Guild Wars 2

The thread “Communicating With You” was locked recently, and it left a lot of things unresolved. I’d summarize it, but I really don’t have the energy for doing that sort of thing anymore. Loads of questions were noted as being important and an answer was said to be forthcoming, but a month later and we’re still missing things like the promised top 10 list of things implemented from the CDI threads.

I know Chris Whiteside has had some family emergency of some sort and my thoughts go out to him, but is he really the only one at ANET who is motivated to communicate with people? Is there really nobody else who could pick up the slack while he deals with his hardship? I don’t expect the same level of commitment, but at least answer SOME of the questions? Maybe try to group up with the five people slated to run through the NPE with Mr. Whiteside? Perhaps an update on how that discussion of the trait system is going?

Communication doesn’t need to be feast or famine. Feast is a good way to burn out employees and famine is a good way to alienate players. Figure out some kind of happy medium. Please. Thanks for reading.

The traits thread, SAB threads, megaserver threads and hobosacks thread (off the top of my head) are in need of attention.

That said, Gaile is trying to keep us informed as well as Chris.

Note: Gaile is a superstar. I absolutely did not mean to downplay her efforts.

Proposition would be to have community managers set up a thread with very particular rules on how to deliver feedback without making it sound like flat out trolling.

CrashTestAuto.9108:

The traits thread, SAB threads, megaserver threads and hobosacks thread (off the top of my head) are in need of attention.

That said, Gaile is trying to keep us informed as well as Chris.

SAB threads are what exactly? Anet said right now it’s not coming back, during this season of the living story. That’s all they’re going to say. There’s no need for more communication on this. If people don’t want to accept it, there’s nothing anyone can do. That’s the decision.

Megaservers are being worked on, we’ve even seen some changes recently to guild missions and they said they’re working on stuff for larger guilds. The mega server isn’t being repealed. It’s not happening. What is there to say?

Traits and hobosacks are legitimate ongoing issues. I can almost guarantee they’re working on traits. I guess they could come in every few days and say we’re still working on it, but programming takes time.

Hobosacks, no idea if they’re working on it or not. I suspect it’s low priority, though.

I don’t know why people think that we need someone to constantly come into threads saying we know about this and we’re looking into it. Things in big companies don’t get changed over night and programming takes time.

Unless there is an emergency, businesses do not always make decisions very quickly. What seems like a long time to players may not be very much at all in the corporate decision making process.

You know, it’s not just seeing people are unhappy and thinking about doing something about it. It’s about specifically what to do about it.

So Anet first makes an update and people are unhappy about it. About half the time that happens, most people see it’s not that bad after all, and the problem goes away…because it’s not. The story I remember a dev telling was when DOA was first released in Guild Wars 1 and everyone said it was too hard, it was impossible and there were almost universal calls to nerf it. Same happened with Triple Thread and Tequatl. Lots of calls to nerf. But the community got through it.

Anet has to wait to see the longer term reaction, before they decide there really is a problem and then, they have to determine what the problem actually is (because it’s not always clear) and then they have to decide what to do about it.

There will be meetings, discussions, and you know, everyone may not be in agreement. Some people may want to change things one way and some may want to change it another way. These differences have to be worked out.

Maybe the fans are asking for something that ultimately doesn’t fit into whatever else is being worked on. Maybe there are changes Anet is willing to make, but other changes have to be made first.

For example, we know Anet is working on something for altoholics, but we don’t know what it is. Maybe that thing will make other changes unnecessary and so there’s no reason to work on some of the complaints.

Yeah, Anet should probably tell us more, but the fact is, every minute spent pacifying the forum (sometimes over very little) is another minute not doing something else. There’s been more communication on the forum, a single thread gets deleted that was all over the place and suddenly people feel Anet isn’t communicating again?

The need for constant communication from developers here is really over the top.

Vayne.8563:

Yeah, Anet should probably tell us more, but the fact is, every minute spent pacifying the forum (sometimes over very little) is another minute not doing something else.

Isn’t that why they have the forum GMs? All the devs would need to do is shoot an email to the forum GMs and then they could relay that info to us.

Galphar.3901:

Vayne.8563:

Yeah, Anet should probably tell us more, but the fact is, every minute spent pacifying the forum (sometimes over very little) is another minute not doing something else.

Isn’t that why they have the forum GMs? All the devs would need to do is shoot an email to the forum GMs and then they could relay that info to us.

So the forum GMs have to stop and interupt the devs, how many times a day? It’s amazing that people think this is so simple. Like there’s one dev that knows everything, has already made every decision and we can just go to that guy. It doesn’t work like that.

If a decision has yet to be made, or they’re discussing a number of options NO DEV will know, because a decision haven’t been made.

So you’ll get a message as a dev from a community manager saying, “The people they’re really up in arms about traits, what do I tell them?”

That dev might go and say, no decision has been reached but we’re talking about it. So now, the forum guy says that. Doesn’t mollify the forums at all. Not even a little. Next day the forum is up in arms so the forum person goes back to the dev and says “Any decision yet.”

The dev says no.

But every time the dev has to go to his email to tell the forum guy we have no new info is time they’re breaking their chain of thought on what they’re working on.

There’s no real good reason to tell people you’re going to do something but you’re not sure what yet more than once.

Vayne.8563:

Galphar.3901:

Vayne.8563:

Yeah, Anet should probably tell us more, but the fact is, every minute spent pacifying the forum (sometimes over very little) is another minute not doing something else.

Isn’t that why they have the forum GMs? All the devs would need to do is shoot an email to the forum GMs and then they could relay that info to us.

So the forum GMs have to stop and interupt the devs, how many times a day? It’s amazing that people think this is so simple. Like there’s one dev that knows everything, has already made every decision and we can just go to that guy. It doesn’t work like that.

If a decision has yet to be made, or they’re discussing a number of options NO DEV will know, because a decision haven’t been made.

So you’ll get a message as a dev from a community manager saying, “The people they’re really up in arms about traits, what do I tell them?”

