State of the Community

[Nniuq_Doogah]

Hi, new player here. I'm making this post because i'm wondering what the state of the player community is. 

As a little bit of background: I'm a 35 year old man who is playing this game with my best friend who is also a 35 year old man. While I always wanted to play this game, I never got around to it and now that I am I'm enjoying it a lot. I do have mmo experience, as I  played wow and the final fantasy mmo for about two to three years each. However, my friend has never played an mmo, but has picked it up quite quickly. 

The main reason I'm writing this is  that I've recently encountered some players in flash points that have been less than nice. Even though, I make it quite clear in flash points we haven't played that "we are new." I've still had people that have been kind of jerks to us just because we're new and don't know every flash point like the backs of our hands.  Now, this doesn't bother us, because again we're grown men, and we usually just laugh it off and make jokes. I just don't understand this behavior because this was a problem in wow as well. Veteran players treat new players like trash and then wonder why no one wants to play the game. 

Anyway, I'm just hoping the majority of the community isn't like this. 

[ThanderSnB]

This kind of happens in any MMO with repeatable content. Veteran players have seen everything and are just there for the end reward. They want to complete them fast so their grind goes faster. In SWTOR's case, it's made worse by the fact that flashpoints have story cutscenes with dialog to listen to. That all takes time, but Bioware added a way to skip it with the spacebar. This creates clashes between new and old players. Bioware could fix this problem in two ways, which have been suggested before (it seems they don't listen):

• Option 1: Make cutscenes mandatory in all flashpoint queues. In other words, disable the spacebar skipping ability in flashpoints. Everyone has to watch the cutscenes, so no more players fighting.
• Option 2: Remove all cutscenes from Veteran/Master while preserving them in Story mode. In the queues, there are no cutscenes to fight over, so no more players fighting.

I'm not excusing veterans hassling new players, but it's up to Bioware to fix this problem. They have two options. Maybe they are hard to implement or Bioware is just too understaffed. I don't know, but there are solutions. They just don't seem that interested.

You will find some of the same behavior in operations. There aren't a lot of cutscenes in operations, but when you join a group on fleet, they expect you know the fights. To actually learn operations it's best to join a guild. It's hard to find a good guild that actually does operations, but if you keep trying new ones you will eventually find one that teaches new players operations. Warzones, being PvP, are always full of people trash talking each other.

Outside of that, the community is usually okay. If you ask questions in chat, you usually get helpful responses (if there are enough players on that planet). Whenever there are lot of players in one spot, trolls will come out of the woodwork, so chat can be bothersome on the fleets, starter planets, or Dromund Kaas/Coruscant.

Back to flashpoints, you can avoid some of this if you do Story mode. Not every Flashpoint has a Story mode available. I think there's about 8-10 with no Story mode. The only bad thing about Story mode is that you have to walk to the flashpoint entrance to play that mode as a group. There's no queue that teleports you. You can teleport if you just play on your own using the Solo tab, but if you want to play as a group everyone has to walk to the entrance and pick up the quest from the nearby NPC.

The other thing to note is that SWTOR is less co-op friendly as you get to the expansions. It's fine through Rise of the Hutt Cartel (Makeb). Once you get to Shadows of Revan, most of the phases are Personal Phase, which means only the party leader's story happens and the other party members can only watch. You end up having to repeat the same content over and over to get everyone through the story.

Edited May 25, 2023 by ThanderSnB

[WayOfTheWarriorx]

I won't rehash what ThanderSnB said as I share the same opinion and he pretty much gave a proper appraisal of the situation with regard to your question. There are definitely some A-O's out there, but outside of group content it's really a non-issue.

If group content in something your interested in, you need a bit of a thick skin at first. Once you earn your bones abit and people know your competent that improves. It's kinda a rite of passage. It wasn't enough to stop me and I been playing the game now 10 years mostly at end game.

You also have the option of choosing one of the smaller servers where there's probably less of that because there's less people to do that kinda content with so you can't burn all your bridges. Star Forge is the worst offender because it's huge and has the highest population in the game and is where you find the most long term end gamers. Star Forge is where I play.

Like ThanderSnB  said, you find it in most MMOs in group content.

A lot of virgins and peeps with ego problems and being faceless and safe lets them act in ways they never would in person. Besides, it's just a game anyways. Having the high score in Pac-man never got anybody knockin boots.

Only thing I would add to what ThanderSnB so eloquently stated is, if you find yourself in that position, if you feel like someone is trying to bully you,I recommend always pushing back. Don't let anyone insult you without insulting them back.You can use any language you want in-game, so let the 4 letter words be your reply.But, you may not be that kinda of person so obviously that's up to you to decide if your comfortable reacting that way.

I'm a New Yorker, so I'm perfectly comfortable reacting that way with A-O's of any stripe. =p

Lastly, there's a lot of good people in the game too who will be understanding and will be helpful.

Edited May 25, 2023 by WayOfTheWarriorx
I can't spell at all.

[JakRoanin]

I'm not new but I haven't played many VET mode FP's in group finder because of this. I have Cerebral Palsy so, I'm gonna screw up. I joined a guild and they're very nice about it. Maybe you and your friend might want to do that.

[sharpenedstick]

There's not really any excuse for people being rude to you just because you are new.

However, there are ways to be new that aren't such a burden to others. Keep in mind, if you are complicating other peoples' experiences, even if you don't think it matters, it does to them.

So for instance:

Are you queueing for FPs that assume experience (like master mode) while having none?

Are you queueing for content that you are appropriately geared for?

Do you ask for fight instructions if you don't know content?

Do you ask at the start if it's ok to watch cutscenes, so people who don't want to know your expectations in that regard?

Did you try at all to learn your class and role mechanics before trying group content?

This is a two-way street, and thinking it's unreasonable for vets to have expectations for you, while taking no responsibility for one's self (not necessarily you specifically, but new players in general) ignores the inconvenience vets experience. This adds up, and can explain why some are not very accommodating of new people sometimes.