Guild Wars 2

Anet really needs to be taught the Streisand Effect.

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

Anet really needs to be taught the Streisand Effect.

Apparently you need to learn the “innocent until proven guilty” principle. Got any proof that Anet had anything to do with the take down of the blog?

eisberg.2379:

Actually is wasn’t an article, it was a blog. Blog most likely do not have to go through the editor first.

That still sounds like a reason for the editor to be ashamed. Since they have a policy in place where they’ll let any old blog get posted without being checked but then still reserve the right to take the article down after the damage has already been done, rather than, you know, make sure everything is good.

Behellagh.1468:

Or he posted without approval. Or he thought he had approval. Or was told to get some comments from ANet and didn’t. Who knows. Article went live, editor took it down. That’s all we know.

According to the reddit thread, the dude has been a writer for a good number of years. I highly doubt he’d post without approval. Not if he’s getting as chewed out as is being suggested.

Don’t TTH occasionally get exclusive sneak peeks and first article postings regarding the elite specialisations?

Because it looks super suspicious that they’ve been given privileged access by Anet in their reporting but when they try to cast a critical eye over the development team’s actions, the critical article is pulled so fast that it makes your head spin.

But you know what, guys, just because it looks like they were leaned on to remove their critical press, it doesn’t mean they were. I’m sure this whole highly suspicious event was perfectly cromulent.

eisberg.2379:

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

Anet really needs to be taught the Streisand Effect.

Apparently you need to learn the “innocent until proven guilty” principle. Got any proof that Anet had anything to do with the take down of the blog?

There is no defense in the court of public opinion.

Kravick.4906:

Tongku.5326:

Ashen.2907:

Your bias is showing. Both of your presented options state that the article was taken down to restrain honesty.

What about the possibility that the article was not, “really, really,” good? Perhaps it was taken down for being poorly written?

Who knows, perhaps it was taken down in response to an ANet request, but the article earned removal on its own merits (or lack of same). Being critical is not only appropriate but needed. Shoddy, “journalism,” however, doesn’t contribute to finding solutions to real problems.

Nope.

I have read it. It was well written, language used was appropriate etc. It also was based on prolonged facts, rather then assumptions making it more of an actual report piece vs. a commentary.

Even if it was a commentary, does A-Net have the right to force a well written one to be taken down ?

There is currently actually a lawsuit in progress in one of the high courts in our system dealing with gaming industry and their respective PR misrepresenting facts about their products as well as not disclosing paid for advertising practices. This lawsuit is pretty much an open and shut case and a forgone conclusion just naturally being stalled by gaming industry lawyers via appeals.

Once the verdict is reached it will have very wide effects on this type of behavior from the big gaming businesses as precedent will be set. There will be no more taking down such articles or at least, the entity forcing such a takedown will be held accountable for it and will have to pay appropriate damages, possibly make public apology statements etc. making it even worse for themselves in the long run.

Also, lets face it, this is the “interwebs” and I’m sure there are already archived copies of the article in question including on many public torrent sites far beyond reach of A-net for anyone to find.

I’m curious, which country is this legal case taking place in?

USA. I don’t want to post and name direct info here for the obvious reasons, but shouldn’t be very hard to find for anyone that is interested.

And personally I am following this one fairly close since gaming in general is my hobby.

Tapioca.9062:

Don’t TTH occasionally get exclusive sneak peeks and first article postings regarding the elite specialisations?

Because it looks super suspicious that they’ve been given privileged access by Anet in their reporting but when they try to cast a critical eye over the development team’s actions, the critical article is pulled so fast that it makes your head spin.

But you know what, guys, just because it looks like they were leaned on to remove their critical press, it doesn’t mean they were. I’m sure this whole highly suspicious event was perfectly cromulent.

They were. And it wasn’t a friendly request.

I get that Anet doesn’t want bad press while they’re courting new players and about to launch HoT, but the article was just highlighting the amazing “BWE Druid First Impressions” post, and some other tidbits (i.e., the minimal dev interaction in the ranger forum) – and it wasn’t criticizing for the sake of criticism, but rather it was from on behalf of players who love the game and want it to be better.

