A-nets staff definitely plays, you can usually spot them by the little Anet bridge symbol by their name (special guild icon). Though they don’t always run around with the tag on.
As for if they play a certain class. I’m not sure, the ones I have seen are a variety of different classes.
Erm in the forum rules it says “putting A-net in your post wont increase odds of a dev response…”.
The first part of your question doesn’t really require a dev answer, people see them in game playing. So that makes it pretty obvious they do play.
The later part like I sad I’m not really sure, I would hope if A-net does have specific class balance teams, they would play all classes, not just one. Getting an even field of view for balance vs a one sided view would be a much better idea
IIRC There was a thread where a dev commented that Anet sets aside time for them to play. And thats not including the time they spend on their personal accounts.
So yeah, they do play. And Almost all the GMs in game run invisible most of the time. And if they are playing their personal accounts, theres no telling if they are a dev or not….
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I don’t think they have dedicated staff for balancing each profession, I’ve never heard of anyone referred to as for example the thief developer or ranger developer, and it’s not really something that can be done in isolation, they (ideally) need to consider all the professions and game modes together.
As for whether they play, as other people have said yes they do. I’ve seen a few in-game myself, sometimes just hanging around, sometimes actively playing. I’ve also known a few people who know developers who play on personal accounts where they either can’t display the Anet logo or don’t want to.
Every time I’ve seen someone with it on they’re always being mobbed with questions (or when they were in WvW just being mobbed) so I can understand why they would turn it off if they want to actually play.
Danielle Aurorel, Dear Dragon We Got Your Cookies [Nom], Desolation (EU).
Please producer sir, Im quite interested in how it is there at anet, are the staff competitive? Are there like special staff only guilds, tournaments, do you sometimes play at the office?
If you watch the Twitch videos, you can listen to the Devs speak about designing/working on all the Professions. The Team works on all of them, to balance the Professions as much as possible. There isn’t a ‘Ranger-only’ Dev.
Erm in the forum rules it says “putting A-net in your post wont increase odds of a dev response…”.
The first part of your question doesn’t really require a dev answer, people see them in game playing. So that makes it pretty obvious they do play.
Screw your forum rules :P
Yay it did kinda ^^; I said it won’t increase your chances, not that they wont post:P Although I think you were hoping for more substance to the post xD
If a dev does read this! Please please please play a mesmer and help add fun stuff for us, and make real quaggan backpacks!
Do the staff of Anet play gw2? And if so would the developers of the thief for example only play thief or play other classes as well?
It is obvious they play gw2. Please look at thief class before 2 years and look 2 years later: do you see any difference? Do you see any change?
hint: same problems before and after, no change before and after: there is your answer.
What happend to our feedback? Where is change from our feedback? Where is fixing from our problems from our feedback? Where is care from our feedback?:
Ranger is actually one of the most played classes by Anet staff, from what I have personally seen.
Considering the problems that class has always had and still does, I find that hard to believe. If any number of the Devs actually played the class I would think there would have been any effort to fix those problems. I will admit that the class is in a better place than it was at the beginning of the game, but it still has built in problems that have not even been approached in a meaningful way.
As Paul Ella said, they do play a bunch, but it’s probably on their personal accounts most times. They don’t really use their Anet accounts unless there’s an event or they’re checking a report/bug/exploit. Still, it’d be really cool to run into these guys while playing so I could tell ’em how awesome their game is in person(?).
a·chieve·ment – a thing done successfully, typically by effort, courage, or skill
re·ward – a thing given in recognition of one’s service, effort, or achievement
en·ti·tle·ment – the belief one is inherently deserving of privileges or special treatment
They definitely play the game. They also play on Dev servers to test new builds, or they might not be repping Anet’s Guild (which is the only way to have the Anet badge), but they’re definitely playing. Considering all the stuff they have to do for work and their free time outside of the game, its understandable you might not see many or any employees in game.
Haha, this actually induced a funny thought for me! I imagine an Anet dev running around WvW. “Wow, I made that tree. That’s a really nice tree.” they’re thinking. Then, suddenly a thief pops out of stealth and owns them. Owned dev then goes up to the thief head dev (I know that’s probably not a real thing, let me dream), “Your class is too strong! Why would you do this to me Bob?” Bob explains that thief is balanced, and tree maker dev needs to “git gud”. Bob smiles to himself as tree maker leaves the office to roll a thief.
I bet Engineer head dev is really smug and proud, too. “Yep, my class does everything, and it does it well.” Necro head dev is probably busy playing with a cute Charr plushie…
You guys thinking what Im thinking? Most prob not, not at all but I can’t draw so I need you’re guy’s help. It would be called, "Gw2 Devs" \o/ basicly being a cartoon of the anet staff what SkyCakeLight described up here. If you can then look at the already existing cartoons and make one from that, I see grate potential in this, mmmmhhhh maybe I should copy right it!
Maybe most of the Devs live in Washington, so they choose an NA server to insure the fastest connection to the data-server.
This may be why there are less Devs seen in EU servers.
Also, just because a Dev plays a Thief or a Ranger or any other profession, does not mean they are on the development team for professions, nor can ‘fix’ a particular profession. I would hope no one would want the Story Narrative Team to be responsible for ‘fixing’ a player’s favorite profession.
I wish devs would play on EU servers too; I picked up a second account for an NA “fall-back” and the number of devs I saw there last Stronghold beta was just great. But it made me miss seeing this kind of presence on EU servers… it’d be very nice to see.
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I’ve seen devs on EU servers on 5 or 6 different occasions. The first was during Flame and Frost when one came over to test/play the dungeon and the most recent was during the HoT announcement when they were hanging out in Hoelbrak for the party.
