Guild Wars 2

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Lilith Ajit.6173:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Having the CDIs in their own sub-forums was suggested in previous CDIs. I don’t believe it was thought to be a good idea. I can’t remember why. I’m sure you can read about it is the pertinent CDI, though. =)

Chris feared that it would reduce visibility which I don’t think is true (and a lot of people spoke up and disagreed) But maybe he’d reconsider?

Yes the more threads and forums there are the greater the degrees of separation in regard to awareness and keeping up with all the conversation. This doesn’t mean that I am against the idea of having a CDI forum though if for example we consolidated the vast number of our other forums.

Replying to this rather late, but having a separate subforum for CDI’s would surely increase visibility rather than reduce it. To find a CDI topic at the moment, you ahve to go into every subforum and find the particular thread – whereas a subforum would be visible on the front page of the forums.

Either way, if you want to increase visibility for CDIs, I think the obvious solution would be to advertise it in a blog post (of the sort that shows up in the news feed when you launch the game), with a list of topics and links to each of them.

Destai.9603:

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 obviously haven’t played the game for a while, season 1 had quite a lot of new additions, they were temporary but enough to do while it was live. Season 2 just one quest? What are you talking about?

• a whole new map (DryTop) whith more to do on this map than in 3 classic maps combined.
• Episode 1: Gates of Maguuma added 5 new repeatable permanent missions:
  Disturbance in Brisban Wildlands
  Fallen Hopes
  Tracking the Master of Peace
  Cornered
  Prosperity’s Mystery
  …each of them quite substantial
• Episode 2. Entanglement added 5 more substantial permanent missions:
  Scarlet’s Secret Room
  Discovering Scarlet’s Breakthrough
  The Concordia Incident
  Trouble at Fort Salma
  The Machine
  … so far 10 new missions
• Episode 3. The Dragon’s Reach: Part 1 added again 5 more substantial permanent missions:
  Rallying Call
  Uprooting the Iron Marches
  The Waypoint Conundrum
  Summit Invitations
  Plan of Attack
• Episode 4. The Dragon’s Reach: Part 2 added 4 more of those high quality missions:
  Party Politics
  Recalibrating the Waypoints
  Taimi and the Asura
  The World Summit

so we got 19 story & combat heavy new missions. Compare this to the personal story we got at release. Following a human character in his personal story from lv.1-28 you had to do 15 missions. All in all you go through about 49 missions. This means the content from season 2 has about 40% of the story content of 1 go-through of the personal story. Imho the content also now has a much deeper interesting story and more challenging missions.

… so don’t even start with your one quest, seriously.

The latest blog post is yet another case of “we could have warned you!” So you’re planning to merge the Chinese client with the American one, well we could have told you that we don’t want this MONTHS ago if only you’d let us know you were considering it, and you guys could have saved all the time working on it, and not have to revert it later. This is why communication is important.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

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. =)

To be fair, when people criticize the so-called ‘lack of content’ that’s been put out in the last year, they’re really criticizing the lack of a type of content they specifically enjoy.

More broadly, the real issue behind such complaints is the relative homogeneity of the content that has been put out. Expansions as in other games usually present a varied smorgasbord with content to appeal to all tastes.

That hate-bandwagon is quite toxic, I can’t stand it. People gonna hate anything Anet announces at the moment, it seems. BAH. It’s SO easy to hate… >:(

I am starting to guess someone in management has resorted to fake “support the devs!” accounts to post in the forums by now.

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

That hate-bandwagon is quite toxic, I can’t stand it. People gonna hate anything Anet announces at the moment, it seems. BAH. It’s SO easy to hate… >:(

It also seems easy to push out kittenty content nobody wants and that ruins a big part of what we are used to and enjoy by a long shot over the suggested new approach…

AysonCurrax.3254:

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

That hate-bandwagon is quite toxic, I can’t stand it. People gonna hate anything Anet announces at the moment, it seems. BAH. It’s SO easy to hate… >:(

It also seems easy to push out kittenty content nobody wants and that ruins a big part of what we are used to and enjoy by a long shot over the suggested new approach…

I am quite happy with the quality of the content, including the unapologetic use of temporary content. I am also happy to see the change of temporary content into permanent content.

