SWTOR Deserves A Revival: More Funding, Resources and Manpower

I agree with most of the points you're making here. I've never communicated with any influencer, so they have no way of speaking for me. I have posted here on the forums when asked for feedback (and at times even when not). To learn the influencers have their own private forum where they are actively engaged by the devs and then to contrast that with the level of engagement here on the official forums makes me feel as though my opinions on these forums seem to be valued less than the opinions of the influencers.

As a content creator though, even if I wasn't in the program my voice might be heard over the clamor because when I do post opinions, they're in a highly organized and extremely well made compared to a basic forum post.

I'm highlighting this portion of your highly organized post because I'm not sure it comes across quite the way you want it to.

But to be honest, that kind of attitude adds to the feeling we're the lesser players, with "us" meaning everyone who isn't an Influencer. I hope that the Influencers don't actually think of themselves as the better/more worthy player, I know for a fact some of them are humble and great people. But posts like the one you quoted do come across as if they consider the rest of the playerbase "the plebs" like Lhancelot said

I don't have anything against the Influencers, it's great that they're there because they do do nice stuff for our player community. But it's just not entirely okay - I think - that they're the ones that get special hidden access while we get barely any communication. Like I wouldn't have had anything negative to say about a special hidden forum if on our normal regular forums we had the same level of communication and engagement. But now it feels off and knowing there is a hidden Influencer forum out there makes me feel somewhat... awkward? Uneasy? The lesser player? Idk.

I agree with most of the points you're making here. I've never communicated with any influencer, so they have no way of speaking for me. I have posted here on the forums when asked for feedback (and at times even when not). To learn the influencers have their own private forum where they are actively engaged by the devs and then to contrast that with the level of engagement here on the official forums makes me feel as though my opinions on these forums seem to be valued less than the opinions of the influencers.

That's exactly why I was bringing it to her attention. I don't think she wanted to come across that way, but it sure does seem a bit elitist to me. I've seen plenty of "basic forum posts" that were "highly organized and extremely well made."

Like most of yours I have seen, doesn't mean I agree with them all p.

Maybe that explains why there's no communication to us, the plebs on the forums... All the time spent communicating is to influencers?

What I would like to know is how much do the devs listen to them? If they do listen a lot and implement changes because of that, then the influencers are also to blame for the sad state the game’s become over the years.

How many people have given feed back on these forums and on the PTS in the last 12 months and BioWare basically ignore everything they are told. So why do they even bother to ask us plebs on the these forums for feed back??

If they are ignoring us and listening to the influencers, then it becomes glaringly apparent why we get such stupid changes that the minority like and go against what the majority want. ie this stupid gearing system that is tailored around 3% of the games population.

I get that the influencers have followers that give them feed back. But how many of the actual game’s population even know who these people are to provide feed back?
If BioWare really want to find out what the player base wants, they should be engaging us them selves through official channels and not relying on third hand information that can be easily tainted to fit personal preferences.

BioWare should do their own work and the community manager should be communicating and being engaged with the community to find out what the players want and not hiding behind the influencers and getting them to do his work for him.
This is the problem and I think there would be overwhelming community support for this to change and have BioWare engage us directly and not through the influencers.