But are they limited in expressing opinions or statements of liking?
Forum: “I have X idea on how to Y.”
Dev: “Oh, I like that idea. We’ll look into it.”
The acknowledgement is a simple way to show us that our ideas are getting heard.
I can clearly remember that (edit: oops wrong name) Chris Whiteside did appreciate certain ideas a couple of times during the horizontal progression CDI. (which had an impact on the game as it is now, as I linked earlier)
The thing is… he seems to be one of the few who has time to do this (which is/was often after work, so this tells A LOT about him as a person as well as his motivation to keep communication running). I guess we can’t/shouldn’t expect this from the developers since they have a great game to work on.
It’s a tough nut to crack, I think it would be best to dedicate specific people to communication, and I mean not someone who works on the game. It has to be someone who has a direct line to the team which works on specific things.
If I had the money I would probably hire someone for each sub-forum (sPvP, WvW, Dungeons,…) who commutes between dev-workplace and forum, who makes notes and asks a few questions without hindering the devs from doing their work. Someone who is as passionate about the sub as the players who play that specific content all the time. And whose main job is to talk to us in a Gaile Grey-frequency.
Devs are limited in what they’re allowed to talk about, especially on something in development.
But are they limited in expressing opinions or statements of liking?
Forum: “I have X idea on how to Y.”
Dev: “Oh, I like that idea. We’ll look into it.”
Forum: “X is just the answer we’re looking for!”
Dev: “I’ll hand that forward to the dev team. Thanks!”
The acknowledgement is a simple way to show us that our ideas are getting heard. It might hedge down some of the repeat threads, too. =P
It could even been a code word. >.>
“Like” = I’ll forward to the team
“Really like” = That might be something we’re already working on!
See I’d be fine with this. But you know as soon as Anet says they like it, a percentage of people, no one knows how large, will believe it’s being implemented. Anet liked it, why wouldn’t they?
thinking of it, maybe it would be a good idea to vote for representatives for each sub-forum (forum-users) who then collect questions for the devs which would be adressed once each month or so.
These representatives each would open a reddit-thread to collect questions, up- and downvotes could help them to filter out popular questions while they still should skim through the thread to find interesting ones that haven’t been upvoted as well.
just an idea, this would at least make it easier for the devs to find out what is important for us instead of having to spend a lot of time in the forums.
By the way you order Reddit for it to be linear. Honestly I would like to be able to use something like Reddit for a CDI from a tech standpoint.
Chris
You could create a subreddit for this, couldn’t you? Unless you feel you need to be outside the influence or association with outside parties for reasons of metrics or IP or sovereignty.
Such mechanics could be more streamlined and useful than a tradition forum.
I know it’s super-tough to balance this out with the all the work you have to do, but to players, the most valuable action you (and anyone at ArenaNet) have taken is to simply be here and be part of the discussions. It’s messy and practically unquantifiable, but it’s also vital and magical.
I’d love to see a Anet AMA again, with a lot of direct answers. Could go a long way in times like these when the community isn’t happy about the communication imho. It would take one day (or two) of every devs time to repair Anets image.
Intresting. in that reddit link someone wrote two years ago:
I came from future and can say main concerns after launch will be lack on pvp modes/conquest being only and boring, normal dungeons being to easy hard dungeons being to hard without and intensive to run it beacuse you get noting with it and asking to balance game around www witch is stupidest thing ever because www dont matter at all.
as you can see by the already +1000 replies and 40k views in just 5 days, gamers are craving for some information about the direction GW2 is taking.
Im glad you took the time to write something in the forums, to us, the minority that actually cares enough about the game.
I stopped playing GW2 last week, and i wont return until you guys deliver what was promised.
I really love Guild Wars, and i know its no easy task to develop such a game and constantly finding ways to please both greeks and trojans, but im sorry to let you know that GW2 should be sailing top ranks instead of being just whispers on the wind.
I am sure that ANet can find more help in these forums than you can imagine. We are here and ready to help.
Looking forward to play this game again.
Antonio.
“When in doubt, choose change.” Leung
“All great changes are preceded by chaos.” Chopra
‘No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world’ Robin Williams
I stopped playing GW2 last week, and i wont return until you guys deliver what was promised.
Normally I stop reading here, having us users stating that “things were promised” is the first step of devs ignoring us. For the record: nothing was promised as everything is subject to change.
Even if you seem to acknowledge the difficulty of finding something useful in these forums, you should consider: thousands of player replies with tens of thousands of different opinions.
as you can see by the already +1000 replies and 40k views in just 5 days, gamers are craving for some information about the direction GW2 is taking.
Im glad you took the time to write something in the forums, to us, the minority that actually cares enough about the game.