That dev might go and say, no decision has been reached but we’re talking about it. So now, the forum guy says that. Doesn’t mollify the forums at all. Not even a little. Next day the forum is up in arms so the forum person goes back to the dev and says “Any decision yet.”

The dev says no.

But every time the dev has to go to his email to tell the forum guy we have no new info is time they’re breaking their chain of thought on what they’re working on.

There’s no real good reason to tell people you’re going to do something but you’re not sure what yet more than once.

And how many times have you seen on these forums, I’ll use the traits thread as an example, where all people want is SOMETHING from the devs? It doesn’t need to be specifics. Hell, I’d be happy with “We’re looking into it and will let you know when we make a decision”. And I’m pretty confident they have weekly meetings discussing what’s being worked on also what the playerbase is saying. All it would take would be the lead dev making notes on the meeting and then passing along what info they would like to share with us to Gaile Grey(Community Manager) who would pass it on to the Forum GMs to relay to us.

Galphar.3901:

Vayne.8563:

Galphar.3901:

Vayne.8563:

Yeah, Anet should probably tell us more, but the fact is, every minute spent pacifying the forum (sometimes over very little) is another minute not doing something else.

Isn’t that why they have the forum GMs? All the devs would need to do is shoot an email to the forum GMs and then they could relay that info to us.

So the forum GMs have to stop and interupt the devs, how many times a day? It’s amazing that people think this is so simple. Like there’s one dev that knows everything, has already made every decision and we can just go to that guy. It doesn’t work like that.

If a decision has yet to be made, or they’re discussing a number of options NO DEV will know, because a decision haven’t been made.

So you’ll get a message as a dev from a community manager saying, “The people they’re really up in arms about traits, what do I tell them?”

That dev might go and say, no decision has been reached but we’re talking about it. So now, the forum guy says that. Doesn’t mollify the forums at all. Not even a little. Next day the forum is up in arms so the forum person goes back to the dev and says “Any decision yet.”

The dev says no.

But every time the dev has to go to his email to tell the forum guy we have no new info is time they’re breaking their chain of thought on what they’re working on.

There’s no real good reason to tell people you’re going to do something but you’re not sure what yet more than once.

And how many times have you seen on these forums, I’ll use the traits thread as an example, where all people want is SOMETHING from the devs? It doesn’t need to be specifics. Hell, I’d be happy with “We’re looking into it and will let you know when we make a decision”. And I’m pretty confident they have weekly meetings discussing what’s being worked on also what the playerbase is saying. All it would take would be the lead dev making notes on the meeting and then passing along what info they would like to share with us to Gaile Grey(Community Manager) who would pass it on to the Forum GMs to relay to us.

I’m sure the devs have said they’re looking into it. The question is how many times should they say it? Should their be a dev macro that only says we’re looking into it.

Vayne.8563:

I’m sure the devs have said they’re looking into it.

Yes they have. In fact they made changes to the new trait system in response to player feedback.

Ashen.2907:

Vayne.8563:

I’m sure the devs have said they’re looking into it.

Yes they have. In fact they made changes to the new trait system in response to player feedback.

Some yeah, but it’s only a down payment. More needs to be done.

Vayne.8563:

Ashen.2907:

Vayne.8563:

I’m sure the devs have said they’re looking into it.

Yes they have. In fact they made changes to the new trait system in response to player feedback.

Some yeah, but it’s only a down payment. More needs to be done.

I agree.

My point was that Anet has demonstrated that not only are they listening, they are acting based on what they hear, and they are telling us so. Pretty much the definition of interactive communication.

Ashen.2907:

Vayne.8563:

Ashen.2907:

Vayne.8563:

I’m sure the devs have said they’re looking into it.

Yes they have. In fact they made changes to the new trait system in response to player feedback.

Some yeah, but it’s only a down payment. More needs to be done.

I agree.

My point was that Anet has demonstrated that not only are they listening, they are acting based on what they hear, and they are telling us so. Pretty much the definition of interactive communication.

Absolutely a valid point. I’ve always thought they listen…they just don’t point it out every time they listen.

Edit: Maybe they need to start doing that.

Vayne.8563:

The need for constant communication from developers here is really over the top.

I don’t think it’s quite like that. I have been on the forums the past few months a ton (way more than I’d ever like to be on an internet forum, but that’s beside the point) and I get this overall vibe that communication is kind of sporadic, even after their efforts to communicate more. Like it sort of happens in weird bursts.

Some dev here and there will really go above and beyond, but then 90% of other areas of discussion will get left with not a single bite. Mind you, when I say “areas,” I’m not talking about threads. I am grounded in reality enough to know that if they attempted to respond to every thread, they would never get their jobs done.

But it doesn’t quite feel like every major facet of the game is getting communication. I mean, depending on how “majorly” we define that language, the number of topics could be relatively small.

And don’t get me wrong. I figure they’re going through a lot of workplace restructuring / priority shifting right now and are still getting a handle on this whole “sincerely making an effort to communicate more” thing. I’ve seen progress, even if it looks sporadic.

But I can see why someone would get a “feast or famine” vibe from the way it’s been handled so far. It doesn’t really bother me – I’m giving it time – but I can understand where the guy is coming from.

Chris Whiteside has stated, numerous times, that they’re in the process of hiring more personnel to work on the forums. So, hopefully, things will look up soon and he (and a couple others) won’t be the only ones speaking on the forums.

Vayne, I… I think I love you…

Thank you so much for pointing this out. As a software developer (not Anet, mind you) I know how this is from the other side of things.

I had a long rant here, but I realized it wasn’t all that useful. I’ll just boil it down to this: While they are making the game for us, few people realize the amount of work that goes into making something this complex, how much work it is to actually actively engage with a user base, and how careful a company has to be with its communications.

The exact amount of communication needed is never an exact science. But there are many times where saying less is safer for a business, especially one with a very large user base. Every company communication is an added risk and a situation that could get out of control quickly (see any hashtag on twitter about anything a few people get up in arms about). Too much silence can be as damaging, of course, but often it is safer.

