Guild Wars 2

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Siobhan.5273:

Guhracie.3419:

Wow. I’m embarrassed for ANET that a forum-user is aggregating their official news for them.

Yeah. I’m just out of words on this.

Indeed. I vote Just a flesh wound should be brought on as a Forum Specialist- Communications Representative. Soon as possible. He is doing all of the work, has been for awhile.

Squashing the forum bug.

While I appreciate the compliment, the role of the Forum Specialists is to gather information from the forums and present it to ANet in the form of regular reports so they can see the ideas and thoughts of the players who post. None of this is what I am doing. I’m merely gathering information from a couple of other sites and reposting, which anyone can do if they wanted to spend the time. So, again thanks for the compliment but what I’m doing doesn’t fall into that category.

And there’s bound to be paperwork if it did. Bleh.

You are indeed doing that though… and alot of it. Don’t sell your self short, we wont let you.

Just a Fleshwound is indeed doing something amazing. Why? Because no one else is doing it. Take the credit, you deserve it.

As far as Anet communicating, I know we’re all in the habit if saying they’re not communicating, but I think they’re communicating more. We do have a clear road map of what’s coming when. We’ve gotten more info on what they’re doing in 3 months time. It’s a great improvement over the past.

Will they answer every question or post in every thread? Of course not. But they are answering.

For example they’re not posting in the thread about This Game Used to be Casual, but they’ve indicated they’re going back to look at the new zones and make changes to them based on feedback. That sounds suspiciously like communication to me.

Gaile, since you are directing issues about communications here, can you shed some light on wvw in the official wvw subforum?
Also, i noticed you take care of the gw2 general section, evan seems to take care of pvp, who actually “officially” is suppose to communicate in wvw sections?

I brought up a concern I have (in the Visual Nerf thread that has seen no GW2 staff activity since it’s creation in November 2015, and almost 1k posts.) Others also seem to share the same concerns- (we lack verification here or from anyone else that the visuals will indeed be fixed as promised by Colin last week) in the Mike O’Brien AMA now on Reddit! thread Gaile Gray, ArenaNet Forum Communications Team Lead started a few days back after hearing news that Colin was leaving via the Reddit/GW2 AMA.

This “revert”, for lack of a better word, is fairly big news. Like others, I have to wonder why this wasn’t addressed via the AMA (regardless if the question was asked, it’s a hot topic so to speak) and of course, why can’t we get some word from someone here? Please don’t misunderstand, I am glad the changes are being reverted, and an option for the player to adjust their graphics on their own for such things being addressed (so has been said on Reddit), rather than being forced on those of us who don’t require it, or want it, but why are important issues seemingly so hard to communicate, even when the “cat is out of the bag” apparently?

• Next:

So, then we have this thread, Comments about Communications that has been opened for us to post communication concerns in. I posted there a few times, you, Zoltar, I believe you did too. I put a good amount of time into this post there as matter of fact… and then I just started using Reddit and found that as much as I want to post here, where it makes sense (this is the home forum of the game, right? I’d think this is where I should be posting), it takes so much, I guess, hand sitting, or typing, reading, re-typing responses so as to watch my “P’s” and “Q’s” so I don’t get my hand smacked for voicing my displeasure over issues with the lack of communications (lets call a spade a spade, using the words “lack of communication”is very kind), or sometimes, the outright rude responses I’ve seen uttered to customers- gah, if, I could respond in kind here.. but.. I understand the rules, and I will play by them. It is disheartening that it feels unless people are cheering and screaming, “go AnEt!” their posts often don’t even merit a nod, let alone a response, or if they get one, it’s got a not-so-nice feel to it (like this one) a burn factor, if you will… and there are alot of those around.

• A post I made in the Mike O’Brien AMA Now on Reddit thread:

Blude.6812:

No account either, I was hoping someone would ask when are they going to get Anet to provide funding to get a new forum engine.

Sindex.9520:

After reading the post you pulled out in another topic. About the former outsourced contractor that used to maintain these forums. I am not surprised. Until they bring someone in to either refurbish it, or come up with something new then this place is dead weight.

It seems that developers are jumping ship. Simply because Reddit is the Facebook of community driven forum outlets. I loathe either outlet (even Twitter) for personal reasons. Nevertheless I can’t deny what either of them have become. Until something comes along and knocks them all down. However I feel the same way as you do; about any type of official communication being on several different social media outlets. It’s a bit lazy, but according to them they have too much stuff on that table. At least John Smith is still using these forums, and has progressed in using it’s format over the last few years.

TheGrimm.5624:

If your first post is not even on your own official forums that makes me question spending anymore money on GW. That tells me the tools that your own team created are not worth using and instead you go else where to post. Why not just close these forums down then and move them completely to Reddit. That was a terrible first move. Makes me not even care what information was shared right now since it already has left a negative feeling on the game. -100 on this one ANet.

Akkeros.1675:

a few months too late but:

1. get on YOUR OFFICIAL FORUMS
2. answer all the questions and address all the comments HERE
3. Hit the reset button

Just a flesh wound.3589:

There is also no reason why a “reddit thing” such as an Ask Me Anything can’t be an “official forum thing.” If the Devs find the formatting on their own official forum so unappealing, whose fault is that? If that’s their problem then maybe they should shake lose the money for a new forum format.

One last point, none of the things the Devs said are on our forums Dev tracker which makes it difficult to reference and use for discussions on the official forum.

