Stephen Reid answers questions. Everyone should see this.

[Darth_Firon]

I did`nt get an answer to my big question.

[RThanues]

They have ETA's for fixes and features they are working on (whether it's an accurate estimate or not is immaterial). You can't work in hightech without a project timeline, who does what and when.

 

Why are they not sharing? Beside the obvious fan rage in case something gets delayed (this has been mentioned by Mr. Reid), 99% of all Bioware employees (and gaming industry employees in general) sign a non-disclosure agreement. For that reason alone, Mr. Reid is vague regarding many of the features that we might (or might not) see.

 

Rest assured he didn't answer vaguely just to annoy you.

Edited December 29, 2011 by RThanues

[Skizzik]

By agnoliging the issues they reveal that they are aware meaning it will be fixed.

 

Of course they're aware of the issues. If they weren't aware of the issues, then there'd be real cause for concern. Also, just because they are aware of something doesn't mean it will get fixed.

Edited December 29, 2011 by Sejia
edited for language

[lueckjathom]

Maybe; Someday; It's being discussed; I can't talk about it; We are aware of the concern; etc etc.

 

But at least he used lots of smileys and winkeys. That makes it all good.

[ratfanatic]

I have never seen acknowledging spelled that way. Thank you for making my morning shine a little brighter.

 

Good lord is that what he was writing? Kudos to you for deciphering it.

Edited December 29, 2011 by ratfanatic

[Yukondoit]

Good lord is that what he was writing? Kudos to you for deciphering it.

 

It's a gift.

[Perfidius]

TBH the guy should have been a politician, he gives the appearance of answering the communities questions and caring, but generally gives some vague answer that can be read anyway at all, or completely sidesteps the question. Thats when he isnt using the old "cant comment on that at this stage"

 

Example: ' Yeah we have some ideas' - really? What ideas, implement it, dont implement it, change it; could mean anything...

 

'We are looking at some options', again another bland answer that could mean anything, maybe the option is do nothing

 

All in all, a pointless waste of time and no real new information given at all, that hasnt already been posted in Devs comments, which you can see easily on Dev tracker, plus we all know how reliable they are!

 

Good job i enjoy the game and am happy to wait

[acheros]

..why are all the answers "Yes, we're aware people want to know that. next"

[RThanues]

TBH the guy should have been a politician, he gives the appearance of answering the communities questions and caring, but generally gives some vague answer that can be read anyway at all, or completely sidesteps the question. Thats when he isnt using the old "cant comment on that at this stage"

 

Example: ' Yeah we have some ideas' - really? What ideas, implement it, dont implement it, change it; could mean anything...

 

'We are looking at some options', again another bland answer that could mean anything, maybe the option is do nothing

 

All in all, a pointless waste of time and no real new information given at all, that hasnt already been posted in Devs comments, which you can see easily on Dev tracker, plus we all know how reliable they are!

 

Good job i enjoy the game and am happy to wait

 

Read what I wrote above you.

[Yozzshura]

Seemed like a good chap, I dont expect him to give us any more information that we already knew about issues. But we he was acknowledging the questions and informing us on if it has been notices, most of which have. Which means a solution is in the making.

 

Better than him saying "I Cannot Comment at this Stage"

 

I read the whole thing, i feel safe in the knowledge all will be resolved which has issues in the near future.

[johnnyrey]

Why in gods name are you bumping this? There is ZERO information in that entire thread. Literally, nothing is answered in any way shape or form. Saying "We are working on it" and "We are aware of it" and "It's harder than you think" can in no way be considered an "answer" by any sane adult.

 

What a worthless "Q & A".

[Petyl]

Why the hell is this type of thing not done through the forums? I should not have to go to 15 different websites or Twitter or Facebook or any other crap to find out whats going on.

 

 

I don't see the problem. You still got to read the information by visiting the official forums. Someone else just did the work of finding the information for you.

 

In the end you only had to visit 1 website and follow a link to another one.

