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An open letter to our players


BenIrving

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Hi there!

 

My name is Ben Irving, Producer for Star Wars: The Old Republic. I don’t often make posts in the forums, in fact, this may be my first ever post. Despite that, our whole team, myself included try to digest all of the internet for SWTOR information – The forums, Reddit, Facebook, YouTube, etc. Recently there have been questions and concerns around the quality of our releases and the ongoing support for SWTOR and I wanted to stop by to address those concerns.

 

First off, I want to apologize for some of the issues you have experienced in the last couple of months. The monthly chapter release schedule is new and it has come with some unexpected bugs. It has caused problems for some of you and I want to say I am sorry. At our core, the SWTOR team are all gamers, just like you. We empathize with the excitement of wanting to play a great game only to be blocked by a problem. We spend all of our energy striving to make SWTOR the best game possible and when bugs and other issues get in the way of your player experience, we take it to heart. We are committed to doing better and I think Chapter XII: Visions in the Dark shows we are serious about listening to your concerns and making meaningful changes to address them - a high quality chapter, released on time that we hope has met the expectations of our players.

 

Onto the future. Is SWTOR going to receive ongoing support? The answer is absolutely yes.

 

It's worth starting with the things we have already announced, we talk about them on the monthly Producer Live Stream but I think they are still worth mentioning. We had the launch of Knights of the Fallen Empire – 9 incredible story driven chapters, 14 companion recruitment missions, Star Fortress, 5 new player levels, 30 flashpoints upgraded to be challenging again, 50 operation bosses upgraded to be challenging again, too many heroic quests to count, a revamp of the 1-60 levelling experience and a huge number of quality of life improvements. More recently we have kicked off our monthly chapter cadence and our third installment – Chapter XII: Visions in the Dark – was just released. That cadence will take us through most of the year ending with Chapter XVI, our story finale for Knights of the Fallen Empire. In addition to all the monthly chapters we have built great supporting content – Recruitment missions to explore the galaxy with some of your favorite companions, the Odessen Proving Grounds Warzone, the Rishi Cove Arena, the Eternal Championship and new levels for crafting. That’s actually more content following a major expansion than we have ever released and the team is really excited for all of you to play it.

 

The harder part to address, because you have to take my word for it, are all the features and content we are working on that we haven’t yet announced. If you follow Charles Boyd or Paul Marino on social media you may have seen some hints of this. The team recently visited our MoCap studio to create new animations. Charles Boyd spent a week at our VO studio recording more lines of dialogue for future story content. The two most exciting things to share are that our writers are deep into the plot summaries for the next season's worth of chapters and we have started the early design phase for new, non-chapter, content. You all know the drill here, I can’t talk about any of the specifics (yet) but what I can say is that we have some REALLY cool stuff to talk about later this year and the whole SWTOR team can’t wait to announce it. Soon. TM.

 

Knights of the Fallen Empire is the most successful expansion we have ever produced. It received critical acclaim from press and fan sites but most importantly, it has been successful because all of you have supported us through the expansion launch and the release of the monthly Chapters. In the eyes of all of our partners, SWTOR is a huge success. BioWare supports this game. EA supports this game. Lucasfilm supports this game. Disney supports this game. In fact, for a game that has been live for almost 5 years, we are receiving an incredible amount of support from all of our partners. It’s both amazing and humbling.

 

If there is anything I would like people reading this to take away it’s this: SWTOR is absolutely being supported into the future. We have a lot of content coming over the next few months and even more exciting things to talk about later this year. All of us here at BioWare appreciate your ongoing support and we are committed to providing the best experience possible.

 

It’s because of you, our players, that this game continues to thrive. Thank you for playing Star Wars: The Old Republic.

 

Ben Irving

Edited by TaitWatson
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Ben first of all Thank You for taking the time to write this and understanding the difficulties players have faced these past few months. My main gripe these past few months has been the lack quality control at times and the bugs in the game. However, looking at your post I'm hopeful that you guys will start to improve the overall QA of the game by the time KOTFE ends. That said I want to also take a moment and thank the Dev Team for the some of the great changes that came with 4.0 as you have mentioned, regardless if I agree with the direction of the game has taken. Please keep us informed and come back to the forums to write us letters like this one. :) Edited by squirrelballz
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Thank you for the post Ben.

 

I wish you would allow people to post a bit more often around here. We're customers who love your game...a few simple and vague words from you guys about the future of this game does wonders for moral around here. We WANT to be excited about this game...but this is the most hope I've had in nearly a year because of the tremendous disconnect you portray. Please...address us more.