As far as those wondering about how large parts of the general community gets input into the game, it’s through people like myself, and other large guild owners, that are representing hundreds of guild members and hundreds of others in larger gaming communities that express their opinions. We pass these on, then hope for the best.

I would like to say that I have seen a LOT more red posts throughout the forums. It’s very refreshing and I’d like to see it continue. Being able to bounce ideas and feedbacks back to you guys, even if not all of them stick, is a great change from before.

misterman.1530:

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

DiogoSilva.7089:

All those changes are important because they fix the several flaws that GW2 has early game: the lack of a sense of progression, poor tutorials, directionless, forgottable rewards and jumpy story instances that forced you to level up midway, interrupting the flow of the story.

So far, this feature patch is great for new players, but, what about the veteran players? It doesn’t seems to offer much to make us stick to the game.

More information will be released next week about features that are more suited to veteran players.

Wait. One person thinks the feature pack was/is a good idea, out of this whole chain, and THAT is the one you respond to? Really?

This snippet comes into a thread, ignores every legitimate complaint/worries, and answers the most pointless of questions in the actual thread (and that is off topic)

This is even worse than not having any red in the thread. It’s horrible and gives people the impression they are being totally ignored, which is what that ANET employee, Regina Buenaobra, did. And I’m not trying to single her out, she’s an example, she’s far from being the only one that does that.

Edit: snippet from https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Completely-Pointless-Revamps/page/2 …. 2/3 into the page approx.

LostBalloon.6423:

This is even worse than not having any red in the thread. It’s horrible and gives people the impression they are being totally ignored, which is what that ANET employee, Regina Buenaobra, did. And I’m not trying to single her out, she’s an example, she’s far from being the only one that does that.

I don’t get it, Regina answers directly to a question (which wasn’t posted here, taking stuff out of context, great guys!). Here again the original quote:

DiogoSilva.7089:

All those changes are important because they fix the several flaws that GW2 has early game: the lack of a sense of progression, poor tutorials, directionless, forgottable rewards and jumpy story instances that forced you to level up midway, interrupting the flow of the story.

So far, this feature patch is great for new players, but, what about the veteran players? It doesn’t seems to offer much to make us stick to the game.

Regina’s answer:

More information will be released next week about features that are more suited to veteran players.

HOW IN THE WORLD is this actually “ignoring the players”??? Do you really wonder why Anet has a hard time talking to us? I do not.

there was also an answer from Colin about a similar thought:

Stupidbookah: It’s almost as if Anet is re-launching Guild Wars 2 again for the people who quit during the first month or haven’t bought the game yet.

That’s nice… But what about the playerbase that has put hundreds or thousands of hours into the game over the past two years and are looking forward to the next step in the development of GW2? :< I almost feel like I would’ve been better off not having bought the game at launch.

his answer:

Colin Johanson: I think that’s a totally fair question, as a veteran user I’d wonder that too – why does making the game better for new users benefit me when I want features that benefit me?

The simple answer is: by ensuring the game foundation is solid for new users, we’ll be in a place after the feature pack where we can do the kind of things that excite both veteran and new users simultaneously, and we’ll be able to retain a much larger percentage of the new or long returning users when they show up. Can’t say anything more than that yet – but that’s the thinking, you don’t need to agree with it, but it’s important to know why the decision was made!

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2etzxq/a_fresh_start_the_new_player_experience_in_guild/ck35jpy?context=3

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

LostBalloon.6423:

This is even worse than not having any red in the thread. It’s horrible and gives people the impression they are being totally ignored, which is what that ANET employee, Regina Buenaobra, did. And I’m not trying to single her out, she’s an example, she’s far from being the only one that does that.

