/shrug, not everyone uses email or forums for that matter.

 

Your point? All I see is people looking for sh*t to complain about.

 

i'd expect the official website to be my first port of call however...

/shrug, not everyone uses email or forums for that matter.

 

Your point? All I see is people looking for sh*t to complain about.

 

My point is that these are the "official" forums and should be the main source to communicate with the playerbase.

When you click on community, it brings you to the general forums list. At the top, there is always a link or two about upcoming maintenance, and the last maintenance. List of fixes that went in:

 

• Implemented optimizations to improve performance on Republic and Imperial Fleets.
  
• Significantly improved the delay when activating player abilities, particularly when in lower framerate situations. This allows for improved ability responsiveness in hectic combat situations.
  
• Operations will no longer allow more than 16 Operations Group members to enter concurrently.
  
• In Karagga’s Palace, G4-B3 Heavy Fabricator will no longer respawn more than once if players have not defeated Karagga.
  
• Fixed an exploit that would allow players to repeatedly loot the chest after defeating Jarg and Sorno in Karagga’s Palace.
  
• Fixed an issue that could cause graphical inconsistencies, which most often manifested as random screen "flickering."
  

 

I would say 4 hours of downtime for this is no big deal, and there was plenty of warning if you pulled your head out of the sand. There was even a note about it on the launcher.

Edited January 28, 2012 by Qoojo

Welcome to last month.

 

This is the sole reason I just cancelled. NO developer-community interaction. That's ZERO.

 

If they can't even communicate with us how can I trust them to improve the game? All I see so far are the standard nerfs that always ruin a MMO.

 

We practically had to beg them to give us answers to a lot of issues.

 

They just don't give a sh**. That's the way I see it so they aren't getting another cent from me!

Quote box purposefully blank. This represents your utter lack of communication with your customers. Potentially tens or even hundreds of thousands of us expecting the servers to be online and finding them unexpectedly taken down. No reason given, no communication at all other than to turn off all the comments on the forums in your customary 'lalalala-we-can't-hear-you' downtime policy. No updates given until a few minutes before the servers were due up, and then just a 'they're still down, they're not coming up yet, and there's no eta'.

 

Honestly I'm not too worried about the servers being down a bit (although I wish they would learn from WoW and schedule differently for the different zones). But this is a very good point in general.

 

All I'm seeing are droid posts saying they appreciate our input. This is not an "I quit" post. I just wish I believed that message. Sure there were a few things about ability delay, but let's be honest, that isn't the only thing on people's minds, and there are plenty of valid concerns about which nothing at all has been said.

 

A bit more communication would boost their reputation and our faith in the game at the same time.

When you click on community, it brings you to the general forums list. At the top, there is always a link or two about upcoming maintenance, and the last maintenance. List of fixes that went in:

 

• Implemented optimizations to improve performance on Republic and Imperial Fleets.
  
• Significantly improved the delay when activating player abilities, particularly when in lower framerate situations. This allows for improved ability responsiveness in hectic combat situations.
  
• Operations will no longer allow more than 16 Operations Group members to enter concurrently.
  
• In Karagga’s Palace, G4-B3 Heavy Fabricator will no longer respawn more than once if players have not defeated Karagga.
  
• Fixed an exploit that would allow players to repeatedly loot the chest after defeating Jarg and Sorno in Karagga’s Palace.
  
• Fixed an issue that could cause graphical inconsistencies, which most often manifested as random screen "flickering."
  

 

I would say 4 hours of downtime for this is no big deal, and there was plenty of warning if you pulled your head out of the sand. There was even a note about it on the launcher.

 

 

Thats the upcomming maintenance, not the one that happened this morning.

 

And the one that happend this morning had NO warning for EU players because the warning was in the middle of the night!

My point is that these are the "official" forums and should be the main source to communicate with the playerbase.

 

But MY counter was that, just like social media, some people don't use the official forums. I would venture to guess as many people use FB, as Twitter, as the forums.

 

So, stating that YOU don't use 2 of those 3 things is fine, but it doesn't mean they didn't convey the message somewhere.

 

Also, none of us knows the exact statistic of how many are using FB and Twitter to get updates so therefore they may have seen a higher response from social media and decided to put more prevalence on announcing updates via those... none of us have those numbers or any results, so how can you say the forums are more prevalent/important?

 

I'm sorry that you feel so slighted that they didn't make a call to your phone and/or text you, which would obviously be the most appropriate way for them to communicate updates.

 

And finally: which one of you is posting here that is physically located in the BW offices? It MAY have been (OMG OMG) human error that someone simply put the update on the forums late, and not BW.

 

I highly doubt Bioware's entire team got together and said "You know what? Let's toss our update out on FB now, wait an hour put it on twitter but THEN.... we're going to wait 5-6 MORE hours to put it on the forums, see how much we can get the people that won't shut up on there to have MORE to complain about."

