Is this lack of communication normal?

[TUXs]

Care to cite your source? Again, rhetorical question.

Would you consider 218 servers to just 4 with any decent population, a source?

[CaptRogue]

Care to cite your source? Again, rhetorical question.

 

HA I don't think so. If he has to "cite his source" then so should you.

How many times have you used "minority" as fact, and not even added "IMO" to your rants??

[AlrikFassbauer]

So no one is going to address the issues of ranked pvp? Not existing rewards people were sc****** tokens for entire season?

 

Ranked Rewards are by far the least problem of all PvP ...

[Firolas]

Would you consider 218 servers to just 4 with any decent population, a source?

 

Now now TUXs the white knights have told us many times,

The empty servers is cause it's normal this time of year

OR because its sunny outside

OR because populations always drops in mmo's too complete ghost towns

OR because the mmo gamer is not a mmo gamer anymore and he/she logs in 5 mins a day etc etc etc

Never ever is it Bioware's fault

 

oh ***** forgot to put 'IMO' every where...*** it

[DarthWoad]

Now now TUXs the white knights have told us many times,

The empty servers is cause it's normal this time of year

OR because its sunny outside

OR because populations always drops in mmo's too complete ghost towns

OR because the mmo gamer is not a mmo gamer anymore and he/she logs in 5 mins a day etc etc etc

Never ever is it Bioware's fault

 

oh ***** forgot to put 'IMO' every where...*** it

 

Errrr no it's because of the star wars movies! right guys??? Also firolas you better use the correct terminology or consequences will never be the same! XD

Edited September 15, 2016 by DarthWoad

[TUXs]

Now now TUXs the white knights have told us many times,

The empty servers is cause it's normal this time of year

OR because its sunny outside

OR because populations always drops in mmo's too complete ghost towns

OR because the mmo gamer is not a mmo gamer anymore and he/she logs in 5 mins a day etc etc etc

Never ever is it Bioware's fault

 

oh ***** forgot to put 'IMO' every where...*** it

If that's not the truth lol. An excuse for everything and seemingly no connection to reality.

[Andryah]

Now now TUXs the white knights have told us many times,

The empty servers is cause it's normal this time of year

OR because its sunny outside

OR because populations always drops in mmo's too complete ghost towns

OR because the mmo gamer is not a mmo gamer anymore and he/she logs in 5 mins a day etc etc etc

Never ever is it Bioware's fault

 

oh ***** forgot to put 'IMO' every where...*** it

 

Where as... the negative narrative is "everything sucks, all the time, in every possible way, no matter what, and the studio and game are doomed".

[Andryah]

I just feel the current model is doing 2 things: (*IMO)

 

1) Angering the base. An angered base is also less likely to be happy with what you've delivered negating the wait after all

2) Instilling ill will. Getting strung along and then finally leaving folks are less likely to return than those who left amicably and may return when content they desire is added

 

No disagreement.

 

Then again.. when hasn't the "base" been angry and insisting everything that does not cater to their wishes creates ill will? How do we define the "base" by the way? Are we talking veterans? If so...

 

The "base" has been on angry since launch. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Yet 5 years later, game is still chugging along, with an expac coming in a few months. People come and go in MMOs all the time, for a wide range of reasons.... and "burn out" and "dissatisfaction" are probably the most often claimed reasons.

 

The tenor of the forum was pretty much the same last year this time too. Lots of negativity, and lots of demanding information immediately, expressions of disgust, large doses of hyperbole, dictating wants/needs, along with lots of threats to quit, etc. This is pretty normal, and it is going to get worse until the expac releases.

Edited September 15, 2016 by Andryah

[OneHit]

You ever notice the debbie downer gang always runs a guild of over 2000 people and they personally poll each one of them and tabulate the results. It's amazing how coincidental that is, don't you think? I have over 873 friends and I just called each one of them right now. Of those 873, 862 told me they LOVED KotFE. Honest, I totally wouldn't just get on the internet and lie to support by absurd position. Pinky swear.

 

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1856457477922382&substory_index=0&id=1481905912044209

 

There's my guild winning 1st week of the bad feeling podcast 50 million contest. If you look to see who booskwets has targeted you might see a familiar name.