It’s frustrating to a lot of people who care about the game, but I think it’s a reality too many players never realize or forget very easily.

videoboy.4162:

Chris Whiteside has stated, numerous times, that they’re in the process of hiring more personnel to work on the forums. So, hopefully, things will look up soon and he (and a couple others) won’t be the only ones speaking on the forums.

Raise your hand if you think they should hire me

ducks and runs lol

Vayne.8563:

You know, it’s not just seeing people are unhappy and thinking about doing something about it. It’s about specifically what to do about it.

So Anet first makes an update and people are unhappy about it. About half the time that happens, most people see it’s not that bad after all, and the problem goes away…because it’s not. The story I remember a dev telling was when DOA was first released in Guild Wars 1 and everyone said it was too hard, it was impossible and there were almost universal calls to nerf it. Same happened with Triple Thread and Tequatl. Lots of calls to nerf. But the community got through it.

Anet has to wait to see the longer term reaction, before they decide there really is a problem and then, they have to determine what the problem actually is (because it’s not always clear) and then they have to decide what to do about it.

There will be meetings, discussions, and you know, everyone may not be in agreement. Some people may want to change things one way and some may want to change it another way. These differences have to be worked out.

Maybe the fans are asking for something that ultimately doesn’t fit into whatever else is being worked on. Maybe there are changes Anet is willing to make, but other changes have to be made first.

For example, we know Anet is working on something for altoholics, but we don’t know what it is. Maybe that thing will make other changes unnecessary and so there’s no reason to work on some of the complaints.

Yeah, Anet should probably tell us more, but the fact is, every minute spent pacifying the forum (sometimes over very little) is another minute not doing something else. There’s been more communication on the forum, a single thread gets deleted that was all over the place and suddenly people feel Anet isn’t communicating again?

The need for constant communication from developers here is really over the top.

This thread is less to do with a desire for constant communication and more to do with some level of consistently good communication. I don’t want somebody here all the time answering every single post. That’s not what I said.

The fact is that we went for about three months with essentially no communication from the dev team whatsoever, to the forum being absolutely flooded with dev communication, and now we’re back to a trickle. Not only that, but if they say they’re going to answer something, they should answer it. If they say we’re going to meet up in game and play together, three weeks shouldn’t go by with no word about it. That is the issue, here.

And you can’t possibly be defending how they’ve “addressed” the traits thread, Vayne. You’re more reasonable than that. Saying, “We’d like your feedback now, because we’re going to start taking a look at this issue,” does not inspire confidence. Particularly not looking at how quickly they’ve managed to act on major issues in the NPE patch.

I’d like to see the person who is ultimately responsible for GW2 in the proverbial hot seat answering the tough questions. He or she is the one with the answers we want.

Galphar.3901:

Vayne.8563:

Yeah, Anet should probably tell us more, but the fact is, every minute spent pacifying the forum (sometimes over very little) is another minute not doing something else.

Isn’t that why they have the forum GMs? All the devs would need to do is shoot an email to the forum GMs and then they could relay that info to us.

Exactly actually. They could even put someone else in charge, ie Gaile for example, who could sift through what Chris is already writing to give people answers on what he can say so far. It’s really not too difficult to keep the ball rolling in communication when some emergency comes along other types of businesses do it all the time with their customers, They release statements to the press or have a standby representative, MMOs shouldn’t be any different in that regard.

Tachenon.5270:

I’d like to see the person who is ultimately responsible for GW2 in the proverbial hot seat answering the tough questions. He or she is the one with the answers we want.

Chris is high enough in the hierarchy to have the answers and he shares them when he can. He’s limited by business decisions implemented above his head though, and those people likely have less answers about what you want than Chris does.

Communication spike a lot after Mike Obrien made the communication thread. It’s dropped off quite a bit in the month since but communication is still at a higher level than it was before that post. It’s not a fantastic level of communication but it’s improving over what it was and it looks like it’s getting better.

Torsailr.8456:

Tachenon.5270:

I’d like to see the person who is ultimately responsible for GW2 in the proverbial hot seat answering the tough questions. He or she is the one with the answers we want.

Chris is high enough in the hierarchy to have the answers and he shares them when he can. He’s limited by business decisions implemented above his head though, and those people likely have less answers about what you want than Chris does.

Communication spike a lot after Mike Obrien made the communication thread. It’s dropped off quite a bit in the month since but communication is still at a higher level than it was before that post. It’s not a fantastic level of communication but it’s improving over what it was and it looks like it’s getting better.

The sad thing is that it was Chris Whiteside who was doing 90% of the communicating and he was doing most of it on weekends during his FREE TIME ( i.e. he wasn’t being paid for it). What’s the use in having new Forum GMs being hired and moving Gaile Grey back to Community Manager when nothing gets said by A-Net(Chris excluded of course).

Guhracie.3419:

Vayne.8563:

You know, it’s not just seeing people are unhappy and thinking about doing something about it. It’s about specifically what to do about it.

So Anet first makes an update and people are unhappy about it. About half the time that happens, most people see it’s not that bad after all, and the problem goes away…because it’s not. The story I remember a dev telling was when DOA was first released in Guild Wars 1 and everyone said it was too hard, it was impossible and there were almost universal calls to nerf it. Same happened with Triple Thread and Tequatl. Lots of calls to nerf. But the community got through it.

Anet has to wait to see the longer term reaction, before they decide there really is a problem and then, they have to determine what the problem actually is (because it’s not always clear) and then they have to decide what to do about it.

There will be meetings, discussions, and you know, everyone may not be in agreement. Some people may want to change things one way and some may want to change it another way. These differences have to be worked out.

Maybe the fans are asking for something that ultimately doesn’t fit into whatever else is being worked on. Maybe there are changes Anet is willing to make, but other changes have to be made first.

