Guild Wars 2

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Keysha.2815:

I would have no problem calming down and giving them time, if they showed a single iota of caring what we think. I’d be willing to discuss things intelligently, calmly, and in a way that would benefit, if Anet would do their part. Instead we are kept in the dark about the future, get things dumped on us that most hate, get no feedback from Anet when we bring issues up, and see patterns developed that make us certain that Anet does not care about it’s player base.

tl;dr
I’m willing, as many others are, to calm down and talk. But Anet won’t talk to us. They have to take the first step, because they are the ones that are, to many, causing the problems.

‘…it is ill informed, assumption based criticism, that is time consuming and frustrating and certainly plain rude commentary is simply ignored.’

And yes I get the irony (-:

Chris

Good. I’m glad. Seriously.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Majuub.6215:

Aeromu.9134:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

So the question now is the current environment conducive to starting a CDI or should I wait a few days?

Chris

Chris I am worried that the current state of the community from the disappointment from the feature patch will derail any worthwhile information that could be provided for the CDI.

Any worthwhile information will be disregarded anyways.

If you really believe that, why are you even here . . . ?

If you really want to know, it’s because I did support and believe in the game, but now im simply killing time until Archeage launch.

Chris thank you for actively replying in this thread to a variety of posts. The forums feel a lot like shouting at a closed door and knowing someone’s reading is important.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Xar.6185:

phys.7689:

<snip>
That said, you should probably reccomend someone start engaging in a discussion with the community on the topic of the day.
Essentially, your CDI as far as i understand it is something for long term projects, things in development/aka brainstorming.

You probably need some one, to discuss major current events issues separately. This does not seem like it would be against your communication policy, as the beefs now, are actually current content.
<snip>

If there is any possibility of someone directly engaging the forumites about the hot raging topics of the day it needs to be done. Sooner rather than later. Unfortunately history says that ‘gathering feedback’, ‘discussing internally’ and then never mentioning the topic again is likely to happen.

Look back, they had reasons to add ascended gear, they did not convey them well at all, or use their data to stop the raging, they ignored the very large angry thread. The same thing happened with the watchwork pick, the first feature pack changes to traits, megaserver thread, outfit / tonics and now the new player experience.

I would absolutely be ecstatic if there was a direct engagement person from Anet to address current hot topics. I would love it. It just doesn’t seem to be their M.O.

They are not dumb people. They have the data they could explain why it is the way it is. The person doing so just has to be ready to counter the well thought out criticisms and the thick skin (or quick moderators) to ignore all of the ‘this sucks rollback people should be fired’ posts.

We are working on focusing personnel specifically to the forums to help with communication, information and CDIs.

Chris

This is fantabulous news Chris. I really do truly think that having a forum hot topic responder will do a great deal of good. For both Anet and the players. Very glad to hear that is being worked on.

Thank you.

I am also a vet at the game and decided to remake a character today, an engineer, and was actually interested int he tool tips that popped up but on the same note not being able to unlock skills 2 through 5 until I leveled was cumbersome to say the least. Also not being able to even attempt skill point challenges or access vistas ect. was aggravating and as a matter of fact made me shut down the game and walk away for several hours. I logged back in on a older toon, my level 60 ele, and was able to get to 64 rather quickly and was greeted by a nicely done pop ups showing me what I was granted and what to expect next level each time. But on another bad note is I noticed there were even fewer Champs or vets to fight making loot virtually non existent and given the scaling having gear that is more than 5 levels below you hurts you a lot in terms of survivability which of course forced me to use the TP, which was nicely redesigned I might add, and buy VERY overpriced gear just so I wont have to worry about item drops for several levels given I was unable to get a single useable item to drop in all the kills i made.

My hope here is that some thought about the scaling and gating gets kicked around and maybe make leveling pleasant for both New players and Veterans alike.

Majuub.6215:

If you really want to know, it’s because I did support and believe in the game, but now im simply killing time until Archeage launch.

