Is this community bad?

[TheRandomWolf]

My experience so far hasn't been so well.. it had its ups and downs, but lately, it's just getting worse.

 

When I first joined SWTOR I knew right from start that this was indeed going to be around 80% or more of a single-player experience for me. But I can't help but to be baffled at how... mean and antisocial these people are. As a new player I requested for help here and there, some people obliged and were actually very generous by offering me some credits, tips and even gear that I would later on use. All of that vanished in a matter of time. I have tried to talk with people, offer my help as well, tried to party up with other players in order to complete missions and queued for several flashpoints. The results were disastrous. People simply ignore me, whether I emote in front of them or chat. They also tend to insult me and kick me out of flashpoints when they find out I'm still fairly new to the game. I know my way around, but I'm no expert.

 

The really worst case scenarios are most of the people who tend to chat in General. I have seen not-so-amazing communities in the past, but honestly... not this bad. It seems like the majority of this game's population are children who try to act superior to everyone else. People who willingly "troll" others and purposefully try to waste their time with meaningless and absurd topics. There's also so much hate, dumb political and racist talks. I can't seriously ask for any sort of help or suggestions that I'll just end up from where I started.

 

The guilds that I joined were also underwhelming and poor. Even if they had over 200 or 500 numbers... they never showed more than 10 people online and these people wouldn't really do anything. I have also been scammed and tricked a few times.

 

I feel like I'm pretty much on my own. The game feels dead empty. Even though sometimes I can see that there's over 100 people in a map or crowds standing around... it feels lonely. Should I just turn off the chat and completely ignore the fact that this is an online game? Because it sure feels like it's not. "Endgame" are deserts. Ilum, Makeb, the KOTFE and KOTET maps... Maybe that's just me? Maybe that's just the server I'm at? It's Red Eclipse, the supposedly most populated server in Europe.

 

Edit: I have played many different MMOs ever since I started getting into them in 2009. I started out with regional Free-To-Play MMOs like Metin2, 4Story, Cabal. Metin2 and 4Story, even though they were only around for the country that I live in, felt incredibly alive. There were always people around willing to quest together. Cabal was a different story. I joined it far too late and it was pretty much dead... Then I joined TERA and Guild Wars 2, and these two games were filled with all sorts of personalities, especially Guild Wars 2. I would go back to Guild Wars 2 if it hadn't burned me out due to the grind.

Edited January 30, 2017 by TheRandomWolf

[Drew_Braxton]

I can only speak in regard to my server (Shadowlands), but players are pretty helpful to new people. That doesn't include general chat in any way shape or form as that is about as toxic as they come. That is pretty consistent in all the games I've played though so not unique to swtor.

 

Two things that might help you.

1. Shop around for a different guild that does more group stuff or start a group of your own to run heroics or flashpoints outside of groupfinder.

 

2. Mention you are a newer player or it's your first time in that flashpoint right at the beginning. I've seen nothing but good results when this was mentioned right up front. Waiting til everyone dies or just jumping in not knowing mechanics is not going to win you any friends. I've never seen anyone kicked since 1.0 or 2.0 for someone making that fact known up front. The only ones I recall from way back were the tanks who said they were new and a quick inspection of their gear revealed them in cunning or willpower gear O_o.

[TheRandomWolf]

I would change servers if I could, but that would mean I'd lose my Legacy and all of its unlocks.

[TUXs]

This community is great imo...but many are understandably very frustrated right now. I've never seen chat the way it is these days and I've never heard more players speak poorly of the game than right now. 5.X has damaged this game and Bioware doesn't care.

[Lionflash]

I would change servers if I could, but that would mean I'd lose my Legacy and all of its unlocks.

 

Your Legacy and legacy unlocks transfer with you.

[Talon_strikes]

The really worst case scenarios are most of the people who tend to chat in General. I have seen not-so-amazing communities in the past, but honestly... not this bad. It seems like the majority of this game's population are children who try to act superior to everyone else. People who willingly "troll" others and purposefully try to waste their time with meaningless and absurd topics. There's also so much hate, dumb political and racist talks. I can't seriously ask for any sort of help or suggestions that I'll just end up from where I started.

