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Rebel 'senator' removed
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Beat me to it.
Is there anything else on the Internet quite like the official Star Wars Galaxies forum and the staff that manages it?
I sumbit that there is not. It is a social experiment on a micro scale, built upon a foundation of developers' incompetence, indifference, and cronyism; the weary resignation, tired desperation and slightly-too-cheerful gibbering (when it comes to yes-men) of the general player base; and individual players with special positions, elder status, or what-have-you who believe their seniority in a video game means they're a respectable intellectual of some sort whom people should listen to about all manner of subjects.
I don't know how people still manage to play this game post-NGE, much less play and participate in those forums. Yeah, I know, everyone who stayed has been "getting over it" for four years now... but it's not only about the NGE, it's also about what has followed in the wake of the NGE.
Oh, and Star Wars zombies? LMAO. I hate leetspeak, but there's not other word for that. If SWG hadn't already jumped the shark years ago, that would be a perfect second candidate.
Currently Playing: EVE Online
Retired From: UO, FFXI, AO, SWG, Ryzom, GW, WoW, WAR
It actually is a HUGE loss...for the game that is. AnXieTy was the last voice of anything resembling "PvP" left there. The players who now comprise the Senate range from TCP tools (Red Dwarf excluded) to RPers (nothing against RP). The ONLY people who spoke up with regards to PvP were AnXieTy and myself. You have a lotta Senators who "think" they know PvP concerns cuz they've PvP'd...once...for like 5min...and they voice them. That, IMO, is far more damaging than having people say nothing.
Some dolts need to just STFU when they know nothing rather than pretend they know all the answers. Answers don't come just from the forums...most come when you actually PLAY the game.
I've lost all hope at this point. Linda and Rich informed me THEY are the 2 that pass along what they want for the game to the Developers...THEY are the ones who call the shots and budget the time. I also know they play favorites with some of the Senators...the Senators that kiss ass get favorable treatment...those who voice concern get kicked. The game isn't (not that it ever was) about what the customer wants...it's about what they feel would sell better...and so far, they've been dead **edit**ing wrong!
Until Smed does some major house cleaning, the game will continue to decline...in both players AND quality!
If I might ask, who are Rich and Linda? I'm not on a first name basis with the devs.
As for the senate, I have to agree with many who think it is just a tool to placate the masses. I'm sure it has some uses for boiling down user feedback into something managable (which really should be the job of the community relations manager, which is also laughable at this point), but overall it just fills that space where soe wants to "give players a place to vent". Just like Julio Torres said in the G4tv interview after the nge blew up in their faces. Players want to vent and then they calm down. That is the belief of soe.
It is similar to how soe puts up a special forum just for "discussion" about station cash, station exchange, combat revamps, nge discussion. So people have a place to vent and feel like they are being listened to AND so soe has an easy time cleaning up the mess with one delete button. In the example of station cash, the VP at soe said in an article that station cash was there to stay and wouldn't change/go away. This was before they even had the forum set up to listen to player feedback for 1 day, if that. They didn't ask for player input before it was patched into the game with zero advance notice and they had already made the final decision about its existance before they even read anything in the forum for player discussion on the topic.
This is a company that has an internal policy of not listening to players and designing game concepts by a subscriber loss to increased revenue stream model. They have shown time and time again that they don't care what players think and will not hesitate to drive players away from their products if they can make a nickle doing it. I'm sorry it hit you so hard and in such a horrible manner, but it really isn't surprising. It sucks to see all your hard work stomped on like that. Really I feel for you as I had a similar experience over on EQ2 test center.
On the flip side, I can't wait to see what this asshat of a CRM does next. He is 100% poison for the position he was hired for.
Add to his resume how he told a close friend a few weeks ago at the "Block Party" about how, before he landed this job at SoE, he was suicidal and this was the "break" he had been hoping for. The guys life story is riddled with poor POOR choices and an inability to accept when he's made mistakes - ranging from his careers to depression, to his family.
If he weren't such a lying backstabbing **edit**tard, I'd feel sorry for the guy. But...after what he did to me. he's just a sad sad man who has **edit**ed up his life in ways any normal person would never do. The guy is mental!
Lol, this is pretty funny. In Star Wars, right after the emperor took control of the senate and and betrayed the his allies on both sides he dissolved the senate and took complete control. I think It's interesting how life immitates art.
