Guild Wars 2

Good to see the CDI start up again.

Anything that led to the rework of dredge fractal is a-okay in my book.

Substance E.4852:

Nabuko Darayon.9645:

Substance E.4852:

Nabuko Darayon.9645:

DMany of the ragers and trolls around here are actively working on casting a dark shadow upon GW2 because a new, soon to be released game needs more people and this is one way to attract them.

lulwut? I think your tinfoil hat is on too tight bro.

Not at all, the last 2 guilds I was in had officers actively recruiting for the new game and constantly trash talking about this game they were “playing” . I dunno on what Utopian guild you’re in but you’re lucky if this hasn’t come up for you.

Guild chat = forum?

Guilds are multi platform/game all the time. Maybe they got tired of GW2 and are trying to get their buddies to join them in a new game. Whatever you think about GW2, their opinion is just as valid and they are perfectly in their right to try to get their gaming companions to join them in a new game.

Sorry but this is not the case. I wouldn’t have posted here if this was the case -.-

So if adding new dungeons into the game and helping add to the already limited replay value of the game is too much work (dungeons/pvp/wvw). Could we at least have the rewards for dungeons/fractals increased?

Chris Whiteside.6102:

What that folks who don’t see value in something are probably better of not partaking in it?

I think that’s a pretty reasonable statement isn’t it that applies to many things. here is an example I don’t like getting involved in political discussions but I don’t berate or judge folks for doing so.

Kudos for your attempt at sharp wit though (-:

Chris

It was more a comment on the fact that it was imo a legitimate concern that was dismissed outright.

The CDI produced a number of good ideas. There was 8 months of development time and all that we got out of it was a switch from the word “soul bound” to “account bound” and a palette swap. That is something even a novice programmer could do over his lunch break on a Friday afternoon, yet it is all we are being given after 8 months of waiting.

Imo a more appropriate response would have been any of the following:

1. I’m not sure why this took so long I will find out and get back to you (and actually get back to him)
2. We couldn’t do any of those things because of x, but they aren’t off the table if we can get them to work.

and a less appealing response but still better:

3. We can’t go into details about that and it probably isn’t something that will happen
4. We can’t go into details about that but something is in the works.

The CDI worked in the the sense that it produced many good, feasible ideas to take to the devs. It worked in the fact that the first time around you did a very good job of communicating. But something happened. Only the very easiest, simple to code suggestions were brought to us. The rest got lost in the void somewhere. We have heard nothing for 8+ months, we are anxious and worried about the game.

The LS was a huge improvement over season 1, and I think that was in fact partly due to the CDI and player feedback. But it seems that ONLY things related to the LS or the gemstore are being taken into consideration. Any suggestion for other parts of the game are simply being thrown away, at least from my point of view. And it simply isn’t very helpful to the attitudes and frustration of players to tell them to just not participate if they don’t like the results.

The feedback on the results of round 1 is just as important as the feedback itself.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Arcade Fire.4895:

So if adding new dungeons into the game and helping add to the already limited replay value of the game is too much work (dungeons/pvp/wvw). Could we at least have the rewards for dungeons/fractals increased?

This is something we have discussed many times and that I would like us to do.

Chris

Woo! There’s a nice thread on Reddit and in the dungeon forums about the imbalances/RNG nature of fractals if you want inspiration.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Arcade Fire.4895:

So if adding new dungeons into the game and helping add to the already limited replay value of the game is too much work (dungeons/pvp/wvw). Could we at least have the rewards for dungeons/fractals increased?

This is something we have discussed many times and that I would like us to do.

Chris

Dear Chris, listen this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFZxm09G87E
Keep talking, don’t bother, we’re just leaving.

First off, Chris, thank you for coming forth and doing what is not really a part of your job description, and doing it on your weekend to boot. I have always understood that many of the Developers do what they do out of love for the game. Your taking personal time to repair the lines of communication only reinforces that notion.

Put anybody who thinks you aren’t serious about this on your “ignore” list. You’re doing a nice, diplomatic job so far in the face of some really hostile comments, whereas I might’ve managed to get myself infracted by this point.

Now on with my thoughts…

I have often read comments that most of the gaming community doesn’t go to the forums, and when they do it is often because they have a gripe about something. So while a CDI may be a good way to brainstorm solutions, it may not be the best way to determine WHAT needs to be solved. The forums don’t reach a broad enough section of the community.

During the Beta testing, we were given little in-game questionnaires to help you guys decide what people liked, and disliked, and what needed work. That seems like a good way to reach a nice, sizable spectrum of gamers. Do you think your little questionnaire program could be adapted to quiz the community on their desires?