 

 

Stuff happens, the servers needed maintenance. I'll say it simply, once again: If the DIDN'T do it and the problem was/is widely known: you would all be complaining. Since they DID do it: you all complain you were inconvenienced. Grats to all of you for remaining miserable about your recreational time.

Welcome to last month.

 

This is the sole reason I just cancelled. NO developer-community interaction. That's ZERO.

 

If they can't even communicate with us how can I trust them to improve the game? All I see so far are the standard nerfs that always ruin a MMO.

 

We practically had to beg them to give us answers to a lot of issues.

 

They just don't give a sh**. That's the way I see it so they aren't getting another cent from me!

 

isnt the dev tracker for them to discuss issues with us..not the general forums...

isnt the dev tracker for them to discuss issues with us..not the general forums...

 

1) It rarely has any useful detail. "We are looking into that"

2) There isn't any dialogue there. I haven't seen one instance where there has been a conversation with the player community about anything they are concerned about. There is zero back and forth conversation.

Not everyone uses twitter or social networking for that matter. We should not have to rely on game updates that way. There are many ways they could have gone about announcing the downtime better. I do agree, the level of communication is downright pathetic.

 

That is not their fault. They do what they can to communicate AS BEST THEY CAN to everyone about announcements. Use twitter, facebook, their own website, etc. This is the best and most efficient way for them to communicate with us regardless of what people think.

 

How could they have announced it better? If they did in game announcement hours before, people would complain about being spammed, and what happens if you weren't online during the announcement? They simply can't email everyone, people would again complain about the fact that they are getting spammed from the devs, and a/p some of the previous posts not everyone uses social media and/or read email all the time....

The biodrones are just amazing. It doesn't matter what you complain about. You could be complaining that the game is so awesome that you can't stop playing it. Long as it's a complaint they'll swarm the thread and turn day into night.

1) It rarely has any useful detail. "We are looking into that"

2) There isn't any dialogue there. I haven't seen one instance where there has been a conversation with the player community about anything they are concerned about. There is zero back and forth conversation.

 

maybe the logical answer is we are looking into it.. instead of going into an indept answer as to what they are doing that the average player wouldnt have a clue in what they meant.

i like how the Ilum exploit was explained to them and they still released it, then pissed everyone off by having to patch it.

 

Is anyone actually in charge in Bioware?

 

This i also think is interesting. But to announce an "emergency" patch 8 hours early, why didnt they just do it. If i was of the conspiratory kind i might had jumped to the conclusion that BW rather piss of european customers then americans.

 

I like the game, i accept bugs and emergencies it comes with the terriotory. But the customer support, or lack there of, really isnt working as intended.....

You people ***** too much and act like you have never played a MMO before. At least BW is being active with its updates and fixing things on a weekly basis. They could always go the traditional route and do what other mmo's do and have one massive patch 6 months after launch. Would you rather have that? I'll take a few hours of server down time over waiting months for even minor bug fixes. It's not the end of the damn world, and if it upsets you that much...well then you are addicted and should probably learn to take a break from the game once in awhile.

You people ***** too much and act like you have never played a MMO before. At least BW is being active with its updates and fixing things on a weekly basis. They could always go the traditional route and do what other mmo's do and have one massive patch 6 months after launch. Would you rather have that? I'll take a few hours of server down time over waiting months for even minor bug fixes. It's not the end of the damn world, and if it upsets you that much...well then you are addicted and should probably learn to take a break from the game once in awhile.

 

lol Bioware have enforced regular breaks on gamers consistently

 

and Bioware have fixed what they ****ed up in the first place by implementing despite the major flaws being pointed out by testers

 

i'd rather wait 6 months for new content then have a bug riddled content update forced upon me then having my game time cut down for the next 6 months while the inept devs try to patch what hould never have been put in in the first place

lol Bioware have enforced regular breaks on gamers consistently

 

and Bioware have fixed what they ****ed up in the first place by implementing despite the major flaws being pointed out by testers

 

i'd rather wait 6 months for new content then have a bug riddled content update forced upon me then having my game time cut down for the next 6 months while the inept devs try to patch what hould never have been put in in the first place

 

YOU might want to wait 6 months for new content..but I am sure you have seen how much complaining is going on that there is no new end game stuff..yadda yadda.. you sir are a minority on the forums regarding waiting for new content..

 

I applaude your willingness and ability to wait.. I have that same ability..it is called being a rational adult..however a bunch of people here would throw complete tantrums if new content wasnt released ....

lol Bioware have enforced regular breaks on gamers consistently

 

and Bioware have fixed what they ****ed up in the first place by implementing despite the major flaws being pointed out by testers

 

i'd rather wait 6 months for new content then have a bug riddled content update forced upon me then having my game time cut down for the next 6 months while the inept devs try to patch what hould never have been put in in the first place

 

Sounds like there's other games out there for you then, although I'll have to look and see to be sure.

 

I don't think there's very many that don't update weekly any more, but I could be wrong.

