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NickAvola

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Hey all!

 

I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself as the newest member of the Bioware Austin Community team. My name is Nick Avola, and I have the daunting (yet exciting) task of playing third fiddle on a team directly involved in all areas of our games – from player feedback, to design considerations, to promotions, to communications, you name it.

 

Much of my time will be spent scouring the forums, blogisphere, and social media platforms to track community sentiment on a day-to-day basis. I’ll be consolidating your comments and concerns into detailed reports, which will be disseminated regularly amongst the Community, Development, Leadership, and other key teams here at BioWare Austin. The sooner your feedback reaches the eyes and ears of senior staffers, the more accurately and effectively we can respond in kind, and I will be working overtime to fine-tune this process. I will also take the lead in conducting a general makeover of the community team’s internal mechanisms, which should allow Eric, Tait, and I to more efficiently address the needs of SWTOR’s player base. In the meantime I will do my best to keep up a regular physical presence on the boards, but due to the general behind-the-scenes nature of my work (and the sheer quantity of incoming data I’ll be managing) you may see lengthier intervals between my visible forum posts. Nevertheless, I do encourage you to PM me anytime with more direct questions or thoughts.

 

On a more personal note, I am a fiercely competitive gamer, and I’ll be regularly online playing my preferred tanking role (although my identity will remain anonymous for the moment – bit of a buzzkill, I know). I am also a big fan of PVP (queue the inevitable gasps of shock), and I am quite looking forward to publicly taking down Tait’s precious toons in Warzone. Outside of SWTOR, I play mainly RPGs along the lines of the Witcher and Mass Effect (and yes, I absolutely romanced Tali throughout the games before accidentally wiping out her entire species in a series of fiery explosions.. She never quite forgave me for that for some odd reason). I still have yet to experience anything which competes with the epic-ness of Chrono Cross or Final Fantasy VIII, however. I am also a giant nerd when it comes to historical grand strategy games, particularly Paradox’s Europa Universalis and the Total War series. But then again, my experience so far here in Austin shows me that I’ve only just scratched the surface of SWTOR. Challenge accepted.

 

Outside of the gaming world, I’m a sucker for live music and recreational sporting leagues. I graduated from Wake Forest University (North Carolina) in 2008, before working in D.C. for a stint. Strangely enough, prior to joining BioWare Austin, I was trained as an intelligence analyst handling the Middle East and North Africa. I’m an avid reader – just finishing up my reread of ADWD before the new HBO season (go team Stannis), and am mid-way through the Darth Bane trilogy. And as a native Bostonian, I bleed Red Sox and Patriots pride.

 

I look forward to interacting with many of you in the coming months. I’m honored to play a role amongst one of the industry’s most talented development teams, not to mention serving as a primary outlet for such a thriving and passionate Community. Look for me on the forums. Follow me on Twitter -- @avola_swtor. Get excited. Heck, from what I’ve seen in just a few days, I can assure you that great things are in store for the game in 2015, and I can’t wait to hear all about your chosen Path.

 

Best,

Nick

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WOW! Welcome to the team/forums/game!!! An Intelligence Analyst huh? Very interesting...that may prove valuable here - not in like some creepy way, just your ability to read mountains of boring trash to find the good stuff :)

 

Very pleased to have you joining us!!!

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If I could make a suggestion, since you are saying that you are consolidating all the things that you read on the forums you could make a post every say two weeks to one month letting players know what information you are passing on to the other devs
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WOW! Welcome to the team/forums/game!!! An Intelligence Analyst huh? Very interesting...that may prove valuable here - not in like some creepy way, just your ability to read mountains of boring trash to find the good stuff :)

 

Very pleased to have you joining us!!!

Thanks for the warm welcome! I believe Eric and Tait may have seen a bit of merit in the INT background -- I just keep telling myself that it was due to my charm and good looks :rolleyes:

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Welcome and good luck.