I’m not talking about why you’re on the forums. I’m talking about why are you hanging around saying things like that? I mean, what’s the message if someone walks up to you as you’re trying to do your job and go “you know, I don’t think you’re going to care but you guys all suck for changing this” when it’s something you both didn’t have control over and is done by someone you know and trust to have done good work.

It’s not helpful, and it basically doesn’t leave any room to try to help because it opens up with the assumption there’s no intention of help.

I mean, I get how you feel . . . but it just doesn’t seem to be possible to get anything out of this sort of thing than “Customer is unhappy with the change”.

@Chris: could you comment on why things Salvage Kits, Gathering Tools, Skill Challenges, POIs, and Diving Goggles have been level-gated (in some cases as high as level 15)? These are core mechanics to the game and—unlike subtle mechanics like the downed state—should be very simple for any player to understand.

At the very least it should be very simple to explain to players in a simple text bubble what salvaging kits + gathering tools are for.

Forcing players to go back to skill challenges that are easily found on entry-level maps many levels later is not a simplification of the leveling system: it complicates the system and makes it much more frustrating. As a new player, I would be questioning why this skill challenge was in a level 3-4 zone if I couldn’t interact with it until level 10+

Chris Whiteside.6102:

eyestrain.3056:

Chris thank you for actively replying in this thread to a variety of posts. The forums feel a lot like shouting at a closed door and knowing someone’s reading is important.

Thanks Eye,

Loads of us are reading the forums. i am just the one who is communicating when i should actually be paying attention to the meeting i am in (-:

Chris

I hope it’s the meeting about the resume I sent in :P
J/K

You are awesome! Thanks for keeping in touch…now pay attention!

Chris Whiteside.6102:

We are aware of a scaling bug and looking into it right now (-:

Chris

I appreciate the response about the scaling being a bug but, not to seem unappreciative, what about the content gating?

pdavis.8031:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

eyestrain.3056:

Chris thank you for actively replying in this thread to a variety of posts. The forums feel a lot like shouting at a closed door and knowing someone’s reading is important.

Thanks Eye,

Loads of us are reading the forums. i am just the one who is communicating when i should actually be paying attention to the meeting i am in (-:

Chris

I hope it’s the meeting about the resume I sent in :P
J/K

You are awesome! Thanks for keeping in touch…now pay attention!

He means to us. We need your attention. All of it. That delicious, decadent gaze you lead our way, the sexy-smooth words you belt out to help quell our negative feelings. Come, let us bask in your radiance while you whisper kittenurances to us that all will be better.

…erm… cough … I mean… >.> … Yeeeeah, nevermind.

EDIT: I got kitten’d. :|

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Synesh.1094:

Chris thanks for listening.
Even if I’m very tempted to burn some one at the moment. And I’m sure many other people beside me were prepearing their torches and pitchforks.
But thanks still!

Well thanks to everyone too for giving their constructive opinions. We love that, it is ill informed, assumption based criticism, that is time consuming and frustrating and certainly plain rude commentary is simply ignored.

Chris

I would very much like it if this new system for beginner players was made optional for beginner players only, as this is extremely frustrating for veteran players and altaholics. This could be done by either making this system only kick in on accounts who have no lvl 80 character yet or by adding a toggle in the options menu.

Thanks for listening.

Thanks for your feedback Windu.

Chris

What Windu said would actually be the best compromise in this situation…new players could play will all the help if they need it, and vets who already know the basic mechanics of the game can play without the Forced Tutorial. I can’t speak for everyone, obviously, but this would definitely address my issues with the new leveling system. Since many of the complaints seem to stem from this same problem, I would guess it would address many other people’s concerns as well.

I personally think the patch would be solid if not for one thing. I know I am beating a dead horse here but I cannot stress enough how awkward this level gating is for alts. I know alts are completely optional but the only thing that is keeping me interested in between living story releases.

As somebody who has leveled characters to level 80 over 15 times now. Please dont make it harder than it needs to be. The weapon slots were fine as was and i still think utility slots should be unlocked from the get go.

