Droid Engineer Archive

When I get a paycheck every two weeks, I don't see SOE anywhere on it. What I do see is $30 (ironically, two accounts because DE is so broken) from that paycheck going to SOE. Just to make sure I have all the expectations in a row...

I pay $30 a month to SOE, and what I expect is to have fun playing a game during my free time. From the posts I have seen by TH, it seems as if they expect me to spend my free time gathering up all the information they need to fix a product that shouldn't be broken. I don't mind offering opinions and providing insight on the boards, but when you start asking me to do the job you are paid to do, I have a problem with that. Especially when you dangle the "if you do the work for me, it will get fixed faster" carrot in front of our profession. The comment about us being the experts is a little insulting too. Yes we play the game, but you guys have access to software tools, hardware and coding that we only wish we could get our hands on.

I have heard the argument that all MMORPG's are like this, and you won't find anything different. I am also aware that no one forces me to be a DE in this game. I think those are excuses rather than explanations personally. All I ask is that the DEV team remember that they are here to provide us with entertainment by producing and maintaining a quality game. We are not their gophers when it comes to information hunting on these boards, and they should treat us as customers not subordinates.

Forgot to add one thing. You guys shouldn't be charging correspondents to play for the time they hold their position. For all the work you require of them, you should be sending them a paycheck.

Not sure what your complaint here is. How are they supposed to know what to fix, if the people who are actually playing the game don't tell them what is broken? And beyond just fixing the broken, which they might be able to hire enough people to check out on their own, how are they supposed to add new features if the people who play the game don't tell them what new features would make the game more fun?

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Scuddbacca wrote:
I don't mind offering opinions and providing insight on the boards, but when you start asking me to do the job you are paid to do, I have a problem with that.

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Check that line again. I don't mind helping them improve the game with my opinions and insight. What I do mind is them asking us to fetch information for them.

I am still confused.

What I get from your second post is

I don't mind offering suggestions, but they better notASK me for my opinion.

I am really not trying to be argumentative, I just do not follow what you are saying. Maybe it is still too early in the morning for me :>

Maybe you haven't read TH's post asking us to go fish all of the information out of the forums for him and present it in a nice neat little package because he doesn't have time. I'm not trying to be rude to TH, in fact I am glad they hired him and I think he is leaning in the right direction. My point is that we aren't paid to gather up information, we pay to play a game. We have already done more than our fair share by offering insight and opinions on these boards. We shouldn't be required to go a step further by compiling that information.

You are right, I did not read that post. Now I understand what you are talking about. Thanks.

Looking for that kind of info is the job of our coorespondant. That is his whole reason for existance. If every poster started a new thread with a list, someone else would have to go through all the lists, and it would be a never ending cycle.

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Not sure what your complaint here is. How are they supposed to know what to fix, if the people who are actually playing the game don't tell them what is broken? And beyond just fixing the broken, which they might be able to hire enough people to check out on their own, how are they supposed to add new features if the people who play the game don't tell them what new features would make the game more fun?

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I think one of the points that Scuddbacca is trying to make is that what you just described in your post above would almost be the definition of a beta. I have to agree with that perception.

with respect

I believe she is on vacation and hence the reason for his post. Personally I don't think any player should be required to work for this game, unless the player chooses to, and SOE offers up some sort of (not necessarily monetary) compensation for that individuals time.

I appreciate that they want to work with us on developing the Droid Engineer profession. While this does feel like a Beta type of thing to do, I just hope that we can flush out a proper path that would make us more viable as individuals and in the community.

I have to admit that I am happy to see that the previous DE "plan" wasn't their vision of the profession, but something that was just thrown together. Though, I am disappointed as well that we have to do all this and still pay at the normal rate.

Just think though, that we could be building a better future for Droid Engineer's to come and our children . . . ok that doesn't make up for the price we pay now and how it will always be SOE's final decision for every single aspect of the design and how much time will be put into development of it.

I'm agreeing with you guys a lot here. The problem I belive is that they really don't know what to do with a profession such as ours. What do I mean by this? Well it's simple if you look at what robots do. They are the anti-sink, anti-money sink; anti-time sink. Here is the problem. They don't want to give us the "anti-sink." They make more money the longer we spend playing the game and keeping the subscriptions going. If there were less time sinks, we would be able to master our professions faster, complete more quests....eventually be done with the game faster. We also know that they want more credit sinks to reduce the amount of credits in the system and reduce the inflation that we're already seeing.

Droids are things that would (if implemented how they really behaved)either reduce time ormoneyand the way games like this are designed, neither is what the designers intend.

What I honestly see is them trying to have us come up with alternatives and then they would approve what they thought was 1) implementable and 2) Doesn't redefine the framework that they have set up.

Why were Probots "nerfed"? Because people leveled with them too easily.

(yes, I realize this argument is slightly flawed due to the CL15 pet that was given...but I don't think they intended everyone to have a cowardly gurreck with this ....but maybe have a rasp instead. It was a oversight and now they have to change it again because of it...hence the CH changes we have seen recently.)

Why were the data modules changed? Because 1) people were using them to increase their income and 2) explot the max pet count for their datapad.

Why don't we have portable merchant modules? because that would make a entire profession obsolete.

Why don't surgical droids heal you on their own? because that would make a entire profession obsolete.

We are the profession that has the potential to wreck every single game mechanic they have in place if they arn't careful with how they give us features. While I am glad they are asking for our input, I wish they had a better starting platform.

Scuddbacca,

You said the no player should have to work for the game unless the player choses to. You are right, but the coordinator has chosen to. The job description of the coordinator is to be a person who reads the forums, talks to other members of the profession, and presents a conscensus of what is desired to the developers. The developers then decide if this conscensus is (a) doable, and (b) good for the game as a whole.

It is unfortunate that our coordindinator is out of town at just the time the devleopers got to her. I am not blaming her, and I do not begrudge her a vacation. But the mechanics of the development cycle include the coordinators report. For TH to go over all the posts on this board for the last month or two, to get up to speed is kind of unrealistic, with all the other profession that also need work.

All I am getting at is that the developers cannot expect us to spend our free time working (a second job) to fix their product. This isn't Beta (or at least I would like to think that it isn't), and we are paying for a product and a service. If the developers ask for our help, and a player is willing to sacrifice that time, then I don't see anything wrong with that. TH didn't ask for our help, he told us he needed us to compile everything for him because he didn't have time. In other words, he is saying if you want your profession fixed in the shortest amount of time possible, I need you to work for me. Again more dangling of carrots in front of the rabbits in hope that a combat viable droid will be here in early 2004.

In beta, you work and are compensated by the privilege of playing the game before anyone else and shaping the form of the game. After release, SOE works for us as paying customers. They are there to correct problems, provide customer service, and add new content to the game for our entertainment. Sure they need our feedback to make a better game, but let them spend the time gathering it up. Hire more people if necessary. I pay SOE to provide me with entertainment.

Or did we all forget that the E in SOE stands for entertainment?