4.0 and 5.0 killed whatever magic the game's original path had and despite have a few years to fix that, has only regressed and absolutely none of the players I knew out of the hundreds have returned. Guilds collapsed, rebalancing content poorly killed any and all options for fun besides what BioWares wants you to experience, the stories killed narratives that were left in a strong place by end of vanilla or even SoR (and I have quite a few critiques of SoR's execution on it's own) and class balance has been abysmal for a team that wasn't pumping out anything substantial (let alone wanted) for a few years.

 

How we still argue the merits of the Eternal family storyline when the game is in the piss-poor state it currently is in bewilders and upsets me. The few redeeming qualities it had are absolutely beaten over the head by the number of problems and the sooner we leave it all behind, the better.

Do you think the eternal story line is why people left? LOL People left because of the poor decisions with gear, removing ops and weekly pvp passes, and an multimillionaire dollar expansions that focused solely on story and ignored the rest of the game.

The problem with this style of MMO is the developers expect you to be entertained by doing the same static content over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over... well you get the point...

Thats what happens when you focus on developers creating content rather than players creating content. You have a bunch of impatient players who are demanding and begging for more grindy content instead of players who who find there own fun within the game. PvP is player content, RP is player content, Starfighter etc. Story, Ops, flashpoints are dev content.

IMO ... If they need to back the release of 6.0 to Dec 1... then they should. Just make sure they squash some bugs along the way !

 

Let's face it: Sept is not that far away. And I'm certain that BW team is acutely aware of it !

They had 3 years to work on 6.0, well be fine

4.0 and 5.0 killed whatever magic the game's original path had and despite have a few years to fix that, has only regressed and absolutely none of the players I knew out of the hundreds have returned. Guilds collapsed, rebalancing content poorly killed any and all options for fun besides what BioWares wants you to experience, the stories killed narratives that were left in a strong place by end of vanilla or even SoR (and I have quite a few critiques of SoR's execution on it's own) and class balance has been abysmal for a team that wasn't pumping out anything substantial (let alone wanted) for a few years.

 

How we still argue the merits of the Eternal family storyline when the game is in the piss-poor state it currently is in bewilders and upsets me. The few redeeming qualities it had are absolutely beaten over the head by the number of problems and the sooner we leave it all behind, the better.

Yup. And his angry ranting only. Proves my points, rather than refutes them.

They had 3 years to work on 6.0, well be fine

Not exactly. There's some transition time between the last producer and Keith.

If you want to be fair, start counting from when Keith took over...

Nothing saying the developers can't pick and choose some elements of some ideas, and elements of others to build something in the game for the community. recently Bioware have made efforts to communicate and get back to us with something, now we got the end of the eternal alliance and return to the old factions, old companions have returned and changes for 6.0 on PTS are going to be acknowledged as well.

 

When it comes to the occasional rotten apple, they can't be taken as the majority. one deranged person threatening developers is not to be tolerated, i even sent a pm to Eric years ago in support of the developer and Bioware over that whole threat a number of years ago. No one likes that type of person, no one wants that type of person. Everyone here from what i can tell are decent respectful people that enjoy having that kind of access they sorely missed a few years ago. i doubt every forum with a big game has people making any type of death threat because of a design choice.

Just read through here, in this very thread. You're not going to find death threats, but you are going to find plenty of trashing of their work, and I've seen more than a few threads over the years with some very vitriolic things being said about the devs in general, and some in particular. It wasn't all that long ago that we had a thread with the OP attacking Eric over design choices, like the CM is responsible for them? So what I see you saying is "yeah, people get really nasty, but so long as it's not death threats, it's all good". It's not.

Then we come to the "pick and choose", which leads whomever wasn't picked or chosen to rampaging around the internet about how BW, or any other dev team, doesn't listen to player feedback. What we might consider trash, they considered pure gold, and they'll be just as vocal about not being listened to as some that may have had a decent idea, and if they're not presenting their ideas, nobody has any way to know if it was good or not, just that, according to the rant, they were ignored.

Do you think the eternal story line is why people left? LOL People left because of the poor decisions with gear, removing ops and weekly pvp passes, and an multimillionaire dollar expansions that focused solely on story and ignored the rest of the game.