I don’t get it, Regina answers directly to a question (which wasn’t posted here, taking stuff out of context, great guys!). Here again the original quote:

DiogoSilva.7089:

All those changes are important because they fix the several flaws that GW2 has early game: the lack of a sense of progression, poor tutorials, directionless, forgottable rewards and jumpy story instances that forced you to level up midway, interrupting the flow of the story.

So far, this feature patch is great for new players, but, what about the veteran players? It doesn’t seems to offer much to make us stick to the game.

Regina’s answer:

More information will be released next week about features that are more suited to veteran players.

HOW IN THE WORLD is this actually “ignoring the players”??? Do you really wonder why Anet has a hard time talking to us? I do not.

It’s ignoring all the players who are complaining without actually raising questions to answer . . . a legitimate question put respectfully.

I think Chris has spoiled us rotten. He tries to respond to four posts in quick succession instead of one question he can actually answer, even if his posts are basically “let me go ask someone”. (Which in an objective way, is exactly as useful as nothing at all.)

LostBalloon.6423:

misterman.1530:

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

DiogoSilva.7089:

All those changes are important because they fix the several flaws that GW2 has early game: the lack of a sense of progression, poor tutorials, directionless, forgottable rewards and jumpy story instances that forced you to level up midway, interrupting the flow of the story.

So far, this feature patch is great for new players, but, what about the veteran players? It doesn’t seems to offer much to make us stick to the game.

More information will be released next week about features that are more suited to veteran players.

Wait. One person thinks the feature pack was/is a good idea, out of this whole chain, and THAT is the one you respond to? Really?

This snippet comes into a thread, ignores every legitimate complaint/worries, and answers the most pointless of questions in the actual thread (and that is off topic)

This is even worse than not having any red in the thread. It’s horrible and gives people the impression they are being totally ignored, which is what that ANET employee, Regina Buenaobra, did. And I’m not trying to single her out, she’s an example, she’s far from being the only one that does that.

Edit: snippet from https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Completely-Pointless-Revamps/page/2 …. 2/3 into the page approx.

My take at this point is they are actually taking the time to respond. I know in my job (we use a similar way to communicate), I often just don’t have the time to read most of the posts, let alone respond to them. This is definitely a case to cut them some slack.

There is also some more hostile posts, many of which have no basis in fact, that simply shouldn’t be addressed. We are all human, responding negatively while we are riled up doesn’t help anyone. I personally gloss over the vitriol stuff, i think most people would too.

I do think a rather large chunk of staff read the forums, at least from time to time. But given the way players address the staff in many cases, it’s unlikely that they would want to put the time and effort into posting responses, especially if it isn’t required of them to do so.

I’m sure there is also descent among the team as to what they should and shouldn’t do on the forums, which is most likely a contributing factor in peoples participation here.

munkiman.3068:

LostBalloon.6423:

misterman.1530:

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

DiogoSilva.7089:

All those changes are important because they fix the several flaws that GW2 has early game: the lack of a sense of progression, poor tutorials, directionless, forgottable rewards and jumpy story instances that forced you to level up midway, interrupting the flow of the story.

So far, this feature patch is great for new players, but, what about the veteran players? It doesn’t seems to offer much to make us stick to the game.

More information will be released next week about features that are more suited to veteran players.

Wait. One person thinks the feature pack was/is a good idea, out of this whole chain, and THAT is the one you respond to? Really?

This snippet comes into a thread, ignores every legitimate complaint/worries, and answers the most pointless of questions in the actual thread (and that is off topic)

This is even worse than not having any red in the thread. It’s horrible and gives people the impression they are being totally ignored, which is what that ANET employee, Regina Buenaobra, did. And I’m not trying to single her out, she’s an example, she’s far from being the only one that does that.

Edit: snippet from https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Completely-Pointless-Revamps/page/2 …. 2/3 into the page approx.

My take at this point is they are actually taking the time to respond. I know in my job (we use a similar way to communicate), I often just don’t have the time to read most of the posts, let alone respond to them. This is definitely a case to cut them some slack.

