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a baseline fun level. We're not there yet. We know that.
sickboy_ukuk
Member Posts: 26
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Distiler wrote:
"I'm going to call you out on this - I'm going to say you are flat out incorrect on this. Our communication has been terrific. I can't say you neccessarily like what we've been saying, but I think our community people and our devs have been much more active than before. I never liked that system of correspondents before (they did a great job..don't get me wrong) but I prefer direct communication.
Smed"
Who is giving you the reports about how is community going ? cause it's really lying to you.
Salute.
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The truth is the community morale won't improve until the game does. Communication can't fix this. Improvements to the game can. The fact is our communication has improved.. people don't neccessarily like the message is all. I get that. So do our community folks. My preference is that all the posts in the gameplay forum are discussing gameplay balance.. and in-game issues.. but they won't until we get the game to a baseline fun level. We're not there yet. We know that. We're working to fix it. There is no other answer.
Smed
so what is he saying eh, the games crap and we know it?
Comments
You know, this set of Smed quotes, and others from the same forum are popping up like mushrooms over on the station forums, along with a host of new questions and pleas for the Smed, a gaggle of pats on Smed's back for stepping up the communications between SWG players and SOE and the ubiquitous spatter of comparisons of his post counts on some guild's forums vs his postcount on the station forums.
I know I can't possibly be the only person skeptical of some of his supposed claims made on an unofficial forum, even if they DO reek of his habitual arrogance and bullshit cologne. But let's assume that the poster is indeed the same John Smedley who is running SWG into the ground through repeated game restructures and content removal and look at the one tackled here:
The truth is the community morale won't improve until the game does.
This is typical of Smed's lack of understanding of the SWG game community. It is, at best only half true, much like the majority of what he says regarding SWG. Considering the fact that general community morale can't get much lower than it is at this time, there are plenty of things that SOE and Smed could do to improve that morale to buy them the sorely needed time to improve the game.
Communication can't fix this. Improvements to the game can.
Sadly, it is a belief on the part of SOE's SWG people that communication can't fix anything for them that has been a major stumbling block to their being able to improve the game. Communication suggests that both parties are relaying and recieving information and that there is an understanding between them. This has NOT been the case in the time that I was a player, and seems to have gotten worse after I stopped paying them to shit on me. Good communications between SOE and its SWG customer base are CRUCIAL to its being able to improve the game and improvement of the game is CRUCIAL to its being able to maintain proper communication with its customer base. These two factors are completely interdependant.
The fact is our communication has improved.. people don't neccessarily like the message is all. I get that. So do our community folks.
I find this statement to be laughable at best. When the president of the company percieved to be the sole link between the SWG customer base and the companies developing and producing the game seems to be answering more questions and delivering more information to a guild forum than he does on the official game forums, that can harldy be spun to be any kind of improvement to communications.
Acknowledging that people don't like what you are saying and doing isn't communicating anything but the fact that you know that you're pissing them off. Extending that blanket to cover community relations employees further deepens an impression that while their words might not entirely be falling on deaf ears, they still don't count for anything to the company whose product they are paying to recieve. This isn't really communication. It's too one-sided to qualify and demonstrates that the quoted not only doesn't know how to actually communicate but that his interperetation of communication is shared by his staff.
This is FAR from an improvement in communications.
My preference is that all the posts in the gameplay forum are discussing gameplay balance.. and in-game issues..
Unfortunately, Smedley's preferences are painfully obviously out of touch with those of the people who are still paying for his product in hopes that improvements will happen. He fails to understand the relevance of related out of game issues in the concerns of the paying customer. This is not merely unfortunate, it's disasterous for those who have stuck with the game in hopes of getting what they originally paid for back, even in small and re-engineered pieces. And frankly, when discussions of gameplay balance and ingame issues are deleted and locked as they so often are, people get tired of doing the company's work for them while paying for something they are not actually recieving (a "complete", polished and well made game), they will inevitably find something else to discuss on the forums, which their monthly payments grant them access to use.
but they won't until we get the game to a baseline fun level. We're not there yet. We know that. We're working to fix it. There is no other answer.
