Development Cycle Archive

QUOTE:

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IGNPC: We often hear the loudest cries from a relative minority. Still, it seems odd that all the comments sent our way have been negative.

This was in no way intended as a slight against the community, or even those community members who posted "negative" comments or sent IGNPC negative letters about the combat revamp timing. I was (poorly) trying to articulate a common phenomenon that basically boils down to "happy community members are generally quiet community members." This has been true for us since launch.

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See, people have stopped responding, and many have quit, and here's why. When you, a COMPANY representative, say that, then you merely reflect a sentiment that has been a forum perception since pre-beta. See, you expressed our greatest concern here in a way that made many of our efforts pointless. We know that there sometimes is friction between forums and dev's. We know that good threads get hijacked, and the intent ofsome really good threads is lost in the screams of fanboi, nerf you, or profanity. We have a constant concern that the dev's have stopped treating, or utilizing the forums for the benefit it can offer, and when you post that, anyone that has ever posted on this forum feels the slap in the face. You instantly demean the hundreds of discussions, bug threads, and in concept feed-back threads. See, with that post, you reduce our methods of providing meaningful feedback to calling in to customer service, or quitting. Many quit, I have 18 days left until my cancelled account ends.

This isn't an "I'm sorry" situation. This is a time for you to repair the breach, or prepare a new way.

If you wish for meaningful forum feedback, the show us that it matters, show us that it's welcome, and reward us for our efforts by posting feedback or success stories, that's the only way to regain any trust.

IGNPC: We often hear the loudest cries from a relative minority. Still, it seems odd that all the comments sent our way have been negative.

Haden Blackman: Yeah, all the guys who are happy with everything are playing the game. They aren't spending their time sending you guys letters or posting on the forums.

You obviously know a great deal about software and it's development - kudos to you

I completely see what your getting at and understand the challanges you laid out. However, it doesnt matter. It makes no difference what the challanges are. It is up to SOE to deliver the product they have promised and actively advertise. Telling customers that it's just too hard to fix what needs to be fixed ina timely manner is a loosing proposition, every time.

They know there is no way they can fix all that is broken with this game in a timely matter. They also know that JTL is the only hope they have of competing against EQII and WoW. That's the decision behind an all out push for JtL - plain and simple.

I'll say it again - if this game were judged by it's live code (and not the Star Wars name) it would already be finished. That license is the ONLY thing keeping this game afloat. Oh, and some fairly deceptive advertising. I truely believe what has happened with this game is one of the biggest blunders in gaming.

Sorry Haden, but your post smacks of political double-speak. I'm guessing you watched the Democratic National Convention. It is out there, and it remains a smack in the face to all of your core, loyal customers who have stayed with the game this long.

In my company if someone mis-speaks to the press they are fired. Then again, I work in healthcare so if someone mispeaks someone could actually get hurt or, even worse, die. Fortunately that does not happen in the entertainment industry.

All we ask for is clear, *honest* communication with a modicum of frequency. 1+ years into the game and we still lack this. May we ask if the combat balance (or revamp as you now call it) was being discussed in December what the results of * months of discussion have yielded?

And everyone knows that JTL is a priority because it will force existing customers to buy upgrades (thank you for forcing those of us who already support you with multiple accounts to buy multiple copies of JTL too - if you truly cared about us you would forgo the extra one-time purchase knowing that you are still getting multiple instances of $15/month for every account we own, but I digres...), cause *some* customers who have left to come back, and get some new customers. All of this equals more dollars, and money is the most important thing. I have no problem with SOE making money, but do it in a fair way without taking advantage of your loyal base - that is the "sin" that you are committing now.

Enough of my thoughts. Here is to remaining optimistic (as fleeting as my optimism is at the moment) that you will start communicating clearly and with honesty going forward.

