Communication? Disappointment.

Communication? Disappointment.

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Posted by: Phenn.5167

Phenn.5167

A few points here that’ve been running through my mind over the last year of communication problems.

1. There’s a distinct flavor of hypocrisy in the player’s experience of communication-versus-reality. So very often, changes to classes (for example) appear with the flavor text “We’ve heard you wanted/needed this,” when in reality, the forums have overwhelmingly said the opposite. Or, as another example, despite the player base clamoring for end game (even if it be cosmetic pursuits), all the most recent skins have appeared in the gem store.

This more than a lack of red posts screams to forum goers, “We actually don’t read the forums.”

2. Feature Updates (once again, particularly with respect to class balance) almost never include rationales with the changes.

Good communication says, “We did ______ because this group of players (PvP, WvW, PvE) have said it needed work. We recognize the change impacts these three other things (PvP change hurts PvE), but we’re going to let it stand and watch it for the next month.”

Thus far, however, ANet excels only at making seemingly unwarranted and unjustified changes without explaining why, who requested it, and what it’s supposed to accomplish. Further, devs almost never acknowledge the extreme impact changes may have on other areas of the game.

3. We’ve rarely, if ever, (I can’t remember a time) heard, “Players, we were wrong.” Or, “We over did/under did _______.”

Ultimately, it’s about quality of communication, not quantity. I, for one, will only begin to trust ANet’s ability to communicate when they:

Prove they’re listening by acting consistently with stated values and feedback.
Explain themselves clearly and candidly.
Admit when they go wrong.

Just my two cents.

Communication? Disappointment.

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Posted by: ipan.4356

ipan.4356

Gaile Gray

Is there, or is there not, an expansion being developed?

Communication? Disappointment.

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Posted by: Kartel.2561

Kartel.2561

Believe it or not, it’s actually ok if certain projects don’t work out as planned or get scrapped. I mean, not preferable of course. But as long as we’re kept in the loop and allowed to know what’s going on and allowed to understand, there really isn’t much room for fault. It’s worth a heck of a lot to know you at least tried and that you listed to us and really did try to deliver. Just honestly falling short of a goal but having given it a “best effort” ..and being open and honest about it. That’s more than forgivable. That’s admirable.

For so long, there are so many things I had hoped to see AT LAUNCH in this game, and now 2yrs later I still don’t know what the status is or if they’re even happening at all. This game is getting to just feel aimless. It feels like it’s just not going anywhere, or anywhere good at least. Not anywhere I and others have been hoping for. Just endless silence, and then once in a blue moon there’s a small story update, or a feature pack with stuff that wasn’t asked for and very little if anything that was asked for.

Honestly now, what am I to make of this? This dev company has had my money, loyalty, and praises for 9 YEARS. And now it feels like we’re incredibly lucky if we get even a small pittance of actual content, and important features that have been missing from the beginning are still missing, with not even a word about what, if anything, is actually being worked on. Again, what exactly am I supposed to perceive from this?

I see a company that doesn’t listen to or care about us.
I see a company that is producing shockingly little content / features for such a large staff, when they produced so much more in the old days with a smaller staff.
I see a company that does not respect or appreciate its fans, who expects us to keep shelling out money on gems, even though we aren’t allowed to have any picture at all about what kind of development we are supporting.

Are these perceptions incorrect? Well if so, then please SHOW US. Don’t just leave us in darkness and silence, infrequently feeding us gruel that isn’t what we’ve been asking for. It’s not up to the customers to indefinitely “have faith” despite evidence to the contrary. It’s up to the business to give us reasons to still believe in you, and those reasons have been getting fewer and farther between.

When GW2 was in development, coming from GW1, I had no doubt at all that I’d stick with this game for many years ..for as long as it ran, or until GW3 or something. I had no doubt I’d buy gems, buy any expansions that came out, etc. I was FULLY onboard, and have tried to remain so these past couple years. But I’m tired of trying, tired of singing praises, tired of grinding and being ignored. Currently I just can’t see remaining loyal for even more years. Not the way Anet is now. I wanted to; I really did. But this isn’t sustainable. Call me crazy, but I think alienating long-time repeat customers is not a good way to run a business or ensure more business in the future. You’re getting more competition building up (which should get especially serious when EQN releases). The more other companies deliver on what you couldn’t be bothered to, the less people will care about this company or this game. This coming not from a “hater”, but a loyal fan. I really wish you guys would reconsider how you’re going about things.

