BioWare Offers Heartfelt Message and Apology to ‘Anthem’ Players, “Anthem Is Here to Stay”

Though we, among many others, are currently enjoying BioWare’s newest IP Anthem, that doesn’t mean the launch went off without a hitch. From bugs, to shifting focus, the community has been very lively with their feedback. The studio has been very attentive and quick with their patches, but Community Manager Jesse Anderson had a more meaningful message to add.

“First, I want to thank you for writing this up,” he said in a Reddit response to one fan that took to the forums with critique of the game and how the studio is seemingly handling support. He added, “I appreciate the honesty of how you (and others) feel about the current state of things. I also want to say that I can’t talk about everything, simply because it is not my area of expertise, or because I don’t have the information you’re looking for. I stand by our statement of being transparent though and will continue to do so here and on other channels.”

Instead of mulling over what the player had to say, he instead addressed each point made starting with communication.

“To start, things used to be a lot friendlier here for dev team members who normally don’t talk on social channels or forums,” Anderson mentioned about pre-launch vs post-launch communication. “They could answer questions, give information and know that they aren’t going to have people getting upset at them. Why would a dev team member take time away from working on the next update to post when they know it’s likely to be met with hostile replies, or they get flamed because can’t answer other questions that players are asking? I don’t mind posting here when things aren’t so nice, but that’s because it’s my job. For the devs it isn’t their job, and I’d like to ask that people remember that when replying to them. When some people say “be nice or the devs will stop posting” it’s 100% true. Be respectful and constructive with your feedback and more team members will likely reply.”

Another feedback often offered is that the team is focusing too much on “trivial” matters instead of the bigger issues. “I have been acknowledging issues that aren’t the major ones you mentioned, but that’s because I can quickly check in on those and work with the team to see how fast we can get them fixed. I also report major issues, but until I get word back on them there is nothing else I can say. Issues like the Masterwork Embers not dropping I can quickly bring to the attention of the team and we can get fixed. I think it’s better that I address the things I can as quickly as I can instead of nothing at all. Also, I try to avoid saying “thanks for the feedback, I’ll share with the team” too many times in reply to post.”

He also mentioned that loot is very much a high priority, but the delay is because there are many people working on this issue and they want to make sure it’s right before it’s launched.

Earlier this week, there was an additional patch addendum that was released when some things were unintentionally left out. Though not intentional, many feared that the studio was being secretive about some of the issues. Though they’ve mentioned that wasn’t the case, Anderson added:

“I said this before, but nothing was hidden on purpose in the patch notes. The truth is patch notes come together late in the update process and I do everything I can to ensure they are accurate, but sometimes things slip by with all the moving pieces. I’d much rather put together patch notes even if they are missing a few things instead of doing generic ones that just say “various bug fixes and improvements”. I’ll work with the team to get this process better, but we still may miss something from time to time, especially if it is something that gets added to an update late in the process. We will never hide a nerf or change in the patch notes on purpose, even if it’s something we know the community won’t like. And if we do put in something that the community doesn’t like we’ll do our best to explain why that particular change was made.”

He also added quite a few major changes that were a direct result from player feedback, including Fort Tarsis foot speed, Forge dependence, and other key tweaks that were marked priority due to player suggestions.

Anderson added that “reading this stings a bit” when he was accused of disregarding fan feedback, because that was never the case. “I love this community and am very thankful for everything that has been brought up such as feedback, bug reports, funny posts (༼ つ ◕◕ ༽つ Summon the loot update༼ つ ◕◕ ༽つ) and everything in between.

“We do our livestreams, blog posts (like the inscriptions write up), patch notes, helping out with issues when we have the info and more. I am always listening and willing to make changes so please, let us know.”

He ended his message saying that “Anthem is here to stay. Do we have a lot of work to do to fix parts of the game? Yes, and the team is committed to making improvements and releasing new content.”

I personally have been loving Anthem, as I know many others have as well, and I’m excited to see them take such an immersive role with their community. If you have any Anthem-related thoughts you’d like to add, drop them in the comment section below, or hit me up over on Twitter @DirtyEffinHippy.

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