Guild Wars 2

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Well i certainly understand where your coming from. So the other option is to run 3 on Monday and we go in knowing that we still have some way to go in terms of us all getting everything right in terms of the spirit of the initiative.

I am happy to do this to. Thoughts?

My thought is it comes down to a judgment call you’re better prepared to make than we are: Do you feel you can get three Dev-Owners coached, prepped, and preferably eager to take on hosting a Collaborative Discussion thread?

Its not an idle question. We can be abrasive. There will be tumult. Feelings will occasionally get bruised. Things will be said. And actionable insights are not a 100% loot drop at the end of the process. If you only have two lined up, only do two threads, but if you have three steadfast souls ready for the harrowing journey before us, let’s dance!

Edit: …and Inculpatus cedo totally beat me to it. Well played !

I agree with Nike and Inculpatus here- so I’ll just add my vote to them.

It would be awesome to have the 3 threads PvE, WvWvW, PvP running at the same time if that is at all possible from your side.
If not- that is ok too, and totally understandable

- my concern is just that if we have one thread at a time the turnaround and ultimately the outcome of the discussion would take too long for the impact to be felt in a meaningful way by most players.
As it is, it seems to me that there are still people that are unable to grasp that you have a 4 month lead time on the Living Story rotation.

I have absolutely positively zero interest whatsoever in WvW or PvP, so this seems like a 1/3 productivity cut on you guys’ part. Take two weeks off, then get back to a week of work on the actual game. Still, I do have some thoughts on the Commander tag in PvE, which I can discuss, but there are FAR more important issues to get to, like better Condition Damage management and how to deal with ghost town PvE servers.

Yeah, I have a similar concern as Ohoni. I have a lack of interest in WvW or PvP. But, honestly, if with the rotation it helps Anet produce better content – with hopefully less bugs on release & less recycling & better satisfaction rate for area concerned, then I don’t see it as too much of a problem.

I was going to ask though: Could it be possible that you post the summaries of these CDIs on the Original post instead? It’d be nice to see everything summarized right as you enter the thread.

lots of optimistic people here who didn’t participate in the failed wvw thread.

I’m good with the 3 weeks rotation. As for the initiative becoming 1/3rd as effective… I don’t think so. They should have more time to respond on each individual thread now. (I hope!)

Besides, looking at WvW – Commander Functionality, there could be something in there for PvE-ers aswell. (Not so much for the PvP crowd though.) For PvP, the rewards topic is vital, not just for PvP-ers. Since I believe they are trying to pull in people from other parts of the game aswell. It is important that non-PvP-ers take part in that. And ascended gear obviously has an impact on WvW aswell…

I think calling it 1/3rd as effective isn’t right.

Also:

• Weeks go by quite quickly.

• This gives the devs time to have some internal aftermath before heading on with the next topic.

• It gives devs time to prepare for an upcoming topic. (‘Ok guys, we’ll do an extra meeting on the upcoming CDI subject next week. I’ll be busy keeping an eye on the thread, so if you could take some work off my chest, that’d be great.’)

• It could give them time to respond to non-CDI topics. Be it suggestions/general discussion/dungeons/professions forums who knows? (Yes, you should do this!)

The Lost Witch.7601:

I’m good with the 3 weeks rotation. As for the initiative becoming 1/3rd as effective… I don’t think so. They should have more time to respond on each individual thread now. (I hope!)

That’s just untrue. A WvW Dev is not going to spend time posting responses to a Living Story thread for example. In fact the fewer topics going, the less (total number of) Dev responses we’re likely to see during that timeframe.

Besides, looking at WvW – Commander Functionality, there could be something in there for PvE-ers as well.

Sure, for players. But its unlikely to coincidentally summon an artist Dev or a writer. More threads are more ‘windows of opportunity’. If its just ‘PvP week’ there’s a slew of Devs that won’t be engaged at all that could have been if it was instead ‘PvP week’, ‘vistas and mini-jump puzzles week’ and ‘armor themes week’ all running concurrently.