As a starting point on community sentiment, I know that in the 3.1.2 PTS testing, there were requests for feedback with a lot of feedback given but no response at all from Bioware. From my own personal interest in Sorcs/Sages (my preferred main), the single-target proposed changes seemed to make little to no sense to the player-base, particularly in light of where the class stands in PvE. There was significant feedback concerning this apparent disconnect. Unfortunately without any feedback from the Developers, Sage/Sorc players are left wondering what the role of this class is supposed to be going forward in progression PvE. While I would love a response on this, more importantly, if Bioware asks for specific feedback, this should be a two-way thing. Certainly, every minor point of feedback can't be addressed, but at a minimum, I believe the players would like a final wrap-up post by the Developers explaining briefly how the feedback was useful, or not as the case may be, and where things are headed. Without at least some form of response to the feedback, players are left wondering whether this feedback is actually meaningful (particularly where there seems to be a disconnect between the changes and previous stated goals and/or where the class/role fits in currently).

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On a more personal note, I am a fiercely competitive gamer, and I’ll be regularly online playing my preferred tanking role (although my identity will remain anonymous for the moment – bit of a buzzkill, I know). I am also a big fan of PVP (queue the inevitable gasps of shock), and I am quite looking forward to publicly taking down Tait’s precious toons in Warzone. Outside of SWTOR, I play mainly RPGs along the lines of the Witcher and Mass Effect (and yes, I absolutely romanced Tali throughout the games before accidentally wiping out her entire species in a series of fiery explosions.. She never quite forgave me for that for some odd reason). I still have yet to experience anything which competes with the epic-ness of Chrono Cross or Final Fantasy VIII, however. I am also a giant nerd when it comes to historical grand strategy games, particularly Paradox’s Europa Universalis and the Total War series

 

Holy **** I like you.

 

Would've liked you even better if you replaced "Cross" with "Trigger" and "VIII" with "VI", but nobody's perfect.

Edited by ThirdDementor
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yuck :rak_grin: #TeamKaidan

 

Ew. "I really like adventurous women." Nope. Gimme "calibrations" or "Keelah" any day.

 

Anyways! Hi! Welcome! I think you sound cool already!

 

Charm and good looks are always good to have! Hope this means you guys can reach consensus sooner now.

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Nick. We are now sworn enemies.

 

The Patriots are my third least favorite NFL team, only slightly ahead of the Cowboys, who are miles ahead of the 49ers. Plus Coach Carroll GAVE you guys that ring with that awful play call. I mean, seriously, 2nd and goal on the 1 yard line with the best short yardage back in the game, how do you NOT feed the Beast?

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Much of my time will be spent scouring the forums, blogisphere, and social media platforms to track community sentiment on a day-to-day basis. I’ll be consolidating your comments and concerns into detailed reports, which will be disseminated regularly amongst the Community, Development, Leadership, and other key teams here at BioWare Austin.

 

All the best at this but its been clear in the last couple of years nothing the community says means anything to the folk at Bioware Austin.

 

People ask for more class story. 3.2 has no class story and one story for the two factions.

 

Marauders asked for changes and increased DPS they got a 10m snare that costs 2 points and some minor changes to defensive abilities.

 

PvPers have been asking for more maps etc. They get another season of ranked warzones with some new rewards.

 

People asked for more information and communication. They get cantina tours (viable for only a few and mostly American players) getting pets and mounts.

 

General calls for balance. They get nerfs.

 

Calls for more content. They get after 6 months an expansion that lasts an hour and exactly the same for all 8 classes.

 

While GSF, Conquest, Space PvE, Companion interaction, non humanoid species etc etc are completely ignored. But there are more reskined or moth eatern costumes in gambling packs sold from the cartel market.

 

So it seems a little unlikely that anyone at Bioware cares what the player base wanted.

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Holy **** I like you.

 

Would've liked you even better if you replaced "Cross" with "Trigger" and "VIII" with "VI", but nobody's perfect.

You have no idea how much controversy my assertion has stirred up within the comm team. Mr. Musco has directed a lot of flak my way, arguing a claim much similar to your own.

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