Before you jump to conclusions - please understand this is not a hate post or a "I demand blah blah blah" - "name and shame" - move along - not here. Also not sure if this is the correct board or not - its just a general "the heck and why?" post.

 

I'm a relatively new player who is genuinely trying do a good thing and educate newbies/other guild members on something that could potentially harm them or make things worse - that being the nefarious "auto squelch-er" on newbie worlds.

 

A few days ago I was hanging around on Tython recruiting for my guild.

Id post an ad every 5-10 mins - spaced out enough that no one would really complain - I would see others posting far quicker than me - trolling/other things. Aside from the teasing of my guild name - no one really complained..at least in the open.

 

A newbie walked by and asked what an another player was using for a lightsaber.

I went and grabbed the name and "linked" in general chat so they could see what it was called.

 

I was suddenly unable to talk in general chat.

Some googling after poking around revealed there's an AI system of sorts that spots things like this and mutes players. Anti-RMT/spam mechanism to protect newbies... I get that. Totally makes sense.

 

Except I was only answering some newbie's question like a hapless - evidently fool I am.

 

So I open a ticket as a subscriber.

I detail what happened - asking to be educated and for information on what happened.

And if possible - reverse the issue.

 

Now it was rather late - so I logged off for the day.

I log back in a day later and find the ticket was replied then summarily closed.

The response was a canned response and no care or attention to my various questions was given.

 

Strike 1 - ignoring questions and not reading.

 

I was unable to reopen the ticket to make a polite reply asking for clarification.

 

I opened a new ticket and basically very politely complained as such.

Only to get a blank ticket in response and an auto close.

 

Strike 2 - a blank answer with zero - nada - zip.

 

I go to my email and reply to that in hopes I could reach an agent who was not a drone but could stop and consider the situation and pay me the kindness of informing me.

 

I point out that as an executive officer of a rather good sized guild - Id like to ensure we don't breach any policies or invoke this system accidentally - thinking that linking a market item was to blame at best.

 

I get a response - but none of which answered my obvious questions pointing out that people are abusing the system reporting other guilds in retaliation for advertisements.

 

I asked for further clarification to confirm this is what happened.

No response - nothing.

 

Strike 3 - again - ignoring and literally making the issue worse - assumptions.

 

 

I can get people are busy - staff may be short - I can get that you guys get tons of garbage from players with innocuous responses that burn you out and make you roll your eyes out of your head.

 

I've done customer service work myself - I'm no stranger to that world. As an IT Professional I deal with communications every day. Albeit a far higher standard of conduct than what we have here.

 

There is a right way to do things...and a wrong way.

Frankly if I was coaching or a manager - I'd have a long chat about quality of treatment of your customer.

No I'm not asking for "snowflake" status - I'm asking to be treated like a human being with a question needing a simple - quick answer. With the respect of being understood and heard.

 

I couldn't even get a "Yes" or a "No"

 

I was genuinely asking for clear and concise information on what the "Barriers" are and what we should not do.

 

Did linking a item cause it?

Did I spam too fast?

How long does this last? What's the timetable on offenses? Etc.

 

Now I'm forced to remove all recruitment efforts from these newbie planets at the risk of innocent players (or not so innocent - as I'm away people do things they shouldn't) to avoid the risk of getting muted.

 

As I'd like to be able to help newbies out without being forced to PM/Group chat.

 

No one really has a clear indication of what the "rules" are concerning newbie worlds. Other than frustration on the lack of information.

 

I would think that educating a large group of people on "please don't do this" would alleviate the stress in preventing abuse.

 

I understand this game is dated - being STILL 32 bit platform - archaic interface - old tech to be sure.

I came from FFXIV - where their GM's pretty much do not give a damn anymore and ignore common sense.

 

I was under the impression this game in spite of the above mentioned situation - was at least given some semblance of quality care concerning that work is still being done on it and content being developed.

 

Hopeful noob? Perhaps - but as someone whose dropped a good chunk of change on this game for the benefit of other players to share the fun of Star Wars - I'd like to think think that customer service would at least bluntly be honest and say "Sorry we cant tell you that - and here's what we got" as opposed to no answer/canned letters that have nothing to do with what was going on/no evidence no information.

 

Even a "please do not advertise on newbie worlds or link market items" would have been the perfect answer. No argument from me - yes sir - by your command.

 

I didn't even get that.

 

No I'm not posting what was said or who or anything like that - I'm not going to play that card.

Admins can look my info up and figure it out from there.

 

But I am going to say that if it wasn't for my love of Star Wars - I'd quit and tell others to leave.

 

First sign of trouble - is when GM's/CS ignore you outright and treat you like a generic player when its a bit obvious "I'm not generic"

 

I hope this isn't a trend of things to come for the foreseeable future.

It would be nice to have a clear cut indication of whats going on - what I did wrong - and what I should not do.

 

All I got was fuzzy logic/nebulous "this is a thing and its doing this and players are abusing it"

 

Which is literally no help at all and causing more confusion than not.

 

Now if CS wants to reach out to me and sit down and have a clear and frank chat over what I did wrong...ill gladly bend over and take my spanking/slap on the wrist and go about my day.

 

"Just the facts please" as the saying goes.

 

I'm just trying to make sure that others do not make the same mistake I did...for the betterment of the community we're growing in my guild.

 

For those who survived this little rant - thanks for your patience.

I came here not expecting anything - but the hope that someone from the GMs/CS group sees this and goes "hmm...."

 

And as for those reading this - don't link items on newbie worlds - and I suggest not recruiting either.