Let each account respond ONE time. Offer a checklist of “hot topics” we’d like to see addressed. Everyone can check three items on the list, and your computers can tally up what topics are the most important to the community as a whole. (Checklist responses only… no freeform replies. That would take forever to sort through).

Once the results are in, THEN open your CDIs and talk about the “winning” topics. This would help assure that the issues we discuss are truly the issues uppermost in the minds of the majority of the community.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

That doesn’t mean we haven’t been reading feedback. It does however mean we have lost our connection and honestly a lot of the team who care deeply about Arena and the community are to scared to post because let’s be honest forums in general can be quite toxic.

I’m not sure what your setup is for moderation and forum-related rule-breaking, but I would recommend that your forum team talk about how toxic posts are being handled and possibly crack down more.

The devs should not have to feel afraid to post and I think part of setting the stage for that is just laying down the law when people are being abrasive without being constructive at all. I’m sure you don’t want people to feel like their opinions are being censored, which is (I would guess) why more posts aren’t being infracted.

But personally, I would rather have to watch my own attitude a bit more than to have you guys afraid of your own forum community.

I think a lot of people treat devs/companies as punching bags when they’re frustrated with a game and while that is fine in private, it’s not fair for you guys to have to wade through it every time you want to interact with us.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Nevets Crimsonwing.5271:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Arcade Fire.4895:

So if adding new dungeons into the game and helping add to the already limited replay value of the game is too much work (dungeons/pvp/wvw). Could we at least have the rewards for dungeons/fractals increased?

This is something we have discussed many times and that I would like us to do.

Chris

Woo! There’s a nice thread on Reddit and in the dungeon forums about the imbalances/RNG nature of fractals if you want inspiration.

Very up to date on the topic. Thanks though.

Chris

that was a short hour :P

I think there was more than just new Commander Tag colors and Soul/Account-bound.

Feb. 4

World vs. World

The Righteous Indignation buff has been updated in the following ways:
New icon
New visual effect
Reduced the outgoing damage multiplier from 300% to 200%
Increased the amount of Dragonite Ore dropped by keep lords.
The WvW panel is now visible everywhere (in overflows, while guesting, etc.).
The right-click player menu now works properly while in WvW—showing options for party invites, whispers, etc.—for players who are not enemies in WvW.
The player location UI now displays specific WvW map names and the correct home shard when mousing over players who are in WvW.
Fixed some bugs related to WvW queue ordering.
Fixed WvW queue-related exploits.
Added a requirement to attain rank 30 in WvW in order to purchase the Gift of Battle.

Feb. 18

Removed the requirement that players need to attain rank 30 in WvW before purchasing the Gift of Battle.
The Air-Strike Grenade and Sentry Turret items are now account bound.
Edge of the Mists:
Moved two tower guild officer NPCs that were interfering with bucket interactions.
Added trading post icons to the Black Lion trader NPCs in the starting areas.
Added missing interact text to one of the bridge-build locations.
Fixed an issue that caused the bonded elementals at Overgrown Fane to appear stacked on top of each other.
Fixed an issue that caused Retaliation to do PvE levels of damage instead of PvP levels of damage.
Reduced the rate of fire of the Badlands auto-turrets.
Removed duplicate titles from the Resourceful and Some Say It’s Your Specialty achievements.

