A guild mate and I were standing in LA right after the update today. There was an Anet tag standing there motionless near the Mystic Forge. My guild mate was asking it questions in say chat. I tried to explain to my guild mate that it was just a “placeholder”, you know, a Dev Bot there to record what people are map chatting about the latest update. As I was trying to explain this to my guild mate… it MOVED! and it SPOKE!
I have to admit that I was more than a little surprised. It interacted my guild mate a few moments, gave a sort of scripted response to a question that was asked, then I had to leave and go pick up my kids from school.
This leaves me with only two conclusions:
1) my belief that those Anet tags are only recording bots has been myth busted, they are actual people!
2) Anet has some really awesome interactive bots
…either way… my mind is blown, gg Anet gg….
[AIR] Henge of Denravi aka Pink Abu, [BAMA] RollTide
chopping wood one day, dropped a piece,
all I could say was, “…fell…foot…”
I don’t recall any of that being a myth other than was the Dev playing Thief? I’ve even played with random ones in Spvp/PvP/WvW (some as commanders) but little to no ones ever seen one as a Thief. :P Most often Rangers and Necros it seems.
| Fort Aspenwood (NA): Sylvari Daredevil Thief Main: All Classes 80. | Please Remove/Fix Thief Trait: “Last Refuge.” “Hard to Catch” is a Horrible and Useless Trait. Fixed 6/23/15. Praise Dwayna.
You should have seen them when HoT had freshly launched. They were in the jungle getting it in with the rest of us. Most of the Anet players I’ve come across were actually good at playing/survival. It’s nice to see employees that not only develop but understand how to play their product well.
ArenaNet doesn’t have any bots and I’ve never heard of such. They don’t need bots to record chat since they can pull all chat logs out of their servers (this is how they verify reports – they even pull up whisper conversations for such).
When you see an Anet tag it’s a dev playing an actual account, and if they’re not moving then they’re just afk – nothing fancy about it.
Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
You should have seen them when HoT had freshly launched. They were in the jungle getting it in with the rest of us. Most of the Anet players I’ve come across were actually good at playing/survival. It’s nice to see employees that not only develop but understand how to play their product well.
Awww, I’ve been looking for a Dev in game since the original preweekend. I’ve never seen one other than the afk ones. I did see an Anet flame ram(?) on wurm gate once upon a time.
[AIR] Henge of Denravi aka Pink Abu, [BAMA] RollTide
chopping wood one day, dropped a piece,
all I could say was, “…fell…foot…”
I’ve been playing since the first public beta and I’ve never heard anyone claim characters with Anet tags are bots before.
As someone else said they don’t need to have a character (bot or real person) standing in the map to see or record what’s being said in chat. They can pull up the chat log for any area (except possibly whispers?) any time they want. I’m not sure how long they keep it on file but they can definitely go a little way back in order to investigate claims of verbal abuse, gold selling etc.
When you see an Anet tag on a character that means it’s someone who works for the company who is representing their staff guild. Whenever I’ve seen it they’re getting bombarded with questions in say, map and by whisper so it’s not surprising they can sometimes be slow to respond. (Which actually would indicate they’re NOT a bot. Back when I played Ultima Online they did have bots to answer common questions and you could tell they weren’t real people because they’d produce a long response, properly formatted, almost instantly.)
What I find interesting is that they can turn the tag on and off at will (by switching guilds) so unless you know all their character names you can never be sure whether someone from Anet is around or not. They seem to only turn it on when they want to be recognised and are prepared for loads of questions. Or when they want to distract an entire enemy zerg in WvW.
Danielle Aurorel, Dear Dragon We Got Your Cookies [Nom], Desolation (EU).
You should have seen them when HoT had freshly launched. They were in the jungle getting it in with the rest of us. Most of the Anet players I’ve come across were actually good at playing/survival. It’s nice to see employees that not only develop but understand how to play their product well.
Whenever I saw an ANet tag on a player it was usually a staff guardian in open world events.
