Should We Just Join the Private Discord Channel?

[KendraP]

Hmm, who's truly entitled; those of us wanting BW employees to utilize an official means of communication or those wanting access to a self titled dev on his "free time" in an unofficial, privately moderated channel?

 

I would love to talk to "biochris" about, for example, why my guild went under and im the only one left with an active swtor sub (for less than a week, btw). But it would seem he doesn't care about that. And to be honest, why should he?

 

The devs prefer discord; BW should make a discord they moderate to avoid even the appearance of impropriety or preferential treatment.

Edited March 13, 2021 by KendraP

[robertthebard]

think lots of people just need to read this, calm down and chill

 

if devs prefer to spend their free time on discord instead of the forums for casual and more relaxed conversations, perhaps instead of alienating the developers further with posts like, well the above one, you might wanna change the communication tone from toxic and entitled to something constructive and positive, then devs might want to use the forums more, I know I would

 

after all, what this thread is demanding is for the devs to spend their free time on a specific platform, instead of just wherever they want to, while in reality, the result might just be less communication in general, which, unless that is what you want, isn't great

 

It's really not demanding anything at all. It is, however, pointing out the lack of real communication here compared to your private server. I'm not looking for dev responses to my posts. I mostly don't post anything they'd need to respond to. What I do expect is enough professionalism from devs to go to these platforms anonymously. That way we don't have these issues of how it looks. As it stands, if a post of mine in this thread is moderated, I'm going to wonder if I said something in response to someone that has private access to a dev, as opposed to violating any forum rules. It's all about the optics.

[Ollmich]

So if you went in to a restaurant, and ordered a steak & veg, yet they came down with just veg, would you accept it? No, you'd ask for your steak, and if they continually kept bringing down more veg instead of your steak, you'd eventually demand it.

 

The problem here, is the same as the problem with the crafting. We all ordered the steak, yet some tables haven't gotten theirs, and while they are asking why, and giving out, the people who have gotten theirs are mocking them, and saying, we see no issue, we have our steak. In relation to this, the waiter instead of communicating with us, about why our steak hasn't arrived, is over at the other tables, with the people who've been fully fed, having a good laugh.

There's a reason why logic as a discipline thinks of analogy as a source of fallacy. The situation you described doesn't represent accurately neither recent changes to crafting nor that whole discord controversy.

 

In the first case (crafting), people didn’t order the same steak. It was a bunch of guests who ordered a steak, and it was brought to everyone regardless if they wanted it or not. That’s not how a real restaurant runs things but it’s exactly how a video game functions. When changes are made, they affect everyone, and there will always be someone who won’t like it. Obviously, the studio has to do its best to satisfy as many people as possible, etc, etc. Still, this example shows why “You must do this because I’m paying you” mindset is ridiculous and counterproductive if demanded changes are going to affect other people; it shouldn’t be abused or used over rational arguments. It’s also egoistic, self-righteous, rude, and won’t get you anywhere since you're telling the sudio what it already knows.

 

In the second case (communication), all the guests actually get their steak, and every one of them can also use a promo code and get some dill on top of it. Important info that affects all the players is provided via official channels, e.g. detailed posts about upcoming changes, patch notes, maintenance schedule, known issues, PTS announcements. What is posted elsewhere is an unnecessary but nice bonus. Missing it won't hurt you in any way.

 

***

 

Mind you, I'm not against players raising their concerns about it. I simply state that I personally do like that devs don't confine themselves to offcial channels, show interest in other platforms their players gather at and talk to them there from time to time, be it Chris on TC discord, or Charles on reddit, or someone else on another platform or discord server I don't use and not aware of. I like the concept, I want that kind of communication to continue, I don't want it being shut down. After all, I'm a paying customer too and I can demand things... oh, wait.

Edited March 13, 2021 by Ollmich

[DarkTergon]

/snip

 

I was trying to make it as simple as possible because some people here need it like that. And if it gets needlessly confusing, it causes them issues.

 

As a paying customer, you can demand exactly what you pay for, that's the point of being a paying customer.

BW themselves have said in numerous posts that

 

Hey everyone!

