Hello JPryde,

 

You are correct in that Antonio and Lars are no longer a part of the EU SWTOR Community Team. Due to this change you will see less communication in general in your forums than you did see previously. However, I want to stress that we will still be continually receiving feedback from both our German and French communities and addressing that feedback just as we would the English speaking community.

 

Just as we have in the past, we will continue to make sure that communicating all critical things such as timed promotions, maintenance announcements, etc. will still be communicated to you.

 

I hope that answers your questions!

 

-eric

I know, you probably had no Influence on the decision to drop German and French communication, but the signal EA and BW is given to there customer base is horrible: SWTOR is dying and we (BW, EA) are not even willing to invest a bare minimum to the non US customers.

Without a German and French Language CM, I don't see any reason in keeping the foreign language sections of the forum open. If you can't read it close it, it is useless and a betrayal on your subscribers, if you are 'collecting' suggestions you are unable to read.

The hater fraction of the forum was frequently trying to convince us Fanboys that SWTOR only stays online to squeeze the last amount of money out of the product. Congratulations, you proved they are right.

From a marketing point of view, the decision to fire these people just before launching RotHC just shows that you have no confidence in the AddOn at all.

If you don't show confidence why should we?

Kind regards

Christian

Hi Eric

 

I know, you probably had no Influence on the decision to drop German and French communication, but the signal EA and BW is given to there customer base is horrible: SWTOR is dying and we (BW, EA) are not even willing to invest a bare minimum to the non US customers.

Without a German and French Language CM, I don't see any reason in keeping the foreign language sections of the forum open. If you can't read it close it, it is useless and a betrayal on your subscribers, if you are 'collecting' suggestions you are unable to read.

The hater fraction of the forum was frequently trying to convince us Fanboys that SWTOR only stays online to squeeze the last amount of money out of the product. Congratulations, you proved they are right.

From a marketing point of view, the decision to fire these people just before launching RotHC just shows that you have no confidence in the AddOn at all.

If you don't show confidence why should we?

 

Kind regards

 

Christian

This is a vaild concern. Regardless of the actual state of the game and reasons for this change, it sends a very negative signal. When I saw just Joveth leaving, I didn't really worry too much, I know that people move on. But removing the EU's only communicators seems unwise. I hope that either the higher ups will reconsider these actions, or a more reassuring answer for these changes can be given.

Nous voulons le retour de notre Community Manager !

Wir wollen unsere Community Manager zurück!

(We want our Community Manager!)

Tja auch wenn das keiner mehr lesen kann... ich empfinde es als Verrat an der deutschen Community und verstehen kann ich es nicht.... die USA sind zwar der größte Markt für Comuputerspiele.... aber direkt danach kommt der deutsche Markt (immerhin ja nicht nur Deutschland, sondern auch die Schweiz und Österreich gehören definitiv dazu) und danach auch der französische.... zumindest wenn man den westlichen Markt betrachtet auf dem SWTOR angesiedelt ist. Also was soll das warum hängt ihr uns ab und warum wollt ihr unser Feedback nicht mehr.... ganz enhrlich ihr werdet die Vorschläge nicht mehr lesen und auch nicht mehr auf Fragen reagieren... da ihr mit dem englischen Forum schon genug zu tun haben werdet....

Wie wird es denn werden mit Aufstieg des Huttenkartels.... wenn man da nen komplizierten Bug hat dann kann es keiner mehr genau posten da man sich vielleicht auf Englisch gar nicht ausdürcken kann..... oder man hat gar nicht die richtigen englischen Begriffe parat um den Ort oder die Quest zu beschreiben bei der man den Bug gefunden hat, da man nen deutschen Client benutzt....

Was kommt dann jetzt als nächstes.... Einstellung der Übersetzung....spätestens dann werdet ihr NUR noch US-Spieler haben...und dann ist SWTOR gestorben.... und kein Geld merh damit zu verdienen

But overall I think you are all a bit unexcited about reading promises of new ideas and communication. So instead, we are just going to start doing stuff!

