(Wrote this on the official forum, but wanted to share it here too for discussion.)

I know, Bioware, you prolly don't want discussions about single employees of your company. Usually an understandable policy. But there comes a point, where the verbal output of a singular person starts to damage the reputation and agitate the public, even involuntary, and I think this is the case here. Let me make it clear: I think the damage some wording of Mr. Erickson in recent months has needlessly agitated people, where a more PR-friendly way to say things would have helped.

So often these days when I hear another interview with Daniel Erickson, I feel my neck swell in anger and the adrenaline rush into my veins, thinking WTH ... did he just really say that? And I don't think that is something that works good on SWTOR, since the word of mouth in the community has a great weight. Once a MMORPG has gotten into a negative view among the community, it gets very difficult to change that view later on, no matter how good a game might be. And here, this damage is done day by day.

It starts with comments like Mr. Erickson's explanation why they did not include really alien races. The wording "our average customer can not imagine what it is to be a freaky alien" sounded very derogatory towards the potential customers, and I can't imagine a worse way to essentially say that the fans are unimaginative dimwits. Or at least it sounds like that.

Then the romance talk and his saying "if you can't imagine to date Princess Leia you prolly can't play SWTOR." BLAM. Another shot in the knee of the fans. I mean... doesn't anyone go to Mr. Erickson and tell him how very arrogant and mean such a statement sounds?

And the same to the defense of the Space part: We don't make space sims, blam, end of debate. I mean, what sort of explanation is that? We did not want to make feature X, explanation: it does not fit our "vision". And in the end, it always sounds like "we know better than you what is good for you".



I really don't write this to flame a Bioware employee. But maybe the inside structures of Bioware are so, that such a high up manager isn't critizised from other people inside the company, I dunno. But what I DO KNOW is, that Mr. Erickson must be made aware that many of his wordings are bad choices, made to further fan the flames, and that for the goodness of SWTOR he either is coached in speaking in interviews or, as most companies do, for the love of the force, take some PR person who is educated in giving interviews! He may be a great creative director, but public relations keeping isn't a sort you can practice as a hobby!

I know you are going to close this thread, but maybe you realize how much the public opinion is shifting these days against SWTOR. From the moody reactions of Bioware employees I get the feeling the nerves are blank now, so as a person, I can understand you feel defiant and "misunderstood" and sometimes it may seem to you we who critizise things are just "evil flamers and trolls". And alas, many fans do their job to keep up that image.

This is a warning shot, meant to wake you up. You are doing some things wrong, both in terms of PR and in terms of "freedom" in your games.  The winds are changing, and not in your favour. As someone who loves Star Wars for 25 years and who was a Bioware fan since the days of Baldurs Gate, I tell you: accept the critique. Do not brush it off. You change the way you talk to your fans, and you change the way you are doing things. When many people are so vocal with critique, you can't seriously brush it all off as flaming and ignoramasus. There is something serious going on here. I thought I owed you the honesty for all the great games you made in the past, but I will not go further into troubled waters and display myself any more beyond that to fanboi flames.

Consider yourself warned from a friend.

Wow. That really, really must have been the shortest leaving I have ever seen, it has barely been a few weeks?

I'm sorry, I know you mean well and that you in your own way want  to see a successful next SW MMO that you like to play, but you actively posting makes your former dramatic announcement of leaving the SW:TOR forums of a few weeks ago look like the actions of a drama queen.

No offense meant, but don't you think yourself that it's far from steadfast and a bit inconsistent? I'd suggest to refrain from such 'leaving' announcements in the future. As far as I read your open letter here, you basically went back to the same rehashed topics that stood at the base of your decision to 'leave' a few weeks back.

As someone on your thread on the SW:TOR forums commented:

'Dont shoot the messenger. Doesnt really matter who says it or how its worded if you dont like the game concept.'

Basically, you don't like the game concept that they're mentioning, and that's why you already don't like the message.

I'm rather hoping that was sarcasm.  If those are real complaints then you may want to back off from video games for a bit and get some perspective.  None of the comments you posted seem all that arrogant or offensive to me, plus I'm not sure bioware is really monitoring mmorpg.com.

I'm pretty sure that they aren't adding the freaky alien races as playable characters because it requires too much work to incorporate... better to just take the human models, add some horns, color it red or attach some doo-dads and just call it something else.  I've yet to see anything at all that actually impresses me about this game.

We get it already!  You hate the game.  But we all know we'll still see you on launch day.  You better tell us what server you will be playing on, as I want to avoid it like the plague.  I think you need to look at yourself in the mirror and say "Why am I being so stressed out over a game that I don't want to play?"

