Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: Thunderheart: An open (Long) letter...(the message of which may surprise some).
Note: I post this here due to the unfortunate 2000 character limit on forum PMs. I'm not one for short
comments...never have been. In addition, I think it's important that all DEs (and an imporant few
wholikely know who they are) hear what I have to say and hopefully agree. I'm not concerned with
those that may, or may not, reply. This message is primarily to you (but if other see and comment,
so be it).
You're correct that tensions have run very high over the last few days. For many of us, in fact, tensions have been high for a much longer period of time than simply a few days.DEs are hardly alone in our frustrations but I'd bet that few professions can be truly be said to have suffered more (and even most non-DE players acknowledge this).
You've stated that the tension leveldoes not need to get so out of control...and I'd agree.
For my part...
I have been guilty of falling into the rush of emotion and frustration that so many of us have encounteredtoday (and over the last few days). This has been one of the crazier set ofdays that I've everseen on the forums, especially for a profession that I happen to play. I have personally berated you, driven purely by frustration. For my tone and 'rantiness', I officially apologize. You are, after all, the messenger only (so to speak).
I realize that playing into the tone of the boards, at times like these, does none of us any good. It won't fix our issues faster or better. It won't magically give us all the perfect new system. It won't ease our plight...not today and not tomorrow.
So...
I do apologize for falling prey to my personal 'dark side' and calling you both a liar and inept. In retrospect, I do not believe that either of these is actually the case. I understand that you have our best wishes at heart. Drashk himself hasstated that you seem to do an incredible joblobbying for us players 'behind the curtain'where none of us can see it.
The fact that we all can't see how much you may (and do) fight for us all is perhaps a negative part of your job. It makes it thankless and stressful. I hope you knew that's what you were signing on for here. I'm sure many of us don't know the kind of hell you go through dealing with a tough crowd such as this. I happen to do a job very similar to yours, in my off-SWG hours, so I DO know what you have to deal with...
While my concerns are no less than they were the day before launch, my tone did not have to be so derisive and inflammatory. That is the aspect for which I apologize.
However...
I do still feel that there was a very obvious breakdown in the communication process somewhere. While I do not believe that you were conscious of it...it still occurred. I do not have the answer of how to address it but I do know it happened. Part of the tension we all now feel is a direct relation to it. I emplore you, in the future, to choose your thoughts and comments very carefully.
What you view as a "casual comment to guage the waters" is very often taken as official statement of intent and foregone conclusion to much of the masses.Hopefully, many here will understand that this is the very issue that the Devs face when attempting to communicate potential changes to OUR game....OUR characters...OUR experience.
I can only hope that something good can come of today's unfortunate events. A lot of good ideas and proposals will be floated in this aftermath. Some will be shot down...others might actually hold some promise. I can only hope that they are taken seriously by those that count and that our collective voices are finally understood. If there are reasons why 'scenario X' or 'proposal Y' won't work...we need to know WHY, so that we can try to tweak them into something that will work. We cannot do this alone. It requires (and I use that word very carefully here) that we get feedback.
I'd like to put forth that I sincerely hope that we can use the coming days as a way to turn the proverbialcorner. Many of us are losing faith quickly. I can feel it all around in the other DEs that I talk with...the disillusionment and rancor is at an all time high.
In closing, I will attempt to do my part (for whatever that's worth) to aid in moving the profession's future forward in a positive fashion. I owe no less to my DE brethren (and to myself). I submit that we DEs will all be better off to make a valiant attempt to see past the rants, gripes and all other ill-will that's spouted on these forums.
To SWG DEs:
I personally ask all DEs to step back...smell some flowers...enjoy life...build and then immediately destroy some MSE droids (just for fun). Stop focusing on the negativity and frustration that abounds and try to recall what is was that made you love this game. If you didn't love it, like me, you won't be so passionately ranting and responding. You'd simply quit. If you ARE passionate about, and enjoy the game, please try to join me in coming days to ensure that we keep our profession community positive, upbeat and forward-thinking. I happen to believe that this mindset is when the best ideas happen.
/bow
Apologetically,
As i will agree that demeaning Thunderheart isnt the proper way for any of the people i have seen post here to act, and certainly out of char. And also am sorry for the statements i made, Unfortunately they were all true.
But we also must take in mind that Thunderheart's job is to represent our ideas to the dev team. When he states that this is whats coming because we asked for it and has it so terribly wrong then i question just how good that is being done.