/start rant

To my mind the problem is two fold-

Poor communication

Poor Management

I can well understand the difficulties of presenting a polished product that works in the way we all want it to and to be honest i would be less enraged if the development team communicated this to us properly. What i am sick of is the constant dev posts telling us this that and the other will be happening and then they disapear for months on end before reappearing with an apology and yet another post telling us this that and the other is happening. While i dont wish to flame anyone directly i can say in all honesty i dont believe a word posted on these boards by the majority of the dev team anymore. Too many false promises in the past and too many contradictions have shaken my faith in the team. I use the issues the smugglers have been having as an example,not because i wish to bang on(again!) about our revamp but because our forums are full of examples of this. Its already been highlighted earlier in this thread but there is a post on our board that clearly highlights all the above. Only recently promises were made to us,which were again broken. As soon as we vocalise our discontent what happens? Are we communicated too? Does anyone attempt to address our concerns with some information? NO. All the nice pretty red names vanish from our forums and wont be seen for about 3 months when they will return asking us for feedback we have been giving them since beta! Im sure this is the same in most of the profession boards and other forums. Communication is the key. Be upfront with us from the start,stop spoon feeding us false information and then reapearing months later with an apology and the proceed to spoon feed us more rubbish. Establish better ways of communicating with us,the forums are overloaded with multiple threads banging on about this that and the other. Most of the time i only discover key information when someone posts a critisism or praise of it on either a profession board or a server board!

You guys need to sit down and thrash out exactly whats wrong with this game and what is a priority to fix then give some kind of timetable to the community...AND STICK TO IT! I am amazed that the team considers playing with the way macros works is considered to be a critical fix to make the game work! There are too many examples of pointless little tweaks that could wait until the big problems are fixed!

Yes JTL is a key aspect to improve the game,but this blind faith that it will make us happy will screw you over in the long run. The expectation in the community based on the way things are at present is JTL will be bug ridden and broken to hell when it finnaly hits the shelves resulting in months more of patches and fixes and even more delays with fixing the ground based side of the game. Not wanting to offend jedi but this continued obbsession with jedi annoys the hell out of me,you say its what the majority of the players want but all i see is yet another broken system that has been introduced that is frustrating the people who want to play a jedi,frustrating those of us who have no interest in being a jedi and generally causing bad feeling in the community.

We are paying a monthly fee for this and while we understand a game of this size and complexity is never going to be 100% correct for the amount of money you are getting from this we expect more and frankly the time has come for this to be sorted out.

Im not going to thank you for posting here,frankly its your job and i personally dont see any evidence that you or your team are doing it.

This game has so much potential and despite my above rant i do enjoy it,but it could be so much more. There is very little "star wars" feel to the game at present its just another mmorpg with a sci fi feel and a brief glimpse here and there into the star wars universe

Please please fix what could be a bloody great game!

/end rant

RIP SWG
Who wants my stuff?

Mr Blackman, first thank you for your reply. As upset as I am about the combat balance getting delayed, communication with the devs is the only thing keeping my main account active (I cancelled the rest).

SOEtalks the talk sir, but you guys do not walk the walk. We have been waiting a LONG, LONG time for these changes. What I don't get is how you found the time to revamp image designer but not fix bugs that affect the core of your game? How you can revamp chef yet leave the combat balance in the wind. It's not your abilities we are questioning, it's your priorities. You can devote TWO months of development time to the Jedi but not to fixing basic combat?

What concerns me is how exactly can the combat balance be your "number one priority" after JtL? I mean, I'd love to go by what your team says it can do, but I have to go by your past performance. Meaning, after JtL launches aren't you going to have to fix/resolve bugs with that entire game also?

So then, how are you going to be able to fix JtL bugs AND be able to push the combat rebalance out at the same time. Because there are still TONS of bugs with this game that hasn't been addressed yet.

And what is the status on those combat fixes? You know? Those quick fixes you guys are trying to squeeze in before the expansion?

i-Jedi, Tal'Daine of DS
Fear less, hope more,
eat less, chew more,
whine less, breathe more,
talk less, say more,
hate less, love more, and all good things will be yours.

I still dont get it. We still have a communication problem that surpasses goverment communication. We players where told that we where going to get combat balancing through out the months of playing(since last november)and pretty much have seen notheing except for a few professions that got major overhauls or links with professions that needed a fix to work with the professions that got overhauled. We have waited and waited for what a anouncment that the devs where really not working on anything except drafts of what could be done. This is what made most of us PAYING players mad, and after you interview alot of non forum poster voiced there concern about the subject to. I think the devs really missed the mark, i think they really didnt listen to the ppl that really count, the current paying customer.

Yes the devs can get their info from many places and yes pretty much alot of them would like JTL for that SW feel, but did you listen to what the majority really want. Just think of this for a moment, You sit a kid down and you askhim/her what would they like and you give them alot of choices. What would they pick....Hmmmm i think i know this one.....Of course they would pick the one they would think is cool(especialy if there not playing the game currently)and it possibly could be JTL. But if you look closer you would find that ppl that have been your best supporters of the game really want a working game. Wich now brings me to another point that i have no clue makes any sence.

