Announcing The Old Republic Guild Summit

To me this summit seems like a massive waste of time, I just hope it kicks some features to the top of the list and start seeing some smooth implementations that don't stir up even more bugs.

While I fully support Q&A between players and Devs, a meeting in texas is not my idea of effective operation.

Like so many people say, all the real issues have been posted on the forums over and over and over again.

Why not gather all these problems, stick em in a form with a vote system in it, send it to ALL the players and let them tell you what has prio over what. That way you'll have your feed back faster and more accurate than letting a handfull of people decide over the fate of the entire community. It makes no sense at all.

Not the mention all the elitism that will spawn from only inviting certain people.. and only guildleaders?? Just because they have an imaginairy title it doesn't make them the best people to ask by default.

But what ever BW decides to do, at least in the name of of that is good in this world, LISTEN and ACT accordingly. Don't do what you do now on forums and with tickets... Wich is nothing.

You've put a lot of money in developing the game, now let us help you keep it alive.

I've noticed a number of Guild Leader hopefuls out there that are hoping for an invite to this summit and also some that may have received an invite and are unable to afford or make time to attend. I wanted to offer my voice up to those people. I will be attending the summit, and while I have a laundry list of items that my guild is looking to address, I'm more than willing and happy to add more to my list. Not only does this give a voice to some people that are otherwise unable to attend in person, but it also assures that each time I am called upon to address the masses as it were, I'll have something to bring up that hasn't already been asked and answered.

I've already sent some PM's to the authors of some posters in this thread, but honestly I didn't read through all 65 pages to sort through the BS to get to the diamonds in the rough so to speak either. If you're interested in adding your list to mine, please send me a PM and I'll get you an email address to send them to. If not, no big deal. I just wanted to put this offer out there so that those that cannot speak have a voice.

That's pretty cool of you , thanks for doing it. It further proves the point that guild leaders wont be going in there and just saying

"MAKE IT HARDER!". I will send you my list after the 15th in hopes that I get picked

65 pages of responses some in favor many against this.

I personally plan to attend this guild summit just because i look forward to the insite it will give into the game developers mindset. There are alot of issues with the game but alot it has done really well and I would love the opportunity to help expand that list of things done really well. I am already making a list of items I hope to get an opportunity to talk about and many of the items come from my guildies and other guild leaders I am friends with that already know they cant go. No one should be upset about an extra opportunity to express concerns with the dev's even limited communication is better than none. Everyone spends so much energy complaining about everything but never really offer and insite into what they feel should be done to actually solve the issues. its always easier to say FIX IT NOAH DEV"S or im unsubscribing.

something for all the people complaining about it being invite only and being in texas take a moment and consider that this could be a simple test gathering to see how it works out and how well it does. If it goes well and they can work out the logistics easy enough there is no reason it couldnt open up the opportunity for more meetings like this and eventually hit a point to be as big as Blizz con or comic con. Everyone of those conventions started small and built up from there.

I appreicate anyone that took the time to read this post.

After further thoughts and reading the replies to my message, I agree that my previous post was more about venting my own frustrations and not very insightful or realistic.

BW, I do not believe that it is too much to ask for the following:

1. Release the selection criteria that you are using to select guild leaders.
2. Release a list of guilds that you have invited and what server they represent.
3. Provide a method, even if it is only a recorded or written transcript of the event, so that any active subscriber can have access to what was discussed over those few days.

There should be no reason for you to refuse to release the information as to what guilds were invited, what servers they are from, and what criteria you used to select those guilds. Refusing to provide this information is kind of like pleading the 5th isn't it? You fear releasing the information will show guilt because you were not fair in your selection criteria or you have no set selection criteria and knew exactly who you wanted to attend this meeting for your own agenda. There is also no reason why you cannot release a transcript or recording of the event. It is not that hard to record all the audio and then have it transcribed. That would not be very expensive and would allow all of us access to the information that was exchanged.

Thank you...

You are right, there is no way they could have a meaningful discussion if they even allowed 1000 people to show up.

