Guild Wars 2

Vayne and I are usually on opposite ends of the spectrum on these venerated forums, but I gave him a +1 on this.

I have to agree with this one…

but I fear that this picture underneath will basically say what ANET has been and probably will be doing:

@ Vayne
They are communicating with us…via blogs, feature packs, twitch and updates.

What exactly do you want from them? What to expect each year? They’ve done that in the past and because they’ve changed their minds (I guess due to iteration), the forums have slammed them for it. Do you want it quarterly? ie what we will be doing in the next 3 months, or every 6 months? You ask for transparency, but they’re not going to answer the community about every single “issue” that comes up. If you see a suggestion in an update…great…if not…well consider it as not going to happen.

Who do you want speaking? Any Dev or someone in particuar?

How do you want it delivered? Blog form, Twitch, or interview by magazines or at one of the cons?

I’m not sure the community would ever be happy with communications because people just seem to go nuts….(SAB)….whenever they DO make any type of announcement.
shrug

edit: I’m not trying to be confrontational or anything, I ask the questions because I’m curious.

I think they just dug themselves into a hole and they don’t know how to get out. People expected a lot and what they’ve given just seems to not be good enough to the players, they don’t have the resources to fix the issues at the moment so they keep their mouths closed. Think about it, if they had something good to say they’d say it open arms, but if they don’t then they’ll keep quiet. If they need money they should release an expansion but they already dug themselves in a hole by saying we don’t need any =\. All we can do now is keep asking for answers i guess.

Lynne.8416:

@ Vayne
They are communicating with us…via blogs, feature packs, twitch and updates.

What exactly do you want from them? What to expect each year? They’ve done that in the past and because they’ve changed their minds (I guess due to iteration), the forums have slammed them for it. Do you want it quarterly? ie what we will be doing in the next 3 months, or every 6 months? You ask for transparency, but they’re not going to answer the community about every single “issue” that comes up. If you see a suggestion in an update…great…if not…well consider it as not going to happen.

Who do you want speaking? Any Dev or someone in particuar?

How do you want it delivered? Blog form, Twitch, or interview by magazines or at one of the cons?

I’m not sure the community would ever be happy with communications because people just seem to go nuts….(SAB)….whenever they DO make any type of announcement.
shrug

Let me publish a list of the stuff they’re working on, and alter the list when it’s changed. Other games have done it in the past. Second Life used to have a public vote for landowners on which items were the most important to work on. I don’t think they should go that far, but surely we really have no clue what they’re working on.

The last time we had information on anything other than the living story was the information about the last patch four months ago.

Do you really think a monthly update is something that no company does?

Lynne.8416:

@ Vayne
They are communicating with us…via blogs, feature packs, twitch and updates.

What exactly do you want from them?

I posted this elsewhere, , but Honestly, I just want monthly updates on the forums to say what they are working on.

A while ago an employee posted an analogy about how they can’t release too much information on how they’re developing a potato and how it can change in the course of development and that change might upset people who were expecting something else.
But I don’t need all the details. I just want to know what they are working on right now because that will tell me what the company’s priorities are, and where the game is heading.

So, simple statements from Pvp, WvW, and whoever else like:
“We’re working on x and we hope that it does y.”

I don’t need it to be super specific either. Just descriptive enough for the imagination without revealing too much.

Some examples:
“We’re currently working on new rewards in PvP because we want to increase the variety of unique rewards available in that game mode.”
or
“We’re currently working on reviewing dungeons rewards because we want to ensure that rewards line up with average time investment.”

Two things. That’s all I need:
*The area they’re working on
*What their general hope is in improving that area

Vayne.8563:

Lynne.8416:

@ Vayne
They are communicating with us…via blogs, feature packs, twitch and updates.

What exactly do you want from them? What to expect each year? They’ve done that in the past and because they’ve changed their minds (I guess due to iteration), the forums have slammed them for it. Do you want it quarterly? ie what we will be doing in the next 3 months, or every 6 months? You ask for transparency, but they’re not going to answer the community about every single “issue” that comes up. If you see a suggestion in an update…great…if not…well consider it as not going to happen.

Who do you want speaking? Any Dev or someone in particuar?

How do you want it delivered? Blog form, Twitch, or interview by magazines or at one of the cons?