 

We love that this was created and appreciate what Discord communities are capable of, but we want to encourage the use of the forums. Encouraging community members to go off of our platform at the top of the General Discussion Forum does not match that goal. While this isn’t something we will sticky, we don’t have an issue with the thread existing in general.

 

 

 

Highlighted the important bit.

 

What biochris is doing is going onto a platform, which has already been discouraged by BW, and basically ignoring the official platforms. That is one of the issues. As part of the sub, we pay for the forums (you have to be a sub to comment, therefore you are paying for it)

 

 

As for CQ, the steak was in reference to CQ completion, ie, people who do other content can complete CQ doing the stuff they like multiple times over and over, but now they've nerfed crafting, a percentage of the population can't, our steak is now gone, and we can't complete CQ the way we used to, hence we don't have our 'steak'. I put this is spoilers as I don't want to derail this topic, as I was just trying to point out the same attitude people have with CQ, ie they have what they want, so they don't see any issue.

 

 

There also the other issues dealing with player owned discord channels, which have been discussed. Abuses of power, bigotry, etc.

 

It's ok for you, sitting at your table, with a full dinner in front of you, and they waiter standing right beside you, acting like your bestie. No wonder you see nothing wrong with it

 

But people from the other tables, are seeing this, and deciding to leave, sure, more will come, but in the end the amount leaving could be more than the amount coming in, and the restaurant might have to take notice of what is happening.

 

Personally, I've been looking around at other restaurants, unfortunately this is the only Star Wars themed one, which is why I keep coming here, but how long before I find one that I enjoy as much, and the fact it isn't star wars won't matter.

Edited March 13, 2021 by DarkTergon

[Nee-Elder]

 

Missing it won't hurt you in any way.

 

That's your opinion.

 

How can you (or anyone) presume to know every single bit of extra game information said elsewhere to players outside of these official forums won't somehow gain them some advantages over other players either unaware of said 3rd-party channels or not somehow already on their 'Favored List' ?

--

. I simply state that I personally like that devs don't confine themselves to offcial channels, show interest in other platforms their players gather at and talk to them there from time to time, be it Chris on TC discord, or Charles on reddit, or someone else on another platform

 

I sort of agree with you, in theory. But...well...2 things: First, my wish is that 'they' would involve themselves here on the OFFICIAL website/forums more often than those other methods. That's all.

 

Secondly, imho, the community should goto BioWare. Not the other way around. Ever heard of: "If you build it, they will come" ? Perhaps if BioWare (and we the community) would build together a better platforum (pun intended) HERE at swtor.com , those other methods wouldn't be as necessary. Nor as controversial.

 

JackieKo is at least making efforts in that department, thankfully. (As is DavidStaats, recently )

---

I want that kind of communication to continue, I don't want it being shut down.

 

No one is trying to shut anything down lol .

 

On the contrary, most of this entire thread seems to be a debate more so about *balance* (of communications) rather than any perceived shut down.

--

, I'm a paying customer too and I can demand things [too]

 

Once again, this whole "demand" narrative isn't gonna work, since anyone rational can simply read this thread and realize most 'customers' (like me, for example) are discussing, wishing, and requesting , not "demanding" .

 

Words have meaning and words still matter. You wanna disagree? Cool np , but disagree within reality-of-the-thread, instead of inventing melodramatic narratives to somehow support your argument better.

 

There's plenty of positive solutions & suggestions posted so far in this thread; including mine. KappaChris, EricMusco, & BioWare et al wil either take it all to heart and make adjustments. Or they won't.

Edited March 13, 2021 by Nee-Elder

[OlBuzzard]

Just a couple "brief" thoughts on this ...

 

** Official communications:

* Should be exactly that. Those communications would be through any official BW / EA forum or other OFFICIAL setting. IMO those official sites / forms of communication could / would and should ALL follow the same guidelines and rules of conduct as set forth by said company that has been established here since the beginning !!