Blizzard uses WOW to harvest hours played into bottles so that the dev team can remain immortal
All who gain power are afraid to lose it -Supreme Chancellor Palpatine EP3
All who gain power are afraid to lose it -Supreme Chancellor Palpatine EP3
Heh, when I see S.O.E., I can't help thinking "Smed's Online Empire."
It actually is a HUGE loss...for the game that is. AnXieTy was the last voice of anything resembling "PvP" left there. The players who now comprise the Senate range from TCP tools (Red Dwarf excluded) to RPers (nothing against RP). The ONLY people who spoke up with regards to PvP were AnXieTy and myself. You have a lotta Senators who "think" they know PvP concerns cuz they've PvP'd...once...for like 5min...and they voice them. That, IMO, is far more damaging than having people say nothing.
Some dolts need to just STFU when they know nothing rather than pretend they know all the answers. Answers don't come just from the forums...most come when you actually PLAY the game.
I've lost all hope at this point. Linda and Rich informed me THEY are the 2 that pass along what they want for the game to the Developers...THEY are the ones who call the shots and budget the time. I also know they play favorites with some of the Senators...the Senators that kiss ass get favorable treatment...those who voice concern get kicked. The game isn't (not that it ever was) about what the customer wants...it's about what they feel would sell better...and so far, they've been dead **edit**ing wrong!
Until Smed does some major house cleaning, the game will continue to decline...in both players AND quality!
Thanks for all the info you have put out there. You make a fantastic addition to these forums, TUX.
Holy cow! not only Tux, but the commando senator as well, this hole thing is like an avalanche threatening to sweep all the community, and the Drak-arse is just shooting at the survivors crying for help.
Bah *blush*. I'm just happy I haven't been banned here yet
UPDATE and to add to this whole saga...
DrDista, Medic Senator was also "removed" - this comes directly from a current Senator and can be verified HERE and HERE. The story I heard goes like this:
He and AnXieTy both stuck up for me in Private when I was removed, in fact, DrDista was so disgusted at the situation, he announced he'd be resigning. Having been in the Senate close to 2 years, I've seen far too many good people come and go, but I also know the standard protocol followed when someone DOES resign. Typically...player X announces resignation, offers several names of people from their aspect they feel would best represent the players, the names are discussed amongst all the Senators, the CRM picks a new Senator and for the next 7-10 days, we actually have TWO Senators in one position.
The reason we had the overlap was to introduce the new Senator to the other Senators AND Community, allow some time for the new Senator to get acquainted, give them time to read the posts in Private, ask questions and let them "ease" into the position. This is how it's been done since GreyPawns re-established the Senate.
DrDista was new, but he was one hell of a guy IMO! He would actually LISTEN and debate a topic with you. I only know his posts from the Private forum and what I saw in GPD - I was too busy trying to be "excessively negative" about things to stalk him :P (I KID!!!). This is ANOTHER huge blow to the game.
TBH...there are only 2-3 left who I feel care about the game more than their virtual status.
For those of you who don't want to click the links, here are the quotes from DrDista's posts:
That I will no longer be able to represent the medic community. Yesterday, I posted my resignation in the private senate boards.
The reasons? School starting up again, with its inexorable march towards the end as per usual, as well as an old interest in programming springing up again among other 'real life' issues.
I have another particular reason that I posted in the private senate boards for any senators that may not have stumbled across the topic.
At any rate, I have also submitted my recommendations for a new senator as well. I am not sure how long it will take the CR team to pick a new medic senator. I ask that the new senator keep in mind the pros and the cons of being a medic, and in doing so they don't try to mold medic away from its roots.
And the 2nd a day later:
Since I've already been made a blue glowie for whatever reason, this will most likely be my last post on these forums. I have lost all faith in the game at this point due to irresponsible actions undertaken by the community team of SOE.
It looks like there's almost no senates left, they really don't care if they lose senates and I feel sorry for the new BH and upcoming commando and medic senates.
Who are rich and linda?
Yes, I'd also like to know who they are.
Thanks.
Sorry guys!
Rich Schmelter
rschmelter@soe.sony.com
Director, Global Community Relations
Linda "Brasse" Carlson
lmcarlson@soe.sony.com
Senior Community Manager
Sony Online Entertainment
Tel. 858-790-3611 ~ Fax. 858-577-3200
Dark times ahead, Dark times.