I’m not trying to be “negative”. I’m trying to make you understand because I’m really not convinced you do. Maybe some do. But those at the top making the real decisions clearly don’t seem to.

Guild: Everlasting Sacred Path [ESP]
Server: Tarnished Coast

Communication? Disappointment.

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Posted by: Guhracie.3419

Guhracie.3419

3. We’ve rarely, if ever, (I can’t remember a time) heard, “Players, we were wrong.” Or, “We over did/under did _______.”

Ultimately, it’s about quality of communication, not quantity. I, for one, will only begin to trust ANet’s ability to communicate when they:

Prove they’re listening by acting consistently with stated values and feedback.
Explain themselves clearly and candidly.
Admit when they go wrong.

Just my two cents.

Very well stated. I will say that I can think of at least two situations where ANET has owned up to making a poor decision: One is when they put the human cultural T3 (light?) armor in as the flamekissed set. The second is John Smith talking about last year’s Halloween events and the way the candy corn sinks were set up. That’s just off the top of my head.

“Be angry about legendary weapons, sure, but what about the recent drought of content?”
-Mike O’Brien
Because we can’t be angry about both?

Communication? Disappointment.

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Posted by: Blockhead Magee.3092

Blockhead Magee.3092

Gaile Gray

Is there, or is there not, an expansion being developed?

She can’t answer that. Either she knows, in which case the company policy forbids her from discussing it or she doesn’t know, in which case she doesn’t know the answer.

FWIW, they need an expansion. In my opinion, the living story is a miserable excuse for new content.

SBI

Communication? Disappointment.

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Posted by: Guhracie.3419

Guhracie.3419

“Be angry about legendary weapons, sure, but what about the recent drought of content?”
-Mike O’Brien
Because we can’t be angry about both?

Communication? Disappointment.

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Posted by: Vlad Morbius.1759

Vlad Morbius.1759

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/looking-ahead-guild-wars-2-in-2013/
Yes, I like that, too! I’ll pass along the suggestion.

Any progress on this Gaile?

Vini, Vidi, Vici, Viridis…I came, I saw, I conquered…I got a green??

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Posted by: Guhracie.3419

Guhracie.3419

Any progress on any of these things? Anyone? …Bueller?

“Be angry about legendary weapons, sure, but what about the recent drought of content?”
-Mike O’Brien
Because we can’t be angry about both?

Communication? Disappointment.

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Posted by: Zaoda.1653

Zaoda.1653

Gaile Gray

Is there, or is there not, an expansion being developed?

Chances of getting a yes/no/detailed answer from a dev is about the same as Pinocchio successfully lying:

Forever a supporter of more male skimpy armor

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Posted by: Roybe.5896

Roybe.5896

Gaile Gray

Is there, or is there not, an expansion being developed?

Chances of getting a yes/no/detailed answer from a dev is about the same as Pinocchio successfully lying:

My suggestion…at least it’s something.

http://www.ask8ball.net/

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Posted by: Rage.9723

Rage.9723

More direct communication obviously helps instead of trying to grasp at straws that don’t exist.

Communication? Disappointment.

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Posted by: Lady Elvea.2847

Lady Elvea.2847

Speaking of community managers… whatever happened to the person who got passed the torch when Gaile moved on to her new job?

Communication? Disappointment.

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Posted by: Guhracie.3419

Guhracie.3419

“Be angry about legendary weapons, sure, but what about the recent drought of content?”
-Mike O’Brien
Because we can’t be angry about both?

Communication? Disappointment.

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Posted by: Guhracie.3419

Guhracie.3419

I guess courtesy just isn’t a thing anymore.

“Be angry about legendary weapons, sure, but what about the recent drought of content?”
-Mike O’Brien
Because we can’t be angry about both?

Communication? Disappointment.

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Posted by: Scryeless.1924

Scryeless.1924

Gaile Gray:

Is Anet working on an expansion or not?

This made me lol so hard. I don’t know why. Guess i was just caught off guard. Just reading through the posts and everyone is more or less round a bout on topic even when off topic and then bam.

