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Star Wars: The Old Republic: Speaking Up
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Updates to favorite games in development are things that keep communities active and alive. When the news gets thin, the community gets restless. In his latest column about Star Wars: The Old Republic, MMORPG.com Community Manager Michael Bitton takes a look at SWTOR's efforts and just why keeping quieter than expected might be a good thing. Check it out and then let us know your thoughts below in the comments section.
With Star Wars: The Old Republic set to launch sometime this year, fans are getting even more antsy for more information now that the new year has begun and rumblings of a more talkative BioWare are starting to appear.
Just last week a user on the official SW:TOR forums created a thread discussing the relatively quiet nature of the BioWare team throughout development and comparing it to the silence of the APB dev team (with or without merit) on the run up to that game’s launch.
Read more of Michael Bitton's SWTOR: Speaking Up.
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Comments
Yeah i think those comments really took the community by surprised (in a good way). Released a lot of gnawing tension (i use that right?) that has been building up over the last year or so.
Help me Bioware, you're my only hope.
Is ToR going to be good? Dude it's Bioware making a freaking star wars game, all signs point to awesome. -G4tv MMo report.
What is there to be discussed. Bioware from the get go has always stuck to their philosophy of not talking or showing anything until they deem it ready. If the general gaming public has a problem with that, then it is their own fault for the dumb topics and crazy accusations that get thrown around about this title. People need to relax and enhance their calm, John Spartan, when they see something that is being developed and have a great interest in it. Even though a company like Bioware wants as much input from the gaming community, be it, good or bad, info won't come out any faster.
lets hope we get invited to beta at pax!!
dunno but 1st picture got me to Star Wars mood,then came 2nd cartoony crap and 3rd happysinging blumgrablorr from wow which killed it.
Generation P
And that's why I don't even watch movie trailers anymore, no expectations, no disapointments!
Hope this comes out April please!
"Talking when ready" means zero. For who defines "ready"? What IS ready? When it launches? When a feature does not undergo any more change? So you say, when it is good. But what IS good? When can you talk about ANY feature and NOT have SOME controversy? Well, never actually.
Talking when ready just means: we talk about when you hear us talking about. Meaning that the phrase means in fact nothing.
Besides: showing stuff about a game in development does no harm. It is the fans themselves and their attitude which does the damage. Buy the hype or don't. It's up to YOU not to be fooled.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
The developers define it, it is their game after all. Why would you even remotely think it should be deicded by the customer?
None of us are currently paying for the game, so we have no right to demand anything.
Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.
I don't care who defines it. It means nothing either way. I am just amused how humans ponder over empty phrases so often, teh. Like most PR blah blah.
"We want to show our best", "interacting with customer feedback", "when it's ready"... all empty PR blah blah essentially meaning zilch.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
Probably more like July
In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move. - Douglas Adams
There are two stores in the UK quoting 25th March 2011 as release date (Amazon UK and Play.com)
I think they have made the dates up to sell more preorders
I used to visit this site a lot however in recent years it has become the home of negative forum posts, illogical opinions and tantrums so I visit less often.
Played or Beta'd: UO / DAOC / Horizons / EQ2 / DDO / EVE / Archlord / PirateKingsOnline / Tabula Rasa / LOTRO / AOC / Champions / Darkfall / Mortal Online / DCUO / Rift / STO / SWTOR / TSW
How are those empty PR phrases? Saying "when its ready" isn't a PR phrase, its a phrase signifying that something won't happen "until its ready." It means exactly what its phrased to mean and serves that purpose adequately.
It hinges on the basis that they won't show something until they are ready to show it (am I really explaining this?), thats not some crazy PR lingo. What would you rather them say? They are working on a number of features that may not make it into the game, then list those features, then months later list the reasons why they didn't get put into the game?
We've seen that already, its suicide. They release the information when its ready to be released and not because people may whine or cry that they aren't releasing it fast enough.
Good raed. I'm okay with Biowares Philosophy. I think it is better for the community, because it leaves far less to fanboi about, troll about or bicker about. Of course that will escalate when Bioware does release more information that is remarkable, but we're not there yet.