I’m not sure the community would ever be happy with communications because people just seem to go nuts….(SAB)….whenever they DO make any type of announcement.
shrug

Let me publish a list of the stuff they’re working on, and alter the list when it’s changed. Other games have done it in the past. Second Life used to have a public vote for landowners on which items were the most important to work on. I don’t think they should go that far, but surely we really have no clue what they’re working on.

The last time we had information on anything other than the living story was the information about the last patch four months ago.

Do you really think a monthly update is something that no company does?

I’m aware that different companies do different things, I just was trying to figure out exactly what you wanted from them. So you want a list of things they are working on and updated monthly.
Ok, thanks

Cross.6437:

I don’t need it to be super specific either. Just descriptive enough for the imagination without revealing too much.

Some examples:
“We’re currently working on new rewards in PvP because we want to increase the variety of unique rewards available in that game mode.”
or
“We’re currently working on reviewing dungeons rewards because we want to ensure that rewards line up with average time investment.”

Two things. That’s all I need:
*The area they’re working on
*What their general hope is in improving that area

So something like : " we work on a precursor hunt"

You know how that turned out .. didn’t you ?

Lynne.8416:

Vayne.8563:

Lynne.8416:

@ Vayne
They are communicating with us…via blogs, feature packs, twitch and updates.

What exactly do you want from them? What to expect each year? They’ve done that in the past and because they’ve changed their minds (I guess due to iteration), the forums have slammed them for it. Do you want it quarterly? ie what we will be doing in the next 3 months, or every 6 months? You ask for transparency, but they’re not going to answer the community about every single “issue” that comes up. If you see a suggestion in an update…great…if not…well consider it as not going to happen.

Who do you want speaking? Any Dev or someone in particuar?

How do you want it delivered? Blog form, Twitch, or interview by magazines or at one of the cons?

I’m not sure the community would ever be happy with communications because people just seem to go nuts….(SAB)….whenever they DO make any type of announcement.
shrug

Let me publish a list of the stuff they’re working on, and alter the list when it’s changed. Other games have done it in the past. Second Life used to have a public vote for landowners on which items were the most important to work on. I don’t think they should go that far, but surely we really have no clue what they’re working on.

The last time we had information on anything other than the living story was the information about the last patch four months ago.

Do you really think a monthly update is something that no company does?

I’m aware that different companies do different things, I just was trying to figure out exactly what you wanted from them. So you want a list of things they are working on and updated monthly.
Ok, thanks

It wouldn’t hurt. Right now people really have no idea what’s coming and the time between major annoucements is huge. I know Anet likes to release information like they’re doing with the content patch, but people really think that nothing is happening there. They keep using words like lazy. Cash grab.

But if what was being worked on was public, people would have something to think about. In the absence of information, people just invent stuff. It’s not a good look.

The Planetside 2 roadmap is a good example of the kind of thing I’d like to see from them. Planetside 2 is a different beast but I’d like to see roadmaps for WvW, sPvP, open world PVE, dungeons and fractals.

In reality though, ArenaNet seem to be making very slow progress on these fronts so I don’t see how much they can actually tell us.

Seeing the threads popping up about SAB, they should maybe say something unless they want it to become the new mount things.

As for the commander tags, I’m waiting until the blog post.

Anyway, when you look at the recent interview, you simply cannot call that an “interview”. "Meh no, we don’t think about doing it. But maybe. But meh. But maybe. Who knows ? “When it’s ready”"…
This is what we’ll end up getting anyway : “Yeah maybe, or not. But if maybe, then someday”.

Whenever anet representatives or devs talk, it’s like their head is on the chopping block. They’re only words but I can feel the nervousness in their indecision on what to say.

Face it, communication isn’t their strong suit, hasn’t been since launch and probably will never be.

Vayne.8563:

So come on Anet. Talk to us. We’re willing to listen.

I’d say that some of us are willing to listen. Considering some of the threads in this forum, even on the front page right now, there are quite a few that just want to kitten, and Anet talking to us (sadly) will just make them kitten that much more.

Don’t get me wrong, I want them to talk to us to, but I don’t think enough are ready to listen. Not here, anyway.

