This is a case of "Damned if you do, Damned if you don't."

 

When the Devs stop announcing what they're doing, the forums go CRAZY! "You don't communicate with us, you don't care what we think, the game is shutting down, this is a slap in the face, you didn't give us a chance to say whether we want that or not, we are unsatisfied customers!!!"

 

So you suggestion simply will NOT work. At least when they announce things in advance it gives some of the forumites something positive to look forward to. Of course, some people will STILL complain that X isn't coming soon enough, they don't want Y, the Devs hate (PvP/PvE take your pick), why does it take so long, oh will this be a disaster like the last time, etc.

 

There is no way to win with this crowd. Literally NOTHING will satisfy the beast; they even complain when they get Free Stuff because they would have preferred OTHER Free Stuff.

 

No win scenario.

 

Yeah, I didn't say "Don't tell us about anything you are doing."

Duh.

 

Sure, when it comes to upcoming patches, new things for the cartel market, etc, those things get discussed.

 

But when it comes to "subscriber appreciation" or raining down free presents, don't tell us, just do it.

 

You log in one day, and you have another 500 CC on your account and a mail from Bioware saying "just because".

 

A new pet or mount or title in your mailbox one day. No warning from Bioware, they made it, they mailed it, no one knew until they got it in-game. No announcement that its for "appreciation" or that its going to happen.

 

Meanwhile, upcoming patches or events still get discussed beforehand.

 

I hope that clears it up for you.

So basically we have no say in what goes in the game?

 

We do. Same say as anyone buying a product. If you don't like it, don't pay for it.

 

If this company was at risk of losing a substantial portion of their subscribers because they were not giving them enough say in development then they would likely change their practices. There are a lot of developers doing this, some are successful, some are "Snakes on a Plane"

 

At this point there are only a handful of people asking for this and it would seem very few are willing to stop paying over it.

Edited July 10, 2013 by CKHelseth

Send out an email to all accounts Subs and F2P with ten items off of your wall of crazy. Let the players vote on those ten items by putting 1-10 next to those. I would think that way you would have a more accurate overall count on what players want. I've been subbing since early launch and been beta test since August 2011. That way you can slowly clean up your wall of crazy until the next brainstorm.

Aww, so cute! <3

 

And i dont know about you, but when i make a promise irl i tend to keep it. Same goes for everyone i know. Glad you agree with me that BW's promises are worth less than the paper they are written on though! =)

If a company makes a promise for a service, and then breaks it, you call them out on it and then never do business with them again. But that is not how you and the other feedback heroes operate. You take an issue, insult BW and anyone who understands their side of the story and then beats the topic to death like a chicken stuck in a wringer. We get it. You were lied to. Either send them an email about it and move on with the game, or shut it, and move on FROM the game. If you fail to trust them now, you will never trust them. Yet you pay a company you do not trust. Wonder what Freud would say about that

Well, make both then?

BW - please just give her everything in the SW universe so she can finally be happy with the game. Thanks

Will you stop trying to make everything about Subscriber Exclusivity? Get over it. You weren't born special. You will probably never be special. You will probably be average like everyone else in the world. Deal with it like everyone else does who wanted to be special and never did.

 

Force your children into show business and live vicariously through them!

May I have your permission to make this a sig line?

No they are not. What im saying is; If BW hosted weekly polls, every "monday" where we actually could influence the games diretion in various areas - then the most dedicated players would vote in that poll for sure.

 

And according to you that would mean that shipload of new ppl would log into the forums and vote - while i think the difference would be marginal because the most dedicated players that wants to influence the game, they are allready here.

 

Please elaborate why a commited and dedicated player that wants to influence the games direction wouldn't read the forum at least once per week.

 

Perhaps you don't realize how worthless a poll is. They already know its pointless. Time for you to catch up.

Translation: We don't care what the players want.

 

People on the forums should have a say or bigger voice bc we like and or care enough about the game to spend time discussing the game. I come to the forums to help improve the game and help others. I know I'm not special but I think we should have a say on a game we love and play.

 

If most players don't care enough about the game to voice an opinion, then that's their purgative.

 

There should at least be polls that can give the devs a general idea of what subs want.

Edited July 10, 2013 by Toweleeeie

May I have your permission to make this a sig line?

 

Go for it. I have three other people using my posts as Siggys!

 

I'm slowly taking over the Signatures...

 

Muwahahahaha!