For example, we know Anet is working on something for altoholics, but we don’t know what it is. Maybe that thing will make other changes unnecessary and so there’s no reason to work on some of the complaints.

Yeah, Anet should probably tell us more, but the fact is, every minute spent pacifying the forum (sometimes over very little) is another minute not doing something else. There’s been more communication on the forum, a single thread gets deleted that was all over the place and suddenly people feel Anet isn’t communicating again?

The need for constant communication from developers here is really over the top.

This thread is less to do with a desire for constant communication and more to do with some level of consistently good communication. I don’t want somebody here all the time answering every single post. That’s not what I said.

The fact is that we went for about three months with essentially no communication from the dev team whatsoever, to the forum being absolutely flooded with dev communication, and now we’re back to a trickle. Not only that, but if they say they’re going to answer something, they should answer it. If they say we’re going to meet up in game and play together, three weeks shouldn’t go by with no word about it. That is the issue, here.

And you can’t possibly be defending how they’ve “addressed” the traits thread, Vayne. You’re more reasonable than that. Saying, “We’d like your feedback now, because we’re going to start taking a look at this issue,” does not inspire confidence. Particularly not looking at how quickly they’ve managed to act on major issues in the NPE patch.

I just think they were busy with other things and they’d get to it. That what I thought. They already, as someone else pointed out, did make some changes based on some complaints. I never really doubted more were coming. I also dont think they know what they’re going to do to fix it yet.

Yes they could have said so more often. But I don’t think that would change anything at all, except let people know that they know. Anyone, however, who thinks they don’t know is living in a box.

I’ve always believed that the devs here aren’t speaking from their own free will to do so, but from a reactionary standpoint.

I’ve been playing this game for over 2 years (including beta’s) and browsing the forums for almost as long, but not always posting. I like to get a feel for what the atmosphere is like in these forums before being respondant, and a good 95% of all that time, the atmosphere has been toxic.

Thanks to the dev’s policy of “we can’t talk to you about this yet, it’s still in the works”, it’s basically hamstringing them of free speech to talk about anything upcoming in the game. And no matter how ‘excited’ they get about something coming up in a patch, I’m sorry but I can’t get as excited as they do.

The reason behind this is because of Anet’s past and the god-awful long time it’s taken them to start listening to the playerbase at large. As excited as they get about something they think will really knock our socks off, we’re playing this new patch (I’ll refrain from saying ‘content’ because that seems as thin and sporadic as their communication) and finding endless bugs and glitches with it. We pipe up and complain about stuff that isn’t working as designed/intended and waiting weeks for a resolution. Still the communication is less than forthcoming on what’s actually happening to get the bugs fixed. A simple acknowledgement on what’s bugged and an approximate ETA on a fix would be great – however this essential info is still lacking (I’m looking at you, Collections).

I’ll go back to my first paragraph: they’re communicating from a reactionary standpoint, nothing more. They only communicate because they feel they have to, not because they want to. Whenever they do it’s on twitch or youtube and it’s always this same façade about being excited about something new, never about having problems fixed or a glitch being worked on. It’s that essential info that would make the forums a little less toxic.

Tachenon.5270:

I’d like to see the person who is ultimately responsible for GW2 in the proverbial hot seat answering the tough questions. He or she is the one with the answers we want.

Quite possibly they have the answers . . . but will they actually give them? Or will people not like the answers being given to the point of crying foul about it over and over?

At first glance I thought the idea had merit, but after ten seconds it sounded ludicrous. Now after about a minute, I think . . . I think it sounds impossible to do in a way which is actually going to please people who want answers to “the tough questions”. I mean, realistically, what do you expect them to answer?

- Is SAB coming back? “Sure, eventually we would love to bring it back.” Nobody’s going to like the answer, but we all know that’s the answer we’d get. Probably the people who would work on SAB World 3 aren’t working on it currently so we’d just get old content turned back on . . . which I guarantee would start a firestorm just as hot as it not being turned on until World 3 got done.

- What about traits? Ranger pets? Guild halls? Duels? Mounts? Cantha? Precursor scavenger hunt? “We’re looking into these issues/options/additions, and I really don’t know what to say other than what’s been said already.”

I don’t know, sometimes I don’t think players who loudly want more communication aren’t aware it’s a monkey’s paw wish. You almost certainly aren’t going to get what you want out of such a wish.

The only problem I see in some of their statement is that most of the time it’s just wind.

“We need more communication!” “Here we communicate!” “Ok so what about problem x?”
Behavior 1: “We can’t say/Nothing’s off the table”
Behavior 2: “I can’t hear youuuuu!”
Behavior 3: “We do communicate.”

I’ve seen some posts in the lore section actually answering things people were wondering, this is communication. I’ve seen some people saying “I’ll send your feedback” and then see a change, this is communication. We’ve had a communication surge after the whole community got on fire. And now? Well, I haven’t seen anything really promising anymore :-/

Like in my job, when my customers ask “so, how’s the translation going?” I give them a slight update on my work “chapter 7 is 60% done”, or “I had to rewrite chapter 5”, I’m not going all “I’m working on the translation, nothing is off the table/I can’t say yet not to spoil the book”. It doesn’t have to be all black or all white, we would like some grey announcement to know we are not left out for something unrequested.

I don’t understand why Anet has a culture of silence when it comes to dealing with its fan base/player base.

WoW isn’t perfect but they have a steady stream of info coming out to let people know what’s going on. Anet treats us all like mushrooms.

Why?

The problem here isn’t the fact that they’re not aware. I’m sure that even without threads like the one Chris made Anet is pretty much aware of what’s going on in game.
And of what people are saying on the forums.
And of what people are actually doing in game despite of what’s said on the forums (because metrics).

The problem is they keep the player base in the dark.

They generate hype and make decisions based on the PR side of things but fail to treat their players with common courtesy and let them know things have changed or been canceled when it does happen.

It’s happened with the fractal leaderboards, the “new legendary weapons and new legendary types in 2013” , precursor crafting or scavanging, etc.