I stopped playing GW2 last week, and i wont return until you guys deliver what was promised.
I really love Guild Wars, and i know its no easy task to develop such a game and constantly finding ways to please both greeks and trojans, but im sorry to let you know that GW2 should be sailing top ranks instead of being just whispers on the wind.
I am sure that ANet can find more help in these forums than you can imagine. We are here and ready to help.
Looking forward to play this game again.
Antonio.
That’s called cutting off your nose to spite your face. I’ve been to other MMOs and I don’t think there’s a better one out there, whether we received what was “promised” or not.
as you can see by the already +1000 replies and 40k views in just 5 days, gamers are craving for some information about the direction GW2 is taking.
Im glad you took the time to write something in the forums, to us, the minority that actually cares enough about the game.
I stopped playing GW2 last week, and i wont return until you guys deliver what was promised.
I really love Guild Wars, and i know its no easy task to develop such a game and constantly finding ways to please both greeks and trojans, but im sorry to let you know that GW2 should be sailing top ranks instead of being just whispers on the wind.
I am sure that ANet can find more help in these forums than you can imagine. We are here and ready to help.
Looking forward to play this game again.
Antonio.
That’s called cutting off your nose to spite your face. I’ve been to other MMOs and I don’t think there’s a better one out there, whether we received what was “promised” or not.
Not playing isn’t going to get you what you want.
I think you are probably just burned out and now have to play the waiting game.. which is what has happened to the millions that used to play this game…
Just play another game in the mean time lol… the feature pack isn’t exactly bringing any game changing new content, which is what a lot of players who are taking a break are looking for.. so it looks you are going to be waiting for some time..
I stopped playing GW2 last week, and i wont return until you guys deliver what was promised.
Normally I stop reading here, having us users stating that “things were promised” is the first step of devs ignoring us. For the record: nothing was promised as everything is subject to change.
Even if you seem to acknowledge the difficulty of finding something useful in these forums, you should consider: thousands of player replies with tens of thousands of different opinions.
doesnt really matter if he was technically promised or not, what matters is he isnt satisfied, and thus does not want to play anymore. Many people who have left didnt think they were promised something, they just left because the game didnt have enough new or interesting things to do.
Debating a promise or not is irrelevant, the lack of content they expected/wanted is why they left, promised or not.
keep telling people as they walk out of your business you promised them nothing, it will be similarly pointless.
I stopped playing GW2 last week, and i wont return until you guys deliver what was promised.
Normally I stop reading here, having us users stating that “things were promised” is the first step of devs ignoring us. For the record: nothing was promised as everything is subject to change.
Even if you seem to acknowledge the difficulty of finding something useful in these forums, you should consider: thousands of player replies with tens of thousands of different opinions.
doesnt really matter if he was technically promised or not, what matters is he isnt satisfied, and thus does not want to play anymore. Many people who have left didnt think they were promised something, they just left because the game didnt have enough new or interesting things to do.
Debating a promise or not is irrelevant, the lack of content they expected/wanted is why they left, promised or not.
keep telling people as they walk out of your business you promised them nothing, it will be similarly pointless.
I don’t think it’s pointless. Being disappointed is very very different from being lied to. It’s not a technical point. It’s a very important point.
One of them implies some sort of intentional misleading or malice. You may not think that’s important. I do.
I ran a store for a long time. If a customer was disappointed, that happened sometimes. If a customer said I lied to them (which didn’t happen), that was a completely different story.
Sure from the point of view of just looking at whether someone stays or goes, that’s a very important distinction. From the point of view of new people coming in and see the words like promise and lie…it’s simply unfair.
I don’t think it’s pointless. Being disappointed is very very different from being lied to. It’s not a technical point. It’s a very important point.
One of them implies some sort of intentional misleading or malice. You may not think that’s important. I do.
I ran a store for a long time. If a customer was disappointed, that happened sometimes. If a customer said I lied to them (which didn’t happen), that was a completely different story.
Sure from the point of view of just looking at whether someone stays or goes, that’s a very important distinction. From the point of view of new people coming in and see the words like promise and lie…it’s simply unfair.
You are correct but at the end of the day the point is moot because he’s still leaving as are many people. Everyone I know that came into the game at the same time I did, with the exception of my wife are now gone. Bored and fed up with looking for answers that aren’t coming. As much as they want to continue to play ostrich regarding their long term plans, the cost of doing so could well be insurmountable in my opinion. It’s likely preventing many from pouring money into the game they probably would if they knew something they were excited about was coming. I know I have stopped purchasing because frankly I don’t like their current policy and that’s the only way I know how to bring it to their attention.
