Guild Wars 2

dancingmonkey.4902:

Tspatula.9086:

Or perhaps a second WvW specialist to cover Marmatt’s coverage gaps….

Who says he is having a coverage problem? I know if I were him, I might not post either after the horrid barrage he received simply for being made a specialist. Any lack of post from him, as far as I am concern, was earned 3 fold from the toxic posters who greeted him as they did.

That makes no sense at all. Yes he got griefed pretty heavy but after his summary post he got a lot of positive stuff and posted a fair amount. If you bother to look at his posting history, it is not unusual for him to go more than a month without posting and then post a lot. So, maybe he’s still reading the WvW forums but it really doesn’t appear to be the case.

Tspatula.9086:

dancingmonkey.4902:

Tspatula.9086:

Or perhaps a second WvW specialist to cover Marmatt’s coverage gaps….

Who says he is having a coverage problem? I know if I were him, I might not post either after the horrid barrage he received simply for being made a specialist. Any lack of post from him, as far as I am concern, was earned 3 fold from the toxic posters who greeted him as they did.

That makes no sense at all. Yes he got griefed pretty heavy but after his summary post he got a lot of positive stuff and posted a fair amount. If you bother to look at his posting history, it is not unusual for him to go more than a month without posting and then post a lot. So, maybe he’s still reading the WvW forums but it really doesn’t appear to be the case.

Wait, what?

Are you seriously suggesting that it makes no sense for someone to stop posting after they were trolled and bashed by those they were trying to help? Not only does it make perfect sense, I am a little baffled that you do not.

Well Coglin,
I guess it’s because I actually read people’s post and don’t just post the first contrary thing I can think of… here is Marmatt’s last post in that thread, it’s not the tone of someone fed up and rage quitting.

Marmatt.8590:

Victory.2879:

And the last post by our wvw forum specialist was …8 days ago. I’d forgotten this thread even existed.

Is the first post going to be updated as the discussion goes on, or how will the ‘report’ be amended in light of people’s comments? How will people’s opinions be taken into account if nothing is posted in over a week? just asking…

It will be ‘amended’ by updating features that the general populous have been asking for. Along with new quotes, thread links, and more accurate statistics. At the moment im waiting for Anet to give me a more “structured” form of how they want the reports to look. I have my notes ready to be inputted for the next report.

It is true, if we want to be a shadow forum specialist we can. Our job isn’t to communicate with the community, but simply link the threads of the developers and players. Which is where our reports come in. As long as he is submitting useful reports he is doing his job.

In terms of the WvW specialist I’ve not heard of anything bad, well nothing at all to be honest. But if you believe you don’t think a specialist isn’t doing their job please message a moderator or Gaile via Forums, with specific evidence on your case. not posting isn’t enough.

Riku.4821:

It is true, if we want to be a shadow forum specialist we can. Our job isn’t to communicate with the community, but simply link the threads of the developers and players.

Then what is the point of the position? I think a lot, maybe most, of us assumed it was to be a liaison between the company and its customers.

Our job is simply to see what your guys and ladies are saying, and send it to the developers. We don’t need to talk for that, if one chooses not to. I believe a new specialist is under review for a new position as a replacement.

Sounds exciting I hope they get to have fun.

He’s gonna have a lot of fun!

So here is this sacred place which hasn’t been visited by the devs for two months?
I’m eagerly waiting for thre Ranger Specialist, eventhough I think ANet wont ever appoint one since they don’t want to be hassled with these whiny Rangers and their nitpicking concerns. :P

I’d like to apologize to the people on the pve side of the forums for my sudden hiatus. I had a lot of preparation to do for my next semester at college and completely forgot to mention it to everyone else.

You are forgiven, if you tell the devs that the Ranger sword autoattack is rubish for PvE and should be altered.

Wuselknusel.4082:

You are forgiven, if you tell the devs that the Ranger sword autoattack is rubish for PvE and should be altered.

What he said.

Weren’t Forum Specialists to be renewed/replaced every six months? I’ve not seen any call for new applications….

I’d assume it will happen after Heart of Thorns. Depending on how this rotation as worked out.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Weren’t Forum Specialists to be renewed/replaced every six months? I’ve not seen any call for new applications….

I know I’ve been renewed for the foreseeable future. I brought it up with them and they got back to me and updated my title to reflect my support of raids as well.

Wow Congratulations.

What are the benefits of becoming a forum specialist?
If I apply, may I continue to make balance spreadsheets? (which usually use personal opinions)

TheBravery.9615:

What are the benefits of becoming a forum specialist?
If I apply, may I continue to make balance spreadsheets? (which usually use personal opinions)

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/news/Guild-Wars-2-Forum-Specialists-Program/first#post4600059

Good luck.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

TheBravery.9615:

What are the benefits of becoming a forum specialist?
If I apply, may I continue to make balance spreadsheets? (which usually use personal opinions)

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/news/Guild-Wars-2-Forum-Specialists-Program/first#post4600059

Good luck.