The problem is they’re not telling us what their priorities are and more importantly aren’t telling us how things are evolving.

They’re simply being silent. Mostly because in most of these situations they made mistakes and now feel that admitting that is not a good idea.

Harper.4173:

They’re simply being silent. Mostly because in most of these situations they made mistakes and now feel that admitting that is not a good idea.

And admitting it is the first step, lol

What I’ve always done for both the Users and upper Management is to keep my focus on presenting a clear view of “Where we are and Where we’re headed.” regardless of the project. In that manner a consistent message is presented that answers the most nagging questions of all folks.

The problem I see with Anet is that no one seems to be able to answer that legitimate concern. To make matters worse the replies we do get seem to reenforce the feeling that they don’t know either.

MFoy.3284:

What I’ve always done for both the Users and upper Management is to keep my focus on presenting a clear view of “Where we are and Where we’re headed.” regardless of the project. In that manner a consistent message is presented that answers the most nagging questions of all folks.

The problem I see with Anet is that no one seems to be able to answer that legitimate concern. To make matters worse the replies we do get seem to reenforce the feeling that they don’t know either.

QFT

/15quaggansagree =)

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Tachenon.5270:

I’d like to see the person who is ultimately responsible for GW2 in the proverbial hot seat answering the tough questions. He or she is the one with the answers we want.

Quite possibly they have the answers . . . but will they actually give them? Or will people not like the answers being given to the point of crying foul about it over and over?

At first glance I thought the idea had merit, but after ten seconds it sounded ludicrous. Now after about a minute, I think . . . I think it sounds impossible to do in a way which is actually going to please people who want answers to “the tough questions”. I mean, realistically, what do you expect them to answer?

- Is SAB coming back? “Sure, eventually we would love to bring it back.” Nobody’s going to like the answer, but we all know that’s the answer we’d get. Probably the people who would work on SAB World 3 aren’t working on it currently so we’d just get old content turned back on . . . which I guarantee would start a firestorm just as hot as it not being turned on until World 3 got done.

- What about traits? Ranger pets? Guild halls? Duels? Mounts? Cantha? Precursor scavenger hunt? “We’re looking into these issues/options/additions, and I really don’t know what to say other than what’s been said already.”

I don’t know, sometimes I don’t think players who loudly want more communication aren’t aware it’s a monkey’s paw wish. You almost certainly aren’t going to get what you want out of such a wish.

I don’t know if your last paragraph was directed at me or not, truly. I’ve tried to be really clear that I don’t want more communication, I want better, more consistent communication, so if it’s not directed at me, let me just apologize in advance.

Regarding the traits thread: Here’s what I want as far as communication there-
We feel that X, Y, and Z are good options. We’re currently looking at how to implement aspects of one or all of these ideas. Could you please give us some further ideas to work with regarding aspect Y? Would N be a decent compromise?

Regarding SAB- some variation of any of these: “It will not be coming back. We will issue refunds to anyone who purchased an infinite continue coin.”
“It will be coming back as temporary content sometime in the next six months. If you would like a refund on the infinite continue coin we marketed in the gem store, please submit a ticket.”
“Worlds 1 and 2 of SAB are complete and will be enabled permanently. Currently, we have no plans to expand on SAB, and anyone who would like a refund for their infinite continue coin may submit a ticket.”

Otherwise, all I really want is for more than just Chris Whiteside and Gaile Gray doing the heavy lifting. Mr. Whiteside has flagged several questions as being outside of his realm of knowledge, so maybe somebody at Anet could review his posts and respond to the things he mentioned asking other people about?

Again. This is not about me “demanding” the devs answer my questions. It’s suggesting that maybe, when they say they’re going to do something, they should follow through on it. Obviously SAB and traits are things I’m invested in, which is why they’re my examples, but they’re not the only things that need to be addressed, not by a long shot. I just wanted to give examples of answers, because it’s not about getting “my way” or whatever this is being misconstrued as. I feel it’s a fairly reasonable line of thinking.

It’s all smoke and mirrors when it comes to Anet.

Vayne.8563:

SAB threads are what exactly? Anet said right now it’s not coming back, during this season of the living story. That’s all they’re going to say. There’s no need for more communication on this. If people don’t want to accept it, there’s nothing anyone can do. That’s the decision.

I would like to hear what’s the reason for it not coming back for a year or more. And no, don’t parrot me the “doesn’t fit into the LS narrative” that was said in the infamous interview because we are in the middle of a 2 months+ LS break and simply flipping the SAB switch on would take a programmer 2 minutes. I’m also certain I’m not the only one that would welcome such communication.

I think this is a legitimate, although non-top-priority concern and I’m irritated by your attempt at downplaying it. You may have no need for further communication but kindly speak for yourself next time. Thanks.

Vayne.8563:

CrashTestAuto.9108:

The traits thread, SAB threads, megaserver threads and hobosacks thread (off the top of my head) are in need of attention.

That said, Gaile is trying to keep us informed as well as Chris.

SAB threads are what exactly? Anet said right now it’s not coming back, during this season of the living story. That’s all they’re going to say. There’s no need for more communication on this. If people don’t want to accept it, there’s nothing anyone can do. That’s the decision.

Megaservers are being worked on, we’ve even seen some changes recently to guild missions and they said they’re working on stuff for larger guilds. The mega server isn’t being repealed. It’s not happening. What is there to say?

Traits and hobosacks are legitimate ongoing issues. I can almost guarantee they’re working on traits. I guess they could come in every few days and say we’re still working on it, but programming takes time.

Hobosacks, no idea if they’re working on it or not. I suspect it’s low priority, though.

I don’t know why people think that we need someone to constantly come into threads saying we know about this and we’re looking into it. Things in big companies don’t get changed over night and programming takes time.

Anet should just hire this ^^^^ guy. He seems to think he has all the answers.

NYG.2568:

Vayne.8563:

CrashTestAuto.9108:

The traits thread, SAB threads, megaserver threads and hobosacks thread (off the top of my head) are in need of attention.

