BioWare: All our devs play SWTOR

by Jef Reahard on Jan 31st 2012 6:30PM

Sci-Fi, Bugs, MMO Industry, News Items, Star Wars: The Old Republic

Star Wars: The Old Republic - some smuggler who looks like John Marsden

Ever wonder if MMO devs play the MMO they're developing? Apparently the answer is yes in the case of Star Wars: The Old Republic. A new dev blog by BioWare executive producer Rich Vogel minces few words on that particular subject. "Every single one of us on the development team plays the game, and we see the same issues you do and where we need to expand," Vogel writes.

The rest of the wall o' text isn't quite as illuminating. Vogel starts by defining bugs and exploits, and he offers a few generalities in regards to BioWare's ability to quickly respond to both types of issues.

It's worth a read if you're heavily invested in Star Wars: The Old Republic, and you'll find it on the game's official site.

Source: SWTOR dev blog
More coverage: Official site

Tags: bugs, dev-blog, ea, ea-bioware, Electronic-Arts, exploits, rich-vogel, sci-fi, star-wars-the-old-republic, swtor, the-old-republic, tor

Reader Comments (79)

@Cyroselle

Eh, Nene seems to be a VERY negative person - just the opinion I've gathered seeing her post in a lot of threads.

But they don't have a conflict of interest concerning game balance, no not at all.

@nefermore

Not sure why my post got put all the way down here. Sorry. For those following the longer thread above, just imagine this posted there. ;P

Fanboi to the rescue! Lol. Anyway, don't assume I only like sandbox and not themepark based on what I said. I like MMORPGs, most, if not all of them in this genre. What I WANT and what I WILL pay for, gladly, is a sandpark. A hybrid of the best parts of sandbox with the best parts of themepark.

This could be my year what with GW2, TSW and ArcheAge showing immense promise in this area.

To give you background on my taste in MMOs, started with SWG, moved onto FFXI then onto WoW then onto LOTRO then EQ2 then Rift and next..whichever game keeps me longer than 2 months. I've tried every game in between the above and even resubbed many times over the years to the games I just listed as well as others to enjoy their new content or expansions. I only listed the above as the major milestones for me, as an MMORPG gamer and if a game doesn't live up to at least one of those, than it's not a good MMORPG. Hence my issue with SWTOR. To me, it's another AoC or Aion or WAR, great for the first 2 months but after that it just doesn't call to me.

@MMOaddict

Oh good, you're that guy who calls everyone who disagrees with you a "fanboi"

Uhg, Spare me.

I'll make my statement even simpler: If you don't like the game, why bother posting why you don't like it in a thread about it?

I found LOTRO boring after a month. I found EQ2 boring after a month. I found Rift boring after two weeks. So I don't comment on them. I don't go into Rift threads and say "I wish this game was tailored more towards me instead of other players."

@KvanCetre Fair enough.

IMO though there's nothing particularly wrong with having the desire to like a game more and making suggestions as to its possible improvement.

As far as I can tell MMOAddict isn't saying he/she wants the game to be tailored to his/her ideals alone, rather the impression I'm left with is that of a concerned gamer.

And that's what this kind of discourse is for... and AFAIK there are developers out there that read Massively.

No wonder the game is the way it is - the people who made it actually enjoy immersing themselves in mediocrity.

@(Unverified)
Ahaha, a little harse but I like it. :)

Looking forward to jumping in when I get back from deployment this spring...already got the game, and it is jsut sitting there...thank god for Skyrim, tho. I would certianly HOPE your developers are playing the game, since you know...they have to keep adding content.