Was kommt dann jetzt als nächstes.... Einstellung der Übersetzung....spätestens dann werdet ihr NUR noch US-Spieler haben...und dann ist SWTOR gestorben.... und kein Geld merh damit zu verdienen

Ist ja nicht so, dass sie sich um die englischsprachigen Spieler besonders gekümmert hätten. Hier pfiff auch der Wind zuletzt ordentlich durch die leeren Hallen.

Hi Eric

 

I know, you probably had no Influence on the decision to drop German and French communication, but the signal EA and BW is given to there customer base is horrible: SWTOR is dying and we (BW, EA) are not even willing to invest a bare minimum to the non US customers.

Without a German and French Language CM, I don't see any reason in keeping the foreign language sections of the forum open. If you can't read it close it, it is useless and a betrayal on your subscribers, if you are 'collecting' suggestions you are unable to read.

The hater fraction of the forum was frequently trying to convince us Fanboys that SWTOR only stays online to squeeze the last amount of money out of the product. Congratulations, you proved they are right.

From a marketing point of view, the decision to fire these people just before launching RotHC just shows that you have no confidence in the AddOn at all.

If you don't show confidence why should we?

 

Kind regards

 

Christian

They may as well close them? Then we will have multi-language posts and if they (EA/BW) can't read French or German then it won't make it better by the posts all jumbled together either. Like it's already being done. If people thought the forums were bad before, it will be heading into a hot mess soon. (Already happening)

The best thing to do is one of the whopping number of three (Eric, Courtney, and Amber) needs to go into the French and German forums and post in said language they will be there for them. Otherwise, if the three don't know a language, EA/BW should pay for their copies of Rosetta Stone and learn real fast.

How hard can it be to find one person who's fluent in German and one person who's fluent in French and hire them?

It's not as if people are demanding Bioware hire Angela Merkel or anything.

How hard can it be to find one person who's fluent in German and one person who's fluent in French and hire them?

It's not as if people are demanding Bioware hire Angela Merkel or anything.

Please no. That would be my final reason to unsub.

(<german)

But yeah, as much as I use the US forums already, nothing says better "We don't care about you guys" than losing the german CM and leaving the german (and french) forum basically unattended.

i am a player from the french community and i am very disapointed by your attitude EAware...

your message is clear for us : you don't care of the german and french forum. it is not important for you to give us good info in time or offer a decent customer service.

but i am sure we will always be informed by the news of cartel market, with a bad google translation offered by courtneywoods, the emminent specialist of ** ***

touché !

you don't care of our community, you just care of money, money, money..so my money will surely be for another game if you persist with this point of view.

et voila !

swtor is dead...all hail swtcm : star wars the cartel market ...

bazinga !

- sorry for my bad english -

How hard can it be to find one person who's fluent in German and one person who's fluent in French and hire them?

 

It's not as if people are demanding Bioware hire Angela Merkel or anything.

They already had someone. And just fired them. So I doubt they will be hiring someone else for it right now. Or why get rid of who they had already?

Eric,

I know it s not your fault nor the fault of your team - somehow you are almost as much victims of this as were Lars and Antonio - and as are WE, the german and french subscribers. For that reason i - by exception - adress to you in english this time.

But - sorry - you - and the responsibles - should be aware that this is not the way to treat paying subscribers. Your company really shows us a massive lack of respect towards european customers - and to fire Lars and Antonio is only the final step. European - specially german and french - subscribers seem to be worth nothing but their hard money - at least this is the impression Bioware transports towards us. So what reason should people in Europe have to further support the company with subscription fees if they are not at all respected?

Whatever reasons led to this step - the responsibles should be aware that this might lead to another wave of cancelled subscriptions - and that for sure won't be the way to save the game nor to make it profitable some day.

Btw: ...so you think to simply move a german/french protesting thread from the US-english forums into the no-more-read german forums will also wipe out the problem itself and stop protest? I guess you might be wrong.

