Quote instinks Quote: Originally Posted by Are we even sure they listen to what we suggest? really....because they asked us on the Aussie serves what we would prefer...to move to the Asia Pacific servers? or to merge all Aussie servers? The majority choses to merge the Aussie servers...did they decide to do this?...no! They decided to move us Asia Pacific servers.



There have been plenty of complaints going about the cartel market....is that getting any better?...no! they just charge us for an expansion which has a few new levels and a bit more of a story, and then afterwards bring out another race and character customization.....which we must pay for...again!



What is the point of these forums when they don't even listen to us? The very simple answer to this question is that yes, we absolutely listen to player feedback! However, the answer is technically a lot more complicated than that.



I think sometimes players on the forums wish that the process was just as simple as "I want X thing to be like Y" and that we can simply just change it to Y. Unfortunately it is a lot more complex, but I think this could be a good post to give some insights into what player feedback looks like on our side.



It happens very often internally where we, the community team, will raise issues to the development team that we have seen from player feedback. This is anything from a bug to just a general amount of criticism on a certain feature. What we help to provide is player feedback in as constructive a way as possible. This way it will give the developers perspective on how you folks are reacting to a system, both the good and the bad, and what you think can be changed to improve it.



This is where it gets complex, we provided player feedback, but that is just one small component of everything that goes into when a decision is made. From there, our developers can then grab metrics to see if the player feedback is supported through data. As a random, made up example:



"Players are complaining that the Assassin skill "I kill stuff" is worthless and no one uses it, it needs to be replaced."



Our developers could pull skill information on every Assassin in our game and validate what % of players are using that skill, or not using it. With data and feedback in hand, the developers also have to consider a few other components, how will it affect the company (if it is tied to monetization), how much development time will it take, if we use development time for this change will it affect something else? In this example if the developers see, using data, that 93% of all Assassins use "I kill stuff" than we can see that most likely it is just a perception issue that the skill isn't good. However, it doesn't mean the player feedback is wrong, it just means that we have two pieces of the decision making process that don't agree and more research is needed.



It should also be stated that sometimes there is feedback or ideas that come to us via player feedback that we ourselves love. However from the development side they are very difficult, time consuming, or simply just not possible. Sometimes this can be even be for things that appear like very simple changes to our game when in fact they are quite the opposite!



One of our roles as a community team is to pass on your feedback and to act as your voice in these discussions. What is important to understand is that player feedback is just one of many components that go into each decision. I also would note: remember that something like the forums are actually just one small component of player feedback. The community of our game is the forums, social media, and the many, many other players in-game who don't talk about SWTOR on either of those mediums.



I hope that gives a bit of insight into what happens with player feedback when it is received. I know it can be frustrating to feel like your feedback isn't always listened to but I assure you that your voice has a seat at the table.



-eric Eric Musco | Community Manager

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