try to digest all of the internet for SWTOR information – The forums, Reddit, Facebook, YouTube, etc. Recently there have been questions and concerns around the quality of our releases and the ongoing support for SWTOR and I wanted to stop by to address those concerns.

 

First off, I want to apologize for some of the issues you have experienced in the last couple of months. The monthly chapter release schedule is new and it has come with some unexpected bugs. It has caused problems for some of you and I want to say I am sorry. At our core, the SWTOR team are all gamers, just like you. We empathize with the excitement of wanting to play a great game only to be blocked by a problem. We spend all of our energy striving to make SWTOR the best game possible and when bugs and other issues get in the way of your player experience, we take it to heart. We are committed to doing better and I think Chapter XII: Visions in the Dark shows we are serious about listening to your concerns and making meaningful changes to address them - a high quality chapter, released on time that we hope has met the expectations of our players.

 

Onto the future. Is SWTOR going to receive ongoing support? The answer is absolutely yes.

 

It's worth starting with the things we have already announced, we talk about them on the monthly Producer Live Stream but I think they are still worth mentioning. 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. More recently we have kicked off our monthly chapter cadence and our third installment – Chapter XII: Visions in the Dark – was just released. That cadence will take us through most of the year ending with Chapter XVI, our story finale for Knights of the Fallen Empire. In addition to all the monthly chapters we have built great supporting content – Recruitment missions to explore the galaxy with some of your favorite companions, the Odessen Proving Grounds Warzone, the Rishi Cove Arena, the Eternal Championship and new levels for crafting. That’s actually more content following a major expansion than we have ever released and the team is really excited for all of you to play it.

 

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. If you follow Charles Boyd or Paul Marino on social media you may have seen some hints of this. The team recently visited our MoCap studio to create new animations. Charles Boyd spent a week at our VO studio recording more lines of dialogue for future story content. The two most exciting things to share are that our writers are deep into the plot summaries for the next season's worth of chapters and we have started the early design phase for new, non-chapter, content. You all know the drill here, I can’t talk about any of the specifics (yet) but what I can say is that we have some REALLY cool stuff to talk about later this year and the whole SWTOR team can’t wait to announce it. Soon. TM.

 

Knights of the Fallen Empire is the most successful expansion we have ever produced. It received critical acclaim from press and fan sites but most importantly, it has been successful because all of you have supported us through the expansion launch and the release of the monthly Chapters. In the eyes of all of our partners, SWTOR is a huge success. BioWare supports this game. EA supports this game. Lucasfilm supports this game. Disney supports this game. In fact, for a game that has been live for almost 5 years, we are receiving an incredible amount of support from all of our partners. It’s both amazing and humbling.

 

If there is anything I would like people reading this to take away it’s this: SWTOR is absolutely being supported into the future. We have a lot of content coming over the next few months and even more exciting things to talk about later this year. All of us here at BioWare appreciate your ongoing support and we are committed to providing the best experience possible.

 

It’s because of you, our players, that this game continues to thrive. Thank you for playing Star Wars: The Old Republic.

 

Ben Irving

Thank for answer.

But here i don't see the answers for the real issues in the game.

 

What about

- the buggy rishi map with all the stuck spots ruining ranked PVP for all jumping classes.

- the sage sorc plague ruining pvp and solo ranked

- class balance for PVP. First of all it needs a massive nerf for sage/sorc heal !!! and balance all 3 heal classes at the same level.

- force barrier wins every acid in 4vs4 arena. That's another skill to win for sages/sorcs (exploit? bug? Why it was never fixed?).

- nerf for madness sorc/sage and their survival/escape and offhealing skills.

- the not existing ressource management for sages/sorcs.

( Is the whole SWTOR team playing sorc or sage? Has someone of them ever played merc heal? )

- the almost useless tank stats in pvp. At the moment every tank use dd-equip because a tank cant shield or defend internal damage. That's another advantage for madness sorcs/sages.

- how to prevent wintrading in ranked

- solution for the a half empty servers. servermerge?

- why not cross server ranked? So the rating would becomes significant and every team could play rated every time. No more queue dodge an wintrading.

- new operations (Release of Ravagers/Temple was dec 2014 !!! )

- ridiculous loot system in operations that kills pve guilds/raids. Garanted BIS gear 224 in the easiest highlighted hardmodes (for example ethernity vault and karaggas palace) and just a chance for 224 in nightmare. So nightmare and very difficult operations are useless when the reward there is less than in a easy operation.

- all the easy/boring solo-content. Why not more or at last a little bit competitive and also group content?

?

Edited April 19, 2016 by Opaknack

[Max_Killjoy]

Sometimes communication is not good... I just deleted my payment information from my account... this post is what prompted me to do it... First time in 4 years that has happened...

