Damn, I didn't realize people were that nuts.

Wow, I knew the community was toxic, but that's ridiculous. I'm ashamed that I'm part of this community. Just shutdown the forums if people are gonna act like that.

 

I've always said the toxicity of the forums is why we don't get more communication, this post is proof of that. You guys want better communication, treat the staff like human beings and talk to them the way you would talk to them face to face, not the way you talk on the internet...

However, following the posts John made yesterday, a few players formed a witch-hunt against John. These players tracked him down on some of his personal accounts and in some extreme cases, even those of his family members with the sole purpose of harassing, insulting, and threatening him based on those forum posts.

 

That is absolutely ridiculous. I'm so sorry to hear that he had to deal with that kind of BS. This is a game for crying out loud.

That is absolutely crazy! Many many step to far on the Harassment scale.

 

Any chance in your continued openess here can you tell us all if these people get the ban hammer?

I hope you reported those who did it to the proper authorities. There are laws about online stalking and harassment, and frankly people who would do those things need to dealt with or they will be emboldened to do more heinous acts.

Good job, people.

This is why we can't have nice things.

It's completely unacceptable for people to do things like that. Maybe in the future though maybe you should post these posts Musco as I think you are more used to taking this flak and have taken the appropriate precautions to deal with it while John has not.

 

This isn't the first time this kind of stuff has happened with Bioware, after Mass Effect 3 came out the hate was absolutely terrible. People are disgusting. While the vast majority of the community aren't going to take it that far there will always be some who will no matter what you do and I ask that you don't punish the community as a whole for the few people that take it that far. You should probably fully expect that to keep happening though because you are dealing with hundreds of thousands of people and out of the whole lot a few are probably nuts.

Edited May 7, 2015 by MorgenBlue

My sympathies to John. The behaviour of his attackers is unacceptable and any right minded member of society must voice their objection to it. I hope criminal charges are forthcoming against them.

 

John, and the developers in general, please don't let this incident change what you are doing. That gives these animals a win. Fight it by continuing to do what you know is right.

I know it's easy to say from the outside, but that's really low. I didn't follow the Sentinel/Marauder discussion because I rarely play my pure DPS characters, but I was glad to see him responding to the concerns of the healer community.

 

I understand that sometimes people can feel powerless when their favourite classes or skills get changed in a direction they dislike, but the amount of harassment described is both unwarranted and unworthy of any decent human being.

While you disagree with us on how the game we pay for plays, that is too far

That's just amazing low. It's just a game, if people are going to take it that seriously, they would be better off unsubscribing to voice their displeasure. I wouldn't blame the devs if they stopped talking to us at this point.

I'm shocked and very sad that happened.

 

John, if anything I wrote encouraged people to act this way I apologize to you and your family.

 

This is a border that must never be crossed, this is way out of proportion. I'm ashamed to be even part of a process that lead to something like that. People have totally lost perspective, I can't believe it. This is as stupid game you can't transfer anything here into real life. Attacking people personally is low to begin with, but expanding that to their family is a catarstrophe and plain criminal.

 

I honestly have to reconsider if I want to write antyhing on the topic again. This is a sad day.

 

Again, my heartfelt apologies!

You can come talk to us in the Commando/Mercenary thread! We're nice

There's disagreement, and there's ethics in journalism, and there's this. This is unacceptable.

 

I don't agree with the decisions made recently by the combat team with respect to the sentinel/marauder AC. I don't agree with how they were communicated or the line of thinking that the communication it represents. But none of that matters.

 

This is so far over the line it needs a passport and a visa.

That's a lot of crazy. Sorry some folks don't know where to draw the line.

Wow seriously. I am sorry people have done that to him, there is no need for that sort of behaviour ever.

 

Comon peeps vent your spleen on the forums if you have to, I have, but don't start tracking people down and harassing them and their family there is just no need for that's ort of ****

Wow...I don't even know what to say...

 

This is just beyond freaky...I hope you were able to take action against those who did this. They're unwelcome here.

this is insanity.. i also hope that these criminals can be tracked down, processed by the authorities and EA/Bioware bans them from all of their games. These kinds of animals can not be accepted in any community.

The members of the community that did this should no longer be members of the community, this is unacceptable behavior of human beings.

It's unfortunate some people took to this extreme measure and in no way do I condone it.

 

That being said, maybe you as developers need to look into why this group and this topic ended up going to such extremes.

 

Reading your response about dialogue made my stomach churn just a little, because the posts I'm reading from the combat team are less about actual dialogue and more of a "Learn to Play" or "this is how we want you to play a xxx spec Sent/Mara".

 

Now this isn't to say that dialogue didn't happen on other developer posts, in fact quite the opposite, many were happy about the reversal of "QOL" Heal changes that were actually nerfs.

 

But the tone of the messages from the COMBAT team regarding Sentinels and Marauders is drastically different, bordering on antagonizing.

 

Again, don't hide behind the fact that some groups went to unethical extremes, but to me, this illustrates the frustration level of players who are extremely passionate about a class, and how they are not feeling heard or acknowledged to the point of being antagonized.

 

Developer interaction is increasing, but it is still very spotty at best when it comes to actual dialogue and that's the issue, the lack of one side feeling heard or acknowledged.

I may be snarky in some of my replies and it's obvious that there is huge disagreement between the devs and players regarding the proposed changes to Sentinels/Mara but threatening someone and his/her extended family is unacceptable.

 

This is the new low of the community.

And once more I'm ashamed to be someone on the internet . I wish those people weren't and in fact I wish they were somehow transported to somewhere like the surface of the sun, or at least the interior of a very small concrete, windowless cell.

 

No idea really what else to say. "Keep up the work and don't go overboard with DPS output?" (Hey, I am mostly playing healers...)

It's unfortunate some people took to this extreme measure and in no way do I condone it.

 

That being said, maybe you as developers need to look into why this group and this topic ended up going to such extremes.

 

Reading your response about dialogue made my stomach churn just a little, because the posts I'm reading from the combat team are less about actual dialogue and more of a "Learn to Play" or "this is how we want you to play a xxx spec Sent/Mara".

 

Now this isn't to say that dialogue didn't happen on other developer posts, in fact quite the opposite, many were happy about the reversal of "QOL" Heal changes that were actually nerfs.

 

But the tone of the messages from the COMBAT team regarding Sentinels and Marauders is drastically different, bordering on antagonizing.

 

Again, don't hide behind the fact that some groups went to unethical extremes, but to me, this illustrates the frustration level of players who are extremely passionate about a class, and how they are not feeling heard or acknowledged to the point of being antagonized.

 

Developer interaction is increasing, but it is still very spotty at best when it comes to actual dialogue and that's the issue, the lack of one side feeling heard or acknowledged.

 

truth

How embarrassing for the SWTOR community. I hope the ones responsible are caught and given some form of justice, and then John and his family can move on from this nonsense.