Guild Wars 2

Honestly, based on a lot of the info that is finally coming out now, after you guys have not spoken for awhile, i think it is worth it to re examine and say what is GW2 going to be about from now on.

Things have changed, as they tend to in this world.
SAB is something thats on the backburner
Dungeons are not something that you are looking to expand, develop, make new.

What exactly is the future of the content of GW2 going to be mostly about? I think the overall vision and direction of GW2 is really the big question everyone has.

this is a question that you guys should have already decided internally, so i dont think its unreasonable that you tell your customers what that is.

just to be clear, this isnt really even about specific features, but more overall.
like, we feel the future of the gw2 game lies in living world and improving general quality of life issues.
or We believe GW2 needs to strongly develop its guild systems/interactions and focus on open world challenging content
or we believe GW2 is about a deeper progression, and expansion of charachters abilities

and dont say we want to do so many things, because want is irrelevant, what is your focus for the forseeable future is the real question, with a real answer, that your most likely as a company already know

Chris Whiteside.6102:

I am sorry if I come across as inhuman. It is because i am from the UK and speak a different language (-:

But seriously this is how I talk and it entertains the guys at work so who am I to take away their fun!

Chris

I think the poster was using ‘you’ in a more general sense, as in ANet as a whole. There are a lot that are just plain marketing speech, very non-specific… sorta like the first post of this thread. :P But your posts in which you interact with the community here or in the CDIs have been real and like a real person, imho anyway.

Welp, after finding out that new Dungeons aren’t even on the horizon, my guildies and I are pretty much only going to be here until a new game with ideals close to what GW2 had at the beginning comes out. It makes me sad just how much different the game is becoming than the one I loved back in August of 2012. Had you told me in August 2012 that GW2 would have had so little added to it in 2 years as it has I would have laughed in your face, but now that we have gotten to this point it just makes me sad. It’s been becoming more and more clear the last ~8 months or so that GW2 now isn’t the game for me, at least I got my moneys worth out of it. Now I just have to hope that either Anet decides to start creating new real content, or a new game comes out.

-Anet fan for ~9 years.

Phoebe Ascension.8437:

Another example: I doubt much devs farm Legendaries. The 20 hours a week, from the pvp dev is a good example. I doubt most Anet ppl have more playtime. With that amount of time, and the current prices, you would to purely hardcore farm legendary (mostly the t6 mats) and do nothing else in game. I doubt it’s anyones goal atm. So they just ignore it and play the game casual. That makes the devs have lower awareness of how huge the step to a legendary is these days with 1400g precursors, and 50 silver t6 mats (2000 needed). Perhaps they are working on solutoin. Or not. Like from economical point of view i finally understand why John smith doenst interferre the precursor market with a change. And as economist, he did a good job. As a player he did a bad job. The end result should be more a coordination between players and Anet. I’m also not saying these improvements are needed now. I can wait, i got patience. But we need a sign of this cooperation, and not ’it’s my view, and that’s the only law’ kind of personality.

Perhaps the Dev’s who play the game should be given certain tasks within the game and upon achieving said task, should give feedback to the other Dev’s and also put a comment about it on the forums, with an HONEST opinion.

I’m sure some of the Dev’s possibly have got legendary weapons… But I’d like to know first and foremost, did they receive any help with the gathering of materials (that includes gem purchases for gold conversion) and how long it took them to get it, then I’d like to know if they actually enjoyed the process of obtaining it in the end.

If the answer is “It was possibly the worst thing I was ever tasked with” then maaaaaaaaybe they need to take a look at how it all works.

Another thing I’d like to get some feedback on it the “Not so secret” dive challenge… I just wanna know how many times they cursed out load and threw their keyboard across the office! lol

I don’t want to come across as a bit sick, but it would make me feel so much better to hear the Dev’s cursing about certain content that we all have a hard time with! hehe.

Oh, and we have NOT forgotten PRECURSOR SCAVENGER HUNT. Just saying.

Personally, I’d prefer the CDI not be about communicating. I’d rather see discussions on important game matters tbh. CDI’s take time, and discussing how to discuss just seems to push the topics I’m most interested in further towards the horizon.

ANet, this post is far from enough. While you may read through the comments, it doesn’t feel like you’re actually listening and doing things with the community.

Why not put the SAB back on? While I don’t care much about it, there are lots of people who do. Not everything has to fit inside the living story, just turn it back on. No new content needed inside there as of now, I’m sure enough people enjoy it as is.