 

The lashing out is deserved when such blatant marketing speak is tossed out. For such a long post, what did he really say? They are working on season 2 of chapter solo content and other stuff they can't talk about is in development, which could be anything, including another recruitment mission for another companion.

 

I'm simply sad that such potential has been lost by a company unable to plan for the future and do Star Wars justice.

 

Well, I'll be sorry to see you go.

[TX_Angel]

I think Ben's actually the director, not some random dev.

 

That doesn't invalidate my comment at all... He either doesn't know he is full of it, or he does.

 

Which option is worse?

[TX_Angel]

Well, I'll be sorry to see you go.

 

Thanks.

 

Sorry if I sound bitter... but I guess I am...

[Max_Killjoy]

That doesn't invalidate my comment at all... He either doesn't know he is full of it, or he does.

 

Which option is worse?

 

Honestly? This is why they don't talk to us -- because no matter what they say, someone's going to take a chunk out of them.

Edited April 19, 2016 by Max_Killjoy

[TX_Angel]

Honestly? This is why they don't talk to us -- because no matter what they say, someone's going to take a chunk out of them.

 

That is not true...

 

Had he come out and said, "we have no ops in development, but 2 more flashpoints are in progress and we hope to be done later this year on them", I would have respect for that.

 

Had he come out and said, "GSF is getting nothing this year, WZ may get 1 more map, 1 flashpoint, and we're talking about an operation, but no promises", again I would respect that.

 

Had he said, "I'm sorry the MMO content has been ignored for so long, we simply don't have the staff to work on all of it at once, so we have decided to focus on story", AGAIN I would respect that.

 

The cost of my sub is trivial, I spent almost $1,500 in CC last year (15 purchases of 14,500 CC) (nothing this year). I pay for 3 subs, my son and my wife as well (neither has played in over a month however).

 

Subscription end date:

13 Aug 2016

 

That is when my sub runs out (I paid for 6 months at a time). The other two accounts have slightly different dates, but payment details are removed there as well.

 

I'm just not going to pay $180 a year for a single player game with 1-2 hours a month of content and this type of communication.

[JMCA]

All you crybabies listen up:

 

This was a declaration of victory and speaking out to those who are confused by the vocal minority on these forums, reddit, etc.

 

SWTOR is stronger than ever.

 

KotFE has been the best expansion the game has ever made.

 

The future is bright.

 

Yes, there have been problems but they haven't stopped SWTOR from becoming a true competitor in the MMO genre.

 

I'm enjoying the ride, and for those who are whining about not being the center of attention - get over yourselves.

[SerraShar]

Honestly? This is why they don't talk to us -- because no matter what they say, someone's going to take a chunk out of them.

 

Thats not a good reason .

 

This game badly need communication between community and dev . No communication at all (or minimum) only birth frustration wich lead to a roller coaster of negatives emotions wich over time just get worse and worse and worse .

[gabigool]

Honestly? This is why they don't talk to us -- because no matter what they say, someone's going to take a chunk out of them.

 

Totally understandable if you're running, say, a clubhouse.

 

Not so much a good customer service strategy in the real world.

[TX_Angel]

SWTOR is stronger than ever.

 

Then why are the servers nearly empty?

[AndoEyrune]

All you crybabies listen up:

 

This was a declaration of victory and speaking out to those who are confused by the vocal minority on these forums, reddit, etc.

 

SWTOR is stronger than ever.

 

KotFE has been the best expansion the game has ever made.

 

The future is bright.

 

Yes, there have been problems but they haven't stopped SWTOR from becoming a true competitor in the MMO genre.

 

I'm enjoying the ride, and for those who are whining about not being the center of attention - get over yourselves.

 

Good for you if you enjoy it. But as paying customers we all have a right to speak out mind regarding the game. So why don't you get over yourself and stop putting yourself above other players.

[TX_Angel]

Totally understandable if you're running, say, a clubhouse.

 

Not so much a good customer service strategy in the real world.

 

Yep... Bioware is a business, we are the customers...

 

Do you not think the White House Press Secretary sometimes doesn't want to get up in front of all those reporters on a bad news day?

 

But he does anyway, because that's his job.

[JMCA]

Then why are the servers nearly empty?

 

Because the fat has been trimmed off the steak.

[DynamiCtagez]

A bunch of empty marketing/PR rubbish that contains exactly 0 new information. KotFE was so great, we are good, we might be working on some stuff we can't talk about. Pls like us.

 

Good job once again.

[TX_Angel]

Because the fat has been trimmed off the steak.

 

A steak with no fat on it isn't worth eating...

[Tekinette]

Fix the bugs, start merging the servers and add multiplayer content instead of singleplayer one.

[Max_Killjoy]

All you crybabies listen up:

 

This was a declaration of victory and speaking out to those who are confused by the vocal minority on these forums, reddit, etc.