SoS – Ele – Burn Me, Freeze Me, Blind Me, Pound Me — Wait…What?
Warrior – The New Burninator! Strongbad would be so proud!
Guardian – Burn for you, heal for me, block for me and uh…sorry Im all out of gifts.

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Posted by: Guhracie.3419

Guhracie.3419

So, just curious. Does anyone else remember when the NPE first came out and Chris Whiteside said he was going to play through it with us to hear our feedback? There was a whole group of us.

Anyway. It’s been two months and two content patches since then. I’ve never heard another word about it, and I’m no longer interested, at this point.

“Be angry about legendary weapons, sure, but what about the recent drought of content?”
-Mike O’Brien
Because we can’t be angry about both?

Communication? Disappointment.

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Posted by: IndigoSundown.5419

IndigoSundown.5419

So, just curious. Does anyone else remember when the NPE first came out and Chris Whiteside said he was going to play through it with us to hear our feedback? There was a whole group of us.

Anyway. It’s been two months and two content patches since then. I’ve never heard another word about it, and I’m no longer interested, at this point.

I suspect he either forgot, got immersed in the two CDI’s since then, or both.

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Posted by: Korossive.7085

Korossive.7085

Soon™
Exciting™
No specifics yet
Being considered
Being discussed
Aware
Under wraps
Can’t go into details
No timeframe yet
Dev listening
Communication important

Just my guesses.

(edited by Korossive.7085)

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Posted by: Kveldulf.7605

Kveldulf.7605

^ I see what you did there…

But this whole communication thing here is just poor…
Players ask for something → No response
Players want something → getting something completly different (what we get is awesome and appreciated though! Well…after the fixes ofc…)
Players are fine with things they are → changes are coming and freaking the community out (srsly…Personal story…why all these changes?!)

by now I get why so many people are frustrated at this point…

Kveldulf Frost – Thief (Charr)
Wlaadas Frost – Warrior (Charr) Torlic Frost – Guardian (Norn)
http://amalthea-gw2.de

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Posted by: Star Ace.5207

Star Ace.5207

Grass is greener, etc. AA is a better example of companies not caring/communicating with players. It is my opinion that ANet tends to care too much about player opinions, not the other way around (no offense to those who disagree.)

Communication? Disappointment.

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Posted by: tigirius.9014

tigirius.9014

Arena net has some of the worst communication out of any game company I can think of. When they’re not giving crappy non-answers and ignoring problems, they’re outright lying to the playerbase.

you really wont see a change in communication. Josh foreman got yelled at for communicating TOO MUCH. Even if anyone at anet WANTED to communicate, they wont be able to because the higher ups deemed it bad for business.

I’ve only been around for a few months, but in that time, I’ve seen them not only make an effort to communicate more, but Gaile now has the title “ArenaNet Forum Communications Team Lead” and has been posting in several threads.

If that’s non-answers and outright lying, then consider me fully duped.

Duping!!?! ~gasp!~ Oh, sorry, different type, gotcha.

Things aren’t going to change overnight, but we are making a concerted effort to improve communications. Not every thread gets — or realistically can get — a reply. That is driven not so much by a particular topic but more critically by sheer volume. And yes, not every question can be answered, but maybe it just can’t be answered in the short term, or maybe it’s taken under consideration for a more focused means of communication, such as a CDI, or maybe you’ll see an answer in the Update Notes. And sure, I guess some questions will go unanswered, too, but not for lack of effort or interest.

The truth is, you’re noticing, or I hope you’re noticing: We’re actively taking steps to be more communicative and involved, and we’ll continue to do so as time passes.

The problem is Gaile that we’ve been patient as hades on some of these topics but we’ve gotten 0 communication. The hobosack post for example has hundreds of replies 25 pages worth at my last count and it’s age is going on 2 years now. It’s that bad. So when some of are saying that Arenanet has the most terrible policy when it comes to communication, we point to those threads that ARE important to the players but pretty much get left in limbo eternally by the team. It’s 2 years on a post in the forums, on something that should have been simple to code (and yes I know game coders so I know it’s not that difficult to do) so imagine our disappointment on this scale. We supported the game, we got a reply early on and then bam nothing for 2 years on a single topic. It’s ridiculous. Any other industry and there would be some heads rolling if customers were made to wait this long for an answer I guarantee.

Balance Team: Please Fix Mine Toolbelt Positioning!

Communication? Disappointment.