Also:

• Weeks go by quite quickly.

• This gives the devs time to have some internal aftermath before heading on with the next topic.

• It gives devs time to prepare for an upcoming topic. (‘Ok guys, we’ll do an extra meeting on the upcoming CDI subject next week. I’ll be busy keeping an eye on the thread, so if you could take some work off my chest, that’d be great.’)

• It could give them time to respond to non-CDI topics. Be it suggestions/general discussion/dungeons/professions forums who knows? (Yes, you should do this!)

I don’t believe any of those things will be less true by having three Devs assigned with Host duties vs. just one. Ok, the two extra hosts might do a bit less random combing through the boards, but the trade-off is they might actually have official company time set aside to do so because they are playing host – the chances we’ll see more interaction are night and day under those circumstances .

The limiting factors are more “can ANet afford to set aside that much work time for unknown gains…” Three threads at once also means we need to be on our best game (critical or brainstorming) to show them its actually worth their time to stop and talk to us to that degree. If they launch three threads next week and one of them is a ghost town because of a lack of constructive players, I think we could see a noticeable scaling back on ANet’s investments in round three. The ball is in their court right now, but its gonna be coming back at us fast .

gidorah.4960:

lots of optimistic people here who didn’t participate in the failed wvw thread.

If it is possible to have three quality topics going at the same time, then I am all for it.
I am skeptical to whether or not it is though. I think there might be a catch when it comes to quality.

Looking at last round of living story topics, the PvE living story went ok. There was room for improvements, which is only natural when you try out something new, but the overall experience was positive.
I must admit I am not sure how people felt about the PvP topic. I didn’t have the time to follow all of them.
The WvW topic was in no way nearly as successful as the living story.

• It is my understanding that ArenaNet developers, moderators etc. do this on their own initiative and for Chris at least, often outside normal working hours.
  If outside working hours is required in order to keep up, then that is a lot to deal with. Especially if all 3 areas of the game are up for discussion at the same time. That means never having a week off (Collaborate development wise), because a topic in your area will always be up for debate.
  Obviously, I don’t know if that is perfectly fine for everyone.

• Then there is the fact that, due to the vote, the first topics chosen for collaborative development are the ones that means the most to many people. I think if collaborative development is to succeed, then the collaborative development on these topics has to feel like ArenaNet is there: Listening, responding entering a dialog.

• And there is also the fact, that even though Chris maybe is supposed to manage this more than actually be the one discussing things with us, then in my opinion we still depend on him in the topics themselves. Are the developers ready to do this on their own? I am not so sure, but obviously that is not something I know for certain, it is just the feeling I got from the last 3 topics.

There is also the issue that Vi Au explained very well:

problem do not arise when you communicate, they occur when there is a lack of communication. the community will not chew off our dev as long as they keep us updated and have well reasoned posts.

It is my understanding, that the developers are venturing into unknown territory with this. I think it is important that it becomes a positive experience for them as well. The frequency of developer responses does indeed seem to have a direct influence on how hostile/constructive a discussion becomes. To have a positive experience with posting in the collaborative development topics at this point, is important for all of us I think.

The reason I suggested one topic at a time, is because: Even though 3 topics might be perfect for the many players, I am not so sure there is actually enough time for the few developers etc. to read through it all, consider suggestions given or the problematic aspects explained and then also have to post about it.

Since I am sitting on the player side of the table, I am making assumptions yes. I think Chris and his colleges are the ones that have to decide on this in the end: Do you have enough time to deal with 3?

If you are certain it wont be an issue with 3, because different developers are on different topics and there is no overlapping between developer resources and topics. If you are certain more topics will never cause a decrease in quality. Then I am all for it.

On the other hand, If the answer is: “We can, but not as well as if there was only one topic at a time”, then all I can say is:
As deafult, I would rather have 3 delicious cookies than just one. But if I have to choose between one really delicious cookie or 3 that are not really to my liking, I would rather have just the one.

EDIT: Because English > me

Well, going by Chris Whiteside’s posts in the thread, dev availability is a real issue.

