Announcing The Old Republic Guild Summit

Exactly. It's a publicity stunt, nothing more. People here on the boards feel ignored, so Bioware decides to pull a select few away from said boards. This is their problem solving.

You have to expect that type of questioning when you open it up to the masses. Taking an approach where you limit the attendees to a smaller group like guild leaders to me increases the likelihood of more meaningful discussion.

I really don't understand why some seem so offended by the idea. BW is simply reaching out to the community via guild leadership to discuss the game. What is fundamentally wrong with that. They could just take a stance whereby they say "Nope. We aren't going to talk to anyone. You all can just keep your opinions to yourselves." They aren't. Now some will play conspiracy theorist and says this is a smoke screen and nothing substantive will come of this. How about we wait and see what the end result is.

Why can't anyone defend this publicity stunt with anything other than logical fallacy and strawman arguments?

Here's some common sense for you. BW is based in Austin. Is it common sense for them to give their game developers multiple days off and pay thousands of dollars to send them to EU, or to have the players come to them?

Maybe if the summit is successful they'll consider having one in EU, but to expect that they'd be willing to do that on the first pass is unrealistic.

Im not Mr. Cleverclogs. I cannot afford to go, if i could then i quite possibly would consider it. However that still does not alter the fact that a Summit in Austin is essentially alienation of the European fanbase, that is without even mentioning the whole "Guild Leaders Only" debate that has cropped up on here.

Surely it would of made much more sense to have two Summit's, a US one and an EU one. This would allow them to invite more people overall and would significantly reduce the cost incurred to the punter.

To get from where i am on those dates would cost, as i said previously, around $2000. If there was, as suggested elsewhere in this thread, an alternative Summit in Amsterdam for example then i could go there for as little as $50.

Hell, don't let me stop people from twisting common sense into something else entirely.

With respect, it's not a publicity stunt. I've worked in the industry, and I'm probably BioWare AUSTIN's harshest critic, because they pretty much ignored every single major warning and suggestion from their beta testers for a whole year, and pretty much confirmed it with some wildly arrogant press interviews, but in this specific situation, they're absolutely spot-on with how they're performing both community outreach and soliciting real feedback from those that matter; The Guilds. Why do guilds matter more than solo players? Because they're *organized*, and odds are higher that they'll be able to serve as the games greatest vocal supporters, detractors, or ambassadors, than any single player can hope to achieve. Guilds, regardless of their play-style focus, are exactly where BWA's focus should be.

Whether anything productive comes of it... well... hopefully we shall see. What they should have done is get that group together a couple of months into beta in order to seriously change direction for some aspects of the game that are... off. Seriously off. This is an honest effort put forth by them to get some more personalized feedback, so I say, good.

Hopefully they'll be open to receiving honest feedback, and hopefully guild reps will actually be willing to give honest feedback on what works, and what doesn't. Because fanboys gushing help no one when they make excuses for mediocrity. Hold BWA to a higher standard, get them to produce a better game, and we all win.

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Why do guilds matter more than solo players? Because they're *organized*, and odds are higher that they'll be able to serve as the games greatest vocal supporters, detractors, or ambassadors, than any single player can hope to achieve. Guilds, regardless of their play-style focus, are exactly where BWA's focus should be.

Why should I have to defend a company actually inviting its customers to come to their offices to discuss a product? How is that ever a bad thing? I have yet to see you explain why that is bad on its face or what some other alternatives to improving communication might be. I just see someone who appears to be outraged at the idea that a company would like to offer an outlet for conversation to their customers. Rather than just complain why not offer solutions to the problem as you see it?

@SioGallichan Siobhan Gallichan
@Rockjaw but our GL is WELSH! Air travel is the work of the devil and all his little pixies, according to him. See the problem now?

@Rockjaw Stephen Reid
@SioGallichan Yep. It's a way to go, we realize. Stay tuned, there will be ways to be involved.

In this day and age of technology, I wouldn't be surprised if BioWare can come up with a viable way to have people involved, regardless of location.