As many of you folks who've been crazy enough to follow the game this far out know, Bioware's been releasing fairly regular updates on Star Wars: The Old Republic for quite some time now. These mostly take the form of Fan Fridays, which drop in little nuggets of info about things that are happening with the game's development, or present pieces of media such as the Threat of Peace comic.
Crazy enough as it is since we don't have beta out yet, we've got a few folks on the forums that are perhaps a bit upset, perturbed, and dissatisfied with the quality of updates Bioware's been putting out lately. We've even got a few intrepid souls calling Bioware liars for saying that updates would pick up since Gamescom and PAX and that they haven't lived up to their promises.
You know, at first I had to check the date on my calendar to make sure this wasn't post-release, and that I wasn't in serious trouble for being one or two years late on submitting posts to the site. Such rage and frustration is the kind that you don't typically see until after a game is out and someone is mad that their Sith Warrior got beat down by "stupid OP Smugglers" or something silly like that. It's kinda crazy, yet sadly expected, to see posts already calling out developers for broken promises and predicting "epic fail" on launch.
From a certain point of view, I get what people who aren't happy with the updates are feeling. If there's anything that makes an MMO player cautious these days, it's the lack of details or meaty reveals, and having only seen what's been released to us so far in small chunks and slices, it's hard for some people to feel invested without knowing more. The ravenous appetite of a pre-release MMO community is well-known among developers, and Bioware's been feeding small morsels to its followers without quite revealing the dishes to come. This leads to a bit of hunger for details that gnaws as a portion of the community.
But on the other hand, it's that kind of "jump to conclusions" outburst that some posters have decided to level in the latest update thread that makes Bioware as cautious as they are. Sean's response to posters seems to support this little hypothesis:
It's no wonder that Bioware is being careful with their updates. In many ways, they're damned if they do and damned if they don't. Being cautious with updates gets accusations of moving at a melting glacier's pace, while being outspoken about them can lead to the belief of over-hyping the game. In this, the lesser of two evils is to pick the former. Those of you who know about previous MMO releases know that over-promising and under-delivering can create shockwaves that hurt titles long after the game is out, and Bioware is trying to avoid that as much as possible with SW:TOR.
Those you who'll get to know me over the coming months (if the folks here are insane enough to let me stick around) will find that I'm pretty much a c'est la vie, optimistic type, and this is really no different. Like many others, I'm anxious to find out more about Star Wars: The Old Republic too, but it's far, far too soon to really make a judgment call about the game or the company behind it based upon a few updates. Relax folks - we'll know more soon enough.
Crazy enough as it is since we don't have beta out yet, we've got a few folks on the forums that are perhaps a bit upset, perturbed, and dissatisfied with the quality of updates Bioware's been putting out lately. We've even got a few intrepid souls calling Bioware liars for saying that updates would pick up since Gamescom and PAX and that they haven't lived up to their promises.
You know, at first I had to check the date on my calendar to make sure this wasn't post-release, and that I wasn't in serious trouble for being one or two years late on submitting posts to the site. Such rage and frustration is the kind that you don't typically see until after a game is out and someone is mad that their Sith Warrior got beat down by "stupid OP Smugglers" or something silly like that. It's kinda crazy, yet sadly expected, to see posts already calling out developers for broken promises and predicting "epic fail" on launch.
From a certain point of view, I get what people who aren't happy with the updates are feeling. If there's anything that makes an MMO player cautious these days, it's the lack of details or meaty reveals, and having only seen what's been released to us so far in small chunks and slices, it's hard for some people to feel invested without knowing more. The ravenous appetite of a pre-release MMO community is well-known among developers, and Bioware's been feeding small morsels to its followers without quite revealing the dishes to come. This leads to a bit of hunger for details that gnaws as a portion of the community.
But on the other hand, it's that kind of "jump to conclusions" outburst that some posters have decided to level in the latest update thread that makes Bioware as cautious as they are. Sean's response to posters seems to support this little hypothesis:
We do actually have some great announcements and reveals in store for you but we want to ensure that everything is crafted with quality in mind. If something is not ready to be released, it's just not ready to be released. While we know that some people may become upset over a delay, we would rather postpone something a few weeks rather than put it out when it's not ready.
It's no wonder that Bioware is being careful with their updates. In many ways, they're damned if they do and damned if they don't. Being cautious with updates gets accusations of moving at a melting glacier's pace, while being outspoken about them can lead to the belief of over-hyping the game. In this, the lesser of two evils is to pick the former. Those of you who know about previous MMO releases know that over-promising and under-delivering can create shockwaves that hurt titles long after the game is out, and Bioware is trying to avoid that as much as possible with SW:TOR.
Those you who'll get to know me over the coming months (if the folks here are insane enough to let me stick around) will find that I'm pretty much a c'est la vie, optimistic type, and this is really no different. Like many others, I'm anxious to find out more about Star Wars: The Old Republic too, but it's far, far too soon to really make a judgment call about the game or the company behind it based upon a few updates. Relax folks - we'll know more soon enough.
Comments
However, I would say so far we have offered our own criticism through our dissections and CC discussion post that has offered a fair amount of criticism without stepping over the line. It's important for us as a fansite to remain as neutral as possible while criticizing aspects of the game when it is appropriate.
It's more important for us to analyze an aspect and leave it up for the community to decide/debate rather than us as a fansite telling you what to think.
That was depressing to write.