Let’s say that the WvW lead devs are really busy. For some reason they have trouble keeping up with answering all of the posts in the thread. (Which I can imagine) Now Chris could help them keep track of the questions and concerns that have gone unnoticed so far. Even though he is not a WvW lead, he probably knows who to talk to for some good input. And he can probably do some of the awesome summaries in between to give the WvW devs some time to go into some issues more in-depth.

Chris just seems to be willing to do some more work.

Nike.2631:

That’s just untrue. A WvW Dev is not going to spend time posting responses to a Living Story thread for example. In fact the fewer topics going, the less (total number of) Dev responses we’re likely to see during that timeframe.

The WvW dev might be able to set aside enough time for some proper CDI-ing once every 3 weeks. Keeping up with a CDI thread is a huge time investment. For us it is less stressful, since we don’t have to weigh our words as much, and we can more freely ignore what doesn’t bother us.

Nike.2631:

The limiting factors are more “can ANet afford to set aside that much work time for unknown gains…” Three threads at once also means we need to be on our best game (critical or brainstorming) to show them its actually worth their time to stop and talk to us to that degree. If they launch three threads next week and one of them is a ghost town because of a lack of constructive players, I think we could see a noticeable scaling back on ANet’s investments in round three. The ball is in their court right now, but its gonna be coming back at us fast .

I think you underestimate us. I can see your point though. But keep in mind that while the Living Story CDI was pretty amazing and the PvP one was pretty good too, the WvW one wasn’t great.

If a lack of dev time was the issue, and that can be fixed by a 3 week schedule (as Chris seems to believe) then that could be very important. A success in the living story CDI doesn’t mean that the entire CDI-process was as good.

That leaves a question open though:

Could devs with time on their hands open an extra CDI topic in an area that requires player input?

I seem to gather from the CDI so far, that the devs also really like the initiative. So perhaps it can be used not only to bring up the topics that we as players feel strongly about, but also the topics that the dev team really wants some input on?

Not as a replacement, but as an addition.

For me the question is whether Arenanet feels sure/confident enough to moderate three topics at the same time. Have the devs enough time to join the discussions? Have they learned enough from the past discussion? Can they start all needed procedures at the right time to maintain three topic in the way they and we want it?

If Arenanet is confident enough to maintain three topics we should do it. If Arenanet thinks one topic is the only amount at the moment they can manage they should be open to us and say it.

Since the topic commander functions covers WvW and PvE to a certain extent we could start with two topics. Izzy and Devon could moderate the topic together and put light on the different aspects in WvW and PvE. The second topic would be a PvP related. My impression was that the PvP side had a quite good and tight moderation.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Well i certainly understand where your coming from. So the other option is to run 3 on Monday and we go in knowing that we still have some way to go in terms of us all getting everything right in terms of the spirit of the initiative.

I am happy to do this to. Thoughts?

Chris

However it is done, they need to be chosen from the original vote. There’s too much stop starting, with worrying terms like “evaluation process” creeping in. It is after a video game and most of us come here to escape the everyday bureaucracy, management and corporate speak of the real world

Besides, my understanding was we’d use the first 3 in turn and then vote anew (altho I adamantly maintain that these need to be long or permanently open threads. Time limited threads shut out ppl who are busy at this time of year or future players). Using the ones we already voted gets us back to discussion quicker..

Nike.2631:

That’s just untrue. A WvW Dev is not going to spend time posting responses to a Living Story thread for example. In fact the fewer topics going, the less (total number of) Dev responses we’re likely to see during that time frame.

At least in Chris’ case this isn’t true. He made mention that he would like to participate in all the CDI areas (WvW, PvP, and PvE). This may put a tax on his thorough participation in any one thread. That is for him to decide, of course, but still could be burdensome at least for him.

Even having said that, my personal preference would be to have a CDI thread for each area going at once. I would like to see the development teams, as Nike said, focus on their particular areas.

There are a myriad of topics to be discussed in each area and I would like to see as many topics as possible discussed without interruption.