I think people wrongly interpret the anger about the scavenger hunt. The problem wasn’t that they said they would do one thing, and didn’t do it. It’s a combination of two things:

1) The scavenger hunt is an extremely important issue for many people, as the RNG in the game was a big, big turn off. This seeming neglected for many, many other things that weren’t asked for caused frustration.

2) ANet didn’t follow up the communication. They said they’d do something, then didn’t? Why didn’t they? What are their current plans? Is there a technical difficulty, or are they unsure on the implementation? When they realised they couldn’t get the scavenger hunt done any time soon, all it would have taken is five minutes typing on a (sorely needed) centralised update blog what had happened and its predicted consequences.

Saying you will do something and then encountering a problem is fine. Saying you will do something very important, then doing lots of other unimportant things while remaining basically silent about the important thing for a year and a half is not.

You know, if they were to come out and say that they’re currently working on Cantha expansion, without releasing absolutely no additional information, people would easily get extremely hyped.
I bet, this alone would bring tons of people back to the game.

Beldin.5498:

Cross.6437:

I don’t need it to be super specific either. Just descriptive enough for the imagination without revealing too much.

Some examples:
“We’re currently working on new rewards in PvP because we want to increase the variety of unique rewards available in that game mode.”
or
“We’re currently working on reviewing dungeons rewards because we want to ensure that rewards line up with average time investment.”

Two things. That’s all I need:
*The area they’re working on
*What their general hope is in improving that area

So something like : " we work on a precursor hunt"

You know how that turned out .. didn’t you ?

To be fair, we have no idea how consistently this is being worked on or how many other things the same department is working on at interferes with the development. We’re only told well after the fact when the project has reached problems. More transparency would help placate the masses.

Also “precursor hunt” would be the wrong kind of hint. It’s too specific. You’d want something more like, "we’re reviewing the legendary crafting process in order to make it more goal-oriented.

CrashTestAuto.9108:

I think people wrongly interpret the anger about the scavenger hunt. The problem wasn’t that they said they would do one thing, and didn’t do it. It’s a combination of two things:

1) The scavenger hunt is an extremely important issue for many people, as the RNG in the game was a big, big turn off. This seeming neglected for many, many other things that weren’t asked for caused frustration.

2) ANet didn’t follow up the communication. They said they’d do something, then didn’t? Why didn’t they? What are their current plans? Is there a technical difficulty, or are they unsure on the implementation? When they realised they couldn’t get the scavenger hunt done any time soon, all it would have taken is five minutes typing on a (sorely needed) centralised update blog what had happened and its predicted consequences.

Saying you will do something and then encountering a problem is fine. Saying you will do something very important, then doing lots of other unimportant things while remaining basically silent about the important thing for a year and a half is not.

I find it funny how the guild wars 2 community is probably one of the nicest gaming communities but arenanet managed to upset them pretty badly.

They should somehow listen to the various factions of players… Many of WvW complain about things and only get… A game breaking item, yay! Next time, maybe we’ll get, I dunno, some item that will allow players to drill holes under the gates to enter? Or maybe a grapnel to go over the keep walls…

I guess communication has to come from them, but also they need to somehow listen to their community. Many things need to be fixed, and only trivial things receive proper attention (“We’ll release a new outfit!” while people have been demanding Anise’s outfit for like 2 years).

They don’t have to listen to every detail one or another want to change (the game would be unplayable otherwise), but if most players ask for/complain about the same thing, maybe they should consider fixing it rather than working on things that nobody requests…

Beldin.5498:

Cross.6437:

I don’t need it to be super specific either. Just descriptive enough for the imagination without revealing too much.

Some examples:
“We’re currently working on new rewards in PvP because we want to increase the variety of unique rewards available in that game mode.”
or
“We’re currently working on reviewing dungeons rewards because we want to ensure that rewards line up with average time investment.”

Two things. That’s all I need:
*The area they’re working on
*What their general hope is in improving that area

So something like : " we work on a precursor hunt"

You know how that turned out .. didn’t you ?

It seems like they are having some really big problems with the economy, meaning adding a prec hunt could actually cause a collapse, if not done carefully. This goes for the rewards system and even the complaints about RNG in the game. Having a global economy, one that moves as fast as it does, means if you screw up, the impact could be devastating very quickly.