Mar. 18

The Commander buff is now only displayed to friendly players.
Added a requirement for players to attain a rank of 14 in order to purchase the Gift of Battle.
Added a new NPC, the Battle Master, to sell the gift to players.
Added new Battle Historian NPCs to every WvW map to tell players their world’s status in current and future WvW tournaments.
Applied Strength and Applied Fortitude buffs are no longer removed on down, but they are still removed on death.
Updated the Burning Oil Mastery text to be more consistent.
Attacking the back inner gate of the Garrison on all the Borderlands maps will now start the repel events and contest the Garrison.
The back inner gate of the Garrison has had an increase in defense on all Borderlands maps.
Structural vulnerability is now correctly applied to the back inner gate of the Garrison on all Borderlands maps.
World bonuses obtained in WvW will once again apply in PvE. Additionally, they will now apply in overflows and while guesting (based on the player’s world).
Fixed an issue that caused a visual discrepancy in the map UI and the score UI.
Edge of the Mists:
Updated the team colors for each of the major regions. Overgrowth is now green; Frostreach is now blue; Badlands is now red.
Updated the art for the loading screen.
Reduced the spawn rate of Aetherblade pirates.
Fixed an issue that would sometimes allow Aetherblades to be worth double WXP.
Fixed an issue that was preventing the Statuary boss—the Grawl Stoneworker—from gaining Righteous Indignation.
Fixed an issue that was preventing one of the gates at Thunder Hollow from being repaired.
The Grawl Shaman will now use Swirling Winds totems slightly less often.
The max target cap has been increased on many boss skills.
Fixed an issue in which supply depots would sometimes appear to have supply when they were actually empty.
Fixed a Frostreach bell that wasn’t summoning a Spirit of Koda.
Mechanical devourers summoned by the Charr Mechanic will no longer grant experience or loot when killed.
Reduced the gold cost to start breakout events.
Eternal Battlegrounds:
Fixed the text for the Rogue’s Quarry point of interest.
Fixed incorrect interaction text on one of Veloka Tower’s walls.
Polished various markers and capture points for breakout events.
Borderlands:
The dolyak caravan traveling from the Lowlands camp to the Hills keep will now travel down the center of bridges, rather than along the railings.
Fixed an issue in which it was possible to teleport through the reinforced gate at Sunnyhill Tower.
Fixed some spawn inconsistencies between the Red World Borderlands and the Blue World and Green World Borderlands.

Cont’d.

Cont’d from above.

Apr. 15

Commanders: The Commander buff is now only displayed to friendly players.
Siege Weapons: Normalized the hit boxes of all siege gadgets.

Jun. 17

All players who qualified for rewards from the Spring 2014 Tournament have been given 100 additional WvW Tournament Claim Tickets.
World vs. World Spring 2014 Tournament placement achievements and associated tournament chests have been redistributed.
The Battle Historian’s Tournament Rewards tab has been re-enabled.

Jul. 29

Updated the names on past WvW tournament world-placement achievements.
The Toxic Unveiling Volley skill no longer shows up on an Arrow Cart’s skill bar until the skill has been unlocked.
Guild Arrow Cart skill-damage tooltips now properly reflect their superior-level damage.

Aug. 12

Updated the Commander’s Compendium inventory item to be account bound.
Vitality gained via the Applied Fortitude effect is no longer bolstered on lower level characters.

Plus a Tournament, if it wasn’t already listed.

You can poo-poo this entire list, if you so desire, but you can not claim nothing else was done.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Arcade Fire.4895:

So if adding new dungeons into the game and helping add to the already limited replay value of the game is too much work (dungeons/pvp/wvw). Could we at least have the rewards for dungeons/fractals increased?

This is something we have discussed many times and that I would like us to do.

Chris

But what are the odds of this actually being implemented? It’s something that you say you would like to happen but what can we, as players, actually do about getting it done? There have been countless threads pointing out the problems with it on these forums and on reddit. Players have gone out of their way to actually provide #’s.

There is seriously nothing else to do on this game that offers much replay value. The game is going to be turning two years old very soon. We’ve had the same set of dungeons since launch. Fractals was a nice touch and the few added levels were also good but it’s also very limited and VERY unrewarding for the amount of time and effort put in. It’s more or less not worth doing for most of us that are capable of running the higher tiers. Not to mention if you have to PUG..

When can we also expect to see skins being added into the game that either:

• A: Don’t look like kitten
  or
• B: Don’t require a gem store purchase. (The last set of skins added were the Ascended ones.)

I want to play your game. I’m not happy with the direction the game has been headed nor am I happy with the most recent things that have been heavily discussed in the last week. I feel like half the reason I play anymore is primarily due to the amount of time I’ve already invested into this game and also due to the people I play with.

I know I’m not alone in thinking this but when can we actually see content being added that isn’t a gem store purchase or a lackluster, challenge-less and boring LS nonsense? *I like GW2 lore but I could not for the life of me give a kitten enough to go back and replay it to grind out the “challenge mode” achieves that are just a joke. I think it’s a really kittenty method of getting people to go back and replay it.

I’ve been reading this thread and am interested in seeing the CDI’s finally return. But, I have a bit of a tangent: If CDI’s are returning, what about Dolyak Express? They were usually small, but I enjoyed that extra bit of info we got from them.

wookiee.4631:

I’ve been reading this thread and am interested in seeing the CDI’s finally return. But, I have a bit of a tangent: If CDI’s are returning, what about Dolyak Express? They were usually small, but I enjoyed that extra bit of info we got from them.

I’d love this too. A dolyak express I’d like is, questions directed toward the armor designers and artists.

