Gibonski Posted January 31, 2023 Share Posted January 31, 2023 Can any of The devs come in to answer the question at hand? Will we get a roadmap soon, or at all? Every game is releasing one. Wow just teased big good changes, hell even Lotro released one. Why is it always our game that lacks communication? We want it to be good, we want it to shine, even if it isn't for top end pvpers and raiders. I believe we deserve some attention. After a failed year long anniversary celebration you can actually get your act together and start making good progress to improve relations with us. That is all we need really, active communication and consistent updates. May the force be with us all... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlameYOL Posted January 31, 2023 Share Posted January 31, 2023 (edited) 6 hours ago, Gibonski said: Can any of The devs come in to answer the question at hand? Will we get a roadmap soon, or at all? Every game is releasing one. Wow just teased big good changes, hell even Lotro released one. Why is it always our game that lacks communication? We want it to be good, we want it to shine, even if it isn't for top end pvpers and raiders. I believe we deserve some attention. After a failed year long anniversary celebration you can actually get your act together and start making good progress to improve relations with us. That is all we need really, active communication and consistent updates. May the force be with us all... We haven't received a roadmap in years, don't hold your breath. Edited January 31, 2023 by FlameYOL 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OlBuzzard Posted January 31, 2023 Share Posted January 31, 2023 24 minutes ago, FlameYOL said: We haven't received a roadmap in years, don't hold your breath. I think that is partially due to some of the harsh criticism that followed when something was overlooked or not on schedule. Kind of a two-way street (IMO). A road map might be good! Then, again, it might just give some folks something else to complain about! Either way... you are probably right! I wouldn't hold my breath! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ardrossan Posted April 11, 2023 Share Posted April 11, 2023 On 1/31/2023 at 4:25 PM, OlBuzzard said: I think that is partially due to some of the harsh criticism that followed when something was overlooked or not on schedule. Kind of a two-way street (IMO). A road map might be good! Then, again, it might just give some folks something else to complain about! Either way... you are probably right! I wouldn't hold my breath! Yeah no. They have been consistently terrible at communication going at least as far back as RotHC. They got abuse for stuff they did during that era like SGRs and that was bad, but then they instrumentalized that abuse as an excuse to avoid talking to players and restrict access as much as possible, and they've been milking it ever since. Good communication starts from the top, the creative director and the culture they create, and it goes down to the frontline community managers and the messaging they send to players. What this one sends to me, just like the last one who is now unfortunately in charge, is that they only like comments that are 100% praise for the direction of the game with no criticism or asking for things. Beyond that, they collect feedback that goes nowhere, that doesn't get implemented, and every expansion they insist that they're going to communicate more and then they give up within weeks. This is a pattern of behavior, it is not something that players are responsible for, it is squarely on the shoulders of Bioware, full stop. We don't need more players defending these actions or blaming this situation on players. We are not responsible for the way bioware chooses not to communicate, nor are we complaining for the sake of complaining, no matter what white knights like the above poster presumes. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jdast Posted April 11, 2023 Share Posted April 11, 2023 (edited) Here is the reason Roadmaps matter, at least for my friends / guildmates (and, yes, I know this is anecdotal)... Context: I have been playing MMORPGs for close to 20 years with largely the same group of people. We have done WOW, Rift, LOTRO and have now settled on Elder Scrolls Online (ESO). We dabbled in SWTOR at the beginning on Jung Ma (an RP-PvP server). Since then, though, SWTOR has become largely a solo RPG game for me. Why? Answer is simple... My fellow guildmates on ESO do not have confidence that SWTOR will last much longer. MMORPGs are an investment. Not only in time and money, but in your characters. Obviously, I like SWTOR enough to keep subscribing ($15 / month isn't that much), but I have stopped Cartel Market purchases. What ESO does right is they announce at the beginning of each year what the cadence is for content release. This gives customers confidence in the future of the game. I understand the argument that if Bioware makes an announcement about what is planned some will consider that a "promise" and will excoriate them if they don't meet that schedule. I get the argument of under promise but overdeliver. But... It has now been 4 months since the release of 7.2, which I quite enjoyed. I understand there are no guarantees, particularly with EA at the helm, but I understand EA has a fiduciary responsibility to shareholders. Yes, they can pull the plug at any moment, but it is difficult to persuade my friends to come back to SWTOR when we have had radio silence about new content for months. The question is not whether SWTOR is profitable, the real question is whether it is a good Return on Investment (ROI) for EA. This is why Roadmaps, however vague and preliminary with no guarantees, matter. Dasty Edited April 11, 2023 by Jdast Stupid Typos! 