Good luck story pro

[Bruticis]

So no sources can be cited, got it. Granted, I did say it was a rhetorical question but bravo for trying to keep up the fairy tales and unicorns going.

[Bruticis]

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1856457477922382&substory_index=0&id=1481905912044209

 

There's my guild winning 1st week of the bad feeling podcast 50 million contest. If you look to see who booskwets has targeted you might see a familiar name.

Good luck story pro

 

I'm going to assume this is just you failing at quoting posts again because otherwise I have NO idea what I'm supposed to learning from this image and what it has to do with my post you quoted.

[DarthWoad]

So no sources can be cited, got it. Granted, I did say it was a rhetorical question but bravo for trying to keep up the fairy tales and unicorns going.

 

You keep telling yourself that.

[Radzkie]

In general the SWTOR playerbase has been unhappy since day one, but if anyone uses the argument that "every MMO forum is the same" they're wrong. They need to go look at FFXIV's general forum. There is normally one or two unhappy threads, but it's overall happy players asking the devs for things they'd like in the future. Best of all, there are LOTS OF dev replies and open, clear communication about what they're working on, thinking about and the type of feedback they're looking for from their playerbase.

 

If only SWTOR's communication was as good.

Edited September 15, 2016 by Radzkie

[OneHit]

LMAO. Love this.

 

Know what makes me laugh harder?

 

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1856457477922382&substory_index=0&id=1481905912044209

[TUXs]

If only SWTOR's communication was as good.

The forums of a game absolutely reflect the level of communication players are getting. Silence breeds contempt.

[OneHit]

I'm going to assume this is just you failing at quoting posts again because otherwise I have NO idea what I'm supposed to learning from this image and what it has to do with my post you quoted.

 

Nah story pro. Its that guild you claim i don't have. Winning

[Firolas]

Where as... the negative narrative is "everything sucks, all the time, in every possible way, no matter what, and the studio and game are doomed".

 

First thing you've wrote that I agree with. oh IMO

 

"everything sucks, all the time, in every possible way, no matter what, and the studio and game are doomed"

 

It's a nice summary from 12 months of these forums and reddit and dulfy and (I'm going to use the scary word) MAJORITY of forum posters <- IMO ( I remembered )

 

Servers are a sad state because of KOTFE (IMO)

Worst mmo expansion ever (IMO)

Funding for this game at it's lowest (IMO)

People played through the first 8-10 chapters and went '' meh '' and stated walking (IMO)

 

You said it yourself back last december the servers were so full they had to make them bigger. Now look at it. (It's easy go up to MySWTOR tab and then Server Status and check out all the green 'light' columns) They're even mainly green during prime time hours, I know I was shocked too!! Been like that for 6/7 months (IMO)

 

Telling people everything is fine,all the time, in every possible way, no matter what, and the studio and game is awesome is just worthless to the community IN MY OPINION.

[Bruticis]

Nah story pro. Its that guild you claim i don't have. Winning

 

Do you have a fever? I never said any such thing. I laughed at your claim that you personally polled 879 people or what ever absurd number it was you claimed from you guild to find out their opinions on KotFE. Congrats on being in a guild in an MMO? I guess that's what you were fishing for here??

[DarthWoad]

First thing you've wrote that I agree with. oh IMO

 

"everything sucks, all the time, in every possible way, no matter what, and the studio and game are doomed"

 

It's a nice summary from 12 months of these forums and reddit and dulfy and (I'm going to use the scary word) MAJORITY of forum posters <- IMO ( I remembered )

 

Servers are a sad state because of KOTFE (IMO)

Worst mmo expansion ever (IMO)

Funding for this game at it's lowest (IMO)

People played through the first 8-10 chapters and went '' meh '' and stated walking (IMO)

 

You said it yourself back last december the servers were so full they had to make them bigger. Now look at it. (It's easy go up to MySWTOR tab and then Server Status and check out all the green 'light' columns) They're even mainly green during prime time hours, I know I was shocked too!! Been like that for 6/7 months (IMO)

 

Telling people everything is fine,all the time, in every possible way, no matter what, and the studio and game is awesome is just worthless to the community IN MY OPINION.