Vini, Vidi, Vici, Viridis…I came, I saw, I conquered…I got a green??
I don’t think it’s pointless. Being disappointed is very very different from being lied to. It’s not a technical point. It’s a very important point.
One of them implies some sort of intentional misleading or malice. You may not think that’s important. I do.
I ran a store for a long time. If a customer was disappointed, that happened sometimes. If a customer said I lied to them (which didn’t happen), that was a completely different story.
Sure from the point of view of just looking at whether someone stays or goes, that’s a very important distinction. From the point of view of new people coming in and see the words like promise and lie…it’s simply unfair.
You are correct but at the end of the day the point is moot because he’s still leaving as are many people. Everyone I know that came into the game at the same time I did, with the exception of my wife are now gone. Bored and fed up with looking for answers that aren’t coming. As much as they want to continue to play ostrich regarding their long term plans, the cost of doing so could well be insurmountable in my opinion. It’s likely preventing many from pouring money into the game they probably would if they knew something they were excited about was coming. I know I have stopped purchasing because frankly I don’t like their current policy and that’s the only way I know how to bring it to their attention.
It’s always easy to say a point is moot when you’re not the one people are calling a liar. Maybe I’m more sensitive to that than most people but I don’t think I’d be happy callling someone a liar without having evidence they were intending to deceive.
People can make mistakes, people can be misunderstood, people can say stuff with great intentions that later turns out to be wrong….but it doesn’t make them liars.
It’s different to say I’m bored with the game, and there were things I thought were coming out that never made it. It’s another to say you promised me something.
As long as people are going to keep using these words, I’m going to protest the use of them. The end result may be the same, but the end result isn’t the only important thing.
Don’t get me wrong I agree with what you’re saying and I don’t like that behavior either but my point was the result is the same and that is what they aren’t addressing. It is somewhat suspect that they won’t give a generic roadmap and say “for now that’s all the information you’re going to get”, to be honest the only reason I see for not doing that would be that they have far less in the pipeline that many would expect at this time. Now that could really hurt your business long term.
Vini, Vidi, Vici, Viridis…I came, I saw, I conquered…I got a green??
Don’t get me wrong I agree with what you’re saying and I don’t like that behavior either but my point was the result is the same and that is what they aren’t addressing. It is somewhat suspect that they won’t give a generic roadmap and say “for now that’s all the information you’re going to get”, to be honest the only reason I see for not doing that would be that they have far less in the pipeline that many would expect at this time. Now that could really hurt your business long term.
But they’re directly saying they don’t want to say, not because they don’t have stuff in the pipeline, but because they’re not going to falsely raise hopes, in case some of the stuff in the pipeline gets changed and or canceled. That’s the reason Anet gave and it’s different from what you’re saying is the only reason.
It’s entirely possible they’re in a once bitten, twice shy reaction.
The preview info released today is exactly sort of thing is what I was talking about early with “if you tell this stuff to us early, we can tell you it’s a bad idea before you waste time trying to implement it.”
NO to profession loot. I want my Thief to have just as much chance of getting Great Swords and Silk in my drops as any other class. This is just a straight up bad idea, and will make me want to play my favorite characters less because the drops they will get are less desirable. How much work could the players have saved you if you’d announced you were considering this before doing any significant work on implementing it?
“If you spent as much time working on [some task] as
you spend complaining about it on the forums, you’d be
done by now.”
Don’t get me wrong I agree with what you’re saying and I don’t like that behavior either but my point was the result is the same and that is what they aren’t addressing. It is somewhat suspect that they won’t give a generic roadmap and say “for now that’s all the information you’re going to get”, to be honest the only reason I see for not doing that would be that they have far less in the pipeline that many would expect at this time. Now that could really hurt your business long term.
But they’re directly saying they don’t want to say, not because they don’t have stuff in the pipeline, but because they’re not going to falsely raise hopes, in case some of the stuff in the pipeline gets changed and or canceled. That’s the reason Anet gave and it’s different from what you’re saying is the only reason.
It’s entirely possible they’re in a once bitten, twice shy reaction.
but think of the lie you might be telling, and you get to the real heart of why the consumer left.
lets say you run a video game shop,
and someone says, i want super mario 5 the day it comes out, will you have it the same day? and you say yes.
then something happens and you dont have it
he is mad, he calls you a liar, but you know why he is really mad?
because he wanted super mario 5, and you dont have it.
he would have left your store before, and found some other store that would have it.
he is mad because he didnt get what he wanted, he is kittened off, mostly because he wasted his time, and he isnt getting what he wanted.
your statement kept the customer who was going to leave, that it was untrue may make him leave now, but he was gonna leave anyway. MOST ESPECIALLY he will leave if when he asks you the question you directly ignore him saying nothing.