Giving up dungeons (pretty much)? I don’t even know what to say about this. You’re basically giving a whole section of the game (which always got the least amount of love in the end because WvW and PvP at least get changes + tournaments here and there) the middlefinger. We have the same dungeons for two years now, almost the same thing with fractals. Yes we got Molten Facility and Aetherblade Retreat where parts of each made it into the fractals and the TA-Aetherpath which has decent bosses, but is way too gimmicky. Your Quality of Life-Fixes in Dungeons rarely adress important things (sometimes they do) and in some cases, they don’t even do anything. AC p2 can STILL bug out after 2 or 3 fixes. You didn’t come around to fix the Lupi-Oneshot which is spreading like a plague and is done by every guardian ever by now, giving pugs who know about this to either the choice to OHKO Lupi or searching exclusively for classes which aren’t able to pull this off. The hammer-bug in Cliffside still persists, which can force groups who run 50 and get this as third fractal to completely restart if they’re unlucky. But I guess we all know resetting progress is an important part of the fractal experience, huh? Even if you hate/abandon dungeons (like you said in the reddit interview), at least don’t make them worse than they already are; either fix important bugs or leave them as they are, but don’t put invisible walls or make skills useless without saying anything (Malrona says hi.)

Mike O Brien.4613:

We’ve set a clear policy in the past year: we don’t talk speculatively about future development. We don’t want to string you along. Creating fun is an uncertain business: sometimes things work out and sometimes they don’t; sometimes we go back to the drawing board over and over before we get something right. If we make optimistic promises and then can’t deliver on them, everyone suffers.

What about BAR BRAWL? It was one of the big feature we were suposed to find ingame and when the game released, nothing, you even added achievements and deleted them without telling us about.

This is bunk! Pure stall tactics and I’m done with it all. You won’t tell your customer base what’s coming down the road out of fear we’ll be disappointed?? Well color me very disappointed. I’m sick of waiting for straight forward answers, answer some real questions or as far as I’m concerned this exercise is a complete waste of time. Start with this one, are you or are you not going to have an expansion, yes or no?

Actually my wife just asked why I was reading the boards because all it does is tick me off, and you know she’s right. I’m completely fed up with the total lack of respect as a player and the whole “we can’t tell you anything because it might upset you” it’s pure dolyak droppings. We don’t need you to shield us from disappointment you’ve given us enough of that, what we need you to do us give me real information and if that’s too much to ask then perhaps it’s time to move on.

Vlad Morbius.1759:

This is bunk! Pure stall tactics and I’m done with it all. You won’t tell your customer base what’s coming down the road out of fear we’ll be disappointed?? Well color me very disappointed. I’m sick of waiting for straight forward answers, answer some real questions or as far as I’m concerned this exercise is a complete waste of time. Start with this one, are you or are you not going to have an expansion, yes or no?

They did tell us they were working on getting every class to be able to use every weapon – more than eight months ago. Not so long ago, there was an influx of threads about that, and how it seems like they’ve just shuffled it off the table and are pretending they never said it at all.
So: It’s completely plausible that they’re holding back for the reasons they say.
But it might still be a stall tactic – after all, they really haven’t said anything about it, that I’m aware of. Nothing about ETAs, ‘yeah, some things came up, we had to put it on hold,’ nothing.

I think the big question here by the player base is.. Are your “top secret” plans worth sticking around for?
Player base this in it’s self should be your answer. They fear telling us not just for our disappointment but they fear we may leave if we don’t like there intent. They try to string us along like puppets still chasing the carrot! Their tactic is keep them anticipating the next “Big Thing”.
The list of things Anet had said they will do in game from launch till current day. That they have actually done is by far shorter of the list we are still waiting on. While we praise them for the new story telling and all there is so much they are missing on. This This is where our disappointment comes from Anet! The “Nothingness” *Never ending Story.

Anymras.5729:

Vlad Morbius.1759:

This is bunk! Pure stall tactics and I’m done with it all. You won’t tell your customer base what’s coming down the road out of fear we’ll be disappointed?? Well color me very disappointed. I’m sick of waiting for straight forward answers, answer some real questions or as far as I’m concerned this exercise is a complete waste of time. Start with this one, are you or are you not going to have an expansion, yes or no?

They did tell us they were working on getting every class to be able to use every weapon – more than eight months ago. Not so long ago, there was an influx of threads about that, and how it seems like they’ve just shuffled it off the table and are pretending they never said it at all.
So: It’s completely plausible that they’re holding back for the reasons they say.
But it might still be a stall tactic – after all, they really haven’t said anything about it, that I’m aware of. Nothing about ETAs, ‘yeah, some things came up, we had to put it on hold,’ nothing.