I played with 2 anet employees in pvp over the last couple of days. One match I was against them (ow. watched my teammates go absolutely stupid) and one I was teamed with them. They’s just people. (With super shiny, mind altering tags apparently)
Don’t look at me like that. Whatever you’ve heard, it’s probably not true.
I don’t see the tags often, but might be due to when I play more than anything else. I’ve seen a couple in DR previously too. Generally speaking, I don’t typically explicitly pay attention to whether they are around or not.
Don’t look at me like that. Whatever you’ve heard, it’s probably not true.
They’re much more common on NA servers than EU ones, which might affect how often different people see them.
And I’ve just remembered one instance where they were standing in maps just to see what people said – when Heart of Thorns was announced. Quite a few players who couldn’t be there in person got together in-game to listen to the announcement and some gatherings had Anet staff show up.
Of course they all knew what was going to happen, but I bet they enjoyed watching.
Attachments:
Danielle Aurorel, Dear Dragon We Got Your Cookies [Nom], Desolation (EU).
They mainly play on the US servers I have seen them from time to time. As for them being some type of monitoring bot that’s just dumb. Thisis the first I have ever herd of this myth and yes there is a real person playing if you see a charature with the Anet tag above their head.
Opinions are like ______ everyone has one I could
put the correct term in but not everyone has kittens
A guild mate and I were standing in LA right after the update today. There was an Anet tag standing there motionless near the Mystic Forge. My guild mate was asking it questions in say chat. I tried to explain to my guild mate that it was just a “placeholder”, you know, a Dev Bot there to record what people are map chatting about the latest update. As I was trying to explain this to my guild mate… it MOVED! and it SPOKE!
I have to admit that I was more than a little surprised. It interacted my guild mate a few moments, gave a sort of scripted response to a question that was asked, then I had to leave and go pick up my kids from school.
This leaves me with only two conclusions:
1) my belief that those Anet tags are only recording bots has been myth busted, they are actual people!
2) Anet has some really awesome interactive bots
…either way… my mind is blown, gg Anet gg….
The Anet tag isnt a marker of a bot. It’s the tag of the actual Arenanet GW2 guild. You know, the one that employees are encouraged to join if they happen to play the game on their, I believe, personal accounts.
I have never seen any anet staff player in GW2 EU servers and I have around 3.5k hours playtime.
2.7k hours played, all on EU servers (Desolation specifically, before they merged them) and I’ve seen them at least 5 times. Twice just standing in towns chatting, once doing the Flame and Frost dungeon, once at the HoT announcement and once in a zerg in WvW. There might be more I don’t remember.
They seem to log in and/or display the tag most often on patch days, presumably it’s the people who worked on the release logging in to check it out. (That was definitely the case with the one doing the dungeon because she told us.)
Danielle Aurorel, Dear Dragon We Got Your Cookies [Nom], Desolation (EU).
I never even knew that this was a rumor. Why would people think this? If ANet wants to record any chat, they don’t need a character model in the game to do it. GMs, for example, can operate in the game without any character model. Secondly, if they wanted to see for themselves how a map chat was doing, wouldn’t the map chat act more naturally without a developer?
I’ve been in PVP matches and PVE WB events where ArenaNet players show up. It is really awesome to see people from ArenaNet show up and actually play with their tags on.
Why would you assume they’d put a visible character with an arenanet tag to carry out surveillance on botting?
That’s absolutely the worst way to collect information. It’s like putting a uniformed officer on a streetcorner for a prostitution sting. You can monitor servers retroactively via logs, or in real time with completely invisible observers.
Players with the arenanet tags are just that, players, Anet staff are given the option of joining a special guild that displays that tag when they represent it. Those are their live server characters in most cases, and don’t have any kind of dev console abilities. it’s just a way for them to “declare” themselves as anet staff if they choose to while they play.
