Many other people are going to comment correctly on the imbalances to the new game, but I want to ask a few more general questions that highlight my concerns over SOE's corporate responsibility to its customers. Or at least puts the focus on the Austin dev team and the SOE SWG business unit in this deployment:
1) Lack of Quality of Online Service:
Firstly, SOE_SWG does not seem to have a corporate policy on deploying well tested software. The fact it can repeatedly over 2 years release patches and now this upgrade that not only have many defects, but also have obvious and fundamental imbalances in its design, is very concerning. The SOE_SWG business unit does not seem to appreciate they are providing a pre-paid online subscription service. That kind of business requires close to 24x7 availability, adequate ommunication of schedule, and content that is supposed to match the published rules and advertised features. Players who are dealing with this poor release have already paid to do so -- there is no compensation for downtime or for extra time required with their accounts from imbalances. A few weeks into the EQ2 launch this Oct. when a substantial outage occurred, John Smedley updated that community and provided 1 week free game time. Since SWG's launch, Smedley has never once communicated directly to the SWG community (probably because of the equivocal ownership by LucasArts) and there has been no communication from anyone at SOE_SWG on when they will resolve the current series of game breaking problems. Players are left with the feeling that SOE_SWG is more interested
in launching its paid expansion next week than worrying about the current quality of service. That essentially SOE_SWG will resolve current defects and allow for a prolongued analysis and series of patches to maybe correct imbalances at SOE's convenience. This is very odd to me, that a business based on pre-paid subscriptions would not make an effort to ensure its customers were well informed and reasonably confident so they would continue to renew. If the game is unplayable now (as I feel it is for me), why would I renew? What confidence and incentive do I have that things will get better?
My general point is that AOL, MSN, Earthlink, NCSoft, Mythic, Blizzard... any other provider I'm experienced with that sells access and online content has never allowed for any upgrade I know of without good availability or compensation (of some kind), good documentation of the changes and schedule, good turnaround in correcting reported defects by their members and imbalances. This is singularly the opposite experience many players currently feel with SOE_SWG.
2) Lack of Customer Support Materials:
The second area that really concerns me is the lack of any HELP File or clear supporting documentation. There are no descriptions with accompanying visual explanation of any of the new combat features or changes in the game content. No flash tutorials, no image overview, just text descriptions that discuss what is intended to be implemented. Only today (April 30) was listed in the forums the links for several pages that only textually outline how some of the new combat occurs. But there is still no comprehensive list and descriptions for what any of the new craftable items do (like medical enhancers). The in-game HELP only contains one poorly worded and formatted paragraph that ignores several key features and has no mention of any of the new content.
When I called SOE support asking for a HELP overview, the CSR referred me to the forums to check players posts. To me this is ridiculous and unrealistic, since those boards are now filled with angry protests and complaints. After another expensive call to California from the East Coast, I was told again to review other players descriptions in the forums. I don't think it's reasonable for players to spend their personal time combing through rants to find
someone's opinion of how the game now works -- players don't opera
Slashdot Mirror
1) Lack of Quality of Online Service:
Firstly, SOE_SWG does not seem to have a corporate policy on deploying well tested software. The fact it can repeatedly over 2 years release patches and now this upgrade that not only have many defects, but also have obvious and fundamental imbalances in its design, is very concerning. The SOE_SWG business unit does not seem to appreciate they are providing a pre-paid online subscription service. That kind of business requires close to 24x7 availability, adequate ommunication of schedule, and content that is supposed to match the published rules and advertised features. Players who are dealing with this poor release have already paid to do so -- there is no compensation for downtime or for extra time required with their accounts from imbalances. A few weeks into the EQ2 launch this Oct. when a substantial outage occurred, John Smedley updated that community and provided 1 week free game time. Since SWG's launch, Smedley has never once communicated directly to the SWG community (probably because of the equivocal ownership by LucasArts) and there has been no communication from anyone at SOE_SWG on when they will resolve the current series of game breaking problems. Players are left with the feeling that SOE_SWG is more interested in launching its paid expansion next week than worrying about the current quality of service. That essentially SOE_SWG will resolve current defects and allow for a prolongued analysis and series of patches to maybe correct imbalances at SOE's convenience. This is very odd to me, that a business based on pre-paid subscriptions would not make an effort to ensure its customers were well informed and reasonably confident so they would continue to renew. If the game is unplayable now (as I feel it is for me), why would I renew? What confidence and incentive do I have that things will get better?
My general point is that AOL, MSN, Earthlink, NCSoft, Mythic, Blizzard... any other provider I'm experienced with that sells access and online content has never allowed for any upgrade I know of without good availability or compensation (of some kind), good documentation of the changes and schedule, good turnaround in correcting reported defects by their members and imbalances. This is singularly the opposite experience many players currently feel with SOE_SWG.
2) Lack of Customer Support Materials:
The second area that really concerns me is the lack of any HELP File or clear supporting documentation. There are no descriptions with accompanying visual explanation of any of the new combat features or changes in the game content. No flash tutorials, no image overview, just text descriptions that discuss what is intended to be implemented. Only today (April 30) was listed in the forums the links for several pages that only textually outline how some of the new combat occurs. But there is still no comprehensive list and descriptions for what any of the new craftable items do (like medical enhancers). The in-game HELP only contains one poorly worded and formatted paragraph that ignores several key features and has no mention of any of the new content.
When I called SOE support asking for a HELP overview, the CSR referred me to the forums to check players posts. To me this is ridiculous and unrealistic, since those boards are now filled with angry protests and complaints. After another expensive call to California from the East Coast, I was told again to review other players descriptions in the forums. I don't think it's reasonable for players to spend their personal time combing through rants to find someone's opinion of how the game now works -- players don't opera