I'm sorry but reading this out loud made me start cracking up in tears. Unfortunately that is common behavior in almost all MMOs and lots of other mutliplayer games. Nothing you can really do about it but use your /ignore function, learn to block it out or close chat completely.

 

I feel like I'm pretty much on my own. The game feels dead empty. Even though sometimes I can see that there's over 100 people in a map or crowds standing around... it feels lonely. Should I just turn off the chat and completely ignore the fact that this is an online game? Because it sure feels like it's not. "Endgame" are deserts. Ilum, Makeb, the KOTFE and KOTET maps... Maybe that's just me? Maybe that's just the server I'm at? It's Red Eclipse, the supposedly most populated server in Europe.

A lot of people do AFK and are simply crafting or waiting for a queue pop. You can blame the emptiness partly due to how non-interactive the worlds themselves feel. This game is the epitome of a themepark game. It's all on-rails.

 

I also see you mentioned some daily areas. A lot of them used to mean something years ago but now are barren wastelands. IIRC I think areas like Ilum and SecX are ignored because the missions were changed or removed. There's more updated areas or parts of the game with better payout and are more in-line with the level cap.

 

I would change servers if I could, but that would mean I'd lose my Legacy and all of its unlocks.

I'm pretty sure your legacy transfers. The only things that don't transfer are stuff in your legacy bank, guild bank, guilds themselves and their ships, and what's attached to your strongholds (though you don't lose your SHs if you bought them with CC).

 

I think TRE is the ONLY server in the EU that is alive--all others are dead. The US is a little better but The Harbinger is basically TRE of the US. A few of the quieter ones that are still hanging on are Shadowlands and TEH (and maybe JC). I honestly wouldn't consider any server other than Harbinger if you want to play US. Since x-server is never coming and dead servers will most likely never be closed it's for your own benefit to stay on the most populated server.

 

I'd help you out if I could though. Perhaps we can meet in-game one day. I'm sorry your experience has been poor.

Edited January 30, 2017 by Talon_strikes

[dr_mike]

I can only speak in regard to my server (Shadowlands), but players are pretty helpful to new people.

 

I'm on Shadowlands and I find myself answering 40+ questions a day in chat, usually on DK and Coruscent chat as I'm in my stronghold and the chats are shared.

 

Having said that, a few months ago we had a delightful person who went into details about how they wanted to um force themselves on the girl across the table from him and included rather graphic details as to how they do it.

 

It's a community. There are some wonderful people. And there are those who get to wear those lovely ankle bracelets.

[ThomasTomaz]

I'm sorry but reading this out loud made me start cracking up in tears. Unfortunately that is common behavior in almost all MMOs and lots of other mutliplayer games. Nothing you can really do about it but use your /ignore function, learn to block it out or close chat completely.

 

 

A lot of people do AFK and are simply crafting or waiting for a queue pop. You can blame the emptiness partly due to how non-interactive the worlds themselves feel. This game is the epitome of a themepark game. It's all on-rails.

 

I also see you mentioned some daily areas. A lot of them used to mean something years ago but now are barren wastelands. IIRC I think areas like Ilum and SecX are ignored because the missions were changed or removed. There's more updated areas or parts of the game with better payout and are more in-line with the level cap.

 

 

I'm pretty sure your legacy transfers. The only things that don't transfer are stuff in your legacy bank, guild bank, guilds themselves and their ships, and what's attached to your strongholds (though you don't lose your SHs if you bought them with CC).

 

I think TRE is the ONLY server in the EU that is alive--all others are dead. The US is a little better but The Harbinger is basically TRE of the US. A few of the quieter ones that are still hanging on are Shadowlands and TEH (and maybe JC). I honestly wouldn't consider any server other than Harbinger if you want to play US. Since x-server is never coming and dead servers will most likely never be closed it's for your own benefit to stay on the most populated server.

 

I'd help you out if I could though. Perhaps we can meet in-game one day. I'm sorry your experience has been poor.

