Creature Handler Archive

I'm a day 1 veteran and have been a Master Creature Handler since August 2003. I joined SWG in beta 3 and did alot of /bug hunting back in the day. I still contribute as much as I can now while in the game and always try to help out. I don't post as much on the forums though since I spend the majority of my free time actually in game, but I do actively read and follow along daily on issues.

I just wanted to post this because I am very disappointed to see the flaming and bashing posts lately in this forum. The frustration level of some is quite apparent, yet it is still entirely possible to make points and requests without verbally attacking any employee of SOE or any member of the community. Personally attacking someone you have never met in real life or have never walked a mile in their shoes is not a very kind way to treat others and is very inappropriate and uncalled for. Nothing justifies that kind of treatment of another person.

If someone gets banned, then let them take the appropriate steps to respectfully check into the situation that directly involves them. If there is something that you don't like about the game or want to get addressed, make a post and then wait patiently for it to get taken care of. If a bit of time goes by and you don't see a reply to your concern, PM the Creature Handler Correspondent Vertexon and see what he can find out on the matter. But be prepared for the answer from the developers to be "we're working on it as fast as we can and we recognize this is an important issue for creature handlers" because we aren't privy to what the developers have been instructed to work on by the higher ups in SOE.

Given the size and scope of this game it is impossible for the developers to instantly cater to every whim and request. They are there to work on what the higher ups at SOE tell them to work on and to gather feedback from here as they can. We are not stockholders or on the board of directors of SOE, we are forum community members that have subscribed to a product. As a consumer, we pay for SOE's product. The consumer always has choices regarding a product. Some choices regarding the CH fixes are to 1. continue to be patient and wait respectfully for issues to get addressed, 2. switch professions, or 3. cancel your subscription. But, one of the choices that will only serve to get any potential fixes delayed is to create an atmosphere of negativity in here.

Yes, Creature Handler has had some issues for a while now that need to be addressed and are most likely on the list of the developers' things to do, just as other professions have things on the to do list as well. Take a look at the Ranger forum or the Squad Leader forum. They have requests and issues that need to be fixed as well as we do. If you look in all the forums, there are alot of requests actually. The comprehensive wish list of things to fix/address is probably pretty long and things just take time. And sometimes the developers don't get to decide what they get to work on.. it comes from higher up. So we need to just sit and wait for our turn. And I believe our turn will come as soon as the developers are allowed to get to it.

