Should We Just Join the Private Discord Channel?

[RikuvonDrake]

KappaChris has spoken

 

That said, gonna shamelessly advertise for the Theorycrafting server: https://discord.gg/jqWyBcw which is the primary discord discussed in this thread, read the welcome channel and take a look at the rules, see you there!

 

The Discord is for people who are interested in the deeper matter of Star Wars The Old Republic! We have the goal to maximize everything we do, like increasing our performance in raiding, parsing, PvPing. We discuss everything about the game that will give us any legal small advantage as well as several off-topic conversations.

Edited March 3, 2021 by RikuvonDrake

[snave]

Hi folks,

 

I wanted to pop in here and clarify a few things that have been brought up.

 

First and foremost, the official forums (where you are now) are the official platform for news and announcements, and are accessible to all subscribers.

 

Second, it is true I am present in many Discord communities. I do so primarily so I can get a feel for what these different communities are chatting about in an effort to gather as many points of view as possible. I do this in tandem with other platforms where players self-organize that I’m aware of.

 

I do these things in my personal capacity, however if I interact at all I make it clear who I am in my official capacity for transparency. Since Discord seems to be the primary platform brought up here, I want to address some points..

 

I started joining Discord communities related to the game when I returned to the team over a year ago. Discord is interesting in that it provides real-time communication via text chat, which is vastly different than the turn-based dialogue offered by forums. I use Discord interactions in several ways:

 

 

• General human chatting
  
• Discussing hobbies
  
• Gathering additional info on reported bugs or exploits
  
• Guiding folks to official channels who ask where/how to report something
  
• Guiding folks to official channels when asked about any information that’s unannounced (dates/future plans, etc)
  
• Discussing game design in general
  

 

When discussing longer-term plans or philosophies, I use the official forums. And I refer folks back to these posts if it comes up in other communication channels. Generally, I very much enjoy spending some of my personal time on Discord as long as the interactions are healthy. As a reminder, these servers are player-run and non-official, so the rules of each community are determined by those who own the servers.

 

Hopefully this sheds some light on how I interact with various communities in various capacities. But it’s worth re-stating again that official information will only come from official sources, including the forums here.

 

Thanks,

-Chris

 

Sounds like the kind of thing a corrupted dev would say :chrisKappa:

[Nee-Elder]

 

p.s. , how do they know the replies are from actual (current) official BioWare Devs?

 

Quoting myself from another thread (to which no one responded to my query) ....

 

Hi folks,

 

I wanted to pop in here and clarify a few things that have been brought up.

 

, it is true I am present in many Discord communities. I do so primarily so I can get a feel for what these different communities are chatting about in an effort to gather as many points of view as possible.

 

I do these things in my personal capacity, however if I interact at all I make it clear who I am in my official capacity for transparency.

 

Hopefully this sheds some light on how I interact with various communities in various capacities. But it’s worth re-stating again that official information will only come from official sources, including the forums here.

 

Thanks,

-Chris

 

...And so i guess now that ^ has answered my query.

 

Anyways, i appreciate the official reply, Chris , but...well....yeah it's def. a tricky gray area imo.

---

KappaChris has spoken

 

, gonna shamelessly advertise for the Theorycrafting server: https://discord.gg/jqWyBcw which is the primary discord discussed in this thread,.[/i]

 

And see therein lies the gray area problem, cuz now a can of chat-worms has been unfortunately opened.

 

imho, he should've just stayed anonymous, since everyone knows, "official" or not , ANY posts from a BioWare Dev is gonna = gospel to most (regardless of the "platform" ) .

 

The community is spread out thin too much already, with enough trouble just trying to get players to actually read the LAUNCHER much less follow 'Dev Tracker' .

 

Consequently, the swtor.com Forums and swtor Twitter should be the only 2 platforms utilized by BioWare (outwardly) , otherwise the message(s) get diluted too often, no? Plus the whole perception issue, of posting so many X times there vs. so few times here at swtor.com forums.

 

hmm i dunno, i suppose i can see both sides/benefits though. Yeah, tricky one this is.