Frankly im a professional, and if Anyone aquired an attorney to represent there defense and your day in court came and the defense was based entirely of nothing that was used to prepare your case, what chances do you think you would have to win.
I do feel its drastic that the person hired by SOE to represent our case is obviously completely out of touch with that case.
Im not sure why that is the case only he can say, but that is what i would like to see worked on.
I dont think anything we really want is gonna happen soon, or at all, due to design and budget restraints, but when the person thats representing the case to the people making the desicions frankly hasnt a clue as to what that case is, there is no chance of it succeeding.
So i think the real issue that i hope is resolved by this would be:
SOLVE THE OBVIOUS BREAKDOWN that occurs everytime i proff is on the plate.
You know there are always issues and problems we overcome to become better at what we do.
Our success is based on how we handle those failures and what we take away from that so that the same failures done occur again.
Failure is only achieved when you give up. I dont think Thunder has given up but i would definately like to see what he intends to do differently.
Doing the same thing will achieve exactly the same results, which is obvious in the last two communications from the dev team.
That's okay, it does for me too.
I'm pretty sure that SWG couldn't ever live up to what we all want it to be. This is an aspect of our plight that I think we will all have to get over. It simply cannot rise to the level that we'd like to see it attain.
In any case, thanks for the comments all. I hope that today is a better day for us.
/bow
Respectfully,
Sinnare wrote:
But we also must take in mind that Thunderheart's job is to represent our ideas to the dev team. When he states that this is whats coming because we asked for it and has it so terribly wrong then i question just how good that is being done.
I had apologized only for the ranty tone that I took in berating TH, not for the message contained.
I still believe that very serious communication problem occurred and I'd like to hear TH account for it in some way or work to rectify his tarnished image to this profession.
I'm also concerned that other professions will pick on what happened and he will lose considerably more 'face'.
The tone was wrong and over the top. My message about the communication error/problem still stands.
/bow
Respectfully,
Let me be terse.
Disappointed? I am extremely disappointed by TH, Drashk, giving me such a slap in the face with this DH professionand making me feel that I should just go drop the soap in the shower area at San Quentin, because that's what I see happening to me and to us DE's.
I too am going to lay off on the forum, unless anything substantial (Runesaber's post)comes up and I feel I have something that needs to be said, else, I find this all just a practice in the absurdity - TH doesn't hear us, Drashk goes against us...
A giant slap in the face, with a bruise that will take a long time to recover.
TheWoody wrote:
Well it surprised me
Screw this. TH, you suck. SOE, you suck. Devs, you suck.
And...I'm not kidding. Now the gloves are off.
This is probably the most un-Star Wars of any Star Wars game I've EVER PLAYED. And...by the way, I've played EVERY PC-based Star Wars game EVER.
I hope LucasArts sues you all for so horribly mismanaging their precious title. Good job on getting it so horribly wrong.
There...was that better?
/bow
Respectfully,
TheRealTK421 wrote:
It seems the frustration still lingers.
TK, you are a great champion for our profession, and I personally love your fire and passion. That being said, the frustration will continue to linger, until the devs actually do something will all the "feedback" we've been giving them since launch. 7 months is more than enough time to fix a few (a lot) of bugs, add some functionality to droids, give us anything. Well, nothing's been done. They pretend to listen, but I fear it goes in one ear and out the other.
For this frustration cycle to stop, the devs must FIX SOMETHING.
duncje wrote:
TheRealTK421 wrote:
It seems the frustration still lingers.
TK, you are a great champion for our profession, and I personally love your fire and passion. That being said, the frustration will continue to linger, until the devs actually do something will all the "feedback" we've been giving them since launch. 7 months is more than enough time to fix a few (a lot) of bugs, add some functionality to droids, give us anything. Well, nothing's been done. They pretend to listen, but I fear it goes in one ear and out the other.
For this frustration cycle to stop, the devs must FIX SOMETHING.
Yea...I agree.
It's pretty disheartening to pay for this "service" (yea, I definitely feel "serviced".
) and see very little fixes for us on all the patch notes.Maybe I'm naive but...
When they do their little "Friday Fix" days, why not fix ONE bug in each profession. That way, we'd all get the love spread out and even.
I'm beginning to think the Millenium Falcon was put together better than our profession. At least they could get it to work when it absolutely HAD to...
/bow
Respectfully,