Judging by the undertone of a lot of comments here and in other threads, there is a fairly ingrained feeling that there is more talk and less substance from ANET; that the CDI’s, for the most part, have proven to be a nice distraction with a feel-good sentiment that the interaction will ultimately lead to in-game improvements. The CDI seems to represent Hope. Hope that an individual’s voice will be listened to, hope that long-needed changes are made, and hope that the game can get back on track.

There is also the sentiment that why have a CDI when all the issues have been reiterated multitudes of times in mega threads. All the feedback is there already. Creating a special thread to talk about it, yet again for the hundredth time, implies that 1) the previous feedback wasn’t read because it if was we wouldn’t be here in the first place, and 2) a feeling of being strung along.

Starting a CDI on communication, imho, seems disingenuous. This isn’t a mom-and-pop organization. Having your customers telling you how to do rudimentary Customer Relations functions underscores a systemic failure that we, the supporters of your business, simply shouldn’t have to do. Having a CDI for weeks on this seems like a monumental waste of time, and more of a placebo than anything. Again, there are multiple threads of feedback spanning months and months where your customers have talked about your lack of communication, and ways to improve it.

Understandably, in some of your customers, a lack of faith has built up. Too many words, too little substance, and a whole lot of built up ill-will. As they say, the proof is in the pudding.

I suggest, rather than putting it upon the community to bring their issues to you for CDI ideas, that we do something entirely different:

How about you bring us a list of what you think the current hot topics are based on the last couple of months of community feedback.

This would show that you have been paying attention, “listening and responding” as Mike said in his OP. If you manage to hit at least half of the major issues on the head, it would illustrate that the perceived disconnect between player and Dev is a non-concern, that, in fact, you guys really do get it.

Dear ArenaNet,

I think it’s pretty clear by now: your community is losing faith in you.
Some player lost it a while ago, but many still hoped that SOMETHING BIG was cooking in the background.

And what we get?

Do you think LS and feature packs (which is mostly QoL features and very small changes) are enough to keep people interested? The truth is that the vast majority of us played them only to endure our waiting for something bigger.
Someone can’t even play other games, because GW2 has SO much potential, and the combat system is SO good that they can’t go back.

The game needs more content: WvW, sPvP, dungeons, maps, weapons, world bosses, guild activities. To put it in one word, an expansion.
Everyone would love that, and gladly pay for it.

Give us a date, something to look forward to. You can’t drag us forever.

One more thing: I remeber a CDI on the commander system a year ago. Many people wrote passionately their ideas and spent time giving long suggestions.
And you guys come out with 3 new colors? Nothing else?

That’s… depressing. And offensive.

Thank you for reading.

Illysharia.7286:

How about you bring us a list of what you think the current hot topics are based on the last couple of months of community feedback.

This would show that you have been paying attention, “reading and listening” as Colin said in his OP. If you manage to hit at least half of the major issues on the head, it would illustrate that the perceived disconnect between player and Dev is a non-concern, that, in fact, you guys really do get it.

The problem with that is that you are assuming a consensus in the player base that doesn’t exist. In fact, it’s a big problem I see with this forum as a whole… the assumption that any one person represents anyone more than themselves.

Some people hate the gem store focus. Some people want more 5-man dungeons. Some people want instanced raids. Some people want Tengu. Some people want Mesmer buffs. Some people want a new pet AI. Some people want more challenging AI period. The list of wants and desires goes on and on and on.

Your challenge would be one that Arena.net simply couldn’t hope to pass because it would be a constantly moving target. That’s horribly unfair to expect, don’t you think?

phys.7689:

What exactly is the future of the content of GW2 going to be mostly about? I think the overall vision and direction of GW2 is really the big question everyone has.

To be honest, I think they’ve made that pretty clear now, too. Any new content they add will be living world content. Beyond that, their focus is “extending the life of all there is in the game” (http://youtube.com/watch?v=umpR6LhBhW4&t=5m39s).

Makes sense, I guess, after spending a year and a half adding relatively little new content. They won’t give up on the living world, so they’re using that to add content, and they’re putting new coats of paint on everything else.

I mean, to be clear, I’m not happy about it—all the content I play for has been shelved indefinitely. But at least now I know it.

(Also, before this latest video, I was a little puzzled by the talk of a new CDI. They still haven’t done much with the last one they did. But now we have confirmation of why that is: that one was about fractals, and fractals aren’t a priority. Kind of a shame they did the CDI at all, though. A lot people spent a lot of time on it, and not much has come of it.)