There is also some more hostile posts, many of which have no basis in fact, that simply shouldn’t be addressed. We are all human, responding negatively while we are riled up doesn’t help anyone. I personally gloss over the vitriol stuff, i think most people would too.

I do think a rather large chunk of staff read the forums, at least from time to time. But given the way players address the staff in many cases, it’s unlikely that they would want to put the time and effort into posting responses, especially if it isn’t required of them to do so.

I’m sure there is also descent among the team as to what they should and shouldn’t do on the forums, which is most likely a contributing factor in peoples participation here.

Point is everyone is “Anet there is a problem with X for Y & Z & … reasons”
1 person posts -> “great I love you anet, [add fanboy talk here], also [add off topic question]”
Anet -> “[answer to fanboy’s off topic question]” [ignores the rest of the thread, yes, it was the ONLY comment she made] Nothing to appease the worry that the thread was about, which in summary talks about ANET putting resources on fixing something that was not really an issue instead of putting those resources to good use on actual issues the players have been talking about for the past 2 yrs. That and how they overhype the upcoming patch.

Note: The blog posts feel worse than anime fillers… blocks of text that say everything and nothing, with a few good ones here and there.

Edit: This is just a live and current example of one of the communication issues in my opinion. If you’re gonna pop a red tag, at least be on topic (it kittens off people even more than no presence), I think the snippet was a good example of that and I’m not trying to justify his reaction.

On the topic of “communicating with you”, it seems like this trend of “i dont care on what you have to say” amongst players seems to be of no end.

I appreciate the devs finally managing to have some time to come here and tell exactly what is ahead on the path to the future of GW2.

But what i would appreciate even more would be to see players trying to find a middle ground for the themes being discussed.

I see people saying “please anet dont deliver more dungeons, dont add mounts, stay the path”….i just dont get it and to me is just makes no sense at all.

Whats wrong with adding more dungeons for those players that want to do them?? lol, i mean, does it hurt your wvwvw gameplay?? does it hurt your spvp play?? will adding more dungeons affects your pet movement??

what in balthazars name is going on here???

Sometimes i feel like people..no no…not sometimes, people really dont know what they want!! Thats it!! Gamers are just confused all around!!

If the game starts decreasing in population, areas completly empty, wvwvwvw (see what i did there) and spvp deserted, ppl will start screaming at ANet for more population, and dont realize that maybe players are the main reason for that situation.

Whats wrong on giving a bit of everything to everyone??? I JUST DONT GET IT!!!!

Population is required for the continuous development of a game, unless the 50k ppl that will remain playing this game a few years from now ( i can mention other “revolutionary” games that are in that situation and others that no longer exist) are willing to spend crazy amounts of money every month to keep gw2 going.

A very “duh” way of keeping the popultion wealthy is to make sure everyone gets a bit of what they want in the game, without largely impacting the game (lyssa forbid if a 10 man large dungeons or raids were added in this game..i mean…pray to lyssa because that would ruin everything…)

If people want more meaningful dungeons to play and have fun with friends, why not deliver them??

If people want more fractals, why not??

If people wants more meaningful content in large cities and in the world map, to add some life and population to it, why in Mhenlo´s name not do it?

Man, if i was enjoying the game, doing dungeons and pve in general, and i saw a post in the forums from many people asking to deliver this or that to wvw or spvp, why in Glints forsaken fangs i would say “no” instead of, at least saying:

“hey thats not a bad idea at all, maybe if we did it like this, or in this way, or like that, we could find a way to deliver that to the game” <<<<————————— DO THIS!!!!! Geeezuzz!

/facepalm
Some people just need to step back.

Zaxares.5419:

I would like to say that I have seen a LOT more red posts throughout the forums. It’s very refreshing and I’d like to see it continue. Being able to bounce ideas and feedbacks back to you guys, even if not all of them stick, is a great change from before.

I agree!

Keep up the good work, Anet!

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

Colin Johanson: I think that’s a totally fair question, as a veteran user I’d wonder that too – why does making the game better for new users benefit me when I want features that benefit me?