Edited March 4, 2021 by Nee-Elder

[TrixxieTriss]

KappaChris has spoken

 

That said, gonna shamelessly advertise for the Theorycrafting server: https://discord.gg/jqWyBcw which is the primary discord discussed in this thread, read the welcome channel and take a look at the rules, see you there!

 

The Discord is for people who are interested in the deeper matter of Star Wars The Old Republic! We have the goal to maximize everything we do, like increasing our performance in raiding, parsing, PvPing. We discuss everything about the game that will give us any legal small advantage as well as several off-topic conversations.

 

Like Riku has pointed out. The easiest solution for anyone wanting extra info is join the discord and read it.

If you don’t want to chat, you don’t have too, you can stay silent. And hopefully Riku will be more understanding (if you are new to discord) than he was with me and ping Chris to ask him something. I got kicked the first time I pinged Chris cause Riku dislikes my forum posts.

[RikuvonDrake]

Like Riku has pointed out. The easiest solution for anyone wanting extra info is join the discord and read it.

If you don’t want to chat, you don’t have too, you can stay silent. And hopefully Riku will be more understanding (if you are new to discord) than he was with me and ping Chris to ask him something. I got kicked the first time I pinged Chris cause Riku dislikes my forum posts.

 

Always happy to have new members and as I noted in the post above, it's a great idea to check out the rules and info channel for the discord, spam pinging the devs about non-theorycrafting related stuff isn't a great thing if that's the only thing you are doing, on a theorycrafting server but you have had another account on the discord for quite a while now without issue so I am happy to see that you learned from your mistakes

[TrixxieTriss]

Always happy to have new members and as I noted in the post above, it's a great idea to check out the rules and info channel for the discord, spam pinging the devs about non-theorycrafting related stuff isn't a great thing if that's the only thing you are doing, on a theorycrafting server but you have had another account on the discord for quite a while now without issue so I am happy to see that you learned from your mistakes

 

Newbies dont always understand at first

[nicolask]

Hi folks,

 

I wanted to pop in here and clarify a few things that have been brought up.

 

First and foremost, the official forums (where you are now) are the official platform for news and announcements, and are accessible to all subscribers.

 

Second, it is true I am present in many Discord communities. I do so primarily so I can get a feel for what these different communities are chatting about in an effort to gather as many points of view as possible. I do this in tandem with other platforms where players self-organize that I’m aware of.

 

I do these things in my personal capacity, however if I interact at all I make it clear who I am in my official capacity for transparency. Since Discord seems to be the primary platform brought up here, I want to address some points..

 

I started joining Discord communities related to the game when I returned to the team over a year ago. Discord is interesting in that it provides real-time communication via text chat, which is vastly different than the turn-based dialogue offered by forums. I use Discord interactions in several ways:

 

 

• General human chatting
  
• Discussing hobbies
  
• Gathering additional info on reported bugs or exploits
  
• Guiding folks to official channels who ask where/how to report something
  
• Guiding folks to official channels when asked about any information that’s unannounced (dates/future plans, etc)
  
• Discussing game design in general
  

 

When discussing longer-term plans or philosophies, I use the official forums. And I refer folks back to these posts if it comes up in other communication channels. Generally, I very much enjoy spending some of my personal time on Discord as long as the interactions are healthy. As a reminder, these servers are player-run and non-official, so the rules of each community are determined by those who own the servers.

 

Hopefully this sheds some light on how I interact with various communities in various capacities. But it’s worth re-stating again that official information will only come from official sources, including the forums here.

 

Thanks,

-Chris

 

Now lets compare how many times you posted on OFFICIAL forums in 2019-2020 vs some private discord...

You guys literally keep ignoring your paying customers, most feedback from PTS is ignored, game is broken (the amount of bugs and exploits, ruined economy and etc).

 

It just shows how BioWare doesn't care, and no wonder that Anthem has been cancelled.

[OlBuzzard]

Hi folks,

 

I wanted to pop in here and clarify a few things that have been brought up.

 

First and foremost, the official forums (where you are now) are the official platform for news and announcements, and are accessible to all subscribers.

 

Second, it is true I am present in many Discord communities. I do so primarily so I can get a feel for what these different communities are chatting about in an effort to gather as many points of view as possible. I do this in tandem with other platforms where players self-organize that I’m aware of.