Edited to add:

Judging by the undertone of a lot of comments here and in other threads, there is a fairly ingrained feeling that there is more talk and less substance from ANET

I agree with everything you said, but I just wanted to add to this and what Anymras said: My own favorite example of this is from 13 months ago. “We aren’t quite ready to go into all the details here, but what I can say is you will see [in 2013] a specific way to build precursor items on your way to a legendary. On top of this, you’ll also see new legendary weapons and new types of legendary gear in 2013.”

I can understand why they don’t state their plans when they’ve been unable to follow through on them in the past.

chemiclord.3978:

Illysharia.7286:

How about you bring us a list of what you think the current hot topics are based on the last couple of months of community feedback.

This would show that you have been paying attention, “reading and listening” as Colin said in his OP. If you manage to hit at least half of the major issues on the head, it would illustrate that the perceived disconnect between player and Dev is a non-concern, that, in fact, you guys really do get it.

The problem with that is that you are assuming a consensus in the player base that doesn’t exist. In fact, it’s a big problem I see with this forum as a whole… the assumption that any one person represents anyone more than themselves.

Some people hate the gem store focus. Some people want more 5-man dungeons. Some people want instanced raids. Some people want Tengu. Some people want Mesmer buffs. Some people want a new pet AI. Some people want more challenging AI period. The list of wants and desires goes on and on and on.

Your challenge would be one that Arena.net simply couldn’t hope to pass because it would be a constantly moving target. That’s horribly unfair to expect, don’t you think?

You missed the point of my challenge.

Read the first paragraph of Mike’s OP:

“I know some are concerned about whether ArenaNet is communicating with you and listening and responding to your feedback. As you saw with yesterday’s announcement, we do. All of us at ArenaNet play the game with you, chat with you and read your forum posts, and work on the things that we think will most delight and entertain you.”

All of the community issues are out there. Feedback has been given in the mega-tonne load, for months. If they are paying attention as they claim, then they should bring us a list of what they are working on based on what has already been discussed. It’s about putting your money where your mouth is.

You see that as being horrible unfair? What an odd sentiment.

All the data they need for these CDI’s is already on their forums. All they need to do is read. The community has put in a lot of time to give valuable, detailed feedback on a variety of topics. A quick scan of the forums will show multiple threads with hundreds of posts and tens of thousands of views, most of which have the appearance of being ignored. Those are, generally, the hot topics I was referring to. Someone who is “listening and responding” should be be fully aware of those and be able to bring them up, and discuss them.

What is “horribly unfair” is them putting it on the community, when it is ANET who needs to put the effort in. We’ve been communicating. We’ve given mountains of feedback. It’s time for them to prove to us that this current show of “we listen, let’s create another CDI” isn’t just another smoke and mirrors entertainment to placate the population.

I like the idea of a communication based CDI. I like the idea of picking up where we left off more. If you guys can tell us which hot topic CDIs from months ago are not moving forward, that would be great. We can cut out a lot of repeat posts by doing it that way.

I think a prime example of bad communication was the Fractal CDI. It took pages upon pages of people posting that the Dredge Fractal needed changing until we were all on the same page about it. In the end you all did change it for the better and guess what? There aren’t any complaints about it. This makes me feel it can work, but we have to cut out the fat from the real meat of the communication that is to take place.

• What is available for class discussion? —i.e. Rangers don’t seem to be headed in a very different direction other than minor tweaks this up coming Feature Pack-- There seemed to be a real sense from the community that they need major changes in the last CDI

I feel like at least we had a foundation for change with the last CDI, why start over? We should improve upon communication like Chris is saying, but not at the expense of really drilling down the core issues of the last CDI.

As a side note, I really felt like Fractal Armor needed to be added into the game. I was told that it was too focused a thing and that it wasn’t going to be added, but Tournament armor was added. I am not saying that it shouldn’t be added. It’s a great reward, but if that isn’t the epitome of a focused set of armor then I don’t know what is.

It really seems to me like you all have lost a little bit of the idea of what it actually means to be an RPG player. Being rewarded with specific items endemic to specific content has been replaced entirely by the gem shop.

Iason Evan.3806:

As a side note, I really felt like Fractal Armor needed to be added into the game. I was told that it was too focused a thing and that it wasn’t going to be added, but Tournament armor was added.

Fractals aren’t esports, though (even though the player-run fractal tournament got more viewers than some of the ToL qualifiers iirc).

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2ed3js/thank_you_for_finally_cutting_the_cord_arenanet/

thx for communicating with the community anet and finally telling the truth.