 

While I am not one to participate much outside of my own story, I do know that Jedi Covenant is pretty active. Fleet and homeworlds on both sides usually have well over 100 people. I was playing Balmorra for a couple hours before working Saturday night on the Republic side, and there were around 50 people in the afternoon. However, sometimes when venturing back to Coruscant on the Republic side, I noticed in the past week that the number was a little less than 100- I do wonder if some people are dropping their subs because of all of the issues they are having with end-game content and the grind. My Imperial characters are all completed, but if some people wanted me to check out specific populations tonight or something, I'd pop on and check.

[RobertFKennedyUS]

I recently transferred from Republic Jedi Covenant to Imperial Harbinger and it's the most troll thing I've ever seen in my life.

 

Last night there was a big conversation straight out of Stormfront White Nationalist forums. No exaggeration. A couple people were posting about how white people are the master race and everyone else needs to get out of the US. This is just one variation on what is normally a pretty terrible dialogue all the time. I actually keep a "Harbinger quote thread' on my forum. Here are some recent entries:

 

 

John Doe 1: "how do i respec?"

 

John Doe 2: "go **** yourself John Doe 1"

 

John Doe 3: "Any active guilds recruiting?"

 

John Doe 4: "**** off with your guild search, wrong time of night, noob."

 

I can say for certain that Republic side Jedi Covenant was nothing like this and to my experience imp side JC wasn't like this either. Harb is out of control on fleet and Dromund Kaas.

Edited January 30, 2017 by RobertFKennedyUS

[LordAppius]

French ppl i ve met so far are toxic and horrible players.

 

Had a run with players who belong to a french guild, most were toxic and were insulting the players throughout the raid, at some point i replied to them in french and said they shouldn't be pretentious and assume that other players do not speak french. If you play pvp you will meet a lot of imbecils or those who call other ppl "kiddos" for anything they do. You have ppl who are at the same level as garbadge and you will meet ppl who are really nice, i've met both so far, and on my experience the ones you meet that are good people you might end up making good friendships, still talk with ppl i've met in 2013, not the random "hello, how are you" but funny and constructive conversations

[kodrac]

Yes it is. I've been playing MMOs for over a decade and this is by far the most toxic community I've ever seen. It puts WoW's Barrens chat to shame. You basically have two options: Join a high population server for good queue times and be trolled and/or be ashamed for humanity or join a low pop server and have much fewer trolls and psychos, if any, but much longer queue times. The higher the pop, the higher the degree of douchebaggery.

[eriksarcasm]

It is but only if you judge us by our worst elements, which are present in any large anonymous group. I try to judge people individually, not by the society they are a part of.

[RswanBing]

French ppl i ve met so far are toxic and horrible players.

 

Had a run with players who belong to a french guild, most were toxic and were insulting the players throughout the raid, at some point i replied to them in french and said they shouldn't be pretentious and assume that other players do not speak french. If you play pvp you will meet a lot of imbecils or those who call other ppl "kiddos" for anything they do. You have ppl who are at the same level as garbadge and you will meet ppl who are really nice, i've met both so far, and on my experience the ones you meet that are good people you might end up making good friendships, still talk with ppl i've met in 2013, not the random "hello, how are you" but funny and constructive conversations

 

As a french I don't doubt for one second there's stupid french players ^^, still, you can't make a generality out of it.

 

I could use the same logic: I start playing on an english talking server a few days ago, and if I was as fast as you to judge, I would conclude that french players are way more friendly and social than the new people I play with now.

 

On my french server, whatever group activity you play, people always say hi to each other, talk friendly, help each others (of course there's some exceptions)...

 

Since I'm on that new server, people mostly never answer or engage in any social way, things are really different, and I've seen a lot of people insulting others in pvp, it's a really different mood.

 

I could go and claim english people are all toxic players too, since that's what I've mostly seen so far, but I know that would be nonsense.

[TUXs]

It is but only if you judge us by our worst elements, which are present in any large anonymous group. I try to judge people individually, not by the society they are a part of.

Well said!

[DisIzMe]

Lots of group oriented people left and most guilds are in steady decline. This is why it is hard for you to find groups.

TRE is pretty decent and chat trolling is harmless.

[JediAkemi]

I still have a bunch of characters on Red Eclipse but I've pretty much only been playing on Progenitor since... well, before SoR.

My Imperial guild is on life-support. I almost never see anyone there.

