18/07/2022

7.1 News and Big Changes at Bioware

I was just pondering what my next post on here was going to be when Keith actually dropped a proper "game update" on the official website. There are two major parts to it - one: We actually have a date for 7.1! It's going to launch on August 2nd. And two: After sixteen years, Charles Boyd is leaving Bioware.

I have to admit the latter was quite a shock to me. It always feels good when our MMOs have consistent leadership, and Charles was one of the people who provided that for SWTOR. He famously penned the original trooper story, which I know isn't many people's favourite, but I main a trooper so... come at me! I also suspect that him taking over as Creative Director at the end of KotFE played a major part in the overall narrative becoming more stable after KotET. I mean, people have different opinions on these things, but whatever criticisms I may have had of Bioware sometimes, I very much liked the overall narrative direction of the game throughout the last few years.

All that is without even going into the way Charles was present on social media and at conventions, always batting for the game and making it impossible to not be excited when you listened to him talk about whatever update was supposed to be coming up next. MMORPGs involve a lot of people, and it's rare that we as players really get to associate a name and face with a specific feature or direction, but Charles was definitely one of those rare creators that really stood out. I wish him all the best wherever he goes next.

As if to forestall some sort of "OMG, Charles is leaving, we're doomed" reaction from the fanbase, the news post then also takes a moment to remind us who's still there to take care of the game and who'll be taking over from Charles. No new Creative Director is mentioned, but it sounds like the closest people to his role will be Narrative Director Ashley Ruhl and Lead Writer Caitlin Sullivan Kelly. Ashley appeared in a recent developer talk at this year's Star Wars Celebration, which Swtorista posted on YouTube, and Caitlin has been responsible for writing some recent-ish story updates that I really enjoyed, such as the Secrets of the Enclave story for both factions and the Imperial Manaan arc. So while Charles' departure leaves them with big shoes to fill, at least they're not complete unknowns.

Personnel changes aside, while I'm happy to hear that 7.1 finally has a release date, I have to admit I was a bit disappointed by the complete absence of any sort of acknowledgement of or explanation for how long it took to get us here. I can understand if Bioware doesn't want to engage with the more toxic and demanding parts of the fanbase directly, but it seems pretty obvious that the game's big anniversary hasn't really gone as planned so far, so some sort of comment on that would have been nice I guess?

However, it looks like their strategy is to continue to carefully avoid talking about the elephant in the room while hoping that it will simply go away if they continue to not look at it for long enough. One can only speculate that whatever it was that caused everything to be delayed quite so badly was either some sort of massive internal screw-up that's too embarrassing to talk about, or some sort of corporate interference that they're not allowed to comment on. (Former SWTOR content creator Kid Lee certainly had some interesting opinions on the latter on Twitter.) Whichever it is, it means that we as the player base remain largely in the dark about what exactly is going on at Bioware beyond generic reassurances that things continue to chug along. Let's see how 7.1 will pan out.

8 comments :

  1. I know I liked the Trooper story, so there!

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  2. I enjoyed the Trooper story line. Then, I enjoyed all the story lines, including the 'boring' Consular one. I was glad they weren't carbon copies of each other, but all felt appropriate for their class.

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    1. Absolutely. Yes, I liked the Smuggler one the best, and let's be honest, that's the class I started playing SWTOR with, but I also liked them all.

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    2. I actually also wouldn't call trooper my favourite, despite of it being my main. But I've always struggled with ranking the class stories because I think they each have their pros and cons (while being very enjoyable overall).

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  3. I wonder what you mean by the narrative becoming more stable. To me everything feels completely disjointed after the excellent Knights expansions. I find the narrative very much lacking, becoming much simpler again because apparently a lot of people need 'Empire vs Republic' in the most basic way to engage with the story.

    Except Echoes of Oblivion, that was one of the best narrative experiences they've done.

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    1. Basically I thought the "Knights of" expansions were the opposite of excellent. I've written about that on this blog quite a few times, but here's my most recent post about it, which summarises just some of my issues.

      I've been much happier since they've refocused on the factions and characters that we cared about from the beginning, using a plethora of new and returning characters that make the world feel much more alive than simply fixating on a single family on Zakuul.

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  4. The trooper story is one of my favorites. It's sad to see Charles go but he has been with the company a long time and I understand why he would want to expand his horizons. I wish him the best in his future endeavors.

    I've noticed that Bioware as a whole seems to ignore the elephant in the room a lot. This can be a good and bad thing. Sometimes gaming companies mess up big time by saying too much. I think Bioware sometimes says too little. An explanation for the delay would have been nice, but if Kid Lee's take on what may have happen is true, then I can see why they're remaining quiet.

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    1. Yeah, as much as I'd like them to communicate more, from what I see in the gaming space in general, there doesn't seem to be a single "correct" way to handle these things, as you can get negative backlash either way. So I don't really blame them.

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