Chris, regarding harsh and vocal people on forums criticising your game, take a look at this study:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2377892/Are-online-critics-actually-fans-disguise-Writers-negative-reviews-loyal-customers.html

Most people that lash out at you are not trolls from competitors or people trying to ruin GW2. They’re very serious people trying to use this harsh language to wake you up, because they feel they have ownership of your brand and must steer you away from making mistakes by any means necessary.

I must say I have been in that stage myself. I have been playing Ultima Online since the beginning, that’s what, 15+ years now? And I have been very harsh towards their devs, to the point that moderators started warning me and even temp banning me due to the things I said to the devs. I really felt devs were doing a terrible job and that I could do much better (ok maybe I could, since I’m now a game design veteran). I just felt that the devs were not listening, making mistake after mistake, even making mistakes I specifically warned about in advance that clearly blew up in their face afterwards. So my frustration got deeper and deeper and my tone harder and harder and seemingly less constructive (because all the constructive arguments were already made 10 times over the past years, and never listened to, so I felt there was no reason to repeat them).

Eventually one of the devs contacted me through private message and added me to ICQ. And we had a very long conversation. And the things we discussed were actually fixed or implemented over time. The game was so much better for everyone afterwards.

Chris, reading from your posts it seems like the biggest problem of CDI’s is time. Which translates into the amount of words you have to read, mostly.

Here are some suggestions for better organizing those threads. Key would be to heavily involve the community to tackle the chores in the initial phases of the CDI so you could focus on feedback from streamlined summaries.

• Get 1-2 MVPs per CDI. Regina mentioned DigitalKirin and Lilith Ajit, ask those kind of players for help and many would offer their assistance.
• Create several CDI’s per topic to keep things tight. Or clarify stages within the CDI.
• Create one for initial feedback that gets sorted & analyzed by mvps. Try to get similar wordings or buzzwords for topics and ideas that appear the most. This way you can easily gauge quantity.
• After you closed the first, open another one for reiteration, basically summaries from mvps and revised feedback from anybody else. based on all the other ideas that came after ones initial one. Here is where devs jump in more frequently. Players leave out information not essential to keep posts short.
• In the final thread you’d start with the issues you have found to be addressed best/first and possibly could explain why. So players get a feel of what areas might need improved but cannot due to time restraints or technical issues.

Thank you for taking your time, a CDI for creating great CDIs sounds like a great plan.

Do you think it would be possible to get written or numeric feedback from a wider player base ingame? With the forums only representing a small portion of the player base, do you think it’s a good enough average of opinion?

Have a great sunday!

Mike O Brien.4613:

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.

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. So when we attend a trade show or give an interview, we’re there to talk about what we’re getting ready to ship, not to speculate on what we might ship someday.

Don’t read that as meaning that we don’t want to talk with you about the longer-term roadmap. The intention of the CDI threads is to talk with you about the roadmap. We want to talk design philosophy with you and hear how you want to see the game evolve. When those discussions trigger development, we’ll work internally until we have something we’re proud of before we’ll announce it.

A lot of the questions I’ve seen posted this week are as simple as this: does ArenaNet have an agenda to never do something? That’s almost never the case, and if it is the case you deserve to know and we’ll make sure we get more clear. In general the simple truth is this: when we’re not currently working on something, it’s because we’re working on something else instead that we think is more important for the game and community.

Our developers post on these forums on a voluntary basis, and in addition to developers, we have a community team who can clarify and be the bridge between players and developers. They’re ready to engage you on these topics. And I know it’s hard for the community team to engage players across all the forums and sites where these questions are being discussed, so I’m going to support the team in consolidating and focusing as necessary, so that we can be clear to the community where you can go to get a response.

See you in-game,
Mike O’Brien

Honestly, this was a pretty cookie-cutter post.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

It was more a comment on the fact that it was imo a legitimate concern that was dismissed outright.

The CDI produced a number of good ideas. There was 8 months of development time and all that we got out of it was a switch from the word “soul bound” to “account bound” and a palette swap. That is something even a novice programmer could do over his lunch break on a Friday afternoon, yet it is all we are being given after 8 months of waiting.

Imo a more appropriate response would have been any of the following:

1. I’m not sure why this took so long I will find out and get back to you (and actually get back to him)

There is no response like this that would be satisfying or useful. The answer(s) are pretty obvious anyway:
-they were working on other, higher priority issues that have been deployed already and just got around to this
-they are working on other, higher priority issues that they won’t tell us about
-the feature was ready some time ago but they wanted to deploy it for WvW Season 3

I’ve never really believed the idea that game companies spend a great deal of effort to sabotage other games’ images.

