Is it me or are the forums slow.

[Pietrastor]

SWTOR December 20, 2011

Rise of the Hutt Cartel April 14, 2013

Galactic Starfighter February 4, 2014 - not an expansion

Galactic Strongholds October 14, 2014 - not an expansion

Shadow of Revan December 9, 2014

Knights of the Fallen Empire October 27, 2015

Knights of the Eternal Throne December 2, 2016

6.0 Spring 2019

#1 issue right here IMO. I don't think there's any single event that hurt SWTOR more than the absence of an (even a small) expansion in the last 2 years (and counting...). Story or Group focused regardless, expansions ALWAYS bring back most players (and pull in some new ones) to any game. There's a reason even WOW still releases them regularly. Small content patches are not seen by the (old or new) playerbase as the 'new shiny'. Hard to believe Bioware didn't know nor realize that, especially looking at the competition.

Edited October 3, 2018 by Pietrastor

[Ardrossan]

I see more criticisms than white knight comments on the forums here, at least they stand out to me more.

 

I think people just prefer not having actual discussions anymore, especially when others do not agree with them. It's more fulfilling for many to "discuss" topics with people we agree with who support and genuflect to whatever we write.

 

That's why people as a whole are seemingly getting more dumb by the year. People avoid reading or watching anything that they don't agree with so they are easily lead down into rabbit holes that fit their personal agendas. it's hard to learn anything if we only say and hear what we already think and believe.

 

Anyway, that's my perspective on social media and how we as people have "progressed" culturally over the last 20-30 years. It's like technology has outpaced and outgrown common sense and common decency/etiquette towards other people. Anonymity has a lot to do with that too imo.

 

This is why I wonder if reddit is actually a better medium, or just an echo chamber. My own experience with it, as I say, was purely information-gathering. To that extent, it was more useful than this forum. I'd have to go check it out, and I can't be bothered to read two game forums at the same time.

 

I think another factor is that people shift gears as time passes and the issues change. You were pretty acrimonious during the Conquest changes a year ago. Now? I wouldn't be surprised if you got labeled a white knight. In reality though, very few of us are consistently critical or consistently defensive. With some exceptions.

[Andryah]

This is why I wonder if reddit is actually a better medium, or just an echo chamber. My own experience with it, as I say, was purely information-gathering. To that extent, it was more useful than this forum. I'd have to go check it out, and I can't be bothered to read two game forums at the same time.

 

I think another factor is that people shift gears as time passes and the issues change. You were pretty acrimonious during the Conquest changes a year ago. Now? I wouldn't be surprised if you got labeled a white knight. In reality though, very few of us are consistently critical or consistently defensive. With some exceptions.

 

I don't know that reddit is a better medium per se. It does seem not to get the heaps of repeat threads about things like the "Merge Servers Now!" meta themes that are rolled out regularly here. It has it's own rule set of course.. both a reddit rule set as well as a r/swtor rule set for posting. Moderation is better and more consistent there in my observation.. so in that context they actually put up with less of the over the top negative nonsense that seems to land in the swtor forum.

 

The one key thing reddit offers is that it has many many sub-reddits in it.. so a person can create one account and yet post in dozens of sub-reddits. That makes it sort of a one stop for many different topic venues.. and that appeals to people who like to discuss a wide range of topics, games, other products and services, etc. Unfortunately, it also has some pretty socially abusive, NSFW content, and adult only content sub-reddits as well... and I am not sure how they manage to define the line of what is or is not tolerated in terms of sub-reddit themes, much less manage accounts correctly (like in the case of adult content).

Edited October 3, 2018 by Andryah

[kodrac]

Guys, if you want to see some serious white-knighting, go to the ESO forums. Or heavy handed moderation? Also ESO forums. The white knighting and moderation go hand in hand there. Even I can't post there anymore (nor will I give them any more money as a result of my treatment there) because I was "too critical".

 

Seriously, go post that you don't like the combat or the classes are boring or, dear Gawd, that the cosmetic store is overpriced and it's like "Set forth all legions!". Disagree with someone? Considered bait - post deleted. Comment on an aspect of the game you don't like? As soon as someone replies it's considered bait and topic closed, if not deleted. Comment on a topic using your professional experience to correct false information? Bait - deleted - banned. Holy shnikies it's awful. And the mods don't do anything about the actual bait. Just saying "this is bait" will result in seven day ban. There's no warnings, no point system, nothing - just what the mods feel like. And no expiration on anything. You might get a 7 day ban and three years later they use it against you.

 

We have far more freedom here than over in that police state. And as far as comparisons to our forum goers vs theirs, I can think of one, just one, that is comparable to the knights of ESO, and he doesn't post here anymore, thankfully. And I'm not talking about Andryah either. She's gets a lot of hate by some here, but she's tame in comparison.

Edited October 3, 2018 by kodrac

[Giberelina]

Guys, if you want to see some serious white-knighting, go to the ESO forums. Or heavy handed moderation? Also ESO forums. The white knighting and moderation go hand in hand there. Even I can't post there anymore (nor will I give them any more money as a result of my treatment there) because I was "too critical".

 

Seriously, go post that you don't like the combat or the classes are boring or, dear Gawd, that the cosmetic store is overpriced and it's like "Set forth all legions!". Disagree with someone? Considered bait - post deleted. Comment on an aspect of the game you don't like? As soon as someone replies it's considered bait and topic closed, if not deleted. Comment on a topic using your professional experience to correct false information? Bait - deleted - banned. Holy shnikies it's awful. And the mods don't do anything about the actual bait. Just saying "this is bait" will result in seven day ban. There's no warnings, no point system, nothing - just what the mods feel like. And no expiration on anything. You might get a 7 day ban and three years later they use it against you.