In a nutshell, we’re asking that we get more communication here. Please? I know recently it was brought up in the Visual Nerf thread, it was announced, by Colin, via Reddit that we will finally see a revert of the nerfs we were dealt. However, that is not something we’ve heard over here, and for some, that is problematic, especially now that Colin is leaving. Though we’re thrilled to get info on this issue, or any issue, it should come through these forums at some point, don’t you think?

• Next Post-

Direct link to my post in the Mike O’Brien thread again
I said this elsewhere in part, but I feel it bears repeating here since the topic has been brought up repeatedly in this thread (and numerous others).

If the forum software is so antiquated or broken that even the GW2 staff and president of ArenaNet prefers to do business (and that AMA was indeed business, make no mistakes about that) elsewhere, someone needs to seriously look into fixing more than just WvW or dungeons and fractals, because their home for communications either needs to be moved, or this place needs an overhaul. Either way, we need communication, and though we understand it can’t happen overnight for various reasons, (so many people have acknowledged that over the years, me being one of them) some of us have been waiting a long time for the crumbs we have been getting-elsewhere for the main part, and hearing how things will only get better. We’d be happy to wait a little longer, so long as we have an understanding that there is an issue that needs resolving here and it’s not all wrapped up in AMA’s in my opinion.

-Edit: I wanted to touch on this comment quickly:

Randulf.7614:

This is what we have been clamouring for for 2+ years now. If this is how they feel comfortable and is the best way for them to communicate plans, then so be it.
I’m not a fan of Reddit at all, but at this stage when we have been so starved of communication, substance wins over format/location.

Perhaps that was the plan, and if that’s a case, like the song says, ain’t that a shame? Take note of that comment, Anet. A customer should never feel that way when it comes to communication issues, for years, and this person isn’t alone. There really is no excuse.

• Finally, my last post on the issue, for now. Sorry for the length. I figured I’d do some merging of my own:

And, I posted this in response to someone asking about AMA’s being a Reddit thing and telling me my post was a good one:

AMA is a “Reddit” thing however, it is usually because it is done for celebrity interviews and there is a moderation element involved in the Q&A process. Since that was pretty much a non-issue here, I’m not really sure why these forums couldn’t be utilized, other than their personal preference for Reddit as has been voiced before. Also, of further concern, is the fact that there was virtually no “heads up” about this Q&A:

Andulias.9516:

I would like to quickly point out my dissatisfaction with the way the AMA was announced. Why the flying kitten didn’t you guys announce it at least a day prior? We all have things going on in our lives and and many of us missed the entire thing because we didn’t even know it was going to happen at all! I get it was to a large extent as an answer to Colin’s departure, but that’s an excuse, not a valid reason.

Andulis is correct on this issue. We get plenty of notice about something like Creature Design Guild Chat, but not something of this caliber? That doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. The only people who really knew were the frequenters of the GW2 Reddit. For what it’s worth, for the crumbs of communication we do get, something like this was launcher notice worthy.

I love this game. I wouldn’t be here, or voice my concerns if I didn’t. I’d move on quietly, like I did with UO, LotRO, WoW, Rift, ESO.. but I’m here and I’m supporting the game with purchases via the gem shop and with the expansion, but there is a limit to my tolerance of being patient, especially when communication is so sparingly given.

We’d just like to know if we can rely on what Colin stated over on Reddit regarding the visuals being reverted- actually being implemented this spring now that he is leaving. It’s a really easy questions to answer in the scheme of things and goes a long way in the warm/fuzzy department!

This forum is probably controlled by some kind of internal regulation. To make sure nothing said by the devs here violates such regulation, they choose to watch this forum from afar instead of use it.

The problem is not the forum, but the regulation: they are afraid of declaring anything “officially”. Reddit provides a form of “grey area” where they can speak without fear of internal retaliation, and without full official commitment.

IMO, they need to fix both ends: the official forum needs to be the place for all the communications, the lightheearted jokes, the intense analisis dialogues, and the legal pledges. All of them needs to be official, not only the unalterable ones.
And of course, the platform for the communication needs to be vastly improved.

Ardid.7203:

This forum is probably controlled by some kind of internal regulation. To make sure nothing said by the devs here violates such regulation, they choose to watch this forum from afar instead of use it.

The problem is not the forum, but the regulation: they are afraid of declaring anything “officially”. Reddit provides a form of “grey area” where they can speak without fear of internal retaliation, and without full official commitment.

IMO, they need to fix both ends: the official forum needs to be the place for all the communications, the lightheearted jokes, the intense analisis dialogues, and the legal pledges. All of them needs to be official, not only the unalterable ones.
And of course, the platform for the communication needs to be vastly improved.

I am not sure if you’ve read this post by Gaile Gray on the topic of communications, but I’d think that if a topic is being eyeballed here, that the same eyeball would be just as capable of watching Reddit, too. I’d think policy would be policy, no matter where it was being applied, and/or breached. Know what I mean?

The problem is, they can’t have their cake and eat it too. If they don’t want us to take them to task for what is said on Reddit (and I’m not saying that’s the case, just conjecture here, purely discussion) then things like an AMA over there really defeats the purpose for transparency sake, don’t you think? I only know what they sell me.

So, we’re either having honesty and transparency no matter where the discussions are happening, and if that’s the case, why can’t confirmation happen here, at home, or we’re being placated because it’s okay to do that when it’s not “official” and happening elsewhere… which makes zero sense, and I hope, wouldn’t be the case.