I also think (if the trading items thing means what i think it does in the feature pack), they might actually be trying to put less weight on the trading post, to hopefully help keep the system stable in case they do make mistakes with rewards.

It’s all speculation on my end, but having a successful global economy is definitely causing some issues to the reward system and player progression toward high ticket items.

Classic case is the (lack of) information on Megaserver rollout:

…We’re keeping our focus on the monitoring, and we will let you know when more maps are added

This was posted after approximately half the maps were megaservered but yet…

actually we the players are the wallets behind ncsoft/anet, without us neither of them has money and as much as it pains me vayne has it headed in the right direction this time and so do some of the other posters, we don’t need exact details but some kind of word at all would go a long ways towards shutting some of us up

I dont understand why they dont actively talk to us, if i was working for arenanet i would be happy to answer players questions. Its like if they explained they dont have enough money we’d be like alright, make expansion we pay, but they dont even say anything to us. How is this a way to treat their customers. I’d pay right now for an expansion if it ment they’d start talking to us and add things we asked for.

Lynne.8416:

@ Vayne
They are communicating with us…via blogs, feature packs, twitch and updates.

What exactly do you want from them? What to expect each year? They’ve done that in the past and because they’ve changed their minds (I guess due to iteration), the forums have slammed them for it. Do you want it quarterly? ie what we will be doing in the next 3 months, or every 6 months? You ask for transparency, but they’re not going to answer the community about every single “issue” that comes up. If you see a suggestion in an update…great…if not…well consider it as not going to happen.

Who do you want speaking? Any Dev or someone in particuar?

How do you want it delivered? Blog form, Twitch, or interview by magazines or at one of the cons?

I’m not sure the community would ever be happy with communications because people just seem to go nuts….(SAB)….whenever they DO make any type of announcement.
shrug

edit: I’m not trying to be confrontational or anything, I ask the questions because I’m curious.

The issue is that those people who will twist everything said into a promise, start lynch mobs over every perceived slight, etc… will ALWAYS exist. They WILL seek to be as combative and disruptive as possible.

Running away from the table only makes those trolls STRONGER. It allows them to dictate the environment and create toxicity like we have here.

It’s not fair. It’s not right. But that’s how it is, and game developers need to understand that and interact ANYWAY. You IGNORE the trolls, you don’t walk away from the table.

I’d love for arenanet to be more open. Hey if it were up to me they’d talk about things they dream about as soon as they dream about them (ergo we need a sleep to twitter interface or something) but truth of the matter is as much as I agree with Vayne that indeed we do need communication I can also see Arenanet’s wisdom in not doing it. I mean people aren’t going to accept high level stuff… Just look at all the “I can’t talk about it” outrage going on right now. Would anyone here expect a different reaction if they say something like we’re working on improving WvW or We’re working on new dungeons etc.. without any specifics? There will still be backlash if there arent specifics I have absolutely no doubt and we also know they cant be specific cause then if they deviate for even as little as 1mm there will be the there is no direction / Lieing backlash and all that.

And this isnt even speculation, they already tried some high level information when say they announced precursors scavenger hunt / crafting for example. How many people are happy with that communication? I dont know of course, but based on forum activity I’d say the news that indeed they’re working on precursors has worked against the game way more then it did in favor of it. Not just on precursors itself but also everything else completely unrelated to precursors. Why? Because since they didnt deliver that feature in people’s expected timelines now its used as a bases to fuel negative believes. Things like “anet promise stuff but never deliver it”, “they’re never going to do anything that makes them loss money and you know precursors fuel gems sales so they’re never going to do it”, “anet have no direction cause they keep changing stuff” etc…

Simple speaking communication is a double edge sword and unfortunately us as a community as a whole (generalizing here of course) showed them that we cannot handle it. Ultimately we created an environment which makes it hard for Arenanet to communicate at all.

Just put yourself in a PR person’s shoes working at arenanet and look at the reaction from say the gamescon interviews happening right now. Would you push for more communication or less if you were in charge of that? If it were me I’d probably suggest to avoid interviews where possible cause they end up doing more damage then good.

