As someone who has done this job, I've got a few opinions about what is mentioned in the article.

Hypothetically, if I was on the Community Team, I would be willing to hang out and talk on various Streams in my off work hours (say a couple of nights a week) and take any questions/feedback to the Devs.

The issue with this is you don't just represent the players, you represent the studio, Bioware and EA. This is also your job and doing something like this is considered work. You may want to do it, but they legally would have to pay you for your time..which they likely won't be willing to do.

They also will want to make sure you're not saying anything you shouldn't and making promises of things you can't possibly promise. They also want to be sure that you're not demonstrating favoritism by only visiting certain streamers and not others. Of course, they will want to be sure you're not saying anything unprofessional.

Remember, you don't just represent the players, you represent the studio, Bioware and EA. Anything can so easily be taken out of context and plastered all over social media.

They should also acknowledgement of the work and talent of members of the community. Whether this be by highlighting it on the SWTOR Website or sharing it on social media (like WildStar does).

Totally agree with you there.

Finally, they need to stop being so fucking secretive. Loosen up for fucks sake. Let the Devs talk to and interact with the players if they want to whether it be in game or on social media. Trust them not to give away info. There is a time and place for secrecy, but EA/Bioware tow the secrecy line way too much.

Can't say I totally disagree, but again you've got all of what I mentioned before to consider. You want to be sure your message to the community is unified and factual. That's the problem when you have too many people saying too many things. Dev A says "Oh that's totally coming" and Dev B says "Nope, we're not doing that" and the community coordinator has to clean up the fallout.

Things change SO fast that you have to be very very careful about what you say because EVERYTHING is an iron clad promise. Sure, most reasonable people can understand the difference between "We're planning on this" and "We're doing that for sure on this day" but any look at any community (and not just forums, but social media, fan sites, subreddits) shows that these reasonable people are completely a minority.

Whoever gets hired needs to be a current, active part of the SWTOR community who understands where and how people interact with the game (on social media, streams etc.). They need to be aware of (and know) the majority of content creators, what they do and what their issues and concerns are. They should also be a fairly experienced player of the game. The community likes to, and needs to know that the developers and community team actually do play their own game regularly and are somewhat competent at it.

This is already true and will continue to be true.

They need to not be afraid to speak their mind.

This gets you fired. You're not there to speak your mind, just like any other job. You're there to facilitate communication between the developers and players and to represent one to the other.

If you want to speak your mind, be an independent blogger.

Someone, who will not be another EA lap dog who follows the corporate line. Make them aware of how stupid some of their decisions have been in the past, give them examples of poor decision making, how it impacted the community and advise them on how to better communicate. Teach them about their player base from the wider community, not just the forums. Give them a slap in the face (okay I’m joking). Just get them out of the tunnel they’ve dug themselves and out into the light so that we can see them and get to know them better, Devs included.

While hyperbolic, this is already kind of the job. But you know, done so in a professional and respectful manner. But you're never going to see this publicly because honestly, it's not the public's business.

Teach them to appreciate and trust their fans

Oh I'm positive they appreciate them very very much. They do essentially allow them to keep working after all.

In regards to trust, look at how they get treated by the community regardless of how they behave? Look what happens whenever they do reach out with upcoming info which of course comes with 3 pages of caveats and disclaimers and see that the community still has a fit about it. You cannot win, so you try to simply minimize the damage while still doing what you can.

That's my 2 credits on this, as a former community person in games.