Because you'll lose your ability to talk in general chat. Call this a PSA.

 

No offense intended - just pure honesty and sheer disappointment.

<hops off soap box and walks off with sabers in hand>

sadly, most online games in 2021, post 2015, and after fortnite got big, and kind when ever a MMO , when they start having F2P mmo's that changed the whole game, cause the 15 dollar a month fee "which should be there still no matter what. but i understand why they don't cause, as i said, CSGO and Fortnite ruined online gaming and a large majority of new solo games, except Spiderman PS4/ps5 cause you actually get everything / styles for free, after buying the game, and they actually have full dlcs, NO microtransactions, seems the only new releases that are keeping that formula are definitive edition and remasters, like mass effect, and such,

when it comes to online games in general, people that have a game that they can download for free and play for free, without any fee, 50% maybe 60% are playing for that reason, when you have the 15 dollar a month fee, you get people that are "not speaking for all f2p players" "i know some very cool f2p : but generally people that start mmos now, have fortnite syndrome, they are not very nice, they talk crap, they don't take the game seriously, "as serious as you should take a 15 dollar a month fee to play the game you love" should be taken, which is more then a lot of players do, I'm not saying again, this is not a jab at players that love this game, but simply can't afford to do the 15 dollar a month fee, that's all good, but its the players, that mock online games, while playing them, and MMOs were kind of effected the worst when it came to online games, from the CSGO skin and Fortnite skin shop syndrome,

business wise of course who wouldn't wanto make tons of money off of being able to sell a costume of a very cool/well liked characters gear/ skin but , all of this stuff should be all in game obtainable without a billion dollar price tag, cause all the money on the gtn is basically inflated by RL money, it was not generated by in game only commerce like the better star wars mmo swg, but, not talking about that,

when it comes to people being rude to someone that tries to help, and give info , i get that all the time, people. just wanto have everything right away, and not have to work for it, the love for the lore and actual story in this game, sadly isn't the most important thing to people. even regular MMO stuff like crafting / weapons, Item modifications, cosmetics , armor to add a cosmetic, color crystals, furniture, it can't be done without GTN items, at least in a satisfying way that i am paying 15 bucks a month for, they

not sure if everyone that plays now knows, but this game at first was a sub only to play and you had to buy the game full price, and it was great at first, but as i said, once CSGO had that third party skin site, and PUBG/Fortnite spread it wings over everything. every game, that was online, and some that were offline back in 2015, got either a Lootbox/cartel market type deal, going like the fortnite store. ARKHAM KNIGHT got a freaking season pass for f sake LOL. i knew then it was over, when it came to that, DCUO is another MMO i play, that game has a marketplace similar to swtor, but its a very unique game that puts out enough content every month or so, the have capsules you loot, instead of the 200 cc loot boxes , which are opened with a currency obtainable, in game but not at a good rate, same as swtor, like we get the 550 cc a month,

anyway my point is, people will mouth off, they will call people names, and yea mmos and online games always had trash talking, but it was done different and wasn't children and players that always do personal attacks, when they have no idea who you are, its messed up , i am OLD AF now, i started playing mmos in 2004, was here for the launch of wow, i played swg from the first year until the game was shut down , cause of this game, i was in closed beta for this game, and it was crazy awesome,

i dont see it changing sadly unless they would "most likely not" but if they go back to the monthly access fee, with DLCs that we have to buy, and we get everything, "not this game" future mmos, "hopefully" star wars"

i have such a hard time finding a guild that is active, and doesn't have everyone not talking, logging in doing dailies, logging off. all solo stuff. and that some how infected the MMO world with a lot of games, players don't have to go out and meet new players, to get help for quests or raids, "again, not saying there are not LFGs in chat, " those are great, " but when you can Que for a raid/opp, flashpoint, that's when you know there is a problem, cause you don't have to interact with anyone in a genre that is meant to be use for interaction and making in game connections to solve a issue or puzzle aka completing a raid opp, or flashpoint, even 2 man heroics. , the Que and CM is sadly why things are the way they are,

i sub to the game, love the game, very excited for the new dlc, i am merely just stating the obvious and facts of how the mmo community has changed so much to be casual esk in a bad way, "nothing wrong with casual gaming," its just how its executed.

cheers all, Darthvaders FATHER

I got screwed out of some purchases at one point when Galactic Seasons first started (so many things still broken for me since that update, can't preview items still, etc)

Customer Services response was "Oh were sorry" end of ticket. No refund, no items given, nada.

I genuinely feel like what happens is EA tells Bioware to do something, Bioware does it, Fans Revolt, Customer Service gets their wrath, they stop caring in customer service after so much endless negativity due to bad design decision, and repeat.

Anyone who has worked retail knows this trend innately.

No shade at anyone but if they want to fix the customer support its gotta start from the top. Keep the consumer happy less complaints, less stress to your support staff.

It'd be good for the developers too, not constantly getting hammered on at every turn.

But yeah, support I don't expect much from bc well I wouldn't want that job... Don't think many people besides perhaps shrinks get paid enough to deal with problems they didn't cause or have no tangible control to fix.

There are one or two guilds who are abusing the report spam feature to silence other guilds in chat. Seems to be getting worse the last few weeks.

and of course someone from this games community team has gotten it in touch with you requesting details .. right .. ?

Or are they otherwise too engaged dumbing the game down

and of course someone from this games community team has gotten it in touch with you requesting details .. right .. ?

 

Or are they otherwise too engaged dumbing the game down

I've not heard back from anyone myself....not holding my breath....in-spite of things.