I've wanted to throw in the towel myself, after having developers tell me in no un-certain terms that I can kiss the idea of any smuggling system revamp or re-introduction of slicing and spice goodbye. The only bugs and issues I have reported that have gotten fix havn't even been related to the smuggler profession.
I think we are running out of quality people for Senators because everyone is getting run out. I won't go as far as saying that our development team is a bunch of crap, because there are some great and talented folks in it....but there are habits and trends that are still around and are still frustrating.
Not to mention, we've had a run of an Ill Minded PRoducer and other personal opinions of designers that held back game development. Dotan was probably a qualified guy on paper, but that man had NO clue about SWG as a game or community before he became producer, and it shows. Teesquard is Producer now, and he atleast has not only 5 years of experience with the game, but also a track record of actually caring.
I don't like how Tux was handled and I also don't like how DrDista and Anxiety were handled.....but I am not going to go blowup on the forums. It would do my community no good if I and other Senators just freaked out and essentially cause the rest of the senate program to go poof.
I figured Kirstie was filling his role? She moved over from the EQ2 team around the same time that T2 was moved to the Producer role.
Heamy, miss pvping with you back on Tarq.
I figured Kirstie was filling his role? She moved over from the EQ2 team around the same time that T2 was moved to the Producer role.
She did replace the Build Master tasks that T2 was doing, however he did a lot more than just that. And being the Producer will suck up his time away from being able to be hands on with the games code.
There are also some other lesser known Devs that have gone silent over the past year or so. Now this doesnt mean they left (or does it), but why hide from the game you support is my only thought.
They still havent replaced Elias's position either, so Draakuul , as much as people on here may not like him, has also been given a bigger plate, like that of T2.
I figured Kirstie was filling his role? She moved over from the EQ2 team around the same time that T2 was moved to the Producer role.
She did replace the Build Master tasks that T2 was doing, however he did a lot more than just that. And being the Producer will suck up his time away from being able to be hands on with the games code.
There are also some other lesser known Devs that have gone silent over the past year or so. Now this doesnt mean they left (or does it), but why hide from the game you support is my only thought.
They still havent replaced Elias's position either, so Draakuul , as much as people on here may not like him, has also been given a bigger plate, like that of T2.
I would guess that she's probably going to be easing into more of what T2 had been doing as she gets used to the game more. Having said that, I just found this on the careers page for the Austin studio, http://careers.vurvexpress.com/jobprofile.cfm?szWID=16059&szCID=72267&szSiteID=1574&szOrderID=557111&szStart=1 . They had been advertising for a replacement for Elias but that ad's no longer there. I wouldn't be too surprised if they just leave it as Drakkull and pull in people from the other games as needed. Heh, Virrago probably has a bit more free time now that the MxO is gone
I figured Kirstie was filling his role? She moved over from the EQ2 team around the same time that T2 was moved to the Producer role.
She did replace the Build Master tasks that T2 was doing, however he did a lot more than just that. And being the Producer will suck up his time away from being able to be hands on with the games code.
There are also some other lesser known Devs that have gone silent over the past year or so. Now this doesnt mean they left (or does it), but why hide from the game you support is my only thought.
They still havent replaced Elias's position either, so Draakuul , as much as people on here may not like him, has also been given a bigger plate, like that of T2.
I would guess that she's probably going to be easing into more of what T2 had been doing as she gets used to the game more. Having said that, I just found this on the careers page for the Austin studio, http://careers.vurvexpress.com/jobprofile.cfm?szWID=16059&szCID=72267&szSiteID=1574&szOrderID=557111&szStart=1 . They had been advertising for a replacement for Elias but that ad's no longer there. I wouldn't be too surprised if they just leave it as Drakkull and pull in people from the other games as needed. Heh, Virrago probably has a bit more free time now that the MxO is gone
Nowhere on that Job posting does it mention the position is with the SWG team, also if you look at all the vacancies, it's pretty clear where SOE's priorities lie... http://careers.vurvexpress.com/joblist.cfm?szWID=16059&szCID=72267&szSiteID=1574&txtFromDate=&txtToDate=&cboTitle=&cboDepartment=12036&cboLocation=&txtKeyWord=
Edit: Actually we can rule SWG out of that job posting altogether due to this line:
"Responsibilities:
• Work with a team of highly talented programmers, artists and designers to design and maintain a build, deployment, monitoring, and workflow system for a team of 100+ developers. ."
unless of course you'd like to argue there's 100+ developers working on SWG atm lol
...The spread of secondary and latterly of tertiary education has created a large population of people, often with well developed literary and scholarly tastes, who have been educated far beyond their capacity to undertake analytical thought.
