I'm seeing a lot of frustration in regard to communication and responding to player feedback, but from my perspective, SWTOR management is above average when it comes to this subject. A lot of player suggestions have been implemented over the years, and from what I have seen in community livestreams, they provide plenty of good info. Best of all, they actually come across authentically.

They have implemented stuff people asked for and also they didn't do a lot of things people asked for. More to the point, they've also implemented some REALLY bad ideas that players said "please, please don't do this". And it cost the game dearly. And in their communications they often raise more questions than they answer.

Listening to WoW developer chats was like watching robots read from a carefully conjured script. Eric and Charles actually read the chat and respond directly to player inquiries. In my experience with other MMOs, that level of communication is practically unheard of. Activision-Blizzard's slogan might as well have been, "F the players, this is our game."

Oh we've had plenty of robotics here too...particularly in the time of the main producer behind the disastrous launch of Galactic Command. Robotics, lies and ridiculous statements that made people wonder if he really thought any of us would believe that (the thrill of the chase, exciting!) and got us more RNG than proper gearing systems.

There are absolutely some obnoxious bugs that have yet to be squashed, and new features that need to be revisited. But ultimately, I think the issue comes down to the resources available to the developers(in which case our concerns need to be taken up with EA and/or Lucasfilm). I don't think there's a lack of communication so much as there is a lack of something relevant to communicate.

Do you work for them? Especially that last sentence sounds like that. The simple point is that there should be more to communicate about because that means more is coming. They talked about 6.1 now with the next story update "the size of hearts and minds". That's one quest and to quote the Going Commando blog:

 

The basic non-spoiler summary of events is that you have a brief meeting with some of the high-ranking members of your Alliance, and then you visit the fleet to either take part in a brief interview (Republic) or hold a short speech for the troops (Empire).

 

Is Eric kidding? Is that the extent of the next story update, something that size? A single quest which is two convo scenes?

 

I get that it's hard to communicate much about 1 quest, but I'm thinking it should be more than just one short quest and that's the problem. Once 6.1 hits and everybody has done that quest, surely people are going to complain it's too short...and they'd be right. So I'm really hoping Eric misspoke and there's more to it than just one quest.

 

Oh and by the way, they often make mistakes in their communication and have to apologise and rectify things. Same with their patch notes. That also doesn't help.

 

Maybe it's better than WoW, I can't judge that but what makes BW communication especially a pain is how selective they are. You say they answer live questions but they only pick the ones they want and it's never the real issues that players are waiting for to get answers on...even just to acknowledge them. That's just rare. There was even a livestream where they got upset that people didn't ask questions about what they were presenting.

 

It was like look at the new plant I put on the front porch and everybody is asking what they were going to because the house was on fire. And no reaction to that at all. These are all things that are part of this BW communication and occasionally it gets a bit better but it always dies down quickly after again.

 

I will say I'm glad with the recent comments by Eric about 2021 and all. That's the sort of comment that we need to hear and it was a refreshing change that I welcome very much.

 

Maybe it's better than WoW, I can't judge that but what makes BW communication especially a pain is how selective they are. You say they answer live questions but they only pick the ones they want and it's never the real issues that players are waiting for to get answers on...even just to acknowledge them. That's just rare. There was even a livestream where they got upset that people didn't ask questions about what they were presenting. .

 

While that may be correct, how many times have BW stated when they announced a stream upcoming, that they were only discussing certain issues regarding a specific topic and yet people still ask questions, they knew would not be answered.

 

Sometimes I think people forgot how to read and think what was said about answering specific questions don't relate to them so they ask questions they know would not be answered and then they get upset that question didn't get answered.

I mean, speaking for myself, I can read fine and would still ask irrelevant or tangentially relevant questions fully not expecting answers specifically because they refuse to answer questions on some things. I have only ever been able to make it to one livestream because of schedules with work, where I might add, a comment of mine did get pointed out. Another reason I say that the only way to get their attention is, in fact, to be a jerk. I've gotten no replies trying to be reasonable with them. I've got 3 forum posts and 1 call out on a livestream since I've been a sarcastic jerk about things.

 

Especially with their new communication strategy:

We talked about this last year as well but just a reminder that we have moved away from the big form roadmaps that we used to post. Instead we try to lean more on updates via PTS, posts, livestreams, and blogs. So you should expect to see more about what is beyond 6.1 as we get closer to / beyond its launch. With that said, that doesn't mean Keith will stop swinging in to give you some longer term updates. I would expect before the end of January to see Keith in the forums to give you a bit of a welcome to 2020 which will likely contain some hints at what we are looking at doing this year.

 

"Moving away from big form roadmaps ... more updates via PTS, posts, livestreams and blogs..." in my rather jaded attitude is (and experience with their new communication strategy thus far) translating to "we have no desire to talk to you about our long term vision, if it exists. Thank you for your continued money dump, and if you were hoping for any kind of long term plan that you are allowed to give feedback for, the door is right over there. Just come pay again for a 30 second cutscene next month"

Edited January 15, 2020 by KendraP

Final Fantasy ruined everyone else thinking companies would do an upgrade to more MMOs and their engines. The reality is Squaresoft as a business identifies with Final Fantasy, and couldn't have a blemish on their name, and therefore organizationally, they would do what they had to in order to fix a flagship product. Contrast that with the mega producers who have multiple properties, and can just as easily toss one away rather than have their skin in the game for it.

 

FF14 is only the most prominent example of this. Engine upgrades are not something that happens lightly when cost vs. benefit has to be considered. Fact is that other companies do it. WoW's engine is vastly different and improved compared to how it was at launch. ESO is supposed to get a DX12 upgrade at some point, though there's been no real news on it for a while. Still, ESO has had improvements made. Heck, even LOTRO recently got a 64-bit client upgrade.