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Posted by: Guhracie.3419

Guhracie.3419

Soon™
Exciting™
No specifics yet
Being considered
Being discussed
Aware
Under wraps
Can’t go into details
No timeframe yet
Dev listening
Communication important

Just my guesses.

You forgot “Nothing is off the table” in your list.

“Be angry about legendary weapons, sure, but what about the recent drought of content?”
-Mike O’Brien
Because we can’t be angry about both?

Communication? Disappointment.

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Posted by: Korossive.7085

Korossive.7085

Soon™
Exciting™
No specifics yet
Being considered
Being discussed
Aware
Under wraps
Can’t go into details
No timeframe yet
Dev listening
Communication important

Just my guesses.

You forgot “Nothing is off the table” in your list.

Attachments:

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Posted by: IndigoSundown.5419

IndigoSundown.5419

Whine about communication being bad after you’ve played a game where there wasn’t a single new post in the Dev Tracker for months. You people have no clue what bad communication is.

Communication? Disappointment.

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Posted by: Tobias Trueflight.8350

Tobias Trueflight.8350

Whine about communication being bad after you’ve played a game where there wasn’t a single new post in the Dev Tracker for months. You people have no clue what bad communication is.

Or how about: “It’s broken, that doesn’t work.” “Working as intended.” “It . . . doesn’t work.” “Obviously you’re not doing something right.”

Seeking assistants for the Asuran Catapult Project. Applicants will be tested for aerodynamics.

Communication? Disappointment.

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Posted by: Cole Eyre.8471

Cole Eyre.8471

Gaile Gray

Is there, or is there not, an expansion being developed?

Maybe Gaile can’t answer that but, someone at aNet needs to. Because there’s an elephant in the room and someone needs to say something.

Every time I login, visit the forums, etc, people are talking about an expansion. I patiently sit there listening as friends, guildies, etc, expound on the critical importance of an expansion to their continued usage of this game. Seriously, the mood I’m seeing is entirely too reminiscent of the tapering out of GW1.

Communication? Disappointment.

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Posted by: Guhracie.3419

Guhracie.3419

Whine about communication being bad after you’ve played a game where there wasn’t a single new post in the Dev Tracker for months. You people have no clue what bad communication is.

Earlier this year, the only dev posts in the dev tracker were from Gaile Grey on support issues, patch notes, and the occasional random comment. For about four months. I do know what bad communication is. This is it. The devs explicitly came out and said it was a problem that needed to be fixed. I’m not whining, I’m responding to their claims of improvements.

“Be angry about legendary weapons, sure, but what about the recent drought of content?”
-Mike O’Brien
Because we can’t be angry about both?

Communication? Disappointment.

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Posted by: Torsailr.8456

Torsailr.8456

Whine about communication being bad after you’ve played a game where there wasn’t a single new post in the Dev Tracker for months. You people have no clue what bad communication is.

There are two types of communication. Good, and everything else. This is not good communication. That you know of games with worse communication is irrelevant; it doesn’t magically turn this into good communication.

Communication? Disappointment.

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Posted by: IndigoSundown.5419

IndigoSundown.5419

Whine about communication being bad after you’ve played a game where there wasn’t a single new post in the Dev Tracker for months. You people have no clue what bad communication is.

Earlier this year, the only dev posts in the dev tracker were from Gaile Grey on support issues, patch notes, and the occasional random comment. For about four months. I do know what bad communication is. This is it. The devs explicitly came out and said it was a problem that needed to be fixed. I’m not whining, I’m responding to their claims of improvements.

Well, I recognize that’s your opinion and all, but this is really not bad communication. I know ANet said they were going to try to do better, and there is room for improvement. That does not mean that this is anywhere near the bottom of the continuum on good to bad communication. Maybe you just haven’t seen worse.

I remember a thread from several months ago in which someone complained about lack of communication over a given period, saying there was no communication at all. So I checked the dev tracker, and there were seven pages of posts, and not just Community Reps, patch notes and random comments. That’s just one snapshot, but four months of just Gaile? I call gratuitous exaggeration, if not outright bull kitten. What’s more likely is there were four months of no responses to things that concerned you.

Similarly, there are a lot more threads now with red posts. I believe the real issue is not that Anet is failing to communicate, it’s that certain posters are not having their particular itch scratched.

