As we mentioned a while back, in lieu of the written weekly Q&A (which we removed due to player feedback), we've increased our DAILY communication on the forums. As an example, please take a look at the Dev Tracker, which is full of useful developer answers as delivered by Allison Berryman.

 

This livestream Q&A's specific goal is to talk specifically about Game Update 1.4 and the new Free-to-Play option coming out later this Fall. Have any other questions? Ask them in the forums and if they are well-constructed questions, your chances of being answered by our developers will increase substantially. Keep in mind that there is always a limit as to what can be discussed, so we won't be able to answer every single question.

I've asked a lot of "well-constructed" questions both all over the forum and in the previous Q and A's and never got s single answer than maybe "Sorry, we have no information on that." The reason we wanted the previous Q and A removed is because you chose only to answer the easy questions and not the ones that we wanted most, like when you blatantly ignored weeks of people asking about the same sex question. It was never something I cared about but it it made up like 1 out of every 3 questions and you still ignored it.

Finally, the Q and A de-evolved into basically telling us that you wouldn't answer anything that wasn't about things that have already been released or an upcoming patch once it had been announced. IOW, nothing we really cared about knowing because you pretty much already told us. Now, you come on with this crap and give us the same exact restrictions like you're FOX news asking questions for an upcoming Romney interview.

Sorry, but I don't care about your favorite color and I don't need to ask questions about stuff you've already told us everything about.

I want to know about when the paid transfers are coming. Chat bubbles? Level cap increase?! If you can't answer these questions yet, then you have no credibility.

You want to impress this community, start answering the questions in the Suggestions area, or as many have come to know it, the place where hard questions and ideas go to die.

A general, comprehensive update on the status of the various items that have been mention as in the works in the time since launch would be appropriate at this point. A lot of stuff is floating out there that seems to just be in limbo. If stuff that was previously said to be coming "soon" is not, for whatever reason, show your customers some respect and admit that.

Between the significant staff changes, the fact that servers population issues seem to have dominated the past 4 or 5 months, and the vagueness of the information that has been released, I think there is a sense that the game is adrift. I don't think the Livestream did much to change that impression.

I've asked a lot of "well-constructed" questions both all over the forum and in the previous Q and A's and never got s single answer than maybe "Sorry, we have no information on that." The reason we wanted the previous Q and A removed is because you chose only to answer the easy questions and not the ones that we wanted most, like when you blatantly ignored weeks of people asking about the same sex question. It was never something I cared about but it it made up like 1 out of every 3 questions and you still ignored it.

 

Finally, the Q and A de-evolved into basically telling us that you wouldn't answer anything that wasn't about things that have already been released or an upcoming patch once it had been announced. IOW, nothing we really cared about knowing because you pretty much already told us. Now, you come on with this crap and give us the same exact restrictions like you're FOX news asking questions for an upcoming Romney interview.

 

Sorry, but I don't care about your favorite color and I don't need to ask questions about stuff you've already told us everything about.

 

I want to know about when the paid transfers are coming. Chat bubbles? Level cap increase?! If you can't answer these questions yet, then you have no credibility.

 

You want to impress this community, start answering the questions in the Suggestions area, or as many have come to know it, the place where hard questions and ideas go to die.

All that text to ask about chat bubbles and level cap increase ? We know level cap increase is coming out with Makeb. Chat bubbles we haven't got a proper answer for , which is strange.

Cheers,

BadOrb.

I don't know why all the negative feedback here!

They said the live-stream would be about 1.4 and the upcoming update, and the developers where actually so helpful that they also answer other questions.

Like the Cather etc. The full interview was also posted on DarthHater just after it was finished.

I was happy enough with what they said.

Some answers I did not like but lets hope Bioware, LucasArts, EA or some1 else manages to turn this game around.

This game lost subs not because of communications, but mostly because of

1. no updates in last 5 months, considering the current status of End Game i.e a big Challenge

2. Patch 1.3 stuff should have been started included separately since launch (LFG, RWZ, UI, Customizations etc)

3. late server merges in June

4. the flop that was WvW or how it is known Ilum

5. Some stupid Nerf early on in the game where useless (read Jedi Consular and Sith Inquisitor mostly Sage and Shadow classes and the Imp counterparts).

I think if these where better managed SWTOR still would have 1 million+ subs.... That is my 2 cents

The Dev Tracker in recent times is being very helpful answering questions what was coming in a week, today in a every day basis.

Thank you mostly to Alison and Joveth!

I don't know why all the negative feedback here!

 

They said the live-stream would be about 1.4 and the upcoming update, and the developers where actually so helpful that they also answer other questions.

Like the Cather etc. The full interview was also posted on DarthHater just after it was finished.