We basically created a major dilemma for them. If they speak before things are set in stone and things change then that will be used against them on multiple fronts. (and things tend to change even when set in stone imagine before) If they try to communicate but stick to a policy where they dont speak of things before they are set in stone then we use that against them anyway. Seems to me anything they try to do in terms of communication will work against them and the best way which is least damaging to them and the game is actually to say nothing at all publically before actually revealing stuff cause the situation has gotten so bad that we cannot even handle a simple sorry we cannot talk about that for now.

chemiclord.3978:

The issue is that those people who will twist everything said into a promise, start lynch mobs over every perceived slight, etc… will ALWAYS exist. They WILL seek to be as combative and disruptive as possible.

Running away from the table only makes those trolls STRONGER. It allows them to dictate the environment and create toxicity like we have here.

It’s not fair. It’s not right. But that’s how it is, and game developers need to understand that and interact ANYWAY. You IGNORE the trolls, you don’t walk away from the table.

Exactly.

Also, recall how well the thread in BLTC went with John Smith answering questions. He got a little sassy in the middle, but the reaction was overwhelmingly positive. He was professional and informative without giving away NDA material, and he said when he couldn’t.

Where is the PR manager for GW2, anyway? :\ This is some basic kitten, right here.

munkiman.3068:

Beldin.5498:

Cross.6437:

I don’t need it to be super specific either. Just descriptive enough for the imagination without revealing too much.

Some examples:
“We’re currently working on new rewards in PvP because we want to increase the variety of unique rewards available in that game mode.”
or
“We’re currently working on reviewing dungeons rewards because we want to ensure that rewards line up with average time investment.”

Two things. That’s all I need:
*The area they’re working on
*What their general hope is in improving that area

So something like : " we work on a precursor hunt"

You know how that turned out .. didn’t you ?

It seems like they are having some really big problems with the economy, meaning adding a prec hunt could actually cause a collapse, if not done carefully. This goes for the rewards system and even the complaints about RNG in the game. Having a global economy, one that moves as fast as it does, means if you screw up, the impact could be devastating very quickly.

I also think (if the trading items thing means what i think it does in the feature pack), they might actually be trying to put less weight on the trading post, to hopefully help keep the system stable in case they do make mistakes with rewards.

It’s all speculation on my end, but having a successful global economy is definitely causing some issues to the reward system and player progression toward high ticket items.

Yeah .. i also think thats the main reason. Also what should be the price / time you
should invest for an item that at the moment can be worth 50g or 1400g depending
on what Legendary you want ?

Personally i would say it should be maybe 100-200g .. but others already expect it
to be worth as much as the most expensive precursors.

It seems to me that they are talking more and more about the September feature pack. The way I see it, the schedule will look something like this:

September – feature pack
October – Halloween copy/pasta from last year
November – Continue bi-weekly LS releases
Mid December – End LS season 2 (another mid season break?) Wintersday
January – Continue Wintersday festival
February – End Wintersday and take a small break
March – Start up LS again…

And that’s about as far ahead as I’m willing to speculate. My main point is I don’t think we should expect anything new (other than the feature pack in September) until November. I think it’s pretty obvious what the plans are, and I think Anet kind of assumed people would figure it out on their own, which they apparently can’t.

Xenon.4537:

It seems to me that they are talking more and more about the September feature pack. The way I see it, the schedule will look something like this:

September – feature pack
October – Halloween copy/pasta from last year
November – Continue bi-weekly LS releases
Mid December – End LS season 2 (another mid season break?) Wintersday
January – Continue Wintersday festival
February – End Wintersday and take a small break
March – Start up LS again…

And that’s about as far ahead as I’m willing to speculate. My main point is I don’t think we should expect anything new (other than the feature pack in September) until November. I think it’s pretty obvious what the plans are, and I think Anet kind of assumed people would figure it out on their own, which they apparently can’t.

Arenanet didn’t assume anything, they get messages and check the forums. They know exactly what is on peoples minds, they just dont want to add to the fire by saying something wrong.

pigdog.9215:

Xenon.4537:

It seems to me that they are talking more and more about the September feature pack. The way I see it, the schedule will look something like this:

September – feature pack
October – Halloween copy/pasta from last year
November – Continue bi-weekly LS releases
Mid December – End LS season 2 (another mid season break?) Wintersday
January – Continue Wintersday festival
February – End Wintersday and take a small break
March – Start up LS again…

And that’s about as far ahead as I’m willing to speculate. My main point is I don’t think we should expect anything new (other than the feature pack in September) until November. I think it’s pretty obvious what the plans are, and I think Anet kind of assumed people would figure it out on their own, which they apparently can’t.