Did I not say 4.0 and 5.0? To say that the storyline wasn't at the heart of this issue is dismissive of the mainline into the issue. The new storyline was a revamp which came with other revamps. The story lacked incentives to retain any subs. There would have been a (forum) uproar for a lack of Ops regardless but group content missing was not the reason so many people left. The story was NOT repeatable, not able to be run in groups where people could progress together (group content) and isolated player's characters in instances that were just not fun. Let's be clear, the majority of this playerbase by time of SoR was heavily engaged in the story, even if just by means of getting to endgame. We knew the majority of the playerbase was extremely casual for a long time.

Them taking away Ops and Pvp passes was part of the problem but we have no numbers that say that it was a main issue. The gearing problem was because they not only excluded non subs (a real reason Preferreds would stop playing because nothing to progress on as opposed to running the exact same Ops over and over because that's NOT the majority of Preferreds, let's be real) but they also made a convoluted RNG filled system with hardline progression tied to content Preferreds could not even touch anymore.

Again, 4.0 and 5.0 were spearheaded by the poor stories and will definitely be remembered for them, even with the cool blur trailers. The lacking MMO content definitely crippled the veteran playerbase but we've always been a minority. The content just couldn't retain us or the flow of newer players lacking experienced guidance/leadership.

Just read through here, in this very thread. You're not going to find death threats, but you are going to find plenty of trashing of their work, and I've seen more than a few threads over the years with some very vitriolic things being said about the devs in general, and some in particular. It wasn't all that long ago that we had a thread with the OP attacking Eric over design choices, like the CM is responsible for them? So what I see you saying is "yeah, people get really nasty, but so long as it's not death threats, it's all good". It's not.

 

Then we come to the "pick and choose", which leads whomever wasn't picked or chosen to rampaging around the internet about how BW, or any other dev team, doesn't listen to player feedback. What we might consider trash, they considered pure gold, and they'll be just as vocal about not being listened to as some that may have had a decent idea, and if they're not presenting their ideas, nobody has any way to know if it was good or not, just that, according to the rant, they were ignored.

But then why have forums at all? That is the logical extension / conclusion of your argument.

Sure, Eric gets attacked sometimes just like a server at a restaurant gets attacked for what the chef made. That's the nature of the beast and I think Eric and others understand that full well.

At the end of the day, it is their job to sort through the nonsense. If they can't do that or don't want feedback they are in the wrong line of business because, regardless, there are too many unofficial sites (e.g. Reddit) where critiques are going to be posted.

I have a sneaking suspicion that Eric, et al, have a good idea of whose posts here matter given we have such a small community and some of us (including yours truly) have, how shall I put it, distinct personalities and posting styles. <<sips martini>>

Personally, I couldn't do Eric's job (it's not in my nature), but he's been at it for a while now. While obvious threats to personal safety, security, etc. should be dealt with harshly, I imagine they are pretty immune to "you guys aren't good at your job type" comments.

The problem comes to head, though, when developers start to blame the player base for bad games. To wit: the devs on Anthem came dangerously close to doing that and got nailed again -- and appropriately so. This is particularly the case when the reviews on Anthem were almost unanimous in finding the same faults with it. The article linked by the OP seems to defend the devs in this situation, which is patently absurd.

We live in a culture and society now where anonymous people are going to critique your work given the Internet. If you don't like it, can't handle it -- find a different profession. And ignoring all feedback is something they do at their own peril.

Dasty

But then why have forums at all? That is the logical extension / conclusion of your argument.

So that we can discuss the game, good, bad or indifferent. So that players have a "local" resource when they get stuck on a quest, or in some MMOs, are looking for a build to play a specific class. We can also provide feedback, but, and there's always a but, dev responses aren't required, except by those that feel that they're input is pure gold, and should be responded to acknowledging that.

Sure, Eric gets attacked sometimes just like a server at a restaurant gets attacked for what the chef made. That's the nature of the beast and I think Eric and others understand that full well.

So it's "grow a thicker skin" instead of "moderate the rabble rousers"? When I was a bouncer, my job was to moderate the rabble rousers. If they were being insulting to the servers, or the dancers, I removed them, I did not tell the girls to grow a thicker skin because "customer". Contrary to popular belief, the customer isn't always right.

At the end of the day, it is their job to sort through the nonsense. If they can't do that or don't want feedback they are in the wrong line of business because, regardless, there are too many unofficial sites (e.g. Reddit) where critiques are going to be posted.