What I think about trollers and ragers.. well. My main thought on the issue is that the majority of people are absolutely terrible at defining what’s kittening them off. They come in with vague stress, lash about any random topic on their mind that’s semi-related, and then poof.

People tend to build up vast libraries of associated anxieties, mental linkages, preconceptions, elaborate excuse frameworks, etc.

Some people.. I’ve tried this, seriously, it takes like a couple hours of soul-searching psychotherapy to get to the nub of the issue, and sometimes it’s really small.

I like the idea of splitting a CDI into ‘problems and ’solutions’ section. But, here’s my caveat. Suggest that people keep the ‘problems’ to short quick statements and let them run rampant on the solutions part of the equation.

So, can we have the devs communicate to us about issues outside of this topic now?

It seems like so much effort is wasted talking about communicating rather than actually communicating in the many topics that actually require attention.

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

wookiee.4631:

I’ve been reading this thread and am interested in seeing the CDI’s finally return. But, I have a bit of a tangent: If CDI’s are returning, what about Dolyak Express? They were usually small, but I enjoyed that extra bit of info we got from them.

The Community Team has been discussing the return of the Dolyak Express as another means of providing information to you all.

If others are not familiar with this, it’s essentially a regular “interview”/Q&A with the development team, with questions proposed by the community on the official forums.

The Dolyak Express was then translated into the other three languages we support so that the entire Guild Wars 2 community could benefit from the information. As you know, the CDI can only take place on the English forums, since our developers only speak English. One of the advantages of the Dolyak Express is that it reaches the German, French, and Spanish communities, which are all extremely important to us as well.

How good are the european fans at summarizing communications for each other?

Not that 90% of french, german, and spanish people don’t already speak english in some capacity.. I’m sure they’ll forgive our stupid north american monolinguistic ways.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

and honestly a lot of the team who care deeply about Arena and the community are to scared to post because let’s be honest forums in general can be quite toxic.

I’m sorry, Chris, but this is neither a good nor acceptable reason to avoid the forums.

I work right now as pizza delivery. It really, really sucks. You can be delivering in a snowstorm, be two minutes late, and the customer won’t care. And they will berate you, withhold a tip, and complain to your manager.

And we take it. And we apologize, and we give them a free pizza and try to make the delivery a better experience next time. Because that person is a customer, and no matter how kittenty they are to us, we need their business.

And it’s horrible. It’s a really demeaning and stressful job for sucky pay, and I hate it, but I accept it. Because that’s what it means to provide a service. That’s what it means to rely on a customer. I don’t get to hide my head in the sand. I don’t get to avoid the angry customer, I have to face them head on. I have to take the initial brunt if they’re upset. And I don’t get to retaliate, because my job is on the line.

And that’s for a lowly pizza delivery job. You guys are so much higher up on the food chain.

Doesn’t it strike you as a little odd that the lowly pizza guy is being held to far higher customer interaction standards than the large corporation that has a critically acclaimed video game?

Gene Archer.8560:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

and honestly a lot of the team who care deeply about Arena and the community are to scared to post because let’s be honest forums in general can be quite toxic.

I’m sorry, Chris, but this is neither a good nor acceptable reason to avoid the forums.

I work right now as pizza delivery. It really, really sucks. You can be delivering in a snowstorm, be two minutes late, and the customer won’t care. And they will berate you, withhold a tip, and complain to your manager.

And we take it. And we apologize, and we give them a free pizza and try to make the delivery a better experience next time. Because that person is a customer, and no matter how kittenty they are to us, we need their business.

And it’s horrible. It’s a really demeaning and stressful job for sucky pay, and I hate it, but I accept it. Because that’s what it means to provide a service. That’s what it means to rely on a customer. I don’t get to hide my head in the sand. I don’t get to avoid the angry customer, I have to face them head on. I have to take the initial brunt if they’re upset. And I don’t get to retaliate, because my job is on the line.

And that’s for a lowly pizza delivery job. You guys are so much higher up on the food chain.

Doesn’t it strike you as a little odd that the lowly pizza guy is being held to far higher customer interaction standards than the large corporation that has a critically acclaimed video game?

Sure.

But does that make the vitriolic and mean spirited posters get a pass on being like that?

Hey Chris/Regina, what are the possibilities of doing development path or track or something along those lings?

Like maybe you can do it for certain things that you consider to be important, but not name them. Like.

