BioWare has tested positive for being tone deaf. Rakghoul event during coronavirus?!

[VaceDemon]

I'm appalled by your decision to have Rakghoul event be scheduled at a time when the coronavirus pandemic is plaguing the world right now. The US is set to see this pandemic spike in the next week and the Rakghoul plague event is set to begin in 3 days on April 7. What great timing

 

I play video games as a way to escape real world problems, and so why would I want to play your game this month when I'll be reminded of the ongoing pandemic irl? Fleet announcements are going to trigger many people by being constantly reminded of coronavirus. Way to sabotage the escapism of your own game.

 

Seriously who in the studio approved this? You guys should be ashamed of yourselves. I implore you guys to pls cancel and reschedule this event when the real world pandemic calms down!

Edited April 4, 2020 by VaceDemon

[LordDarrack]

Seriously?

 

Its just a game, over 15000 people died of gun shot wounds in the US last year, want to ban guns from the game?

 

Be Safe

[LD_Little_Dragon]

Swtor has war, murder, wmd's, political corruption, rape, theft, slavery, and plenty of other problematic things that have real-world counterparts.

 

Yet you have a problem with a years old recurring event that is only marginally related to the covid-19 situation?

 

Being offended by the rakghoul event because of 'real-world issues' is ridiculously hypocritical when you look at the rest of the game.

[DarthSpuds]

Swtor has war, murder, wmd's, political corruption, rape, theft, slavery, and plenty of other problematic things that have real-world counterparts.

 

Yet you have a problem with a years old recurring event that is only marginally related to the covid-19 situation?

 

Being offended by the rakghoul event because of 'real-world issues' is ridiculously hypocritical when you look at the rest of the game.

 

This,

 

All The Best

[DarthSpuds]

I'm appalled...

 

Respectfully, that is an issue with you, not with anything Bioware has done.

 

You have to CHOOSE to be appalled.

 

Simply choose not to be, and the issue is resolved.

 

All The Best

[DarthSpuds]

I'm appalled by your decision to have Rakghoul event be scheduled at a time when the coronavirus pandemic is plaguing the world right now. The US is set to see this pandemic spike in the next week and the Rakghoul plague event is set to begin in 3 days on April 7. What great timing !

 

Given the truly appalling rate of violent crime in the US I assume, to be consistent, you are equally appalled by the violence in this game (according to the CDC more than 7 people per hour, every hour, of every day die a violent death in the US).

Furthermore, I assume not one of your Toons has even killed anyone in-game... ...ever.

 

All The Best

Edited April 4, 2020 by DarthSpuds

[DarkestMicheal]

These posts are gone beyond a joke, they are made by trolls and idiots, it's about time these were removed and the OP#s removed.

[SoonerJBD]

I agree. I mean, just think of all those poor people with coronavirus who have been turned into hideous drooling zombie-like monsters and will now have to see themselves in video game form. 🙄

[TheGreyRanger]

Personally I want more events during the current time (yes including rakghoul). Since we are forced to stay home and SWTOR is one of my main outlets, more content to play is better.

[Zerileth]

In order to be a good troll thread you have to pay attention to previous troll threads. So, yeah, we did this already, and recently too.

 

Let's move on.

 

BTW, I can't wait to blow up on people.

[ImmortalLowlife]

Shocked and appalled I tell ya!

 

Now excuse me...my remastered Resident Evil just finished downloading, so I gotta go murk some zombie walkers.

[VaceDemon]

If people have complained already then it only serves to prove my point. People find it appalling and shameful that BW would promote an event where people literally infect and kill others. I mean you get major coughing and shortness of breath and high fever - the same exact symptoms as coronavirus! - which make your character totally unplayable before it results in your death.

 

I recommend everyone write a strongly worded email to BW or tweet them to show the world what kind of people are running this game if they move ahead with this event. Absolutely unacceptable.

Edited April 5, 2020 by VaceDemon

[VaceDemon]

Personally I want more events during the current time (yes including rakghoul). Since we are forced to stay home and SWTOR is one of my main outlets, more content to play is better.

More events are fine but not this one. And it seems like I'm not the only one who shares my disgust for this. People are offended and it's time BW Austin make a statement regarding this issue

Edited April 5, 2020 by VaceDemon

[phalczen]

If people have complained already then it only serves to prove my point. People find it appalling and shameful that BW would promote an event where people literally infect and kill others. I mean you get major coughing and shortness of breath and high fever - the same exact symptoms as coronavirus! - which make your character totally unplayable before it results in your death.

 

I recommend everyone write a strongly worded email to BW or tweet them to show the world what kind of people are running this game if they move ahead with this event. Absolutely unacceptable.

 

I am truly sorry that anyone has lost a loved one from this, or suffered any physical or emotional harm from this disease, and for reasons which I will keep confidential I sympathize with them, without knowing the depth of pain and sorrow they must be experiencing. My heartfelt condolences go to them.