Arenanet didn’t assume anything, they get messages and check the forums. They know exactly what is on peoples minds, they just dont want to add to the fire by saying something wrong.

That’s true now. What I meant was when they set forth their plans on communication (yes they do that) they must have thought this would be enough. They thought that the ReadyUP and Points of Interest each week would be enough, and they thought the recent blog posts would be enough. They made plans on how to schedule and release those live streams and blog posts weeks ago. They miscalculated.

Xenon.4537:

pigdog.9215:

Xenon.4537:

It seems to me that they are talking more and more about the September feature pack. The way I see it, the schedule will look something like this:

September – feature pack
October – Halloween copy/pasta from last year
November – Continue bi-weekly LS releases
Mid December – End LS season 2 (another mid season break?) Wintersday
January – Continue Wintersday festival
February – End Wintersday and take a small break
March – Start up LS again…

And that’s about as far ahead as I’m willing to speculate. My main point is I don’t think we should expect anything new (other than the feature pack in September) until November. I think it’s pretty obvious what the plans are, and I think Anet kind of assumed people would figure it out on their own, which they apparently can’t.

Arenanet didn’t assume anything, they get messages and check the forums. They know exactly what is on peoples minds, they just dont want to add to the fire by saying something wrong.

That’s true now. What I meant was when they set forth their plans on communication (yes they do that) they must have thought this would be enough. They thought that the ReadyUP and Points of Interest each week would be enough, and they thought the recent blog posts would be enough. They made plans on how to schedule and release those live streams and blog posts weeks ago. They miscalculated.

Ahk, well i don’t know how they could miscalculate that much. Every good community must communicate effectively so everyone’s on the same page. Otherwise problems can arise, which is whats happening.

I wonder what all the community managers at ANet are doing. We know there are several of them. Technically, spreading info should be their job, but they’re rarely seen on forums. Of course, you could say they’re doing interviews and other non-forum stuff, but most of the time it’s the developers who do that. You’d think they’d want to address the largest concerns, like the various megaserver/trait threads and the hobosack thread on the engi forum, but nope.

But yes, more communication is needed. I liked the one year long plan they posted back when the game was new. There was some backlash a year later, but most of it was not because they didn’t fulfill all of their… promises, plans, whatever you want to call them, but because they didn’t post an update for the next year. A simple “sorry we couldn’t finish all of that this year, but here are some things we’re working on now” would’ve calmed a lot of posters.

These blog posts simply don’t cut it.
I just feel that the company lost its momentum. They don’t engage in discussions anymore, the Collaborative Development Initiative turned out to be BS so far.

Before season 2 we were fed with the info that most of the content is permanent, but they forgot to mention that the value of that content is mostly lost due to it being just one-time story instances that you enter once or twice.

They won’t engage in a dialoque about things that hook people up (SAB is the prime example) and won’t give official statements on features that have been asked for since forever (first-person FOV). It just all seems like we’re stuck with, sorry to say, poorly written, childish and boring Living Story updates worth 3 hours of playtime every 2 weeks. The development of these underwhelming updates takes a long time and after just a few months they have to take a mid-season break.

The features they’re adding surely improve the quality, but don’t change the gameplay.

What players need and are asking for is changing what they’re supposed to do, not how they’re supposed to do that!

What is the point of having Solo Arena Leaderboards if the game mode and some terribly design missteps (Skyhammer) stop people from enjoying the game in the end making them leave?

What is the point of introducing new WvW golem mastery/skills or new traps and tricks if it doesn’t change the crucial problems with population, zerging and rewards?

What is the point of going to Gamescom if you can’t even make a cohesive presentation?

What is the point of giving interviews if there is literally no questions you can answer (seriously, the GuildMag interview was just embarassing for the Studio).

What is the point of maintaining these forums if in the end all that the passionate players writing walls of texts of feedback get is an excuse of being just a vocal minority?

It really seems like Anet moved from developing and improving the game to just servicing the bunch of players who still play it.