 

SQ really put their money where their mouth is for FF14, and now it's a stunning example of a company that's passionate about its MMO. Other companies do make improvements, though I'd say they could always do more.

 

With SWTOR, we have what we have. And considering who's running this show, it's a safe bet that we'll never see an engine that's up to WoW standards, much less FF14. My rig is top notch. i9 9900k @ 5ghz. 32GB RAM. RTX 2080 ti. All liquid cooled. FF14 I run full raids at 3440x1440 with maxed settings. 100FPS locked, smoother than silk and only limited by my monitor. It's a testament to optimization. This game with 8 players, well, everyone knows the performance is garbage for the visual fidelity being presented. Personally I still get high FPS, even 50+ in PvP usually. But only because my rig brute-forces the s--- out of this game. And not everyone's got thousands to spend on their gaming comp.

 

I've accepted all of this but it's still disappointing. This engine for what was supposed to be a AAA Star Wars game, it's like putting 4 non-matching $50 tires from different manufacturers on a Lambo. You COULD do it, but just WHY. It ain't gonna work right and it's just wasted potential.

Hey folks,

 

First off, happy new year! We know that with a new year means questions of "what's next" and so let me try to add some clarity to things.

 

What's next? In case you missed our last livestream in December or didn't get a chance to check it out on PTS, Game Update 6.1 is the next thing on the horizon and it is slated for a February release. That update contains our next story beat (around the size of Hearts and Minds) and the new Alderaan Stronghold! Many of you have already have already shared your thoughts on the Stronghold, we are hoping to have PTS back up later this week with some new changes to check out.

 

One other quick note about 6.1 is the usage of the .1 in the Game Update. In the past we have been pretty inconsistent in our Game Update numbering and so we wanted to clean that up. This started at 6.0 but going forward any 6.X update will only increment if there is some story contained in the update. If there is no story, then it will increment by 6.X.X.

Ex: After 6.1 if the next update contained story, it would be 6.2. If it doesn't have story it would be 6.1.1.

 

We talked about this last year as well but just a reminder that we have moved away from the big form roadmaps that we used to post. Instead we try to lean more on updates via PTS, posts, livestreams, and blogs. So you should expect to see more about what is beyond 6.1 as we get closer to / beyond its launch. With that said, that doesn't mean Keith will stop swinging in to give you some longer term updates. I would expect before the end of January to see Keith in the forums to give you a bit of a welcome to 2020 which will likely contain some hints at what we are looking at doing this year.

 

I can tell you that the team is really excited about what is coming in 2020 and we are already planning around things for next year, our 10-year anniversary (and beyond)!

 

Thanks everyone.

 

-eric

 

It's been 3 months since the launch of Onslaught and I still can't summon Jakarro and do the main story quest on my main character.

I'm seeing a lot of frustration in regard to communication and responding to player feedback, but from my perspective, SWTOR management is above average when it comes to this subject. A lot of player suggestions have been implemented over the years, and from what I have seen in community livestreams, they provide plenty of good info. Best of all, they actually come across authentically.

 

Listening to WoW developer chats was like watching robots read from a carefully conjured script. Eric and Charles actually read the chat and respond directly to player inquiries. In my experience with other MMOs, that level of communication is practically unheard of. Activision-Blizzard's slogan might as well have been, "F the players, this is our game."

 

There are absolutely some obnoxious bugs that have yet to be squashed, and new features that need to be revisited. But ultimately, I think the issue comes down to the resources available to the developers(in which case our concerns need to be taken up with EA and/or Lucasfilm). I don't think there's a lack of communication so much as there is a lack of something relevant to communicate.

 

We have very different views.

 

IMO, swtor communications and development is way below average. The stuff they implement is stuff they want or stuff that gets asked for since 2012.

 

They ask for feed back on things occasionally and then do the complete opposite or don’t do anything and then we never hear about it again,

 

If you think Blizzards slogan should be “ F the players, this is our game."... then Biowares would be much worse.

 

Most the time the stuff they change to improve QOL is more detrimental than if they’d left it alone. And a lot of that stuff isn’t even asked for, but they break it anyway by changing it.

 

An example is before 6.0 they ran a PT server to beta test it and gather feed back so they could make it work. Many of us spent weeks doing that than actually playing the real game. We gave plenty of in-depth feed back and supported that with numbers, Logic and evidence in most cases.

We explained how bad the crafting system was 5 weeks before they released it. They asked for our feed back and then totally ignored it and then after launch said they will monitor it and make changes 6 weeks later. Then when they made the changes, they didn’t do it right or get it right. They only half listened to feed back from the number crunching testers who laid it all out for them so it was easy to follow.

 

Since then, there have been a raft of game breaking bugs and other issues. They have been totally silent on these since November.

Biowares slogan should be, “We hate the players, they are an annoyance we have to put up with. We will make this game for us and if they don’t like it, they can F off”

or

“If you see a problem, be an Ostrich and stick you head in the sand. If they can’t see you and you can’t see them, it must not be real”

Edited January 16, 2020 by TrixxieTriss

what we see here on this thread now is something all MMORPG game's have when developers are lazy and not do anything to fix the problems in the game.

 

when a game has so manny problems and a lot off bug's and there not gone fix then soon off later the comunety is getting mad about it and blame the developers for it.

then we also have the sign from bad comunecation between the players and the developers then most off the comunety also become mad.

and the worst off all when developers staff promises to help then with there problem and later you hear notting more from it and the problems there are and there promises to fix are not fix.

 

i think we all agree if there give the comunety each month a update about the problems there have promises to fix all is it there share from: we are still looking for the problem what it curse and try it to fix is ASAP.

 

i bet most off the comunety are then happy with it that there still are looking for it.