 

We have far more freedom here than over in that police state. And as far as comparisons to our forum goers vs theirs, I can think of one, just one, that is comparable to the knights of ESO, and he doesn't post here anymore, thankfully. And I'm not talking about Andryah either. She's gets a lot of hate by some here, but she's tame in comparison.

 

ESO Devs respond to players, just look at the last sorc shield whole drama, they are not ashamed of rolling back after listening to players. I can't imagine EA doing that. It's only logical that more people jump to "defend" ESO, more people are happy with it.

Even if I do play both and have beautiful SWTOR's memories, I feel a lot more love for ESO than SWTOR in the present, when I'm subbing I'm not feeling robbed or forced to do it. This helps to create so called white knights.

Edited October 3, 2018 by Giberelina

[kodrac]

more people are happy with it.

 

While that is probably true (no one is really unhappy due to the pace of content delivery *hint* *hint* BioWare), I wish I could give you examples of the irrational defending and moderation, but they've all been deleted.

 

But, for example, if I say I wish they'd make the combat more varied than just AoE, AoE, AoE, execute, execute, the responses would be along the lines of "how dare you not be happy with my favorite franchise of all time?!?! THIS IS ESO!!!1!!" It has nothing to do with my complaint just pure fanboiism (I really hate that word, but there it is). And my followup response of "I don't like the combat" gets moderated (deleted) as bait and I get the nasty gram from a moderator. It's awful. Then that just puts me off logging in. The forum hall monitors and the knights don't understand that last little bit.

 

While not many people, myself included, are not very happy with the current state of this game, at least we're allowed to talk about it honestly, and freely (for the most part - don't be an ahole and you're good to go).

Edited October 3, 2018 by kodrac

[Lhancelot]

This is why I wonder if reddit is actually a better medium, or just an echo chamber. My own experience with it, as I say, was purely information-gathering. To that extent, it was more useful than this forum. I'd have to go check it out, and I can't be bothered to read two game forums at the same time.

 

I think another factor is that people shift gears as time passes and the issues change. You were pretty acrimonious during the Conquest changes a year ago. Now? I wouldn't be surprised if you got labeled a white knight. In reality though, very few of us are consistently critical or consistently defensive. With some exceptions.

 

That's right. I been called a white knight recently. Never mind all the years of criticisms I have levied at BW and the devs particularly when 5.0 dropped and most recently when conquest was changed despite the majority wishing it to not have said changes made.

 

On to your point though, Is Reddit is an echo chamber? That's what I wonder when people proclaim it as the place for your real swtor info.

 

I just see far too many people on these forums take a very impersonal post personal and then sling names at others as soon as they don't agree on a topic. When did disagreeing become bad?

 

I believe creative tension often times can lead to ideas and product that otherwise wouldn't be created.

 

People tend to have fragile egos and feelings become easily hurt it seems nowadays. Someone that disagrees with you is a troll, and information we don't agree with is fake news. Welcome to the modern world we live in.

[kodrac]

That's right. I been called a white knight recently. Never mind all the years of criticisms I have levied at BW and the devs particularly when 5.0 dropped and most recently when conquest was changed despite the majority wishing it to not have said changes made.

 

Yep. Me too. GC, the recent Conquest changes, the last server merge... all forgotten. To some new people or people who never step out of their favorite sub-forum, disagree, or worse, be rational and suddenly you're labeled a true defender, forum apologist or whatever derogatory word they can think of to try and minimize your point of view. Then they try to project that onto an entire community because they have an axe to grind.

 

Echo chambers are not good things, people. All feedback is good. There's nothing wrong with differing opinions. Many good things can come from it even. That's why healthy discussions are called healthy.

Edited October 3, 2018 by kodrac

[Khevar]

I just see far too many people on these forums take a very impersonal post personal and then sling names at others as soon as they don't agree on a topic. When did disagreeing become bad?

Not that this answers your question or anything, but there is one bad habit I learned on the SWTOR forums that I had to work hard to break.

 

And that is that an antagonistic or sarcastic post is more likely to get a response than a calm one.

 

I cannot count the number of times I would try to engage someone on the forums with a neutral, considered post and get NO response. While someone else would post something mean and get an INSTANT response from the same person.

 

Over time, the tone of my posts became more and more antagonistic simply because it would result in actual engagement. Eventually someone actually had to point it out to me how bad I had gotten.

 

If my experience is any indication, I'd say that forum behavior can be "trained" by how other people respond to you. My psych prof would have called that the "contagion of aberration"

Edited October 4, 2018 by Khevar

[Totemdancer]

That's right. I been called a white knight recently. Never mind all the years of criticisms I have levied at BW and the devs particularly when 5.0 dropped and most recently when conquest was changed despite the majority wishing it to not have said changes made.

 

On to your point though, Is Reddit is an echo chamber? That's what I wonder when people proclaim it as the place for your real swtor info.

 

I just see far too many people on these forums take a very impersonal post personal and then sling names at others as soon as they don't agree on a topic. When did disagreeing become bad?

 

I believe creative tension often times can lead to ideas and product that otherwise wouldn't be created.

 

People tend to have fragile egos and feelings become easily hurt it seems nowadays. Someone that disagrees with you is a troll, and information we don't agree with is fake news. Welcome to the modern world we live in.

 

You’re about as much of a white knight as I am. LoL.

 

I find more of our old posters on reddit now because of not being able to post here. People are still discussing things and some agree or disagree, but the personal attacks are rare and people who obviously bait troll are dealt with pretty swiftly.