I am one of the PvE players who has no interest in PvP and little interest in WvW. So I would like to see the CDI PvE thread constantly flowing.

To be honest the to busy to post excuse simply doesn’t fly. Anet controls the allocation of time. So if this initiative is really that important, than they can allocate time for people to post. Chris is spending an awful lot of time on it, but it feels like just chris is treating this as important and the rest couldn’t care less about it.

If arenanet as a company thinks this is truly important than they need to start treating it as such. What’s the point otherwise? Placating the forum mob?

Conner.4702:

To be honest the to busy to post excuse simply doesn’t fly. Anet controls the allocation of time. So if this initiative is really that important, than they can allocate time for people to post. Chris is spending an awful lot of time on it, but it feels like just chris is treating this as important and the rest couldn’t care less about it.

If arenanet as a company thinks this is truly important than they need to start treating it as such. What’s the point otherwise? Placating the forum mob?

It is not just the time to post, also the time to read and perhaps to discuss it with fellow devs. (In case of a sensitive issue)

I think it could take a dev 3 hours a day, easily, to keep up with an active CDI thread. Then add in a meeting to evaluate the outcome of the CDI for another 3 hours. (Most of it in preparation) And perhaps a meeting later on to see where they stand on the issues.

Chris seems to try and allocate time for the developers to be able to run this well. If that means there is no new topic to discuss in every section each week, I am not surprised.

It is not something they can just do ‘on the side’ as you rightfully recognize. If they want to make it work there has to be time dedicated to it. Time doesn’t just become available though. And a project-based intense one week period every month seems a lot more manageable to me than a continuous ongoing thread.

Please do it one thread per week. These threads needs facilitators, and if there are not enough facilitators to go around, then the threads are a waste of time.

You want CDI to be something that people value. If it is a once every three weeks thing that is productive, people will value it. If it is a once a week thing that is a flop, people will declare it a joke and stop investing in it.

Focus your resources, and make that one thread per week amazing. It’s ok to leave people wanting more. When their turn comes they will invest all the more.

Do what you need to about topic selection and rotation. Up to you.

I personally will have less to say about WvW(even though I do enjoy it) and even less to say about sPvP.

Nike.2631:

That’s just untrue. A WvW Dev is not going to spend time posting responses to a Living Story thread for example. In fact the fewer topics going, the less (total number of) Dev responses we’re likely to see during that timeframe.

Good point, Nike. However, for some of us who are interested in engaging (or re-engaging) into the discussion who don’t have as much time to read/reply on a constant basis a number of separate treads makes the data management a tad easier to digest.

Three threads at once also means we need to be on our best game (critical or brainstorming) to show them its actually worth their time to stop and talk to us to that degree. If they launch three threads next week and one of them is a ghost town because of a lack of constructive players, I think we could see a noticeable scaling back on ANet’s investments in round three. The ball is in their court right now, but its gonna be coming back at us fast .

Agreed, and as above, the breakdown of threads would be incredibly helpful as entry-points for others in the community to engage in a meaningful way on those CDI issues about which they care most.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

I am thinking we will go with three topics. I will make a decision on this today.

Chris

If it helps to tilt the decision, Chris, the 3 topic route will be easier to allow on-ramps for some of us who want to participate rather than a single macro thread. It also allows us 3 times the chance to have a topic that matters/impacts us each time.

Also, can I request that the CDI threads get summarized by the main dev on salient topics. At least, if we could read a list of the the ideas/suggestions/comments that have been high-graded and low-graded that would help us participate in the actual dialogue with you and your team.

Looking forward to next steps, and thanks for all the fish!

I’ve already spoken my piece on the 1 thread VS 3 threads question. Honestly, while I would prefer 3 threads (or even just 3 topics without a need to keep it specifically to the 3 “core” areas of the game), it really comes down to what ANet can do. We need real interaction in these threads moving forward and if the only way ANet can do that is to limit it to one thread at a time, then that’s probably the way to go.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

FYI: Keeping you up to date (-:

Jocksy.3415:
Chris Whiteside.6102:
Would you like us to discuss Population Imbalance again and then follow with Commander functionality?