 

 

Also, PvP class balance, have you looked at the leaderboards over the past 3 seasons? There's no way those metrics have gone over your head...

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Its good to know that this game is still a viable entity and that there are plans to develop it further and to support its playerbase. The voice acting in this game is second to none and I hope all the actors are still keen to be involved.

 

While the animation in KotFE has been excellent the fact that its a single play through piece of content does seriously hamper its replayability. Also, 12 chapters in I'm finding the promise that our choices really matter to be a bit of a damp squib but I will stand corrected if the next 4 blow me away.

 

Thanks for posting and letting us know that what we say is being heard even if its not always possible to please all of us.

 

:)

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Thank you for posting Ben, it's actually much appreciated to hear something about this even though I first almost crapped myself thinking "Oh God they're done with us and shutting down". :o

 

Looking forward to the new stuff you guys have planned!! Yay for more KotFE chapters!

 

Also if there's any blooper reels of Charles and the MoCap stuff we'd love to see it. :p

 

Thanks again!

Edited by JennyFlynn
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I think this is a much needed, and widely appreciated post. It's good to see and hear that things are going since most of us don't know what happens behind the magic curtain. Appreciate all the hard work, and can't wait for more operative nerfs.
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Thanks for the letter, I'm glad to hear things are going well and the support is there (or at least is supposed to be ;) ).

It's not perfect, but it's still well worth my sub price IMO. Keep up the good work.

FWIW, my favorite expansion is/was Makeb, the intertwined but not identical storylines were delightful.

Onwards and upwards!

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Thank you for posting this, even though I hate that you have to placate the minority of loud, raging gamers that do not truly represent your player-base, so that they do not cause PR nightmares for the game for no good reason. Rabid fans are the bane of any good thing and they are blind to that fact.

 

As you can see, forum posters already in this thread are clueless as to how these things work, much less the ability to converse in reasonable discourse, so I always applaud you guys for taking the time to post, knowing you will get so much unfiltered gamer rage-hate.

 

Please keep on working hard to make a great game; there are thousands of us enjoying it, regardless of the hate and ignorance tossed around the Internet about SWOTOR.

Edited by jubakumbi
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Thank you for posting this, even though I hate that you have to placate the minority of loud, raging gamers that do not truly represent your player-base, so that they do not cause PR nightmares for the game for no good reason. Rabid fans are the bane of any good thing and they are blind to that fact.

 

As you can see, forum posters already in this thread are clueless as to how these things work, much less the ability to converse in reasonable discourse, so I always applaud you guys for taking the time to post, knowing you will get so much unfiltered gamer rage-hate.

 

Please keep on working hard to make a great game; there are thousands of us enjoying it, regardless of the hate and ignorance tossed around the Internet about SWOTOR.

 

I've criticized BW plenty in the last few months but if anything this is the best post and the most real thing from BW in the last few months. I see no reason to be rabid about this, Ben is acknowledging their mishaps and you know what sometimes that's all it takes to keep people happy. Listening to your community makes them less likely to have bad PR, sometimes people just want to be heard. Most reasonable people know they can't wave a wand and fix everything but a concerted effort to communicate and address issues goes a long way. This post leaves me with nothing but hope because Ben rarely posts and honestly I really pay attention to what he says in the livestreams more than Musco. Thanks for keeping it real Ben please continue to communicate with us. :)

Edited by squirrelballz
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Hey Ben,

I know its not easy to find time to get involved in the posts for you since you probably have a lot on your plate at the office. If we are being honest, SWTOR needs an engine upgrade, that is what is hurting it in all aspects, causes lags, cant handle wpvps, and is just outdated and more. So please just let us know if an new engine is in the works.

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Thank you for taking the time to write this. It's really appreciated.

 

On the other hand, it would be nice to get at least some kind of mention of what you guys are working on. It doesn't need to be specific, or spoilery. Just....something. We know that there's going to be more story coming out next year. But are you guys working on group content? Flashpoints, Operations, pvp maps? We don't need to know how these things would fit into KotFE. But just some kind of hint or nod that you guys are, in fact, working on some kind of group content or a brand new mode of game play (like you did for GSF or Eternal Championship, for example) would help. Just a simple, "We're in the early stages of production for new group content for people who enjoy grouping together" or, "We're currently in pre production for new game play modes" would be a lot better than "We're working on new stuff, but can't say anything yet".

 

It would help people who are still on the fence about staying, stay. And might incentivize those who left because of a lack of new group content to come back.