I see a few guildmates on the Republic side, but it's become a lot more hit & miss lately on whether they want to do things with me. And if a raid team is being formed, it always seems to be right when my family are sitting down to dinner, so no raid for me

[Groncho]

It's not bad...It's sad

PvP community got destroyed after the 2.8 "PVP patch", most of the good teams and good players left

PvE community got destroyed slowly last year due the lack of content most of the hardcore Pve guilds quit or merged but their numbers are not growing at all

So yes, it's pretty bad that the forums are infested by companion lovers, outfit demanders and some clueless whiteknights

Game is pretty fun but the last update was killer for many vets

 

So ye the community has no depth an understanding of combat/mechs except from a few posters

 

GG

[Lunafox]

Shadowlands, as others have said is a lovely server. People tend to be fairly tolerant, helpful and decent especially to those who need a bit of help.

[JediAkemi]

I try to help new players in flashpoints. I nearly always ask right off the bat if anyone is doing it for the first time, and if someone is I will try to explain things.

A few days ago that actually let to me finding out there were way more mobs around the entrance hangar of False Emperor than I'd ever had to fight before.

[RobertFKennedyUS]

Yes it is. I've been playing MMOs for over a decade and this is by far the most toxic community I've ever seen. It puts WoW's Barrens chat to shame. You basically have two options: Join a high population server for good queue times and be trolled and/or be ashamed for humanity or join a low pop server and have much fewer trolls and psychos, if any, but much longer queue times. The higher the pop, the higher the degree of douchebaggery.

 

I just got through another hour of being on the fleet while the same guy and a fair amount of enablers and supporters I might add, literally spammed the fleet chat with calls of Nazism, literally blaming the Jews for everything and saying there should be mass deportations of everyone who is not white, and an invasion of all "non-white" countries on the planet. His comment was not the most disturbing one though, but it was the guy who really seemed to be serious about saying he would love a civil war in the US so he could start killing a bunch of his political opponents. He was serious.

 

It would be nice if Bware could actually get rid of people like that.

 

Harb Imperial fleet, Harb Dromund Kass - NEEDS TO BE CLEANED UP

[dr_mike]

It would be nice if Bware could actually get rid of people like that.

 

Can't. He's a founder and they can do anything they want in game on the forums. Or at least that's what they'll tell you.

[TheRandomWolf]

I appreciate all the supportive comments and the variety of opinions. I am still, however, facing good and bad experiences. It's starting to be 50/50.. but I really hope that with time, I get to find some really nice people and play with them properly. Also wanted to try some kind of roleplay, but that doesn't seem likely.

[aerockyul]

The trolls in chat only have as much power as you give them by responding to them in any way, shape, or form, and that includes "standing up" for whomever you think they're directing their attacks. There are two tools to use to take away their power:

 

Report them. Bioware's reporting system isn't very good. If someone is on your same planet or on fleet, but not physically close to you, you can ONLY report them for Spam. If they are very close to you, and I believe it's something dumb like only 30m, you have more reporting options, such as Spam, Harassment, Real Life Threat/Suicide Threat, and I think one other that I can't remember right now. Oh, and if you're close to them, the report dropdown list is "hidden" in that you have to "find" it through two separate dropdown lists. It's not immediately available like the Report Spam feature is when you're not physically close to them.

Will reporting them stop them immediately? No, but if enough people report them, it will be noticed and something will EVENTUALLY happen to them. Yeah, they'll start up a new toon/account/whatever, but that's Bioware's prerogative as far as how far they're willing to allow trolls to exist within their game. I'm not 100% sure on how squelching works, but I think it might be related to the number of people that report someone in a certain amount of time.

 

Ignore them (using the ignore feature, not "pretending" you don't see what they're doing in chat). Unfortunately, there is a really dumb cap on your ignore list. It makes no sense to have an ignore cap. I defy anyone to have a good reason for it. Okay, that aside, ignoring trolls is the most powerful thing you can do (besides hunting them down physically). If a troll is alone in a forest and the trees have no ears, how much power does that troll have?

