Dancer Archive
Thread: Would Our Corres Know More About This?
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AnakinSWG
Sun Jul 04, 2004 7:35 am
#1
<a href=http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=game_guides&message.id=191588>Silent Changes to FSCS and Customer Service</a>
Dearest Correspondents, I know you're most likely not given access to the entire "secrets of the force" behind-locked-doors meetings, but has anything been said concerning changes to customer service or the European servers?
Like I stated in the post on the Game Guides forums, don't take it as immediately true. It's yet to be verified by anybody from SOE. It does, however, need to be addressed as either fact or fiction.
(If I'm deleted and banned, I'll just come back swingin' harder. Bwahahahaha.)
The original post is much easier to read and can be found <a href=http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=Chilastra&message.id=216172>here</a>. However, longer answers are found on the Game Guides forums from concerned folks. Please respond there if you must.
AnakinSWG
Sun Jul 04, 2004 7:37 am
#2
Dearest Correspondents, I know you're most likely not given access to the entire "secrets of the force" behind-locked-doors meetings, but has anything been said concerning changes to customer service or the European servers?
Like I stated in the post on the Game Guides forums, don't take it as immediately true. It's yet to be verified by anybody from SOE. It does, however, need to be addressed as either fact or fiction.
(If I'm deleted and banned, I'll just come back swingin' harder. Bwahahahaha.)
The original post is much easier to read and can be found here. However, longer answers are found on the Game Guides forums from concerned folks. Please respond there if you must.
Panthu
Sun Jul 04, 2004 8:01 am
#3
Jeez, I don't know anything about this... it's not really anything they would need to talk to a Prof Corre about. A few notes though:
1. English is spoken in India
2. Outsourcing to India is not that big of a deal usually and things would still get escalated to the main CS people even if this was true
3. This could be Call Center only, not in game help
4. I don't think there is any required knowledge or experience needed with the games for these positions now or ever has been
So, yes, I think all of this could be true... but it sounds a little blown out of proportion by an ex-employee. *shrug*
The unlocking stuff, well, lots of people thought that was upped. I don't really see how that has anything to do with the other part though.
Those are just educated guesses though... you know this wouldn't have anything to do with our Dev attention as Dancers though don't you? This seems a little mean spirited and mis-placed... O.o
AnakinSWG
Sun Jul 04, 2004 8:12 am
#4
Actually, that's all of the information that I was looking for. I wasn't sure what information was shared with Correspondents, or what sort of 'news updates' you received. (Even as a low-level employee at a major retail store, I'm given access to information and periodic news updates that are not generally to be shared with the public.) Thanks Panthu.
(The mean-spirited part was meant as a joke for the benefit of somebody else. The timing on the post was actually quite coincidental 
That's already been discussed and joked about.)
That's already been discussed and joked about.)
picklesSW
Sun Jul 04, 2004 8:47 am
#5
If I believed every post that began with "I've got a friend of a friend who was a CSR and has it on good authority..."
Until hard solid proof is provided, anything I read like that original post, I treat as utter BS by someone trying to stir up a hornet's nest.
Until hard solid proof is provided, anything I read like that original post, I treat as utter BS by someone trying to stir up a hornet's nest.
Groovymarlin
Sun Jul 04, 2004 9:27 am
#6
Well I can easily believe the outsourcing thing, but like Panthu said, it might be call center (example: billing questions, etc.) support only, and not in-game tickets.
The Jedi slot thing does seem reasonable, based on the anecdotal evidence (early on, lots of folks opened in 8-10 professions, currently it takes most people 27+). There was a good post about this in the Jedi forum some time ago, with some statistics that one person had compiled, supporting a theory that the actual formula for mastery of professions was not 4 known + 1 unknown, but actually 4 known + 1x unknown, where x = some number set by SOE (possibly per server) based on the Jedi population.
As far as closing the European servers, I'm more doubtful about that, but the Gamestop blurb is troubling. And frankly they've never seemed to be able to handle the European servers all that well (always a lot of issues about when fixes are being applied there, etc.).
Disgruntled employee? Likely. But how accurate? SOE had a big shakeup in their customer service structure already, with EQ. This led to many of the same things being said. Check out this link for some interesting parallels: Unknown Player.
Drygo
Sun Jul 04, 2004 11:29 am
#7
I'm pretty sure I believe everything except maybe the closing of the European servers. It might be an idea that has been bandied about, but I am not sure that's gonna happen.
