Guild Wars 2

Regardless of perceived unrest by some about unclear communication, please continue communicating ANet.

Communicating vaguely and showing your community you want to communicate is much better than going dark.

Obviously where you can improve and refine your communications, please do, but don’t go back into a no information in or out tendency please and thank you.

Arenanet outsourced their forum moderation. The only forum that actually gets read by developers is the pvp forum. Probably something to do with the fact that it takes them a year to make a balance patch.

^That’s not true. Why would you post such drivel?

Quick Mouse.7635:

Arenanet outsourced their forum moderation. The only forum that actually gets read by developers is the pvp forum. Probably something to do with the fact that it takes them a year to make a balance patch.

Not at all accurate.

Can we at least come to an agreement that the recent interviews are nothing short of embarrassing and not a form of communication with their players?

Domino.1359:

Can we at least come to an agreement that the recent interviews are nothing short of embarrassing and not a form of communication with their players?

As long as we place the blame on the higher-ups who are in charge of controlling the flow of information and not on the individual devs who have been unfortunate enough to have been placed in the hot seat while under a gag order, then…

Yes, we can come to such agreement.

I can certainly agree with that. Pretty much all of the interviews I’ve seen (at least recently, and dating further back I think), whether official anet broadcasts or other dev interviews, have been sloppy. Were I running a game company like this, nobody would be allowed to say anything without going through specific training on how to position things properly to avoid the kerfuffle we’ve seen.

Yes… share what the development process is like… help players understand how long it takes to go from idea to release. Yes… share a bit about how the company is organized and what the overall very high level priority roadmap looks like. Yes… share your excitement for ideas, and Yes… make it clear what your position is in the company and what you do and don’t have influence over. No… don’t guess and No… don’t shrug and say “that would be nice, but” and then share your narrow perspective based on your one small piece of the overall development puzzle. Because, every anet employee is the VOICE OF ANET, and the company doesn’t seem to understand that this is exactly the net effect. One dev shrugs and shows a lack of enthusiasm for an idea, and suddenly anet as a whole is viewed by many as against the idea and people conclude it’s never going to happen. Is that a correct view? NO. Not at all. But it’s what happens, and it’s what anet needs to stop feeding, IMO.

minbariguy.7504:

Domino.1359:

Can we at least come to an agreement that the recent interviews are nothing short of embarrassing and not a form of communication with their players?

As long as we place the blame on the higher-ups who are in charge of controlling the flow of information and not on the individual devs who have been unfortunate enough to have been placed in the hot seat while under a gag order, then…

Yes, we can come to such agreement.

It would be helpful if people in the company didn’t feel like they’d get fired if they share what they’ve been doing without telling us what they are going to do.

We don’t hear details about what they’ve done often if at all. Things like scrapped efforts, ideas that fell through; we also don’t hear about things they will implement until “when it’s done”.

I see no valid reason (except fear) they can’t share what they’ve been doing without telling us what they will implement. For example regarding game modes, why not say, we’ve been experimenting with game modes, like VIP, CTF, KotH. Say they end up implementing some VIP concept later on, when they told us they were experimenting with the VIP concept they don’t have to tell us that this is what they’ll implement.

I’m just looking for honest communication, that’s semi-open. And it’d be nice if the devs didn’t have to seem like they’re trying to walk a tight rope with every conversation they have.

Domino.1359:

Can we at least come to an agreement that the recent interviews are nothing short of embarrassing and not a form of communication with their players?

It’s certainly a method of communication that’s not effective. It IS communicating stuff…it’s communicating it stuff poorly. It’s a really bad look for the company.

Even me, and I’m pretty pro Anet, have a tendency to skip over some of their videos and read the notes, because I don’t feel they offer me anything worth my time. (Not the Ready up Videos, those are okay).

But there certainly should be a monthly report of some kind just to say hi and keep us in some kind of loop.

They’ve learned they cannot announce future plans, because if things don’t go as planned the community is in an uproar, and they take everything that’s said as a promise. Precursor crafting is the best example of this.

On the other hand, i wish i would see more post from Anet. I know they’re reading most threads on the forums, gathering ideas, and listening to feedback. I think showing more post, and cracking some jokes, is healthy for the comminity to see. Even if they are’nt adding much to the thread, it’s just good for players to see thier presence.

I know many topics and players are toxic (especially WvW comminity), but just ignore the haters. Some people will never be happy, and some players are uneducated and don’t understand simple logic. WvW does need some attention though, i’ve never seen a mob so angry. I can understand why Anet is not lining up to post in those threads, but too long without seeing anyone, just looks like you don’t care or you’ve given up.

I like seeing the question thread that John Smith replies to. I admire his courage to post without being ridiculed, and wish more of Anet would follow his lead. After all, the economy is probably the most sensitive topic in the game.