* ALL of these different (if there were more than one "OFFICIAL" place / form of communication would and should follow the same guidelines for accessibility for anyone who would choose to participate. This makes all forms of communication and sites provided by and controlled by BW / EA consistent in ALL aspects. IMO this is the only real way to be as consistent as humanly possible to be as fair and above board as possible. This would remain true in all OFFICIAL BW "discord channels / forums and or any other media that they should choose. IMO they also have the right to do so at their discretion as they see fit as long as they are all based upon and follow the same rules of conduct ... etc .. etc .. etc.

 

** Private stuff: well IMO it's self explanatory. It's private .. by invitation only. Their rules ... their way.

* Am I happy with it? Frankly it's none of my business !! It's a private channel. I'm probably not going to be there any way!!

* Why not show up ?? I could if I wanted to.. but I could care less .. frankly !!

* Why care less ?? Is it "official stuff"? NOPE !! Then you have your answer !! I'm not wasting my time !!

** But is it right?? Ah ! Here is the real debate IMO. Whether it is right or wrong is up the BW and the employee. Like it or not that's pretty much the bottom line. I'm not going to roast anyone over an internal matter.

 

**** Communication as of late with the appearance of Jackie and some other posts have indicated that things are improving. This is what we need perhaps as much as the old fashion bug squashing we've been asking for.

 

If BW wants to communicate with the community it can and WILL do so right here. If they have some special events on "Twitter" or other formats of communication it will be on an OFFICIAL CHANNEL provided by BW.

 

If it's not official .. then for me personally I'm not interested. This is my own point of view on this matter. No I don't expect everyone to agree. Disagreement is a normal thing and I'm not going thermal on anyone who disagrees with me !!

 

Any way .. enough said for now !!

 

Take care !!

[deedfakeydeed]

You people already know that there's an unofficial SWTOR discord right? With anal-tight administrators that ban you for making dark humor jokes. Got 3k members in it, and like 1k ban list.

[supertimtaf]

Funny how this thread started as "it's cool to see devs hanging out with players on discord, but can we please get more official communication as well ?" and became "muh devs shouldn't talk on discord" and "let the devs do whatever they want".

 

It's always like that on the forums. Always. Conversation derails completely and peoples end up missing the whole point. Be it about PvP, Crafting, Conquest, Balance...

 

All this to say : overall, no matter if BW talks on multiple discords or not, we ALL want more official communications, more information, more feedback follow-up...

 

Ain't that right ?

[Stradlin]

SWTOR, its players or devs don't live in a bubble of their own. Online world is kinda moviing on from forums. It is kinda sad from pov of somebody who really likes hobbyist net forums as a concept. Facebook, twitter, reddit,etc have reduced all forum traffic a great deal over the years. Not just for TOR, applies to more or less every single old larger online forum.

 

Discord has bit of a coup de grace@forums - aura to it. Tis sad! And, at times, kinda hillarious. Communities that in pretty objective fashion would benefit from forum format a great deal cram themselves into Discord instead. Migrating to discord from forums like deep water fishes leave sea to migrate to beach instead. It kinda makes sense: Most of their new members are already on discord for some other reason, so no new member needs to register. Besides, "everybody else is doing it so why not us?"

 

RP communities of TOR(or any MMO rly) are often a good example of the above. Chatroom -structure of Discord is a terrible place for stuff like character profiles, short stories, RP event descriptions, collective storywriting suff etc. Meanwhile, Forums have always been a perfect environment for these things. On paper, most such communities prolly roll with forums and discord server both nowadays. I think in practice, latter usually drains lots of hours and traffic from former. Instead of " imma make a post on forums for once!" stuff unsuitable enough for discord just doesn't get read or written anymore.

 

It boils down to how many hours a normal person has to spend on talking about their video game guild stuff. Or whatever. In some perfect world scenario, people would use forums and discrod side by side, posting on whichever venue is more suitable for whatver they want to say. In practice, people more and more often use discord for everything instead.

 

^... Very generally speaking. Exceptions to the rule remain but above def seems like the overall direction of things.

 

 

 

..This is super OT but sometimes, little pockets of resistance rise up and fight against the march of progress in an incredibly stubborn way. Small community playing Ultima Online kept using ICQ up until discord happened. I bet they were literally the only people in the world to still use icq back in 2012 or so!