I don't think DE hasn't said anything wrong.  He's not telling us what's good for us.  he tells us the design choices they have made.  He also wouldn't say players don't connect with strange alien races without some kind of research to back it up.  Take Star Trek for example, almost all the aliens are extremely human-like and yet it is a very big IP.

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Originally posted by augustgrace
plus I'm not sure bioware is really monitoring mmorpg.com.

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He posted it on the SWTOR site, which I'm sure they do pay attention to. The only reasons to post it here, are to say "look at me", to be a drama queen, or to rally people to his point of view. If he was honest I think he'd admit that.

Thing is, if you look at the populations of MMO's, it's probably a very small percentage of MMO players who ever spend time at a site like this, and it's probably a harder core audience here than make up most game populations. Frankly, I've never thought that SWTOR was aimed at the audience who'd frequent this site. Compare it to the opinion of WoW, where most folks here have a distaste towards it here, but millions play it. Most of those millions dont know, and dont care what people here say, its fun to them, so they roll with it.

People are going to play what makes 'em happy, and not every game will suit every player, and nor should it.

More drama for no apparent reason.  Daniel Erickson is by far my favorite when it comes to getting information about the game.  I don't even need to bother making a detailed response,  if you posted this on TOR forums you're probably already getting ripped apart enough.  When it comes to TOR, the explanations of whats going on and the design features behind it,  DE is the best there is, hands down.  I don't think he should be held responsible for peoples emotional responses due to whatever they decide to dislike at that particular moment.

Originally posted by red_cruiser

I'm pretty sure that they aren't adding the freaky alien races as playable characters because it requires too much work to incorporate... better to just take the human models, add some horns, color it red or attach some doo-dads and just call it something else.  I've yet to see anything at all that actually impresses me about this game.

 Yea, like they don't have wookies in the game.   The problem is they would have to make whole new story lines just for these species.  Some of the stories have romantic themes to them, so a wookie kissing on a human chick may not work out too well.

This is all fine with me. There are plenty of games that are JUST like this when it comes to character selection and nobody seems to be too concerned about it.

Originally posted by maskedweasel

More drama for no apparent reason.  Daniel Erickson is by far my favorite when it comes to getting information about the game.  I don't even need to bother making a detailed response,  if you posted this on TOR forums you're probably already getting ripped apart enough.  When it comes to TOR, the explanations of whats going on and the design features behind it,  DE is the best there is, hands down.  I don't think he should be held responsible for people emotional responses due to whatever they decide to dislike at that particular moment.

His post on the TOR forums hit 3 pages before they closed it.  He got a lot of responses just like the ones he got here.

(Mod Edited)

It's their game, they can make it anyway they wish. If they want to not add alien playable races, they don't have to. Who cares how they word things about their decisions involving their game. What exactly did you expect to change by making that post both there and here? Even more so for posting it here since the only possible thing you can hope to accomplish is a pat on the back from someone else who feels the way you do. Clearly posting this here will change nothing.

Either you're so offended that you won't by the game, in which case you are sending a real message. Or you will just buy the game no matter what decisions they make and how they choose to explain those decisions, in which case you've sent the message that they can do what they want and you'll still give them money.

I honestly feel that Mr. Erickson is not as bad as it sounds in this open letter, but that is of course only my opinion. I see him as a man that likes to joke and he is quite good at it. Problem is that I am not liking the direction the game goes in terms of many things, but I have no problems with his answers either when fans ask about this. It is just his ways of saying he cannot tell anymore or "sorry, but that is not how this game is going to work.".

I rather listen to someone telling me how it is wrapped up in a joke than like many developers that say exactly what people want to hear and then it turns out, when the game is released, that it was not like that at all. Warhammer was like that in my opinion. Sometimes it felt like the developers were afraid to tell the fans that some things were not in the game or sometimes they just hyped things that were far from as good as they were sounding when presented.

I don't think he is ignorant to BWs fans but perhaps he is not trained to do the job he is doing? That is a good thing in my opinion because listen to the trained PR-guys in many other games is just plain boring when they know exactly how to answer a question to avoid telling something about the game that they don't want to. I much rather take Mr Ericksons jokes than that.

I thought you were done with this game Elikal?

Originally posted by Baikal

 

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Originally posted by augustgrace
plus I'm not sure bioware is really monitoring mmorpg.com.

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He posted it on the SWTOR site, which I'm sure they do pay attention to. The only reasons to post it here, are to say "look at me", to be a drama queen, or to rally people to his point of view. If he was honest I think he'd admit that.