Don’t get me wrong I agree with what you’re saying and I don’t like that behavior either but my point was the result is the same and that is what they aren’t addressing. It is somewhat suspect that they won’t give a generic roadmap and say “for now that’s all the information you’re going to get”, to be honest the only reason I see for not doing that would be that they have far less in the pipeline that many would expect at this time. Now that could really hurt your business long term.
But they’re directly saying they don’t want to say, not because they don’t have stuff in the pipeline, but because they’re not going to falsely raise hopes, in case some of the stuff in the pipeline gets changed and or canceled. That’s the reason Anet gave and it’s different from what you’re saying is the only reason.
It’s entirely possible they’re in a once bitten, twice shy reaction.
but think of the lie you might be telling, and you get to the real heart of why the consumer left.
lets say you run a video game shop,
and someone says, i want super mario 5 the day it comes out, will you have it the same day? and you say yes.
then something happens and you dont have it
he is mad, he calls you a liar, but you know why he is really mad?
because he wanted super mario 5, and you dont have it.
he would have left your store before, and found some other store that would have it.
he is mad because he didnt get what he wanted, he is kittened off, mostly because he wasted his time, and he isnt getting what he wanted.
your statement kept the customer who was going to leave, that it was untrue may make him leave now, but he was gonna leave anyway. MOST ESPECIALLY he will leave if when he asks you the question you directly ignore him saying nothing.
We’re dangerously off topic here, so this is my last post on this. Yes, I think it’s wrong to call someone a liar, and I’ll always think it’s wrong, if they in fact may not have lied. If you’re okay with that, that’s fine. I’m not okay with it, and I don’t think anyone should be okay with it.
I can’t tell you what’s right and wrong for you. But this is definitely wrong to me.
Don’t get me wrong I agree with what you’re saying and I don’t like that behavior either but my point was the result is the same and that is what they aren’t addressing. It is somewhat suspect that they won’t give a generic roadmap and say “for now that’s all the information you’re going to get”, to be honest the only reason I see for not doing that would be that they have far less in the pipeline that many would expect at this time. Now that could really hurt your business long term.
But they’re directly saying they don’t want to say, not because they don’t have stuff in the pipeline, but because they’re not going to falsely raise hopes, in case some of the stuff in the pipeline gets changed and or canceled. That’s the reason Anet gave and it’s different from what you’re saying is the only reason.
It’s entirely possible they’re in a once bitten, twice shy reaction.
but think of the lie you might be telling, and you get to the real heart of why the consumer left.
lets say you run a video game shop,
and someone says, i want super mario 5 the day it comes out, will you have it the same day? and you say yes.
then something happens and you dont have it
he is mad, he calls you a liar, but you know why he is really mad?
because he wanted super mario 5, and you dont have it.
he would have left your store before, and found some other store that would have it.
he is mad because he didnt get what he wanted, he is kittened off, mostly because he wasted his time, and he isnt getting what he wanted.
your statement kept the customer who was going to leave, that it was untrue may make him leave now, but he was gonna leave anyway. MOST ESPECIALLY he will leave if when he asks you the question you directly ignore him saying nothing.
We’re dangerously off topic here, so this is my last post on this. Yes, I think it’s wrong to call someone a liar, and I’ll always think it’s wrong, if they in fact may not have lied. If you’re okay with that, that’s fine. I’m not okay with it, and I don’t think anyone should be okay with it.
I can’t tell you what’s right and wrong for you. But this is definitely wrong to me.
if you make it about calling people liars, its off topic, if you make it about what type of communication is necessary to do business it matters.
you as a store owner told people what day you were supposed to get the item, did you ever think it was a better idea to not allow preorders, or tell people the ship dates? Do you think it would be a good idea to tell them, i cant tell you about any upcoming games, come check each week?
when people yell at you because something out of your control happens, you get mad, you feel its unfair, but you dont let it stop you from making the right decsion, to tell your customers, to the best of your ability, what to expect.
if you let the fear of being wrong cripple your ability to communicate, nothing good comes from it.
I think it’s really time to rethink the policy (is there really a need to do a CDI to discuss this?) and to get more transparent. I’ve never seen so many people disappointed about this game…
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.
For something that is as fast-moving as a CDI, where a high volume of text is produced in a short period of time, it would be quite difficult for them. This is the case specially because there may be varying levels of English ability and comfort with the language. Mistranslations could happen. This is why the CDI format is ideal just for the English-speaking community, but a good opportunity for the development team to interact nevertheless.
I’ve made several topics about communication with the non-English speaking community, so I want to add something to this comment.