 

100% true. IMO.

Edited September 15, 2016 by DarthWoad

[gabigool]

They did however tell progression raiders that 4.0 was the end of the road. Nightmare Mode (NiM) Operations exist for 5 Operations, and BioWare said in live streams last year that no more will be made going forward either. Period... full stop.

 

Right. That's why at release, Master Blaster, Coratani and Revan were tuned the way they were. Gotcha.

 

What portion of the playerbase were those three encounters targeted at?

 

If you want to get technical, the comment was that no more separate nightmare mode raiding would be created. And IIRC that was stated at a cantina. The Gamescon one IIRC. Wasn't it at a cantina that players were told they would never again wait 14 months for new raid content? And just to pull some other random info that came out during that specific cantina: New GSF stuff was coming, KotFE would have class-specific aspects, they were "always" working on new Ops and (teehee) they were working on things that would make it easier to server-transfer guilds. So clearly we're dealing with concretes.

 

See, your problem is that you can't pick and choose what information you want to believe if the only criteria you use to make that determination is whether or not it supports your point.

 

The Operations released during 3.0 were most definitely not tuned for casual raiders. The name is irrelevant. The above mentioned fights were Nightmare difficulty encounters. Period. That's indisputable.

 

And - 4.0 was never officially the "end of the road". As far as I am aware, this is the only official statement we've ever gotten about 4.0 / Operations: (bold is mine)

 

We know that many players love our Operations and look forward to the introduction of new challenges, however with Knights of the Fallen Empire there will not be any new Operations. We felt it was important to first address some of the issues with our Elder Game before moving on to new content. These changes will allow us to be more flexible with how we release new content, as the content no longer needs to be tied to a new gear tier or level cap increase.

 

Without a severe bias, it is hard to read this statement and interpret it as "the end of the road". Any reasonable person would interpret it as a temporary deviation from the norm. And by the way, they had just given out a trophy to a raid team.

 

I do not dispute that raiding, as we have known and enjoyed it, is probably done. But I also do not think it's a ridiculous notion to ask for confirmation of that fact. People who raid as a primary manner of playstyle have factors to deal with that casual players do not, namely team management, organization, recruitment, scheduling etc. It is a simple matter to take a few months off if you are here for story. It is not quite so simple for people doing the highest difficulty. Your repeated calls for anyone asking for information to "take a break from the game" is far less rational than anyone asking for a firm answer.

 

Expecting an answer? I agree. Probably irrational. But I've seen nothing from you, as hard as you've tried, to demonstrate it is not a question that deserves an answer.

[Transcendent]

The "base" has been on angry since launch. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Yet 5 years later, game is still chugging along, with an expac coming in a few months. People come and go in MMOs all the time, for a wide range of reasons.... and "burn out" and "dissatisfaction" are probably the most often claimed reasons.

 

The tenor of the forum was pretty much the same last year this time too. Lots of negativity, and lots of demanding information immediately, expressions of disgust, large doses of hyperbole, dictating wants/needs, along with lots of threats to quit, etc. This is pretty normal, and it is going to get worse until the expac releases.

 

Truer words were never spoken.

 

However with that being said, at which stage does BioWare Austin as a company learn to manage customer expectations properly so that this does not happen prior to every single expansion? Essentially BioWare Austin cause themselves bad PR for every expansion in the manner in which they choose to communicate. Is this solely on the playerbase for having high expectations of the game and studio?

 

We've seen this cycle before, with regards to parts of the "MMO" (I'm using that term loosely in regards to SWTOR now) that are not being consistently updated, I'm not really surprised that players are voicing concerns, regardless of whether they are a minority within a subset of a subset of the community.

 

If BioWare Austin advertised this game as an "MMO", and provided content that catered to the broadest audience possible in each and every expansion, would we be seeing this reaction prior to each expansion? With regards to other MMO titles, you only have to look at say, Final Fantasy and see how they've attempted to negate previous issues by actually doubling down and working on catering to all parts of the community. At which point do players question how BioWare Austin handle things?