That said, Gaile is trying to keep us informed as well as Chris.

SAB threads are what exactly? Anet said right now it’s not coming back, during this season of the living story. That’s all they’re going to say. There’s no need for more communication on this. If people don’t want to accept it, there’s nothing anyone can do. That’s the decision.

Megaservers are being worked on, we’ve even seen some changes recently to guild missions and they said they’re working on stuff for larger guilds. The mega server isn’t being repealed. It’s not happening. What is there to say?

Traits and hobosacks are legitimate ongoing issues. I can almost guarantee they’re working on traits. I guess they could come in every few days and say we’re still working on it, but programming takes time.

Hobosacks, no idea if they’re working on it or not. I suspect it’s low priority, though.

I don’t know why people think that we need someone to constantly come into threads saying we know about this and we’re looking into it. Things in big companies don’t get changed over night and programming takes time.

Anet should just hire this ^^^^ guy. He seems to think he has all the answers.

I don’t suspect I have all the answers or even most of them. But I’ll certainly call people out who claim to have them and probably don’t.

And then don’t answer when I call out you on flawed logic.

Vayne.8563:

NYG.2568:

Vayne.8563:

CrashTestAuto.9108:

The traits thread, SAB threads, megaserver threads and hobosacks thread (off the top of my head) are in need of attention.

That said, Gaile is trying to keep us informed as well as Chris.

SAB threads are what exactly? Anet said right now it’s not coming back, during this season of the living story. That’s all they’re going to say. There’s no need for more communication on this. If people don’t want to accept it, there’s nothing anyone can do. That’s the decision.

Megaservers are being worked on, we’ve even seen some changes recently to guild missions and they said they’re working on stuff for larger guilds. The mega server isn’t being repealed. It’s not happening. What is there to say?

Traits and hobosacks are legitimate ongoing issues. I can almost guarantee they’re working on traits. I guess they could come in every few days and say we’re still working on it, but programming takes time.

Hobosacks, no idea if they’re working on it or not. I suspect it’s low priority, though.

I don’t know why people think that we need someone to constantly come into threads saying we know about this and we’re looking into it. Things in big companies don’t get changed over night and programming takes time.

Anet should just hire this ^^^^ guy. He seems to think he has all the answers.

I don’t suspect I have all the answers or even most of them. But I’ll certainly call people out who claim to have them and probably don’t.

Except you don’t just call people out for that. You shoot down other commenters whenever you feel like it. My comment was:

“The traits thread, SAB threads, megaserver threads and hobosacks thread (off the top of my head) are in need of attention.
That said, Gaile is trying to keep us informed as well as Chris.”

Now I don’t know what you felt about me noting four threads that need attention and then crediting two members of ANet staff for the communication they are doing that was in some way needing " someone to constantly come into threads" or “claiming to have all the answers”, but I’ll address your comments anyway.

We’ve been told that SAB isn’t coming back during this Living Story. Okay, but we aren’t actually in a Living Story at the moment. Moreover, I don’t know how you could possibly construe this information as there being nothing more anyone could do.

The megaservers aren’t something I follow. I know the RP community felt/feels neglected, and have little to add.

I don’t know why you feel “almost certain” that traits are being addressed, given there have been two red posts on the topic, one of which confirmed they hadn’t been discussed, and one which had no idea what was happening with them.

Hobosacks are a minor fix that has impacted an entire class’ end game (aesthetics is end game) for two years. It isn’t a big issue for many, but it would take so little effort to fix (or to explain why it is more complicated than simply turning them off) that it seems disrespectful given the length of the thread.

Vayne.8563:

NYG.2568:

Vayne.8563:

CrashTestAuto.9108:

The traits thread, SAB threads, megaserver threads and hobosacks thread (off the top of my head) are in need of attention.

That said, Gaile is trying to keep us informed as well as Chris.

SAB threads are what exactly? Anet said right now it’s not coming back, during this season of the living story. That’s all they’re going to say. There’s no need for more communication on this. If people don’t want to accept it, there’s nothing anyone can do. That’s the decision.

Megaservers are being worked on, we’ve even seen some changes recently to guild missions and they said they’re working on stuff for larger guilds. The mega server isn’t being repealed. It’s not happening. What is there to say?

Traits and hobosacks are legitimate ongoing issues. I can almost guarantee they’re working on traits. I guess they could come in every few days and say we’re still working on it, but programming takes time.

Hobosacks, no idea if they’re working on it or not. I suspect it’s low priority, though.

I don’t know why people think that we need someone to constantly come into threads saying we know about this and we’re looking into it. Things in big companies don’t get changed over night and programming takes time.

Anet should just hire this ^^^^ guy. He seems to think he has all the answers.

I don’t suspect I have all the answers or even most of them. But I’ll certainly call people out who claim to have them and probably don’t.

Yet your on every thread attacking in my opinion. Other peoples comments,thoughts,critiques,concerns,or what have you. You are not an Anet Dev stop trying to do there job and let others have there say. Let Anet do there job and answer or reply.
I’ve seen you post its a small percentage of people on these forums about what they like or complain about, and others simply play and enjoy the game. So I ask how much time are you playing and enjoying the game. From what I see very little as you take it upon yourself to read and “answer” most everything.

Vayne.8563:

videoboy.4162:

Chris Whiteside has stated, numerous times, that they’re in the process of hiring more personnel to work on the forums. So, hopefully, things will look up soon and he (and a couple others) won’t be the only ones speaking on the forums.

Raise your hand if you think they should hire me

ducks and runs lol

I’m really sure I read the other week (or thereabouts), someone kinda had you pegged as being in Anet’s employ already.

I personally reckon, with a small bit of training (if that, even), you’d be quite good at handling the forum – whether or not someone agrees with your position on any given thing, you seem quite dedicated, and I respect that.