But those are my two cents.

Thanks for all the stuff you added but I think a break from the game is best for me atm.

Would it be possible to get more complete change logs with the patch notes?

A lot of the time, issues come up, and it can be difficult to tell if they are intended or not.

Or is it best to assume that if it is not mentioned in the Patch Notes, it should be reported as a bug?

Errant Venture.9371:

@Chris: could you comment on why things Salvage Kits, Gathering Tools, Skill Challenges, POIs, and Diving Goggles have been level-gated (in some cases as high as level 15)? These are core mechanics to the game and—unlike subtle mechanics like the downed state—should be very simple for any player to understand.

At the very least it should be very simple to explain to players in a simple text bubble what salvaging kits + gathering tools are for.

Forcing players to go back to skill challenges that are easily found on entry-level maps many levels later is not a simplification of the leveling system: it complicates the system and makes it much more frustrating. As a new player, I would be questioning why this skill challenge was in a level 3-4 zone if I couldn’t interact with it until level 10+

That I am asking me to. Why are this think unlocked so late. When see in Starting place skillpoint and can´t interaction with it. I think then can delete the skillpoints/PoI and the other things where can´t interaction in the starting place´s. What is the opinion of this to unlock so late?

We should keep the conversation away from discussing the patch and on the topic of how we can better discuss the patch.

I’m with those saying to get it started (which I believe you’ve decided to do). As suggested above, have a moderator remove posts that have nothing to do with guilds (after prominently stating in the OP that this will happen).

CDI’s clearly are the start of brainstorming that will mean months before results show up in games, so setting it aside due to community discontent on an immediate concern will mean never getting to it or else delaying those results that much longer.

That doesn’t mean there shouldn’t be communication on the matters igniting the forums … but we really can handle two idea streams at once. Really. At least those with enough insight to have CDI contributions can, and they’ll be the ones posting and not getting deleted, right?

Kamidel.8065:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

We are aware of a scaling bug and looking into it right now (-:

Chris

I appreciate the response about the scaling being a bug but, not to seem unappreciative, what about the content gating?

You will not get a word said on that. Before the patch I asked on Twitter, Facebook and here what the level up rewards would be. Every inquiry was met by silence. I suspect they knew the fire Storm this was going to bring. That’s why they stayed silent. And probably why they don’t talk about what’s in development.

wwwes.1398:

We should keep the conversation away from discussing the patch and on the topic of how we can better discuss the patch.

You know how we can better discuss the patch? By people being more engaging about what they don’t like and how they feel it doesn’t work rather than parroting “it sucks, fix it”. Or trying to solidify the forum meme of “I could X but I haven’t unlocked it yet”.

It’s incredibly more useful to developers to see someone putting the time to explain why rather than just “i’m dissatisfied”.

Mike O Brien.4613:

We’ve set a clear policy in the past year: we don’t talk speculatively about future development. We don’t want to string you along.

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

See you in-game,
Mike O’Brien

You’re basically stringing us along with living story. Hoping that it adds some element or connects with the player base. You say a the forums only represent a minority of the playerbase to justify the horrible policies created. Not everyone will be vocal about their opinions. Clearly the policy isn’t working and stuff is being added to the game that people don’t want. Just read reddit. People are unhappy with the changes, especially to leveling.

Go run around in WVW and check out the Ranger Spam. I’m sure the metrics will tell you there’s a lot of rangers that have come out and are spamming 2 quite happily.

You should be working on things the community wants or the game needs.
Where are Capes? Swimsuits? Dresses? Suits?
Where are guild halls?
Where are duels? Pro-tip. Just use the queens gauntlet thingy for that. Add a teleport
Where are new dungeons?
Where are the Changes to fractal drops would be nice??? Allow people to spend their tokens on skins?
Where are the new wvw maps? WvW isn’t balanced. Create something fun.

Stop leaving us in the dark and actually tell us what you’re working on next. I dare you.

Edit: SAB would be nice??

We like a Dev who can multi-task!