The simple answer is: by ensuring the game foundation is solid for new users, we’ll be in a place after the feature pack where we can do the kind of things that excite both veteran and new users simultaneously, and we’ll be able to retain a much larger percentage of the new or long returning users when they show up. Can’t say anything more than that yet – but that’s the thinking, you don’t need to agree with it, but it’s important to know why the decision was made!

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2etzxq/a_fresh_start_the_new_player_experience_in_guild/ck35jpy?context=3

This kinda makes me think that player retention has actually become a real problem since April. The last public statement we heard was “the game is extremely healthy” and now it’s “we’ll be able to retain a much larger percentage of the new or long returning users when they show up”? Maybe something really expansive is on the horizon (see what I did there?) or maybe GW2 is actually having retention problems.

Either way, they could reassure us a little more by announcing more about endgame features in tandem with new player features.

@Vlad: have fun with your next game

Is it me or has the surge of “communiction” come to a halt? Seems as If they may think we have been pacified!

NYG.2568:

Is it me or has the surge of “communiction” come to a halt? Seems as If they may think we have been pacified!

Anniversary parties and PAX is happening. You won’t be hearing anything more really til Monday.

NYG.2568:

Is it me or has the surge of “communiction” come to a halt? Seems as If they may think we have been pacified!

The next CDI starts Tuesday. It’s about guilds.

lets be completley honest here Mr Whiteside.

The people here have been polite, respectful and patience.
We are -your- costumers though and recently I believe many do not feel treated all that fairly.

The community has given you a lot of feedback over the past weeks if not months and then Anet presents us with a feature pack (or rather bug fix pack, because there are no features released) that has absolutely 0% of the things in it the people have been giving you feedback about.

And then you wonder why some people here think the CDI is useless and the feedback is being ignored. Of course people are getting tired now and less respectful. They love the game (some probably even more than you do). They had high hopes their feedback was taken into consideration and Anet was listening but it turns out they are not listening.

It turns out Anet has really betrayed their veteran players now and it’s clear they are rather focusing on remodelling the leveling system and attract new players, dumbing the game down further and further. At this rate, I think a lot of people are going to throw in the towel and just leave.

Serious, constructive feedback from your playerbase is a blessing to ANY publisher. Why doesn’t Anet see the value of this?

I’ve very appreciated this post, first because we hear again MO (there were about 2 year that we don’t listen/read something by him), second because it demostrate that ArenaNet care about what the community think.

I want to give a suggestion about game feedback/suggestions.
The main problem I think CDI have are:
- restricted time frame: CDI topics are not always opened to accept ideas, they have an end. Ideas cannot have a timeout. Any ideas born after CDI close well be simply lost, despite how good is that idea. Maybe that idea can solve problem raised during CDI, but we will never know. Often ideas about something, born when you are not thinking about it, so greater ideas could born and be forgot when a CDI about that topic is not open.
- dispersive: ideas are spreaded across pages and pages of forum posts, it’s not easy to summarize all ideas, and to track popularity of each idea.

The main source of this issue, in my opinion, is the media used: a forum.

GWW , was a better place to gather feedback and suggestions, not the best possible, but it was a lot better than a forum. An idea was well and extensively explained, there was talk pages to discussion about each single ideas, and ideas was grouped in category to better track different ideas about the same game feature. Last but not least, it was open 24/7/365 to accept ideas from everyone about every topic.

The best solution it should be an “ad hoc” web platform, it should allow:
- basic html formatting to let writers to better organize their idea (a WYSIWYG editor could be appreciated);
- ideas categorization: each idea should be a possible new category to be used by new ideas, or there should be a tag system to categorize ideas;
- voting: it’s important to see, not only feel, how much an idea is appreciated;
- votable comments: let other user contribute to idea writer, most voted comments should be highlighted to let “readers” that have little time to read only most important comments;
- ARenaNet read flag: a simply flag that show that an idea as been read by a developer;

This solution will grant an high readibility (most developer can read ideas here withouth wasting too much of their time) and allow the community to post their ideas whenever they want in an extremly tidy way.