 

I have a sneaking suspicion that Eric, et al, have a good idea of whose posts here matter given we have such a small community and some of us (including yours truly) have, how shall I put it, distinct personalities and posting styles. <<sips martini>>

 

Personally, I couldn't do Eric's job (it's not in my nature), but he's been at it for a while now. While obvious threats to personal safety, security, etc. should be dealt with harshly, I imagine they are pretty immune to "you guys aren't good at your job type" comments.

 

The problem comes to head, though, when developers start to blame the player base for bad games. To wit: the devs on Anthem came dangerously close to doing that and got nailed again -- and appropriately so. This is particularly the case when the reviews on Anthem were almost unanimous in finding the same faults with it. The article linked by the OP seems to defend the devs in this situation, which is patently absurd.

 

We live in a culture and society now where anonymous people are going to critique your work given the Internet. If you don't like it, can't handle it -- find a different profession.

 

Dasty

Or, do your jobs, and let them rant. Because they're going to rant, regardless. If A, then B is going to rant. If C, then A and/or B is going to rant, etc. Nature of the beast, because of that anonymity. When "what's the worst thing that can happen" is a time out, people will run their mouths, or fingers, as the case may be. This does not mean, however, that "well, at least it wasn't a death threat" means that they should be taking time from their day to come see the next wave of rants. I have to check my PMs daily to see if I have been warned because one of those "personalities" that love to be vitriolic, or just harsh, can't handle it when someone replies in kind.

Their job isn't "Punching bag" because X players aren't happy.

Did I not say 4.0 and 5.0? To say that the storyline wasn't at the heart of this issue is dismissive of the mainline into the issue. The new storyline was a revamp which came with other revamps. The story lacked incentives to retain any subs. There would have been a (forum) uproar for a lack of Ops regardless but group content missing was not the reason so many people left. The story was NOT repeatable, not able to be run in groups where people could progress together (group content) and isolated player's characters in instances that were just not fun. Let's be clear, the majority of this playerbase by time of SoR was heavily engaged in the story, even if just by means of getting to endgame. We knew the majority of the playerbase was extremely casual for a long time.

 

Them taking away Ops and Pvp passes was part of the problem but we have no numbers that say that it was a main issue. The gearing problem was because they not only excluded non subs (a real reason Preferreds would stop playing because nothing to progress on as opposed to running the exact same Ops over and over because that's NOT the majority of Preferreds, let's be real) but they also made a convoluted RNG filled system with hardline progression tied to content Preferreds could not even touch anymore.

 

Again, 4.0 and 5.0 were spearheaded by the poor stories and will definitely be remembered for them, even with the cool blur trailers. The lacking MMO content definitely crippled the veteran playerbase but we've always been a minority. The content just couldn't retain us or the flow of newer players lacking experienced guidance/leadership.

Very well stated and extremely accurate.

So that we can discuss the game, good, bad or indifferent. So that players have a "local" resource when they get stuck on a quest, or in some MMOs, are looking for a build to play a specific class. We can also provide feedback, but, and there's always a but, dev responses aren't required, except by those that feel that they're input is pure gold, and should be responded to acknowledging that.

 

 

 

So it's "grow a thicker skin" instead of "moderate the rabble rousers"? When I was a bouncer, my job was to moderate the rabble rousers. If they were being insulting to the servers, or the dancers, I removed them, I did not tell the girls to grow a thicker skin because "customer". Contrary to popular belief, the customer isn't always right.

 

 

 

Or, do your jobs, and let them rant. Because they're going to rant, regardless. If A, then B is going to rant. If C, then A and/or B is going to rant, etc. Nature of the beast, because of that anonymity. When "what's the worst thing that can happen" is a time out, people will run their mouths, or fingers, as the case may be. This does not mean, however, that "well, at least it wasn't a death threat" means that they should be taking time from their day to come see the next wave of rants. I have to check my PMs daily to see if I have been warned because one of those "personalities" that love to be vitriolic, or just harsh, can't handle it when someone replies in kind.

 

Their job isn't "Punching bag" because X players aren't happy.

Sorry but you aren't cut out for business.

People who are like you also find out they aren't cut out for business and their businesses usually end up failing.

