In Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR), a developer has now been harassed, insulted, and even threatened by fans because they disagreed with his views on two classes.
As Bioware’s Community Manager, John Musco, mentions in a post to fans, one of the SWTOR developers apparently fell victim to a sort of cyber “witch hunt.” This even extended to his family members.
Some fans were apparently so upset after the developer’s post about changes to the abilities of the Sentinel and Marauder classes that they tracked down some of his personal channels on social networks just to insult, harass, and even threaten him. This also extended to the developer’s family members.
As Musco states, the developer shared his views and those of the “Combat” team regarding the classes, even though he did not have to and although it was suspected that fans would react negatively. In light of such totally exaggerated reactions, the alternative suggested itself to simply remain silent. How can a community team ask developers to explain their decisions and views to fans when the community reacts this way?
It is known that players are dissatisfied with some things. Bioware is willing to engage in an open dialogue with players about this. However, it requires a certain level of mutual respect.
You can find the developer’s post that caused so much trouble here. The reason was changes that affected certain rotations. It was found in the forum that these occurred without announcement and without considering the community’s feedback. And they would not bring the desired results, but were “the worst.”
Mein MMO says: “The worst” is probably something and someone entirely different in this case.
