When Did Friday Updates Become Irrelevant?
After a news-full convention season things have calmed down to the point where regular Friday updates, that the SWTOR community team releases regularly, are becoming a source of frustration rather than source of much needed revelation. In the past weeks we had a new playable planet, Ilum, revealed. We got to view a new entry in Timeline holorecord about the fall of Exar Kun. This Friday was October Fan Friday filled with great community creations, another developer corner and some new avatars and smileys (Ithorians are so cool I had to include the image of the smileys above) for the official forums. Some new character biographies were also revealed.
Guess what – no one seem to care! The community is in a bit of an uproar. With the advertised release date looming ever closer (6-8 months) people are starting to be anxious wanting to find out about core and important game mechanics. We are still missing info on most advanced classes specifics, detailed combat mechanics, end game options, playable species, PvP, crafting, companion mechanics and this is just to name a few of the more important things. Why does the community think that revelation of this information ASAP is so important?
I remember both World of Warcraft and Lord of the Rings Online had extensive closed beta tests for up to a year prior to game’s launch. In these tests rather large portions of the most dedicated members of the community and beta testers constantly provided in depth feedback, based on which developers modified their concepts. Whether this just meant tweaks or completely abandoning certain features it was all done before things were set in stone. With only 6-8 months remaining before the game is supposed to hit the shelves and none of this community-development process interaction happening people are becoming worried. By the way, LOTRO had one of the most successful MMO launches in the history (not in numbers, but in stability and richness of content and features) and we all know about WoW.
I would suggest reading Jedi Archive Online’s article on the subject or visiting Part 2 of a thread on the official forums aptly titled “Bioware, I’m rooting for you, but you’re shooting yourself in the foot” to read more about these concerns.
3 Responses to “When Did Friday Updates Become Irrelevant?”
Honestly I think this is Bioware’s inexperience in the MMO market showing it’s true colors. They are doling out information like they have in the past with all there First Person titles, and they are also communicating to the potential paying public the same way they did and are still doing so with those said games.
People seem to have forgotten how Bioware treated them when DragonAge or MassEffect was released and people couldn’t even play the games? Does anyone remember the DLC safu’s in ALL there games? You buy the DLC, can’t play it and then you are forced to use the EA support ticket system.
The majority of the population on the main ToR forums have the fanboi blinders on and are not listening to reason, and at this point Bioware can do no wrong and if anyone speaks out about them get ready for hell on earth, for the flames will cometh!
I can’t remember when we saw anything about real game mechanics.
I want the info… but i want to let BW decide what they wanna give to us..
I Think the update quality is way better then before E3.. its been amazing since then and i have no idea where all the complain is coming from.. give them some time! They already showed a lot.. Yeah i also wanna see some game systems.. learn about crafting PvP and Pve.. but it will take time =D
I believe they read the threads and i Believe they will give us some nice info when its ready..
many thanks to you Mikro for providing a link in this article..
Greetings,
Tim Skijwalker
I gotta feeling next friday will be asum! (Fingers crossed)
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