So, sorry if I offended, but to me the complaints about bad communication seem very much like first-world problems and overblown ones at that. If its any consolation, it was not your OP that sparked my negative reaction.

There are two types of communication. Good, and everything else. This is not good communication. That you know of games with worse communication is irrelevant; it doesn’t magically turn this into good communication.

There are two types of communication, bad and everything else. This (lately) is not bad communication. That you are not satisfied (as if some posters would ever be satisfied) is irrelevant; it doesn’t magically turn this into objectively bad communication.

(edited by IndigoSundown.5419)

Communication? Disappointment.

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Posted by: Guhracie.3419

Guhracie.3419

My phrasing was poor about the posts earlier this year. I meant that Ms. Grey posted about support issues, and then other devs posted patch notes, and there were random comments here and there by “reds,” which really didn’t amount to much.

I appreciate your comment that it wasn’t my original post that sparked yours, though. I am earnest about this thread’s intended topic, and I’m glad it shows.

“Be angry about legendary weapons, sure, but what about the recent drought of content?”
-Mike O’Brien
Because we can’t be angry about both?

Communication? Disappointment.

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Posted by: rapthorne.7345

rapthorne.7345

Since I have been here (the past few months only, admittedly) the communication has been much improved (even when I made my thread on the topic, Gaile took plenty of time to respond to people’s concerns). I believe much of this is due to – I believe – Gaile now being part of the player communications team, rather than the French something or other person.

There’s definitely room for improvement in terms of development decisions and transparency, but at this point I simply believe that community members (on both sides of the wall) need to learn to respect the opinions of others.

I’ve suggested several things to Gaile through PM that could be done, but in the end, ANet will abide by whatever policy is in their best business interests, and let’s be honest – Guild Wars 2, even with the staff communication barriers, is probably one of the best MMORPG’s on the market.

I think perhaps people forget that GW2 is such a high quality product compared with other games on the market, and this makes them perhaps expect a little more than what is realistically possible.

Resident smug Englishman on the NA servers, just because.

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Posted by: stale.9785

stale.9785

I had a long post typed up, with suggestions for better communication, and ways to address the hot issues for the playerbase (precursors, trait problems, the much talked about but never delivered “expansion style content”, game balance, etc.) and just realized something.

Why bother? Between “we can’t tell you” and complete silence, we have the two available answers. Either they don’t have anything going on worth talking about in terms of development and fixes, or they honestly don’t have enough good will toward their customers to bother keeping us interested/informed.

The list of issues I myself have raised could fill a short novel – the responses from devs wouldn’t cover one side of a fortune cookie slip. The things we want and care about in game are visibly of no import to the people helming the ship.

Gaile, milady, you are the best part of Anet – Visible, and caring. I hope that the monumental and thankless task that is your job never dulls your spirit. You deserve better than how we treat you, and none of us say thank you quite enough. I’ve never met you, nor do I expect to, but you can have the shirt off my back just by asking.

I truly hope that the people who you work for pull their heads out of their kitten and finally fix some of what’s wrong. I just don’t have faith in it anymore.

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Posted by: dlonie.6547

dlonie.6547

I truly hope that the people who you work for pull their heads out of their kitten and finally fix some of what’s wrong. I just don’t have faith in it anymore.

QFT.

“We’re listening” is a step in the right direction, but right now, there’s not a lot to look forward to in this game, besides watching more people leave…

Give us something for kitten’s sake. Poor Gaile is on the frontlines having to deal with all of this, but is given no leeway to actually say anything useful. I feel bad for her :-(

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Posted by: IndigoSundown.5419

IndigoSundown.5419

My phrasing was poor about the posts earlier this year. I meant that Ms. Grey posted about support issues, and then other devs posted patch notes, and there were random comments here and there by “reds,” which really didn’t amount to much.

I appreciate your comment that it wasn’t my original post that sparked yours, though. I am earnest about this thread’s intended topic, and I’m glad it shows.

I believe that there is only one topic worth addressing re ANet communication. That topic is their policy to not talk about development. It is this policy, which can only be changed at the highest level where it originated, that is — I believe — the root cause of much of the complaints.

I believe that ANet employees have made a concerted effort to improve communication and should be commended for it, especially those who take it home with them. However, no matter how much they post, people are going to be dissatisfied when they don’t hear about what’s coming until it’s already upon us. Sure, failure to follow up on past development discussion has resulted in forum backlash. However, the policy seems to be generating even more negativity — and I believe Mike O’Brien should consider that.

