Guild Wars 2

So, right. Before anything else, let it be known that my expressed opinion here does reflect what I actually feel would be an extremely nice thing to happen that would make…just a lot of things better on the forums and for the community and for Arenanet. I don’t care what labels you put on me after this, but I will say even after this I will still continue to play GW2 likely for a very, very long time.

Right. So first, let me just say that in light of the China release and how big a step that is to take for an MMO, congratulations Arenanet. Considering last I checked, you guys are running at least the very minimalist 250+ as per the wiki (which is likely wrong, but I reckon you guys are still in a ballpark figure under 1000 still), having to submit content that caters to literally millions of players with the new influx of the chinese market…you gotta put on those big boots. I, and literally no one else save for you guys, can fathom what pressure you might be under between balancing content related to both us and EU, and the servers over in the east…or west if you look at it in that regard.

Regardless, it’s hard to understand as gamers what could break on a patch by patch basis for the game. Something small could catastrophically destroy the Trading Post for instance (I can think of a recent MMO that had that happen…COUGH), or perhaps the ever so pleasant Profession balancing across PvE, WvW, and SPvP where every player believes their own version of ‘what should be in the game’ is so different it’s hard to believe everyone is playing the same game. But it is, you guys created it, you guys made the lovely MMO we are all playing for our own agendas right now, and you have made it encapsulate so many things I want to give a round of applause. I could literally go do just about anything I want, whenever I want without restriction. Horrah!

….BUT, I have to relate this very critical issue right now. I would love to hear a response, but that is kind of what is concerning me right now.

I think there is just the slightest bit too little silence going on. Heck, in the dungeons forum today there was a positive response from you guys over the potential of a Dungeon-based Tourney, which is a lovely thought but it came after such a long period of silence for the people interested in dungeons.

The thing is, since you guys made such a wonderland of specific things to do, it becomes more important to make sure the individuals invested in some specific things continue to give feedback and receive information or really, ANYTHING back from the people who made it. I personally know people who think Super Adventure Box was the premiere thing to do in GW2, but lament in anguish over not knowing anything about when the next level comes out!

It is of the utmost importance that everyone gets some attention, and not just a few key parts of this game. It displays an lack of care for some aspect of this game, which is just bad. Because even if the forums are a minority, we play this game, we play it with friends and colleagues who might not know everything and when they ask about whether Reflects are going to be fixed, the answer we as players and forum-goers will have to say may or may not be favorable. And the worst part? I really honestly believe you guys do mean it when you say all the time that you care about our feedback and opinions. But, it just sucks that the perception of a lack of attention on some parts of this game exists.

TL;DR: Arenanet you made a game with a lot of stuff, please respond more to us about ALL the stuff, not just some of it.

That’s about it from me.

I’ve never played an MMO with the amount of direct dialogue with the developers as I have with this game. Even if some of that dialogue is fluff. I’m not going to bag your opinion, especially since you’re obviously frustrated and still polite, and I’m going to say that I’m on the opposite side of the divide from you.

“bit too little silence going on” i believe you mean “too much” ;P

all joking aside, I really like this topic. takes the words from my mouth.

+1 OP

Devs are quiet because many members of these forums like to crucify them whenever they say something may happen and it doesn’t. Constant cries of “You promised us” when the devs only mentioned they were trying to do something. The people on this forum get more dev response than they deserve.

zenleto.6179:

I’ve never played an MMO with the amount of direct dialogue with the developers as I have with this game.

I’m going to have to echo this observation. I’ve barely ever seen an MMO where the actual devs bothered to interact with players on an individual basis at all, let alone to the extent that they do in GW2. Keep in mind just how active these forums are, how many new threads and new comments appear every hour, and how often they must see the same questions and complaints.

They do respond to players when they can, but there is such a huge volume of people expecting a response that it is impossible to work on the game full-time and keep a visible presence on the forums. They are out there, though. I’ve seen ’em post here plenty, and even on reddit sometimes.

While I agree that the silence is disconcerting, I can’t help but think that they have likely implemented some form of sign-off process with responses on the forums – especially around bugs and other issues.
This means that while they can comment on how some ideas are ‘neat’ and other ‘nonsensical’ threads – saying things like ‘We are working on this bug’ or ‘This issue is currently being worked on’ can potentially work against them if they are uncertain whether they can actually fix the bug within reasonable time, so I suspect they have to check with a manager or something to see if they are able to respond and if not then tough, you get silence.

But that is mostly just guessing from my own experience with developing. /tinhat