 

1.) The Rakghoul Resurgence event is not about infecting and killing people, quite the opposite. THORN stands for the The Hyland Organizaion for Rakghoul Neutralization and the themes of the event, most of the missions, are actually about responding to the pandemic. It is true that there are some achievements related to passing the infection along, and a hidden daily for infecting (not killing) characters (who can then use the vaccine to cure themselves.) There are PvP related achievements as well, which is no different than other planets and other events, and the galaxy is at war, and while the achievement is specific to the event zone, the player kills count regardless of whether you, or the targeted player, have the disease. One can opt-out from being the target of both achievements, in that you can stay in a pve gameplay focus area or you can purchase an anti-viral kit relic or vaccine, protecting you from those who would do you harm in the hunt for achievements.

 

2.) The event has been in the game for years, long before the pandemic, and is part of a recurring rotation, so its presence now is not directly intended as spiteful to people suffering from the pandemic.

 

3.) Entertainment companies have on occasion delayed various launches of content, like a feature film, because it is about a topic that relates to a recent tragedy or other devastating event. Professional sports competitions may be delayed because of mass tragedies. It is noteworthy that Netflix or VUDU or other streaming services have not removed customer's ability to watch movies like Steven King's "The Stand," Michael Crichton's "Andromeda Strain," Outbreak, Contagion, etc. Bioware certainly could have elected to disable the Rakghoul event in light of the unprecedented nature of these times, and it would be regarded as being sensitive.

 

**4.) We know that in-game events cannot simply be turned on or off. Turning them off requires a patch, and the next patch isn't scheduled until April 14th. To boot, the team is all working remotely, which means its an added burden to have them delay or interrupt their work on 6.1.1, to create and deploy a patch before April 7 to shut off the Rakghoul event. Pointing out that there is work involved in that endeavor is not a comment about its worthiness. Just because it would take developer time, and service interruption, to perform doesn't mean the effort to be sensitive to people who are suffering any kind of negative effects from this pandemic is worthless. But it is foolish to ignore that shutting the game down to accommodate de-activating the event has effects ... just like shutting down the economy and locking everyone down for an indefinite period of time has effects.**

 

5.) Hopefully one can accept that at its face value, the Rakghoul Resurgence was never intended as an insult to people suffering from COVID-19 or any other infectious disease, and that Bioware did not know when the pandemic would be have its peak effect on people at the time the event schedule was put into a patch.

 

6.) Perhaps it is not a stretch to consider that as a whole, with social distancing measures, and the sense of isolation all of us feel right now, that multiplayer video gaming has become a way for some people to feel more connected, and SWTOR is definitely a game that fits that criteria.

 

7.) There is a lot of death that occurs in the game, often through incredibly violent means. The game actively incentivizes role-playing evil, cruelty, depravity, slavery, discrimination, murder, etc. That it provides such fantasy experiences does not mean its creators, or its real life players, are, in their real-lives, violent, evil, cruel, depraved, slavers, discriminatory, homicidal, etc. Nor does it mean its creators or players are indifferent to death and suffering of any person from any source.

 

8.) Infectious diseases have been in the world since the beginning of life, and the Rakghoul event was not offensive to people suffering from infectious diseases before COVID-19. Wars have been in the human real world for millennia, yet no one complains that in SWTOR massive military campaigns designed to wipe out combatants and civilians, enslavement of planetary populations, or violence for the sake of violence constitutes being "tone deaf."

 

Anyway, that's all I have to say on the topic. I apologize to anyone whom I have offended, and I don't expect the post will ease anyone's pain, nor am I attempting to get the OP to love an event about infection during a pandemic. But perhaps, it provides some rationale to take a step back and minimize emotion about a topic while still remaining sensitive to the tragedies people are experiencing now all over the world.

[Aulus_Claudius]

I'm glad they haven't let the crisis change their set event schedule to appease the politically correct "sensitive" crowd. If it wasn't offensive before, it isn't now if it remains unchanged.

 

If it were up to me, the rakghoul event would be going on for the entire coronavirus crisis with a few important changes: /spit now transmits the disease to another player, it can transmit automatically to any player within 2 yards at a low (2%?) rate per second, and no more immunity buffs until they find one for corona. Stun disabled during boss fights and in NiM ops generally, sudden death explosion held off until after the boss fight is over. Death under any circumstance removes the disease.

 

But they don't have the manpower for something like that even if they wanted to do it sadly. We'll have to be happy with what we get.

Edited April 5, 2020 by Aulus_Claudius

[xordevoreaux]

Seriously?

 

Its just a game, over 15000 people died of gun shot wounds in the US last year, want to ban guns from the game?

 

Be Safe

 

Exactly. Moral equivalency is problematic. There are quests in the game, achievements in the game, to kill x amount of creatures, x amount of NPCs, all while we have real-life murders going on in the streets of countries around the world. Where is the original poster's outrage on that?

[MWidowmaker]

i just recovered from Covid 19. I welcome the rakghoul event because it will reinforce social distancing in game so that stupid people understand what it means, and how it can infect a lot of people.