You can Rage Against the Machine all you want, but the successful businesses are the ones who find ways to deal with customer criticism which often times can be blunt and even personal, and learn from that in order to grow their product to better suits their targeted audience.

You may not like it and they may not like it as human beings, but it comes with the territory for as long as there have been buying and selling.

So yes, if you want to be in a business you need a thick skin. To defend Developers for having as thin skin as you do is a recipe for failing them.

As Raph Koster once noted, those who defend Developers tends to be their worst enemies, because if you believe in your Defenders you end up stifling your own growth and creativity and end up not pleasing your customer base who is criticizing the product. That is directly from a former MMO developer Who would know a heck of a lot more than you about the business.

Thats what happens when you focus on developers creating content rather than players creating content. You have a bunch of impatient players who are demanding and begging for more grindy content instead of players who who find there own fun within the game. PvP is player content, RP is player content, Starfighter etc. Story, Ops, flashpoints are dev content.

This game offers very little in the way of tools for player content. SWG with all it's issues did a great job of giving players tools to create content, unfortunately most players knew very little about it because of the lack of tutorials and instructions... SWG defiantly had a steep learning curve.

PvP warzones is hardly player content and any kind of serious world pvp is extremely hampered by the game engine Bioware chose to use. If you get anymore then 24 players fighting in the same area the engine begins to choke, that's why they removed Fortress vs Fortress pvp on Illum shortly after the game released.

IMO, an ideal MMO is having the story driven content of SWTOR at the center with open world sandbox (player content) surrounding it. But Bioware was set on doing their story telling within a WOW style MMO. Which means after a year or two the game becomes really boring unless new content is added at a fast pace.

I

Sorry but you aren't cut out for business.

 

People who are like you also find out they aren't cut out for business and their businesses usually end up failing.

 

You can Rage Against the Machine all you want, but the successful businesses are the ones who find ways to deal with customer criticism which often times can be blunt and even personal, and learn from that in order to grow their product to better suits their targeted audience.

 

You may not like it and they may not like it as human beings, but it comes with the territory for as long as there have been buying and selling.

 

So yes, if you want to be in a business you need a thick skin. To defend Developers for having as thin skin as you do is a recipe for failing them.

 

As Raph Koster once noted, those who defend Developers tends to be their worst enemies, because if you believe in your Defenders you end up stifling your own growth and creativity and end up not pleasing your customer base who is criticizing the product. That is directly from a former MMO developer Who would know a heck of a lot more than you about the business.

IN other word: agree with this person and their cheap rants ... and you're an intelligent person

Disagree with this person and their position then you and your points of view are useless !!

I've seen this sort of idealism repeatedly for over 50 years... 30 years in business .. 15 of which I was a purchasing director in which we watched a company grow from ground zero to a national competitive level.

IMO... The attitude displayed in this sort of reasoning is dangerous at best. All because of what unquestionably appears as a personal ax to grind.

IMO ... this sort of attitude is one that is not only dangerous .. but costly to others who really want to add to the growth of the game.

Yes.. a number of things have gone side ways ! Anyone can arm chair quarterback and tear something (or someone) down...

Trying to be strong enough to BUILD ... that's quite another !

I've BEEN there ... Done that ! And I have a retirement with a woman that no man could ever complain about at my side to prove it !

As Raph Koster once noted, those who defend Developers tends to be their worst enemies, because if you believe in your Defenders you end up stifling your own growth and creativity and end up not pleasing your customer base who is criticizing the product. That is directly from a former MMO developer Who would know a heck of a lot more than you about the business.

I support bioware in their efforts but not blindly. i had a major problem with Galactic command for example as something i don't agree with at all, but that actually helps in the long run counter-balance the developers point of view out by reminding them where the line is between good and bad ideas as i am sure everyone here has an opinion on something. so that point is now rounded out and iced.

Did I not say 4.0 and 5.0? To say that the storyline wasn't at the heart of this issue is dismissive of the mainline into the issue. The new storyline was a revamp which came with other revamps. The story lacked incentives to retain any subs. There would have been a (forum) uproar for a lack of Ops regardless but group content missing was not the reason so many people left. The story was NOT repeatable, not able to be run in groups where people could progress together (group content) and isolated player's characters in instances that were just not fun. Let's be clear, the majority of this playerbase by time of SoR was heavily engaged in the story, even if just by means of getting to endgame. We knew the majority of the playerbase was extremely casual for a long time.

