9 réponses à ce sujet

[Versus Omnibus]

Before people start shouting, no this isn't another "Bioware never listens" topic (they do listen AND act on requests.) Mostly this topic deals with Chris and his usual reponses to the accusations: "Yes, we are listening."

What really gets me going every time I see responses such as this in any forums is not that it's a lie (Nyreen proves Bioware listens and acts on fan requests); but that Bioware, at least the SP team, rarely if never comment on popular topics and just let the expectations run wild. Like everyone, for whatever reason, expected Nyreen to some how become a new squad member and I have yet to find Bioware saying anywhere this just wasn't going to happen. So what I'm basically saying is while Bioware does listen, their silence on matters are what really tick me off.

I'm not asking for full fledged explainations, just responses such as "We don't plan on adding more squadmates" or "I'm sorry, but the coding in the game just doesn't give us the chance to do that."

I'm pretty sure most the rage would be avoided if Bioware was a little more engaged towards suggestions.

[Jos Hendriks]

SimonTheFrog wrote...
...

And why is it that people are happily twittering their comings and goings but can't be bothered to show up at the official forums? Why the discrepancey here?'

...

The reason is two-fold.
One: My twitter account is my personal account. I'm connected to friends and family with it, and co-workers and whoever wants to follow me. I may occasionally tweet about work-related things, but that doesn't mean it's a work-centric account, or managed from a work perspective.
Two: People here read the forums. Not everyone, not all the time, but we do. Reading the forums versus posting in the forums are 2 vastly different things, however. Anything I post in here I post using my official work account, which means whatever I write will be scrutinized because it's official, and formulating posts takes time.

Additionally, time plays a major factor. When Retaliation came out I spent an hour and a half each morning for a week reading replies and answering questions about the hazard levels and things. That is an hour and a half of my day for a couple replies. It worked out then, but most of the time most of the people here have a lot of work to do, and getting work done gets priority over responding in forum threads. Even this response is taking me about 10 minutes to write that I could've spent finishing logic work so I can go home on time. You can trust that we read these forums though.

I hope that answers your question.

Modifié par Jos Hendriks, 09 novembre 2012 - 01:19 .

[Jos Hendriks]

Mr.BlazenGlazen wrote...

I appreciate the answer. But to me you just pointed out the issue that a lot of us are trying to state this entire time. You and the multiplayer team are hard at work, but you guys balance your time in order to occasionally come to the forums and discuss different topics with people (I think you even had a Q&A in there at one point). Allen, Gaider among others are practically hitting up almost half the threads that get put up in the Dragon Age 3 board, I still don't know how they do it.

I'm not working on multiplayer right now of course, but I see your point.

But its only been since recently that you guys came to the ME3 general, story and discussion boards and reply to a few people. It's one thing to want people to speculate, but it's gotten to the point where all thats left is bickering, arguing, and just general negativity all around. And we've sort of been left to eat each other in the dark pits while you guys are busy in the other boards.

I don't think I'm actively trying to avoid the general/story discussion boards, but it is far easier to reply and comment on things on the multiplayer side of things because it's a different type of work. Every reply I post in a thread that doesn't have the tag yet, that thread gets a BioWare tag on it because it's gotten an official response. 95%+ of all the questions and discussions in the general/story forums are things I cannot give a clear/concise answer on because it's either complicated, or we're working on things I can't discuss, or it's about things I can't discuss, and as much as I'd like to post and share in the discussion, I don't think it's right to tag a thread official when I can't answer the questions asked.

What you did right now (replying to someone's post) is what I generally want to see more of. I know you guys have a busy schedule, but it isn't really busy to the point where you can only post in a forum once every month right?

You tell me. I'm putting in over 40 hours on average a week, and this past week has been a bit crazy because of deadlines. Most of that time goes towards developing things and writing logic etc. Now imagine I have to sacrifice an hour a day to give a worthy/comprehensive/truthful/helpful response to 1-3 threads. That is 12.5% of my working time a week, which in turn means I'd get less done, things take longer to get finished, people get annoyed because they have to speculate longer or wait for more SP or MP DLC longer, and then posting topics asking why it's taking so damn long or why we're abandoning our game. 

You're right, we probably could repond a bit more, but it's not a very simple situation.  (Worth nothing: I'm writing this post from home, on my own time in the weekend, because I need the time at work to make cool things for you guys and gals)

[Jessica Merizan]

SimonTheFrog wrote...

And if the moderator say things like: we only want nice and calm discussions than yes, sure they want that, who doesn't like nice and calm? But that is not realistic. You have to see that not everything BioWare does is awesome, especially  when it comes to promising features and hyping a product and then delivering something different entirely. BioWare is making mistakes like everybody else and if these mistakes make people angry then there is angry feedback. That's just the way feedback works.

And like I said, BioWare simply can't expect only nice and calm. And they shouldn't. Sure I can see how that is annoying but there you go.

One of the reasons that I am less active on the BSN right now is that we are working on improving our community site, which will in turn help us better connect employees with fans, and fans with other fans. You might recall we asked people a month or so ago to help us with this process by participating in an online survey. We will continue working on these improvements so I ask that you be patient and continue submitting feedback until we're ready to roll out these new developments. 

In the meantime, I'd like to ask you to re-think the way you engage online. Yes, it is realistic to expect people to be nice and calm. If you had a dispute at a restaurant, would you start throwing your food at the waiter and literally flip a table? No. Despite your anger, you would either work things out with the staff or you would not return. Causing a scene would get you arrested IRL. 