Dolyak Express is a very good idea, but I honestly think you can improve the way you do it. The first and biggest problem of Dolyak Express is -according to the feedbacks from the french forum- too many vague answers.
Many players think Dolyaks Express are useless because the dev team only says “We can’t speak about it” or “Maybe” or “in near future” or “Soon”. I understand that you can’t talk about project under development, but don’t ask questions about it then. You could maybe select the questions about topics you’re ready to speak about.
The second (and smaller) problem is the duration of the process. Sometimes it takes weeks to translate and post the answers. I don’t know how you’re doing it, but translating few questions isn’t so long for a normal person, even if the devs are busy.
Moreover, CDI isn’t the only “English-only” means of communication… What about PoI and Ready up ? It still bothers me when I have to go on reddit to find a summary of the last RU…
On a more general note, I think dev should learn to say “no, we aren’t focusing on this issue for now” or “it’s a minor issue for us, we think we have more important things to do, like XX or YY”. Please, stop answering with " Soon" or “It’s something that is absolutley on our radar” or things like that. It give false hope to players( omg they know ! it will be fixed soon for sure) and then, they’re disappointed if nothing is done quickly.
My prime example for this is the problem with engineer and legendaries (here). Colin said, a year and a half ago, “please post your ideas”. BOUM : about 1500 comments on 2 threads. And nothing done so far. Disappointment…
I’m confused, wasn’t the next CDI supposed to be about communication?! O_o Well I guess I wouldn’t have had a lot to say anyway except: please rethink the policy.
NO to profession loot. I want my Thief to have just as much chance of getting Great Swords and Silk in my drops as any other class. This is just a straight up bad idea, and will make me want to play my favorite characters less because the drops they will get are less desirable. How much work could the players have saved you if you’d announced you were considering this before doing any significant work on implementing it?
I disagree with you. Most people play more casually and don’t dominate the Trading Post, and prefer loot that is relevant to their characters. Your wording of “you devs are wrong, all players think that” makes it even more difficult to consider your position.
However, I hope they clarify that this change applies to equipment and not to crafting mats (that could make a huge gold difference).
And I hope they fix the silk price, so being a salvaging elementalist isn’t more lucrative than being a salvaging thief.
And I hope for world peace.
It will be broken down into time boxed discussion sections such as Guild vs. Guild, Guild Activities, Managing Guilds, Guild Content etc.
I will update when I have more details on when we start. I am very much looking forward to it.
Chris
Me too!!! Great first choice of topic! Guess you guys/gals are listening! Alliance falls in managing guilds category maybe?! So excited!! I’ve posted on 2 topics because I’m so excited!!!!!!!!!!! YES!!!!!!! (Even if it doesn’t go through still pumped to even be able to bring it up)
As to the Dolyak Express, my problem with it was that I could find the Q section, but not the A. I know there were answers posted once a number of questions existed but I did not see them. Were the Express to return, I’d want a clearly labeled Answers sticky to go with the Questions one.
As to the Dolyak Express, my problem with it was that I could find the Q section, but not the A. I know there were answers posted once a number of questions existed but I did not see them. Were the Express to return, I’d want a clearly labeled Answers sticky to go with the Questions one.
The answers were always in the same thread. Since the forum always updates threads that have posts in them, you just had to watch the thread to see if it was updated. They also, usually, gave a date indicating when the answers would arrive (though the answers might have missed said date by a few days).
Still, I suppose it would not hurt to make two different threads, or at least, update/change the title of the thread. =)
I’m confused, wasn’t the next CDI supposed to be about communication?! O_o Well I guess I wouldn’t have had a lot to say anyway except: please rethink the policy.
Well, that was suggested (by Chris, even, if I am not mistaken) but then some people provided feedback that there had already been a CDI on the format of CDIs, and some people thought that a Communication CDI amounted to the same thing. I don’t think it’s the same thing at all, but I get where they’re coming from.
I think it’s just as well. Like you, Marcus, I think that unless they are willing to consider changing their gag order policy, there really isn’t much to discuss. And considering the fact that Mike O Brien started this thread by reiterating their gag order policy and hasn’t responded to a single post since then, they don’t appear to be willing to discuss it.
It will be broken down into time boxed discussion sections such as Guild vs. Guild, Guild Activities, Managing Guilds, Guild Content etc.
I will update when I have more details on when we start. I am very much looking forward to it.
I have absolutely no interest in any changes being made to guilds, except maybe for current guild content to be opened up to players who aren’t in guilds. When does the next CDI topic start so we can get to work with making this game better?
I disagree with you. Most people play more casually and don’t dominate the Trading Post, and prefer loot that is relevant to their characters. Your wording of “you devs are wrong, all players think that” makes it even more difficult to consider your position.