[Mackenzen]

There are two kinds of questions that developers can answer: Concept status and development phase.

 

Concept status is the developers approach to a proposed feature.

Confirmed:

Coming for sure

Ex: “UI customization is coming for sure.”

 

Favored/Addressing:

like the idea , think it will fit well in the game. Often there is a restriction as to what they are able to talk about publically.

ex: “something like guild capital ships sounds super cool and the development team likes the idea.”

A concept they are “addressing” is often a bug fix or other issue tha they want to fix but they aren’t sure of the best procedure.

 

Discussed:

Familiar with the idea and have already been exploring the concept, though it isn’t necessarily favored.

ex: Ability delay: “It has been discussed internally, and we'll talk about it publicly soon.”

 

Aware:

they know that the idea is out there but they haven’t really bought into the concept.

ex: API mods- “ Modding may happen, but we have no ETA on 'when' that we can share right now.”

 

Not Discussed:

Something that has been considered and rejected, at least for the present. not something they are actively considering.

ex: “Currently AC respeccing is not on the table”

 

Development Phase

Active Development:

these are ideas that the team is actively implementing or working on at the moment. These are features that could be added to the game between now and the next 2-3 months. Could be included in the next patch.

 

Short term – Near term:

Features that are having the groundwork laid for them. In 3 months they are likely to be moved to Active development. Will probably wait for the next major patch cycle.

 

Mid term projects:

Ideas that are favored and that they have a path toward implementation. Look for them to be moved to Active development in 6 months. Don’t expect them before the next major expansion.

 

Long term projects:

Ideas that are favored but have no clear implementation path. Still refining the basic concept and contemplating how it will affect other aspects of the game. They are not expecting to move them forward for at least 6 months to a year.

I thought that Stephen Reid was very forthcoming and informative in his answers.

[johnnyrey]

There are two kinds of questions that developers can answer: Concept status and development phase.

 

Concept status is the developers approach to a proposed feature.

Confirmed:

Coming for sure

Ex: “UI customization is coming for sure.”

 

Favored/Addressing:

like the idea , think it will fit well in the game. Often there is a restriction as to what they are able to talk about publically.

ex: “something like guild capital ships sounds super cool and the development team likes the idea.”

A concept they are “addressing” is often a bug fix or other issue tha they want to fix but they aren’t sure of the best procedure.

 

Discussed:

Familiar with the idea and have already been exploring the concept, though it isn’t necessarily favored.

ex: Ability delay: “It has been discussed internally, and we'll talk about it publicly soon.”

 

Aware:

they know that the idea is out there but they haven’t really bought into the concept.

ex: API mods- “ Modding may happen, but we have no ETA on 'when' that we can share right now.”

 

Not Discussed:

Something that has been considered and rejected, at least for the present. not something they are actively considering.

ex: “Currently AC respeccing is not on the table”

 

Development Phase

Active Development:

these are ideas that the team is actively implementing or working on at the moment. These are features that could be added to the game between now and the next 2-3 months. Could be included in the next patch.

 

Short term – Near term:

Features that are having the groundwork laid for them. In 3 months they are likely to be moved to Active development. Will probably wait for the next major patch cycle.

 

Mid term projects:

Ideas that are favored and that they have a path toward implementation. Look for them to be moved to Active development in 6 months. Don’t expect them before the next major expansion.

 

Long term projects:

Ideas that are favored but have no clear implementation path. Still refining the basic concept and contemplating how it will affect other aspects of the game. They are not expecting to move them forward for at least 6 months to a year.

I thought that Stephen Reid was very forthcoming and informative in his answers.

 

In what way? Every single one of his answers was a vague Aware/Discussed. Great, thanks.

[blackcerberus]

am I the only one who thinks he didnt actually answer anything?

[Perfidius]

Read what I wrote above you.

 

I did, still doesnt change the fact that he was meant to answer community questions, and all he actually did was give vague answers that were pointless, would have been a lot better to make a sticky post on the forums saying something like 'we are aware of your concerns and are looking at several things' would have been just as informative and probably reach a larger audience that play swtor, as its the official forums.