I was just over on Reddit and there is a sea of developer responses vs. what we have here (using the Dev Tracker). The problem is, they’re hard to find there and scattered all over, but you can see, they definitely talk more there than here and that shouldn’t be the case, IMO.

Reddit is not organized around this game. To communicate there about it makes no sense. Unless there is effectively some kind of regulation involved.

To make clear my point, I don’t say there is some kind of watchdog activelly controlling what the Devs post here or on Reddit. I believe there is some kind of RULE written somewhere that make saying things here a more serious deal than there.

Imaginary example: “No developer will discuss game development details in the official forums without explicit authorization from the Public Image Comitee”. I know in my line of work stupid rules like that often exist: since the comitee is composed of 9 people with hard-to-match schedules, the authorization can’t happen unless there is a really big disaster, and anyone who want to keep their work will not risk breaking the rule. Since the rule only applies to the “official” forums, people can dicuss safely anywere else. Bad policy design leads to weird company behaviour.

I don’t know if that is the case with Anet… but it sure looks like it is.

reddit had over 230 million individual visitors last month. why do you all think the devs use that forum? really because it allows for better usability?^^

SlateSloan.3654:

reddit had over 230 million individual visitors last month. why do you all think the devs use that forum? really because it allows for better usability?^^

And how many of them were reading the Guild Wars 2 forum?

An interesting article on gaming companies communication with fans. How timely communication can head off an issue before it becomes so massive that it becomes an embarrassment. When issues are met only with silence, then the message sent is either the company doesn’t care, or that the believe the fans somehow can’t handle the answer. Either way it is a disservice to the fans and only makes problems worse.

http://www.polygon.com/2016/3/18/11259976/the-witcher-3-marketing

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Randulf.7614:

Useful thread. Still a shame the official forums are no longer relevant, but thanks for posting these links/quotes.

Of course the official forums are relevant. For a variety of reasons, the devs only have time to post rarely. They do, however, read a lot of suggestions and complaints (as can be seen by changes included in HoT, via things fixed, and even from the comments they make on Reddit).

Wut?

Oh, right. You must play PvE, the content which is actively updated.

I only play WvW, so I naturally wouldn’t see any of these miracles performed.

I find it really really sad that anet posts more on reddit than their own official forums. Like the whole change up with Colin. Really, courtesy trouble to post it in your own official forums?

I love it how they mentioned that posting isn’t a requirement in their company but they always talk about how much they love their game, and yet they don’t love using their own official forms. I wonder if they actually realize people don’t care whether it’s a requirement of their company or not, they send the message that says that reddit is more important than their own official forums. It’s pretty insulting actually.

SlateSloan.3654:

reddit had over 230 million individual visitors last month. why do you all think the devs use that forum? really because it allows for better usability?^^

More to the point, how many of those 230 million users were Guild Wars fans?

Taigen Raine.8752:

An interesting article on gaming companies communication with fans. How timely communication can head off an issue before it becomes so massive that it becomes an embarrassment. When issues are met only with silence, then the message sent is either the company doesn’t care, or that the believe the fans somehow can’t handle the answer. Either way it is a disservice to the fans and only makes problems worse.

http://www.polygon.com/2016/3/18/11259976/the-witcher-3-marketing

Some of us stated the same concerns to ANet in the Visual Nerfs thread which had been there since mid November 2015 with no comment from ANet. No feels given. Not a one. Heck, even this thread, a thread about communication, has one ANet response in it -the other posts were “merge” posts or the thread start post indicating this thread was being opened so that this thread started by Just a flesh wound to track what the devs are posting on Reddit, could stay free of user comment and we could talk about the fact that they’re not communicating with us here, here in this thread. If we want communication, we have to go elsewhere, it has really come down to that. They have the time to mess around in game and hi-jinx raids and reply to silly stuff on Reddit, it’d be awesome if they could communicate with their customers here on things that people have been begging for responses on. Heck, It’d be awesome if someone on the security team would do something about my ticket I put in last week about issues I’ve been reporting for a long time because apparently, they’re the only ones who can, but nope. Still waiting.

It’s all a vicious circle of smoke and mirrors and deflection at this point, and it’s really, really sad.

Morfedel.4165:

I find it really really sad that anet posts more on reddit than their own official forums. Like the whole change up with Colin. Really, courtesy trouble to post it in your own official forums?

I love it how they mentioned that posting isn’t a requirement in their company but they always talk about how much they love their game, and yet they don’t love using their own official forms. I wonder if they actually realize people don’t care whether it’s a requirement of their company or not, they send the message that says that reddit is more important than their own official forums. It’s pretty insulting actually.

Agreed 100%.

It hasn’t escaped my attention either that the only red posts are from Gaile when she started this thread. They can definitely do better on a communications thread started by an ANet staff person. It feels like they sent everyone here to talk about communication, then they got up and left the conversation and never came back. Leaving us all sitting here wondering if there’s going to be this communication they started.

Back before I started that Dev post in Reddit thread that this thread is a spin off of, I kept seeing these posts on the forum where people were begging for help on precursor crafting. There were a number of events that required failure and this was setting up deliberate griefing as well as innocent event completion that stopped people who had been trying for days to get their needed item. People were coming to the forum and making thread after thread trying to get a red post about this situation. If there was even one red post answering them, I never saw it.