 

I do these things in my personal capacity, however if I interact at all I make it clear who I am in my official capacity for transparency. Since Discord seems to be the primary platform brought up here, I want to address some points..

 

I started joining Discord communities related to the game when I returned to the team over a year ago. Discord is interesting in that it provides real-time communication via text chat, which is vastly different than the turn-based dialogue offered by forums. I use Discord interactions in several ways:

 

 

• General human chatting
  
• Discussing hobbies
  
• Gathering additional info on reported bugs or exploits
  
• Guiding folks to official channels who ask where/how to report something
  
• Guiding folks to official channels when asked about any information that’s unannounced (dates/future plans, etc)
  
• Discussing game design in general
  

 

When discussing longer-term plans or philosophies, I use the official forums. And I refer folks back to these posts if it comes up in other communication channels. Generally, I very much enjoy spending some of my personal time on Discord as long as the interactions are healthy. As a reminder, these servers are player-run and non-official, so the rules of each community are determined by those who own the servers.

 

Hopefully this sheds some light on how I interact with various communities in various capacities. But it’s worth re-stating again that official information will only come from official sources, including the forums here.

 

Thanks,

-Chris

 

Makes sense to me !

 

TYVM for response !

[DragonSire]

Now lets compare how many times you posted on OFFICIAL forums in 2019-2020 vs some private discord...

You guys literally keep ignoring your paying customers, most feedback from PTS is ignored, game is broken (the amount of bugs and exploits, ruined economy and etc).

 

It just shows how BioWare doesn't care, and no wonder that Anthem has been cancelled.

 

That's really the issue isn't it. Its not about posting on DISCORD or REDDIT etc, it's the lack of communication here. Where are weekly Q/A? PTS Feedback etc, Roadmaps, long term plans? Clearly this got attention, what about all the other threads that have blown up lately?

[Randor]

Hi folks,

 

I wanted to pop in here and clarify a few things that have been brought up.

 

First and foremost, the official forums (where you are now) are the official platform for news and announcements, and are accessible to all subscribers.

 

Second, it is true I am present in many Discord communities. I do so primarily so I can get a feel for what these different communities are chatting about in an effort to gather as many points of view as possible. I do this in tandem with other platforms where players self-organize that I’m aware of.

 

I do these things in my personal capacity, however if I interact at all I make it clear who I am in my official capacity for transparency. Since Discord seems to be the primary platform brought up here, I want to address some points..

 

I started joining Discord communities related to the game when I returned to the team over a year ago. Discord is interesting in that it provides real-time communication via text chat, which is vastly different than the turn-based dialogue offered by forums. I use Discord interactions in several ways:

 

 

• General human chatting
  
• Discussing hobbies
  
• Gathering additional info on reported bugs or exploits
  
• Guiding folks to official channels who ask where/how to report something
  
• Guiding folks to official channels when asked about any information that’s unannounced (dates/future plans, etc)
  
• Discussing game design in general
  

 

When discussing longer-term plans or philosophies, I use the official forums. And I refer folks back to these posts if it comes up in other communication channels. Generally, I very much enjoy spending some of my personal time on Discord as long as the interactions are healthy. As a reminder, these servers are player-run and non-official, so the rules of each community are determined by those who own the servers.

 

Hopefully this sheds some light on how I interact with various communities in various capacities. But it’s worth re-stating again that official information will only come from official sources, including the forums here.

 

Thanks,

-Chris

 

This is fantastic news, Chris. I feel like this is really next-level game development; instead of solely relying on turn based responses and bug fixes, a dev can bypass the CSR system and go straight to sources and talk real-time: This seems like the future of ongoing development really. As much as typed conversations can benefit, nothing really replaces a real-time discussion.

 

Kudos to you Chris for thinking outside the box. I hope you're commended internally for taking that next step in deciphering the masses!

[Stradlin]

That's really the issue isn't it. Its not about posting on DISCORD or REDDIT etc, it's the lack of communication here. Where are weekly Q/A? PTS Feedback etc, Roadmaps, long term plans? Clearly this got attention, what about all the other threads that have blown up lately?