 

I was happy enough with what they said.

 

Some answers I did not like but lets hope Bioware, LucasArts, EA or some1 else manages to turn this game around.

 

This game lost subs not because of communications, but mostly because of

1. no updates in last 5 months, considering the current status of End Game i.e a big Challenge

2. Patch 1.3 stuff should have been started included separately since launch (LFG, RWZ, UI, Customizations etc)

3. late server merges in June

4. the flop that was WvW or how it is known Ilum

5. Some stupid Nerf early on in the game where useless (read Jedi Consular and Sith Inquisitor mostly Sage and Shadow classes and the Imp counterparts).

 

I think if these where better managed SWTOR still would have 1 million+ subs.... That is my 2 cents

 

The Dev Tracker in recent times is being very helpful answering questions what was coming in a week, today in a every day basis.

Thank you mostly to Alison and Joveth!

They lost 1 million of subs because of this? Another drama queen on the swtor forums, what a big surprise.

They would have a lot more subs if they had the following:

1) Real open-world PvP with real objectives to fight over that meant something.

2) Less "story-on-rails" approach to leveling combined with no duel-spec.

3) Ignoring class balancing issues because of some type of "standard" metric they use; instead of using a metric like what is most/least used in PvP/PvE as a guide to what is over/under powered. Players know far better what is over/under powered than some standard metric. FOTM has become FOTYear and they nerf under-powered classes. (as an example, another game recently announced nerfs/buffs based upon upon what players were doing...if 80%+ of the players spec'd a certain way they have improved the benefits of the other spec's, because players know and adapt to what works and what doesn't).

4) Less stunning and crowd-control; instead they make it easier to stun/CC people.

5) Server mergers were done months after most servers had already died.

6) Used an optimized engine that allowed for greater # of players without dramatic change in frame-rate collapse.

7) Implemented a LFG tool and PvP rankings at the beginning of the game.

Each one of these 7 things have driven off lots of players (i'm sure there might be a few others, but overall I'd say those 7 capture the vast majority of the reasons people left). While almost every MMO losses players after release, the game has lost tons of players in about 6-12 months. While I wouldn't know for sure, I'd venture a guess that the game has probably lost 75% of its initial/highest population.

There's probably no way to fix issue #2, but they could allow for duel-spec. No way to fix #5 and #7 since both already happened and now they seem to be on the ball a bit more. The other 4 things could be fixed. Ilum still remains a mess and nobody seems to know the timetable of fixing it (also need to optimize the Hero engine for this to work....probably why it wont happen for a long time). Class balance on a standardized metric is failing them horribly (just watch general chat on who is wanted for Ranked PvP to get a sense of what is overpowered and underpowered...not hard). With the nerfs to overpowered classes, they could also nerf CC or make resolve fill up faster.

All that text to ask about chat bubbles and level cap increase ? We know level cap increase is coming out with Makeb. Chat bubbles we haven't got a proper answer for , which is strange.

 

Cheers,

 

BadOrb.

Actually, I was only using those as an example.

I begged for a month to have my character moved to a populated server. I know people that have been transfered. Apparently I am not good enough for them to transfer me. I have moved on to another MMO that actually has alot of players on my server. I do miss my SWTOR, but I have put my foot down. Subscription cancelled, I will not pay SWTOR to tell me they can not help me with the problems created by SWTOR. Final straw for me was fighting in only four warzones in a five hour time frame.

Here are my well organized questions. Why has the ability to tranfer players been thrown out? Why will you not allow your subscribers to transfer characters? Do you at least plan to allow characters to share legacy and mail since so many people have been forced to reroll if they actually want more then a one player RPG? Whatever happened to " the customer is always right"? Why have so many fans been ignored to the point of running them out of the game? What exactly are your issues as to not being able to help out your fans? Are you going broke? Do the developers just not care? Are you lacking manpower to make these things happen? Is the game programming itself just to difficult for you to change? I am very curious as to what the hold up is. Is it some CEO telling you " trust me, this will work"?

Do us a favor and treat us like adults for just a few minutes. Just tell us why you refuse to help us with certain in game problems. As it is, you appear to either not care about us. Maybe its just lazyness. The more I speculate, the more I want a good explanation for the fact that so many of my friends who loved the game quit recently.

Okay, here is my question. Why have you not yet fixed the graphics problem that plagues this game?

For all we know, they did, but we can`t see the benefits, because the nameplates screwed up things. And the shadows look bad anyway, so there is no reason to have graphic issues.

Technically they`ll take about 6 days, just as 1.3.7 and it`ll get fixed, most likely reverting to old fonts. 6+6 days = 12. One more and we qualify for a free month ...