I’ve had a few on my friends lists in the past, and you’d be suprised how often you’re playing with untagged anet staff, as people tend to bother/whisper them when they show their tags. When you see an anet tag just standing around, they’re usually replying to like nine billion whispers because they put on the tag and people assume they run everything and can answer every question imaginable.
Personally, I play every day after work and on weekend, too. (I did a lot of Toypocalypse over the holidays — man I love that as much as Dragon’s Nest in Guild Wars!) Anyway, when I’m online I see many of my fellow Anet folks online, too! We’re an active bunch.
As others have pointed out, for tracking or chat recording or other purposes, we don’t need bots. As the saying goes, “We have the technology.” (Bonus points for knowing the source. )
Personally, I play every day after work and on weekend, too. (I did a lot of Toypocalypse over the holidays — man I love that as much as Dragon’s Nest in Guild Wars!) Anyway, when I’m online I see many of my fellow Anet folks online, too! We’re an active bunch.
As others have pointed out, for tracking or chat recording or other purposes, we don’t need bots. As the saying goes, “We have the technology.” (Bonus points for knowing the source. )
Dating myself, but..
Six Million Dollar Man.
…boy, inflation would blow that cost out of the water. XD
Many alts; handle it!
“I’m finding companies should sell access to forums,
it seems many like them better than the games they comment on.” -Horrorscope.7632
While I can’t prove from the screenshot that this is an ANet player, the reason I took the shot was because an ANet person agreed to run a dungeon with me and other guildies (it was a very long time ago, the image file is from Feb 2013 so details are hazy, I think s/he was a pug from the dungeon entrance) and was the one to start the instance. I particularly liked his/her using the ANet colors on the armor.
Personally, I play every day after work and on weekend, too. (I did a lot of Toypocalypse over the holidays — man I love that as much as Dragon’s Nest in Guild Wars!) Anyway, when I’m online I see many of my fellow Anet folks online, too! We’re an active bunch.
As others have pointed out, for tracking or chat recording or other purposes, we don’t need bots. As the saying goes, “We have the technology.” (Bonus points for knowing the source. )
^^^^
I have seen Gaile Gray play a million times She is often seen in LA near the MF. Just chillin… :p I remember around halloween this past year i was chatting to her, and I told her something like pretty please make some cute butterfly crystal looking weapons to go with my fab butterfly wings, and presto not even a few weeks later they were there in the BlackLions Specialist Weapons and I was so thrilled to see them in display I was like yaaaaiiii Gaile listened to me :p (that or they had already had an idea such as the one i gave her…) still that was the best day ever
Personally, I play every day after work and on weekend, too. (I did a lot of Toypocalypse over the holidays — man I love that as much as Dragon’s Nest in Guild Wars!) Anyway, when I’m online I see many of my fellow Anet folks online, too! We’re an active bunch.
As others have pointed out, for tracking or chat recording or other purposes, we don’t need bots. As the saying goes, “We have the technology.” (Bonus points for knowing the source. )
^^^^
I have seen Gaile Gray play a million times She is often seen in LA near the MF. Just chillin… :p I remember around halloween this past year i was chatting to her, and I told her something like pretty please make some cute butterfly crystal looking weapons to go with my fab butterfly wings, and presto not even a few weeks later they were there in the BlackLions Specialist Weapons and I was so thrilled to see them in display I was like yaaaaiiii Gaile listened to me :p (that or they had already had an idea such as the one i gave her…) still that was the best day ever
They’re much more common on NA servers than EU ones, which might affect how often different people see them.
And I’ve just remembered one instance where they were standing in maps just to see what people said – when Heart of Thorns was announced. Quite a few players who couldn’t be there in person got together in-game to listen to the announcement and some gatherings had Anet staff show up.
Of course they all knew what was going to happen, but I bet they enjoyed watching.
Hahaha, Kelvei. Man I hated him when I found out he was in GW2’s Q&A.
How old was this screenshot again? Last I spoke to Kelvei he wasn’t in Anet anymore.