Why are you waiting for the combat balance after JTL. The devs and most of the staf have pretty much siad that its seperate from the ground game(yes the ground game where we are mostly having our problems). The only like i see with the ground game and JTL is Faction, and shipwright. All ship battle actions will be seperate from the ground game except for faction tef. Now is this inportant enought to prolong the combat revap till after JTL. I find that if you wait till after JTL is out, you will still have more problems till fixes are in place and the whole faction tef system is totaly repalced after the launch of JTL wich again will make ppl made because your majorly changing another system after you had one in place that is just going to get changed.

So my question is this, Why do we still have to wait? I have been here since beta and i have been all for SWG and all it can be, but i dont know anymore. I have Beta tested many other online games and played them for many years after and have seen faster changes than this game(and they tend to listen more to there forum customers, you know the ones who do vioce the conserns of many, ie the forum posters). Many here in the forums do scream alot, mostly because maybe we love this game and are tired of of seeing little to no changes/fixes. But what i really dont understand is why focus on an expantion when you dont have the core game fixed is beyond me.

For example, DAOC(dark age of camelot) started out bumpy like SWG and after 1 year thay mostly had most of there fixes and major changes done to there core game. when the second year was up they had 2 expantions out(one free and one players had to pay for). But as it is today any problems or glitches get fixed whithin a short wile. But here in SWG we are still waiting for fixes we havent seen since launch.

So what ever happened to just making some minor tweeking, simple tweeking that you could try to see if they worked. Since we are still playing a beta version of SWG what can you loose if you just tweeked some of the settings to see what could work. Unless SWG was made in a way that you couldnt adjust things. Right now the devs are doing great and adjusting some things and its helping, and some of us are happy, and to let you know, this should of been done along time ago(like 6 months ago).

After rereading my post i find that, yes, im a little bitter, but this mostly comes from paying for a game for a long time and really not seeing changes for the majority of the players. Yes the jedi revamp was needed, but should of been thought outbetter in the first place, and it still needs help.

So to end my tid bit on this, i would like to ask the devs to try to communicate more with us. And to realize that if many ppl in the game that dont voice there concern here in the forums, doesnt mean there happy. They just might be tired of hearing the same broken record that thigs will be fixed but never happen. And please put a question poll on the launch pad so you can get a better way of truly knowing what you player base wants.

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From the launch of the game we came. Moving quickly to unlock the secrets. Living many battles to reach the the goal of unlocking a Jedi. For the few who complain, will eventuly get their goal. No one has ever truly known the path to getting a Jedi........untill now.

Dos (Sunrunner) Paddy
Official worst PvPer of Sunrunner
Uno (Sunrunner)
Master Bounty Hunter
Shi'tzu (Sunrunner)
Master Riflemen, Master Combat Medic

Here is the bottom line:

When management asks what is possible to work on, they do a head count and say "We can do that!" allow me to demonstrate:

Combat Revamp ....... "No! Not now!"

Image Designer(emotes)...... "Yeah we can do that!"

Smuggler ....... "No! Not now!"

Swoop Tracks ..... "Yeah we can do that!"

GCW ...... "No! Not now!"

Wookiee Armor "Yeah we can do that!"

Jedi Skill tree, including fudging damage numbers and throwing inRobe art, etc "Yeah we can do that!"

It's not a matter of what the Devs want to do, it's a matter of what the Devs can do.

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Shug_Ninx wrote:

We are NOT shifting a huge number of people over to working on JTL. JTL's progress is such that we will probably only need to pull 1-2 designers (out of 9) from Live. The one area where JTL will impact us is in testing - most of our Testers will likely be working on JTL in the weeks prior to its launch.

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I personally am not mad at the fact that you cannot do these things with your current manpower, on the contrary I understand completely! What I and many people are mad about is that we pay 15$ (never thought I'd use this card) a month for the development time of nine people. I love this game, as do many others, why does it always have to be about money?

It is known that SOE torched bonuses this year and I understand your need to increase profits, but the bottom line is:

You need to maintain your core community of this game if you wish to see it succeed in the long run. Just looking at the tecnology of new mmo's coming out give me the shivers, i.e. Guild Wars.