 

WoW may be close as they initiate a ton of "hotfixes" now in lieu of more server downtime.

To me, it's not about all the maintenance, emergency or otherwise. It's not about all the issues the game has, or the great things about the game (plenty of good and plenty of bad). It's about complete and utter lack of communication. If they can post a communication on FB or Twitter, they can certainly post on their own official website. How long or how much effort is involved in posting communications on twitter, FB and official website? Not much at all, most computer systems these days have a fancy new function known as Copy + Paste. To be honest, this lack of communication dates way back to beta and pre-release on things like early game access, grace period, how ega was going to work (i.e. 4-6 waves per day and these pre-orders only on this day , it took the player base to figure it all out and post that communication). There has been little to no communication on BW's part. Everything else aside, this is their biggest failure and what has become my decision on whether to continue to subscribe or not. It hasn't improved whatsoever. Frustrating to say the least. With a lack of communication, the perception is they don't give a rat's behind.

Where did you see all this advance notice?

 

I see a post that was posted at 12:10am CST today announcing the patch at 2am CST today. If you have seen it elsewhere, then feel free to point it out

 

 

 

And yet here you are, posting on the forums... And the servers aren't even down any more, so posting on the forums must be more important to you than not only the game, but also all those other things in your life you could be doing right now...

 

i seen it yesterday on the forum home page at the top, under the maintain title, once second on the list of three, it clear said servers would be down today.

 

if you look on the forums you will see that Bioware "do" tell the players, its just the players chose to not read what is there infront of them.

 

so the servers went down, atleast there fixing problems what would you rather they didnt.. and not bother at all???

 

people seem to just want to QQ about every thing that Bioware does, man from what ive seen they talk to you far more than companys like Blizzard ever did.

Edited January 28, 2012 by DarthRik

I'm actually amused by people stating, that "since they have a life they can take crappy service". Either you don't have a life and are in desperate need of lying to everyone around you, that you do have one, or just got a life after years of not having one and are typical neophites. Just like poeple who just quit smoking and who feel the urge to tell everyone about it. You have a life? Good for you. It doesn't mean Bioware can fail. I have a life too. A good job, a girlfriend, a pack of good friends. Do I need to keep on telling it to strangers on some game forums? No, I don't. Grow up and perhaps get a real life, since you seem to be in need of convincing yourselves you do have one.

 

Lack of communication from Bioware is unacceptable. So are 5hr downtimes on saturdays.

 

Regards,

Kalantris

 

 

 

++++1

It's about complete and utter lack of communication. If they can post a communication on FB or Twitter, they can certainly post on their own official website. How long or how much effort is involved in posting communications on twitter, FB and official website? Not much at all, most computer systems these days have a fancy new function known as Copy + Paste. To be honest, this lack of communication dates way back to beta and pre-release on things like early game access, grace period, how ega was going to work (i.e. 4-6 waves per day and these pre-orders only on this day , it took the player base to figure it all out and post that communication). There has been little to no communication on BW's part.

 

Most other games I've encountered also have ingame 'MOTD' (message of the day) where downtimes are indicated by a simple line of text in the chat box whenever you log in. There's an annoying box that does that for guild MOTDs, and half a dozen lines of yellow text in chat ever login already.

 

Why not add ALL downtimes to a login message, in red caps preferably, for at least 48h before every downtime (excluding emergencies)?

I was mad when the realms went down, but then I ate an orange and it was k

How long has it been a 'necessary fix' and why couldnt it wait till tuesday like everything else?

 

Because people were getting disconnected hourly and in some extreme cases within minutes. Just because the bug doesn't affect you doesn't mean there is not a problem. They needed to put the fix out asap. Bioware did a great job with this. The community should be excited by the amount of patches bioware is doing..not bickering.

I've played several MMO's at launch and even if emergency patches were needed, I've never seen a company choose a worse time than Bio-ware did. I logged in at 11:30cst last night and saw no warning of an emergency patch.

 

What I don't understand is why it couldnt have been pushed to sunday night when server traffic is way down.

I'm actually amused by people stating, that "since they have a life they can take crappy service". Either you don't have a life and are in desperate need of lying to everyone around you, that you do have one, or just got a life after years of not having one and are typical neophites. Just like poeple who just quit smoking and who feel the urge to tell everyone about it. You have a life? Good for you. It doesn't mean Bioware can fail. I have a life too. A good job, a girlfriend, a pack of good friends. Do I need to keep on telling it to strangers on some game forums? No, I don't. Grow up and perhaps get a real life, since you seem to be in need of convincing yourselves you do have one.

 

Lack of communication from Bioware is unacceptable. So are 5hr downtimes on saturdays.

 

Regards,

Kalantris

 

People were D/Cing on an hourly basis..this patch needed to be put out immediately. That is what I call great customer service. They then posted a statement on their website letting the community know they would be implementing a fix. What else do you want them to do?