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hillerbees Posted April 12, 2023 Share Posted April 12, 2023 Isn't the idea of a roadmap for the game so that we can get excited for whats coming? If there is no roadmap just to avoid any potential critisism and the new content just lands as and when its ready the game devs are just selling themselves short. We look forward to holidays or parties or whatever in advance of just being there in the moment...its half the fun. If there is no roadmap because we have run out of road then I guess thats another story. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlameYOL Posted April 12, 2023 Share Posted April 12, 2023 44 minutes ago, hillerbees said: Isn't the idea of a roadmap for the game so that we can get excited for whats coming? If there is no roadmap just to avoid any potential critisism and the new content just lands as and when its ready the game devs are just selling themselves short. We look forward to holidays or parties or whatever in advance of just being there in the moment...its half the fun. If there is no roadmap because we have run out of road then I guess thats another story. Its not an issue of running out of road it seems, considering the overhauls they're doing its unlikely development of new content will stop anytime soon. However Bioware has had an issue of being a bit too secretive with when they'll release things since 7.0 as not every feature they promised made into the expansion, so I'm guessing they want to play it more safe. As an example the latest patch's launch date was only revealed a week before launch. And there's clearly more stuff planned, but we won't know what until its closer to launch when they start to tell. That approach has the benefit of them being more sure of what stuff will go in which patch and when which patch will be released, so say 7.3 is releasing with a new FP and a bunch of QoL changes. They can be more sure about what QoL will make it into the patch. Say something like weapons outfitter being delayed to the next patch as it happened during LOTS' launch. The downside is that we the playerbase are left in the dark about what's coming and when, which is obviously not a good thing especially in an MMORPG. I'd say if they were a single-player game, they could get away with it, but we do need better communication on what we can expect from the game in the future and I think roadmaps are the best way to do it. They don't need to have a set date, it can be something like "7.3 ETA is in Summer", and to their credit sometimes they do make posts a few months in advance like that. However like I said they also release patches with only a week's notice so I think a roadmap would be better for both parties, Bioware would be able to tell us what we can expect during the year, or semester, and we would have a vague idea of when things will come. Though I'd argue that we would also need to understand things can be delayed, and not lose it if a patch gets delayed from the original estimate. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
felleto Posted April 12, 2023 Share Posted April 12, 2023 We got galactic seasons 4 guys!! Wait... It's pretty much the same as 3... and 2... Hm... Are we getting something soon-ish? Don't get me wrong Galactic seasons will keep me logging on Sundays to do my objectives and that's pretty much it... Maybe some story content with some fps? Maybe some Galactic starfighter love? This game is a real test on people who tend to create expectations... Take what you get and don't expect much... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hillerbees Posted April 12, 2023 Share Posted April 12, 2023 I think at this stage most of us are not going to lose it if deadlines are not met but its disappointing not to have something to look forward to, the exact timing doesn't need to be given but I remember the days when almost every day there would be something interesting being discussed on the dev tracker - now it feels like a crash pad for acknowledging bugs or failings rather than a conversation around newly introduced game elements. Some time ago Keith made a big play about communication being his top priority. Since Eric left the Community Manager role I feel the inclusive chat has fallen away. Himself and Charles always left you with the feeling they were as excited about new anouncements as we'd be to receive them. Now its all presented as "we will be putting x, y and z on the PTS for you guys to test"....all the fizz is taken out of new stuff and then its pushed onto the live servers to little fanfare. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hillerbees Posted April 12, 2023 Share Posted April 12, 2023 8 minutes ago, felleto said: We got galactic seasons 4 guys!! Wait... It's pretty much the same as 3... and 2... Hm... Are we getting something soon-ish? Don't get me wrong Galactic seasons will keep me logging on Sundays to do my objectives and that's pretty much it... Maybe some story content with some fps? Maybe some Galactic starfighter love? This game is a real test on people who tend to create expectations... Take what you get and don't expect much... Yes while I enjoy the hamster wheel which is Galactic Seasons, it is just that ...a fill in of something to do while new content should be worked on. It should be the starters we consume while the chefs prepare the main course not the main course itself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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