I would like to know / feel that the discussions of the pop imbalance thread are not just useless venting, but that some kind of action is going to be taken… If the only point of CDI is discussing, and nothing is actually being done… It’s a loss of time both for the players who give ideas and for the devs who are reading through it all.
We need some feedback on the previous CDI before we start another one on the same topic. We need to know what might be possible and what is off limit.

Absolutely true. Without openness and willingness to involve players in the planning and design elements of the game, the CDI is pretty much a waste of time for everyone involved. Or, even if there are actual tangible results, with no known time frames and no clarity, there is certainly the appearance of it being a waste of time.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

StriderShinryu.6923:

I’ve already spoken my piece on the 1 thread VS 3 threads question. Honestly, while I would prefer 3 threads (or even just 3 topics without a need to keep it specifically to the 3 “core” areas of the game), it really comes down to what ANet can do. We need real interaction in these threads moving forward and if the only way ANet can do that is to limit it to one thread at a time, then that’s probably the way to go.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

FYI: Keeping you up to date (-:

Jocksy.3415:
Chris Whiteside.6102:
Would you like us to discuss Population Imbalance again and then follow with Commander functionality?

I would like to know / feel that the discussions of the pop imbalance thread are not just useless venting, but that some kind of action is going to be taken… If the only point of CDI is discussing, and nothing is actually being done… It’s a loss of time both for the players who give ideas and for the devs who are reading through it all.
We need some feedback on the previous CDI before we start another one on the same topic. We need to know what might be possible and what is off limit.

Absolutely true. Without openness and willingness to involve players in the planning and design elements of the game, the CDI is pretty much a waste of time for everyone involved. Or, even if there are actual tangible results, with no known time frames and no clarity, there is certainly the appearance of it being a waste of time.

Hi Strider,

The CDI is a GW2 design discussion whereby our philosophies and ideas will evolve. We will not be going into any planning details. I am sorry if this gives the ‘impression’ that the exercise is a waste of time, i can only assure you that it is not, and over time the proof will be in the pudding as they say.

Chris

I believe what Strider was trying to put into context was that people are looking for some sort okittennowledge by the dev team that the suggestions they are making are in fact valid, and what sort of opinions or ideas you guys have at your round table and hope to put forward in the near future to appease all of these diverse opinions.

Without any sort of public acknowledgement of how our opinions are being interpreted, it makes people feel as though they are wasting their breath. Especially given the public reaction of the past 3 living story and content updates.

I wish you and your family a pleasant Thanksgiving Holiday, whether you celebrate it or not. Maybe you enjoy American football….or maybe not! Lol.

Thanks for all your hard work!

Chris,

Do you think that it would be possible to have a CDI with the Art Team on occasion? I think it would be fun to talk to them about armor and learn how they choose what to add, as well as learn what isn’t possible for them to do.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

~snip~

It has been mentioned that servers should be made international.
It has been mentioned that people from stacked server should get free transfers to needing servers

Some mentioned servers less active in WvW shouldn’t get less bonus, but more, so that people are more likely to select these low WvW activity servers…

*Some of these ideas were just mentionned, some were discussed in lenght amongst the players, but all we heard was “this idea is off the table” not “that idea is interesting”, nor, “as is, this idea cannot be applied, we might tweak it this or that way, so that it might work, what do you think?”

This leaves us people who care about population imbalance with a bitter taste in the mouth – nothing we say is considered, it’s just “swept under the rug”.*
So, before deciding whether yet another population imbalance CDI must be made, we need to know if it is useful…

~snip~

Chris, I think you need to remember, that even if that was the contextual flow of the conversation re: WvW servers, players are still not dev’s, even if dev’s are players. As such, without this developer insight of how stuff goes together and/or a lack of context or a disruption in the flow of the discussion (ie. derailing), the players are still going to hit out and hit hard with their experiences in the game, and saying what they want to make better. As such, a lot of the feedback you’re going to get will be negative, even if it is realistic. Obviously then, it’s up to you and the collaboration of other dev’s as to how to better it.