Thank you for the link, but it doesn’t answer my question.

Each Forum Specialist should try to stay objective and impartial in any discussions about the game in order to provide high-quality feedback that represents the views of the overall community, rather than expressing the specialist’s personal opinions.

I’m making balance spreadsheets, while do consider responses from the community, are derived mostly from my own personal thoughts (and refined through community processing). Is this considered “expressing the specialist’s personal opinions”?

also nothing in there says what the specialists get in return other than a title on your name in the forums. Why should I (or anyone) become a specialist?

One gets nothing out of the ordinary. It’s a volunteer position. As to spreadsheets, as long as you don’t submit them with your weekly reports, I’m sure they would be fine.

You could, if you so desire, use Google to find all the Dev responses regarding the FSP.

Good luck.

I would apply for a “balance” or “profession” specialist, but there are certain problems with this.

1. Each profession sub forum has an agenda that contradicts balance. A community within a certain profession may think that their profession needs their “weaker” abilities and traits to be buffed, while other users in other profession sub forums have interests in “nerfing” the earlier said profession. Furthermore, each profession’s subforum sees very little activity and do not represent the playerbase as a whole because the users that use the forum represent a minority. The resulting report to arenanet would be a contradictory mess of information to further mislead what balance needs to be done. With this in consideration, are profession forum specialists still something that ArenaNet desires?
2. The forum tag that goes beside my name may unintentionally influence forum user’s beliefs that I might represent the interest of one profession over another profession if my forum tag is specified to one profession. (E.g. become warrior forum specialist, but make a guardian balance spreadsheet. My credibility in the guardian forum will decline and people would be more inclined to disapprove of my suggestions based only on the tag beside my name) Is there any way to hide the tag?
3. The profession forums are more sensitive than something like PvP and WvW where it’s possible to derive a consensus. The profession forums on the otherhand, are full of many ideas and not all of them agree with another. I am concerned that if I (or anyone that happens to become a profession specialist) would engage in selective thinking and pick out information he or she likes.

Profession-based specialists were actually in the pipeline originally, but due to lack of community interest only a couple professions had people for them, so the idea was canned. Instead, myself and the other specialists sort of became the “balance specialists” for our area. I’ve submitted a lot of feedback regarding balance as it pertains to Fractals and Raids and even general PvE.

TheBravery.9615:

The forum tag that goes beside my name may unintentionally influence forum user’s beliefs that I might represent the interest of one profession over another profession if my forum tag is specified to one profession. (E.g. become warrior forum specialist, but make a guardian balance spreadsheet. My credibility in the guardian forum will decline and people would be more inclined to disapprove of my suggestions based only on the tag beside my name) Is there any way to hide the tag?

No, but this isn’t really a problem. I’m an active poster in the PvP forums as well, for instance, and no one takes that I am the instanced PvE specialist as meaning that I have no idea what I’m talking about in PvP. Really it comes down more to how you present your posts and less what your actual title is.

It’s very important as a specialist that your tag be displayed. I get a lot of forum PMs and in-game PMs from people with great feedback for ANet that would like it to get messaged to the appropriate team. Having the title displayed tells people who to talk to and helps a lot.

As for your spreadsheets, I wouldn’t worry about those. One thing you could do is make a thread containing your spreadsheet, and then see what public opinion on your spreadsheet is. Then you could report to ANet thoughts from that discussion. This is how I field a lot of topics in the instanced PvE forums when new things come up.

The ANet team really loves having specialists, though, and if you’ve got a demonstrated effort of making awesome posts throughout the forums and have the motivation to build up reports to help make the game better, then please apply. Seriously, it is a largely thankless job, but I love seeing patch notes where things I’ve proposed to ANet through this program and with player feedback get implemented. The recent patch for the second wing of the Forsaken Thicket, for instance, was very personally rewarding for me.

Good luck if you do apply!

Hello everyone! I’m sure no one still know who I am, haha.
Just putting it out there, congratulations to the first term specialists for sticking it out and helping the community. Our term was a lot longer than when we applied but it was a fun ride I am sure for all of us.
Good luck to the second term specialists! Can’t wait to see what is ahead.

Oh, is it over? Was there an announcement? I must have missed it.

Thanks for all your hard work.

Go team! It’s been an absolute honor serving everyone to help make sure that ANet has been aware of what the community is thinking at every step. We’ve definitely been doing this for a long time, and it has been a wild and enjoyable experience for us all.