 

Them taking away Ops and Pvp passes was part of the problem but we have no numbers that say that it was a main issue. The gearing problem was because they not only excluded non subs (a real reason Preferreds would stop playing because nothing to progress on as opposed to running the exact same Ops over and over because that's NOT the majority of Preferreds, let's be real) but they also made a convoluted RNG filled system with hardline progression tied to content Preferreds could not even touch anymore.

 

Again, 4.0 and 5.0 were spearheaded by the poor stories and will definitely be remembered for them, even with the cool blur trailers. The lacking MMO content definitely crippled the veteran playerbase but we've always been a minority. The content just couldn't retain us or the flow of newer players lacking experienced guidance/leadership.

People dont stay subbed for the story, story players sub for one month, get allt he story content and quit once the story is over. The heart of MMO players are players that play for Pve, rping, crating and PVP. Maybe because Swtor focused on story all this time is why there numbers are so low, and if this game didnt have the Star Wars IP, this game would not exist anymore. If you are right, then why are they releaseing this new Expansion with a new Operation and Flashpoint and gear changes that directly affect the way you play your class in PvP?

People dont stay subbed for the story, story players sub for one month, get allt he story content and quit once the story is over.

There were ongoing sub rewards at the time.

There were ongoing sub rewards at the time.

If you are right, then why are they releaseing this new Expansion with a new Operation and Flashpoint and gear changes that directly affect the way you play your class in PvP? Why not just do what they did last time but with empire veruss republic story content?

This game offers very little in the way of tools for player content. SWG with all it's issues did a great job of giving players tools to create content, unfortunately most players knew very little about it because of the lack of tutorials and instructions... SWG defiantly had a steep learning curve.

 

PvP warzones is hardly player content and any kind of serious world pvp is extremely hampered by the game engine Bioware chose to use. If you get anymore then 24 players fighting in the same area the engine begins to choke, that's why they removed Fortress vs Fortress pvp on Illum shortly after the game released.

 

IMO, an ideal MMO is having the story driven content of SWTOR at the center with open world sandbox (player content) surrounding it. But Bioware was set on doing their story telling within a WOW style MMO. Which means after a year or two the game becomes really boring unless new content is added at a fast pace.

 

I

Yup!!! They should have combined SWG with Kotor instead of trying to be WoW (Star Wars edition)

People dont stay subbed for the story, story players sub for one month, get allt he story content and quit once the story is over. The heart of MMO players are players that play for Pve, rping, crating and PVP. Maybe because Swtor focused on story all this time is why there numbers are so low, and if this game didnt have the Star Wars IP, this game would not exist anymore. If you are right, then why are they releaseing this new Expansion with a new Operation and Flashpoint and gear changes that directly affect the way you play your class in PvP?

It's obvious from this post and the later ones that you are a Sandbox swg player.

Swg at its peak never even came close to the number of Subs SWTOR has.

The number one complaint of SWG, even acknowledged by the game creator Raph Koster, of players who quit that game was that there was no story to make the player feel like it was Star Wars. Swg was dress up Barbie with Star Wars clothes.

Meanwhile, SWTOR was advertised as story first. And the two largest exoduses of players from SWTOR subscription rolls came after they came clean and said they would no longer do class stories, and then once again after Knights of the Fallen Empire when they crapped all over class stories and shoehorned everyone into one story to make the lives of the game developers easier.

So you can pop off with your prejudices and biases all you want but the fact of the matter is story is what drives this game.

It's obvious from this post and the later ones that you are a Sandbox swg player.

 

Swg at its peak never even came close to the number of Subs SWTOR has.

 

The number one complaint of SWG, even acknowledged by the game creator Raph Koster, of players who quit that game was that there was no story to make the player feel like it was Star Wars. Swg was dress up Barbie with Star Wars clothes.

 

Meanwhile, SWTOR was advertised as story first. And the two largest exoduses of players from SWTOR subscription rolls came after they came clean and said they would no longer do class stories, and then once again after Knights of the Fallen Empire when they crapped all over class stories and shoehorned everyone into one story to make the lives of the game developers easier.

 

So you can pop off with your prejudices and biases all you want but the fact of the matter is story is what drives this game.