However, I hope they clarify that this change applies to equipment and not to crafting mats (that could make a huge gold difference).
And I hope they fix the silk price, so being a salvaging elementalist isn’t more lucrative than being a salvaging thief.
And I hope for world peace.
Equipment IS crafting mats, just in a different form. From level 1-80, there’s no need to upgrade equipment more than casually, and once you hit 80 chances are you won’t be wearing drops. Equipment that drops isn’t for wearing, it’s for salvaging into mats. Besides, I have a lot of alts, if I’m on my Engineer and a piece of heavy armor drops, maybe my Warrior or Guardian can use it. I don’t want the drops I get to EVER be limited by the class I’m playing at the time.
“If you spent as much time working on [some task] as
you spend complaining about it on the forums, you’d be
done by now.”
You should probably read through the entire thread. Every one of your points as been covered and for want of a better term is old feedback now.
Thanks for taking the time to post however.
Chris
You’ve assumed I haven’t read through the thread. You should probably not assume what your users have or have not done. It comes across as condescending when you assume what I have or have not done.
I’m sure my points have been covered. The reason for that is that the points are the problem. They are pervasively the problem. Maybe instead of waving me away by assuming I didn’t read the thread, you can say, “Others have posted these concerns, and hearing it echoed multiple times makes it clear that this is a problem you perceive. I (do/do not) share your opinion, but I’m glad you were willing to share it. Thank you for posting it!”
I chose to echo some of the criticism in this thread because I really want you and others to understand that this is a huge problem. Your response did not read like someone who understands this is a problem. Your response reads like someone who doesn’t care that this is a problem and will continue to exacerbate the problem.
I took the time to post because I CARE about Guild Wars as a franchise. But I can’t help but feel like my feedback is completely unwanted now. That is the problem.
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
This isnt communicating, this is saying nothing again, like always.
So how is letting SAB be permanent content compare to temp “speculative” same goes for are you actually working on broken/not finished parts of the game?
You literally didnt address the issues and basically said “we dont want to talk about them”.
They are communicating, just not what you want to hear. That is 2 different things.
Loren Ipsum would have come across as more compelling than Colin’s political speak. There is a flavor of comedy in Colin’s statement. He’s come out and “communicated” with us without actually communicating. The playerbase wants answers, not form replies.
Don’t get me wrong I agree with what you’re saying and I don’t like that behavior either but my point was the result is the same and that is what they aren’t addressing. It is somewhat suspect that they won’t give a generic roadmap and say “for now that’s all the information you’re going to get”, to be honest the only reason I see for not doing that would be that they have far less in the pipeline that many would expect at this time. Now that could really hurt your business long term.
But they’re directly saying they don’t want to say, not because they don’t have stuff in the pipeline, but because they’re not going to falsely raise hopes, in case some of the stuff in the pipeline gets changed and or canceled. That’s the reason Anet gave and it’s different from what you’re saying is the only reason.
It’s entirely possible they’re in a once bitten, twice shy reaction.
but think of the lie you might be telling, and you get to the real heart of why the consumer left.
lets say you run a video game shop,
and someone says, i want super mario 5 the day it comes out, will you have it the same day? and you say yes.
then something happens and you dont have it
he is mad, he calls you a liar, but you know why he is really mad?
because he wanted super mario 5, and you dont have it.
he would have left your store before, and found some other store that would have it.
he is mad because he didnt get what he wanted, he is kittened off, mostly because he wasted his time, and he isnt getting what he wanted.
your statement kept the customer who was going to leave, that it was untrue may make him leave now, but he was gonna leave anyway. MOST ESPECIALLY he will leave if when he asks you the question you directly ignore him saying nothing.
We’re dangerously off topic here, so this is my last post on this. Yes, I think it’s wrong to call someone a liar, and I’ll always think it’s wrong, if they in fact may not have lied. If you’re okay with that, that’s fine. I’m not okay with it, and I don’t think anyone should be okay with it.
I can’t tell you what’s right and wrong for you. But this is definitely wrong to me.
if you make it about calling people liars, its off topic, if you make it about what type of communication is necessary to do business it matters.
you as a store owner told people what day you were supposed to get the item, did you ever think it was a better idea to not allow preorders, or tell people the ship dates? Do you think it would be a good idea to tell them, i cant tell you about any upcoming games, come check each week?
when people yell at you because something out of your control happens, you get mad, you feel its unfair, but you dont let it stop you from making the right decsion, to tell your customers, to the best of your ability, what to expect.
if you let the fear of being wrong cripple your ability to communicate, nothing good comes from it.