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I never doubted you for a moment. :cool:

 

Thank you for posting this and reminding people that you are hard at work on things that you can't talk about yet. So many people here lose sight of that and think that if you aren't talking about it, then it must not be happening. :rolleyes:

 

Looking forward to seeing what's ahead between seasons and even beyond that.

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Thanks for the post Ben. I appreciate the apology and the willingness to reach out to us. :)

----------------------------------------------

 

Now... An Open Letter From A Customer To Ben:

 

Any Chance you could actually start doing a "State of The Game" post once a month, like right after or before the major patch drops? And maybe institute some lessor, but predictable and consistent topical based communications between a State of The Game monthly post. And when I suggest this... I don't mean live streams... I mean actual thoughtful and informative posting here in the forum, and follow-up discussion that can feed from it.

 

I ask because, like it or not, this studio does not have a good reputation with players for open, clear, and helpful communications. This reputation by the way is not based on some of the really emotional, exaggerated, and over the top ranting that we get in the forum every day by some. Rather.. the studio earned it by 1) never really being good at it to begin with, and 2) not adapting well to changing moods in the community and finding ways to respond.

 

Twitter and Facebook are fine for marketing and promotion... but the forum represents your actual paying subscriber base, and as paying customers (not drive-bys on twitter or facebook) they deserve more communications.

 

In a nut shell, in my view, a product serving hundreds of thousands of customers every month MUST have and conduct a well thought out communications plan... a plan that is continuing in nature, consistent in how it transmits and what it transmits, and informative in nature. You are the producer, so it is in your power to address this. A good communications plan and process is part and parcel to any project that is large, complex, and touches many customers. SWTOR certainly is large, complex and touches many customers.

 

As a studio, entrusted with one of the most entertaining and valuable IPs in modern Sci-Fi/Fantasy, you must get better at this. As a retired project manager of large IT programs, I absolutely know that this will pay huge dividends to the studio over time and it will provide important consistency in dialog to a highly interactive community of hundreds of thousands of paying customers.

 

Please note, I am in no way trying to stipulate what you communicate (that is on the studio), but rather HOW you communicate. You (the studio) simply have to stop doing ad-hoc communications, and communications that confuse or mislead unintentionally in the process. As the producer, in my view, your goal should be to invest in improved communications as an integral part of the total ongoing development of this game. And good communication management is not free... it requires thoughtful allocation of resources... but it also pays very high dividends for interactive products that touch many customers.

 

Long letter, summarized: This is an important product for the studio and it's customers. It deserves professional level communications management and process. It needs a formal role of Communications Manager, that is filled by an actual professional who knows how, and how not, to sustain a trusted communications process. The player base, (emotional and passionate though it may be) , deserves a communications process that is consistent, informative, and predictable. None of these currently exist for this product.

 

Thanks for listening.

 

-------------------------------------------------------------

Edited by Andryah
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Thank you for the post Ben.

 

I wish you would allow people to post a bit more often around here. We're customers who love your game...a few simple and vague words from you guys about the future of this game does wonders for moral around here. We WANT to be excited about this game...but this is the most hope I've had in nearly a year because of the tremendous disconnect you portray. Please...address us more.

 

 

Also, PvP class balance, have you looked at the leaderboards over the past 3 seasons? There's no way those metrics have gone over your head...

 

Agreed on the first part.

 

Agreed on the second part, with the understanding that there has to be a way to achieve something closer to fair balance in PvP without affecting PvE.

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Agreed on the second part, with the understanding that there has to be a way to achieve something closer to fair balance in PvP without affecting PvE.

Easy! Adjust how Expertise effects each class individually. Don't touch skills, touch the %'s.

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H

The harder part to address, because you have to take my word for it, are all the features and content we are working on that we haven’t yet announced. If you follow Charles Boyd or Paul Marino on social media you may have seen some hints of this. The team recently visited our MoCap studio to create new animations. Charles Boyd spent a week at our VO studio recording more lines of dialogue for future story content. The two most exciting things to share are that our writers are deep into the plot summaries for the next season's worth of chapters and we have started the early design phase for new, non-chapter, content. You all know the drill here, I can’t talk about any of the specifics (yet) but what I can say is that we have some REALLY cool stuff to talk about later this year and the whole SWTOR team can’t wait to announce it. Soon. TM.

 

You guys have asked us to trust you so many times so far and got burned every time, why this time is any different? We no longer trust you.

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You guys have asked us to trust you so many times so far and got burned every time, why this time is any different? We no longer trust you.

 

I'd love it if you could point out anything in the last couple of years that they failed to deliver on.

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