In simpler terms, I am no longer concerned about the volume of communication, but I believe that the non-disclosure policy influences the content of that communication in a way that is fundamentally unsatisfying to many posters.

Communication? Disappointment.

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Posted by: Facepunch.5710

Facepunch.5710

The hush hush policy, particularly in reference to any expansion in development, suggests to me that there is no expansion being worked on, or at least nothing even reasonably close to a release. What does ANet have to lose by saying “Yep, we are working on an expansion but we are not going to discuss a single detail related to specific content.”? Not much, I think, but it would foster a lot of good will with the community. Now, what do they have to lose by saying “There is no expansion in the works, the plan for the foreseeable future is the Living Story content.”? A sizeable chunk of players is my guess. Hence, zero comment on expansions.

Please take your tinfoil hats off and be reasonable. ~ReginaB
This forum is a wretched hive of scum and villainy. ~DevilLordLaser

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Posted by: Robert.4197

Robert.4197

I think I had a pretty good suggestion in another thread:

I was thinking and maybe this has been suggested in the past, what if some neutral/ unbiased forum members volunteered to read the forums on a daily basis. Every week the members would post the most important issues in to a single thread and then if the devs agree, approved issues could be copied in to a locked sticky thread with weekly or monthly updates. Another possible solution is maybe take a weekly poll/vote on top issues of the week. Maybe all forum members can participate in this one.

If you guys agree/disagree or have your own suggestion on how to improve communication, please post there.

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Posted by: phantomlord.3417

phantomlord.3417

It seems the upper management is the problem http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/ArenaNet-Reviews-E255820.htm

Generalrob

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Posted by: Korossive.7085

Korossive.7085

It seems the upper management is the problem http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/ArenaNet-Reviews-E255820.htm

Outch! Just read a few of those 3/5 years in there…
Seems like some employees think just what we do on their management…

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Posted by: dlonie.6547

dlonie.6547

http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Employee-Review-ArenaNet-RVW4484689.htm

  • Morale is dropping, veterans are departing.
  • Company feels rudderless. Upper management are virtually walling themselves off from the rest of the company.
  • Decision to move to Living World (with content updates every two weeks) was not well thought through and poorly implemented. Long hours, meddling from upper management, poor communication from the top who expected epic Hollywood production without investing in new technology or manpower.
  • Inexperienced producers. Some are struggling but doing great work, others will ride their teams into the ground.
  • Long, brutal crunches that can last months. Burnout is becoming commonplace.
  • Petty senior personnel who will throw people under a bus if they don’t get their way.
  • Poor pay, hard to attract and keep talent. Especially programmers.
  • Growing reliance on temp talent. It’s a long, hard slog to get converted to full time. Unless you get hired on as full time, expect to be on a temp contract.
  • Willingness by upper management to let designer vacancies stay vacant at a time when talent is sorely needed.
  • Hard to take time off without feeling like you are abandoning the team.
  • Everything seems one step away from crisis mode.
  • Buggy internal tools.
  • Problematic staffers who should have been fired long ago are still employed because of seniority/who they know.
  • No incentive to reward clever thinking or hard work.

Ouch.

To any of the folks in the trenches who may read this, <3. This sort of working environment is an awful, awful thing, and please know that my none of my many complaints were directed at you. The implementation of the details in the game is great — the artwork is fantastic, the world is beautiful, and the application’s performance is nothing short of amazing.

It’s your management that needs to get their heads out of their kitten, but it sounds like you know this far, far better than we do.

Again, <3. And thank you.

(edited by dlonie.6547)

Communication? Disappointment.

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Posted by: Guhracie.3419

Guhracie.3419

Guys, the glassdoor stuff is interesting, and the link is fine, but let’s try not to get this thread closed for being off-topic. We don’t need to wave a red banner around about these issues. It’s not constructive. Thanks.

“Be angry about legendary weapons, sure, but what about the recent drought of content?”
-Mike O’Brien
Because we can’t be angry about both?

Communication? Disappointment.

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Posted by: HHR LostProphet.4801

HHR LostProphet.4801

Guys, the glassdoor stuff is interesting, and the link is fine, but let’s try not to get this thread closed for being off-topic. We don’t need to wave a red banner around about these issues. It’s not constructive. Thanks.