PvP Mechanic Path

25%

PvE piece of content

20%

Things like that. Give people an idea of what you all are working on, because I believe many people are a bit confused with what direction Anet wants to go with gw2.
\
Also thanks for talking again on the forums. Even if it isn’t revealing something I do truly appreciate it.

Well.

I have been wading through these forums, the reddit, and other sources trying to figure out just what the hell happened this week. Real life issues have kept me from devoting more than the barest attention to GW2, and it seems a lot’s gone down.

I’m not sure whether it’s good or bad, but this thread is definitely a step in the right direction. As soon as things calm down here on the home front, I’ll also try to provide some helpful feedback. It’s the least I can do for this game I’m so attached to.

And in the meantime…yeah, keep talking.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

And whilst we are on the subject. if you think everything mentioned in a CDI is going to be agreed upon and magically created overnight then your expectations are perhaps a little bit high.

Chris

About a month ago you had a stream of necroposts from neglected WvW players detailing issues from practically beta where feedback had been given, acknowledged by devs and nothing had happened.

You had people digging up your own words on purpose to highlight how much the feedback was ignored. Your response was to threaten to infract or ban people. That’s one hell of an environment to create before telling people ‘maybe feedback is not for you’ or ‘your expectations are too high’.

Given that the Commander CDI was 8 months ago, I think “overnight” might be a bit of a hyperbole. As for the balance and interface implementation cycle, I would expect that the majority of expectations on these forums are set by user experiences with other MMOs. Take from that what you will.

All I personally expect is that the CDI serves its purpose – to get the Devs and community on the same page – the response of the community to the results of the last CDIs (normally just a flat out request for another CDI) leaves me a little doubtful.

Take the finished CDIs, make a summary post like before (give it a day for people to point out anything significant missed out). PIN IT to the top of the respective forum, and announce any time any of those topics changes in that thread. Even if it is ‘we had a meeting today and we decided not to go ahead with x (because…)’ or ‘we are trying do address x and our initial approach is y’. That isn’t speaking “speculatively about future development”, it is speaking openly about current development!

Of course it won’t be perfect, Edge of the Mists managed to sneak level synced champ trains past its player testers, but at least there will be no more emergency weekends for Zach and Tyler.

You are so against promising things that might not materialise (excluding the WvW forums of old) that you are willing to waste significant amounts of time developing in a completely different direction from what the community wants or needs (e.g, the shift to passive play in PvP). Taking smaller steps between communication allows you to make more solid progress and makes it plain to the community that you are actually doing something (seriously, this is all you need to prevent the WvW forums from revolting again).

Oh and just to remind you: Elementalist was assigned a CDI towards the end of the last batch. Don’t forget that off your list, or at least let the class forum know if it’s cancelled.

Also, Ashen:

Some of those you mention are so terrible as to be almost unbelievable that they were intended as anything other than a joke or attempt at a troll.

…

Not implementing every half baked idea some random player could manage to put into words is not, “ignoring,” the player base.

You might want to check the references before you post, that “random player”/troll is Isaiah Cartwright, and that post is a summary of the most commonly requested things throughout the entire CDI.

Lilith Ajit.6173:

Sure.

But does that make the vitriolic and mean spirited posters get a pass on being like that?

That depends. Are you going to say the same for my job? Are you going to defend me when I face my angry customers?

I’m not saying it’s right. But it’s something that every business faces. Nobody gets to escape it. It comes with the job. And if ANet can’t handle that, then maybe they shouldn’t be in business.

so by asking anet ppl, do they even care about wvw community or GvG communty ? they havent said anything about that part of this game ( i cant take the commander color as something focus to help wvw/gvg community )… a little response or something it will be nice, i havent see a direct answer to that problem

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Cont’d from above.

Apr. 15

Commanders: The Commander buff is now only displayed to friendly players.
Siege Weapons: Normalized the hit boxes of all siege gadgets.

Jun. 17

All players who qualified for rewards from the Spring 2014 Tournament have been given 100 additional WvW Tournament Claim Tickets.
World vs. World Spring 2014 Tournament placement achievements and associated tournament chests have been redistributed.
The Battle Historian’s Tournament Rewards tab has been re-enabled.

Jul. 29

Updated the names on past WvW tournament world-placement achievements.
The Toxic Unveiling Volley skill no longer shows up on an Arrow Cart’s skill bar until the skill has been unlocked.
Guild Arrow Cart skill-damage tooltips now properly reflect their superior-level damage.