Then one day, I found the reddit dev tracker and browsing through that I found a red post talking about this situation to someone over there. It was over a month old at that time. That irritated me. They posted an important piece of information there and couldn’t take the time to post that on just one of the many posts here? That’s when and why I decided to make that thread.

From comments on the forum I know that some people think I’m doing ANet’s job for them as a favor to ANet and to suck up to ANet (I was outright told that in a thread on this forum). I’m not. I’m doing it as a favor to the other posters on this forum and I’m doing it because ANet’s not doing their own job by making relevant information centralized and easily accessible. Whether ANet likes me doing it is irrelevant to me and personally I hope it embarrasses them a little. Who knows, maybe it will embarrass them enough that one day they’ll do their own job and make sure that posts on non official sites get cross posted on their official form.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

It hasn’t escaped my attention either that the only red posts are from Gaile when she started this thread.

Back before I started that Dev post in Reddit thread I kept seeing these posts on the forum where people were begging for help on precursor crafting. There were a number of events that required failure and this was setting up deliberate griefing as well as innocent event completion that stopped people who had been trying for days to get their needed item. People were coming to the forum and making thread after thread trying to get a red post about this situation. If there was even one red post answering them, I never saw it.

Then one day, I found the reddit dev tracker and browsing through that I found a red post talking about this situation to someone over there. It was over a month old at that time. That irritated me. They posted an important piece of information there and couldn’t take the time to post that on just one of the many posts here? That’s when and why I decided to make that thread.

From comments on the forum I know that some people think I’m doing ANet’s job for them as a favor to ANet and to suck up to ANet (I was outright told that in a thread on this forum). I’m not. I’m doing it as a favor to the other posters on this forum and I’m doing it because ANet’s not doing their own job by making relevant information centralized and easily accessible. Whether ANet likes me doing it is irrelevant to me and personally I hope it embarrasses them a little. Who knows, maybe it will embarrass them enough that one day they’ll do their own job and make sure that posts on non official sites get cross posted on their official form.

I clapped for this post. Seriously.

I appreciate everything you do and all the information that you bring to us, everyday, often multiple times a day.

You are top notch in my book.

Siobhan.5273:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

It hasn’t escaped my attention either that the only red posts are from Gaile when she started this thread.

Back before I started that Dev post in Reddit thread I kept seeing these posts on the forum where people were begging for help on precursor crafting. There were a number of events that required failure and this was setting up deliberate griefing as well as innocent event completion that stopped people who had been trying for days to get their needed item. People were coming to the forum and making thread after thread trying to get a red post about this situation. If there was even one red post answering them, I never saw it.

Then one day, I found the reddit dev tracker and browsing through that I found a red post talking about this situation to someone over there. It was over a month old at that time. That irritated me. They posted an important piece of information there and couldn’t take the time to post that on just one of the many posts here? That’s when and why I decided to make that thread.

From comments on the forum I know that some people think I’m doing ANet’s job for them as a favor to ANet and to suck up to ANet (I was outright told that in a thread on this forum). I’m not. I’m doing it as a favor to the other posters on this forum and I’m doing it because ANet’s not doing their own job by making relevant information centralized and easily accessible. Whether ANet likes me doing it is irrelevant to me and personally I hope it embarrasses them a little. Who knows, maybe it will embarrass them enough that one day they’ll do their own job and make sure that posts on non official sites get cross posted on their official form.

I clapped for this post. Seriously.

I appreciate everything you do and all the information that you bring to us, everyday, often multiple times a day.

You are top notch in my book.

Ty.

I wouldn’t have bothered to post the why’s and wherefore’s of that thread but after seeing a couple of comments about how I was especially favored now, I thought it best to say exactly why I started it and to comment that the moderators haven’t been cutting me any slack, which is another thing I was told. They infract and warn me as readily as any other person here. Since there are some people who think I get special favors or moderation I thought it best to say directly that I don’t.

Edit: spelling

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Ty.

I would have bothered to post the why’s and wherefore’s of that thread but after seeing a couple of comments about how I was especially favored now, I thought it best to say exactly why I started it and to comment that the moderators haven’t been cutting me any slack, which is another thing I was told. They infract and warn me as readily as any other person here. Since there are some people who think I get special favors or moderation I thought it best to say directly that I don’t.

I know you definitely don’t get any special slack around here, or “slide by’s”, if you will. You’re a regular player, just like the rest of us, which makes everything you do, just that much more awesome. You’ve been smacked down with the rest of us and you still smile and keep on keeping on.

Class act, you.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

It feels like they sent everyone here to talk about communication, then they got up and left the conversation and never came back.

My cynical side can’t help thinking that was the intention all along: a pretense at communication to placate the masses I’m open to being convinced otherwise. Time will tell.

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

It feels like they sent everyone here to talk about communication, then they got up and left the conversation and never came back.

My cynical side can’t help thinking that was the intention all along: a pretense at communication to placate the masses I’m open to being convinced otherwise. Time will tell.

It’s been 3 months since this thread was created… I think they’ve merged and purged… straight out of this conversation... which was a really ..umm.. yeah. Classy. Nope, that’s not the word.. Ah, yeah. Andy has my word.. it was ..

I have one question to Gaile and the Devs. Why is there no link on the GW2 page to reddit similar to the ones to facebook, and twitter at the bottom of the page?

That would make it so much easier to check the GW2 reddit page instead of having to do things this way.

Siobhan.5273:

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

It feels like they sent everyone here to talk about communication, then they got up and left the conversation and never came back.