Ceridwen.6703:

Vayne.8563:

videoboy.4162:

Chris Whiteside has stated, numerous times, that they’re in the process of hiring more personnel to work on the forums. So, hopefully, things will look up soon and he (and a couple others) won’t be the only ones speaking on the forums.

Raise your hand if you think they should hire me

ducks and runs lol

I’m really sure I read the other week (or thereabouts), someone kinda had you pegged as being in Anet’s employ already.

I personally reckon, with a small bit of training (if that, even), you’d be quite good at handling the forum – whether or not someone agrees with your position on any given thing, you seem quite dedicated, and I respect that.

We just want him be become an A-Net employee because then they’ll force him to not post, lol

Galphar.3901:

Ceridwen.6703:

Vayne.8563:

videoboy.4162:

Chris Whiteside has stated, numerous times, that they’re in the process of hiring more personnel to work on the forums. So, hopefully, things will look up soon and he (and a couple others) won’t be the only ones speaking on the forums.

Raise your hand if you think they should hire me

ducks and runs lol

I’m really sure I read the other week (or thereabouts), someone kinda had you pegged as being in Anet’s employ already.

I personally reckon, with a small bit of training (if that, even), you’d be quite good at handling the forum – whether or not someone agrees with your position on any given thing, you seem quite dedicated, and I respect that.

We just want him be become an A-Net employee because then they’ll force him to not post, lol

Aww, don’t be mean, now! The chap stands well for what he believes in. I don’t always agree with what he says, but he has, seemingly, the courage of his convictions. Gotta have some respect for that.

basically nothing from 2 years of discussions and suggestions from players is worth taking into the game for Anet ," but don’t worry because they read they forums everyday.. and discuss it " and your opinion is super important guys keep making those 30 000 view topics see you next year with new mini , dyes ,and back pieces ! "

your opinions are very important , unfortunately not as much to make it into the game.. but dont worry again , sometimes they come to the forums and comment your suggestions to game designers ! but keep trying maybe one day we add something “i cant promise any changes any soon or anything but ill comment it with the game designers” ! ^^ good night everyone! ( see you next year with living story anyways)

Vayne.8563:

You know, it’s not just seeing people are unhappy and thinking about doing something about it. It’s about specifically what to do about it.

So Anet first makes an update and people are unhappy about it. About half the time that happens, most people see it’s not that bad after all, and the problem goes away…because it’s not. The story I remember a dev telling was when DOA was first released in Guild Wars 1 and everyone said it was too hard, it was impossible and there were almost universal calls to nerf it. Same happened with Triple Thread and Tequatl. Lots of calls to nerf. But the community got through it.

Anet has to wait to see the longer term reaction, before they decide there really is a problem and then, they have to determine what the problem actually is (because it’s not always clear) and then they have to decide what to do about it.

There will be meetings, discussions, and you know, everyone may not be in agreement. Some people may want to change things one way and some may want to change it another way. These differences have to be worked out.

Maybe the fans are asking for something that ultimately doesn’t fit into whatever else is being worked on. Maybe there are changes Anet is willing to make, but other changes have to be made first.

For example, we know Anet is working on something for altoholics, but we don’t know what it is. Maybe that thing will make other changes unnecessary and so there’s no reason to work on some of the complaints.

Yeah, Anet should probably tell us more, but the fact is, every minute spent pacifying the forum (sometimes over very little) is another minute not doing something else. There’s been more communication on the forum, a single thread gets deleted that was all over the place and suddenly people feel Anet isn’t communicating again?

The need for constant communication from developers here is really over the top.

Speaking of a story about the community in an uproar and ANet waiting it out. A Guild Wars 2 story I have is distinctly about the dungeons. Everyone I knew in my guilds and friendslists, etc. Complained and whined about how HARD the dungeons in the the game were when you got to the explorables. The called for nerfs and reworks. And even more it was “Too hard for no reward!”

ANet waited it out but did give us tweaks to the rewards making champs always drop 7-16 silvers.

A few months went by and once people started getting their exotics and we all learned the mechanics of the game (it still amuses me that Vets now say that the game is too easy as far as mechanics go, and complain about ANet changing it for new players not remembering the large portion of the start of the game when people had trouble learning it all) it was then and is no today considered “Too Easy!”

And that’s after several of the updates to it. Though I am glad now that they found a nice reward balance to difficulty.

“This Too, Shall Pass” my friends.

Ceridwen.6703:

Galphar.3901:

Ceridwen.6703:

Vayne.8563:

videoboy.4162:

Chris Whiteside has stated, numerous times, that they’re in the process of hiring more personnel to work on the forums. So, hopefully, things will look up soon and he (and a couple others) won’t be the only ones speaking on the forums.

Raise your hand if you think they should hire me

ducks and runs lol

I’m really sure I read the other week (or thereabouts), someone kinda had you pegged as being in Anet’s employ already.

I personally reckon, with a small bit of training (if that, even), you’d be quite good at handling the forum – whether or not someone agrees with your position on any given thing, you seem quite dedicated, and I respect that.

We just want him be become an A-Net employee because then they’ll force him to not post, lol

Aww, don’t be mean, now! The chap stands well for what he believes in. I don’t always agree with what he says, but he has, seemingly, the courage of his convictions. Gotta have some respect for that.

I consider it trolling, and a blatant disrespect of others opinions…

Vayne.8563:

Galphar.3901:

Vayne.8563:

Yeah, Anet should probably tell us more, but the fact is, every minute spent pacifying the forum (sometimes over very little) is another minute not doing something else.

Isn’t that why they have the forum GMs? All the devs would need to do is shoot an email to the forum GMs and then they could relay that info to us.

So the forum GMs have to stop and interupt the devs, how many times a day? It’s amazing that people think this is so simple. Like there’s one dev that knows everything, has already made every decision and we can just go to that guy. It doesn’t work like that.

If a decision has yet to be made, or they’re discussing a number of options NO DEV will know, because a decision haven’t been made.

So you’ll get a message as a dev from a community manager saying, “The people they’re really up in arms about traits, what do I tell them?”

