A disturbing pattern has emerged......
January 13, 2016 5:24PM
edited January 2016
Many have touched upon something that does bother me. It would seem EA/CG fix issues that concern income immediately yet seem to almost not care if the issue only affects a users play, regardless of lost time or money on the player's end.
As an example, the auto-targeting issue is a pretty bad problem that makes playing very difficult and this should have been addressed already weeks ago. There are plenty of other issues with characters like Asajj who have functions that do not work properly and yet we wait so long to see fixes on these issues, if ever.
On the flipside, when the Darth Vader shard issue occurred, that hole was patched immediately so it would seem the priority level in regards to fixing things kind of goes like this....
If the error involves an item(s) that have a cash value to EA/CG, it's fixed immediately.
If the error involves the player and no income is lost by EA/CG, it gets fixed whenever, no big deal
Adding insult to injury, this isn't some cheapo Playstation or Xbox game here, the support for the product should reflect the cost to players. Just to clarify, I could probably buy an Xbox 360 and a PlayStation 4 for cheaper than it would cost to get Lando or Leia to 7*, does anyone seem to see the insanity??? If this were a $3 app from the Play Store and I had an issue and it didn't get fixed for a few months, it's a $3 app, no big deal. Players of this game who lightly purchase IAP can spend over $100 for practically nothing of use, more than any console game out there that you can own.
For this level of cost, the support should match, that's all I'm saying......
As an example, the auto-targeting issue is a pretty bad problem that makes playing very difficult and this should have been addressed already weeks ago. There are plenty of other issues with characters like Asajj who have functions that do not work properly and yet we wait so long to see fixes on these issues, if ever.
On the flipside, when the Darth Vader shard issue occurred, that hole was patched immediately so it would seem the priority level in regards to fixing things kind of goes like this....
If the error involves an item(s) that have a cash value to EA/CG, it's fixed immediately.
If the error involves the player and no income is lost by EA/CG, it gets fixed whenever, no big deal
Adding insult to injury, this isn't some cheapo Playstation or Xbox game here, the support for the product should reflect the cost to players. Just to clarify, I could probably buy an Xbox 360 and a PlayStation 4 for cheaper than it would cost to get Lando or Leia to 7*, does anyone seem to see the insanity??? If this were a $3 app from the Play Store and I had an issue and it didn't get fixed for a few months, it's a $3 app, no big deal. Players of this game who lightly purchase IAP can spend over $100 for practically nothing of use, more than any console game out there that you can own.
For this level of cost, the support should match, that's all I'm saying......
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Bugs that can be fixed on the server end or through pushing a hotfix to the client can be fixed relatively quickly (exact timeframe depends on the amount of coding and testing needed, but is often a week or less and can even be same-day in an emergency). Bugs that require an actual client update (in other words, you have to download a new version of the app from Play/iTunes) are never fast, because they can't just post an updated app to the App Stores on the fly. It can take weeks or even months to get an app update certified by both Apple and Google, not counting the time it takes to do the actual development and internal testing in the first place.
No it holds value. Historically players have been given presents to appease some apparent slight they may have felt. Not in this game, because it is new. In other games they have had to give out toons to make up for mistakes, therefore some cash value. And when I say "made to", it's more to quiet the rioting crowds on the forums. Humans are ugly creatures.
Humans are ugly creatures except for Angilina Jolie, ohhh yum, maybe also Zooey Daschinelle
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What about Daisy Ridley?
There are always more bugs in any software product than can be fixed, the only exception being serious mission-critical stuff. Bugs must be triaged and fixed in order of importance.
The main issue affecting player money is the missing shard bug / display issue / whatever it is. They have not ignored this at all. As someone else said, the Vader issue doesn't really cost them money. They took action on that pretty quickly too.
As an Asajj-user since the first week after hard launch, yeah, I'd like to see her get fixed. But no, it's not a top priority.
(to the op)
How much have you paid for this game?
If it is 0, then you should stop complaining.
Developer's cost money, application testers cost money. If I was building a mobile game I would put my focus on things that generate money as well or would prohibit individuals from spending money.
You can't be completely f2p and then complain about everything.
I'm surprised people accepted the fix for Vader as it was done. If it were me, I would have just let the flaw remain, took it in stride and selected another character to take his place and threw everyone a bone. As it stands now, if you got some Vader shards, Bronzium spins, crystals, money, it's yours to keep, if you didn't, oh well. I know they said they neutered Vader to make him less effective but is this a good solution??
People view this as if I'm trying to cause trouble, but I advocate for the player. I'm one of the strongest advocates for P2W players out there and I'm a 100% F2P player just looking at the current setup as imperfect. I not only comment on the flaw but I attempt to offer a solution that may work. Maybe my parents were wrong in how they raised me because their attitude was never this sort of "slap my face and I'll turn the other cheek" mentality.....
Fixing some things is taking longer, and you'd like lower costs or more freebies. And more communication abiut pending issues to be checked. Why not state that more politely? I think you can do it, but need to chill down a bit. A part of the strong sentiment is how much you like the game. It's a very limited game, but a long term play...and today, you can only advance one step into a thousand needed, and thebgane will ask for money and present opportunities to advance advance half steps all the time. It's a bit frustrating, just try to cool down if you can.