My cynical side can’t help thinking that was the intention all along: a pretense at communication to placate the masses I’m open to being convinced otherwise. Time will tell.

It’s been 3 months since this thread was created… I think they’ve merged and purged… straight out of this conversation... which was a really ..umm.. yeah. Classy. Nope, that’s not the word.. Ah, yeah. Andy has my word.. it was ..

Three months and still silence from ArenaNet and my wallet.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Siobhan.5273:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

It hasn’t escaped my attention either that the only red posts are from Gaile when she started this thread.

Back before I started that Dev post in Reddit thread I kept seeing these posts on the forum where people were begging for help on precursor crafting. There were a number of events that required failure and this was setting up deliberate griefing as well as innocent event completion that stopped people who had been trying for days to get their needed item. People were coming to the forum and making thread after thread trying to get a red post about this situation. If there was even one red post answering them, I never saw it.

Then one day, I found the reddit dev tracker and browsing through that I found a red post talking about this situation to someone over there. It was over a month old at that time. That irritated me. They posted an important piece of information there and couldn’t take the time to post that on just one of the many posts here? That’s when and why I decided to make that thread.

From comments on the forum I know that some people think I’m doing ANet’s job for them as a favor to ANet and to suck up to ANet (I was outright told that in a thread on this forum). I’m not. I’m doing it as a favor to the other posters on this forum and I’m doing it because ANet’s not doing their own job by making relevant information centralized and easily accessible. Whether ANet likes me doing it is irrelevant to me and personally I hope it embarrasses them a little. Who knows, maybe it will embarrass them enough that one day they’ll do their own job and make sure that posts on non official sites get cross posted on their official form.

I clapped for this post. Seriously.

I appreciate everything you do and all the information that you bring to us, everyday, often multiple times a day.

You are top notch in my book.

Ty.

I wouldn’t have bothered to post the why’s and wherefore’s of that thread but after seeing a couple of comments about how I was especially favored now, I thought it best to say exactly why I started it and to comment that the moderators haven’t been cutting me any slack, which is another thing I was told. They infract and warn me as readily as any other person here. Since there are some people who think I get special favors or moderation I thought it best to say directly that I don’t.

Edit: spelling

My God you are so right, I see one poster in particular that is above reproach. This comment will be deleted and infracted in 3, 2, 1……………………………

Siobhan.5273:

AMA is a “Reddit” thing however, it is usually because it is done for celebrity interviews and there is a moderation element involved in the Q&A process. Since that was pretty much a non-issue here, I’m not really sure why these forums couldn’t be utilized, other than their personal preference for Reddit as has been voiced before.

Reddit is far better suited for handling a conversation of this nature. Responses are threaded individually, so bits of the conversation are easily linked, followed, and responded again to. On this board there might be 5-10 pages of posts between question and response, depending on how much attention the initial post gets..

Chyanne Waters.8719:

I have one question to Gaile and the Devs. Why is there no link on the GW2 page to reddit similar to the ones to facebook, and twitter at the bottom of the page?

That would make it so much easier to check the GW2 reddit page instead of having to do things this way.

The facebook and twitter links are official channels. Reddit is not. ANet has control over what you see on the official channels.

Watched this video today and I really agree with all the points in it. I believe we have the same things going on with GW2 currently.

GW2 is a good game, but I think it could be a great game. Never played GW1, but I keep hearing some great things from it and it seems like that “spirit” is lost in GW2. This is another reason why I’ve brought up city of heroes so often, because it really broke many mmo molds that I never see in any other game. In addition to that, the developers had a very strong presence and connection with the community. I remember the forums and beta boards having players and developers really coming together to make a great game. Sadly, though, there is almost no communication or bond like it here.

As the video points out, I believe developer creativity is being stifled here big time and there has been an extreme lack of communication, and these do not generate the level of player enthusiasm for the game. It was great to have that last AMA, but I think there needs to be more communication from the top with the players and a stronger reinvestment into the amazing team of developers that are at the company.

Edit- I will have a post soon about profession stuff, but I just wanted to say that I believe another of huge flaw with GW2 is profession development. The characters we play are central to all content created, yet are the most neglected. Hope this changes.

Anyway, here’s the video…

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dJe2MESvdms

There’s a lot of communication here. It’s just that it doesn’t always entail what people want to hear (e.g. Release dates, what’s being worked on, etc) which Anet has stated numerous times that they do not provide those details until it’s nearly completed.

Sariel V.7024:

Siobhan.5273:

AMA is a “Reddit” thing however, it is usually because it is done for celebrity interviews and there is a moderation element involved in the Q&A process. Since that was pretty much a non-issue here, I’m not really sure why these forums couldn’t be utilized, other than their personal preference for Reddit as has been voiced before.

Reddit is far better suited for handling a conversation of this nature. Responses are threaded individually, so bits of the conversation are easily linked, followed, and responded again to. On this board there might be 5-10 pages of posts between question and response, depending on how much attention the initial post gets..

Then they could have at least announced it with some notice, right? I mean, we all heard, and do hear about these “guild chats” every 5 minutes… on the launcher, on the forums.. all with notice. Point is, and as this “communications” (haha! I literally giggle when I write that now) thread goes, they do not know what it means to communicate here. But you can literally “summon” their presence into threads over on Reddit.

