Small website fixes to improve professionalism & perception of game

[Deathblow]

Hi everyone,

 

As a family of new and returning players we are impressed with the vast improvements to the game but also taken aback by the small, seemingly trivial opportunities on the website that haven't been addressed. We believe the following pages should be edited asap to improve perception towards all your hard work:

• The Developer Blog: the last dated update was from 5 years ago. This gives the public an impression that there's been little to no progress in development. 5 years is a lifetime.
  
• Press Release Page: again, nothing since 2016 and no mention of Onslaught. Even a Happy New year message with a 2021 timestamp shows that there's still someone working in the office.
  
• The Events Page: leads to a 'Page not found' error. Not professional.
  

 

Whether the above shortcomings reflects reality or attitudes in the office, what's important is to keep wearing that professional armor. We love the game as it's given many of us a positive experience while under COVID lockdown. We hope to see the renewed interest and growth in SWTOR continue for many more seasons. Keep up the good work.

[SteveTheCynic]

• The Developer Blog: the last dated update was from 5 years ago. This gives the public an impression that there's been little to no progress in development. 5 years is a lifetime.
  
• Press Release Page: again, nothing since 2016 and no mention of Onslaught. Even a Happy New year message with a 2021 timestamp shows that there's still someone working in the office.
  
• The Events Page: leads to a 'Page not found' error. Not professional.
  

The second comment is a bit strange, given that the link *to* that page is on the main "News" page, whose most recent entry is from 12 February 2021, i.e. just before the weather went all crazy in Texas.

 

The Press Releases page should contain, well, press releases, and they haven't felt the need to make one of those since back then. Putting random announcements that weren't press releases on that page just to populate it would, if anything, be *less* professional than the current situation.

 

Of course, that does raise the question of why they haven't made any press releases since then (e.g. why they didn't at least do one for 5.9/Jedi Under Siege and one for 6.0/Onslaught, and neither you nor I can do anything more than speculate on that subject.

[Deathblow]

The Press Releases page should contain, well, press releases, and they haven't felt the need to make one of those since back then. Putting random announcements that weren't press releases on that page just to populate it would, if anything, be *less* professional than the current situation.

 

I'd say it also depends on cadence. Up until 2016 a news release was made every single month. Then suddenly nothing. Again the intention of my post is really about optics and customer relationship management strategy. Especially in this business model, regular customer engagement is important.

Edited February 21, 2021 by Deathblow

[SteveTheCynic]

I'd say it also depends on cadence. Up until 2016 a news release was made every single month. Then suddenly nothing. Again the intention of my post is really about optics and customer relationship management strategy. Especially in this business model, regular customer engagement is important.

Indeed, but if you're going to put something on a page titled "Press Releases", it should be, well, a press release.(1)

 

And yes, they should do that more often, for example at the very least on the release of 5.9 and 6.0, maybe even for 6.2, and the patch where they released the Swoop event.

 

(1) There's a certain level of formalism before it becomes a press release, like, for example, sending it to the press, which "we published it on our News page and the forums and that's all" doesn't meet.