Aug. 12

Updated the Commander’s Compendium inventory item to be account bound.
Vitality gained via the Applied Fortitude effect is no longer bolstered on lower level characters.

Plus a Tournament, if it wasn’t already listed.

You can poo-poo this entire list, if you so desire, but you can not claim nothing else was done.

Those are all cosmetic changes…New map? Yeah it is karma train 24/h, if someone is trying to play WvW there then:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/wuv/wuv/Stop-Organized-Groups-in-EOTM/page/2
The only thing that was made for WvW was WXP that developed this gamemode to a bit higher lvl. But it isn’t equal to changes that pve got in those 2 years.

If it is going about Tournaments…It is only bringing pve farmers to queue borders and afk @ spawn + tons of lags.

Where are changes( check out CDi’s, forums, posts in WvW section ) to WvW, the REAL WvW. Not some bonuses for pve scrubs. And it isn’t only about WvW. Where are changes to game to give us something new? Something from previous CDi’s. Because all I see is adding new skins to gemstore / black lion scrap vendor, some pve stuff( like LS) and w8ing for money. U are disappointing me anet and i bet it isn’t only me that feel bad due to low support for other gamemodes than pve. I guess that u can be low at ppl or something like that, but is it really hard to add something for other gamemodes than pve and casual( u have a bunch of hardcore players after all)?

There have been many threads, and posts here, about maps and dungeons. It was mentioned elsewhere that it takes approximately a year for a map to go from concept to release. Have you considered, or willing to reconsider, the idea of a map/dungeon generator for players to use?

It may take you a year or two to develop, but then you could let the player base take over creating what they want and post it for review. Then all the dev team has to do is review/bug check it and insert it into the game. Players get what they want, devs reduce their workload, everyone wins.

Could there be a CDI about developing one?

Hey Chris, i know it’s kinda offtopic and everyone wants to discuss dungeons, FP and current hot topics, i still want to ask few questions that really affect many people that playing GW2.

So, first question is about Cyrillic support. Why it’s not there yet? I mean there is many people from Russia and CIS who plays and enjoy the game, but it’s really annoying to type in translate. It’s not helping for healthy communication in guilds. And anyway you added this button that hides foreign languages, so it would not affect people in map chat, who would not want to be affected.

Another question about Engineer’s hobosacks. This thread https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/engineer/Hobo-Sacks-A-Terrible-Fashion-Statement/first is 1 year old and since creation it’s always on top of subforum. It’s already have over 1k replies and i think it’s time to give it second red post with statement about situation. First red post said that you’re thinking about it, but since then you completely abandoned this thread and engineer players. I don’t think that in game that focused only on cosmetics it’s good to have such horrible visuals for popular profession.

I only have a simple, small request.
All this originated from some vaguely obscure (bad) news about SAB. We got the return of the CDIs and increased dev activity on the forums but will you please consider letting us know something about the future of SAB? Is there any chance it will come back in the near future (even without additions) or made permanent? Did your plans change after the sit in? Or.. Whatever, really.

We waited for almost a year, I sat two days in front of the box, I’d be happy with anything right now. Well, to tell the truth I’d be heartbroken to know it’s not coming back for another year if that’s the case, but that’d be better than being in the dark.

Please listen to the community!
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2edt1i/did_i_listen_to_a_different_interview/
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2ed3js/thank_you_for_finally_cutting_the_cord_arenanet/
They are really annoying

Thanks for taking the time to reply to the community.

For me, ive always enjoyed gw2 a lot, and its been a game since launch thats captivated me. I feel like after 2 years the game has gone in the wrong direction. The game was launched with so many facets of it that content could be delivered to. WvW, sPvP, dungeons, open world DE’s. Fractals and guild missions are other forms of content that seemed to come later.

However when we look at it, the route thats been taken is the living story route. The first time around, I felt the living story was just a means of delivering content(bi-weekly). Granted there was a specific narrative having taken place, yet none the less the content felt much more diverse. We saw dungeons(even if some were mistakenly temporary), revamped paths, fractals, guild missions, world bosses(twice). We also saw other parts of the game like WvW and sPvP getting content(not features) alongside the releases that was added.

This time around, I feel like the living story is both bi-weekly but also a very specific type of content we’re receiving. Its open world + living story instances which you feel will replace the permanent aspect that was lacking from season 1. The problem is that the new permanent content like the living story instances have no replayability. Most of them were well done but even then the achievements were not difficult like promised and the rewards were not that entising.