What they should do is bite the bullet and move all official communication there, right? Or as posted above by Chyanne Waters.8719, at the very least, post a link to Reddit on the GW2 page along with the ones to their FB and Twitter page. It doesn’t matter if ANet “controls” the conversations there. What matters is they are having conversations there. They’re not having them here. The average customer wouldn’t even fathom going to Reddit to speak to anyone from ANet, they’d come here… and be greeted to cobwebs.. and if it’s not official, why the heck does ANet spend so much time over there answering player questions that are asked here, too!?

It’s bologna. We’ve heard that the forum software is outdated here, the developer of the forums ran away like the story of the dish and the spoon, the layout at Reddit is nicer, they send them cupcakes, etc, etc. So. Sick. Of. The. Deflection.

Communication. Speaking of. Has anyone read this post in Just a flesh wound’s daily Reddit Updates thread? I bet that customer would have loved not having to go to Reddit to get some communication.

-Edit- I see a few more posts from another thread (2 above mine) got “merged” into this. Cool beans.

Ayrilana.1396:

There’s a lot of communication here.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

It hasn’t escaped my attention either that the only red posts are from Gaile when she started this thread.

…. Ayrilana, while it’s true that in the forums as a whole there’s communication, it’s the very definition of the word ‘ironic’ that in this thread which is specifically about communication the only thing you don’t find is…..

Moving on.

Ayrilana.1396:

There’s a lot of communication here. It’s just that it doesn’t always entail what people want to hear (e.g. Release dates, what’s being worked on, etc) which Anet has stated numerous times that they do not provide those details until it’s nearly completed.

There are plenty of other things people would like to hear, such as whether Colin’s promises on the visual nerfs and SAB are going to be upheld. This doesn’t require a release date, just a “Yes”.

Well, thinking back, I don’t think this thread was actually ever intended by Gaile for us to talk to ANet about communication.

As I recall the original purpose of it was to separate my Reddit thread into 2 pieces, a dev quote thread and a separate thread where she took the player quotes from that thread and put them in this one. It’s now a catchall thread for player posts on communication but it was never meant to be a ANet and us thread. Just an “us” thread. So, we should talk amongst ourselves like any other thread and expect as many red posts as any other thread because this isn’t and never was intended to be a conversation with ANet thread.

Gaile Gray.6029:

this was not intended to be a dialogue about communication.

I hate to be that guy but… from your original post here….

Gaile Gray.6029:

This thread is intended to allow the continued discussion of communications

It seems to me now that you might have meant this as a discussion between players not between players and anet – but that is exactly the point minbariguy is making. This thread comes across, unintentionally or not, as a fly-trap. This is not only unnecessary but frustrating for players. There has been sufficient discussion between players on the subject of communication. Players are seeking discussion with anet. I just think we have a chance here to make this thread about communication actually mean something. Or if not this thread, then maybe another which explicitly states that it is a discussion between anet and players.

(Edited to remove some rambling thoughts.)

Gaile Gray.6029:

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

Gaile Gray.6029:

this was not intended to be a dialogue about communication.

I hate to be that guy but… from your original post here….

Gaile Gray.6029:

This thread is intended to allow the continued discussion of communications

It seems to me now that you might have meant this as a discussion between players not between players and anet – but that is exactly the point minbariguy is making. This thread comes across, unintentionally or not, as a fly-trap. This is not only unnecessary but frustrating for players. There has been sufficient discussion between players on the subject of communication. Players are seeking discussion with anet. I just think we have a chance here to make this thread about communication actually mean something. Or if not this thread, then maybe another which explicitly states that it is a discussion between anet and players.

I specifically entitled it “Comments about Communications.” I’m sorry if it appeared this was an offer to have a conversation for that was not at all what I meant. I was, as JaFW mentioned, separating a messy thread into two:

1. One to house dev posts brought over from reddit
2. Another to house forum member input on the subject of communications

I will be happy to amend my initial post to make that clearer. Thanks for pointing that out.

I know there are a lot of comments that basically say “Tell us more” or “Tell us sooner.” I think that the AMA went a long way towards telling more and explaining how some things are subjects we’ll not be willing to talk about in advance. If you’d like to see more of those sorts of conversations (like the AMA) let us know that. But as Mike said, there are some things we won’t be saying and I hope everyone will understand that fact, and even why that’s the case.

Thank you, Gaile. Now back on topic, here is my comment on communications: there is one question I think that needs answering and it’s a simple one that’ll potentially do a lot for customer satisfaction in the player base.

From what I’ve read, Colin promised the return of SAB and the return of our original visuals and aurus, as well as settings to let players control the quality of the visuals. The question is whether these promises will still be upheld in his absence? This is not an enquiry about release dates or exact plans. All that’s required is a simple Yes or No confirmation. Were Colin’s promises official policy or just talking out of his hat?

Well, if the design of this forum is such that an unofficial forum is ANet’s choice to post important information such as an AMA, then is there any chance that this forum will have the necessary revamp so that it no longer feels like a backwater forum but the site to go to for the information and discussion that now is over there? Because there has been important information posted there first that only slowly trickled over here in spite of posts where people were asking for answers.

Gaile Gray.6029:

Sariel V.7024:

Siobhan.5273:

AMA is a “Reddit” thing however, it is usually because it is done for celebrity interviews and there is a moderation element involved in the Q&A process. Since that was pretty much a non-issue here, I’m not really sure why these forums couldn’t be utilized, other than their personal preference for Reddit as has been voiced before.

Reddit is far better suited for handling a conversation of this nature. Responses are threaded individually, so bits of the conversation are easily linked, followed, and responded again to. On this board there might be 5-10 pages of posts between question and response, depending on how much attention the initial post gets..