On the subject of communication, all we know after these gamescon interviews content wise is that everything except Living Story has been shelved for an unspecified period of time.

We don’t know if -any- other content is being worked on apart from the new pvp mode first mentioned over a year ago.

Might be time to work on some teasers, if there is any content being worked on that is.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

So i was thinking maybe we could have a CDI next week about the logistics (Methods, format, etc etc) of better communication on both sides?

thoughts?

Chris

I have a feeling I’ve posted about this in the past, but…wasn’t one of the last CDIs also about the format of the CDIs themselves? Of the CDIs we’ve had, how many have been on gameplay topics and how many have been ‘administrative’ topics? If this week has showed anything it is that people really, really want communication, but more than that, substantive communication. Talking about talking isn’t going to get us very far, I don’t think, I don’t want to see what is currently our best option for community-dev interaction to get bogged down in business details and bureaucratics.

By all means let’s start some more CDIs, but maybe a more concrete gameplay topic would be more constructive? Basically, in as much as is possible within the context of Mike O’Brian’s stated policies, let’s get down to brass tacks.

Substance E.4852:

tigirius.9014:

Atherakhia.4086:

So we going to get a real Ranger CDI thread this time?

Engineers haven’t even gotten one yet and we’ve been the most nerfed and broken class out of the whole list. Edit: in PVE.

Careful what you wish for or you too could get a CDI that was nothing more than a cleverly disguised waste bin with a piece of paper that read “Suggestion Box” taped to the front…

LOL Right! I hadn’t thought of that! Wouldn’t be any different than the current Hobosacks thread is right now tho!

Chris Whiteside.6102:

So i was thinking maybe we could have a CDI next week about the logistics (Methods, format, etc etc) of better communication on both sides?

thoughts?

Chris

I appreciate the CDIs but some of us wonder where they are leading. For example, we’ve not seen any plans on traits yet, or the problems with megaservers not being user friendly. I’m all for communication don’t misunderstand but surely there’s a better system to submit and categorize our suggestions with less man hours, and a better system of reporting to the community what you’re working on now from these CDIs?

To give you an example of something I totally expected from megaservers as a player who plays lots of single shard games is the ability to group or even right click on the name of any of the guild officers and choose to be placed in their “channel”.

Jandopo.2107:

One more thing: I remeber a CDI on the commander system a year ago. Many people wrote passionately their ideas and spent time giving long suggestions.
And you guys come out with 3 new colors? Nothing else?

That’s… depressing. And offensive.

Yeah, the CDIs have been a waste of everybody’s time. Lots of energy spent for too few results.

They’ve said time and time again that they will not release information until they’re ready. You will not receive any dates because if something happens, and it gets pushed back, everyone gives them flak for it.

Be patient.

Chameleon Dude.1564:

I’m completely in favour of a communication-based CDI. Just to throw something out early: you guys have a website – use it. I know social media and fansites are very useful tools, but why should I have to trawl through Facebook, Twitter, Twitch, Dulfy, etc for things that should be here in plain view for all to see?

Links to or transcripts of important things posted elsewhere would be nice. Not hidden away in some subforum – an obvious stickied thread, or better yet, on the website’s front page. And I know the wiki is made up of player contributions… but how about some love in the form of new skins, etc being there for us to see when they are released; as opposed to having to go to the wardrobe in game or visit Dulfy? Anet makes Guild Wars 2, not social media and certain fansites that get special treatment.

one of my biggest gripes about anet’s communication is exactly this — i come to this forum to see whats going on with the game and i see joe shmoe has posted in general D about yesterdays media event that had really quite significant news. it wasnt the person who fielded the interview sayin “hey check it out guys,” it wasnt even the media outlet trolling for pageviews… it was joe shmoe. the day after. thats a problem imo.

also, maybe anet should consider buying dulfy out and hiring her to do what she does now in a more official capacity, she already has nods to her service in the game so i know you like her. the kind of database she provides would be really useful. and yeah i know she does other games too, and i dont think you should try to stop her from doing that so maybe its not really a possibility.

Jandopo.2107:

Dear ArenaNet,

I think it’s pretty clear by now: your community is losing faith in you.

Don’t know what community you’re thinking of. I still have a great amount of faith in ArenaNet and have enjoyed all of their updates thus far. I am quite confident in saying that a large majority of the playerbase have also enjoyed them.

Also: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/So-many-whiners/first#post

Just treading water until a better game steals me.

Might kill time in Skyrim instead.