Edited March 14, 2021 by Stradlin

[robertthebard]

Then they could start their own discord, where they, instead of a third party, is in charge of who is and isn't allowed to post there. Instead, we have gatekeepers accusing forum goers of gatekeeping.

[foxmob]

Then they could start their own discord, where they, instead of a third party, is in charge of who is and isn't allowed to post there. Instead, we have gatekeepers accusing forum goers of gatekeeping.

 

it's possible that they aren't allowed to post or converse on the forums unless/until their posts are sanitized by BW PR. hence doing so on their own time in an unofficial capacity in a private discord.

 

I remember when we had class reps do a Q/A on the forums years ago. Most of reps asked fairly direct, uneasy questions, and a very large chunk of the dev responses were not received well at all by the community.

 

don't get me wrong. I think the devs rationale was flat wrong on a lot of things, mostly about the classes I played. the point is, though, that the attempt blew up in their faces.

 

between then and now, there have been community reps who make some effort to relay user questions to devs and then report back to the community (surely sanitized and watered/generalized explanations). I was never satisfied, and I doubt most players were.

 

so I don't know why they do this and not that, avoid forums by going off the reservation in a user's private discord, but I can tell you with absolute certainty that nothing they say in terms of community forum interaction ends well. and they're better off just dropping PTR and Patch Notes -- preferably 3-4x per year (which, of course, they don't; that's 90% of the problem; things don't change for years at a time).

Edited March 15, 2021 by foxmob

[robertthebard]

it's possible that they aren't allowed to post or converse on the forums unless/until their posts are sanitized by BW PR. hence doing so on their own time in an unofficial capacity in a private discord.

 

I remember when we had class reps do a Q/A on the forums years ago. Most of reps asked fairly direct, uneasy questions, and a very large chunk of the dev responses were not received well at all by the community.

 

don't get me wrong. I think the devs rationale was flat wrong on a lot of things, mostly about the classes I played. the point is, though, that the attempt blew up in their faces.

 

between then and now, there have been community reps who make some effort to relay user questions to devs and then report back to the community (surely sanitized and watered/generalized explanations). I was never satisfied, and I doubt most players were.

 

so I don't know why they do this and not that, avoid forums by going off the reservation in a user's private discord, but I can tell you with absolute certainty that nothing they say in terms of community forum interaction ends well. and they're better off just dropping PTR and Patch Notes -- preferably 3-4x per year (which, of course, they don't; that's 90% of the problem; things don't change for years at a time).

 

Except that it's not done unofficially. If it were, none of us, including the server owners, would know they were doing it. I would not only be fine with that, I've suggested that that's how it should have been handled in the first place. Instead we have a situation that looks bad, no matter what's really going on. Optics are everything.

[foxmob]

I think you and I have different definitions of "official communication." as has already been stated, these are individuals who work at BW going to private discords on their own private time. but this isn't a fight I care to have.

 

if you want "official communication" from BW, don't expect meaningful, two-way, or frequent interaction. I think the past decade is proof enough of that. and even when we get "frank" dev interactions, it just leads to more uproar.

 

all of that said, the uproar over this private discord stuff will likely bring about the end of that line of communication as well. the forums have been dying a slow death. welcome to a twitter world, I guess. although I don't think twitter is any less problematic. just less to read and easier for BW to treat as a microphone w/o having to actually interact with the audience.

[robertthebard]

I think you and I have different definitions of "official communication." as has already been stated, these are individuals who work at BW going to private discords on their own private time. but this isn't a fight I care to have.

 

if you want "official communication" from BW, don't expect meaningful, two-way, or frequent interaction. I think the past decade is proof enough of that. and even when we get "frank" dev interactions, it just leads to more uproar.

 

all of that said, the uproar over this private discord stuff will likely bring about the end of that line of communication as well. the forums have been dying a slow death. welcome to a twitter world, I guess. although I don't think twitter is any less problematic. just less to read and easier for BW to treat as a microphone w/o having to actually interact with the audience.

