Wednesday, November 2, 2011

SWTOR: Stop, take a deep breath and stay calm. Release is almost here.

A portion of the TOR community is going nuts. It was announced what fansites were coming to the fan site summit and people went bat crazy if they weren’t invited.

Because, apparently, BioWare knows every single podcast and fansite there is without prior contact. I mean really. Do people honestly think that Stephen Reid and co. spend hours each day search for each new podcast and fansite? Dream on.

Reid made a tweet on Monday stating:

“Hey #SWTOR fansites: if we don't know you exist, it's hard to work with you. Get in touch. Email fansites@swtor.com and say hi.”

He’s right. Unless a site or podcast takes the time to alert BioWare of their presence, how will their existence be known?

My Twitter field has been full of retweets originating from TOR sites I’ve never heard of griping about their exclusion from this event.

I have no idea how BioWare selects who to invite, but if it were my call I’d select people who stayed in frequent contact with me and had high traffic.

Yes, people can feel angry that they were left out. It’s within a person’s right to feel anger about a situation. It’s their right to discuss their anger with others. The problem arises when that anger controls their actions. Personal attacks, throwing fits and insults only make the situation worse. With so many taking their frustrations to Twitter, chunks of conversations are missed or ignored and more fights erupt. It’s making the community an ugly place to be. Too bad the official forums were on that boat a long time ago.

With less than two months until release, some people may feel as if they are at the end of their fuse. All the stress, anticipation and disappoint are coming to a head and an issue would normally seem minor acts as a spark to the fire. Conflict-heavy zones are a turnoff to many. No one wants to hear about how Tom or Abby didn’t get a free pass to play the game, especially when he or she feels entitled to it.

No one is entitled to a free pass. No one is entitled to anything just because he runs a fansite or podcast. For that matter, being a fan for over three years or owning the Collector’s Edition doesn’t mean you are entitled to anything either.

Yes, it’s disappointing not to be recognized. Go ahead and be angry, but please, stop and think before igniting fights. It’s gotten way out of hand.

If you want to make it, you have to network. You have to talk to the right people. End of story.

7 comments:

  1. Stephen Reid once said if only 1% of the community is crazy, that's a lot of crazies. I'd put the number up more near 99%.

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  2. Once again the point was missed. It is not about, in the end, who goes and who doesn't go, its about how this was delivered, presented, then re presented via twitter, email etc.

    It has been easy for people to focus and counter on the omg QQ they aren't going. But that was NOT the point.

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  3. It's easy, Swafford, because you took it personally and blew up. This can only reflect badly for whatever fansite you run ( I can only assume you do after seeing your tweets, all honesty I didnt care to check).

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  4. I fully agree with @micromilo111

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  5. So, did you guys listen to the Podcast about it on MER? Did you actually see responses and hear what people were saying? Beyond the QQ of people upset about not going (and surely there was a lot of that crap going on), there was a feeling of slight because of how it was presented and responded to, explained and referred to. Or are we choosing to ignore that because QQ is easier to recognize?

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  6. Too bad the official forums were on that boat a long time ago. swtor credits
    swtor credits

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