 

Something is bit..off when it comes to atmosphere of these forums Imo. I'd imagine this is a pretty annoying and depressing place to read and post from developer's pov. At least when we talk of any true day to day interaction, back&forth stuff and reading any significant amount of posts by community. Resulting situation is bit sad I guess, Parts of player community who stick to discord interact with BW/Devs in fashion almost unseen on the official forums.

 

It is an ongoing trend I recon. Hobbyist communities, MMO guilds and such have all moved to discord now, not just BW devs. Personally, I'd much prefer structure of forums over discord. Latter is just this endless waterfall of text. It is annoying to follow and impossible to stay on topic. Clearly most people feel more comfortable underneath the waterfall. Compared to forums, trenches are more dififcult to dig over there, so arguments and fights and "forum wars" aren't endless as often. TOR is quite busy atm, but these forums are surprisingly silent. Many, many sections are complete ghost towns now. People have moved to discord. Preferred and F2P aren't excluded from conversation over there which is a huge plus.

Edited March 4, 2021 by Stradlin

[FlameYOL]

Something is bit..off when it comes to atmosphere of these forums Imo. I'd imagine this is a pretty annoying and depressing place to read and post from developer's pov. At least when we talk of any true day to day interaction, back&forth stuff and reading any significant amount of posts by community. Resulting situation is bit sad I guess, Parts of player community who stick to discord interact with BW/Devs in fashion almost unseen on the official forums.

Its depressing to read as a player, I can only imagine how it would be like to read it from a developer's perspective. Not that I think they're flawless but these forums are so full of hyperbolic criticism and just general negativity that you wonder why a lot of the players are even here if they're so displeased.

[RikuvonDrake]

Its depressing to read as a player, I can only imagine how it would be like to read it from a developer's perspective. Not that I think they're flawless but these forums are so full of hyperbolic criticism and just general negativity that you wonder why a lot of the players are even here if they're so displeased.

 

isn't that just the main point of game forums, to allow people to have a "void" to scream at, meanwhile discord is more of a social and discussion platform, which is why the environment and atmosphere is more positive? also, i get ppl that used normal forums for 20+ years might have issues adapting to discord and its more fast-paced conversations but it's pretty clear forums are the graveyards, at least within gaming communities

Edited March 4, 2021 by RikuvonDrake

[FlameYOL]

isn't that just the main point of game forums, to allow people to have a "void" to scream at, meanwhile discord is more of a social and discussion platform, which is why the environment and atmosphere is more positive? also, i get ppl that used normal forums for 20+ years might have issues adapting to discord and its more fast-paced conversations but it's pretty clear forums are the graveyards, at least within gaming communities

 

The point of the forums would be to have discussion, not necessarily be a void to be screamed at, even if the latter is usually what ends up happening. And again, I'm not going to say all of it is without fault or comes from nowhere, the devs have done bad decisions (the amplifier window being one of the latest), and likely will do it in the future. But sometimes people don't discuss it in healthy ways.

 

As for Discord... I don't know, I haven't been on that particular discord server for a few months now. I'd say discord can end up just as bad as this forum for some of the other discords I've been part of, but if you have a good team of moderators they can manage the community better. Avoiding flamewards, or just general toxicity... of course that isn't always easy to do in larger servers due to a myriad of reasons.

 

I do agree with your statement that forums are a graveyard as far as gaming communities are, even though I prefer the forum format social medias like discord are far more popular.

[OlBuzzard]

The point of the forums would be to have discussion, not necessarily be a void to be screamed at, even if the latter is usually what ends up happening. And again, I'm not going to say all of it is without fault or comes from nowhere, the devs have done bad decisions (the amplifier window being one of the latest), and likely will do it in the future. But sometimes people don't discuss it in healthy ways.

 

As for Discord... I don't know, I haven't been on that particular discord server for a few months now. I'd say discord can end up just as bad as this forum for some of the other discords I've been part of, but if you have a good team of moderators they can manage the community better. Avoiding flamewards, or just general toxicity... of course that isn't always easy to do in larger servers due to a myriad of reasons.

 

I do agree with your statement that forums are a graveyard as far as gaming communities are, even though I prefer the forum format social medias like discord are far more popular.

