Guild Wars 2

Looking at the cacophony of voices on this forum (Mine included), I can’t help but wonder if a forum is the best way to gauge community response to changes.

GW2 has a reputation for a genial player base, but as content slowed we got bored and people vented their frustrations on the forums here (a medium already not known for being a bastion of human compassion and understanding).

While the GW2 forums are already a much more civilized area than most internet forums, I think we can do better. Anet should consider in-game polls to see the response to big announcements/content updates. Polling data is incredibly useful for companies and could be easily accessible to all active players by appearing in-game. Incentives don’t seem necessary, but you could even give a mystic coin or something if it proves to help polling numbers.

This would help Anet categorize the biggest issues the community faces while allowing us to collective voice our opinions without bickering among ourselves or bashing each other’s ideas as being “lazy” or “apologist” or “complaining”.

Of course, the forums will still exist for all this public debate and Anet could even have a yearly poll to see what issues people want to see be pushed forward that may have been forgotten. Who thinks this would improve the situation or does this seem unnecessary?

TL;DR Switch to in-game polling for a unified player response to changes

What give u the notion that they even care what the player think? Not to be rude but most company just made business decision based on what “they” think the customer want or will want. From the mmo industry i’d say i’ve still yet to see 1 that actively incorporate what the player wants into the game. Even market leader like WoW have been diluting content and making it more and more casual despite player raging since burning crusade, even now some even stand by the vanilla WoW as the better version.

Channel.9402:

What give u the notion that they even care what the player think? Not to be rude but most company just made business decision based on what “they” think the customer want or will want. From the mmo industry i’d say i’ve still yet to see 1 that actively incorporate what the player wants into the game. Even market leader like WoW have been diluting content and making it more and more casual despite player raging since burning crusade, even now some even stand by the vanilla WoW as the better version.

Haha, maybe it’s just my optimism or because our main interaction with their employees is with Gaile on here who’s always friendly so I have that opinion of them overall I guess. I just think public debate belongs with us, the public, while polling is the best player-developer interaction.

Just some tidbits info for you, anet during gw1 did say they have various player data mining system in place so that they would know which map player like and which activity player enjoy so i’d assume they have similar system in gw2 just that they didn’t make any announcement or maybe i’ve missed it.

From ANet’s presentation at a game developer con back in 2012 they have active metrics on just about everything in real time, from seeing what players are doing to how much memory the game is using in player’s systems. They have more than enough metrics.

What they don’t have is “assets on the ground” to borrow an intelligence term. They frequently misstep thinking that players actions mean one thing and not realize it actually means another.

Behellagh.1468:

From ANet’s presentation at a game developer con back in 2012 they have active metrics on just about everything in real time, from seeing what players are doing to how much memory the game is using in player’s systems. They have more than enough metrics.

What they don’t have is “assets on the ground” to borrow an intelligence term. They frequently misstep thinking that players actions mean one thing and not realize it actually means another.

Correct. Metrics tell you “what” but not “why.”

@OP: As for why we can’t have nice things like calm, logical discourse, blame.. um.. the rise of 1980s narcissism? I dunno, but the research is out there. =P