I can create an example platform if someone want to better understand my idea.

Oh, I stated the wrong day, sorry. I’ve already seen you posting on reddit Chris (a user opened a thread to collect ideas about the guild CDI here: http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2f0pm9/reddits_precdi_discussion_guilds_and_guild_content/). Don’t forget your wife Chris, don’t forget her

I will probably not participate in the guild-CDI since I’m a late night loner… but I’m looking forward in reading some ideas and comments. I have the feeling that it will be a very complex and chaotic thread since people have tons of different ideas what guild improvements or even guildhalls look like. We’ll see.

Clerigo.9475:

On the topic of “communicating with you”, it seems like this trend of “i dont care on what you have to say” amongst players seems to be of no end.

I appreciate the devs finally managing to have some time to come here and tell exactly what is ahead on the path to the future of GW2.

But what i would appreciate even more would be to see players trying to find a middle ground for the themes being discussed.

I see people saying “please anet dont deliver more dungeons, dont add mounts, stay the path”….i just dont get it and to me is just makes no sense at all.

Whats wrong with adding more dungeons for those players that want to do them?? lol, i mean, does it hurt your wvwvw gameplay?? does it hurt your spvp play?? will adding more dungeons affects your pet movement??

what in balthazars name is going on here???

Sometimes i feel like people..no no…not sometimes, people really dont know what they want!! Thats it!! Gamers are just confused all around!!

If the game starts decreasing in population, areas completly empty, wvwvwvw (see what i did there) and spvp deserted, ppl will start screaming at ANet for more population, and dont realize that maybe players are the main reason for that situation.

Whats wrong on giving a bit of everything to everyone??? I JUST DONT GET IT!!!!

Population is required for the continuous development of a game, unless the 50k ppl that will remain playing this game a few years from now ( i can mention other “revolutionary” games that are in that situation and others that no longer exist) are willing to spend crazy amounts of money every month to keep gw2 going.

A very “duh” way of keeping the popultion wealthy is to make sure everyone gets a bit of what they want in the game, without largely impacting the game (lyssa forbid if a 10 man large dungeons or raids were added in this game..i mean…pray to lyssa because that would ruin everything…)

If people want more meaningful dungeons to play and have fun with friends, why not deliver them??

If people want more fractals, why not??

If people wants more meaningful content in large cities and in the world map, to add some life and population to it, why in Mhenlo´s name not do it?

Man, if i was enjoying the game, doing dungeons and pve in general, and i saw a post in the forums from many people asking to deliver this or that to wvw or spvp, why in Glints forsaken fangs i would say “no” instead of, at least saying:

“hey thats not a bad idea at all, maybe if we did it like this, or in this way, or like that, we could find a way to deliver that to the game” <<<<————————— DO THIS!!!!! Geeezuzz!

Couldn’t agree more! It boggles my mind that some people don’t actually want an expansion and, even worse, think that term itself is up for debate.

All I want is to see more of the game as it was upon release – that’s what I bought, that’s what I was sold, that’s what I love.

What about starting up the Suggestion Section on the forums again.

Stiofan.6720:

What about starting up the Suggestion Section on the forums again.

I thought the suggestion forums were taken down because most suggestions there got lost. Like a dungeon suggestion, which would benefit the dungeon forum, never saw the light of day there.

It makes more sense to post suggestions in the relevant forums, so devs who work in those areas are more likely to read them.

Vayne.8563:

Stiofan.6720:

What about starting up the Suggestion Section on the forums again.

I thought the suggestion forums were taken down because most suggestions there got lost. Like a dungeon suggestion, which would benefit the dungeon forum, never saw the light of day there.

It makes more sense to post suggestions in the relevant forums, so devs who work in those areas are more likely to read them.

If that was the real reason they removed the suggestion section It didn’t make everyone start writing their suggestions in the “relevant forums” It just made them start writing suggestions in the “general discussion” section where they get mixed up with every other random subject.

