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Should We Just Join the Private Discord Channel?


Jdast

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I'm confused. With regard to the private Discord Channel, Daniel Steed says...

 

Hey everyone!

 

We love that this was created and appreciate what Discord communities are capable of, but we want to encourage the use of the forums. Encouraging community members to go off of our platform at the top of the General Discussion Forum does not match that goal. While this isn’t something we will sticky, we don’t have an issue with the thread existing in general. Additionally, a post like this is better suited for the Community Content Forum.

 

 

But your lead developer has posted over 1400 times in the EXACT channel Daniel says we should not go to for official discourse. You know, the channel that private holders have blocked some of us (not me).

 

We're not talking a ratio of 10 to 1. We're talking a ratio of 1000 to 1.

 

Should I stop communicating here? CoNfUsed...

 

:csw_jabba:

 

Dasty

Edited by Jdast
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I'm confused. With regard to the private Discord Channel, Daniel Steed says...

 

 

 

But your lead developer has posted over 1400 times in the EXACT channel Daniel says we should not go to for official discourse. You know, the channel that private holders have blocked some of us (not me).

 

We're not talking a ratio of 10 to 1. We're talking a ratio of 1000 to 1.

 

Should I stop communicating here? CoNfUsed...

 

:csw_jabba:

 

Dasty

 

What's good for the goose, should be good for the gander , but we've seen before that BW doesn't stick to that :/

Edited by DarkTergon
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I'm confused. With regard to the private Discord Channel, Daniel Steed says...

 

 

 

But your lead developer has posted over 1400 times in the EXACT channel Daniel says we should not go to for official discourse. You know, the channel that private holders have blocked some of us (not me).

 

We're not talking a ratio of 10 to 1. We're talking a ratio of 1000 to 1.

 

Should I stop communicating here? CoNfUsed...

 

:csw_jabba:

 

Dasty

 

Wait, there's a lead developper ?

 

And, to be honest... He can be swtor's lead developper, if he doesn't talk about future plans or changes about the game, or even gives his opinions on whatever swtor has to offer... I mean, he could be one of us for all we know. Maybe half of these messages are just him saying hello.

 

But I second indeed the question, as the answer will be most definitely interesting. :D

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Since its an unofficial discord it's his own decision if he posts something or not.

 

What I don't like though, is the fact that the ranked PvP community pretty much abuses that and pings him like all the time, and not even for important stuff that is. I really wonder why they don't get banned for pinging a BW official anyway. Last time I checked the PvP section one guy even threatend another to ping Chris so that he can report him when they had their usual *****fight going on.

 

I really like that BioWare Officials chilling in these discords. Makes it a little bit more familiar. Not even Blizzard does that. But it's really not surprising that BW is not communicating with the playerbase at all when people like the ranked community and their childish fights and flames against each other, or the 0815 "WHY IS THIS NOT FIXED??!?!?!111" abuses it to waste the Dev's time.

Edited by Jesseriah
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What I don't like though, is the fact that the ranked PvP community pretty much abuses that and pings him like all the time, and not even for important stuff that is..

 

Agreed. But therein, said the bard (to paraphrase Shakespeare), lies the rub. Why? Simple: It is 100% his choice to respond to those posts. Quite frankly, he seems to have formed a little clique on that forum, one which has banned individuals.

 

I don't think he gives a rat's behind about this post / thread. In fact, I don't think he will have even read it. He has made his development priorities clear. One could say I'm being melodramatic and that he values us all equally. That argument would be credible if the ratio of posts was 10 to 1. We're talking, as you know since you've been on the same forum -- over 1000 to 1.

 

Bottom line: People will flock to where Bioware employees post, despite Mr. Steed's suggestions that we not do so.

 

My recommendation is we all go over there and ignore this forum other than to check basic maintenance announcements. It's one thing to shoot the breeze on non-game oriented topics; it's another thing entirely to discuss game mechanics relevant to the entire player base on a private forum. Go where the action is I say.

