community-concerns
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The Daily Grind: When does friendly turn frustrating?
We all know, from years of experience, that there's a certain community duty to help newer players get acclimated to the game. Or younger players, or... really, anyone. It's in the community's best interests to be friendly and open. But there's always the threat of the player who seems friendly and enjoyable... until you log on again and he whispers you almost instantly. And then the next time. And again. He's always there, latched onto you as if you're the only beacon of kindness in the world, and while you want him to keep playing, you want to play City of Heroes, not City of Helping the Socially Maladjusted. The worst part of these situations, naturally, is that it spoils you on helping former players. It makes the community as a whole more hostile, and even though you still know helping new players is a good thing, it's hard not to be colder. So when have you run into a player whom you wished you hadn't helped out? When has being friendly and open wound up frustrating you to no end? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
When is "ready"? SWTOR's Community Manager discusses player concerns
Many fans of Star Wars: The Old Republic have been concerned about the amount of information released in the last few updates, especially considering the fact that a lot more information was released during the summer. Senior Community Manager Stephen Reid hopped on the forums to address these and other concerns the SWTOR community had. BioWare's line for the last couple of years has been, "We will talk about it when it's ready." According to Reid, the mantra still holds true, but the explanation is a bit deeper when considering what it actually takes to be "ready." Presentation is the first on his list, as Reid explains in a post, "While some of you might say 'But I don't care! I'm sure it'll be good in the final game! I can totally forgive you this time!' I'm afraid we don't get that latitude with, oooh, pretty much 90% of the rest of the world." Another reason is some systems that are ready depend on other systems that aren't ready. And lastly, there are public relations and marketing considerations. In another post, Reid addressed other specific community concerns, such as EU testing and, as one community member put it, "We in the EU do feel like second rate citizen here sometimes." Other concerns like the low amount of developer posts on the forums, in general, and the community's influence on the final game are engaged as well. The full posts are located on the official Star Wars: The Old Republic forum, in the developer tracker. Be sure to check there for more information.