CDI – Come on Chris.
Tell them to wrap up that dang meeting.
I only scheduled an hour and a half to post starting at 2pm your time.
My window of opportunity to get my thoughts in before this CDI moves into Page 54 obscurity is coming to a close

Making the new leveling system kick in only on your first character is an option I can get behind to. Or making it entirely optional. Either way I’d like the old system to return.

Who among the players demanded all this increased level gating? Who?

Seriously, couldn’t that have been left for the Chinese version and not ours? Couldn’t we have just gotten the actual improvements (new backpacks, new compass detector, new icons, etc) and not more pointless level gating? This has gotten ridiculous.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Aedelric.1287:

If you are proud of what your team has done like you said, then you have no reason to worry about the `current environment´ Chris.

Hi Aedelric,

I am concerned about the thread being derailed.

Chris

That will be a concern no matter what. Frankly these forums need a boost of positivity and healthy discussion. Despite any misgivings in the past I have for the CDI’s, right now a CDI is probably what is best to restore order to the chaos on here right now.

Randulf.7614:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Aedelric.1287:

If you are proud of what your team has done like you said, then you have no reason to worry about the `current environment´ Chris.

Hi Aedelric,

I am concerned about the thread being derailed.

Chris

That will be a concern no matter what. Frankly these forums need a boost of positivity and healthy discussion. Despite any misgivings in the past I have for the CDI’s, right now a CDI is probably what is best to restore order to the chaos on here right now.

Forums won’t save you. Changing the game will~

Jedge.3619:

Randulf.7614:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Aedelric.1287:

If you are proud of what your team has done like you said, then you have no reason to worry about the `current environment´ Chris.

Hi Aedelric,

I am concerned about the thread being derailed.

Chris

That will be a concern no matter what. Frankly these forums need a boost of positivity and healthy discussion. Despite any misgivings in the past I have for the CDI’s, right now a CDI is probably what is best to restore order to the chaos on here right now.

Forums won’t save you. Changing the game will~

I’m happy with the game

Randulf.7614:

That will be a concern no matter what. Frankly these forums need a boost of positivity and healthy discussion. Despite any misgivings in the past I have for the CDI’s, right now a CDI is probably what is best to restore order to the chaos on here right now.

I’m concerned about whether it will need heavy moderation to stay on topic and not have snarky posts taking stabs at the developers (or Chris, since he’s the visible one) taking up most of the time.

Chris, thanks man for replying to a few posts. I think what upsets people is it seems like ANET only want to focus on things that doesn’t matter.

Things that do matter like profession balance, profession mechanics, World vs World, SPVP. Is messed up again very badly.

Your hard core gamers the ones that are keeping this game going are not new players. They are old players that are still playing and buying gems.

They are the players that are playing end game content and care about profession balance and profession mechanics, World vs World, SPVP, high level PVE dugeons etc.

Players are peeved becasue once again there are serious issues.

The warrior changes were ill advised. The ranger changes were over done, the WvW traps are over powered. Conditions are still out of control. Balance is the worst its ever been in PVP.

ANET you are not focusing on things that matter, you are focusing on stuff your players do not care about that is why this game is in a bad state. Further more you are not listening to players about profession changes you are making and taking bad advices from people.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Randulf.7614:

That will be a concern no matter what. Frankly these forums need a boost of positivity and healthy discussion. Despite any misgivings in the past I have for the CDI’s, right now a CDI is probably what is best to restore order to the chaos on here right now.

I’m concerned about whether it will need heavy moderation to stay on topic and not have snarky posts taking stabs at the developers (or Chris, since he’s the visible one) taking up most of the time.

He’s a fellow Brit, we’re thick skinned and can take a kicking

Chris Whiteside.6102:

NYG.2568:

We like a Dev who can multi-task!

Haha my brain is currently massively overclocked and I am in danger of blue screening!!

Chris

Here Cris

*Hands Cris the fastest Hamster-in-a-wheel in the world. Calls himself HamsterBolt

Take notice, the fuel consumption is strong on that one…get your popcorns ready!!!