The absolutely worst thing, that the management at the company should be ashamed of, is sending the truly passionate Devs to these interviews while having a strict non-disclosure policy and making them dodge all the questions. The ones that should put up with these questions should be the Studio Leads.

leman.7682:

These blog posts simply don’t cut it.
I just feel that the company lost its momentum. They don’t engage in discussions anymore, the Collaborative Development Initiative turned out to be BS so far.

Before season 2 we were fed with the info that most of the content is permanent, but they forgot to mention that the value of that content is mostly lost due to it being just one-time story instances that you enter once or twice.

They won’t engage in a dialoque about things that hook people up (SAB is the prime example) and won’t give official statements on features that has been asked for since forever (first-person FOV). It just all seems like we’re stuck with, sorry to say, poorly written, childish and boring Living Story updates worth 3 hours of playtime every 2 weeks. The development of these underwhelming updates takes a long time and after a few months they have to take a mid-season break.

The features they’re adding surely improve the quality, but don’t change the gameplay.

What players need and are asking for is changing what they’re supposed to do, not how they’re supposed to do that!

What is the point of having Solo Arena Leaderboards if the game mode and some terribly design missteps (Skyhammer) stop people from enjoying the game in the end making them leave?

What is the point of introducing new WvW golem mastery/skills or new traps and tricks if it doesn’t change the crucial problems with population, zerging and rewards?

What is the point in going to Gamescom if you can’t even make a cohesive presentation?

What is the point in giving interviews if there is literally no questions you can answer (seriously, the GuildMag interview was just embarasiing for the Studio).

What is the point in maintaining these forums if in the end all that the passionate players writing walls of texts of feedback get is an excuse of being just a vocal minority?

It really seems like Anet moved from developing and improving the game to just servicing the bunch of players who still play it.

The absolutely worst thing, that the management at the company should be ashamed of, is sending the truly passionate Devs to these interviews while having a strict non-disclosure policy and making them dodge all the questions. The ones that should put up with these questions should be the Studio Leads.

i agree, that interview didnt answer anything or make us excited. I’ve been loyal for ages but ive mostly WvWd and i dnno if i should quit yet or wait till end of year.

Fully agree. The silence the past few months is leaving people wondering about the direction they plan to take the game – and when people do that, they always assume the worst.

Even worse, the weekly twitch streams have been reduced to highly focused discussions about very innocuous topics (the past week’s lore and pvp tournaments) and offer nothing substantially important to many players.

They desperately need to squash or confirm some rumors (no focus at all on dungeons, SAB canned or put on indefinite hold, etc) and give us some kind of tacit reassurance that they haven’t forgotten certain aspects of the game (new guild missions, new pvp maps, new objectives – like the old orbs – in wvw, precursor crafting, new dungeons) and whether or not we might see any of those things in 2014 (or even 2015).

The biggest worry that many people have is that personnel shifts at the company have created a lack of real focus – that the game is being run on autopilot outside of the living story instances and new open world maps. I doubt that is the case, but it would be nice to get someone from Anet alleviating some of the more irrational fears (like those I mention above).

Blaeys.3102:

They desperately need to squash or confirm some rumors (no focus at all on dungeons, SAB canned or put on indefinite hold, etc) and give us some kind of tacit reassurance that they haven’t forgotten certain aspects of the game (new guild missions, new pvp maps, new objectives – like the old orbs – in wvw, precursor crafting, new dungeons) and whether or not we might see any of those things in 2014 (or even 2015).

“Be assured: your beloved gem store will still be filled with everything that should be unlockable in-game! New missions and dungeons? Only 800 gems per pack! Precursor crafting? 1000 gems for the recipe that will allow you to unlock recipe #2! P2W in WvW? Only 500 gems per extra skill that will allow you to crush any other player that does not pay!”

Anet don’t want to talk to us anymore , they only want to talk with our money…..

VergilDeZaniah.3295:

Blaeys.3102:

They desperately need to squash or confirm some rumors (no focus at all on dungeons, SAB canned or put on indefinite hold, etc) and give us some kind of tacit reassurance that they haven’t forgotten certain aspects of the game (new guild missions, new pvp maps, new objectives – like the old orbs – in wvw, precursor crafting, new dungeons) and whether or not we might see any of those things in 2014 (or even 2015).

