Months ago someone mentioned a free makeb. It obviously didn't pan out that way for whatever reason.

The reactions and backlash have been extreme and almost comical - over a measely £6 no less.

The devs should just remain quiet in future, I do feel for them...

It doesn't matter, if people wouldn't be crying about this, they'd be crying about something else.

"it's 3 months away and bioware is hiding all the details from us!! " /nerdrage

What they should do, is not tell us about something coming in a content patch, half a year or more before it's ready. Many things about this game have been talked about and talked about way before they are even close to being ready.

SSSP being one of them. This has been talked about for over a year now, and yet we have not seen a screenshot or video proof that it even exist.

Ranked Warzones were talked about for months, and then come 1.2, was yanked from going live with 1.2. They were finally introduced with patch 1.3, three (3) months later.

Makeb was talked about half a year ago, before it was released with things said. Statements attached to it, and now many months later, we finally hear about it again, only now it's gonna take another 3 months, and we have to pay for it.

If you are sure it's ready, and know it will be ready/is ready for next patch, then you can tell us about it. But we dont want to hear about it for half the year, and how great it is up until release.

Tell us a week to a month before you release it. Not 6 months... 6 months leaves us watching rehashed trailers that have been shown over and over again, and we start to lose the hype and end up just going, "Meh, I dont care anymore.".

The devs should just remain quiet in future, I do feel for them...

Nonono, of course they should say things in advance if they want to keep their playerbase interested in the game. The thing is, if they change something in their plans, they should as well tell us about the change and the reasoning behind it. Not keep silence and do a stealth change, like they did with Makeb.

Months ago someone mentioned a free makeb. It obviously didn't pan out that way for whatever reason.

 

The reactions and backlash have been extreme and almost comical - over a measely £6 no less.

 

The devs should just remain quiet in future, I do feel for them...

This is exactly why we don't get a lot of information on upcoming content until its release is imminent.

Besides the PR problems if plans change, there is also the nightmare that ensues if the content or system gets cut due to budget constraints, or has to be scrapped and redesigned, etc. Any of the thousands of things that can negatively impact game development.

Months ago someone mentioned a free makeb. It obviously didn't pan out that way for whatever reason.

 

The reactions and backlash have been extreme and almost comical - over a measely £6 no less.

 

The devs should just remain quiet in future, I do feel for them...

source?screeny?video? any proof ?

source?screeny?video? any proof ?

It's out there. Google it.

On th inverse, they should wait until thy have enough approved and completed core features to talk about freely. That way the community who wants to make an overly informed purchase, can...

The rest of us will make do like we always do with a $10 purchase.

The devs should never again tell us anything in advance!

They probably shouldnt

but not for reasons you think

Rule #1 of ANY BUSINESS

Do not promote or promise what you can not deliver

Its pretty clear now EA can not (or will not) Stand to their word on delivering large content updates to subscribers for free

So they shouldnt have promised it from the get go

Its pretty clear EA had no intention of releaseing Pazzaak as a high priority content update shortly after launch

So they shouldn't have promised it to Closed Beta testers asking for it

List goes on and on and on and im not going to list it all

I agree with you, they should STOP making promises they can not deliver on if there is ANY chance they will not be able to deliver on them in full fashion.

Its like the promised new WZ, FP, Ops every 6 weeks

That one didnt even survive the first 6 weeks after promise was made.

More information is better then NO information

but

NO information is better then FALSE information

Seems the high road is closed to us so time for them to take the low road and make the best of a terrible situation.

I mentioned this in another post, but being silent is the problem. If the devs communicated more:

1) There would be more info to absorb so the fans wouldn't fixate on single bits of information

2) Those bits wouldn't get analyzed to death so poor word choices and/or misinterpretations wouldn't get propogated to near the degree they are now

3) People would take less issue details that turn out untrue because those details would encompass a much smaller percentage of the communcation, relatively.

4) They could actually communicate to the fans, in advance, that decisions like this were being changed and explain the reasoning to soften the blow.

None of that is going to stop all the complaining, of course, but it will diminish the ill will considerably. Much of the PR problems are of their own doing. Their community approach is archaic and simply doesn't work anymore.

Well, seeing how the devs are barely saying anything worthwhile in the first place, "never again tell us anything" would be a relatively simple feat for them to achieve.

Doubt we'll notice the difference, actually.

Well, seeing how the devs are barely saying anything worthwhile in the first place, "never again tell us anything" would be a relatively simple feat for them to achieve.

 

Doubt we'll notice the difference, actually.

There is that. Might slightly reduce the copy pasta but other than that.

Hype is EAs biggest thing and the biggest flaw. They LOVE to hype everything, then they always underdeliver compared to the hype they generate. Luckily I did not pay attention to anything related to this game until like 3 months before launch when friends wanted to play beta for SWTOR.