I agree with you, but…

[…]

Look at the Advice to Management, that’s far more interesting than the Cons part and I would happily support them if they would listen to that advice.

I’ll rest my case now.

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Posted by: dlonie.6547

dlonie.6547

I absolutely respect your wishes, Guhracie, and don’t want to derail the thread. I’ve enjoyed reading your respectful and well worded pleas for communication. I try to be like that, but often get lost in my own frustration.

My reason for posting that was it actually explains a lot. It doesn’t explicitly discuss communication, but it shows that there’s a lot of problems in the company behind the shiny veneer of the GW2 interface or these forums. If the company is directionless and has poor internal communication, that needs to be addressed before we have any chance of seeing external communication improve.

I think the points above add a lot of context and perspective to the communication issues we’re experiencing. In addition to the overall negative tone of these forums, the developers seem to be under a lot of stress from their working conditions, which certainly doesn’t foster a desire to communicate with the players. So they stay silent, and we get more frustrated and negative…vicious cycle :-(

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Posted by: weskay.9217

weskay.9217

Guhracie! Hi!

You’re right about a lot of these. I have been getting increasingly frustrated by the lack of communication between the various topics in here. Of course, replying to every single topic is not realistic but surely they can do a much better job than they are now. I know it isn’t just me – the lack of communication is becoming severely frustrating. I have been a player since Guild Wars 1 and during that time, I don’t remember the communication being nearly as bad as this. What happened since then? I also don’t wish to sound incredibly blunt but how does the company not do anything when they become the laughing stock of a running joke regarding the:

Soon™
Exciting™
No specifics yet
Being considered
Being discussed
Aware
Under wraps
Can’t go into details
No timeframe yet
Dev listening
Communication important

Just my guesses.

You forgot “Nothing is off the table” in your list.

And just to add one from me: When it’s ready™

www.vanquishing.enjin.com

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Posted by: karakurt.8690

karakurt.8690

“Communicating with you” means for me generally : "Well I’d like to help , but not as much as I’d like not to " situation… Check Game Uptades: Traits forum.It is alive proof enough.

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(edited by karakurt.8690)

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Posted by: Kveldulf.7605

Kveldulf.7605

^
just checked that thread out
wow…61 pages of unpleasant comments…6 months old…0 changes since then. geeee…what’s going on? Is this ship about to go down?
lol…I just asked a question on this forum that only a member of the staff could amswer…foolish me…
sigh…

Kveldulf Frost – Thief (Charr)
Wlaadas Frost – Warrior (Charr) Torlic Frost – Guardian (Norn)
http://amalthea-gw2.de

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Posted by: Essence Snow.3194

Essence Snow.3194

Just a heads up Anet…the silence about both the chest farm and the Halloween raffle are two prime examples of what not to do.

Serenity now~Insanity later

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Posted by: Gaile Gray

Previous

Gaile Gray

ArenaNet Communications Manager

Guhracie — we are trying for the “happy medium” that you suggested even while right now we are not in a position to talk about some things that are quite visibly on our players’ minds.

Torsailr — Thank you for your constructive sugggestions. As a matter of fact, one of the key projects that I’ve been tasked with since I became Forum Communications Team Lead is assessing forum software, and the “voting” feature is one that I find very intriguing and believe could be quite useful for us.

tigirius — I’m actively pursuing info in relation to that thread, as you’ve probably noticed. Can’t say what I’ll learn, but the issue is clear and I hope for information to share.

Robert — Interesting idea. I’m investigating things along similar lines, actually.

In general I’m going to see if we can answer some of the major threads — both older and recent. But please know that with a busy team involved in a lot of projects, and most of them very time-critical, it’s not always possible to shift resources to address a particular issue. The fact is, sometimes it’s not even reasonable to ask for a detailed status report. (And again, I do know how frustrating that can be.)

And having said all that, this thread does seem to be heading down a rather off-topic and unnecessarily negative path, and we need to close it. We’d appreciate not seeing resurrections of this topic, when it has been addressed often in the past and to the degree that we’re able to address it right now.

Gaile Gray
Communications Manager
Guild & Fansite Relations; In-Game Events
ArenaNet

(edited by Gaile Gray.6029)