You bring up an excellent point. Back when I joined the forum and saw the high IAP prices, I wondered why EA didn't charge for the game outright. My thought was at the time, make the IAP much cheaper and charge everyone $10 for the game. AS we can all see, they have over 1 million downloads on Google Play. I'm sure the numbers would be the same if it was a pay-for title, as $10 is affordable to all. I would be a paying customer if I thought the investment of money would improve my gaming experience and I felt the pricing and the content were worth my investment into the game. For what I've received, I would have paid $10 to play, no problem, but definitely not over $100 because there is no monetary returns for such a large investment. Someone was speaking of HODA to me yesterday, I don't play by the way. Anyway, he spoke of how in HODA, teams would spend thousands on that game but they would then be eligible to play in competitions where they could win money and prizes in return. If SWGOH had competitions and cash prizes like that, then sure, you could charge $1000 for things because now the game is similar to spending a day in Atlantic City or Vegas.
Getting back to your point. If you can't complain when you are F2P, then why offer the game for free then?? The minute you do however, now free or pay players need to be considered equal, that's life. On the opposite end, does the paying customer have more recourse than I do, outside of refunds at the Google Play Store??
Just give up man, the only thing you get for speaking the truth around here is hate towards yourself...
+100 Thanks for recognizing that and since you truly heard me, it was worth my time....
I don't know ehat tour pronlem is eithbselection. I can select any char, and when on Auto, the AI tries to select best plan. And that includes changing the the target. Eg. A stunned char can't hard forntwo turns, and the AI will switch to a char she thinks it can kill ir must kill sooner. If you don't want the AI to decide, then don't use Auto. Auto is not "animate faster" but activates the AI for you.
She is awesome, small chest but tight and way too young for me.
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The funniest part is that I'm not angry or upset by what happens here at all. Instead, I'm just disturbed by the reactions most have to getting the short end of the stick. It reminds me of my teenage years when you had that friend who had a girlfriend that totally used and abused them and you'd say "Your girlfriend is not very nice to you, you shouldn't take that" and the guy replies "But I love her and what will I do without her" and ignores your friendly advice, only to be then taken to the cleaners and hurt even more than before, yet doesn't seem to understand that his inaction allowed this and from that point forward, that friend of yours becomes the perpetual doormat.....
I know the game is only a month old, but when I see IAP that can cost in the thousands of dollars, I treat this less like a $3 Android solitaire game and more like a $400 copy of Microsoft Office....
No disrespect meant, but I have to correct you once again. The "neutering" of 6 and 7 star Vader is only a temporary solution, before they implement a better one.
Thanks for the information but why a temporary fix like this?? What more could they do down the road that couldn't be done today??
No one asked you to advocate for the players. Framing your opinion as if it is everyone's is disingenuous.
There are plenty of people fine with how they have handled things.
So what you are saying is that, if you suffer from the Aiming Bug where you can't select the target and get stuck targeting someone else, the solution is to just play your rounds using the "Auto" button then???
Maybe because adjusting the stats of all Vaders is quick and can be done in a minor update but finding the idividual players who cheated and targeting them specifically might take more time. But I know next to nothing about games development, so this is just a guess...
I've seen you make a lot of posts on forums relating to things like this.
You have had some very valid points and discussions in various places but you keep trying to fight this battle of what is "fair" and you miss the entire point.....
For one some things are easier to fix than others and were explained...
Vader fix for example they can easily set all 6*/7* to the same level as a 5* which is the highest you can have right now, thus making them all equal until they can dig deeper and pin-point the issues and accounts that abused it.
-In this scenario though Vader has no true cash value it is acquired over time and playing the game at whatever speed the individual chooses.
To touch on character bugs specifically it is very hard to tell what might be causing the root problem. Is it her coding specifically, is there a bug in the coding when she "rolls vs another character", it might not be either of those which could be reason why it's taking even longer to resolve it, who knows exactly.
Also will the fix make the intended use of her work or has the current data shown the players use her differently now and do you want to drastically change that or make a change that fits with her adapted play-style? Lots to consider from a dev standpoint looking at the big picture.
(I speak on this point because I am a developer for web and software and I see people all the time thinking a fix is "easy or fast" when it could take an estimated 30 hours to fix which might easily double if the initial attempt at solving it doesn't work as planned - this happens all the time. So allocating resources is a tough call when you can be working on something new or from scratch and not get lost in the rabbit hole troubleshooting)
Would you rather 60 hours spent fixing 1 bug on 1 character or appease the masses crying for updates/content/new heroes - Do you right now want to wait another month or two for all the fixes or do you want new stuff? The forum oddly enough wants more content before bug fixes. So here comes content at the end of the month and hopefully it includes some fixes.
Your last paragraph doesn't make any sense... this game is FREE comparing it to a paid console or full game is not apples to apples in anyway. Let's break this down further:
To play a console game you MUST buy the console and the game.