I’d also like to add that when we heard about permanent content, we figured that it wouldn’t be as narrow as the living story instances. There are definitely different types of content. Dungeons(dungeon path revamps), fractals, world bosses are some of those. Guild missoins could be another but I feel that part of the game has been abandoned mainly. Other forms of content that arn’t related to the story narrative exist, like maps and modes for other parts of the game(WvW, spvp).

Basically, what im trying to say is that the model for separatig content and features is good but the content we get doesn’t cover all the parts of the game(dungeons/fractals/spvp/wvw/guildmissions/etc).

Mike great to see the honesty and commitment to us here, so Ill be honest Go play with the boys they are way more important then us, we can wait till your Monday and if anyone thinks we can’t they don’t have kidds.

Woohho I see we have Regina popping in always a pleasure to see her on, Now if we get Gaile then what a party, be like the old days.

great impact Devs thanks for your time on the weekend now go relax looking like the next few weeks may become hectic in here with CDI and other communication

cheers Phabby

FourthVariety.5463:

gamescom is all about optimistic promises. Closed room sessions of games which later get canceled, even public demos of games which get canceled (Prey 2, anyone?). Not to speak of the graveyard of promised features. I can understand Mike O Brien’s reluctance to join this illustrious club, but hardly any publisher ever really suffered. Bethesda is still Bethesda, EA has an entire morgue of dead games in their basement and those failures are the least of those companies’ problems.

But in those cases, it wasn’t their only game with a development team. ANet is all about GW2 now. That’s it. While NCSOFT has a stable of games to fall back on when one stumbles, GW2 is it for ANet.

This is a “did you stop beating your wife” kind of question. If they are straightforward with us about plans and are forced to backtrack, we call them liers. If they don’t say anything until they are sure they have something, we berate them for not allowing us to have more feedback during development. If they don’t say anything at all, we complain that they don’t communicate.

They can’t win. So they choose option 3, hide in their castle by the sea while we crash again the walls like ocean waves from a storm. It does make your development life easier if you aren’t pestered by your customers every working moment. But the downside is usually a lot more disappointed customers because they didn’t get their 2 cent opinions included. It’s a “too many cooks” problem.

I just bought a spare character slot, number 9, on special, just in case there is a new class sometime … don’t waste my investment!

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Lheimroo.2947:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

MFoy.3284:

Mr. Whiteside –
I have a simple question for you. Can you (or anyone) point to anything that’s been actually implemented from a CDI?
-M

The wardrobe.

Permanent new content, the story journal, less grindy achievements, account wide dyes, etc, etc.

C’mon. If we’re going to have a chat we have to be more reasonable and less like ravening dogs just trying to score points on each other.

I just picked the most obvious one, as it had cropped up a lot during the “Horizontal Progression” CDI and we got it. Wonder of wonders. It’s also the one which lacks a downside to rant about.

Wardrobe made the price of precursors go up!

So there.

Gene Archer.8560:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

and honestly a lot of the team who care deeply about Arena and the community are to scared to post because let’s be honest forums in general can be quite toxic.

I’m sorry, Chris, but this is neither a good nor acceptable reason to avoid the forums.

I work right now as pizza delivery. It really, really sucks. You can be delivering in a snowstorm, be two minutes late, and the customer won’t care. And they will berate you, withhold a tip, and complain to your manager.

And we take it. And we apologize, and we give them a free pizza and try to make the delivery a better experience next time. Because that person is a customer, and no matter how kittenty they are to us, we need their business.

And it’s horrible. It’s a really demeaning and stressful job for sucky pay, and I hate it, but I accept it. Because that’s what it means to provide a service. That’s what it means to rely on a customer. I don’t get to hide my head in the sand. I don’t get to avoid the angry customer, I have to face them head on. I have to take the initial brunt if they’re upset. And I don’t get to retaliate, because my job is on the line.

And that’s for a lowly pizza delivery job. You guys are so much higher up on the food chain.

Doesn’t it strike you as a little odd that the lowly pizza guy is being held to far higher customer interaction standards than the large corporation that has a critically acclaimed video game?

Do you do all of that for your customers on your free time? Off the clock? Does the accountant or payroll person at your company’s corporate HQ drive out to the customer’s house to apologize?

I ask because dev posts on the forums are not part of their work-load. They do it on their own time. The forums are not part of their job. It is perfectly reasonable for someone who is not paid to interact with often irate or rude customers to opt to not volunteer their free time to do so.

You took a customer service job, and work directly with customers. Developers are not customer service reps any more than are assembly workers at a Nike factory.