 

I'm fairly certain that all players do have that choice on continuing to subscribe to the game, and in agreement with you on this issue that players should question if they wish to continue to do so if BioWare Austin are not delivering the content or the service that they feel they should be provided with. False hopes are exactly that, as much as it pains me to post the part above, I do think some players are expecting too much from this game studio.

[PlasmaJohn]

Gaming studios will rarely ever box themselves in with absolute statements such as you are demanding.

Didn't GW2 and/or LotRO state that they weren't developing raids any more? Might have been GW2 because I seem to remember several articles about their return to raiding a year or so ago.

 

It's an integrity thing and right now probably the only thing that would make SW:TOR a consideration when they do get around to making raids again. Without something a bit more concrete than "maybe?" or "eventually" the end result is going to be the same as silence. Raiders are going to abandon SW:TOR with prejudice. If they admit to having no plans for 2017 then folks will make their reluctant goodbyes but still keep an eye on the place.

 

They did however tell progression raiders that 4.0 was the end of the road. Nightmare Mode (NiM) Operations exist for 5 Operations, and BioWare said in live streams last year that no more will be made going forward either. Period... full stop.

 

No such statement was made by them about Story or Hardmode OPs, or any other types of group content. So it is reasonable to expect we will see more of these, but when and how is TBD. They are not going to comment on TBDs... never have, likely never will.

Agreed that they stated that NiM is history. While it was a tiny niche within the raid niche many folks within those teams gave so much community support to TOR. IMO supporting that mode was a small price to pay for their contributions.

 

You can still do progression on less demanding modes. While it's unlikely to bring back the likes of Zorz or Death'n'Taxes, etc. there were folks that felt the challenge of non-Hardmare Hard Mode was "good enough" and I'm sure there's an even larger audience for Story Modes.

 

Silence or equivocations are only going to cause more damage.

[PlasmaJohn]

Oh and reading that you aren't subbed to SWTOR anymore, I understand that you have some days left on your account, wihch is why you're able to post here. I'm intelligent enough not to question you about your subscription or why you're here, i know you're just making use of the time left here to put forward your views about the game (which is what forums are for)

Truth be told my sub is still active as I haven't quite yet cancelled it. I came back to catch up on the story I missed (SoR,Ziost,KotFE). Certainly well worth at least a month (maybe two :shh: ). Still deciding if I want to finish the DvL Legendary tier or not.

 

At least this time when I cancel I can tell them why. You don't get that opportunity with time cards.

[DarthSpuds]

Hey folks,

 

I thought this thread was a good opportunity to talk about the communication as of late. Although I may not post every day, I am definitely here, reading the forums. I know that there is frustration right now because you are all eager to learn more about what is coming in Knights of the Eternal Throne. We just aren't ready to talk about Eternal Throne yet, and so I can't answer your questions at this time.

 

Thanks everyone.

 

-eric

 

So with between 4 and 12 weeks to go to KOTET launch you are not ready to talk about it yet?

 

You seriously expect anyone who knows anything at all about game development cycles to believe that?

 

With that kind of time left you should be in final closed beta (if you used closed / open bet like most game companies) - which means ALL key systems would be finalised (except for balance/QoL tweaks), all game-world assets would be in place and being swept for bugs/glitches, pretty much the only things left to mess with are entirely cosmetic or are tweaks of the system-variable sliders already in place.

 

If you are genuinely not ready to talk yet there is only two possible explanations:

1) Your Dev team has no idea what the hell they are doing.

2) You are deliberately choosing not to communicate with your customer.

 

Either way it doesn't bode well at all.

 

All The Best

[DarthSpuds]

[*]Player choice is an interesting topic. KOTFE in many ways had more impact for your choices than our previous stories. One of the pieces of feedback we saw is that sometimes you may make a choice, but not see the consequences until much later on (Koth!). This can definitely lessen the feeling that those choices had impact, since the choice and impact of that choice were far apart.

 

-eric

 

No.

 

They didn't.

 

Done it three times taking three entirely different sets of choices, the ONLY difference any of them made was Koth.

 

There are almost ZERO "choices that matter" in KotFE.

 

All The Best