[dready_tv]

/cough

[Severith]

Given the truly appalling rate of violent crime in the US I assume, to be consistent, you are equally appalled by the violence in this game (according to the CDC more than 7 people per hour, every hour, of every day die a violent death in the US).

Furthermore, I assume not one of your Toons has even killed anyone in-game... ...ever.

 

All The Best

 

The US is 89th in terms of per capita murders (intentional homicide), out of about 200 actual countries. In other words, it's fairly close to average. The idea that the United States is somehow an ultra violent place compared to the rest of the world comes from the cultural influence of various forms of exported media (mostly action movies), or is straight up intentionally misleading "information" spread by people from certain ideologies.

 

That being said, SWTOR has no moral compass, and neither does EA or "Bioware". SWTOR is a game where you kill 40 people, to talk to one person, and the result of the choices of that conversation determine if you're a "good" person or a "bad" person. Often, the choices made have no actual bearing on morality, and instead mark passive behaviors as "good" and active behaviors as "bad" regardless of the actual or intended results. EA is a morally bankrupt company that used to try and give lip service to the moral compass of the Twitter Outrage Mob, but since the lootbox scandal, has dropped even the pretense of morality. "Bioware", should really be called "Buyerbeware", since their latest products are all shoddy and fall drastically short of promises made to the gaming community.

 

More importantly, art, (including video games) culture, and people need to be judged in the context in which they exist or were created. Do all video games and movies that have infections as a plot point or mechanic need to be "cancelled"? Do we need to tear down the legacy of every person named Adolf simply because of one rotten egg? Do we need to spit on every generation before ours, because of our supposed evolved sense of morality?

 

No, we don't.

 

So view the Rakghoul event in the context in which it was created. A callback to KOTOR, made in a time when most people's lives weren't effected by a virus killing off people's grandparents. A fun event that mimics the "corrupted blood" incident of WoW's early days, which is a huge part of MMO history.

 

TLDR.....beeep beeep

[RameiArashi]

Rakghoul Resurgence on Tatooine (level 25+)

Date: April 7 – 14, 2020

 

 

 

Two thirds of shooting deaths in US are SUICIDES, which law enforcement does count as homicide. All deaths of humans caused by humans are homicide, whether intentional or "accidental" (in reality negligent not accidental). Homicide rates are not murder rates, they include murder but also suicide (self murder), justifiable homicide (killing to save your life or the life of another), vehicular homicide and every person who dies of a drug overdose. Stranger on stranger murders make up less than 5 percent of all murders. Most are carried out by family or friends and more are committed with bare hands, knives, or blunt instruments than with guns. Most shooting murders involve drug dealers.

 

17 million Americans have the flu and 20,000 have died, so far. No pandemic declared. No panic.

Edited April 5, 2020 by RameiArashi

[lukeisjedi]

This again? Seriously it has no correlation.

[Void_Singer]

you are literally playing a game where you kill people to make other people do what you want, and you're complaining about an event that's been running for years, about an environmental circumstance that was always possible, and always will be, and further actually has redeaming teching value on best practices to dealing with it?

 

please take you're thin skin and go whine at netflix for doubling their available "plague/disear//disaster/apocalypse" offerings and tripling their advertisisng of the same. At least then you could claim they were trying to profit from the disaster instead of jjust carrying on normally for their users like SWTOR is doing.

[ZeroTypeR]

I'm appalled by your decision to have Rakghoul event be scheduled at a time when the coronavirus pandemic is plaguing the world right now. The US is set to see this pandemic spike in the next week and the Rakghoul plague event is set to begin in 3 days on April 7. What great timing

 

I play video games as a way to escape real world problems, and so why would I want to play your game this month when I'll be reminded of the ongoing pandemic irl? Fleet announcements are going to trigger many people by being constantly reminded of coronavirus. Way to sabotage the escapism of your own game.

 

Seriously who in the studio approved this? You guys should be ashamed of yourselves. I implore you guys to pls cancel and reschedule this event when the real world pandemic calms down!

The Rakghoul Plague is N-O-T R-E-A-L.

 

Do you really think that I care about a pixel plague?, that can do virtually Nothing to me VS an Actual, Real Life, Virus that has reeked absolute havoc on the entire globe.

Edited April 5, 2020 by ZeroTypeR

[RowanThursday]

"Tone deaf" ... "People will be triggered by..." . .. "... offended..."

 

Pretty much says it all, really. Not genuine concern, merely another Callout Cultist trying to grow some more manufactured outrage to feast upon.

 

Callout Culture is to ethics what Czerka is to responsible research.

[DarkTergon]

"Tone deaf" ... "People will be triggered by..." . .. "... offended..."

 

Pretty much says it all, really. Not genuine concern, merely another Callout Cultist trying to grow some more manufactured outrage to feast upon.

 

Callout Culture is to ethics what Czerka is to responsible research.

 

or just another troll stirring the pot :/ (considering the amount of replies, he probably achieved what he wanted.)