Creating a CDI about communication is like forming a committee to discuss how to form committees.

Ayrilana.1396:

Be patient.

And how long do you expect us to be patient?
Some of us have been patient for quite long now, you cant expect anyone to be patient forever

Chris Whiteside.6102:

NewTrain.7549:

Creating a CDI about communication is like forming a committee to discuss how to form committees.

Morning All,

You asked me to be honest so I am going to be. I am starting to feel like doing another CDI just isn’t worth the frustration, huge amount of time and heartache.

As i have said many many times before getting the logistics around communication are extremely important. Time is precious and anything that can be done to make every second more valuable is paramount.

Chris

Good to know, thanks.

You wait all year for some devs and they all turn up at once ;D

Good to see the focus back on communication and to read through the dev tracker and see some positive discussion going on across the subforums. Going hand in hand with the excellent content in S2, this is a great turn of direction for the game and the community.

You are players who love the game like we do, but are privvy to what could be coming. The community are players who love the game, but have nothing concrete to look forward to. That common goal and disparity should help find the bridge you need.

Kibazuka.1390:

Ayrilana.1396:

Be patient.

And how long do you expect us to be patient?
Some of us have been patient for quite long now, you cant expect anyone to be patient forever

I feel the same way as many of you do, complaining about it and expressing everything we want over and over isnt going to do anything. They know how we feel, they know what we want but they’re busy, just take a break from gw2 and come back later when there are new updates.

NewTrain.7549:

Creating a CDI about communication is like forming a committee to discuss how to form committees.

Yeah. I agree. It’s kinda like the blog posts for the outlines of the year. Most of the stuff that is covered in them gets pushed to the second half of the year or doesn’t come out at all.

Communication could be broken down fairly simply: Players need to be respectful or lose their right to post on the forums. Yearly outline blogs by devs should be adhered to so that expectations by the player base are respected by the devs. Deciding to go silent because expectations weren’t being met isn’t the way to handle it.

IDK that we need to communicate about communicating. It might be as simple as us asking, “Hey, what if you guys did this?” and you at ArenaNet saying yes or no.

The Magic Find mechanic in place in the game is a prime example of closed communication. You at ArenaNet gave us inherent Magic Find and then switched a lot of the drops to be given out by chests in the Living Story that are totally unaffected by Magic Find That way it appears that we have this really cool way to “up” our chances as players to get great drops, when in reality the Magic Find affects almost none of the new content because the rewards come at the end of completing an instance in the form of chests that are unaffected by Magic Find in any way, shape, or form. Also, the content is permanent, but there is no impetus to repeat said content because there are no rewards.

The communication disconnect comes in the form of actions. What you implemented offers no replayability. So it’s permanent, but you don’t really offer any incentive of playing through it again, so where should our desire to replay it come from?

You guys got rid of that event that people were wrongfully farming, but if you look at the Crusader Angaria Event that leads up to “Taking Back The Gates Of Arah”, you guys got rid of all the mobs that spawn there. Loot is being nerfed whether or not people are playing it as intended or not. Through your actions you are communicating that you want loot drops to be decreased.

That is a big part of the communication disconnect I feel when playing the game.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

You asked me to be honest so I am going to be. I am starting to feel like doing another CDI just isn’t worth the frustration, huge amount of time and heartache.

This is why, actually, I don’t have much faith in any of them working anymore. I like the idea, and I loved some of the discussions. But I think there are several here who want a CDI just to have a developer punching bag.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

NewTrain.7549:

Creating a CDI about communication is like forming a committee to discuss how to form committees.

Morning All,

You asked me to be honest so I am going to be. I am starting to feel like doing another CDI just isn’t worth the frustration, huge amount of time and heartache.

As i have said many many times before getting the logistics around communication right is extremely important. Time is precious and anything that can be done to make every second more valuable is paramount. Any time a developer spends on CDI is time away from the game. The benefit however is huge in terms of the products evolution so it is an extremely difficult balancing act.

Chris

I can understand the frustration in dealing with certain individuals on these forums, and cannot in conscience recommend you interact with them. It’s y’all’s call. We cannot evaluate the value inherent to CDI’s since we don’t have the full range of information that ANet has.

If you do decide to go ahead with the CDI’s, you may have to ignore some comments that are rooted in disappointment. It’s nice to be invested in one’s work to the point that you care about it. If it helps, some of us appreciate your efforts.

P.S. I did suggest you take the weekend off…

Zalladi.4652:

Don’t know what community you’re thinking of. I still have a great amount of faith in ArenaNet and have enjoyed all of their updates thus far. I am quite confident in saying that a large majority of the playerbase have also enjoyed them.