I figured Kirstie was filling his role? She moved over from the EQ2 team around the same time that T2 was moved to the Producer role.
She did replace the Build Master tasks that T2 was doing, however he did a lot more than just that. And being the Producer will suck up his time away from being able to be hands on with the games code.
There are also some other lesser known Devs that have gone silent over the past year or so. Now this doesnt mean they left (or does it), but why hide from the game you support is my only thought.
They still havent replaced Elias's position either, so Draakuul , as much as people on here may not like him, has also been given a bigger plate, like that of T2.
I would guess that she's probably going to be easing into more of what T2 had been doing as she gets used to the game more. Having said that, I just found this on the careers page for the Austin studio, http://careers.vurvexpress.com/jobprofile.cfm?szWID=16059&szCID=72267&szSiteID=1574&szOrderID=557111&szStart=1 . They had been advertising for a replacement for Elias but that ad's no longer there. I wouldn't be too surprised if they just leave it as Drakkull and pull in people from the other games as needed. Heh, Virrago probably has a bit more free time now that the MxO is gone
Nowhere on that Job posting does it mention the position is with the SWG team, also if you look at all the vacancies, it's pretty clear where SOE's priorities lie... http://careers.vurvexpress.com/joblist.cfm?szWID=16059&szCID=72267&szSiteID=1574&txtFromDate=&txtToDate=&cboTitle=&cboDepartment=12036&cboLocation=&txtKeyWord=
Edit: Actually we can rule SWG out of that job posting altogether due to this line:
"Responsibilities:
• Work with a team of highly talented programmers, artists and designers to design and maintain a build, deployment, monitoring, and workflow system for a team of 100+ developers. ."
unless of course you'd like to argue there's 100+ developers working on SWG atm lol
I'm more inclined to think it is SWG since all the DCU ads have DCU in the subject name - I don't believe ads in the past for SWG have had its name in the subject name. I imagine the 100+ line is referring to the entire SOE team across all their games.
I figured Kirstie was filling his role? She moved over from the EQ2 team around the same time that T2 was moved to the Producer role.
She did replace the Build Master tasks that T2 was doing, however he did a lot more than just that. And being the Producer will suck up his time away from being able to be hands on with the games code.
There are also some other lesser known Devs that have gone silent over the past year or so. Now this doesnt mean they left (or does it), but why hide from the game you support is my only thought.
They still havent replaced Elias's position either, so Draakuul , as much as people on here may not like him, has also been given a bigger plate, like that of T2.
I would guess that she's probably going to be easing into more of what T2 had been doing as she gets used to the game more. Having said that, I just found this on the careers page for the Austin studio, http://careers.vurvexpress.com/jobprofile.cfm?szWID=16059&szCID=72267&szSiteID=1574&szOrderID=557111&szStart=1 . They had been advertising for a replacement for Elias but that ad's no longer there. I wouldn't be too surprised if they just leave it as Drakkull and pull in people from the other games as needed. Heh, Virrago probably has a bit more free time now that the MxO is gone
Nowhere on that Job posting does it mention the position is with the SWG team, also if you look at all the vacancies, it's pretty clear where SOE's priorities lie... http://careers.vurvexpress.com/joblist.cfm?szWID=16059&szCID=72267&szSiteID=1574&txtFromDate=&txtToDate=&cboTitle=&cboDepartment=12036&cboLocation=&txtKeyWord=
Edit: Actually we can rule SWG out of that job posting altogether due to this line:
"Responsibilities:
• Work with a team of highly talented programmers, artists and designers to design and maintain a build, deployment, monitoring, and workflow system for a team of 100+ developers. ."
unless of course you'd like to argue there's 100+ developers working on SWG atm lol
I'm more inclined to think it is SWG since all the DCU ads have DCU in the subject name - I don't believe ads in the past for SWG have had its name in the subject name. I imagine the 100+ line is referring to the entire SOE team across all their games.
Well not stating that it's for SWG certainly increases its chances of gaining at least some applicants I guess however, that line on the responsibilities section completely rules out the possibility that this vacancy is for an SWG dev in particular, it states out right that the main responsibility is to support the system for 100+ Developers, I agree with you, that's probably SOE's full compliment of staff and as such it probably means that the vacancy posting is for some sort of internal system that they use accross all their games, so not an SWG posting at all.