As for this WvW collab, it’s up to us as players to collate info of how the game doesn’t work as well as it should, or from a dev’s PoV, how it was meant to be implemented, and then sort out how it could be made better and then have steps made to rectify it. This process requires very specific and unimpeded communication between players & dev’s. The signal-to-noise ratio (ie. what is useful and can be actioned versus what is just rambling and complaining) has to be fine-tuned. Remember – not everything that is a complaint is not worth reading. There may be some vital info in there that the poster just doesn’t know how to communicate properly.

The ingratiating banter that some dev’s I’ve noticed so joyously undertake, isn’t commonly found among a large percentage of the playerbase. Even though you’d like for us to be more positive in being critical (ie. constructive and directional), it doesn’t always come out that way. I’ve seen a lot of players dish out feedback exactly how they experienced it, which isn’t always positive. While it could take a long while for the playerbase to understand the ‘softly-softly-think-positive’ approach you as dev’s seem to have, and respond best to, I think you also need to be empathetic with the players at large. It is hard seeing the game you helped create through so many people’s eyes.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Hi All,

We will be moving forward on Monday with the topic of Commander Functionality which will be housed in the WvW forums. I believe this to be the right approach at this time to ensure that the WvW CDI participants get a focused experience of the spirit of the initiative and how it is intended to work.

Following a week on this topic I will appraise how things went and decide what paradigm we will be moving forward with.

Either tomorrow or Friday i will list the CDI Evolution actions.

Thank you all for you comments and participation and I am looking forward to discussing the next topic with you all.

Chris

So you really want to discuss only one topic per week? I dont think it is good idea becouse it will just delay discussions about other same important topics. We should move forward not delay.

videoboy.4162:

Chris,

Do you think that it would be possible to have a CDI with the Art Team on occasion? I think it would be fun to talk to them about armor and learn how they choose what to add, as well as learn what isn’t possible for them to do.

I think that’d be more suitable to an AMA-style event. I’m not terribly certain the average player could give really useful criticisms to the graphic artists and 3-d modelers. That would have to be far more technical in tone, y’know?

daros.3407:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Hi All,

We will be moving forward on Monday with the topic of Commander Functionality which will be housed in the WvW forums. I believe this to be the right approach at this time to ensure that the WvW CDI participants get a focused experience of the spirit of the initiative and how it is intended to work.

Following a week on this topic I will appraise how things went and decide what paradigm we will be moving forward with.

Either tomorrow or Friday i will list the CDI Evolution actions.

Thank you all for you comments and participation and I am looking forward to discussing the next topic with you all.

Chris

So you really want to discuss only one topic per week? I dont think it is good idea becouse it will just delay discussions about other same important topics. We should move forward not delay.

I am fairly sure what Chris means, is that there will be one topic for wvw now, because the previous one was a bit disappointing, and he wants to give the WvW CDI participants a “focused experience of the spirit of the initiative and how it is intended to work”.

After the one week (and with the experienced gained within the week), he will decide whether to continue with one or three topics at a time.

Reesha.7901:

daros.3407:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Hi All,

We will be moving forward on Monday with the topic of Commander Functionality which will be housed in the WvW forums. I believe this to be the right approach at this time to ensure that the WvW CDI participants get a focused experience of the spirit of the initiative and how it is intended to work.

Following a week on this topic I will appraise how things went and decide what paradigm we will be moving forward with.

Either tomorrow or Friday i will list the CDI Evolution actions.

Thank you all for you comments and participation and I am looking forward to discussing the next topic with you all.

Chris

So you really want to discuss only one topic per week? I dont think it is good idea becouse it will just delay discussions about other same important topics. We should move forward not delay.

I am fairly sure what Chris means, is that there will be one topic for wvw now, because the previous one was a bit disappointing, and he wants to give the WvW CDI participants a “focused experience of the spirit of the initiative and how it is intended to work”.