To your second question, we absolutely value feedback from the forums. In fact, we regularly pass on suggestions, bugs, and questions from the forums onto our development team. This is also why we continue to communicate with players as often as we do.

 

This is very different than a poll though. Even with me setting the precedent that something is not a guarantee, players on the forums will often look at a poll as something which "validates an opinion." In using the species example from before, I saw someone propose a great example which I am going to steal

 

Let's say we make a poll about which species players would like to see added next on the forums, and 70% of the poll answers Togruta. Then, in our metrics and data gathering from multiple sources outside the forums, we see that 70% of that data, which is of a higher volume, says players want Gungans. When we announce the next species is Gungans, players on the forums will only look at that poll which was posted here and try to exclaim that "everyone wants Togruta."

-eric

 

Eric, while your arguments are perfectly valid, there is another way to approach the situation.

 

You could just publicise information everywhere stating there is a poll on the forums asking what new species you want and state clearly that the results of the poll will strongly influence/decide the next species that comes out.

 

In most democratic nations its the people who bother to come out and vote who get to decide the next government; and by extension the future of the country.

 

So even if your metrics show state that most people want gungans (honestly I dont know what sort of data/metrics you are gathering, maybe social media crawlers etc) it doesnt mean that they care enough to actually voice it out and voice it in the official channel. So doesnt that mean they dont care all that much about it after all?

 

Unless you are already keeping in mind more stuff for the CM where you couldnt care less about whtat people actually care about; and instead the goal is to appeal to the broadest possible base in the hopes of raking in as much profits as possible... but thats a seperate issue entirely (though far more critical)

Edited July 10, 2013 by BaronV

Eric, while your arguments are perfectly valid, there is another way to approach the situation.

 

You could just publicise information everywhere stating there is a poll on the forums asking what new species you want and state clearly that the results of the poll will strongly influence/decide the next species that comes out.

...

 

/agree

 

Just use the Game Launcher: Weekly/Monthly have your say Announcements with a link to the poll.

Make sure that people have to login, so that everybody just gets 1 vote.

Done!

+1 this. To elaborate on BaronV's idea: If BioWare really cares so much about those who don't use the forums opinions, they could always implement an in-game system of polling which can be ignored or done, and for incentive they could give out 5 or 10 Cartel coins every time you complete a poll. Polls would be weekly or something. Or they could just add in a log-off message thing (similar to when you exit a game on Steam) that says something about the poll along the things that show up on the slideshow thing on the homepage. Or they could just make a big survey thing with a bunch of poll-like questions with 100 Cartel Coins as an incentive and they could be once every one or two months. People like incentives. And incentives to possibly get something else they want are even better. 5 or 10 Cartel Coins is like a nickel, but people still want that nickel, because hey, it's a free nickel. You can't do anything with that nickel, but if you get 20 nickels, you have a dollar to buy a candy bar with. People would do it just for that. Edited July 10, 2013 by shonenjumpstyle

signed

From a statistical point of view, any poll that involves a self select process produces skewed data. This is a very bad way to gather data about any topic. If you want to use a poll, you have to use a random process to select those that participate. The other way to gage the wants and needs of a group is to perform a census. However, even with the best techniques used to select a random sample, the process has a margin of error and a census is almost impossible to obtain. The development team is using multiple means of gathering data on the wants and needs of the community and are analyzing that data. Even assuming that a greater percent of forum users know how to gather and analyze the data than the general population this would be a very small percent. I would suggest that we leave these decisions to those that understand the process.

In most democratic nations its the people who bother to come out and vote who get to decide the next government; and by extension the future of the country.

Your analogy is entirely inapt.

Do the polls ingame.

Was there a poll about the new expansion? Or what kind of new items to add to the CM? Was there a poll somewhere asking to have Cathar made into a playable race? My point is, polls are subjective and seldom are they ever accurate. As much as it "sounds" like a good idea, it would be like asking an auditorium at an elementary school to all shout out what they want for lunch. Not exactly accurately assessing the demographic.

 

You are wrong... and you comparison to a school shouting is ridiculous.

 

Polls are good way to see where to community stands on several matters. Example: you do a poll that has a participation of 500 ppl, and 40% choose one option, 30% pick another one, 15% picks other, 10% another and finally 5% picks other one, you at least know what are the options that got the more votes, and lets you know which ones are the ones only the minority selected.

 

its obvious that you can't please everyone, but at least you aimed to please the majority.

 

When polls are made in a serious manner with serious options, you get serious results.