As for outsourcing to India, I can completely understand that there might be a disgruntled employee over this, and I absolutely believe it to be true. It's happening all over the place. I saw an episode of 20/20 (or 60 minutes or something like that), profiling the outsourcing to India epidemic. It even went so far as to show Indians who were being trained to speak in American accents. LOL. And, frankly, as a die hard card carrying union member IRL, the whole outsourcing to India thing really pisses me off, and I tend not to patronize businesses that do such a thing. Of course, I'm heavily entrenched in SWG so I'm not going any time soon, but chances are if I had never played and new about this, I wouldn't have bought the product. I can see why Sony would want to hide it. Another game I used to play outsourced to India as well and it was common knowledge that their customer service took a sharp nose dive for the worse once that happened. Not that it was great before, but at least you could understand what the previous CSR's of that game were trying to tell you and you knew that they understood the basic English when you spoke with them. Nothing against Indians or people who primarily speak other languages, but when this happens, more often than not, you end up calling people up for help and there is a *distinct* lack of communication. Either they're saying things that make absolutely no sense to you or vice versa. It's not worth the trouble calling. Because, the reality is, I'm a smart enough person in real life, that any actual question, technical or otherwise, that I haven't been able to figure out, is too complicated for a customer service rep in a call center to figure out. That's how it almost always is. At least there is an added advantage and a likelier chance of getting your issue resolved if you have people knowledgeable about the game and able to speak English very well. But, really, the whole outsourcing issue is to have the cheapest staff possible and cut costs by laying off American workers who need to make enough money to actually live in this country. Outsourcing is like the buffbot of SWG. LOL. But, suffice it to say, outsourcing is running rampant, I absolutely believe SONY and any other company is capable of doing it and has done, and I absolutely understand why people are disgruntled, and I don't support it.
As to the Jedi thing. I think that happened too. The only hard evidence that I have (but,of course, don't have a link to because I'm lazy), is a posted conversation awhile back that someone had with an ingame CSR where they were told that the system to unlock had changed. The story was a little different, though, and had to do with people unlocking their "silent" after the first or second holocron profession was mastered. So, maybe it's a combination of the two. At some point, it appears that people started having to master around 3 extra professions above and beyond the holocrons (whether that was 2 or 4) that they had opened and mastered. It makes sense not only from a numbers standpoint and the fact that people were doing around 30 to unlock instead of 12, but also because I think they realized that too many people were doing it too quickly and they had to find a way to slow it down. A lot of people think that the new quests will mean everyone becomes a Jedi, but I wouldn't be too sure of that. Even if it becomes somewhat easier to become initially Force Sensitive, I think the road to pure Jedi dom has been made longer and harder, and I think purposefully so. I certainly don't have a problem with that at all, there *should* be less Jedi. I've seen an awful lot of people in their Jedi robes lately. Those robes have made them more visible than ever and there are *tons.* So, yeah, I believe this happened too. But, unlike the outsourcing issue, I actually support this one. 
Ewom
Mon Jul 05, 2004 5:08 am
#8
The blurb about the European support on the GameStop website may be old enough to predate the European release of the game. At that time SOE did not officially offer support to European customers who purchased the game. Unless you can prove that blurb was added after the European launch then it offers no support to the alleged report from a former CSR. I tend to find that part the least believable part.
As to the Jedi thing, keep in mind many of the people who unlocked early really may have been lucky. If someone could collect accurate statistics on the number of professions completed by every Jedi, I think you would find the spread to be very evenly distributed between 5 and 32 professions (just as it should be). The reasons it seems to be taken more now is that those who only need 7 or 8 had to spend less time getting that 7 or 8, those needeing 28-30 took much longer.
The outsourcing may or may not be true, I don't necessarily care. I've recieved some very good and very bad tech help from obviously Indian call centers. I've also recieved very good and very bad tech help from American call centers. I will tell you the Indians are far more likely to at least be polite.
As to the Jedi thing, keep in mind many of the people who unlocked early really may have been lucky. If someone could collect accurate statistics on the number of professions completed by every Jedi, I think you would find the spread to be very evenly distributed between 5 and 32 professions (just as it should be). The reasons it seems to be taken more now is that those who only need 7 or 8 had to spend less time getting that 7 or 8, those needeing 28-30 took much longer.
The outsourcing may or may not be true, I don't necessarily care. I've recieved some very good and very bad tech help from obviously Indian call centers. I've also recieved very good and very bad tech help from American call centers. I will tell you the Indians are far more likely to at least be polite.
AnakinSWG
Tue Jul 06, 2004 2:13 pm
#9
I guess this isn't anything they wish to share with the community 
It's been removed from the Game Guides forums as well as the Chilastra forums.
It's been removed from the Game Guides forums as well as the Chilastra forums.
Drygo
Tue Jul 06, 2004 3:23 pm
#10
Well, considering the lack of attention here, it'll probably stay in these forums for a bit longer than most.
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