Development Cycle Archive
Thread: Weekly Rountdable Discussion (Week Ending 1-18-04)
Well, seemingly using one thread with all our complaining is more efficient and useful for the developers Moderation wise and information wise. Now they can get all the opinions out there in one thread, supposedly.
My suggestions:
1. Fix the Poofing Vehicles. Gets very annoying for the people who aren't Master Rangers with tents to pull out and skill points to waste.
2. Fix Player Cities. They seem to be progressing either too slow, too fast, or just not giving enough room to start a city initially.
3. Might as well say it: Imperial Command Hat. I know the Dev-position on this, but seriously, dedicate the building to fixing this issue. (Thanks for the whole incoming "decay-pvp-fix" but can we get a date?)
4. Holocrons. Hologrinders. Simply put are ruining this game and destroying the point of playing. Get any CSR to walk into Coronet's Cantina to see what I mean.
5. I want a date given for when ALL the professions are being fixed. It'd be nice to have something to look forward to, not just "hope is coming this year". I know you don't wantto do this because you can't uphold your dates, but come on, give us dates. We need to know what to expect and when to start flaming.
If this is an improvement over SWG Discussion, who is receiving the benefits? I notice forum traffic is down everywhere at the SOE site.
Without SWG Discussion, or any place to bring up issues except in some unreadable mess of a monster thread, we're spinning our wheels.
Next you'll try to get us to go to our Profession boards by default or something.
You can't force us to communicate solely on your terms.
RbT
Riis wrote:
This thread defies all current theories of how information can be efficiently transferred!
RbT
You, sir, are a gentleman and a scholar.
Just one question. When are jedi going to be fixed. They issues are all over the Jedi/Holocron/Everything else forum.
Or are the problems that are associated with Jedi a planned way to make it non enjoyible, And thus so no one will want to do it. And keep the number of jedi to a minumum?
Thunderheart:
The removal of the SWG Discussion Forum has effectively reduced your communications between the player community and the devs. Let's take a look at what has happened -- and for the sake of presentation, let's surmise what SOE perceived to be their issues with the SWG Discussion Forum.
SOE's Perceived Issues from a Company's Perspective
From a company's perspective, the issues prevalent in the SWG Discussion Forum is viewed as negatively impacting company resources, costing them time and man hours devoted to managing the forums. This management was necessary to preserve/impart the image of a community that is supportive of the game.
The Issues:
- Rampant and consistent negative feedback
- Lack of control over topics
- Lack of staff to moderate
- Community bandwagoning on issues
SOE's Solution
An open discussion forum requires moderating and a sifting through of the various topics and issues presented by the community. In addition, controlling what the community posts is dependent on enforcing forum policies and rules. Moderators who are volunteers do not feel compelled to devote the required time to manage this, as their reward does not equate to any assets earned. The community manipulates the issues further by bandwagoning together on hot topics that demand attention. The lack of attention andor responses from the developers tends to ignite further negative feedback.
Line Items:
- Close the open discussion forum
- Manage the change with substituting a closed forum(s)
- Reduce the mass population into smaller groups
The Community's Perception
Managing change with a gaming community is not an easy task. Given theanonymity of the internet and the forums, individuals are fearless in their attempts to be heard and acknowledged. However, it is human nature to rebel when your voice is lost or removed. There is no substitute for a customer's freedom of speech, and offering a controlled environment that many perceive to be an attempt at muzzling the community is not a solution. Communications is a two-way avenue. Closing the SWG Discussion Forum has effectively reduced the avenue to a one-way street.
From the Community's View:
- Continued lack of acknowledgment regarding issues
- A single thread that attempts to replace an entire forum's voice
- Bloating of a weekly thread that derails and strays from important issues
- An additional loss of communications between the customer and the company
- Customer frustrations at this loss resulting in the promotion negative feedback
An Alternate Resolution
A compromise between the community and SOE can be reached. While the closing of the SWG Discussion Forum is not a solution to SOE's percieved issues with the forum, reopening it up would not constitute a value-added effort at customer relations.
At the same time, the community needs to have it's voice restored. A system which allows the freedom to contribute to the ongoing development of the game and resolution of issues would enhance both customer relations and feedback to the developers. You have a system already in place that could be harnessed to expand on a new system that effectively would satisfy both the developers and the customer base.
This system would have two compartments:
- The forums
- Your in game bug reporting/knowledge base expanded to the web site
The Forums
The Live Forumis the only 'free speech' forum the community has now at it's disposal to reach a wide cross-server audience. The 'free speech' is not entirely free, as only a Dev can start a thread. However, if you used the concept that you have initiated with the correspondent program to discuss top issues, you would steer the community to remain focused on topics while at the same time give them the freedom to voice an opinion.