We’re in the same community mate and I applaud to your patience, because lately I’ve been talking to many players, inside and outside my guilds, in mmorpg forums, on reddit, everywhere, and many MANY of us are tired of waiting.

I still didn’t lose all of my faith, afterall this game is my favourite mmo. But I’m starting to consider if the we’ll ever see new contents. Not only little improvements here and there.

ALSO, what do you have to say about the Commander CDI? People put time and effort in that thread and what we got? 3 more colors. Really?

If you like dungeons, guild activities, wvw, spvp or until recently world exploration, then this game isn’t for you anymore. If you like terrible singleplayer storycontent in an MMO, that’s heavily pandered by “click to continue” railroad dialogue, then this is the MMO for you.

Otherwise, I hope you’re happy with 4 recolored icons every 2 years.

Rangersix.1754:

If you like dungeons, guild activities, wvw, spvp or, until recently, world exploration, this game isn’t for you. If you like terrible singleplayer storycontent in an MMO, that’s heavy pandered by “click to continue” railroad dialogue, then this is the MMO for you.

Otherwise, I hope you’re happy with 4 recolored icons every 2 years.

This^^ right here is the problem with this game.

It’s ok on the first playthrough (and I’ve done most of the open world content about 7 times now).

Chris Whiteside.6102:

NewTrain.7549:

Creating a CDI about communication is like forming a committee to discuss how to form committees.

Morning All,

You asked me to be honest so I am going to be. I am starting to feel like doing another CDI just isn’t worth the frustration, huge amount of time and heartache.

As i have said many many times before getting the logistics around communication right is extremely important. Time is precious and anything that can be done to make every second more valuable is paramount. Any time a developer spends on CDI is time away from the game. The benefit however is huge in terms of the products evolution so it is an extremely difficult balancing act.

Chris

Hi Chris,

I can very much understand this. I take it there is no possibility of any kind of a community-dev liaison person to manage CDIs or something similar, so that the onus would not be on yourselves and taking away from actual development time? Obviously I have no idea on what the staffing or financial situation is like over there (perhaps too big of a job for a volunteer) but it seems like it could be worthwhile?

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Note i am up to date with all the comments since last night.

Chris

Mr. Whiteside, I have a question.

Do you remember the Commander CDI 1 year ago? Why we got only 3 more colors out of it? I love the idea of CDI, but after this I wonder if the community’s time and effort are wasted…

Or maybe the big improvements to the commander system are yet to come?

Maybe the CDIs would be less of a rallying call for the player base if developers just occasionally popped into threads with proffered insight or suggestions. The whole reason this topic of ‘communication’ bubbled to the surface was well, a combination of things, but doubtless contributing are the april 15th threads simmering unchecked for a long time.

When you’re making pasta you gotta stir the pot every once in a while or it’s gonna bubble over.

Usually you set a roadmap that is REALISTIC and then you announce it.
Are you saying Anet is unable to keep themselves to a roadmap and that’s why you do not speculate on the future?

I believe everyone is curios to at least know -what- is being worked on. Not when it will be released or indepth detailed info. Just stuff like ’’We’re working on rebalancing class X’’ would be enough to please 99%.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

I am starting to feel like doing another CDI just isn’t worth the frustration, huge amount of time and heartache.

I honestly feel for you. I can somewhat see where you (studio design director) might not really feel like going through the hassle of CDI (which isn’t really your job). Although there’s no reason why you can’t hire someone for this (perhaps, I don’t know).

Yargesh.4965:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

NewTrain.7549:

Creating a CDI about communication is like forming a committee to discuss how to form committees.

Morning All,

You asked me to be honest so I am going to be. I am starting to feel like doing another CDI just isn’t worth the frustration, huge amount of time and heartache.

As i have said many many times before getting the logistics around communication are extremely important. Time is precious and anything that can be done to make every second more valuable is paramount.

Chris

Good to know, thanks.

Could at least read the last sentence as well :P

Iason Evan.3806:

Players need to be respectful or lose their right to post on the forums.

Nice in concept but I can already see people complaining about first amendment rights or something.

Iason Evan.3806:

Yearly outline blogs by devs should be adhered to so that expectations by the player base are respected by the devs. Deciding to go silent because expectations weren’t being met isn’t the way to handle it.

