Guild Wars 2

Has anyone else noticed a lack of constructive response from the staff of guild wars 2? I have read through these forums and found attempts at positive threads, starting with a hope that an intelligent response will be made by the developers, and very quickly those threads acquire a more desperate tone, eventually turning negative in their responses by the OP’s and the people who do take the time to respond. And all the while the developers are silent, or if they do interact, it’s just to delete the post all together.
There have been posts here asking why the forum is so negative, I believe it is because of a lack of interest and input by people who could actually enter informative interaction and recognition of the thought processes on these forums.

The days when major studios allow all staff to communicate with fans at their own discretion are gone. Given the reaction of said fans to almost anything the staff says, that policy is understandable.

There is a difference between Moderators and Devs. I don’t think Devs delete posts that often. Also, it depends on the sub-forums. Some sub-forums have Devs posting quite actively in them.

There is the ‘Dev Posts’ thread, you can find…well…Dev Posts pretty much every day in that one. =)

Actually, I’m quite surprised how snarky moderators get sometimes on these forums. Once it was in response to people who were rude, another time, not really. I don’t care. Everyone here is a paying customer. Doesn’t reflect well on ANet at all imo. I can only think of two examples, though. Maybe they are not representative.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

There is a difference between Moderators and Devs. I don’t think Devs delete posts that often.

This.
And most of the time, moderators react to reported posts from other forum users.

Taurok.6708:

Actually, I’m quite surprised how snarky moderators get sometimes on these forums. Once it was in response to people who were rude, another time, not really. I don’t care. Everyone here is a paying customer. Doesn’t reflect well on ANet at all imo. I can only think of two examples, though. Maybe they are not representative.

A paying customer does not have the right to be rude, I do not care how much they pay.

Im pretty that some transparency from the dev’s would make certain people calm down. (including me :P )

A R W E N.6895:

Im pretty that some transparency from the dev’s would make certain people calm down. (including me :P )

Past experience says otherwise. In many cases, only absolute compliance to the posters’ demands will calm them. This absolute compliance, however, will anger those who disagree with the posters, prompting more complaints.

Also, many of these demands are beyond most devs’ authority to promise, and they are not allowed to discuss certain things that are in development. Comments like “we can’t do that” or “that is in development and will be here this summer” just cause more arguments, because people don’t like being told they can’t have something, or they want it now, not in five months. And if they can’t solve certain issues or the plans change? It’s nothing less than a betrayal of the posters’ trust and a personal insult…

Announcements are made when they are ready to announce, not because one, a dozen, or a hundred people demand it.

How many times have you heard “the customer is always right” in your life? That is the fallback position of everyone involved in customer service who will accept the lowest common denominator of kittenty consumer behavior. It is based upon the premise that, in a comparison between two competing entities where all other factors are equal, the customer will choose the one that treats them better.

In reality, oftentimes the customer is an idiot. Anyone who has worked in retail, food service, the hospitality industry, etc etc can tell you that customers will complain long and loud about, well, pretty much everything. The culture of entitlement that so pervades our modern, spoiled society enables people to whine at will and they expect to be heard and mollified.

I don’t expect the game developers to hang out on the forums answering every trifling whim of the general public. I expect them to be in an office somewhere developing the game I play. If they read every thread and absorbed even 1% of the idiocy contained therein, the game and most likely their entire company would immediately collapse out of sheer banality.

Zypher has it correct above. Simply paying for something does not give you the right to complain and be heard. There are hundreds of thousands of opinions, all going in different directions, and none of them are original or even smart. Let the game developers do their job. Moderators will make sure the forum continues to function. As for those purveyors of white noise, well….if you have so many great ideas, kitten and go make your own game.

tolunart.2095:

A R W E N.6895:

Im pretty that some transparency from the dev’s would make certain people calm down. (including me :P )

Past experience says otherwise. In many cases, only absolute compliance to the posters’ demands will calm them. This absolute compliance, however, will anger those who disagree with the posters, prompting more complaints.