I don't think asking you to behave the way you would if you were speaking to us face-to-face is too much to ask. It might take a few slip ups, but we're all working together to make this happen. Please think of the BSN as a restaurant or someone's house. We're happy to have you here and will gladly serve you, but your participation here is permitted as long as you follow the rules (our TOS/Site Rules). If a metaphorical table is flipped, or vase is broken, just as with someone's house or business establishment, you will be asked to leave. 

Again, I hear the OP and people commenting, and we are working hard to create an environment where you can give us constructive feedback (negative and positive) in a polite manner, we can disagree but still be on the same side at the end of the day, and we can ideally be more forthcoming about information. 

EDIT: I don't want anyone to read this and think I'm "blaming" you guys. In fact, it's our fault for not building processes so you don't feel chronic frustration. We want to connect fans with developers more and vice versa - but we want to do it in a way that is safe and positive for everyone. I know asking for patience is frustrating, but we don't want to rush this. I'm happy to answer any questions about the future of community that anyone has in a seperate thread/PM/Twitter so this thread doesn't get derailed <3

Modifié par Jessica Merizan, 12 novembre 2012 - 06:30 .

[Jessica Merizan]

Mr.BlazenGlazen wrote...

Well, with all due respect Jessica you can't expect everyone here to be nice and calm. Especially after what happened regarding the Mass Effect endings (even with the Extended Cut in place). For a lot of us, Mass Effect is a part of our lives. If you guys decide to do something that will deeply upset us, we are going to voice our displeasure one way or another. You can't just say "If you don't like it, then leave" like a restaurant manager would say to a unsatisfied customer. This is much more than just a restaurant. I am deeply invested in the characters and universe that you guys created (which includes shepard).

So if I say "_______ really ruins the Mass Effect universe. Why would they even do that?" You can't just tell me to leave and move on to something else, because I simply won't and suggesting so will just make me more upset.

You are misunderstanding what I am saying. You can voice your displeasure. But you must do so in a polite and calm manner. The lines of communication cannot be opened without a mutual respect for one another. That's dev - fan and fan -  fan. You can be upset, you can be critical, but you have to do so with consideration for others and civility. 

Modifié par Jessica Merizan, 12 novembre 2012 - 08:17 .

[Jessica Merizan]

Fandango9641 wrote...

I think there’s plenty of value in having a good old fashioned rant; particularly as a consumer. I mean, without the huge outpouring of discontent and dissatisfaction following the release of ME3, would we have got the EC?

And as for questionable behaviour - exactly where does lying to ones fanbase rank?

Feedback that wasn't constructive was thrown out - the EC was based on constructive criticism. Nothing wrong with a good old fashioned rant as long as its civil and polite. But we will not be open for discourse nor put developers in a position where people resort to base insults. We'll work on creating processes to facilitate good discussions and the proper kinds of rant, as well as teaching people how to articulate themselves constructively. I don't think asking fans who want to communicate with devs and have their questions answered to particpate in civil discourse is too much to ask. 

[Jessica Merizan]

Fandango9641 wrote...

I can accept that Jessica, but let’s just remember that respect is a two way street and misrepresenting a product prior to release will likely lead to a harsh word or three (and with good reason). In any case, kudos to you for offering your thoughts on the BSN - it's appreciated.

Going back to the OP's request - very often, we are quiet about things because change is inevitable and we don't want to say something that could become untrue later. I can't speak for everyone in the studio, but the community team is taking extra care to ensure that everything we say from this point out is accurate and fixed information. Unfortunately, it means we won't comment on something or we have to let people speculate. And as frustrating as that is, it's out of respect. Re-building rapport and trust with you guys is important to me and the team. 

[Jessica Merizan]

Delerius_Jedi wrote...

If your intent is to make the BSN a better place for discussions, the developers in charge need to be willing to come on here, be honest about what their intent on certain issues were and maybe even acknowledge that people who did not share their specific interpretation of the material, ended up with content that ended up contradicting the rest of their experience. It's the only way to clear the air.

Yup, our intention is to build the processes and structures in order to facilitate that and more direct communication between everyone in the studio and the fans. That will hopefully address the OP's concern as well as some related issues that are popping up in this thread and others. Hopefully, I'll be able to speak more directly about this project in the near future - but it's not a small task. 

I do appreciate all the feedback on this and I hope you guys are open to the idea that we're at least all on the same side here. :happy:

[Lion Martinez]

Hi guys,

Please remember that the community team is part of BioWare, an integral part in fact. And as we listen and bring your feedback to the producers and designers, BioWare is listening and reacting to your needs.

I understand that you would like more interaction from people like Casey. However also please understand that these guys's work load is massive. It's easy to think that taking a few minutes to post something would be simple enough but since whatever they say have a huge impact it's hard to find time to be as detailed and correct as you would expect along with staying for the conversation when they also need to be able to go home and see family and friends just like the rest of us when they can.

I know for a fact though that the producers and designers carry a genuine interest and we do get asked spontaneous questions around the hall ways about what you the fans are saying and wanting. This outside regular internal communications.

I emplore you to keep giving us feedback on all areas and we will make sure to make our best efforts to meet your expectations.

[Lion Martinez]

RKB28 wrote...



Yep, pretty much this. Right now I don´t belive a word they say. An example is Omega. On one interview one guy says that it´s 5 hours long. The same guy to a diferent site says 4 hours.


So I guess the best guess is 2 hours?

Omega plays over 4-5 hours depending on how you play. Just as a magazine can be "read" in 10 minutes, it will take ten times as long if you actually read every article through, Mass Effect is x long if you decide to play it like an action game but go through all the conversations and search through everything it's much much longer.

I don't think Omega can be completed faster than 4 hours. I'm sure you can power through it faster if you're a hardcore gamer but what would be the point of that?