 

:csw_jabba:

 

Dasty

Edited by Jdast
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Agreed. But therein, said the bard (to paraphrase Shakespeare), lies the rub. Why? Simple: It is 100% his choice to respond to those posts. Quite frankly, he seems to have formed a little clique on that forum, one which has banned individuals on this forum.

 

I don't think he gives a rat's behind about this post / thread. In fact, I don't think he will have even read it. He has made his development priorities clear. One could say I'm being melodramatic and that he values us all equally. That argument would be credible if the ratio of posts was 10 to 1. We're talking, as you know since you've been on the same forum -- over 1000 to 1.

 

Bottom line: People will flock to where Bioware employees post, despite Mr. Steed's suggestions that we not do so.

 

My recommendation is we all go over there and ignore this forum other than to check basic maintenance announcements. It's one thing to shoot the breeze on non-game oriented topics; it's another thing entirely to discuss game mechanics relevant to the entire player base on a private forum. Go where the action is I say.

 

:csw_jabba:

 

Dasty

 

If we all were to do so, we are merely approving their choice to move to a better people's discord managed by some third party that is free to limit discussion however they so choose (which can be wildly different than BWs TOS).

 

I say no. BW should use a form of discourse they personally moderate, however poorly. They want to make an official, BW moderated discord and use that, fine.

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Agreed. But therein, said the bard (to paraphrase Shakespeare), lies the rub. Why? Simple: It is 100% his choice to respond to those posts. Quite frankly, he seems to have formed a little clique on that forum, one which has banned individuals on this forum.

 

I don't think he gives a rat's behind about this post / thread. In fact, I don't think he will have even read it. He has made his development priorities clear. One could say I'm being melodramatic and that he values us all equally. That argument would be credible if the ratio of posts was 10 to 1. We're talking, as you know since you've been on the same forum -- over 1000 to 1.

 

Bottom line: People will flock to where Bioware employees post, despite Mr. Steed's suggestions that we not do so.

 

My recommendation is we all go over there and ignore this forum other than to check basic maintenance announcements. It's one thing to shoot the breeze on non-game oriented topics; it's another thing entirely to discuss game mechanics relevant to the entire player base on a private forum. Go where the action is I say.

 

:csw_jabba:

 

Dasty

 

This is where I both agree and disagree, as this is both a reason of why I do want to join this discord, and another where I don't want to join.

 

I think it's completely fine to have developpers talk on a discord server about the game, development priorities, and how they envision the future of this game (as an example, Risk of Rain 2's dev team are usually hanging out on Discord, and it's really something to see a dev tell one angry player "get good, you're not supposed to get hit by that", or just having them exchange with players on how to improve the overall game experience). But the issue lies more in the fact that you have on one side a developper who IS talking/exchanging with peoples about the future of swtor, on a discord that isn't regulated by any bioware official.

 

Even tho this community has done good stuff, I also know that most of the players even on the forums see very badly whenever somebody dares to propose something that they either don't like or don't understand. And I'm not sure that giving exclusive access to information or a way for a developper to get feedback only by some arbitrary unknown group of person is a good idea.

 

I recall somebody saying they got banned because they dared talk about unranked PvP instead of ranked to a dev. That's especially worrying (if the situation is true, I don't have any proof to back that up, and I hope somebody proves me wrong) to know that while everybody is struggling to get any information to the dev team (and even ranked feedback looks to be ignored when I see the state of ranked atm), there are peoples who will reduce even more any means of communication towards Bioware.

 

We should rejoice overall, as there seems to be finally a way to exchange with the BW dev team, and still I'm not sure that letting unsupervised players moderate said means of conversation is a good and healthy thing for the game... If it were, I think we would have already seen some player-focused changes right now, imo. I still doubt that's the case. :rolleyes:

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This world needs MORE KappaChris, don't gatekeep KappaChris

 

edit: just thought i would note that Chris is in many many discords, if someone has managed to get themselves kicked and removed from all of those discords I think we most likely are better off without their feedback tbh

Edited by RikuvonDrake
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Since we're talking discord......