 

As I said in the post just above this one, however, it's not done "unoffically", since they literally tagged themselves as an employee. That tag is so important that the owner of the server has been in this thread accusing posters here of gatekeeping, while maintaining private access to a dev. If not for these pieces of information, I would have no problem with them haunting discord trying to gauge the community. As soon as they're labeled as an official, however, the context changes, and we can see how just by reading this thread.

[RikuvonDrake]

Posts on the "Unofficial" main swtor discord during Sunday: 5 095

Posts(New Threads) on the forums during Sunday: 167 (27)

 

Quite honestly when it comes to the discussion about an official swtor discord, I don't think the devs are interested simply cause it wouldn't change much as there is already several and it would just create a lot of work for Bioware staff with moderating and running that discord. I am sure they are happy to just sit back and be on the swtor related discords, in particular with how many the community has created and how they are being run.

 

Sure, there are a few discords are that more restricted, usually, for guilds or raiding groups but in general a lot of the discords that the devs participate in are public and easy to join/find invitation links to, the three server discords, the main swtor one, a few of the influencers discords and the theorycrafters as well as pvp ones.

 

But I think the numbers speak for themselves, devs want to be where the community and players are, and for the last few years and looking into the foreseeable future, that is discord. Trying to deny that as well as keep the devs from being on other platforms and gathering feedback is likely to be as successful as fighting the tide.

 

Funny how this thread started as "it's cool to see devs hanging out with players on discord, but can we please get more official communication as well ?" and became "muh devs shouldn't talk on discord" and "let the devs do whatever they want"

 

Yea I think this is the worst part but also an important illustration of why the forums aren't the best platform for all types of communication, topics are just rehashed and rehashed, and similarly to twitter even official messages (such as the one by KappaChris) just gets misinterpreted. Guess it makes sense why a lot of gaming companies are moving to just patch notes and irregular updates combined with "inofficial" communications through discord, twitter threads etc. from their private accounts.

Edited March 15, 2021 by RikuvonDrake

[Nee-Elder]

As soon as they're labeled [themselves] as an official, however, the context changes, .

 

Bingo ^

 

Which is why i said in 1 of my earlier posts (in this thread) that this whole "uproar" could've very easily been avoided by simply remaining anonymous .

 

But then i guess that would defeat the entire purpose of "being with" the community?

---

Posts on the "Unofficial" main swtor discord during Sunday: 5 095

Posts(New Threads) on the forums during Sunday: 167 (27)

 

Once again i'll reiterate: No problem with how 'KappaChris' spends his free time (officially or otherwise) . All i wish is for those numbers ^ to even out a bit. (aka interact here with us at swtor.com more often )

 

But i dunno....perhaps we aren't asking the right questions in the forums threads? Or too "toxic" too much?

 

Maybe. However, see the GSF forums section to dispell that argument, cuz there are tons of right questions there and zero toxicity. Yet....no BioWare posts. /ponder

 

--

, devs want to be where the community and players are,

 

Shouldn't we be IN-GAME ?

 

But seriously, the Devs could very easily have like a simple 'Forums Q & A session' thread once-a-month (or once every 2 months) whereby subscribers could submit specific questions about the inner-workings (and future workings) of SWTOR and BioWare could widdle down those questions to say oh i dunno: 20 ?

 

Could satisfy so called "upset" people like me who relish any chance to interact in greater detail....officially.

--

Guess it makes sense why a lot of gaming companies are moving to just patch notes and irregular updates combined with "unofficial" communications through discord, .

 

Not sure what your definition of "a lot" is but regardless: If that's true, all the more reason for BioWare to just bite the blaster-bolt and create an official SWTOR Discord server , no?

 

Heck, could even make some type of 'Application Community Event' and see if loyal (and reasonable) community members (like from these: http://www.swtor.com/blog ) might even be interested in moderating.

 

Just an idea of course.

Edited March 15, 2021 by Nee-Elder

[Tofu_Shark]

Funny how this thread started as "it's cool to see devs hanging out with players on discord, but can we please get more official communication as well ?" and became "muh devs shouldn't talk on discord" and "let the devs do whatever they want".