I'd just like to see the negativity and bashing cease, that's all. It is reflecting poorly on the CH community as a whole. So in closing, I'dlike to say that despite what still needs to be fixed, I love my little pets and I love the game. I have fun and can always find something to enjoy during my gaming time every day. I hope that those who are unhappy can try to find some enjoyment too while we all wait for our turn for the important CH issues to get addressed.

~~~~~
Karynda Shadowtide - Master Creature Handler, Chilastra

/blink blink

Okay, DJL, never read any of your posts, so not very familiar with ya. First of all, I want to say, nice to meet ya, and it's good to know there are still some vets out there that are still in game and haven't traded for another profession.

HOWEVER, what people call flamming, I see more as being passionate about something. Granted it can be taking too far, but in most of the threads that have been deleted, there was no vulgarity, no aminosity, nor direct slandering, yet they were deleted anyway. Why? That's all I want to know. Why? Yes, this is a private forum for SOE and it's customers, those that pay there $15 a month after paying almost $40 for the original disk, to give there opinions. But what good is it if the only opinions that are allowed to stay are only the good ones? The world and especially this game is no Nirvana. There are issues and they need to be vocalized. Yet when we attempt to vocalize them in a calm maner, they get deleted, or worst off, BANNED. And the walking a mile in someone's shoes? Been there, done that. Customer Service for one. And if I had a customer that treated me like they feel we have treated them, we don't ban them from our service, we attempt to disfuse the situation. But being this is a forum and not a phone call, it's easier to push it to the side and pretend it doesn't exist.

I will agree, given the size and scope of the game, they can't cater to everything at once. We never said all at once, geez, we've been waiting 9+ months. Smugglers and Commandos almost as long. Carbineers, longer than us, not to mention Squad Leaders and Rangers. We are amply named the red headed step children of SWG. They had the convference for the CB. Do you realize it's almost been a month, if not over sense then and they still haven't even given us a taste of what is to be done? A taste at the least would indicate to us that they are doing more than blowing sunshine up our skirts. Most of us feel we have been lied too. Some just go on about there business. I was one of those that didn't worry, but now, I'm starting to get a little aprehinsive if it will ever happen. Changing my profession ain't the answer, and honestly I still like the game, but it still frustrats me that day end and day out we get "hot fixes" for jedi, for bounty hunter, for this and for that. DEs got 2 patches, Jedi 2, other professions got more than there fair share of "hot fixes" us? NO more pet vitality lost in PvP....awesome, good, great.....IT STILL DONT' WORK.

DJL, I would love nothing more than the atmosphere that you mention. No more negativity, no more bashing, we all hold hands and sing Kum Bi Ya. I would love it, but if my company had kept it's customers in the dark for as long as SOE's SWG staff had, we would have been decimated long time ago. Actually, I was with a company that did just that, among other things. Remember a little company called WorldCom? They lied to there company, they lied to there customers, they embezzled money, they became the LARGEST bankruptcy in American Business History. Minus the last two, that's how most of the customers of SOE's SWG game feel. We just want to know why keep us in the dark and what is being done. I feel we desirve a little bit of something. Not a full blown documentation, but geez, throw us a bone here guys.

Respectivly

Wallach1

Walle Deabi - Shortest Master Creature Handler on Shadowfire

"Yes, my spelling and grammer sucks, but I never claimed to be an English Major." -Wallach1

Hiya there, Wallach1. Nice to meet you as well. I do respectfully disagree with what you consider "passionate" replies to issues though, I'm afraid. In my opinion the posts that have been removed have contained, either in the original thread or subsequent replies, flaming/bashing/baiting remarks toward SOE and its employees, which is a clear violation of the SOE Forums Usage Guidelines Rule 2 that every registered poster agrees to when they sign up. So it is only expected that such posts/threads would be removed since they are not adhering to the forum rules. Sometimes being passionate about an issue lends to an emotional response rather than an objective one. It is such negative cases of emotional passion that I was observing.

Regarding the WorldCom analogy.. if I recall correctly, WorldCom was the number 2 long-distance telephone provider that misrepresented earnings to its shareholders. We aren't shareholders or even investors, although we do pay a monthly fee toward a product of SOE and we do "invest" a great deal of time in playing the game. At no time do I recall reading a post from a developer that stated "We at SOE are happy to announce that Star Wars Galaxies is the epitome of complete software perfection and no changes will ever be required to such a masterpiece in programming!". Now it is quite an amazing work of programming and so many things work wonderfully, but the developers have clearly acknowledged that changes and fixes are necessary and that they are working all the time to make the game experience better.

Having experience in customer service as well, at no time will all customers be happy. I have not observed issues being pushed aside either though. Actually, we have no way of knowing of the long list of items on the developers' "to do" list, what priority order they are in, or what the executives and other higher ups have on their list of things they want fixed immediately either. I would love for CH to be the top priority as well. I think that since we got combat fixed before anyone else, we have felt the changes the longest all by ourselves as a profession. It is frustrating and disheartening at times to see other things fixed before CH but then again, we don't know the behind the scenes scope and sequence. Perhaps these are things that the developers can't share with us since our fix might come bundled with other improvements not yet released.

It is kind of a double-edged sword to be a developer from what I am observing. Either they come in and post and say "Sorry folks, hang in there.. no CH fixes yet but we haven't forgotten you".. and people get mad. Or they don't post because they don't have any new updates since they are swamped with JTL and whatever else we don't know about.. and people get mad. I'm confident when there is something to communicate though that they will post and brief us on upcoming changes. Until that time though, just staying objective with posts in the forum would help alleviate the tension that seems to rear its ugly head in quite a few of the latest threads.

~~~~~
Karynda Shadowtide - Master Creature Handler, Chilastra

Walle Deabi - Shortest Master Creature Handler on Shadowfire

"Yes, my spelling and grammer sucks, but I never claimed to be an English Major." -Wallach1

The fact that we dont know whats on their to do list is a majority of the problem. If we knew what they were working on and where we were on the list we could at least say hey were number 15 or 30 they will get around to us eventually. As it stands now we dont know weather or not we are #1, #9123748, or even onthe list at all.