 

Anyone know why they can't "pre-load" the 'https://discord.gg/' part of the server addresses?

 

I mean, it's a PITA to have to type all that out...especially when you visit multiple channels....

 

Am I right.....or am I missing how to use the service? ....lol?

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Since we're talking discord......

 

Anyone know why they can't "pre-load" the 'https://discord.gg/' part of the server addresses?

 

I mean, it's a PITA to have to type all that out...especially when you visit multiple channels....

 

Am I right.....or am I missing how to use the service? ....lol?

You don't actually have to type that part in, though you can if you want to. It is enough to just type in the server-specific part and it will recognize it. Edited by mike_carton
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This world needs MORE KappaChris, don't gatekeep KappaChris

 

Agreed. I'm just trying to open the gates so that more players have access into his thoughts.

 

Surely, Riku, you're not suggesting some players should not have access into the thinking and priorities of the development team.

 

My sole goal here is to increase transparency. Win for all!

 

<<sips martini>>

 

Dasty

Edited by Jdast
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Agreed. I'm just trying to open the gates so that more players have access into his thoughts.

 

Surely, Riku, you're not suggesting some players should not have access into the thinking and priorities of the development team.

 

My sole goal here is to increase transparency. Win for all!

 

<<sips martini>>

 

Dasty

 

An official Discord would be awesome. Sadly, player moderated Discord’s (like the one Riku moderates) are at the whims of moderators and if they have a personal grudge with you, they can boot you for no reason because they have the power. You also have no recourse to appeal if that happens.

 

I do agree it’s great that Chris can communicate in Discord with us. I certainly wouldn’t want that to stop. So I think we need to be careful how we communicate our desires in these sorts of threads and not bring that communication into disrepute or we may lose that access altogether.

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Agreed. I'm just trying to open the gates so that more players have access into his thoughts.

 

Surely, Riku, you're not suggesting some players should not have access into the thinking and priorities of the development team.

 

My sole goal here is to increase transparency. Win for all!

 

<<sips martini>>

 

Dasty

 

Chris is in at least 10 different discords, all those have rules similar to this forum and has the option to ban users, if someone managed to get themselves banned from all ten of those (and I am sure Chris is in many less known discords) I am sure you would agree that we are most likely better off without their feedback.

 

Our theorycrafting discord is just one of the many that devs are on and we have rules as well, if someone is only there to soapbox about non-theorycrafting related stuff and only uses it to ping the devs we will remove them, quite a few ranked pvp trolls, pve ppls that lost their crest, roleplayers that want more color variations on headpieces and similar are on it. Other discords such as the main swtor one has much more relaxed rules in regards to conversation topics in main channels and I am sure people can find an opportunity to soapbox their heart out here. If someone would want to appeal their ban they can always PM the admin of the theorycrafting discord

 

What you are trying to do isn't expanding on dev communication, if that was this threads purpose you should have phrased yourself very differently in the initial post, what you are trying to do is gatekeeping KappaChris

Edited by RikuvonDrake
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I dunno ...

 

Just my usual worthless $.02 worth ... but ... I just as soon have someone we could trust ( and they us) chat here in forum. Heck even if they had a "private" forum that was by invitation only. At least we could discuss stuff with them / and they with us ( as long as we kept things civil ) .

 

Trixx is right on this one too !!

 

And I also feel that a Discord Channel (while really cool if we were invited to attend) might also be just a tad I dunno .. maybe awkward ?? maybe??

 

Sometimes I wish we could talk shop about things: Star Wars / SWTOR / related models / select topics requested by them ... maybe just fun stuff.

 

Even more ... I wish there was a place where we could really try to get some good ideas across that really would benefit the game and everyone !!

 

Maybe these thoughts belong here ... maybe not. (if not I apologize). Just trying to make this part of the world a better place.