As long as your company takes our good money, "stupid" german and french subscribers due to my opinion have a right to claim a community management in their languages.

I really hope - specially for you and your remaining team- the responsibles will reconsider the mess they caused by this. In case they do not, i imagine there might be lots of work coming towards you and your team - might be the time to start learning some german and french

i invite all germans and french players to unsub and say it cause of the lack of consideration !

for me it's done, and i'm waiting. no considération = no money, capitalist of my ***

You know we begged for a thread like this since Oct 08

lol

Thanks for the clarification Eric, the amount of communication and interaction over the past day or two has been amazing.

I hope you keep it up, this is something we've wanted for a long long time!

Here is a bit more clarification on the differences between Rise of the Hutt Cartel and 2.0 put as simply as I can!

 

What subscribers will get without purchasing Rise of the Hutt Cartel:

• Class changes and balancing levels 1-50
  
• Any itemization/world changes which affect levels 1-50
  
• Legacy Achievements
  

 

What subscribers will get if they do purchase Rise of the Hutt Cartel:

• New Operation: Scum and Villainy
  
• Nightmare Mode Terror From Beyond
  
• Upgraded level 55 Hard Mode Flashpoints
  
• Level cap increase to 55
  
• All new Makeb storyline
  

The new Operation and Hard Mode Flashpoints in Game Update 2.0 are Level 55 Elder Game Content. The level cap increase to 55 is included with the purchase of the Digital Expansion: Rise of the Hutt Cartel. Free-to-Play restrictions apply. Visit the Free-to-Play Features Chart for more information.

 

-eric

Cool, thanks Eric, that should put an end to all the "You get everything on the PTS with 2.0 for free" arguments, or "you have to level to 55 to get Makeb".

Also, that is the first I've heard of NiM TFB. I see no mention of any *new* flashpoints, though....I was hoping there would be at least one while leveing in Makeb. We never did get that "Titans of Industry" FP that was leaked a long time ago.

Like post above.

The fact that Tony (french) and german CM have been fired, what does that mean ?

1- Does that mean that Bioware dont give a d**** about EU players... ?

2- Does that mean we are unworthy of being listened ?

3- Does that mean that investment in this game is reduced and by that, that SWTOR is going to die ?

1, 2, 3 ? All ?

Here is a bit more clarification on the differences between Rise of the Hutt Cartel and 2.0 put as simply as I can!

 

What subscribers will get without purchasing Rise of the Hutt Cartel:

• Class changes and balancing levels 1-50
  
• Any itemization/world changes which affect levels 1-50
  
• Legacy Achievements
  

 

What subscribers will get if they do purchase Rise of the Hutt Cartel:

• New Operation: Scum and Villainy
  
• Nightmare Mode Terror From Beyond
  
• Upgraded level 55 Hard Mode Flashpoints
  
• Level cap increase to 55
  
• All new Makeb storyline
  

The new Operation and Hard Mode Flashpoints in Game Update 2.0 are Level 55 Elder Game Content. The level cap increase to 55 is included with the purchase of the Digital Expansion: Rise of the Hutt Cartel. Free-to-Play restrictions apply. Visit the Free-to-Play Features Chart for more information.

 

-eric

Aren't you effictively dividing up the community this way? Having seperate warzones for people who purchased RoTHC, will effect queue times.

I have two main concerns that link into this problem:

1) When will we see cross server q's in action. A feature which we have asked for for so long yet remains unmentioned by the community/dev team. We want clarification on what we can expect for pvp.

2) What is coming with season 1? Which, by the way, is long overdue. Do you even care about your competitive scene? If so show it in your actions.

Aren't you effictively dividing up the community this way? Having seperate warzones for people who purchased RoTHC, will effect queue times.

Other MMOs that require an expansion purchase have this issue as well, including WoW. If you didn't buy MoP, you don't have access to the level 84-90 pvp bracket. I think obviously, they are counting on MOST people who play SWTOR to want to have access to Makeb and get to 55, and I'm sure most will.