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=creature_handler&message.id=218063">Clicky To My Sticky

"If nothing else, I've got time to explore some of the other games my friends are playing. It could easily be argued that the NGE is the best thing ever to happen to guild wars" - Me

Velitham MCH

Sometimes though, persistance and raising a fuss is the only way to get things done effectively... like at an airport!

Actually, what you saw on TV and read in the papers due to WorldCom was the major Federal issues. I worked for them, TRUST ME, there was more than just the financial "issues" going on. lol Oh, and MCI is the #2 long distance provider, WorldCom handled the wireless and networking division, just an fyi. (I thought people calling in about there medical insurance was bad, wait till you talk to someone about there cellphone bill. lol)

Also, I never stated that we were "share holders." What I was stating was that we are paying a business, as the consumer, for a product. We have been given certain promises that have been either delayed, or never implemented. Nor were we ever really given an explination on why. Just the time alone we invest in the game should mean something, but you failed to mention that not only are we investing time, we are investing money as well. For the first year alone we are investing $40 for the game and $15 a month for utilization fees, totalling up to $220, give or take a few cents. That right there should at least buy us some sort of statment and such, or at least a responce to a PM, geez, I would settle for a message from TH to pop in and say "Just wanted to let you guys know that we're thinking of ya, and wanted to wave my white flag and say HI." Well, okay, I would want more than that, but you get the idea.

No, SOE never said that SWG was bug free, and they even have on there booklet that comes with the game, (yes, I read the thing then realized it was out dated when I logged in) that you might have to upgrade your computer as the game continues. And I fully understand that they are working continuously to update the game and such, yadda yadda yadda. No problem. It's the fact that they keep renigging on promises and statments that they keep making. They say they want to hear from us on these forums, yet they don't aknowledge the fact that they are listening.

Very true on the part about at no time will all customers be happy, if not then we would be out of a job. As far as pushed aside, maybe that was a wrong term, perhaps ignored would be better? What I'm trying to say is that like above, they say they want to hear from us, yet give us NO aknowledgement that they are listening. I went back earlier and checked for the last time a Red Name posted here before Tiggs, and it's been a loooooong time. They have hit almost every other forum, but a select few they seem to be, for a lack of a better term, avoiding. Granted, none of us have a "clear" idea of the behind the scene action, but just going by business ethics, you don't keep your clients in the dark.

Had a client hired me for a job for x amount of years, and through the course of that job, all I did was minor issues, a couple major ones and then gave cryptic answers and reasons for why it's taking longer, then tell them I had a meeting and know what direction I can go to fix it and refuse to give any information on what I can do, even a little bit of information, to fix it, that client would can me and find someone else. At no time did I say make CH the priority, at no time did I say fix it and fix it now. All I, and many others have asked is for SOMETHING...ANYTHING.

And yes, a double edged sword is what it is, and the devs weild this sword. And either way they are going to cut themselves. But, I have a real good feeling, that if they would at least comment and aknowledge that they are listening to the handfull of communites that are wanting responses, they would be met with some understanding. Granted the flame thrower would still go off from some, but I'm willing to bet if we got a "Hey guys, just wanted to tell ya, we're reading, and some of the ideas look good, some really aren't feesible," and a small explination, most would be cool with it.

You said you are sure they will say something when there is something to say, it's been almost a year, something, in some form or fashion should have been said already. Maybe not a fix, but something, that's all we ever really ask.

Wallach1

Walle Deabi - Shortest Master Creature Handler on Shadowfire

"Yes, my spelling and grammer sucks, but I never claimed to be an English Major." -Wallach1

I just love Switchfoot. I have three of their CD's. I need to order the new one I think. I'm really unsure of why you posted lyrics but I do like their songs. They have alot of good ones. Thanks for sharing your favorite one. It's one of my favorites too.. great lyrics with a soothing melody and interesting bass line. I haven't heard of the other groups though and I'm not really into downloading music on to my computer. But thanks anyway, back to the topic.

I agree that it would be nice to know that we were number 27 on list "A" scheduled for discussion December 12th at 1:45 p.m. or something to that effect. Hopefully we could possibly see some responses of that nature in the near future as our turn for fixes/revamp approaches at some point. Increased communication is always a good thing and alleviates misunderstandings.