 

SWTOR is stronger than ever.

 

KotFE has been the best expansion the game has ever made.

 

The future is bright.

 

Yes, there have been problems but they haven't stopped SWTOR from becoming a true competitor in the MMO genre.

 

I'm enjoying the ride, and for those who are whining about not being the center of attention - get over yourselves.

 

You're not helping.

[commanderwar]

Then why are the servers nearly empty?

 

And you know how many are in each server?

[JarvisW]

Fix lana's romance!!!

[JennyFlynn]

That doesn't invalidate my comment at all... He either doesn't know he is full of it, or he does.

 

Which option is worse?

 

Wasn't meant to invalidate your comment, was making a correction to the implication he's just a random dev talking out of his arse. He's not.

 

Do I think he's full of it? No. I think he was trying to communicate in a very positive, upbeat nature. That doesn't mean he's full of crap. The truth is that there's been a lot of negativity on the forums lately, a lot of people expressing discontent and he tried to set a more positive note. The fact he didn't touch on the negative topics or made statements such as "We've f-ed up!", doesn't mean that the statements he DID make are any less true.

 

Also, though he doesn't explicitly or obviously state so, he does admit to and apologizes for the poor quality of some of the recent Chapters or at least, the bugs and problems people have ran into. He even explains that for the dev team, this method of releasing content is new to them too and hasn't been flawless yet while they too get used to this new structure.

 

Judging by his post, he's most definitely not blind to current issues nor is he denying them. He's just putting a more positive spin on it but that doesn't equal BS. And he can sit there and say "We're planning new ops!" or "We're planning to improve such and so in PVP" but what happens the very second that doesn't go according to plan? What happens when despite their best intentions, they can't actually pull off whatever he's promising? 1000+ rage threads all over again so he's said nothing on those specific topics instead. Good on him, I wouldn't either.

[Lunafox]

I'm glad Ben wrote the letter to us. He tried at least. You have to start somewhere, and he did, and maybe, just maybe if some people didn't snap at the stick he stuck in the waters, maybe more communications would be forth coming.

 

It's probably better to say in a brief fashion, what you'd like fixed or done than to chastise. If they go through the thread, it's more clear that way what is wanted, than having to comb through a bunch of nasty messages.

 

From what I'm seeing, people say 'bugs!' But they don't say specifically which bugs bug them.

If there were a few really annoying ones that there was a consensus on, they could start with them.

 

It seems the rest of it falls into OPs people would like more OPs, Pvp people would like their cross server queues and balance (which may or may not be possible to achieve, it's like the holy grail, and I suspect much of it could be L2P issues).

 

And for me, and people like me, new strongholds, decorations and more story, with the hope of one or two new classes with story for each side.

 

The only people that seem woefully under represented are the RP people, who I'm sure would appreciate acknowledgement of their presence and contributions to the game, by actually having their own focus instances, like the PVE and PVP people have. To be fair, there should be three instances.

 

That's the way I see it anyways, in the interest of being of help.

[AlienEyeTX]

Ken, Ben, whatever... I blocked it from my memory to shield myself from the marketing lies!

 

His post was long and meaningless, it said nothing at all besides "keep paying us, we'll do something, maybe, soon, one day, you'll see".

 

 

The trolling is strong in this one.

 

Wake me up when you figure out how to distinguish between a dev, a producer, a community manager, and a marketer.

[Degan]

Thanks for the communication.

[lKile]

Awesome post Ben, thanks a lot for taking the time to write directly to us, your players.

 

I bought the Collector's Edition back in 2012, because I love this game. Very excited and happy to know that SWTOR will have more time to fight and get more content in the future!

 

Also we all appreciate your understanding with the bugs problem. We asume you are all working in fixing one little bugs here and there, but there are quite a few that are still present. Keep up the good work and dedication for clearing this game!

 

Also I wanted to make a suggestion (or a request, as you will) regarding the Heroic Missions change with KoTFE. It is good, but not so good for new players. I understand people who needs to complete them over and over again, they skip cutscenes and get the autocomplete option, but, for leveling or for a complete new player this is a bad experience. I'm just saying that, please, if you pick the quest form the NPC, you have to return the quest to the NPC, and if you pick the quest from the terminal, just get the autocomplete option and the reward. Simple as that, because I love the cutscenes in this game and it is quite sad to have them removed. Same with Bonus Series Questgivers in the fleets and Section X questgivers, a lot of voice acting thrown away, that we all would like to have access in the game if we desire.

 

Thanks for your time!

[Max_Killjoy]

The trolling is strong in this one.

 

Wake me up when you figure out how to distinguish between a dev, a producer, a community manager, and a marketer.

 

Just because someone is mad about something, that doesn't make them a troll. I don't agree with him on this, but come on, at least use words for what they actually mean.