Let the few titles that are coming out before SWTOR attract more deserved attention for the time-being.
Considering how polished the game feels to those who have previewed it at the different conventions, they could easily go into open beta in February and March and release in April and meet the hoped for quarter 1 release date.
Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.
Pretty much what masked stated.
When it's ready: just means when it's far enough in game that we won't take it out. Basically saying, This is how crafting is. We won't change it, it's wysiwig, if they say it's this way, it's this way. It's also the reason we haven't seen any official release on character creation yet. They had to rework it from the ground up. So they didn't talk about it.
Help me Bioware, you're my only hope.
Is ToR going to be good? Dude it's Bioware making a freaking star wars game, all signs point to awesome. -G4tv MMo report.
To me it means that once the feature info is released, that feature will be in the game. It hasn't been finalized or launch ready, but will be in game. So that means it still needs to be tested and re-tested then adjusted, but it will be in the game.
I think that releasing a feature list 12 features long. Then launching with 6 features would do harm. Look at AoC and WAR as an example. You could even throw in Darkfall with what was on it's website vs launch day. Players get dissapointed and it will hurt the game through word of mouth. Many potential players will not even pick it up because of the negativity from missing features that were anounced then not added.
As far as PAX east, I am hoping for both an open beta date and hard launch date. Then maybe some high level raid and PvP footage along with it.
How many people long for that "past, simpler, and better world," I wonder, without ever recognizing the truth that perhaps it was they who were simpler and better, and not the world about them?
R.A.Salvatore
I'd be okay with just saying we are releasing in X time period instead of just a targeted window. Something concrete to know it won't get pushed back.
Help me Bioware, you're my only hope.
Is ToR going to be good? Dude it's Bioware making a freaking star wars game, all signs point to awesome. -G4tv MMo report.
I am still sticking with my May launch prediction to coincide with the original movie launch in may of 1977. But a more narrow target window would be fine by me.
How many people long for that "past, simpler, and better world," I wonder, without ever recognizing the truth that perhaps it was they who were simpler and better, and not the world about them?
R.A.Salvatore
This game isn't even close to being ready for Open Beta yet alone release in Spring 2011. Thats all I'll say.
SOE could take a page from Bioware's book here. Instead of endless stonewalling (and I mean endless) someone official stepped out, told people the truth, which wasn't what the players wanted to hear really, but at least they acknowleded what was going on and gave something to the fans (who aren't even paying customers yet.) Bioware is already ahead of SOE in customer relations and their game isn't even launched yet.
Not that it's any hard task to beat SOE at customer service. Your average fast food resturant is slightly better than SOE. SOE is actually anti-customer for the most part. Carried over from Verant days: 'You should feel lucky to be able to give us money to play OUR game and screw whatever your desires are.'
That attitude is still firmly in place at SOE.
Played: Asheron's Call(still the best fantasy MMO!), EQ1, EQ2, Vanguard, DAoC, Horizons, City of Heroes/Villians, WoW (crap), LOTORO, D&D Online, Eve, Anarchy Online, and still playing SWG daily.
Exactly.
This game is going to be released Q4 2011 at best. It's more like late Q12012 or early Q2 2012.
Gaming since Avalon Hill was making board games.
Played SWG, EVE, Fallen Earth, LOTRO, Rift, Vanguard, WoW, SWTOR, TSW, Tera
Tried Aoc, Aion, EQII, RoM, Vindictus, Darkfail, DDO, GW, PotBS
noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, please April so I can talk my friends out of playing more cruddy Warhammer!
Still excited about this game and reviewing all the informationwe have gotten over the last year makes it even harder to keep my expectations down.
"If half of what you tell me is a lie, how can I believe any of it?"
Yeah, But I think they released too much at the same time and then nothing for a longe period. But I really don't see why people work themselves up for a game that isn't even in beta yet.
Lets chill and give the game a chance when we can try it out.
You know whats gonna happen, they'll give us a release date of July and as it nears July you'll get the dreaded announcement telling us all that it's now been pushed back by 3-4 months in order to have a more polished game at release.
"He's no good to me dead."