Thanks for the clarification on the WorldCom scandal although I still not seeing a direct correlation to the situation here. I did say that we do pay a monthly fee toward a product of SOE and we do "invest" a great deal of time in playing the game. So yes, we invest our time and our money in software fees and monthly payments but that in and of itself does not make us corporate shareholders with voting in company stockholders meetings or anything. Unlike stocks, our investment does not multiply in monetary value over time, but instead it is a fixed amount we pay to access a server to play our game on, just like we pay our electricity bill or phone bill.

Now as registered members of the forum and paying customers of SWG, we do have a voice in the forums here and are entitled to express opinions within the SOE forum guidelines. Some voice concerns in posts and some in PM's. We post our concerns and the Forum Correspondents communicate them to the developers on our behalf. Now somewhere there is a break in the communication chain though because as was pointed out, update posts by developers would be much appreciated on some sort of regular monthly schedule or so in each of the profession forums so that we receive written validation and acknowledgement that our requests/concerns are being read and considered by the development team.

Although I am a very optimistic and understanding person, I do realize that we are overdue for an update. My point and concern was not with that, but with the manner in which the recent posts demanding the updates had made personal attacks on individual members of the community/SOE instead of objectively listing the issues with the CH profession, that's all.

~~~~~
Karynda Shadowtide - Master Creature Handler, Chilastra

I've been playing since launch and have been MCH since month 2. I don't post on the boards much at all but I do read them and enjoy some of the good ideas that ppl have on the profesion. I've read a few of DJL posts in the past and all have been good posts that I remember. Grats to you DJL. I'm an old man so I've long since lost my youthfull passion for fighting the "Man" when it comes to such things that are being ranted about in these forums. I had to leave the game for a few months due to being deployed (Navy). When I was finally able to get online again I was shocked as to how many things were still broken. But at the same time I was pleased with a lot of the new content that wasn't there before. I remain optimistic that the game that has gotten better and better since launch will continue to do so. I'm not trying to attack anyone with this post. I believe the voices should be heard. But if you post it in a way that violates an agreement then the goodideas wont be heard and thus be a waisted effort. Open your curtains and let the light in so that you can know that even bad things like this happen for a reason. And in closing I'd like to ask a question. Who's the master?

~~~~Master Creature Handler~~~~
144 skill points left over
TKM, Master Scout, Ranger 0,0,3,0
Playing since launch and havent cleared 20 badges

thlstdrgn,

I agree, if you post something that contravenes an agreement you suffer the consequences. How about we apply that to the Devs? The Correspondents who basically are ignoring the NDA on the Combat Revamp? How about TH when he has been so offensive?

Oh it doesn't apply to blue and red names just to us. I get it.

Sorry there for a moment I thought we were talking about a just system.

Forget I mentioned it.

....and then no matter how hard we get nerfed, we still keep CH because we are still some of the coolest characters on the game.

BOYCOTTING JUMP TO LIGHTSPEED UNTIL COMBAT BALANCE AND GCW REVAMP!
SWG: Quote: Grand moff Tarkin: The Jedi are extinct, their fire has gone out of the universe. you my friend are all thats left of their religon. Except for the other 5000 over there...

Hehe. Let's see if I hear you correctly Preach. You think the man has to follow his own rules? That's crazy talk. That undermines everything I've been taught from birth. "Because I told you so." "Do as I say not as I do." I just don't know if it can work man. I just don't know.

~~~~Master Creature Handler~~~~
144 skill points left over
TKM, Master Scout, Ranger 0,0,3,0
Playing since launch and havent cleared 20 badges

LOL I see you grew up under the "Great American Way".

Fortunately for me my parents showed me how to live by living what they said.

I don't think it has yet entered into the minds of the development team to say what you mean and mean what you say. So far most of what they say has the same odour as the dead skunk i passed yesterday.

....and then no matter how hard we get nerfed, we still keep CH because we are still some of the coolest characters on the game.

BOYCOTTING JUMP TO LIGHTSPEED UNTIL COMBAT BALANCE AND GCW REVAMP!
SWG: Quote: Grand moff Tarkin: The Jedi are extinct, their fire has gone out of the universe. you my friend are all thats left of their religon. Except for the other 5000 over there...