Thing is, if you look at the populations of MMO's, it's probably a very small percentage of MMO players who ever spend time at a site like this, and it's probably a harder core audience here than make up most game populations. Frankly, I've never thought that SWTOR was aimed at the audience who'd frequent this site. Compare it to the opinion of WoW, where most folks here have a distaste towards it here, but millions play it. Most of those millions dont know, and dont care what people here say, its fun to them, so they roll with it.

People are going to play what makes 'em happy, and not every game will suit every player, and nor should it.

 +1

I think you've nailed it right on the head.  Considering how many millions of people play the wide variety of MMO's currently in the marketplace, compared to how few actually post in forums such as these (and those at other sites), I've always strongly suspected that the "discussions" in these forums, represent nothing more than a very (very) vocal minority.  Anybody who cares enough about MMO's to actually visit/read/post to forums such as these is most like "hard core" in one respect or another, and that doesn't necessarily reflect an accurate representation of your "average" gamer (i.e. 80% + of your paying subscribers).  Of the people that I game with, I'm literally the only one who visits any MMO site at all.

Also realize that companies like BioWare actually do market research... I'm sure there's data to support every decision that they've made about the game up to this point.  

So even IF 100% of the MMORPG.com community actually agreed with the OP, that's still probably a fraction of a fraction of a percent of the eventual user base.

  Come on now - we ALL know that Aliens are going to be in there, they will be OP - and only available in the Cash $hop :D!!!!!

Originally posted by cyphers

Wow. That really, really must have been the shortest leaving I have ever seen, it has barely been a few weeks?

 

I'm sorry, I know you mean well and that you in your own way want  to see a successful next SW MMO that you like to play, but you actively posting makes your former dramatic announcement of leaving the SW:TOR forums of a few weeks ago look like the actions of a drama queen.

No offense meant, but don't you think yourself that it's far from steadfast and a bit inconsistent? I'd suggest to refrain from such 'leaving' announcements in the future. As far as I read your open letter here, you basically went back to the same rehashed topics that stood at the base of your decision to 'leave' a few weeks back.

 

As someone on your thread on the SW:TOR forums commented:

'Dont shoot the messenger. Doesnt really matter who says it or how its worded if you dont like the game concept.'

 

Basically, you don't like the game concept that they're mentioning, and that's why you already don't like the message.

 Wow I couldn't get through one response without reading exactly what I was going to say.  I read the op's post (don't know about his history on the TOR forums though) and it honestly just reaks of not liking the message much more than a case of something being wrong with the way he said anything.

Even though my feeling is that the op is more insulted that things aren't being done in a way he feels acceptible I don't begrudge him the right to be bothered by what the guy says so in that regards I say don't listen to him then.

I was a NCsoft/Cryptic fan since COH but Jack Emmert always rubbed me wrong with his commentary (more often than not because I just thought the ideas he talked about sucked) but that didn't stop me from playing COH or trying STO (which I hated) I just stopped listening to the guy because I thought him a tool who really couldn't dev his way out of a wet paper bag but must have been damn good at school work to get where he is.

I love Star Wars and am pretty amped for the game myself but truth be told I don't waste my time hanging on the every word of the devs and this is coming from someone who will play the game no matter what.  OP just tune it all out if when the game releases you still don't like what it has to offer don't play it or even better do like I did with STO, buy the damn thing then quit and take your greenback given right to complain about how bad the game is and how wrong Erickson was with all the drivel he spoke.

The OP has all the rights to find Mr. Erickson arrogant, though I think this is a good case of nitpicking over quotes taken from interviews. It also sounds like "I want a new game and Star Wars is a good intellectual property... b-b-but it's not going to have the features I want so I'm gonna bash on it and its representatives!"

I'm going to play the devil's advocate and say that sometimes, game developers have to make certain choice to build a good product within allowed time and budget. In fact, some of the latest AAA MMO releases didn't meet expectations because they failed to keep their product within a scope, allowing their designers to do whatever they want... which often leads to incomplete vital features and a whole lot of 'nice to have' also half implemented stuff.

This doesn't mean devs are always right in their feature prioritization, and it doesn't say not to provide any suggestions. Though bashing on the game or nitpicking interview quotes is not the way to do it.

OMG BIOWAREZ LIKE CONSIDER YOURSELF WARNED AND STUFF!

Am i the only one who laughed hard after reading this, hahaha. I know i am a nerd and a geek but some people out there are king of nerds. Whoever wrote that really really need to get a life.

http://www.nooooooooooooooo.com/

Originally posted by Elikal

Consider yourself warned from a friend.

Lol wut?

If only my signature could hold so many words i would insert your entire post in it. It would keep me entertained whenever i am feeling depressed.