I like the idea of a outline or roadmap, but at the same time requiring developers to adhere to it assumes many things (such as clairvoyance on the part of the developers). Thinks will change, ideas that sounded good would turn out to be not so good. The trick is not a strict adherence but constant honest communication informing us about such changes. This does have the threat of potentially becoming very time consuming (i.e. having to explain why something isn’t a good idea anymore can complex).

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

You asked me to be honest so I am going to be. I am starting to feel like doing another CDI just isn’t worth the frustration, huge amount of time and heartache.

This is why, actually, I don’t have much faith in any of them working anymore. I like the idea, and I loved some of the discussions. But I think there are several here who want a CDI just to have a developer punching bag.

Man I’m really feeling for the devs here.

IndigoSundown.5419:

I can understand the frustration in dealing with certain individuals on these forums, and cannot in conscience recommend you interact with them. It’s y’all’s call. We cannot evaluate the value inherent to CDI’s since we don’t have the full range of information that ANet has.

If you do decide to go ahead with the CDI’s, you may have to ignore some comments that are rooted in disappointment. It’s nice to be invested in one’s work to the point that you care about it. If it helps, some of us appreciate your efforts.

P.S. I did suggest you take the weekend off…

I still think ANet get’s some poor person in to handle the CDI, act as an intermediary which can summarize and compile and handle player interaction. Allow the developers to maximize their development time while also getting value from the CDI (and being somewhat insulated from the negativity). Of course that said I’m unsure of the value in having a dev actively involved in the conversation (I don’t follow CDIs, they grow by like 10 pages a hour and these forums functionally simply don’t allow for each consumption of such a massive number of posts. Perhaps a hierarchical structure like reddit would allow threads of conversation to at least be grouped better).

Jandopo.2107:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Note i am up to date with all the comments since last night.

Chris

Mr. Whiteside, I have a question.

Do you remember the Commander CDI 1 year ago? Why we got only 3 more colors out of it? I love the idea of CDI, but after this I wonder if the community’s time and effort are wasted…

Or maybe the big improvements to the commander system are yet to come?

Yeah… I see question marks but I have the feeling you’re not so much interested in asking any questions as much as insulting. It’s that 80% rule I guess (you know that 80% of all questions are actually statements).

CureForLiving.5360:

Yeah… I see question marks but I have the feeling you’re not so much interested in asking any questions as much as insulting. It’s that 80% rule I guess (you know that 80% of all questions are actually statements).

You are wrong. I don’t want to be insulting, I assure you that.
I’m just saying that I saw players write pages and pages of constructive suggestions in that CDI. If everything we propose is going to be forgiven then where’s the point in doing it?

@Cureforliving, I am not sure what the last sentence has to do with my post. It was good of him to read through all of this and give a response. I appreciate it.

Chris please smack Mike O’Brien upside the head to wake him up out of his fantasy world. His entire post illustrates the problem that a large part of the community has with Anets communications. Instead of actually communicating he made a PR statement and left. This is the core of the problem. Something is thrown out there without any actual discussion one way or the other. What you’ve been doing is what Mike should have been doing after making this thread and that is interact with the community.

Of course I completely disagree with his statement that “If we make optimistic promises and then can’t deliver on them, everyone suffers”. I pretty much convinced that what has been happening for the last year, the non-communicative nature, has damaged the game far more than a few unkept promises could ever have done. While I don’t have the numbers, I feel confident that the game really isn’t in that good of a condition overall.
The living Story, WvW, Dungeons, SPvP all have problems that only a massive overhaul can fix. An overhaul that can only be accomplished with the help of the community, but only a community that wants to help. You have lost a good portion of the forum community. Personally I don’t think much will change, because I lack faith that management will make it happen. I’m still willing to try, but Anet needs to completely change their tune if they/you want to succeed. The name Arenanet was always positive, but it has been thrown into the wind.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

You asked me to be honest so I am going to be. I am starting to feel like doing another CDI just isn’t worth the frustration, huge amount of time and heartache.

No kitten Chris. If I had to deal with clients who behave like the worst in this forum (including myself at times), treating a product I’ve poured my soul into so poorly, I’d have given up long ago.

You’re a developer. You don’t need to be dealing with all of this crap. Your company needs to hire some dedicated people to take care of communication. Not more marketing people to deliver slick hype designed to sell gems/accounts, but folks to honestly communicate with players and sift through the heartwrenching bullkitten that won’t hit home personally.

I just wanted to throw another voice in saying thank you, and that we do appreciate what you’re trying to do here. But you’re just one man, with a lot of pre-existing responsibilities.

Go kick your boss in the kitten and tell him to give you a raise or (and?) hire some people to take on what you’ve been doing. You can’t save this company alone.