 

It's always like that on the forums. Always. Conversation derails completely and peoples end up missing the whole point. Be it about PvP, Crafting, Conquest, Balance...

 

All this to say : overall, no matter if BW talks on multiple discords or not, we ALL want more official communications, more information, more feedback follow-up...

 

Ain't that right ?

It's always been the OP's responsibility to keep the thread on-topic and prevent it from being co-opted for someone else's purposes.

 

 

 

SWTOR, its players or devs don't live in a bubble of their own. Online world is kinda moviing on from forums. It is kinda sad from pov of somebody who really likes hobbyist net forums as a concept. Facebook, twitter, reddit,etc have reduced all forum traffic a great deal over the years. Not just for TOR, applies to more or less every single old larger online forum.

 

Discord has bit of a coup de grace@forums - aura to it. Tis sad! And, at times, kinda hillarious. Communities that in pretty objective fashion would benefit from forum format a great deal cram themselves into Discord instead. Migrating to discord from forums like deep water fishes leave sea to migrate to beach instead. It kinda makes sense: Most of their new members are already on discord for some other reason, so no new member needs to register. Besides, "everybody else is doing it so why not us?"

 

RP communities of TOR(or any MMO rly) are often a good example of the above. Chatroom -structure of Discord is a terrible place for stuff like character profiles, short stories, RP event descriptions, collective storywriting suff etc. Meanwhile, Forums have always been a perfect environment for these things. On paper, most such communities prolly roll with forums and discord server both nowadays. I think in practice, latter usually drains lots of hours and traffic from former. Instead of " imma make a post on forums for once!" stuff unsuitable enough for discord just doesn't get read or written anymore.

 

It boils down to how many hours a normal person has to spend on talking about their video game guild stuff. Or whatever. In some perfect world scenario, people would use forums and discrod side by side, posting on whichever venue is more suitable for whatver they want to say. In practice, people more and more often use discord for everything instead.

 

^... Very generally speaking. Exceptions to the rule remain but above def seems like the overall direction of things.

 

 

 

..This is super OT but sometimes, little pockets of resistance rise up and fight against the march of progress in an incredibly stubborn way. Small community playing Ultima Online kept using ICQ up until discord happened. I bet they were literally the only people in the world to still use icq back in 2012 or so!

Complete with the memory of a fish. Discord doesn't nearly have the privacy that independent fora do, even though they are in no way private.

 

Discord would be a great place to isolate all the *$%^posting that goes on in and clutters up forums with crap that make searching for useful information that much harder.

[KendraP]

Again, he can say he's being unofficial and doing it on his own time; but by including the company name in his tag, he's made it company business.

 

This is a hill im willing to die on.

Edited March 15, 2021 by KendraP

[DarkTergon]

Posts on the "Unofficial" main swtor discord during Sunday: 5 095

Posts(New Threads) on the forums during Sunday: 167 (27)

 

.

 

The rest was answered, so I won't bother with that, but as for the amount of posts. How many of those posts were just rubbish, people slagging each other off, talking BS, repeating, off topic, trolling, memes, etc, etc, etc. How many of those posts would be removed if they were posted here. And how much of it wasn't even read by most people. Sometimes having more is not always better.

[RikuvonDrake]

Could satisfy so called "upset" people like me who relish any chance to interact in greater detail....officially

 

if all you want in life is just to talk to a dev the highest chance is on twitter, poke one of their handles and if you have a question they want/can answer they will, just like the forums, just less ppl just twitter to demand answers

 

Not sure what your definition of "a lot" is but regardless: If that's true, all the more reason for BioWare to just bite the blaster-bolt and create an official SWTOR Discord server , no?

 

Heck, could even make some type of 'Application Community Event' and see if loyal (and reasonable) community members (like from these: http://www.swtor.com/blog ) might even be interested in moderating.

 

would change nothing from how things are now, there is a huge unofficial discord with devs and most of the player base that uses discord on it already, all it would change is more work for bioware with no change in what they gain back, and most importantly, the responsibility and accountability for the discord

 

The rest was answered, so I won't bother with that, but as for the amount of posts. How many of those posts were just rubbish, people slagging each other off, talking BS, repeating, off topic, trolling, memes, etc, etc, etc. How many of those posts would be removed if they were posted here. And how much of it wasn't even read by most people. Sometimes having more is not always better.