Now this is the hot statement that everyone else is going to focus on, trying either to use it to support cases for or against the game. Personally, I find this to be very un-Smed-like and am disinclined to give the entire series of posts much weight based upon this one snippet alone. Smedley is notorious for his status as a WoW player, granted, but he spends far too much time trying to give the new systems in SWG a positive spin to make such a statement. Saying right out that NGE hasn't even hit the baseline for fun IS saying that the NGE sucks.
If Smedley DID indeed say this, then he has no recourse to reverting the game back to either a CU or pre-CU state. We all know, whether we like it or not, that this is something he will never do. Some of us suspect he'd leave his job before allowing such a thing to happen. So why is this statement here? Everything that led up to this very hot "admission" is typical Smed-eque fuckalottacustomerwhining pap. But this one little nugget is just exceptional.
THAT is what has me scratching MY head.
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Kote lo'shebs'ul narit
What is so hard about linking to where the quotes were pulled from? Reading them in the context of the original thread would be helpful to distinguish if some of his comments are as shocking as they appear to be.
-d
Waiting on: Pirates of the Burning Sea and Pirates of the Carribean Online
Allow me to respectfully disagree with your point here - Star Wars as an IP is every bit as capable of delivering a WoW level audience. The reason it isn't is the game needs to be that good. No, not the SAME game.. but it needs to be that good and polished. Everyone thinks we are trying to make SWG like WoW or EQ2. That's completely not the case. Yes, we're going to a more rigid class based system and are doing more linear content.. but that's where the similarities end IMO. In theory we still have an incredibly deep and rich system based MMO that can deliver some world class gameplay once we live up to your expectations.
Smed
I feel sorry for all the idiots still paying for this game. The CEO or whatever is telling you the game sucks and you're paying to beta test.
Believe or not, for some people it's all about the fun they are experiencing and not at all about how much fun people are telling them they're having or supposed to be having. You could strip this game down to just the chat features and some of these "idiots" would still have enough creativity and imagination to continue having $15 a month fun.
Just another rumor I've heard,
-d
Waiting on: Pirates of the Burning Sea and Pirates of the Carribean Online
I've said it before and I'll say it again....
All these posts say is: "We'll have this mess fixed... Eventually... Please stay tuned and don't forget to pay your subscriptions."
SOE knows what you like... You don't!
And don't forget... I am forcing you to read this!
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=swggpdiscussion&message.id=633182#M633182
There's the smoking gun. He keeps digging deeper and deeper.
You know what? If they ACTUALLY knew what the community wanted, they'd have rolled it back in December. They don't care what the community wants, they care what a mythical community they are GOING to get wants.
And in Fantasyland, that community can be whatever they dream.
Shayde - SWG (dead)
Proud member of the Cabal.
It sounds great, so great in fact, I pitty those who canceled
I don't like it when you say things. - A Vanguard fan who does too.
09f911029d74e35bd84156c5635688c0
I agree there, but would push it even further.
If they actually knew what the community wanted, there would have never been an NGE, there would have never been a CU as we saw it done, if they did what the community originally wanted, they would have followed the stickied profession issues threads and fixed the original game.
IF THEY WANT 2 FIX GAME THEY BEST BRING BACK PRE-CU CUZ DAT IS WHAT MADE SWG COOL. I WANT MY GAME BACK NOW I WANT PRE-CU BACK IN OR I WANT $WG GONE.
DO U UNDERSTAND SMED I KNOW U READ THIS FOURM WE WANT PRE-CU NOT THIS NOOB CRAP U R FORCE FEEDING US I AM THE LEADER HERE ON THE MMORPG FOURMS I AM A GOD OF SWG AND U BEST BRING BACK PRE-CU THATS WHAT WE WANT WE DON'T WANT STAR WARS WE WANT THE GODDAMN PRE-CU AND WE WANT IT BY MAY U OR $OE GOING DOWN
CAN U DIG IT!!!!