Yes, that is correct. That is what I said on the day of the AMA and it remains true. Thanks for pointing that out.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Well, thinking back, I don’t think this thread was actually ever intended by Gaile for us to talk to ANet about communication.

As I recall the original purpose of it was to separate my Reddit thread into 2 pieces, a dev quote thread and a separate thread where she took the player quotes from that thread and put them in this one. It’s now a catchall thread for player posts on communication but it was never meant to be a ANet and us thread. Just an “us” thread. So, we should talk amongst ourselves like any other thread and expect as many red posts as any other thread because this isn’t and never was intended to be a conversation with ANet thread.

Now you’re correct. That’s not to say we won’t post here — case in point — but we wanted to offer the opportunity for people to share their thoughts and this was not intended to be a dialogue about communication.

Please note the bolded parts-

Can I get a response for the rest of my concerns on the posting on Reddit issues though, including the AMA? It’s not all about the layout. Dang! How about some notice next time?

Nevermind. I have Reddit bookmarked.

I also think the posts don’t come until it is apparent that customers are becoming.. distressed.

Gaile Gray.6029:

Sariel V.7024:

The facebook and twitter links are official channels. Reddit is not. ANet has control over what you see on the official channels.

Dang, that’s what I was going to say! But in answer to the original question, I’ll go ahead and post what I wrote, just in case it has more information of value:

Chyanne Waters.8719:

I have one question to Gaile and the Devs. Why is there no link on the GW2 page to reddit similar to the ones to facebook, and twitter at the bottom of the page?

That would make it so much easier to check the GW2 reddit page instead of having to do things this way.

Bookmark reddit, if you desire. That would be great.

Really?

I don’t need to read any further.

Gaile Gray.6029:

I specifically entitled it “Comments about Communications.” I’m sorry if it appeared this was an offer to have a conversation for that was not at all what I meant.

Yes, in general, I think that if you’re going to start a thread that you have no intention of participating in, it would be a good idea to make that crystal clear from the get-go.

That said, I do absolutely believe you when you say that you didn’t intend for this thread to be a conversation with us. That, actually, is part of the problem.

Gaile Gray.6029:

Visuals – I honestly didn’t know that Colin had said something about visuals. I’m not being rude, but can you link me to a post? I’d like to follow up and get that information, but it would be marvelous if I had a post or a blog entry where those statements were made. Makes it “fast and easy” to then pursue an answer.

It’s been linked in this thread a few times, it’s been linked in the Visual nerf thread a few times, and it’s been linked in Just a flesh wound’s Reddit thread. I have it bookmarked.

Here it is.

My biggest question would be if it is possible to set a team aside to enhance old maps.
It is something ou tried when then the game was young (the first halloween) and declared it a failure, since not many people were mention it.

However now, with many people more familiar with all aspects of the game, additions like these would feel like the world is slowly expaning and changing, like the living world that was supposed to be out there.

It could be light story influenced changes (like a group of Sylvari being hunted by traitor pact soldiers and you have to save them),a little side-story for the region or some expansion, like a mini dungeon or a jumping puzzle.

minbariguy.7504:

Gaile Gray.6029:

I specifically entitled it “Comments about Communications.” I’m sorry if it appeared this was an offer to have a conversation for that was not at all what I meant.

Yes, in general, I think that if you’re going to start a thread that you have no intention of participating in, it would be a good idea to make that crystal clear from the get-go.

That said, I do absolutely believe you when you say that you didn’t intend for this thread to be a conversation with us. That, actually, is part of the problem.

Absolutely hit the nail on the head. We’re all here (on these forums, or in this thread, doesn’t really matter at this point) hoping for a dialogue that apparently isn’t going to come. It was like the thread that was titled “Upcoming Guild Chat: We want to answer your questions!” but not really the way it sounded… They wanted to answer your questions about “Creature Design”… but we couldn’t get a title like, “Upcoming Guild Chat: Ask Creature Design Questions!”. That one even uses less characters than what was used and is more clear and concise in it’s intent. Which is actually recommended.

It’s an uphill battle. We get this every few months where someone (whether it’s Gaile, Mr. O’Brien, Colin, whoever) says they want better communication, but then we get a merging of threads of customer concerns that pop up fairly often (that darn visual nerf thread has been there since November!) that go UN-commented on. People have pleaded for information. Pleaded. For months. .. but asking us for links to what Colin has said on Reddit?

Bookmark Reddit indeed.

(**edit~link to the creature chat forum post provided)

Many people feel disheartened when issues they feel strongly about go without any sort okittennowledgement from developers. Whether or not the issue gets fixed or changed 6 months down the road, not getting any response on major issue is a huge turnoff. Especially when those issues get large threads with hundreds of responses which stay on the front page of the forums for months. Many amazing suggestions are also seemingly ignored. This makes players feel that their feedback isn’t getting read, and that there’s no point to posting on the official forums.

It would be great to hear a developer’s stance on an important issue or popular suggestion for once, even if it’s to say why certain changes can’t happen. Some communication is definitely preferable to no communication. Right now it feels like the only real communication out of ANet comes in short bursts every 2-3 months, like the reddit AMA, after which dev responses will only be found sparingly on fluff threads that are hardly related to GW2.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

It hasn’t escaped my attention either that the only red posts are from Gaile when she started this thread. They can definitely do better on a communications thread started by an ANet staff person. It feels like they sent everyone here to talk about communication, then they got up and left the conversation and never came back. Leaving us all sitting here wondering if there’s going to be this communication they started.