Let the community continue to pour into one weekly thread their issues and concerns. At the end of the week, pick 3 of the most popular issues, and start a separate thread on each of these issues to be continued in the following week. This would benefit both the community and the developers for further pin-pointing and allowing a two-way avenue of communications that is constructive and controlled. The Forums should be regarded as a free style way of collecting information, giving statements, and updating the community.
Moderate these threads. Remove flames, rants, and unproductive/unconstructive posts. Clearly have your rules and policies in place as guidelines for the community.
The Website
The Knowledge Base within the game is an excellent resource for the community. However, most players never use the Knowledge Base and I would take a stab at the reason for this is because it receives very little promotion and is not accessable off-line. Many community members visit these forums or the website during times when they are not actively playing the game. They come to the forums with their issues or looking for answers to their quesitons. Many of these issues are/have been posted in hundreds of threads over and over again. Would it not be more productive if the Knowledge Base had a home on the website where the community could search for their issues and or submit new ones? You already have categories identified in the Knowledge Base which would help to control how the information is added to this database.
You could further enhance the Knowledge Base with a weekly page that posted the tops issues and or information/tips thatwould benefit the community.
Finally and perhaps most important,why not post atop bug listing that you already collect in game with a developers response?
Concluding Remarks
Clearly the system now in place is not enough to satisfy the community's hunger for communications. Recognizing that the previous system was a monster that needed to be harnessed and tamed, we need to come up with a communications solution that goes beyond a "band-aid" fix. I submit that the current system is too little to sustain customer satisfaction and a re-evaluation of the tools and systems that you already have in place be harnessed to promote better communications between the player base and the developers.
TH, as a former Master Smuggler I just have 1 thing to say, based after reading the last post you made in the old thread.
Don't take anything away in Underworld.
I like that I'm worth less FP, that i get discounts, that I can understand all languages (well, the 1 that only twi'lek can learn) and that I can buy FP (upto 500). If anything you should improve the buy FP and let us keep what we have.
Knocky wrote:
My kingdom for a "Target Nearest Enemy" key!!!
You can make a macro with these 2 commands: the /ui command to clear the current target (I forget what it is right now - I bet you could find it) and /ui action cycleTargetOutwards, and then assign it to a key. There's your Target Nearest Enemy key!
Now about that kingdom... 
Not sure what we're suppose to discuss here but I really miss the SWG Discussion. I'm finding it very hard to get a good state of the game feeling from the replacement forums. Even trying to read a single thread like this as a replacement for the multitude of discussions is a poor replacement.
I thinkis a caseof setting up the information so that its easier for the SOE, to present and digest the information, but much more difficult as a relatively casual forum reader. I hope this change is not permanent and a more general 'state of the game' forum will develop.
Anyways, thats my weekly discussion point. I have no intents of reading further in this thread.
Cheers,
Khyron2k wrote:
I would adore the game if they could just make it so that when I am in a group, my group members do not vanish mysteriously even though they're 5 m away from me
My biggest problem as well. Last night in 2 person group it occured. Logout by invisible other member didn't cure it, my logout/relog did. We had ridden vehicles up to Bestine, and had jumped off outside the gate to visit the factionmission terminal. His pet was visible, he was not.
Second problem is blank datapad, occured about the same time. Had to go all the way to desktop to fix it, disconnect to select screen did not.
Between them these took 15 minutes out of a 2 hour session. Disgusting timewasting bug!
Imbroglio wrote:
Whats up with musician. We have not gotten anything that is worth anything at all.
Omni/Nal don't work unless targeted which makes the interface completely confusing.
Can we get an actual eta on new songs instruments etc. Most other Professions have received upgrades to animatioin and we are still stuck with the same non user friendly interface.
I am really kinda of peeved and I hate feeling this way but there has been little communication about whats going on and the communication you guys have given us basically said "New Songs comin' we just don't know when" so thats it... major issues with the Profession and you all are just gonna through some songs at us...
I guess I should shut up... at least ur giving us that... grumble... grumble...
I like the profession and have been playin' it since I join in July...grumble... I just wish we werent constantly over looked...grumble.
Just my 2 cents,
god devs...please dont waste one more minute on the entertainers....
/bug i have 5000 singing mt. clan faction. all the clan sisters are great to hang out with now, no more killing me for no reason... there pet rancor (inteligent creatures as per Courtship of princess leia) jump me as soon as i get near them, funny thing is, i think there is a check for faction standing with them, because they Never DB me. still highly agrivating.
also, please look into the nightsister armor drops, many people have said that they no longer drop, and i have killed Hundreds, probably more than 800 when combine with my friends in search of a piece of armor, and not seen one. if this was removed please please put it back! some of us play the game just for this rare cool loot inspite of the fact that it "does nothing"