The layoffs have me confused more then anything else. Help?

Thats exactly what he was suggesting.

I basically said he didn't want to see people that disagreed with him posting, and then had my point proven to me when I was told that I am a spin doctor of the lowest caste that should peddle my wares to fox news.

Ok, well the simple fix for this would be to have unsubbers immediately refunded the pro rata portion of their remaining sub when they unsub and immediately terminate their Game (and therefore their forum) access.

of course I am not entirely certain that you or the shareholders would like very much how that would effect your '1.3 million active subscribers' number fella.

Actually, I wasn't that surprised. But then again, I read the shareholders' materials for the latest quarter.

(http://www.joystiq.com/2012/05/07/ea...ember-30-2012/) Found this online, seems like a pretty good summary.

EA announced to the shareholders (and others) that it was going to be restructuring its employees so that there were going to be layoffs of up to 500-1,000 employees (puts the 200 from BioWare Austin in perspective, eh?). However, that's because EA is currently trying to refocus onto their online and digital offerings. Before the layoffs, their employees numbered 9,200 with one in eight being engineers. After the layoffs, they're planning to employ 9,700 employees with one in two being engineers.

But you know the trolls. They'll ignore the majority of the details to change the story from "EA growing workforce & restructuring to employ more engineers, will layoff some current workers" to "EA (...) will layoff some current workers". Then imply that this means the game is dying, or that there will be no more meaningful content.

Honestly, I wish people would actually read the news stories or the shareholders' materials before the fly off the handle predicting doomsday. It'd save us time, keep the forums a bit cleaner, and make it a bit easier for people with real questions and legitimate concerns (such as a time-frame to expect 1.3 on the test server. I've tried twice to ask that question in the topic about the 1.3 preview video, and the only response was someone tying it into their whining about the game.) to actually use the forums. You know, what the forums were designed for. Instead of a place for the community to interact and disseminate information about the game, it's become a sounding board for trolls who seem to need SWtOR to fail in order to justify their unsub to themselves.

Bioware at the very least needs to make two General Discussion forums- one for subscribers & one for both subscribers and non-subscribers. Then bar non-subscribers from the rest of the forums. This is getting ridiculous.

If you could give me a source for that, I would love you forever. :-P

Seriously, trying to get info on this stuff has been a PITA.

I'm saying that you make TWO general discussion forums in order to manage the trolling. It's gotten to the point that general users have a hard time using the forums themselves. If they find another way to fix this, great. More power to them. But as it is now, the general discussion forum serves primarily as a sounding board for trolls. That's not their intended purpose, and hurts what they were designed for.

No, as I said before, the general discussion forum isn't functioning right now due to the trolls. Legitimate threads and discussions are being buried by page after page of trollbait threads. All I'm suggesting is that Bioware implement something similar to their BSN forums, reserving certain sections for people who have paying subscriptions. snippity snip

That would probably end up being something of a logistical nightmare, which is probably why they aren't doing so. Also, that would cut back on critical feedback. Negative feelings and areas that need improvement should be pointed out. I'm not saying to get rid of that. Even this is an extreme measure based on the fact that it's currently hurting the ability of the forums to function. You divert it into another section so that the forum can function as intended and you can still collect negative feedback.



Considering that the large majority of the 1.3 million is actively paying subscribers, it would affect the number very little.

Do you have some need to feel like the majority of people agree with you?

Yeah, its not pleasant. But what can you expect, only third of the servers have the population to support any kind of mmo experience , and some servers have been in trouble since january. People's patience just ran out some time after patch 1.2 .
Can't really say they didn't have the time to fix the only gamebreaking issue mmo can have.

Umm and I already pointed out to you that these forums are only available for people that also have access to the game

I am not actually putting forward a pro or con argument here my friend, it is you that is craving agreement from random strangers on the internet. I am merely pointing out the flawed parts of your argument

I guess that I would be included in that 1.3 million subscribers figure however, I am not a 'paying' subscriber I am an 'already paid' subscriber. I am on a 6 month recurring payment plan that has been cancelled as of 2 months or so ago. I do not for one moment think that my situation makes me a unique snowflake, quite the opposite in fact I would estimate that a not inconsiderable amount of that 1.3 million people are like myself, i.e. sub cancelled but still have game time (therefore forum access) until August some time (including the free 30 day thingy) in a game that we do not/can not play to our satisfaction due to its current state.

of course I am not entirely certain that you or the shareholders would like very much how that would effect your '1.3 million active subscribers' number fella.

Considering that the large majority of the 1.3 million is actively paying subscribers, it would affect the number very little.