...The spread of secondary and latterly of tertiary education has created a large population of people, often with well developed literary and scholarly tastes, who have been educated far beyond their capacity to undertake analytical thought.
I figured Kirstie was filling his role? She moved over from the EQ2 team around the same time that T2 was moved to the Producer role.
She did replace the Build Master tasks that T2 was doing, however he did a lot more than just that. And being the Producer will suck up his time away from being able to be hands on with the games code.
There are also some other lesser known Devs that have gone silent over the past year or so. Now this doesnt mean they left (or does it), but why hide from the game you support is my only thought.
They still havent replaced Elias's position either, so Draakuul , as much as people on here may not like him, has also been given a bigger plate, like that of T2.
I would guess that she's probably going to be easing into more of what T2 had been doing as she gets used to the game more. Having said that, I just found this on the careers page for the Austin studio, http://careers.vurvexpress.com/jobprofile.cfm?szWID=16059&szCID=72267&szSiteID=1574&szOrderID=557111&szStart=1 . They had been advertising for a replacement for Elias but that ad's no longer there. I wouldn't be too surprised if they just leave it as Drakkull and pull in people from the other games as needed. Heh, Virrago probably has a bit more free time now that the MxO is gone
Nowhere on that Job posting does it mention the position is with the SWG team, also if you look at all the vacancies, it's pretty clear where SOE's priorities lie... http://careers.vurvexpress.com/joblist.cfm?szWID=16059&szCID=72267&szSiteID=1574&txtFromDate=&txtToDate=&cboTitle=&cboDepartment=12036&cboLocation=&txtKeyWord=
Edit: Actually we can rule SWG out of that job posting altogether due to this line:
"Responsibilities:
• Work with a team of highly talented programmers, artists and designers to design and maintain a build, deployment, monitoring, and workflow system for a team of 100+ developers. ."
unless of course you'd like to argue there's 100+ developers working on SWG atm lol
I'm more inclined to think it is SWG since all the DCU ads have DCU in the subject name - I don't believe ads in the past for SWG have had its name in the subject name. I imagine the 100+ line is referring to the entire SOE team across all their games.
Well not stating that it's for SWG certainly increases its chances of gaining at least some applicants I guess however, that line on the responsibilities section completely rules out the possibility that this vacancy is for an SWG dev in particular, it states out right that the main responsibility is to support the system for 100+ Developers, I agree with you, that's probably SOE's full compliment of staff and as such it probably means that the vacancy posting is for some sort of internal system that they use accross all their games, so not an SWG posting at all.
The DCU dev team is very likely to be over a hundred members in size, which means they might just be merging the build programming for DCU and SWG, meaning they can further cut the number of people on the SWG team. It is basically what they have done with artists in Austin, they have the ones that work on DCU that do the limited amount of art for SWG in their spare time. The lack of any dedicated artist on the SWG team is why the devs claim they cannot add to many new items to the game, yet can dump a truckload of items for every TCG 'expansion'.
Once DCU is released, they won't be doing multiple builds per day, so between SWG and DCU the number of builds will be much less than what the DCU team is doing now. Most of the DCU team will either be fired or moved to other projects, so merging as much of the technical work for the two games is a good way to reduce overhead on both. Further, it would allow them to allocate costs away from either game depending on which IP holder is pissed off about the lack of higher profits.
If continued development is part of the LEC/SOE deal, the SWG team is close to being as small as it can be to fulfill such a clause. Being able to merge all the non design people into a single pool, while probably bad from a techinical standpoint (code confusion could cause some major headaches), would massively cut costs at their Austin studio. Depending on the reception of DCU, it could potentially make the game a financial success if it is a flop.
I think the whole point is, that if the Senator program did go poof, what would be the difference?
The SOE management didn't care much of the inputs from the old Correspondent system way back when, and as soon as it stopped being a cheerleading organization for the company line, the canned the whole thing. No difference here. It is hugely naive to think that anyone besides SOE management wields any influence over SWG or any other game. Hell, their own developers/dev team has next to no influence, as many former devs have styated in the past.
Both the old Correspondent system and the new Senator system are nothing more than a PR/Marketing gimmick, to make players think management gives a flying f*** about anything they want or say.
SOE doesn't care about their "community" either, I think we have seen how willing they were to throw that whole thing over the side before.