Anet could have used this to showcase that they do care, and that they are dedicated to engaging with the community, etc. instead of basically cementing bad press (the fact that it was removed at Anet’s request is drawing a lot more attention to the article than there would be if it was left alone – Streisand Effect). And sadly, I’m not convinced they have “more community engagement” on their task list. I’m also rather certain that without some major outcry, the validity of the posts the article was based on will get no official attention here.

eisberg.2379:

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

Anet really needs to be taught the Streisand Effect.

Apparently you need to learn the “innocent until proven guilty” principle. Got any proof that Anet had anything to do with the take down of the blog?

Yes. But, that comes at a cost to TTH, as they’d probably catch more fire for speaking publicly. Which was the reason they took the blog post down in the first place – they don’t want to damage their relationship with Anet, as it brings traffic to their site.

Do we throw the author and editorial team under the bus to call out Anet? Even when we know Anet is rather unresponsive?

Kravick.4906:

lordkrall.7241:

Seeing as the people working for the site refuses to actually tell people what happened, I would say we most likely don’t have the full story. Even when outright asked if they where forced to take it down they simply spun it around and refused to answer.

Sounds like a PR thing then, but from who?

The funny thing is, I sent Krall DMs on the issue, but they seem to have flown over his head.

wow, censorship. that is a new low.

have a look at the author’s other articles, he has tons. there’s no way he’d pull his own article unless asked by senior management.

He said in the reddit thread that it was his editor.

Since this thread is still very much unlocked and we know that the mods have seen it (got notification about it being merged) that would suggest that this is not ArenaNets doing. If it was, they would most likely have deleted this thread a long time ago.

islarose.7356:

The funny thing is, I sent Krall DMs on the issue, but they seem to have flown over his head.

This is the DM you sent me. And since you clearly don’t actually have any sort of insider insight of TTH I wouldn’t really say that this proves anything at all:

As for the article being taken down, Persistentworlds has commented diplomatically (in thread). His twitter mentions it (“I’d rather not get into why we had to take it down.”), but I don’t want him getting into any more trouble with Anet, as they were apparently very aggressive, as per Lewis via DM:
“ArenaNet were very unhappy about it being negative, and we had little choice but to take it down”
“I also had to unpublish it on our site too. We felt pretty bullied last night by what they said. Very sad.”
I don’t really want to put that on reddit, as I don’t want Lewis catching any more blowback from Anet due to his disclosure.

Time to rename the site to PositiveTonHammer i guess, if even their opinion blogs have to sound like advertisements.

lordkrall.7241:

Since this thread is still very much unlocked and we know that the mods have seen it (got notification about it being merged) that would suggest that this is not ArenaNets doing. If it was, they would most likely have deleted this thread a long time ago.

Thats the impression you got after they merged a front page thread at the very top of the page with a provocative topic and numerous posts with a quietly titled page-3 thread that got few responses?

Isn’t it more like “lets attach this report of our poor performance to something that fell off the front page quickly so that it doesn’t continue to attract much attention”?

The right move to take would be to either reply or not touch the thread at all. Merging with a quiet topic is just a less blatant way of locking something. I guess its all subjective.

Raven.9603:

Thats the impression you got after they merged a front page thread at the very top of the page with a provocative topic and numerous posts with a quietly titled page-3 thread that got few responses?

Isn’t it more like “lets attach this report of our poor performance to something that fell off the front page quickly so that it doesn’t continue to attract much attention”?

The right move to take would be to either reply or not touch the thread at all. Merging with a quiet topic is just a less blatant way of locking something. I guess its all subjective.

Except for the fact that it was on the front page for like 4 hours you mean? Fact still remains that they are clearly aware of the thread (and the fact that it links to the removed article), thus it would make very little sense for them to not remove (or at the very least lock it) if they didn’t want their supposed take-down spread.