 

not sure if you are aware but there are lots of fluff sections on this forum as well for offtopic, random conversations etc., in fact a large part of the forums "postcount" came from non-conversational sections + offtopic. that's just a major part of any community. afaik next to all conversations on the discord as well as here are usually in the appropriate channel/section as mods and other move/delete things when they are posted in the wrong place

 

my intention wasn't to show that "more is better", just that the activity on the discord by far dwarfs that of the forum (since there were a few boomers not understanding the importance of discord within the gaming community), I wholeheartedly agree that the forums might have a reason to exist in 2021, but its also easy to understand why they are not used as much as before and why devs are branching out to other platforms. After all we have had devs join enjin forums and skype conversations back when that was a thing guilds and raid groups used.

Edited March 15, 2021 by RikuvonDrake

[DarkTergon]

 

not sure if you are aware but there are lots of fluff sections on this forum as well for offtopic, random conversations etc., in fact a large part of the forums "postcount" came from non-conversational sections + offtopic. that's just a major part of any community. afaik next to all conversations on the discord as well as here are usually in the appropriate channel/section as mods and other move/delete things when they are posted in the wrong place

/snip

 

I've been on the discord server, it's how I know how chaotic it is, and how much rubbish is on it. There's far less fluff here, and when it does build up , it's dealt with fairly, and evenly. The same can't be said of the discord server. As I said, a whole lot of that stuff wouldn't be allowed here. I'm not against discord, if swtor had their own discord, and operated it as they did the forums, it would probably be good for all, as long as they didn't forget the forums, and kept it up to date, the same as discord. Personally I don't like discord, it's messy to use, a lot harder to find what you want, and several things others have said. But if people wanted an official SWTOR discord, I'd throw my support behind it, I just prefer the forums, and I believe the forums should be given as much attention as unofficial congregations, if not more, as it's the official hub.

[RikuvonDrake]

That's an awful lot of text for "but my private access to devs", isn't it?

at some point more people will realize that this type of attitude that you display here and in other posts is counterproductive if your goal is more casual communication from the devs

 

I am aware that we disagree, you want to restrict how and where devs are allowed to communicate with the players, even if it's on their personal time, and I just want more communication, regardless if that is on the forums or other platforms.

 

I've been on the discord server, it's how I know how chaotic it is, and how much rubbish is on it. There's far less fluff here, and when it does build up , it's dealt with fairly, and evenly. The same can't be said of the discord server. As I said, a whole lot of that stuff wouldn't be allowed here. I'm not against discord, if swtor had their own discord, and operated it as they did the forums, it would probably be good for all, as long as they didn't forget the forums, and kept it up to date, the same as discord. Personally I don't like discord, it's messy to use, a lot harder to find what you want, and several things others have said. But if people wanted an official SWTOR discord, I'd throw my support behind it, I just prefer the forums, and I believe the forums should be given as much attention as unofficial congregations, if not more, as it's the official hub.

 

Yea its pretty evident that you don't really understand or i guess struggle a bit with the new communication platforms that discord represents, perhaps for some people its easier when things are organized like the forum does. I like aspects of the forums as well, the more structured categories have been changed into different discord channels/servers that can be difficult to get an overview of if you are new. But players have managed to adapt pretty well with how they use discord and split conversations depending on the topic.

 

I think devs understand that they reach fewer people through the forums compared to before, and that is why more and more information is coming to us through the launcher as well as the popup windows ingame, through the forums they only reach a fraction of the player base so they need more communication channels. After all, everything Chris and others have said on the main swtor discord and others are mostly things that are posted on the forums already or said on live streams, only the casual conversations are "unique" and that type of conversation isn't possible on the forums.