(You can argue here you paid for your phone but you didn't buy the phone to only play games it is an extra benefit vs the main reason for buying a console is for those games - specifically on that console)
To play swgoh you MUST download it which is FREE. You CHOOSE to invest money or not if you WANT. There is no NEED or MUST in the factor of spending money on this game. Therefore it does not demand the same weight you are trying to place on a console system/game.
Furthermore following your logic - The cost of the game is FREE and the support costs EA money to hire and provide.
To continue with your example... purchasing an app that costs $3.00 should provide $3.00 support because it is the entry cost to obtaining that product. Yet again swgoh is FREE.
Now how you feel about it is a completely different story but "personal feelings or valuation" doesn't come into play when discussing these things objectively.
You might feel you NEED to spend to be competitive - but no one is forcing you to take that path
You might fell you NEED to spend to get those premium heroes - but no one is forcing you to use them
etc etc we can go on forever.
EA is very good at setting their pricing and the timing of your progress to entice you to spend to speed things up - It is the main problem with our current generation of gamers and society's desire for instant gratification. You don't want to spend the time to slowly enjoy the game and build it up. You want to rush to the end and be the best without all the work.
So you either have time or spend money to speed that up. Where the individual then weighs the cost of investing in this game vs anything else - food, shelter, clothing, other games, other entertainment etc
To sum it all up... EA is a company. It's goal is to PROFIT nothing more. They have built tons of games and tons have died under their control and that will forever be the cycle of apps like this until the PLAYERS change. The current situation we all live in is built from the player-base and how people act - nothing more.
These companies spend millions on psychology studies and use all that info to maximize profits.
People got to learn to enjoy the game for themselves and if you can't spend enough on a F2P/P2P type game to win and you need to "win" then you should pick a different style of game to play.
-I am a paying player, roughly middle of the road. Had some good packs some useless packs. I've hit #1 on my server for arena and cleared GW. Some days I don't make top 10 some days i don't finish GW. But none of that matters except I enjoy opening the app clicking around and when that stops so does my time and money.
Just know no matter what you invest into a video game you will get nothing tangible back in return. Don't spend if you can't afford it or aren't willing to get nothing from it. It's a risk and everyone knows that going in.
Having been on the other side of the fence so to speak, it is very common for users to take bugs and the sometimes difficult nature in addressing them as personal. "It's not working and this is unacceptable, since I paid and am a customer, everything should be working. They're trying to take my money!" Is something you will see repeated for even the most innocuous of bugs (sometimes warranted, and quite honestly, sometimes not). Remember game development is a process just like anything else, and it can be difficult if not impossible to put out a perfect product. Also remember the game is fairly young and will surely go through more growing pains. I'm aware also that I am biased-- because for me it's completely acceptable and understandable for them to be fixing bugs which prevent profit prior to other bugs. (Although it would be wise of them to throw us some cookies here and there I agree).
That said, the important thing for me is that communication is kept fluid toward us and so far on my short time here this has been the case. I could be wrong and there's a conspiracy to not care about quality only our $$ but so far I haven't seen a precedent for that here.
Finally keep in mind that some things can be fixed server side without delays from a formal release process with Google and Apple, and others need to be included in a client update which needs to be coordinated and pushed through both apple and Google, which can take weeks at least.
I'm not an advocate, I'm merely speaking my opinion and I felt that "opinion" was siding with the player base. I didn't compel you to do anything but view an opinion. I read many opinions here in the forum daily about many things. When that opinion is good or bad in my view, I comment regardless if it interests me. There are many opinions I have not commented on because it's something I haven't experienced.....
I think this hits the nail on the head. There are going to be some fixes that are quicker and easier to apply than others. Client side fixes are always going to take longer. I don't think any of us want them doing a knee-**** reaction when there's a "This is broke" outcry and have them try to slap a quick fix on it, throw out an update and most likely cause more problems than they are fixing. Fixes take time to pinpoint the real issue, figure out how to correct it, adequately test it in as many 'real world' scenarios as possible, then push it out in an update. Considering that there are threads where EA is acknowledging some of the issues that they are aware of and working on, in my opinion they aren't just ignoring them or leaving them until whenever it's convenient. Also - let's say for example that there are 12 issues that they are working out fixes for. They are going to release the update when they've fixed all 12 of those issues - or at least as many as they reasonably can. Not like they are going to fix 1 issue at a time, test it, release an update, then start on the next one.
I'm certainly not all about defending EA, but in this instance I do think they are doing what they reasonably can for the issues - especially for an app that is only a few months old in global release.
This is finally another logical posts showing both sides of the argument. I agree there should be more open communication and throwing the player-base a bone once in awhile is a good way to maintain general happiness. These are easy and cost effective to dealing with long-term problems.
Yet again personal opinion. Which you as an individual choose to apply to it. This isn't the reality of the situation this is your FEELINGS. This is not objective.
"People view this as if I'm trying to cause trouble, but I advocate for the player. I'm one of the strongest advocates for P2W players out there and I'm a 100% F2P player just looking at the current setup as imperfect."
Did you not say this?