 

Hmmm

 

Ya know ... until a few months ago I'd disagreed with the statement about the forums being the graveyard of gaming communities. With the unfolding of certain events in recent times, however, I'd say you're quite correct.

 

Looks as though Dasty is correct. If we want to be on top of things .. then we'd BETTER be logging onto what ever discord channel the team members are on and do our best to impact it in a POSITIVE manner.

 

frankly I have my doubts that will change anything though !

[TrixxieTriss]

Its depressing to read as a player, I can only imagine how it would be like to read it from a developer's perspective. Not that I think they're flawless but these forums are so full of hyperbolic criticism and just general negativity that you wonder why a lot of the players are even here if they're so displeased.

 

Part of why the forums devolved into that is because Biowares lack of communication over the years. When they’ve communicated in the past they usually got a good response till they go quiet again and the other shoe fell off.

When players feel like they are being ignored after Bioware ask for specific feed back and go ahead with bad ideas, it kind of brings out the worst in people.

That and lack of engagement and often over moderated forums drove a bunch of positive players from the game and forums.

 

I know I’m guilty of hyperbole sometimes, but much if it had to do with no sounding board and complete silence from Bioware of game breaking issues or problems. For many years if there was an unpopular topic or issue, Bioware would turn on the cone of silence for months until it hopefully blew over instead of addressing it. That built up a lot of resentment especially when they’d say we’ll get back to you and then didnt.

A certain CM would do drive by threads and then never return to them and let them turn into a toxic mess where people would often troll and bait others to get them forum banned.

 

What’s discussed and how it’s discussed on discord is so different to the forums that it wouldn’t work here. But that doesn’t mean the forums should be ignored and I’m really pleased to see JackieKO is doing her best to rebuild some trust between the forum dwellers and devs. Even Chris seems less shy about posting here since Jackie came on board (of course posting more would be even better ).

 

Sometimes I think we all forget that the devs are probably still working from home due to covid and getting permission to post on the forums probably needs to go through a process and review. Which is harder if you aren’t all in the office together and can just swing by someone’s desk.

[supercometl]

I feel like TrixxieTriss hit the nail on the head... It isn't that the forums don't work in theory, reddit is basically just one huge general forum. It is rather the forums have become this weird ghost town when it comes to the devs.

 

To put it bluntly, after the update went live the other day and the feedback anyone who just visited the PTS forum for a microsecond would be able to tell you was coming came, the dev track just reads as bug report acknowledgement after acknowledgement and finally a dev saying that... the only thing the forums is good for is finding announcements and news, not for feedback...

 

Like I COULD make more forum threads that discuss some ideas that I feel would help the game... but if the basic criticism isn't being looked at... what chance does a "dynamic level sync to give more difficulty" thread have?

 

Now, if for some miraculous reason a CM does see this post... Here is an idea. After you put up a "feedback" thread in PTS, you just let us know when you compiled the responses to give to the development team. That way there is a clear break between "what we know they have seen" and everything else.

[KendraP]

I mean, I'll fully excuse anything they've done or not done over the last year due to working from home during the pandemic. Their communication was atrocious before covid. and nothing "biochris" has said changes my opinion about the better people's discord.

 

Where should I go to have a nice chat with a dev about something I care about, which is neither ranked pvp nor NiM. I also have no desire to deal with third party moderators who have agendas of their own.

 

Yes, I joined the discord in question. I have never posted and never intend to. But reading it has solidified my opinion that BW definitively prioritizes certain, seemingly miniscule populations of people over others. (How many people enjoy ranked PvP compared to regs, how many NiMers are there compared to more casual group content, heck how many people are here for story compared to any of the above?)

[FateSVK]

I mean, I'll fully excuse anything they've done or not done over the last year due to working from home during the pandemic. Their communication was atrocious before covid. and nothing "biochris" has said changes my opinion about the better people's discord.

 

Where should I go to have a nice chat with a dev about something I care about, which is neither ranked pvp nor NiM. I also have no desire to deal with third party moderators who have agendas of their own.