 

The goal of trolls

If the people who want a nicer place on the Internet would stop being Letter C in the linked diagram, trolls (Letter A) would have no power. By ignoring them you cannot be Letter C and the troll will not exist for you and, if enough people actually followed through, would not exist in the game. Stop validating them by responding to them! (And talking about them on the forums is still validating them)

 

EDIT: Wanted to add that the Ignore feature in game works good and bad for group content. In PvE, you would never be matched through groupfinder with someone you've ignored. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way in PvP. You won't see what they type but they'll still be there, trolling the rest of your team. Apparently queue times would slow to almost nothing if PvP trolls were actually ignored like in PvE, and the few remaining "nice" PvPers are okay validating and allowing the trolls to chase away any prospective non-troll PvPers for the sake of a faster queue pop.

Edited February 1, 2017 by aerockyul
Addendum

[americanaussie]

My experience so far hasn't been so well.. it had its ups and downs, but lately, it's just getting worse.

 

When I first joined SWTOR I knew right from start that this was indeed going to be around 80% or more of a single-player experience for me. But I can't help but to be baffled at how... mean and antisocial these people are. As a new player I requested for help here and there, some people obliged and were actually very generous by offering me some credits, tips and even gear that I would later on use. All of that vanished in a matter of time. I have tried to talk with people, offer my help as well, tried to party up with other players in order to complete missions and queued for several flashpoints. The results were disastrous. People simply ignore me, whether I emote in front of them or chat. They also tend to insult me and kick me out of flashpoints when they find out I'm still fairly new to the game. I know my way around, but I'm no expert.

 

The really worst case scenarios are most of the people who tend to chat in General. I have seen not-so-amazing communities in the past, but honestly... not this bad. It seems like the majority of this game's population are children who try to act superior to everyone else. People who willingly "troll" others and purposefully try to waste their time with meaningless and absurd topics. There's also so much hate, dumb political and racist talks. I can't seriously ask for any sort of help or suggestions that I'll just end up from where I started.

 

The guilds that I joined were also underwhelming and poor. Even if they had over 200 or 500 numbers... they never showed more than 10 people online and these people wouldn't really do anything. I have also been scammed and tricked a few times.

 

I feel like I'm pretty much on my own. The game feels dead empty. Even though sometimes I can see that there's over 100 people in a map or crowds standing around... it feels lonely. Should I just turn off the chat and completely ignore the fact that this is an online game? Because it sure feels like it's not. "Endgame" are deserts. Ilum, Makeb, the KOTFE and KOTET maps... Maybe that's just me? Maybe that's just the server I'm at? It's Red Eclipse, the supposedly most populated server in Europe.

 

Edit: I have played many different MMOs ever since I started getting into them in 2009. I started out with regional Free-To-Play MMOs like Metin2, 4Story, Cabal. Metin2 and 4Story, even though they were only around for the country that I live in, felt incredibly alive. There were always people around willing to quest together. Cabal was a different story. I joined it far too late and it was pretty much dead... Then I joined TERA and Guild Wars 2, and these two games were filled with all sorts of personalities, especially Guild Wars 2. I would go back to Guild Wars 2 if it hadn't burned me out due to the grind.

 

 

PLEASE- Contact this guy https://twitter.com/TheTheronShan if you have twitter. If not then I think his guild is swtorfamily and you can find them in the Red Eclipse. Great guy. Great Guild. Good times. They do things. I'd so join them if I were in Europe. Please. He's super friendly and the guild members are all equally amazing.

[BenduKundalini]

French ppl i ve met so far are toxic and horrible players.

 

Had a run with players who belong to a french guild, most were toxic and were insulting the players throughout the raid, at some point i replied to them in french and said they shouldn't be pretentious and assume that other players do not speak french. If you play pvp you will meet a lot of imbecils or those who call other ppl "kiddos" for anything they do. You have ppl who are at the same level as garbadge and you will meet ppl who are really nice, i've met both so far, and on my experience the ones you meet that are good people you might end up making good friendships, still talk with ppl i've met in 2013, not the random "hello, how are you" but funny and constructive conversations

 

Yeah, thanks. We do have our share of = what OP described, but I've never seen ANYHTING remotely as toxic - and illegal, such as nazi propaganda - as the general chat on the Harbinger, thank you very much.

Edited February 1, 2017 by BenduKundalini