Stiofan.6720:

Vayne.8563:

Stiofan.6720:

What about starting up the Suggestion Section on the forums again.

I thought the suggestion forums were taken down because most suggestions there got lost. Like a dungeon suggestion, which would benefit the dungeon forum, never saw the light of day there.

It makes more sense to post suggestions in the relevant forums, so devs who work in those areas are more likely to read them.

If that was the real reason they removed the suggestion section It didn’t make everyone start writing their suggestions in the “relevant forums” It just made them start writing suggestions in the “general discussion” section where they get mixed up with every other random subject.

Whereupon a mod will then move the post to the correct topic. Working as intended.

Solomon Darkfury.3729:

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

Precursor scavenger hunt…

Tell me again how you don’t talk speculatively?

Please know I do appreciate the time and effort put in to making this post. One long overdue but at least it is now here… Just please don’t make statements that are blatantly untrue…

There are many other instances of features being said that they are being developed some even given a preliminary time table… all to be lost to oblivion never to be spoken of again… I just used precursor scavenger hunt as the most obvious example.

Don’t you think those were the catalyst to making the decision to not talk about future development till they are ready to nearly “ship” it? Scavenger Hunt was talked about over a year ago, along with other things, but it was with in the last year they made that decision to not talk about future development.

Just wanted to point out an article I saw at Massively.com about a game (that I shall not name) whose playerbase has continued to grow to a point where there are four times as many players today as it had nine months ago.

This particular quote jumped off the page at me:

“What did [the CEO of the company that makes this game] attribute to the game’s meteoric rise? The promotions and sheer mountain of new content that the team’s been adding certainly helped, but he said that it really came down to terrific community relations. [The CEO] streams the game four nights a week and talks to the community members as though they were part of his family.”

Now I have to say that that last bit about talking to the community like they were members of his family is laying it on a bit thick, but it is interesting to note that community relations is such a high priority that he felt it was the main reason for the game’s success.

I’m reminded again that communication is a two-way street. The post-April feedback threads have taken yet another step to prove that while we’re talking, at great length, no one is listening on the other side.

TLDR;
We added this system as a direct result from the horizontal progression CDI. We are always reading your feedback, however, we don’t always have time to respond right away or action it quickly. We updated some trait unlocks in the past but we can do more. How can you help?
1) Give us a list of the most offensive trait unlock locations.
2) Keep giving feedback and be patient as this is a big ship and it takes time to steer it.

This request is outrageous because I personally have done exactly this more than once, in exactly this thread. Other players have done this more than once. We have told you myriad ways to fix these problems.

I understand that there are 42 pages of comments at this point and that is a lot of noise to sift through, but that is because no one responded for over four months. It’s understandable that replies and actions aren’t immediate, but four months later all there is is a response that basically reads as “I’ve been paying attention, I swear, but can you repeat that with succinct and explicit bullet points?” That is completely unacceptable.

A signal that these complaints are being taken seriously needs to be given in a timely fashion. If the response is, “too much white noise, please clarify,” that at least sends a signal to us on what we can do to help the dev team in our feedback. We need that and then we need to see a little faster turn around time, especially since this is a thread that ArenaNet opened, for the express purpose of gathering our responses. It feels like a huge bait-and-switch and is honestly offensive.

Thanks, i feel this kind of behavior helps.

And where does one go to read/comment/join in on this CDI festival?

Is it going to be a sticky maybe? Or will that be less noticeable? And has this question been asked?

@ChrisWhiteside That is fine with me. If I have to wait four extra days to make sure you will put your full attention into the CDI I feel the benefits outweighs the faults. This CDI is going to be a good one so 100% attention is what I am expecting.

I posted this in the dungeon forum as I specifically discuss an issue in fractals, but I think the general idea is something that is very relevant to this thread. I’m not going to ask for a reply because I don’t want more infractions for trying to initiate a discussion…that said, I’d appreciate someone at ANet giving this a once over:

Suggestion: Addressing Major Bugs

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Hi All,

Update on CDI and top ten list.