Dear Chris Whiteside,

I am in complete agreement with what many people have suggested on this thread regarding the huge gaming changes made on September 9th: That the “new player experience”, level-gating, etc. should be left for players who have only just started the game for the first time, and leave it off or optional for those of us who have gotten farther in the game. I have two level 80s right now but enjoy making alts of different classes. Now I, quite frankly, fear creating a new character or playing the ones I have who are all under level 20. Sometimes I like to mix up my GW2 routine and work on alts and other classes, but now I don’t want to because I know of the heavy, stifling restrictions made on characters 1-20/30/40. I fear this patch will make you lose veteran players and not bring in as many new players as you wish. So I ask you, please take our complaints into consideration and find a compromise. The threads complaining about the changes are still alive and well into the second day of the patch. Surely this tells ANet something…

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Ok how about this. We continue to chat today, I get my doc done and we start the CDI tomorrow morning. I am happy either way. Let me know.

Chris

Delegate. Go find some intern to serve to the wolves, I mean, send to the forums

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Ok how about this. We continue to chat today, I get my doc done and we start the CDI tomorrow morning. I am happy either way. Let me know.

Chris

If i tell you a joke to set your mood high, will you start the CDI?

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Hi,

I am planning on starting an alt again when i get some time. Why don’t we play together as I would like to experience it with you and hear your feedback.

Chris

I’d play with you! I’d even be nice. :P

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Moyayuki.3619:

Dear Chris Whiteside,

I am in complete agreement with what many people have suggested on this thread regarding the huge gaming changes made on September 9th: That the “new player experience”, level-gating, etc. should be left for players who have only just started the game for the first time, and leave it off or optional for those of us who have gotten farther in the game. I have two level 80s right now but enjoy making alts of different classes. Now I, quite frankly, fear creating a new character or playing the ones I have who are all under level 20. Sometimes I like to mix up my GW2 routine and work on alts and other classes, but now I don’t want to because I know of the heavy, stifling restrictions made on characters 1-20/30/40. I fear this patch will make you lose veteran players and not bring in as many new players as you wish. So I ask you, please take our complaints into consideration and find a compromise. The threads complaining about the changes are still alive and well into the second day of the patch. Surely this tells ANet something…

Hi,

I am planning on starting an alt again when i get some time. Why don’t we play together as I would like to experience it with you and hear your feedback.

Chris

You are making me install the client again….

….already going for it…

…..updating….

…im back…soon the clients hits 100%.

I really hope your renewed effort to make GW2 better is sincere. I dont have anything else to play. I dont want to play anything else.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Also of note I am not going to be able to get involved in the CDI past 6pm pst tonight. Is that still ok? I will catch up in the morning?

Chris

Sounds good. Will the CDI still be covering guilds as planned? Or will the topic be switched to discuss the new changes to the leveling system?

While I really think a CDI about guilds would be very usefull, I just think it wouldn’t be very usefull to discuss guild related things at this time.
The forum is flooded with (healthy and constructive)discussions/raging/complaining etc. about the latest feature patch. That’s what is moving the forum right now.

I think it would be best if someone of the development team, doesn’t necessarily has to be Chris, would first open some kind of CDI regarding the latest feature patch.

I would really like to see improvents on guilds, don’t get me wrong, I just think we won’t get 100% out if it while the majority of the forum is moved by another thing.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Also of note I am not going to be able to get involved in the CDI past 6pm pst tonight. Is that still ok? I will catch up in the morning?

Chris

Im already at home with my familly after a days work. Its 11pm here and im talking to a monitor with a smile in my face.

Game is important, but family and real life is heaven. So for me you dont need to even ask stuff like that. Just say when you cant go any further.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Also of note I am not going to be able to get involved in the CDI past 6pm pst tonight. Is that still ok? I will catch up in the morning?

Chris

Sounds like Chris has a hot date! I hope her name isn’t Scarlet. Lol.