I’m not saying Anet shouldn’t communicate and I’ve never said they shouldn’t. I’m saying I can see why they’re gunshy.
The store analogy isn’t really the issue here. Because if a customer says something in the store, loudly even, he only touches whoever can hear him at the moment. If he had an email addy for all my customers and emailed them…it’s how the company looks on the forums.
Now I personally believe the silence is a worse look than being called a liar, but that doesn’t mean people should be able to slander anyone, including a company without proof. And that is what it is…slander. An unsubstantiated and unprovable negative comment said publicly.
If someone says, I’m disappointed because I expected X based on this blogpost, it’s very different than saying Anet lies. It’s not acceptable to me. And it does hamper communication. Because if there are people who repeat it enough and people accept it, it won’t matter what Anet says.
Any more Racial Features(like Horns for Charr, Tattoos for norn, ears for asuras etc) comming soon/in the future? A simple “Yes” or “No” would totally make my day on this question…
I stopped playing GW2 last week, and i wont return until you guys deliver what was promised.
Normally I stop reading here, having us users stating that “things were promised” is the first step of devs ignoring us. For the record: nothing was promised as everything is subject to change.
Even if you seem to acknowledge the difficulty of finding something useful in these forums, you should consider: thousands of player replies with tens of thousands of different opinions.
doesnt really matter if he was technically promised or not, what matters is he isnt satisfied, and thus does not want to play anymore. Many people who have left didnt think they were promised something, they just left because the game didnt have enough new or interesting things to do.
Debating a promise or not is irrelevant, the lack of content they expected/wanted is why they left, promised or not.
keep telling people as they walk out of your business you promised them nothing, it will be similarly pointless.
I’m really sorry and i don’t want to be hammering down the same old subject, but the fact is “we”, or “i” if no one else wants to support my view, were promised something.
That “something” took shape through a number of media interventions that happened pre launch: interviews, developer diaries (i was so all over the amazing anet blog) and most important the ArenaNet manifesto that took by assault all gaming media websites all over the world.
Sure, you can have different interpretations of what was said at the time, but you cant say that GW2 is the game that ANet painted with those interventions and i sure can say with full heart, GW2 did not took the best out of GW1….and i am really sure about that one.
Now, people dont have to agree with my views on any subject or support them. I did stated that “i” was leaving until ANet delivered what was promised. But am i the only fish in this barrel? I am not.
If i didnt cared about the game i would not have played it for almost 2 years, when game content barely survives 6 month gameplay, and would not keep returning to the forums to see if something is changing the winds of Tyria.
I really hope Mr. Mike intervention is the start of something new.
“When in doubt, choose change.” Leung
“All great changes are preceded by chaos.” Chopra
‘No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world’ Robin Williams
It will be broken down into time boxed discussion sections such as Guild vs. Guild, Guild Activities, Managing Guilds, Guild Content etc.
I will update when I have more details on when we start. I am very much looking forward to it.
Chris
Me too!!! Great first choice of topic! Guess you guys/gals are listening! Alliance falls in managing guilds category maybe?! So excited!! I’ve posted on 2 topics because I’m so excited!!!!!!!!!!! YES!!!!!!! (Even if it doesn’t go through still pumped to even be able to bring it up)
Couldnt agree more with you. No better topic could had been chosen. Looking forward to it also.
“When in doubt, choose change.” Leung
“All great changes are preceded by chaos.” Chopra
‘No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world’ Robin Williams
I stopped playing GW2 last week, and i wont return until you guys deliver what was promised.
Normally I stop reading here, having us users stating that “things were promised” is the first step of devs ignoring us. For the record: nothing was promised as everything is subject to change.
Even if you seem to acknowledge the difficulty of finding something useful in these forums, you should consider: thousands of player replies with tens of thousands of different opinions.
doesnt really matter if he was technically promised or not, what matters is he isnt satisfied, and thus does not want to play anymore. Many people who have left didnt think they were promised something, they just left because the game didnt have enough new or interesting things to do.
Debating a promise or not is irrelevant, the lack of content they expected/wanted is why they left, promised or not.
keep telling people as they walk out of your business you promised them nothing, it will be similarly pointless.
I’m really sorry and i don’t want to be hammering down the same old subject, but the fact is “we”, or “i” if no one else wants to support my view, were promised something.
That “something” took shape through a number of media interventions that happened pre launch: interviews, developer diaries (i was so all over the amazing anet blog) and most important the ArenaNet manifesto that took by assault all gaming media websites all over the world.
Sure, you can have different interpretations of what was said at the time, but you cant say that GW2 is the game that ANet painted with those interventions and i sure can say with full heart, GW2 did not took the best out of GW1….and i am really sure about that one.