I am too busy this week to start the CDI so it will start on Monday 8th.

I apologize for the delay but I am rather busy and want to be able to give the CDI my full attention.

Chris

P.S: Top Ten list will be out before the CDI.

Does this mean the top ten list will be posted today?

felessan.9587:

I’m reminded again that communication is a two-way street. The post-April feedback threads have taken yet another step to prove that while we’re talking, at great length, no one is listening on the other side.

TLDR;
We added this system as a direct result from the horizontal progression CDI. We are always reading your feedback, however, we don’t always have time to respond right away or action it quickly. We updated some trait unlocks in the past but we can do more. How can you help?
1) Give us a list of the most offensive trait unlock locations.
2) Keep giving feedback and be patient as this is a big ship and it takes time to steer it.

This request is outrageous because I personally have done exactly this more than once, in exactly this thread. Other players have done this more than once. We have told you myriad ways to fix these problems.

I understand that there are 42 pages of comments at this point and that is a lot of noise to sift through, but that is because no one responded for over four months. It’s understandable that replies and actions aren’t immediate, but four months later all there is is a response that basically reads as “I’ve been paying attention, I swear, but can you repeat that with succinct and explicit bullet points?” That is completely unacceptable.

A signal that these complaints are being taken seriously needs to be given in a timely fashion. If the response is, “too much white noise, please clarify,” that at least sends a signal to us on what we can do to help the dev team in our feedback. We need that and then we need to see a little faster turn around time, especially since this is a thread that ArenaNet opened, for the express purpose of gathering our responses. It feels like a huge bait-and-switch and is honestly offensive.

I 100% agree.

5 months after a great deal of community participation, they are still asking for clarity. I’m somewhat speechless, and more than a little annoyed. If, after almost a half year of very detailed data and suggestions from your customers you are still wondering what to do..

Do your homework guys. Read. All the “clarity” you need is there. There are even linked spreadsheets in that thread. Asking all those people who took their personal time to help improve your broken system to reiterate what they’ve posted really underscores the above post. In addition, those that were active in the thread have pretty much given up and walked away. I can’t imagine how you are going to find and drag back the people whose valuable contribution from 2, 3, and 4 months ago went pointedly ignored.

If you still need to gather information after almost a half year from your original request to gather feedback, I’ll tune back in around Christmas, or maybe next April.

Guhracie.3419:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

P.S: Top Ten list will be out before the CDI.

Does this mean the top ten list will be posted today?

Yeah, I’m very curious to see this top ten list too.

Pifil.5193:

Guhracie.3419:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

P.S: Top Ten list will be out before the CDI.

Does this mean the top ten list will be posted today?

Yeah, I’m very curious to see this top ten list too.

Looks like we’ll see it when we see it.

Where’s the CDI?

Why can’t I get away with blowing off my customers?

I only deal with a few at a time, but there’s been times when I’d have loved to call a customer and say I’m sorry ma’am/sir, but I can’t install your flooring today as I need to re-evaluate your lay-out. Don’t mind your rooms being empty of furniture and down to the subfloor. Oh company this weekend? So sorry, but I’m just too beat up to install…errr I mean busy with other things? BTW, even though you’ve given me your room dimensions numerous times, could you once more text me those numbers? I really don’t have the time or patience to look for them again.

Thanks, I’ll be in touch!

I give you a lot of props for coming to this den of lions and posting this thread, Chief Mike.

Thank you. I have enough faith that ArenaNet will get to the things we want to, when the time is right. It’s a pretty vast game, you cannot do everything at once. I understand that more than most who read these forums.

As long as you will be as transparent as you can (take a cue from CIG / Roberts Space Industries), then you will hear no complaints from me at all.

Hat is off to you sir.

Mike O Brien.4613:

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.

Interesting Mike.
I think alot of us want to know:

Will there ever be MOUNTS?

Are you able to let us have a concrete answer?
Just a simple Yes or No will suffice, this will squash all speculative mount threads posted since Day 1.