Also, many of these demands are beyond most devs’ authority to promise, and they are not allowed to discuss certain things that are in development. Comments like “we can’t do that” or “that is in development and will be here this summer” just cause more arguments, because people don’t like being told they can’t have something, or they want it now, not in five months. And if they can’t solve certain issues or the plans change? It’s nothing less than a betrayal of the posters’ trust and a personal insult…

Announcements are made when they are ready to announce, not because one, a dozen, or a hundred people demand it.

Asking for transparency is something else.

What is “transparency” and why would it calm anyone?

It’s not the devs fault, it’s the marketing team

James was really cool about his SAB discussion but he ended up being silenced because heaven forbid a dev wants his work to be enjoyed by everyone.

There have been announcements from the devs about general plans for the next six months or so. When their plans were delayed because of various issues, people complained because they didn’t rush things out to fit the timetable.

When they rush things out to fit the timetable, people complain because the content was rushed and is unfinished or bugged.

The bottom line is that people with complaints come to the forums to complain. This is not going to stop no matter what the devs say or how often they say it.

Transparency in way that players know what will come soon to the game.

I’m not asking to know the exact content, but to have a clear timetable, to know that for example, sPvP will be the main focus for this period etc.

As we always know when gem store item are on sale, I would like to know to where the game is heading.

That is transparency imo.

And it would calm a lot anger from player who feel like they are left with no info and/or except to much but then realise that they expected to much

As I said above, there have been clear timetables announced. However, the reality of software development means that things don’t always work out as planned. They are still working on the things that were announced, and players still complain because they want it now, not when it’s ready. And if they get it before it’s ready, they still complain.

This will not calm any of the greedy and entitled players who make selfish demands and throw tantrums on the forums when they don’t get what they want.

I have said since the beginning they need to hire a communication manager.
Good communication is key if you are going to host a forum like this. The team members associated with the forum do not seem to understand basic corporate communication principals, and it hurts them every time they post.
I had hope until I saw the video releases, and then when I look at some responses I just have to [shake head]

And what was clear about the timetables? I still do not know what will truly be brought to the game.

All I know is March 18 and thats it.

Let’s take for example the current CDI,

Now a proper timetable would be.

week1 : CDI (getting feedback from player)
week2: discussion regarding the CDI internaly (anet)
week3: Work is started on the issues brought in the CDI
week4: Announcement to players: Hello fellow tyrian you should expect this this and that around week x-y. We have been actively working on the different things brought from you to us in the CDI’s

Week x-y: Content will be release

tolunart.2095:

Announcements are made when they are ready to announce, not because one, a dozen, or a hundred people demand it.

Few months ago they promised they will try to communicate more with us. Since then the majority of replies are off-topic in any given thread telling us what we shouldn’t post. Kudos to John Smith tho and the CDI folks.

My observation so far is that 90% of the on-topic replies are concerning the BLTC.
I’m posting this wishing for a change.

tolunart.2095:

tolunart.2095:

Announcements are made when they are ready to announce, not because one, a dozen, or a hundred people demand it.

So basically you are implying that we should wait, not knowing what will happen. Being true with your playerbase and telling them that they should expect things actually helps to keep an healthy player-dev relationship. If that relationship is not good (the feeling i have right now) it will get more and more negative.

Transparency is an extremely important thing today. Because people don’t like to be surprised with things they don’t want

A R W E N.6895:

So basically you are implying that we should wait, not knowing what will happen. Being true with your playerbase and telling them that they should expect things actually helps to keep an healthy player-dev relationship. If that relationship is not good (the feeling i have right now) it will get more and more negative.

Transparency is an extremely important thing today. Because people don’t like to be surprised with things they don’t want

Yes. That’s EXACTLY what you should do.

I’m sorry, but developer interaction is, sadly, more often than not a lose/lose proposition. They tell you what they’re planning, and if something happens and they miss their timeframe, they’re raked over the coals for not being on time. They rush it to make it on time, they’re raked over the coals for it being buggy and rushed. They don’t say anything until it’s kitten near ready, they’re raked over the coals for not being “transparent.”