On the other hand I have not seen them advertizing this game anywhere for a long time. Wow does still get tv commersials, gw2 is on magazines, SWTOR? I guess they are relying the people to spread the good word... lol

@OP Or the player base could stop reading into everything and just take the game at face value. If you or any other player has played MMO's for any length of time you understand that all details regarding an expansion is subject to change. This is the nature of MMO games. If they tell us details the player base revolts, If they keep details to themselves the game is "failing" and players scream to the heavens that "BW does not care about us".

Honsetly I think some players just need to reduce their dose of crazy, and increase their dose of patience.

@OP Or the player base could stop reading into everything and just take the game at face value. If you or any other player has played MMO's for any length of time you understand that all details regarding an expansion is subject to change. This is the nature of MMO games. If they tell us details the player base revolts, If they keep details to themselves the game is "failing" and players scream to the heavens that "BW does not care about us".

 

Honsetly I think some players just need to reduce their dose of crazy, and increase their dose of patience.

Honestly, I would argue that people have been more than patient with this game. The game has been out a year and BW/EA has constantly lied to the player base over and over again, the customer service is abysmal, and there has been little to no effort put into actually fixing the bugs in the game. How much patients are we supposed to have? It shouldn't be surprising that it spills over when lackluster announcements fail to deliver.

Honestly, I would argue that people have been more than patient with this game. The game has been out a year and BW/EA has constantly lied to the player base over and over again, the customer service is abysmal, and there has been little to no effort put into actually fixing the bugs in the game. How much patients are we supposed to have? It shouldn't be surprising that it spills over when lackluster announcements fail to deliver.

I can think of another MMO that has been out for quite sometime that also has long standing bugs that have gone without fixes. The customer service is just as bad. And the complaints just as valid. Only their expansions take 2 years to come out, and they have to remodel the high end game almost every single time.

I can think of another MMO that has been out for quite sometime that also has long standing bugs that have gone without fixes. The customer service is just as bad. And the complaints just as valid. Only their expansions take 2 years to come out, and they have to remodel the high end game almost every single time.

And these bugs are ones that users constantly complain about and clearly have very high visibility within the user base? I'm assuming this game is also losing tons of subs (over a million in 10 months) as well?

I still remember hood toggle which was meant to arrive in the next large patch after 1.2.

Chat bubbles ?

And these bugs are ones that users constantly complain about and clearly have very high visibility within the user base? I'm assuming this game is also losing tons of subs (over a million in 10 months) as well?

Yes. The complaints are constant. On their forums it has gotten to the point that you cannot even have a discussion without being told "you are an idiot" just because you do not have the same opinion. The game has steadily been hemmoraghing subs for the better part of two years and only until recently had a solid rebound on subs. In that game a new tool was implemented that not everyone is enjoying in the same manner and parts of the player base have promised everything from unsubbing to suing for false advertising.

Note: I am avoiding the name of the above game deliberately. I do not want to open that can of worms here.

Hype is EAs biggest thing and the biggest flaw. They LOVE to hype everything, then they always underdeliver compared to the hype they generate.

Agreed, 100% correct, with this game especially EA and BW are some serious hype-mongers. They are always making the huge grandiose claims and not following through, have been since 2008 tbh. However, a lot of it is blown way out of proportion by others based of snippits of information that, quite frankly, BW should have kept to themselves. The problem is that BW is so eager to please, especially now that the game flopped on them, that they apparently cannot keep their big mouths shut.... and it keeps biting them in the @ repeatedly, and they obviously just never learn.

What they need to do is learn how to filter information, and not just let every tard and intern on their staff spout off every general idea that they've been batting around the office every time they have an interview. Seriuosly, obviously freaking nerds forget nothing and bookmark everything. And of course situations can change and BW then adapts for it... but the nerds can't let go, and they cling to year old hype based on some rumor that some intern said he thought he might have heard someone say in the office.

It's about honesty and mostly, keeping your damn mouth shut until it's set in stone. That's where BW fails over and over again and it always ends up getting the nerds all uppity and angry.

What they should do, is not tell us about something coming in a content patch, half a year or more before it's ready. Many things about this game have been talked about and talked about way before they are even close to being ready.

-snip-

If you are sure it's ready, and know it will be ready/is ready for next patch, then you can tell us about it. But we dont want to hear about it for half the year, and how great it is up until release.

 

Tell us a week to a month before you release it. Not 6 months... 6 months leaves us watching rehashed trailers that have been shown over and over again, and we start to lose the hype and end up just going, "Meh, I dont care anymore.".

Has the industry not learned from Lionhead Studios' mistake? I was going to post more, but someone else beat me to the punch:

Hype is EAs biggest thing and the biggest flaw. They LOVE to hype everything, then they always underdeliver compared to the hype they generate. Luckily I did not pay attention to anything related to this game until like 3 months before launch when friends wanted to play beta for SWTOR.