After the one week (and with the experienced gained within the week), he will decide whether to continue with one or three topics at a time.

Yes can respect that. I just fear it may be less productive to run only one thread.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

I wish you and your family a pleasant Thanksgiving Holiday, whether you celebrate it or not. Maybe you enjoy American football….or maybe not! Lol.

Thanks for all your hard work!

Well said Inculpatus! Happy Thanksgiving to you All!

Chris

Would this be a holiday here in Germany, then I’d have to say now, that the latest patch basically absolutely destroyed for everyone the whole “spirit” around that fest, because it just created only at the most wrong moment a pure mud battle around a small minority of a forum community of people that disagree with some new shop content, resulting in them having a huge influence on changing this content, only because they don’t like it.
Seriously, and whats with the opinions of all those people, which liked the content just as it is and which think, that this opportunity could have been used better to improve the game in some kind of ways, than to let it stay in regard of that issue restricting in our personal choices of how our characters could look like?

However, alot of people of this ridiculous community that are forming this minority here aren’t mature enough in my opinion to just be grateful in the spirit of thanksgiving, for what you add to the game, always wanting to have everything instantly changed back and removed, so that their own selfish and smallminded things stay always and forever the same, them not allowing the game to evolve, only because something looks similar to some equipment in this game and calculated into gold is cheaper, than the normal version.

The current shop issues leaded now to the point , that I for myself have lost absolutely all my faith in Anet to a kind of degree, that I’m even self unable to describe my own disappointment in regard of how Anet handles the “solution” (not to mention that language barriers make it even easier xD)

If a company like Anet can’t even handle properly such shop issues and do their best to prevent such issues from basically happening at all every month, how shoul I still believe then, that you can handle any other type of issues this game has currently and what the CDI stands for to improve in the future?

But maybe I’m just only so massively disappointed right now, that I’m just seeking for every kind of valve right now I can find, so that I can just unload my pressure and maybe I just chose this thread now, because I know it will be read …by the right person(s) …

sigh

kind regards

A very disappointed player

Lheimroo.2947:

videoboy.4162:

Chris,

Do you think that it would be possible to have a CDI with the Art Team on occasion? I think it would be fun to talk to them about armor and learn how they choose what to add, as well as learn what isn’t possible for them to do.

I think that’d be more suitable to an AMA-style event. I’m not terribly certain the average player could give really useful criticisms to the graphic artists and 3-d modelers. That would have to be far more technical in tone, y’know?

I wasn’t really thinking that such a topic would be on the same scale as the CDIs have been so far. I just think it would be nice to be able to communicate with the artists in the same way that we’ve been conversing with Chris and Bobby.

It would be nice to get some official answers to some of the armor questions that people have ben curious about.

You are so awesome!

When will CDI about Game mechanics be done, like Skills, Weapons, builds and traits, gear additions like Ascended and Horizontal/Vertical Progressions splitting the communities etc..

Also perceived Grind, economy issues and the influx of prestige gear all affecting the game in a negative aspect..

Chris Whiteside.6102:

videoboy.4162:

Lheimroo.2947:

videoboy.4162:

Chris,

Do you think that it would be possible to have a CDI with the Art Team on occasion? I think it would be fun to talk to them about armor and learn how they choose what to add, as well as learn what isn’t possible for them to do.

I think that’d be more suitable to an AMA-style event. I’m not terribly certain the average player could give really useful criticisms to the graphic artists and 3-d modelers. That would have to be far more technical in tone, y’know?

I wasn’t really thinking that such a topic would be on the same scale as the CDIs have been so far. I just think it would be nice to be able to communicate with the artists in the same way that we’ve been conversing with Chris and Bobby.

It would be nice to get some official answers to some of the armor questions that people have ben curious about.

Hi Video,

I will speak to Daniel about it and see what he thinks.

Hope you have had a good day.

Chris

Hopefully, hopefully, hopefully… This could answer to people who like me call since lounch for GW1 armors in the gem store.