That dev might go and say, no decision has been reached but we’re talking about it. So now, the forum guy says that. Doesn’t mollify the forums at all. Not even a little. Next day the forum is up in arms so the forum person goes back to the dev and says “Any decision yet.”

The dev says no.

But every time the dev has to go to his email to tell the forum guy we have no new info is time they’re breaking their chain of thought on what they’re working on.

There’s no real good reason to tell people you’re going to do something but you’re not sure what yet more than once.

Also lets not forget when a Dev is misinformed and accidently says something on the forums or in an interview. Like waht started the SAB thing when some WvW Devs got asked a question about stuff they only vaguely new about. Said something in the wrong way that indicated that SAB and Dungeons were never going to be worked on again. (That is NOT what they said, btw) But People take things and twist them around making them worse than if they’d said nothing at all.

Personally this whole situation is a kitten ed if you do, kitten ed if you don’t scenario for the Devs. If one person says the wrong thing the angered community crucifies the poor people.

And that is my biggest concern, we forget that the guys and gals making this wonderful game for us are JUST humans. And they also play this game as well. You don’t have to believe it if you don’t want to, but I know for a fact even some of the higher ups actually play in their free time (I have one on my friendslist). Just remember before you get the torches and pitchforks, they are human too. To Err is Human, and all humans make errors.

A company is just a big lump of humans, and any change that is made has to be looked at by several people before anything can even happen.

NYG.2568:

Vayne.8563:

NYG.2568:

Vayne.8563:

CrashTestAuto.9108:

The traits thread, SAB threads, megaserver threads and hobosacks thread (off the top of my head) are in need of attention.

That said, Gaile is trying to keep us informed as well as Chris.

SAB threads are what exactly? Anet said right now it’s not coming back, during this season of the living story. That’s all they’re going to say. There’s no need for more communication on this. If people don’t want to accept it, there’s nothing anyone can do. That’s the decision.

Megaservers are being worked on, we’ve even seen some changes recently to guild missions and they said they’re working on stuff for larger guilds. The mega server isn’t being repealed. It’s not happening. What is there to say?

Traits and hobosacks are legitimate ongoing issues. I can almost guarantee they’re working on traits. I guess they could come in every few days and say we’re still working on it, but programming takes time.

Hobosacks, no idea if they’re working on it or not. I suspect it’s low priority, though.

I don’t know why people think that we need someone to constantly come into threads saying we know about this and we’re looking into it. Things in big companies don’t get changed over night and programming takes time.

Anet should just hire this ^^^^ guy. He seems to think he has all the answers.

I don’t suspect I have all the answers or even most of them. But I’ll certainly call people out who claim to have them and probably don’t.

Yet your on every thread attacking in my opinion. Other peoples comments,thoughts,critiques,concerns,or what have you. You are not an Anet Dev stop trying to do there job and let others have there say. Let Anet do there job and answer or reply.
I’ve seen you post its a small percentage of people on these forums about what they like or complain about, and others simply play and enjoy the game. So I ask how much time are you playing and enjoying the game. From what I see very little as you take it upon yourself to read and “answer” most everything.

I have never seen Vayne attack ANYONE ever. In fact not but a week ago did he call me out for falling people haters. He level-headedly explained to m about how he thought that they were valid for being upset and expressing themselves.

Vayne a great dude with a nice head on his shoulders. We don’t always see eye to eye even in out collective love of the game and many of its practices. But, there is one thing for certain he is one of the last people to ever attack you.

Though, if you consider someone who offers a different opinion and explains with examples reasons for his thoughts on a subject as attacking, then I don’t know what to tell you. Keep on thinking he’s attacking people I guess?

Paradox.1380:

NYG.2568:

Vayne.8563:

NYG.2568:

Vayne.8563:

CrashTestAuto.9108:

The traits thread, SAB threads, megaserver threads and hobosacks thread (off the top of my head) are in need of attention.

That said, Gaile is trying to keep us informed as well as Chris.

SAB threads are what exactly? Anet said right now it’s not coming back, during this season of the living story. That’s all they’re going to say. There’s no need for more communication on this. If people don’t want to accept it, there’s nothing anyone can do. That’s the decision.

Megaservers are being worked on, we’ve even seen some changes recently to guild missions and they said they’re working on stuff for larger guilds. The mega server isn’t being repealed. It’s not happening. What is there to say?

Traits and hobosacks are legitimate ongoing issues. I can almost guarantee they’re working on traits. I guess they could come in every few days and say we’re still working on it, but programming takes time.

Hobosacks, no idea if they’re working on it or not. I suspect it’s low priority, though.

I don’t know why people think that we need someone to constantly come into threads saying we know about this and we’re looking into it. Things in big companies don’t get changed over night and programming takes time.

Anet should just hire this ^^^^ guy. He seems to think he has all the answers.

I don’t suspect I have all the answers or even most of them. But I’ll certainly call people out who claim to have them and probably don’t.

Yet your on every thread attacking in my opinion. Other peoples comments,thoughts,critiques,concerns,or what have you. You are not an Anet Dev stop trying to do there job and let others have there say. Let Anet do there job and answer or reply.
I’ve seen you post its a small percentage of people on these forums about what they like or complain about, and others simply play and enjoy the game. So I ask how much time are you playing and enjoying the game. From what I see very little as you take it upon yourself to read and “answer” most everything.

I have never seen Vayne attack ANYONE ever. In fact not but a week ago did he call me out for falling people haters. He level-headedly explained to m about how he thought that they were valid for being upset and expressing themselves.

Vayne a great dude with a nice head on his shoulders. We don’t always see eye to eye even in out collective love of the game and many of its practices. But, there is one thing for certain he is one of the last people to ever attack you.

Though, if you consider someone who offers a different opinion and explains with examples reasons for his thoughts on a subject as attacking, then I don’t know what to tell you. Keep on thinking he’s attacking people I guess?

You are absolutely right. Attack was a poor choice of word on my part. For that I apologize.