 

I think that in theory, an official discord would be a good idea, but in reality in terms of the number of messages to filter through, channels and different topics to moderate as well as the change from a subscription requirement to just anyone at all? That is going to require a lot of resources and attention from the developers and social media team to handle, and in reality, the change and advantage it would give Bioware over what we have now would be, in my opinion, basically none, while they would have a lot more risks and resources needed for this.

Edited March 15, 2021 by RikuvonDrake

[DarkTergon]

/snip.

 

 

I understand the platform, you just didn't bother reading what I wrote, either intentionally or not. It has nothing to do with not understanding, but everything to do with not liking. It is chaotic and full of Bull, the same toxic stuff that fills DK/Fleet at the worst of times. Not all of it, but enough. I've used discord for a while, and have no problem navigating it, in fact in some of the older guilds we used it quite a lot for ops, etc. I just personally don't like it.

[robertthebard]

at some point more people will realize that this type of attitude that you display here and in other posts is counterproductive if your goal is more casual communication from the devs

 

I am aware that we disagree, you want to restrict how and where devs are allowed to communicate with the players, even if it's on their personal time, and I just want more communication, regardless if that is on the forums or other platforms.

 

So you actually don't understand what I've been saying. I have no issues with devs, on their private time, on private accounts, doing whatever they like. My issue is a dev dedicating his time to a private server, officially. You can thrash around with all the accusations and insults you like. You can choose to mischaracterize what's being presented all you like, but at the end of the day "BioChris" is an official entity, while "chris" is not. You see, I keep talking about the perception, but I'm beginning to believe there's a whole lot more we're not getting here, and that is worrisome. It doesn't paint a picture of an innocent dev, simply spreading the love. It paints a picture of some behind the scenes shenanigans, especially given how hard you rail against everyone that posts counter to the idea of you having private access to a dev. What's that expression? Oh yeah; "Methinks thou dost protest too much".

 

Yea its pretty evident that you don't really understand or i guess struggle a bit with the new communication platforms that discord represents, perhaps for some people its easier when things are organized like the forum does. I like aspects of the forums as well, the more structured categories have been changed into different discord channels/servers that can be difficult to get an overview of if you are new. But players have managed to adapt pretty well with how they use discord and split conversations depending on the topic.

 

I think devs understand that they reach fewer people through the forums compared to before, and that is why more and more information is coming to us through the launcher as well as the popup windows ingame, through the forums they only reach a fraction of the player base so they need more communication channels. After all, everything Chris and others have said on the main swtor discord and others are mostly things that are posted on the forums already or said on live streams, only the casual conversations are "unique" and that type of conversation isn't possible on the forums.

 

I think that in theory, an official discord would be a good idea, but in reality in terms of the number of messages to filter through, channels and different topics to moderate as well as the change from a subscription requirement to just anyone at all? That is going to require a lot of resources and attention from the developers and social media team to handle, and in reality, the change and advantage it would give Bioware over what we have now would be, in my opinion, basically none, while they would have a lot more risks and resources needed for this.

 

For an example of what I'm talking about here, just check out all these nifty personal attacks that would have me banned from the forums, and have had me banned from these forums for a lot less. One wonders, would you be getting away with this if you didn't have a dev in your pocket?

[Nee-Elder]

at some point more people will realize that this type of attitude that you display here and in other posts is counterproductive .

 

Sorry for sorta flaming you here but... imho, it's your attitude that's been the most rancor i've seen in the thread.

 

On some level i can't really blame you though, since it's fairly obvious you're just posting out of an overwhelming (and understandable) fear of losing the very access you claim is so "unimportant" .

---

if your goal is more casual communication from the devs

 

.

 

Lucky for me, my goal isn't that.

 

Which is probably one of the reasons someone like me and someone like you disagree.

 

Heck, the last thing i'd ever want from BioWare is "casual" ; especially considering they're the only SW mmo currently receiving $$$ for product.

 

Instead, i want/wish for what i'd surmise nearly ANY rational subscriber would want/wish: BioWare Dev(s) to interact more often (or at least, as often) here at swtor.com than they do on your personal Discord server.

 

Simple. And i've even offered practical solutions to help accomplish said goal in my other posts.

Edited March 15, 2021 by Nee-Elder