I think the story is brilliant, I think solely focusing on story alone was the downfall to swtor. 4.0 and 5.0 were story only updates and the rest of the game got ignored, thats why people left.

https://www.vg247.com/2019/07/12/game-developers-time-stop-listening-fans/

 

Once in a while maybe step back and really think of the amount of work and effort it take to make this game run and add new content. Now I don't always agree with all the decisions made but I love this game and there is not another like it that offers so much for a one month sub.

Yeah, because NOT listening to the customer who pay your wages has always been such a successful business tactic, right?

All The Best

Yeah, because NOT listening to the customer who pay your wages has always been such a successful business tactic, right?

 

All The Best

So you were all over getting that Droid class that was brought up a couple weeks back? How about that idea of having to actually watch your ship fly from one place to another? Myth: We pay their wages. We don't, EA does. We pay to play a game. Note that that doesn't include a share of development input, which, based on the ideas I posted here, taken from these very forums, is a very good thing.

Just read through here, in this very thread. You're not going to find death threats, but you are going to find plenty of trashing of their work, and I've seen more than a few threads over the years with some very vitriolic things being said about the devs in general, and some in particular. It wasn't all that long ago that we had a thread with the OP attacking Eric over design choices, like the CM is responsible for them? So what I see you saying is "yeah, people get really nasty, but so long as it's not death threats, it's all good". It's not.

 

Then we come to the "pick and choose", which leads whomever wasn't picked or chosen to rampaging around the internet about how BW, or any other dev team, doesn't listen to player feedback. What we might consider trash, they considered pure gold, and they'll be just as vocal about not being listened to as some that may have had a decent idea, and if they're not presenting their ideas, nobody has any way to know if it was good or not, just that, according to the rant, they were ignored.

You're just doing what the author of the article that this thread is about did... cherrypicking examples of the worst behavior you can find while ignoring everything else and saying, "See, I told you it's bad! Don't listen to the players!"

If Bioware is concerned about the level of vitriol, they can hire some moderators and make some stricter guidelines about how stuff can be worded. The solution is not to run away from your customers. That's just poor business.

As for the "pick and choose" part of what you're saying... we get it, nobody is happy about every decision. Listening to player feedback does not mean handing over the reins of development to the players. It means hearing their concerns and using your expertise as a game developer to figure out what the heart of the issue is and try to do something about it, if time and budget allows. And on a communication level, it can just mean acknowledging that the concerns have been noted and that maybe there are plans to do something about it, or maybe there are none, but you look at how most people react to a yellow post, any rage in them is often quickly replaced with politeness and/or appreciation. Cause it's easy to be angry or frustrated in a vacuum. It's harder to aim that frustration at another person and not feel guilty about it.

Out of the video game communities that I've been a part of over the years, for a game that gets regular (or semi-regular) updates, most of the community that is engaged on an interaction level seem to be mostly overjoyed at hearing from the people who make it, even if it's just community team people and each post goes a long way. Silence, on the other hand, leaves a vacuum where buildup of frustration takes over.

Probably the best way I've seen this handled to date is in the Sims 4 team, after they shored up their forum team and set up a thing where some community team person does a weekly highlight of things that have been shared, posts made, etc. That along with their gurus setup where some devs volunteer to be more front-facing and have more interaction with the fans. I'm not saying that'd necessarily work here, but the point is that there are methods that can result in a better overall mood of the community (and better engagement) and the excuses you make seem paltry in the face of that experience.

I think the story is brilliant, I think solely focusing on story alone was the downfall to swtor. 4.0 and 5.0 were story only updates and the rest of the game got ignored, thats why people left.

There was a mass Exodus before 4.0, when by owner said they would no longer be doing classes stories.

And just because 4.0 had story doesn't mean it was the right story. However they wanted to do it, dropping a single player game in the middle of an MMO was a really stupid idea. But did you know by the Numbers 4.0 actually was the most successful expansion BioWare ever had? You see, the story players hung around and gave it a chance and played through.

It wasn't until after a few months when the content had all been played through that players were leaving. And even leading up to it the Forum was on fire with people upset with the story Direction choices..

You see the problem with your theory is that people were pissed off about no operations and no PVP and left before the expansion was launched. And even with them gone, promised story content delivered by where the most successful expansion ever. What ended up doing it down the line was that it was poorly written When taking into the context of the previous stories.

Sorry to burst your bubble but reality doesn't jive with your version of events.