Communication and Bioware...why this continues to be a problem

Cute story.

It still wouldn't make a difference, if someone wants to troll, they will find a way to troll. It's been seen here many times. You're better off just ignoring them if they bother you that much.

There will always be forum trolls, no matter what level of moderation you do.

Cute story.

It still wouldn't make a difference, if someone wants to troll, they will find a way to troll. It's been seen here many times. You're better off just ignoring them if they bother you that much.

There will always be forum trolls, no matter what level of moderation you do.

I think the word "moderation" has derailed what myself and the other cat were discussing, which is just more transparency from the Community team at EAWare. Will that still come with trolls? Absolutely - because as I noted previously, trolls exists everywhere. They are part and parcel with being alive and breathing. So rather than do everything to either avoid trolls or appease them, it'd be nice to see EAWare just ignore them and stick with a plan to remain consistent in the transparency/communications dept.

If the only reason for not communicating is because they get trolled or deal with a-holes, then god forbid any of these community snowflakes ever step out into the real world, or have to support an Enterprise level product. They'd get eaten alive.

I thought you were bowing out? Bachannal already responded to you.

Although it speaks volumes that you seemed more focused on the moderation side of things while Bachannal and I were more referring to the Community relations side.

VERY telling indeed.

I think the word "moderation" has derailed what myself and the other cat were discussing, which is just more transparency from the Community team at EAWare. Will that still come with trolls? Absolutely - because as I noted previously, trolls exists everywhere. They are part and parcel with being alive and breathing. So rather than do everything to either avoid trolls or appease them, it'd be nice to see EAWare just ignore them and stick with a plan to remain consistent in the transparency/communications dept.

If the only reason for not communicating is because they get trolled or deal with a-holes, then god forbid any of these community snowflakes ever step out into the real world, or have to support an Enterprise level product. They'd get eaten alive.

I was bowing out of a previous discussion because I already cleared up the misinformation that you had about the previous discussion. I have moved onto a new discussion which is moderation, which is part of the current discussion.



I disagree, Moderation is still a valuable part of the discussion. Because someone could have a legit point and it would end up being abused by trolls just report spamming in numbers because they can't handle someone's opinion that's different from their own. Increased stricter moderation would lead to a higher amount of report spam activity that would clog up the report drain. I'd love for the forums to be a friendly place where anyone could freely speak their mind and those who are disruptive to be gone but that's a pointless dream and there are better things to do with a moderator's time.

Do I think Bioware should post more often? Absolutely. But I understand why they don't. All one has to do is look at the Marauder incident from earlier this year. Also, I'd rather them not become like Blizzard and post that they have this awesome new world zone coming with release and then to drop it and act like it doesn't exist. (Yes I know about Better than cross server but unlike Blizz they still acknowledge it as in development and one only needs to remember that GSF was teased a lot before it was released as the SSSP).

The marauder incident was a classic example of the difference between handling things the wrong way, and handling them the right way.

For starters, Eric should have posted that feedback from the developer, which was indeed an attempt to do it right, after going over it himself and cleaning it up a bit so that it didn't read as insulting in parts. On top of it, he never should have put the dev's name out there - the people who make the game should be kept anon other than the highest paid managers and perhaps team leaders.

And when the fiasco did happen, and I am NOT justifying the behavior of the jerks who took it too far, what ended up happening was a chastisement from Eric which read as blaming the whole community for the actions of a few lunatics.

DDO would have handled that whole mess differently top to bottom, which would have muted the outrage somewhat and allowed them to weather that storm much better, without giving ammo to the crazies.

You don't think there hasn't been a major nerf like Mara in DDO, or in any MMO for that matter? Come on. I've seen disasters on that level and worse handled far better, and the community ends up a better place for it.

I absolutely do NOT want more communication with Bioware. I don't want the players running the show. Backseat driving isn't a recipe for success. They make the game the want to make, and we decide if that's the game we want to play. Sure, give them feedback about what you like and don't like, but they have no obligation to justify the direction they choose to take the game nor any obligation to defend their actions.

That's the problem. You fear that more communication automatically means giving power to the players.

That is not the case, and that mentality is very narrow-minded.

Good community management is no different than a good PR firm paid to manage the image of a client. In this case, SWTOR is the client and the Community Team is the PR firm. So far in terms of managing the image, they have been an unmitigated disaster.