But there is no reason why they cannot provide a recorded or written transcript of the event if they do not want to go through the expense and production of providing live access through the internet or conference-call.

who cares? fix this ********

I wonder what your definition of 'elite' is. As a guild leader who was invited, I do not consider myself anywhere near 'elite'. If you are speaking in terms of in game proficiency, know that I am no PvP god, I don't hardcore raid (my highest toon is currently 38), and I take Flashpoints as I can get them. And as far as the Official forums go, I read them but I am not actively engaging in topics. But that is my own personal choice.

It sounds like you have a communication issue with your guild leader, if that's the case. My guild started in WoW. Since then, we have expanded our efforts to have a presence in other games, like Rift, EVE, and now SWTOR. Our individual count of guilded toons is roughly 1800 toons on the Imperial side, and 600 on the Republic side. We have forums that we utilize to communicate with each other as well as an email address that all Officers have access to, and the ability to respond. I have created a thread in our forums asking for input from our members. I have also used other social media, like G+, Twitter, and Facebook to gather more questions. My task as a guild leader is to take all the info I gather, and take it with me to represent our membership.


Forums are a good tool, but is not the only one. It takes time to read a reply, then compose a response. When you have more popular threads where there are multiple posts over the course of an hour, factor in the time it takes to read, sift out the non-troll style comments, and address what are the important issues, you are looking at a considerable amount of time spent before a CM can chime in. A face to face interaction provides instant answers without having to spend copious amounts of time reading. The summit is just another tool to gather information. As I have stated previously, I would rather have too much info than limiting myself to just one mode of communication. But that's just me.

I believe the powers that be have a plan for disseminating information during the guild summit, but they are keeping that close to the chest for the immediate time being. Have faith and patience.

Again, maybe you are in the wrong guild if you have no means of communication with him/her. To me, that is an important part of keeping a guild strong and alive. Any member of my guild has the tools available to communicate with anyone, myself included. I think the only isolation that is being done is by your guild leader, just going solely on what you have stated.

They are giving you an opportunity. Form your own guild, and submit an application. If you get selected, awesome. If not, hope for the best for those that were selected and that the Dev summit yields positive results. If so, they may have future events that you will be able to attend. If it is a massive failure, which I doubt it will be, then they can say they tried it and move on to a different method of communication or fall back to the forums. As far as the selection process, they are not obligated to define anything. If they did, then I am sure someone would find a reason to feel slighted. It's the nature of the beast.

Have a little faith that they know what they are doing, even if they are not as forthcoming as people would like. There are reasons to not release every little detail, due to the level of scrutiny that everyone places on a post. And if you really would like a concern/question/suggestion raised that is affecting you personally, I would be happy to take it with me. If that is the case, feel free to drop me a private message.

Holy crap, son. I know that Texas has this reputation of being big, but exactly how big do you think it is? There literally is no venue in Austin that could hold 50,000 people at once, let alone a hundred thousand. Well, okay. Maybe the stadium at UT. But that's hardly an intimate setting, is it? Bioware's not going to rent out a place like Cowboys Stadium (though coming up here to DFW would be easier on my wallet) to hold an information gathering session. Events like that are for dissemination only. At that point, it's a convention, which is exactly what Bioware does not want.

Who is flaming people that aren't in guilds? Back when I started hanging out on the Internet in '95, we saved terms like "flame" and "troll" for situations that actually warranted their use. There is no flaming going on, or, it's so little that it's not even worth talking about.

The simple fact of the matter is that the Bioware offices have only so much space. By law, they can fit only so many people in a certain square footage. So, they had to come up with a way to limit who was invited, one that was quick and easy: guild leaders. No one is saying that people that aren't in guilds are somehow less than those who are, especially not Bioware. People need to understand that. I think it's fairly disingenuous to claim otherwise.

I also think it's disingenuous to believe that there's not a guild leader out there who shares the solo player's concerns. Hell, there are guilds out there made for the purpose of solo players having someone to chat with while they solo. And, honestly, what concerns can a solo player have that a guild, by the mere state of being a guild, cannot? Everyone solos, whether in a guild or not. Everyone. And those concerns that you have are shared by pretty much every other person that solos in the game.

But, for the sake of argument, let's say that you have a concern with the game that no one else has. Honestly, at that point, it's a non-issue. If only one person has a problem with something, it's not worth devoting development time to correcting.