Now, people dont have to agree with my views on any subject or support them. I did stated that “i” was leaving until ANet delivered what was promised. But am i the only fish in this barrel? I am not.
If i didnt cared about the game i would not have played it for almost 2 years, when game content barely survives 6 month gameplay, and would not keep returning to the forums to see if something is changing the winds of Tyria.
I really hope Mr. Mike intervention is the start of something new.
An intention to delivery something isn’t the same thing as a promise of delivering it, no matter how many times you repeat it. And you’re not the only one on your boat. But I’m not the only one in my boat either.
And you have zero evidence, as in none, that if Anet would have “kept” their promise to you, they might not have less players than they do today.
Saying other people feel as you do isn’t a guarantee that what you’re saying is right or even true. I understand you feel it is.
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
Thanks for the response. Some people are upset that the game has not substantially expanded in the 2 years it’s been out. One can’t help but compare them to other games – f2p and p2p games that add new zones, dungeons, instances, large player content, new battlegrounds. For instance, Wildstar has added more content in the few months it’s been out than you have in 2 years. Something’s wrong. Players have been telling you something is wrong since you announced the new vision in November 2013. Fact is, you haven’t listened until it was too late. My main gripe with the direction of this game is your company’s utter refusal to acknowledge MMO standards. You can’t in good conscience say the Living Story compares to the original content and even your competition. The Living Story is one quest every two weeks. One quest.
You want to do whats’ the most entertaining for the community? Come to the forums and post a poll. Be prepared to implement things you may not want, but the community does. Many in the community want new instances – raids, dungeons, etc. – that doesn’t they have to be like WoW or whatever. You need to add that.
Many in the community aren’t pining for new instances, ArenaNet. Please don’t feel you need to add that. Thanks from a community member. =)
And furthermore, it’s not just new instances I’m clamoring. I’d rather have new zones and bosses/event in them. I’d rather have an expansion of the Orders and their storylines. Just because someone says they want new instances doesn’t mean the want WoW-style raids. I want more instances and zones in the Guild Wars 2 flavor. That’s why I bought the game. They need to accept the fact that there are players who want organized, instanced group content. For those who don’t like that content, don’t play it.
Thanks for the response. Some people are upset that the game has not substantially expanded in the 2 years it’s been out. One can’t help but compare them to other games – f2p and p2p games that add new zones, dungeons, instances, large player content, new battlegrounds. For instance, Wildstar has added more content in the few months it’s been out than you have in 2 years. Something’s wrong. Players have been telling you something is wrong since you announced the new vision in November 2013. Fact is, you haven’t listened until it was too late. My main gripe with the direction of this game is your company’s utter refusal to acknowledge MMO standards. You can’t in good conscience say the Living Story compares to the original content and even your competition. The Living Story is one quest every two weeks. One quest.
You want to do whats’ the most entertaining for the community? Come to the forums and post a poll. Be prepared to implement things you may not want, but the community does. Many in the community want new instances – raids, dungeons, etc. – that doesn’t they have to be like WoW or whatever. You need to add that.
I agree with a lot of this. I really don’t see how this message can’t seem to be understood by upper management. I hear conflicting statements everyday from both Anet and players and it doesn’t make for a healthy environment. I don’t know how may times I’ve heard forum posters and Anet say that the forums represent only a small portion of the player base but then choose to use it for communication and discussion (CDI’s) to try and determine the course of the game? Why not put a poll together and put it in game very much like the one’s in every beta I’ve ever seen and get a clear message from the majority of players on what their most desired aspects would be and work to those ends? Time after time changes have been made that many people didn’t want or ask for resulting in lost development time and frustrated customers, I just don’t get it.
As far as only sticking to a Living Story and features, I can only speak for myself and those I know personally who have stepped away but it isn’t cutting it by a long shot! An expansion is needed at least by those I’ve mentioned above and I’m certain by many others and it won’t matter what shape you deliver it (boxed, DL, gems) because at the end of the day it’ll make you a lot more money and bring a lot more people back.
As far as the person who quoted Blizzard regarding expansions, that is a far bigger problem in a vertical progression game than GW2, as far as I’m concerned it’s a non issue here. Heck they have already damaged a lot of the cohesion through LS and could likely have avoided a lot of those issues through a normal expansion.
I said it a year ago and I’ll say it again, the best thing they could do is continue with regular LS updates and work on an expansion as well, that would separate them from everyone else in the market. (Forgot to add “and tell us that’s what they plan on doing so we don’t get fed up and go find something else to do”).
Vini, Vidi, Vici, Viridis…I came, I saw, I conquered…I got a green??