Something about cross server queues in pve content has always bugged me a little, especially large raid groups. But I hope at least cross-server PVP warzones will become a reality.

Eric can you please reply to the post concerning community (french and german) instaed rise of the cartels ?? It'll less despisng for us EU players...

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=5930730#post5930730

Like post above.

 

The fact that Tony (french) and german CM have been fired, what does that mean ?

 

1- Does that mean that Bioware dont give a d**** about EU players... ?

2- Does that mean we are unworthy of being listened ?

3- Does that mean that investment in this game is reduced and by that, that SWTOR is going to die ?

 

1, 2, 3 ? All ?

I'm sorry but I'm from EU and I don't complain about how the main communication language to the community being English. Be glad there's localization for the Germans and French, that doesn't mean you're entittled to a seperate CM team that caters to your needs. Every community member is equal and many people in the community don't have English as their native language, yet it is used throughout the internet (&world) and many have beeen able to cope with it just fine. Demanding your "own" CM team (just on the basis that they have to speak/understand German/French) is a tad bit selfish.

Should I be complaining because there's no1 on the dev team/CM team that talks to me in dutch? No.

I feel like these past few days the community team has been doing a great job being more transparant towards their community, even though their team got reduced. I hope this trend continues and BW engages their community more through the use of their forums.

They already said they won't be ignoring your posts in your localized forums so shouldn't that be enough for you?

sorry but you sounds like an alt of some Bioware employee trying to balance...Sorry but I dont buy it.

Well, even if you really think what you are writting, your answer is incorrect. IT iS not about language, to be honest...

The fact that there is no dutch, italian, spanish lituanian, croatian, CM is sad I AGREE. but the fact is : that they WERE french and german CM from the start...The fact they have been fired (especailly three weeks after we met them at the cantina TOUR) is not a good message that Bioware is sending to the customers and second is clearly saying that "we dont bother about you anymore guys !" We dont care about your community, we dont care about you as customers.

So why is that so ? Because the game is dying, and EA we dont want to invest anymore...So we cut thru the budget, simple as this...

I really doubt that an english CM will pretty understand the posts in French. Sorry, unless they prove otherwise our forum is dead...So is the game if i uinderstand behind the lines what really say the termination of the EU CM's.

Here is a bit more clarification on the differences between Rise of the Hutt Cartel and 2.0 put as simply as I can!

 

What subscribers will get without purchasing Rise of the Hutt Cartel:

• Class changes and balancing levels 1-50
  
• Any itemization/world changes which affect levels 1-50
  
• Legacy Achievements
  

 

What subscribers will get if they do purchase Rise of the Hutt Cartel:

• New Operation: Scum and Villainy
  
• Nightmare Mode Terror From Beyond
  
• Upgraded level 55 Hard Mode Flashpoints
  
• Level cap increase to 55
  
• All new Makeb storyline
  

The new Operation and Hard Mode Flashpoints in Game Update 2.0 are Level 55 Elder Game Content. The level cap increase to 55 is included with the purchase of the Digital Expansion: Rise of the Hutt Cartel. Free-to-Play restrictions apply. Visit the Free-to-Play Features Chart for more information.

 

-eric

I see you're being specific about subscribers in your post.

What about the preferred status players, since they too can buy the expansion without having to subscribe ?

What about the subscribers who buy the expansion and then go to preferred status ?

Well here's a real test for the BW CM team. Can we get some actual feedback on this thread?

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=534412

What is BW/EA thinking of doing?What are your options? We are tired of our own guesstimating.... Some actual feedback would be good.

No more "we have definitely not forgot about the APAC server concerns that all of you have. We are still very actively looking at all possible solutions and I will make sure that you are updated as soon as I have more information!" posts either.

We've had 5 of them already. 6 months too long guys.

Enjoy the challenge of issuing some actual info.