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Eh, I'm very much with dasty's principle here. It's far more "gatekeeping" for Mr Schmidt to respond basically exclusively in an unofficial, privately moderated fashion than it would be for him to respond to issues on an official, BW moderated means of communication.

 

You want to talk gatekeeping, let's talk about the more important people who happen to be in a private channel moderated by a third party.

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Eh, I'm very much with dasty's principle here. It's far more "gatekeeping" for Mr Schmidt to respond basically exclusively in an unofficial, privately moderated fashion than it would be for him to respond to issues on an official, BW moderated means of communication.

 

You want to talk gatekeeping, let's talk about the more important people who happen to be in a private channel moderated by a third party.

 

so you are proposing that they shut down the swtor reddit and swtor discord as they are both unofficial and privately moderated with devs participating in discussions?

 

keeping it classy forum warriors, surprised devs don't comment as much :jawa_angel:

Edited by RikuvonDrake
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From what I read off discord from his replies a few weeks ago, he basically does it when he's off work and does not encourage other devs to go to discord as he thinks it would be a bad idea. Overall I don't think there is a problem with it, it's his time and his choice.
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From what I read off discord from his replies a few weeks ago, he basically does it when he's off work and does not encourage other devs to go to discord as he thinks it would be a bad idea. Overall I don't think there is a problem with it, it's his time and his choice.

 

Makes sense ... really!

 

** It IS a private channel. That should have restrictions by nature of "private"...

** Trying to say this a delicately as possible .. and YET still get the message across: Not everyone will demonstrate respect / tact or any real sense of "class" and could create a very undesirable situation for everyone involved. Sooo .. yeah I get the part about doing things on his own time and thinks it's a bad idea to see other developers to "join in" ... that might invite other stuff.

 

** I still say that if they wanted to communicate that much with us ... they would ... RIGHT HERE ! (even if it were in another section of the forum board).

 

There's more that could be added to this but would tend to wander off topic !

Edited by OlBuzzard
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Chris is in at least 10 different discords, all those have rules similar to this forum and has the option to ban users, if someone managed to get themselves banned from all ten of those (and I am sure Chris is in many less known discords) I am sure you would agree that we are most likely better off without their feedback.

 

Here's my issue with that, what got them banned? Was it how the feedback was delivered, or was it feedback that these private communities didn't want "muddying" their lobbying? I've seen this sort of thing abused in the past, where you could neg rep someone's post on a forum, get enough neg rep and you can't post for x amount of days, effectively issuing a ban. What's it take to get some neg rep? I'd almost bet that someone wants to neg rep my post, for daring to question someone's "wisdom".

 

Our theorycrafting discord is just one of the many that devs are on and we have rules as well, if someone is only there to soapbox about non-theorycrafting related stuff and only uses it to ping the devs we will remove them, quite a few ranked pvp trolls, pve ppls that lost their crest, roleplayers that want more color variations on headpieces and similar are on it. Other discords such as the main swtor one has much more relaxed rules in regards to conversation topics in main channels and I am sure people can find an opportunity to soapbox their heart out here. If someone would want to appeal their ban they can always PM the admin of the theorycrafting discord

 

What you are trying to do isn't expanding on dev communication, if that was this threads purpose you should have phrased yourself very differently in the initial post, what you are trying to do is gatekeeping KappaChris

 

Off topic stuff should be looked at, but an outright ban? Did anyone attempt to make sure that the poster was notified that it wasn't cool, or did they just say "we don't need their feedback anyway"?

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so you are proposing that they shut down the swtor reddit and swtor discord as they are both unofficial and privately moderated with devs participating in discussions?

 

Not one person is or has suggested those platforms shut down, nor that BW employees eschew them. But when posting on issues directly related to the game, they should also post here. There are a multitude of reasons why that is superior from logistics, ease of tracking information, transparency, etc. Moreover, it seems to be BW's stated policy. Keep in mind, we're not talking about a few comments here and there. We are talking a complete lack of communication on the official forums about issues directly related to the game.