Back before I started that Dev post in Reddit thread that this thread is a spin off of, I kept seeing these posts on the forum where people were begging for help on precursor crafting. There were a number of events that required failure and this was setting up deliberate griefing as well as innocent event completion that stopped people who had been trying for days to get their needed item. People were coming to the forum and making thread after thread trying to get a red post about this situation. If there was even one red post answering them, I never saw it.

Then one day, I found the reddit dev tracker and browsing through that I found a red post talking about this situation to someone over there. It was over a month old at that time. That irritated me. They posted an important piece of information there and couldn’t take the time to post that on just one of the many posts here? That’s when and why I decided to make that thread.

From comments on the forum I know that some people think I’m doing ANet’s job for them as a favor to ANet and to suck up to ANet (I was outright told that in a thread on this forum). I’m not. I’m doing it as a favor to the other posters on this forum and I’m doing it because ANet’s not doing their own job by making relevant information centralized and easily accessible. Whether ANet likes me doing it is irrelevant to me and personally I hope it embarrasses them a little. Who knows, maybe it will embarrass them enough that one day they’ll do their own job and make sure that posts on non official sites get cross posted on their official form.

+1 I’m ur fan! And yes Gaile has been an army of 1 pretty much and that’s putting a lot on one persons shoulders considering the size of the corporation.

Gaile Gray.6029:

Ayrilana.1396:

There’s a lot of communication here. It’s just that it doesn’t always entail what people want to hear (e.g. Release dates, what’s being worked on, etc) which Anet has stated numerous times that they do not provide those details until it’s nearly completed.

Thank you. That is precisely right. Nearly every comment, request, complaint, or discussion point about communication comes down to, as I said earlier tonight, “Tell us more” or “Tell us when.” And there are many, many times when we’re simply not going to do that because, to quote Mike O’Brien, “it’s nice for you to have presents to unwrap on release day.”

To read all of Mike’s comments, please see the AMA thread. And in the context of this thread and on the topic of reddit as opposed to the official forums, believe me, no one is sorrier that the AMA couldn’t take place on our official forums, but I think I’ve explained why that is so. To answer the question of whether we’ll someday have software to host something like an AMA, let’s just say I very much hope and believe so but like SAB, that’s “someday” not not “[this day].”

There is a difference between spoiling stories and generating excitement/managing expectations.

Right now, the game community needs something to look forward to – we need an idea of where the ANET team wants to take this game. How does the vision differ from the one you had at launch? How has that vision changed since the launch of HOT? Are you still committed to creating a “living world” and, if so, what does that term mean (in relation to what it meant 6, 12, 36 months ago?

We aren’t asking anyone to spill the beans or spoil surprises. We’re asking for a little reassurance that the game we are playing is going places we want to go (or alternatively, to know if it is not).

Without that very basic information, people will likely assume that Anet is in a state of flux following the departure of the lead developer – that you don’t have a clear direction for this game and are simply treading water in a quasi-maintenance mode. I realize (hope) that probably isn’t the case, but that is the impression people get when there is no clear communication from the developers.

As always – I love GW2. It has provided a setting in which me and my guild have had years of enjoyment. I sincerely hope that continues for the foreseeable future.

To add – there are also topics you seem to go out of your way to avoid mentioning. PVE guild missions haven’t been touched in years. Colin briefly mentioned he was excited about what the HOT team would do with them, but then the topic just died. It’s the same with SAB (which – to your credit – you did mention in this thread), the scope of fractals, new minigames (this one really goes back – before launch you talked about a bar brawl and archery contest and then never mentioned again). These aren’t unreasonable questions – nor would you be spoiling anything by addressing them.

Gaile Gray.6029:

Ayrilana.1396:

There’s a lot of communication here. It’s just that it doesn’t always entail what people want to hear (e.g. Release dates, what’s being worked on, etc) which Anet has stated numerous times that they do not provide those details until it’s nearly completed.

Thank you. That is precisely right. Nearly every comment, request, complaint, or discussion point about communication comes down to, as I said earlier tonight, “Tell us more” or “Tell us when.” And there are many, many times when we’re simply not going to do that because, to quote Mike O’Brien, “it’s nice for you to have presents to unwrap on release day.”

There’s very little content to the communication here: talking is pointless unless you say something. If you’re not going to “tell us more” or “tell us when” then what can you tell us?

I’m not looking for hard dates or “promises” but I’d like to know that something of interest is coming. I’d like to see more communication about what the actual plans are for the game (especially open world PvE and LS) and what we can actually expect in the quarters to come.

I now suspect that the April quarterly patch will simply be tweaking rewards and reducing prices and contain no new content. Now, reducing the grind required to do anything in HoT is definitely a good idea but it’s only a starting point. What else is coming?

Siobhan.5273:

Gaile Gray.6029:

Visuals – I honestly didn’t know that Colin had said something about visuals. I’m not being rude, but can you link me to a post? I’d like to follow up and get that information, but it would be marvelous if I had a post or a blog entry where those statements were made. Makes it “fast and easy” to then pursue an answer.

It’s been linked in this thread a few times, it’s been linked in the Visual nerf thread a few times, and it’s been linked in Just a flesh wound’s Reddit thread. I have it bookmarked.

Here it is.

Hi Gaile, any news on the visuals question..?