Most of us gave up or stopped playing but:
a) Those were and still are awesome and many people would still but them
b) Those from GW1 needs some love from devs…

I can’t describe how much I look forward to that.

Hey chris,
Not sure if anyone’s mentioned this, but I kinda think you should time the “Game/class balance” CDI topic to a little later behind the dec 10th patch. By then, people would have seen the changes your team has made and be able to give you feedback on it as a whole without being told “Well, just wait until the next patch”, like we did with complaint’s about scarlett’s character being “Well, wait until her arc finishes”.

Just a thought really.

Just some feedback on the current WvW CDI thread whilst there are some good suggestions it seems to be going pretty much nowhere in collaborative terms, much like the first WvW thread.

Isaiah Cartwright.8569:

What where some things that could have been done better in that thread? What are some examples of collaboration you are looking to see ?

In general I would like to come out of the thread feeling like I have greater insight into how it works, why things are the way they are, or what inspirations you found in the thread. While the Devs asking us questions is a good ‘ice breaker’ to get people warmed up, there comes a point when I really felt like a separate systems of surveys would be better than using the CDIs that way.

I think it should be clear there in the ANet offices that the summaries every few pages are to help new readers get a grounding in what’s already been covered, and NOT the SUMM TOTAL of the Devs’ expected level of participation. Being told “no, X won’t be easy to do because of consideration Y” would be vastly preferable to us guessing if certain ideas had been read at all.

There was some discussion of including a primer post or some other general explanation of the topic when each thread launches. We got a tiny taste of that with the post answering the question “What do the Devs feel the current system does well?” More of those sorts of insights (especially at the outset) would be very welcome .

Isaiah Cartwright.8569:

I think that’s fair but there wasn’t much back and forth on the topic since our commander system is so simple there isn’t much to discuss.

Well, on the subject of quick fixes the overwhelming uniformity of responses was pretty telling, I’ll give you that…

But when the possibility of a major overhaul was suggested, I think the lack of any Dev-side discussion of the scope such an overhaul could encompass left what could have been a very deep topic nearly dead until you yourself mentioned the possibility of folding in UI elements from the Dynamic Events system – and then the thread was brimming with excitement at the possibilities of a more in-depth set of changes. A near-perfect example of “the more the Devs put into these chats, the more they can get out of them” .

Thanks for the feedback though I’ll make sure and cover some more reasoning/explanation for things next time.

I look forward to it!

Isaiah Cartwright.8569:

I think that’s fair but there wasn’t much back and forth on the topic sense our commander system is so simple there isn’t much to discuss.

Thanks for the feedback though I’ll make sure and cover some more reasoning/explanation for things next time.

I would have really enjoyed hearing what the devs would like to see in a commander system, what makes you decide to keep the PvE and WvW functionality the same, what are some creative uses you’ve seen of the squad functions, how did you expect it to be used at launch and what did you include that you are disappointed that players didn’t use?

Yes, your system is very simple — why? What decisions influenced that? Where do you want it to go, what ideas did you hear in the thread that inspired you? What made you think, “Now that’s a good idea!” and what made you roll your eyes.

To me it seems that we are looking for interaction, but what we’re getting is a few focusing questions and nothing else. Even so, I can see the Initiative being helpful to the Devs. Throw us some crumbs in the way of personal interactions, let us see a little bit of personality and some feedback on which thoughts and ideas are valued and you’ll get even better participation from the players.

Here is a novel idea… how about using the suggestions you get from players instead of just making it seem like you want to hear them

This may be just my perception but for me, a huge blow was dealt to the entire CDI process with this patch.

Threads were opened about the balance changes, pages of feedback was given, no changes were made to what was actually released and no explantion was given as to why none of the feedback was considered (specifically the one in the guardian forum).

It’s a shame really. The guardian thread about the balance changes is overflowing with well thought out constructive ideas. A dev even responded and asked for feedback regarding a specific trait. Feedback was not acknowledged and no changes were made to said trait.

Just a shame…