 

It's really not that complicated. At the end of the day, people are going to gravitate to where the devs post and discuss issues related to the game. That should hardly come as a surprise. As of now, though, the official forums are useful only for learning about schedules, which they also cross-post on Twitter.

 

Seems to me the best solution would be an official discord channel. Problem(s) solved.

 

Dasty

Edited by Jdast
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From what I read off discord from his replies a few weeks ago, he basically does it when he's off work and does not encourage other devs to go to discord as he thinks it would be a bad idea. Overall I don't think there is a problem with it, it's his time and his choice.

 

Chris is the first to say that anything he says is not official and he directs people to official channels if they want an official answer. That being said, he is the lead designer, so much of what he says is true and while not official, you can be pretty sure it’s correct.

 

He’s also the first to say if he can’t tell you something because it’s not his place to officially release x,y,z info or the ownership of that info isn’t his to tell.

 

The usual things people ask that he does answer have to do with things officially released already or how things work. Aka, how far x ability works or what percentage of what stat does something (I’m generalising here). He usually has to check and get back to us because he doesn’t have all of that info floating around in his head.

 

The other stuff is usually more mundane, like what was happening in Texas ice storm or what food is good etc. The sort of stuff any of us might discuss with other players who share our interests.

 

The pvp stuff is a little different because it’s usually to do with bugs and performance issues like phase walk killing you or Mando arena respawn jump killing you. Of course some people ask questions and post stuff about pvp cheaters etc, of which Chris says they should report through proper channels. He is also forth coming in telling us he has nothing to do with bans or reviewing that material. So anyone who thinks Chris is doing favours for people is mistaken.

 

To be honest, I think Chris just likes to read all the stuff (and sometimes drama) and while he may have replied x number of times in the last 12 months, that is relatively small when you consider how much is talked about on discord.

And as it’s been pointed out, he is usually doing this in his own time. I also think Chris has a thick skin and tolerates things better than most.

 

I’m actually glad Chris is so willing to participate as much as he does, which is why I’m concerned threads like this might put an end to that participation. But I do think it’s a shame he either isn’t allowed to communicate as much on the official forums or that he chooses not to. I have a feeling. he has to follow internal Bioware messaging protocols on the forums and we all know from past experiences that Bioware seem reluctant to communicate openly or frequently on the forums. Which makes me wonder if it’s a management policy issue and not a dev issue when it comes to two way community communication.

 

I was hoping that Jackie joining the team would open up a new chapter in communication between the players and the devs. Sadly, I think she’s run into the same problem as everyone else that tries to open communications on the forums. And yes, things have been better than the past with her here, but I feel there could be more communication and questions are starting to be ignored because I think Bioware are restricting what answers she can provide or they won’t give her the info to release.

Edited by TrixxieTriss
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Not one person is or has suggested those platforms shut down, nor that BW employees eschew them. But when posting on issues directly related to the game, they should also post here. There are a multitude of reasons why that is superior from logistics, ease of tracking information, etc. Moreover, it seems to be BW's stated policy. Keep in mind, we're not talking about a few comments here and there. We are talking a complete lack of communication on the official forums about issues directly related to the game.

 

It's really not that complicated. I mean, you wouldn't be opposed to an official discord channel, would you?

 

Dasty

 

I agree the forums are under used. It’s like when they release some info on twitter or in podcasts and then don’t put it on the forums and we have to find out from someone in game or someone posting here (not Bioware).

Where what should happen is the website should be the number one source of all info and those other platforms that release official news or comment should be pulling that info from here.

 

Sadly, it’s a structural problem and an obvious flaw in how Bioware have setup their marketing and communication channels. And even if we had an official discord channel, it wouldn’t change much because we would still run into the problem of Bioware being disorganised when it comes to putting stuff on the website.

 

What an official discord would do is remove the third party moderators from the equation who can play favourites or have personal vendettas against people. Sadly, I don’t think Chris or Bioware would communicate anymore through that channel than they do here on the forums.

Edited by TrixxieTriss
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