 

Yes, I joined the discord in question. I have never posted and never intend to. But reading it has solidified my opinion that BW definitively prioritizes certain, seemingly miniscule populations of people over others. (How many people enjoy ranked PvP compared to regs, how many NiMers are there compared to more casual group content, heck how many people are here for story compared to any of the above?)

 

Hol up

 

So you have joined theorycrafting discord, which is, by design, focused on RANKED pvp and MM ops. If you could read, it's also in the welcome and rules. And you complain that devs chat about ranked pvp and mm ops there? 5head lmao, that's very story-player of you

Edited March 4, 2021 by FateSVK

[DarkTergon]

So I finally went over and checked out that discord server........not sure what I was expecting, after people called the forums, bad, cesspool, toxic... ,etc. These forums are certified U compared to what is over there, seriously, the place is as toxic as fleet. /shrug

 

 

 

Not to mention all the naming, etc, stuff that would be deleted/removed here.

Edited March 4, 2021 by DarkTergon

[Stradlin]

Its depressing to read as a player, I can only imagine how it would be like to read it from a developer's perspective. Not that I think they're flawless but these forums are so full of hyperbolic criticism and just general negativity that you wonder why a lot of the players are even here if they're so displeased.

 

Few days back, couple of people declared they'd quit the game due to the new paperdoll&attached invasive amp menu.

: D

Edited March 4, 2021 by Stradlin

[snave]

I simply wish I had an outlet that got half the attention that particular discord does that also gets even a quarter the dev interaction, even discussion. I would love to discuss issue that affect even NiMers, like my personal pet beef of 6.x - the downscaled endgame.

 

So join the discord lol?

[DarkTergon]

So join the discord lol?

 

except we shouldn't have to, this is supposed to be the official port of contact, this is controlled by BW, and should be treated as the main contact/information point. Discord isn't run or controlled by BW, and is run by a person, who can hold grudges, and basically do as he/she pleases.

[RikuvonDrake]

except we shouldn't have to, this is supposed to be the official port of contact, this is controlled by BW, and should be treated as the main contact/information point. Discord isn't run or controlled by BW, and is run by a person, who can hold grudges, and basically do as he/she pleases.

 

you don't have to, if you want to have a conversation with the devs you can just do it here, looking at the total amount of messages in theorycrafters or the main swtor discord compared to the amount of developer messages and you have a ratio that is lower than the forums

 

I used to follow the askghostcrawler blog quite a lot and asked this question to KappaChris to see a bit about his feedback, as I thought the question echoed a lot of the forum sentiments, here is his reply

 

Your input is heard in the forums, here, and everywhere else we read. We don't have the capacity to respond to every piece of feedback, nor is that reasonable. You are not owned a response. I appreciate all of you and the passion you share for the game or community, but it's important to point out the sense of entitlement that comes across sometimes can weaken your message, which generates worse results than you are trying to achieve.

 

so if you want, keep using the forums, just because nobody responds doesn't mean nobody read/listen

 

ok let me connect the dots for the challenged here.

 

They claim to be doing it to get a different perspective or a wider perspective than they are capable of here. Or as they phrased it, "an effort to gather as many points of view as possible." So they go to a discord that is BY DEFINITION limiting their perspective to... ranked pvp and nim. I also freely admit to not actively participating in either of those activities, though I have participated in both (however briefly) in the past. Unfortunately my time is far too limited to support hours of wiping on the same thing over and over again these days.

 

wonder who is the one challenged here, KappaChris is in lots of different discords, not just the theorycrafting one, if you feel like there is a type or category missing you can just make a community for it

Edited March 4, 2021 by RikuvonDrake

[supertimtaf]

So I finally went over and checked out that discord server........not sure what I was expecting, after people called the forums, bad, cesspool, toxic... ,etc. These forums are certified U compared to what is over there, seriously, the place is as toxic as fleet. /shrug

 

 

 

Not to mention all the naming, etc, stuff that would be deleted/removed here.

 

I mean, I'm only here since like... Yesterday, but it doesn't seem that bad when compared to other discord servers. It sure lacks activity when I compare it to other mmo discord with the same goal, but I think it's just how it goes. Still can't be as toxic as a RP discord if you ask me. And I've seen a ton of these.