But as other people have said if they’re actually playing, especially if they’re playing WvW or PvP, they’re more likely to be on NA for the latency.
Danielle Aurorel, Dear Dragon We Got Your Cookies [Nom], Desolation (EU).
Ranger is actually one of the most played classes by Anet staff, from what I have personally seen.
Considering the problems that class has always had and still does, I find that hard to believe. If any number of the Devs actually played the class I would think there would have been any effort to fix those problems. I will admit that the class is in a better place than it was at the beginning of the game, but it still has built in problems that have not even been approached in a meaningful way.
I have most recently seen a ranger and I think a mesmer in the pvp lobby. Long ago there was one who used to afk by the old bank area in LA, on a ranger. I’ve only seen them on opposing servers in wvw. Oh, and one at karka queen on a ranger. I don’t like to bug people, so I don’t bother them in whispers/map. Anyway, those are my ghost stories :P
Also, just because someone is in the Anet guild doesn’t mean they are a developer. Lots of people do different work for the company (Gaile Gray, for example)… And although they might have an easier path to pointing out problems, it isnt their job to fix them.
Do the staff of Anet play gw2? And if so would the developers of the thief for example only play thief or play other classes as well?
Sure some play the game……..barely.
I’ve seen plenty of dev’s running around and I’ve even made it a point to kill a few in WVW.
1. Any dev you see is geared like a day 1 noob. They make account and occasionally hop on. They do not actually “play” the game.
2. The dev’s I have killed in WVW seemed to have no idea what their buttons did.
3. They have kids and mortgages.
Sure some devs do log on from time to time but none of them actually play the game. If anything I’d bet many of them play DOTA 2 since that seems to be the popular game for game devs to buddy up with.
I’m sure there’s at least a couple of employees though that do actually play. Just not 99% of them.
Ranger is actually one of the most played classes by Anet staff, from what I have personally seen.
Yep, I ran into one of them playing as a ranger last week in DR.
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Do the staff of Anet play gw2? And if so would the developers of the thief for example only play thief or play other classes as well?
Sure some play the game........barely.
I’ve seen plenty of dev’s running around and I’ve even made it a point to kill a few in WVW.
1. Any dev you see is geared like a day 1 noob. They make account and occasionally hop on. They do not actually "play" the game.
2. The dev’s I have killed in WVW seemed to have no idea what their buttons did.
3. They have kids and mortgages.
Sure some devs do log on from time to time but none of them actually play the game. If anything I’d bet many of them play DOTA 2 since that seems to be the popular game for game devs to buddy up with.
I’m sure there’s at least a couple of employees though that do actually play. Just not 99% of them.
I would’ve trolled them so badly XD, on a lv where they’ll go away, use their dev status to instantly make an war with the best gear in the game, ascended gear and all + legendary weapons. With all that, to try to hunt me down, but he would never get me with my theeeeeeffff!
I see your evidence with all professions: I have 1 question to ask you Arena net: RubiBayer: Do Arena net have any plans to adjust the not challenge professions to make them challenge and fun? Like adjust their traits?
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Do the staff of Anet play gw2? And if so would the developers of the thief for example only play thief or play other classes as well?
Sure some play the game……..barely.
I’ve seen plenty of dev’s running around and I’ve even made it a point to kill a few in WVW.
1. Any dev you see is geared like a day 1 noob. They make account and occasionally hop on. They do not actually “play” the game.
2. The dev’s I have killed in WVW seemed to have no idea what their buttons did.
3. They have kids and mortgages.
Sure some devs do log on from time to time but none of them actually play the game. If anything I’d bet many of them play DOTA 2 since that seems to be the popular game for game devs to buddy up with.
I’m sure there’s at least a couple of employees though that do actually play. Just not 99% of them.
I would’ve trolled them so badly XD, on a lv where they’ll go away, use their dev status to instantly make an war with the best gear in the game, ascended gear and all + legendary weapons. With all that, to try to hunt me down, but he would never get me with my theeeeeeffff!
Someone asked one of them once, apparently they’re not allowed to do this.
He said only the actual developers even have the tools to create items and change things and any time they do it the system logs what was done, by who and when and they can be questioned on it. If they don’t have a good reason they can get in serious trouble for it.
(Besides which I imagine it’d be a bit like playing a game with all the cheat codes turned on. At first the novelty value makes it fun, but if you could just generate any item you want any time you want it, auto-level etc. and never actually need to play it’d get boring quickly.)
Danielle Aurorel, Dear Dragon We Got Your Cookies [Nom], Desolation (EU).
I was refering to GM purposes, like if a random pack of wolves attacked the GM in one of the keeps in WvW then he’ll need good gear to kill them off and mostly to just look cool while he is being eaten by the wolves and me just sitting on the wall and watching how his own creations is killing him :P
Please producer sir, Im quite interested in how it is there at anet, are the staff competitive? Are there like special staff only guilds, tournaments, do you sometimes play at the office?
Fill out an application, go to an interview, land a job and find out for yourself.
Most companies have a strict compliance policy. Beg more though.. its fun to watch.
I see your evidence with all professions: I have 1 question to ask you Arena net: RubiBayer: Do Arena net have any plans to adjust the not challenge professions to make them challenge and fun? Like adjust their traits?
Since you addressed me specifically, I can say with certainty that no, I personally have no plans to adjust any professions for any reason. Trust me, you do not want me fiddling with any game code. Ever. It would be bad. :P
Most of us play, but very often on private accounts. For example:
So many humans, so few charr
Why do you think there are so many armor art issues with charr?
You also don’t want me having anything to do with armor art. I’m also not an artist. (For what it’s worth, though, there’s a charr engineer in my lineup. She just didn’t make it into the main panel. )