Personally, I play every day after work and on weekend, too. (I did a lot of Toypocalypse over the holidays — man I love that as much as Dragon’s Nest in Guild Wars!) Anyway, when I’m online I see many of my fellow Anet folks online, too! We’re an active bunch.
As others have pointed out, for tracking or chat recording or other purposes, we don’t need bots. As the saying goes, “We have the technology.” (Bonus points for knowing the source. )
And for those of you who say “pictures or it didn’t happen…” I have the proof!
There was no myth except in the OPs head. who on earth would think IF there was a recording bot, that they would place a flipping anet tag on the top of it!! Seriously…….
Personally, I play every day after work and on weekend, too. (I did a lot of Toypocalypse over the holidays — man I love that as much as Dragon’s Nest in Guild Wars!) Anyway, when I’m online I see many of my fellow Anet folks online, too! We’re an active bunch.
As others have pointed out, for tracking or chat recording or other purposes, we don’t need bots. As the saying goes, “We have the technology.” (Bonus points for knowing the source. )
^^^^
I have seen Gaile Gray play a million times She is often seen in LA near the MF. Just chillin… :p I remember around halloween this past year i was chatting to her, and I told her something like pretty please make some cute butterfly crystal looking weapons to go with my fab butterfly wings, and presto not even a few weeks later they were there in the BlackLions Specialist Weapons and I was so thrilled to see them in display I was like yaaaaiiii Gaile listened to me :p (that or they had already had an idea such as the one i gave her…) still that was the best day ever
Oh gosh, while I would love to be the "ask and ye shall receive* Wonder Woman™, the fact is, those were in the works, I’m sure, because things like that take quite a bit of time to create, including art, animation, sometimes sound, programming, etc.
So thanks for the nod, but I must humbly decline to take credit here.
Edit to add: RouterGeeks — George will be so chuffed that he is also pictured in that image. He’s incredibly proud that he bears the ArenaNet tag.
A guild mate and I were standing in LA right after the update today. There was an Anet tag standing there motionless near the Mystic Forge. My guild mate was asking it questions in say chat. I tried to explain to my guild mate that it was just a “placeholder”, you know, a Dev Bot there to record what people are map chatting about the latest update. As I was trying to explain this to my guild mate… it MOVED! and it SPOKE!
I have to admit that I was more than a little surprised. It interacted my guild mate a few moments, gave a sort of scripted response to a question that was asked, then I had to leave and go pick up my kids from school.
This leaves me with only two conclusions:
1) my belief that those Anet tags are only recording bots has been myth busted, they are actual people!
2) Anet has some really awesome interactive bots
…either way… my mind is blown, gg Anet gg….
anet staff plays gw2, the logo at their name is guild tag actually… some choose to show it, some not~
They’re much more common on NA servers than EU ones, which might affect how often different people see them.
And I’ve just remembered one instance where they were standing in maps just to see what people said – when Heart of Thorns was announced. Quite a few players who couldn’t be there in person got together in-game to listen to the announcement and some gatherings had Anet staff show up.
Of course they all knew what was going to happen, but I bet they enjoyed watching.
Hahaha, Kelvei. Man I hated him when I found out he was in GW2’s Q&A.
How old was this screenshot again? Last I spoke to Kelvei he wasn’t in Anet anymore.
The screenshot is from the HoT announcement. I don’t tend to talk to devs unless it’s part of a conversation at the time, I especially don’t make any attempt to keep track of what they’re doing, so I have no idea if he’s still at Anet or not.
Danielle Aurorel, Dear Dragon We Got Your Cookies [Nom], Desolation (EU).
She is often seen in LA near the MF. Just chillin… :p I remember around halloween this past year i was chatting to her, and I told her something like pretty please make some cute butterfly crystal looking weapons to go with my fab butterfly wings, and presto not even a few weeks later they were there in the BlackLions Specialist Weapons and I was so thrilled to see them in display