 

Im not knocking the game, im loving it, i just dont see the point in vague answers as a publicity gimmick (hence my comment about how he should have been a politician). As for all those who feel reassured? About what? They know there are issues? Just reading forums and Bug reports will tell them that, so that should be reassuring enough? I would be reassured if he actually posted detail on what is happening. Theres a difference between a NDA and actually providing community with some good feedback, rather than ambiguos (what could be misleading), comments!

[Amnolith]

I think the thread title should really be "Stephen Reid dodges questions"

 

The only things he said was:

 

"We are aware of things and improvements will come"...and that s it. Closing threads does not make you a community manager and I dare anybody to say that this forum is a real community. There is no communication with players, no bugs or feedback forums and zero server forums. This is not a community...it has no social tools and not even a search function.

[Leggomy]

In what way? Every single one of his answers was a vague Aware/Discussed. Great, thanks.

 

Your first developer chat? They are all like that. If he gave any details and things were to change the forums would be up in arms saying "You promised us X and we arent getting X we are getting Y! This is a slap in the face (its always a slap in the face isnt it?) to the players!".

[acheros]

am I the only one who thinks he didnt actually answer anything?

 

Not at all.

[Jairec]

Call me childish, but I don't think that "we're considering that for some point in the indeterminate future" is a very satisfying answer, and that seems to be the answer to everything.

 

Are we there, yet?

[Veala]

Yeah... I don't understand why people pretend that they can't extrapolate certain information from his responses.

 

Q: Is there any information you can provide regarding the user interface in terms of making it more user friendly or with more customization options?

 

"UI customization is coming for sure. :)"

Versus

 

Q: Any updates on improvements to the LFG system, or an ETA on when we might see them?

 

"No updates on that."

Versus

Q: Can you tell us what your plans are for guild banks and guild capital ships?

 

"Guild banks and guild 'housing' (of some type; ships are most popular as people know) are both on the list for future development. As always it's a question of priorities and so on, but they're definitely discussed. I will say that guild banks are higher priority."

 

It's pretty obvious that UI customization is higher priority than LFG. Guild ships are being looked into and guild banks will probably be coming sooner than later. He may not have given an ETA on anything in particular, but an intelligent person can still assemble an order of priorities based on his responses.

 

Excellent post. Quoting so more people read it =p

[Gomla]

Reword the title, it's misleading.

 

Try along the lines of "Stephen Reid is asked questions but gives no actual answer".

[RThanues]

I did, still doesnt change the fact that he was meant to answer community questions, and all he actually did was give vague answers that were pointless, would have been a lot better to make a sticky post on the forums saying something like 'we are aware of your concerns and are looking at several things' would have been just as informative and probably reach a larger audience that play swtor, as its the official forums.

 

Im not knocking the game, im loving it, i just dont see the point in vague answers as a publicity gimmick (hence my comment about how he should have been a politician). As for all those who feel reassured? About what? They know there are issues? Just reading forums and Bug reports will tell them that, so that should be reassuring enough? I would be reassured if he actually posted detail on what is happening. Theres a difference between a NDA and actually providing community with some good feedback, rather than ambiguos (what could be misleading), comments!

 

All I'm saying people should be keeping this in mind when asking questions, rather than ask and complain about it later.

[xentus]

 

He answers a lot of questions.

 

Some of the issues discussed are character responsiveness, hoods, neutral gear, GTN, and many more.

 

I don't know why this stuff is done on Reddit as opposed to the official forums, but that's another issue for another day. For now, enjoy getting some feedback on heavily discussed topics.

 

Edit: Oh. Please bump this to help reduce the creation of redundant threads.

 

Edit #2: Non-disclosure agreement. Google it.

 

Great post thanks for the info. +1

[Mallorik]

LOL yeah i read it , it was interesting, but he did not answer anything. the only thing i learned is that they know what is screwed up and they will fix it some day.