I know you’re going to hate hearing this, but developers don’t owe you transparency. Period. If they don’t want to tell you what they’re planning; they don’t have to. You AREN’T a shareholder. You AREN’T their boss. You have no grounds to expect or demand ANYTHING from them.

If you can’t accept that… that’s YOUR problem, not theirs.

The problem is that what can they tell you?

They can’t tell you what they really think of something unless they can be sure that the PR guys agree with it, just like you can’t randomly represent the company you work for in the media without consent from PR.

They can’t tell you what they’re making, because as soon as they do that, the media takes their word for it and, it gets spread all over the internet, well you know what happens.

Just like every company, Anet is a business, and so they have to follow the procedures like every company out there.

Some fans can be Rabid! They can get reply from Anet, and give several twists and meanings to it (which might be real or totally out of this world) and hold Anet to it. Well, the bad side: fans differ with interpretation, they also differ with understanding, and well, it can result to pretty much a lot of frustration. As the saying goes, less talk, less mistake (or something to that effect)….

But, if you like to get news, Anet has Facebook and Tweeter pages. Anet also do TwitchTV updates, and at odd times, AMA. So check it out…

Edit: Here’s one where Anet shared with fans
http://youtu.be/srIg7bLSmFQ

Josh Foreman was transparent. Got in trouble for it. Don’t know exact details though.

I’ve said all along that there’s not enough communication on the forums from the devs, and half the time when they do speak I reckon it’s because they’re under the watchful eyes of NCsoft and Nexon. They don’t answer half the stuff that they could adequately do because I believe their hands are tied (and metaphorically, a gun pointed at their heads).

My belief is that they want to answer the questions posed to them, but take a look through the endless pages of questions these unanswered threads pertain to – surely a dev could answer them; after all they answer the most menial and non-thought-inspiring questions already because people can’t read the patch notes. The only reason they do is regurgitation of info already disseminated.

I can’t imagine the amout of red tape they have to cut through to answer a simple question.

If a blind man buys a car, does the seller have to go through red tape to tell him what color it is?
I don’ t think there is any red tape preventing knowledgeable staff from explaining why something is the way it is, or giving a more descriptive response answering questions that people post onto these forums. I understand they are not going to give spoilers, or tell us what exactly will happen April 1st 2016. I do think they could do better then they are.

Zypher.7609:

Taurok.6708:

Actually, I’m quite surprised how snarky moderators get sometimes on these forums. Once it was in response to people who were rude, another time, not really. I don’t care. Everyone here is a paying customer. Doesn’t reflect well on ANet at all imo. I can only think of two examples, though. Maybe they are not representative.

A paying customer does not have the right to be rude, I do not care how much they pay.

Whether or not a customer has a right to be rude is a separate issue, in my mind, from how a business should treat it’s paying customers. I can believe “customers shouldn’t be rude” and “business shouldn’t be rude back” at the same time. There is no contradiction there.

I do disagree that paying customers don’t have the right to be rude. Like all rights, you shouldn’t exercise it indiscriminately. But I’m not impressed by the plight of the poor developer with rude customers. You’re a business entity. Spare us the sob story. Just deal with it.

I know you’re going to hate hearing this, but developers don’t owe you transparency. Period. If they don’t want to tell you what they’re planning; they don’t have to. You AREN’T a shareholder. You AREN’T their boss. You have no grounds to expect or demand ANYTHING from them.

If you can’t accept that… that’s YOUR problem, not theirs.

I suddenly want my money back. Guess that’s my problem, too.

Taurok.6708:

I suddenly want my money back. Guess that’s my problem, too.

Yes it is, because at this point, you have no grounds to demand it. You bought a product, you got a product. That you don’t like the company’s “transparency” is YOUR problem. Deal with it.

Transparency only works if you’re sure about what you’re going to do. If you’re still discussing it, or not sure then transparency will start to look like lies.

Let’s pretend you plan to do something and it doesn’t work out…but you’ve already said you were going to do it. Now you’re a liar. Bad business if Anet did that.

They were transparent about the original dye system, which they changed completely. But they’d already said what it was, so people called them liars. This is in spite of the fact that the new dye system is far better for most players than the old one ever was.