“Be assured: your beloved gem store will still be filled with everything that should be unlockable in-game!”

Not sure where that comment came from – it has nothing to do with the topic at hand.

The gem store is fine – it does exactly what they promised and doesnt infringe on the fun of actual game in any real way (I think the gem store/revenue stream they developed is one of the best in the industry and shouldnt be altered in any way). It has never been an issue.

That said, let’s not let this thread get derailed like that – let’s stay on topic and keep it productive and focused. We are looking for rational and realistic feedback from Anet about some aspects of the game that they havent touched (or even commented about) in 6-8 months, at least. We are just looking for reassurances and a general sense of what we can expect in the future.

Maybe we will hear from Chris. He usually steps is when things get….passionate.

I would really like to see that ‘State of the Game’ blog Colin posted at the beginning of the year we would get ‘soon’. Sadly, soon became, well, not-so-soon.

Sigh.

Blaeys.3102:

They desperately need to squash or confirm some rumors (no focus at all on dungeons, SAB canned or put on indefinite hold, etc) and give us some kind of tacit reassurance that they haven’t forgotten certain aspects of the game (new guild missions, new pvp maps, new objectives – like the old orbs – in wvw, precursor crafting, new dungeons) and whether or not we might see any of those things in 2014 (or even 2015).

Anet doesn’t squash rumors.

But here’s something simple : if by the feature pack they haven’t released any of things you mentioned, you can rest assured that aren’t working on them.
Anet likes to make big things of even the most mundane kitten, if something major comes, it’s going to be with that feature pack.

Unless, maybe (but I doubt) a new dungeon tied to the LS (which again I doubt).

Blaeys.3102:

Not sure where that comment came from – it has nothing to do with the topic at hand.

The gem store is fine – it does exactly what they promised and doesnt infringe on the fun of actual game in any real way (I think the gem store/revenue stream they developed is one of the best in the industry and shouldnt be altered in any way). It has never been an issue.

That said, let’s not let this thread get derailed like that – let’s stay on topic and keep it productive and focused. We are looking for rational and realistic feedback from Anet about some aspects of the game that they havent touched (or even commented about) in 6-8 months, at least. We are just looking for reassurances and a general sense of what we can expect in the future.

I posted before it was finished ^^ What I mean is that most things people want to see might end up in the gem store (like GW1 missions that needed money to be unlocked). I do agree that the gem store is interesting in the sense it generates some more money for them to work (after all, we all work for money). What I don’t like is that everything released will somehow be related to the gem store: “Want keys for your BL chest to get a BL ticket to buy skins? Either spend at least 2,5h or buy some gems! Want new armors? buy some gems! Want minipets? Jennah is free, otherwise, buy some gems!”

Everything comes from gems, we don’t even have the opportunity to unlock them without grinding… ANet stated they are working on various stuff, to please the community (“it will be like GW1 but better”), and all they ask for is more money.

I’m scared that everything will be reduced to gems (something like LS3 will require gems to unlock each episode maybe)…

They really need to focus on what the community wants and not what they think it needs.

VergilDeZaniah.3295:

Blaeys.3102:

Not sure where that comment came from – it has nothing to do with the topic at hand.

The gem store is fine – it does exactly what they promised and doesnt infringe on the fun of actual game in any real way (I think the gem store/revenue stream they developed is one of the best in the industry and shouldnt be altered in any way). It has never been an issue.

That said, let’s not let this thread get derailed like that – let’s stay on topic and keep it productive and focused. We are looking for rational and realistic feedback from Anet about some aspects of the game that they havent touched (or even commented about) in 6-8 months, at least. We are just looking for reassurances and a general sense of what we can expect in the future.

I posted before it was finished ^^ What I mean is that most things people want to see might end up in the gem store (like GW1 missions that needed money to be unlocked). I do agree that the gem store is interesting in the sense it generates some more money for them to work (after all, we all work for money). What I don’t like is that everything released will somehow be related to the gem store: “Want keys for your BL chest to get a BL ticket to buy skins? Either spend at least 2,5h or buy some gems! Want new armors? buy some gems! Want minipets? Jennah is free, otherwise, buy some gems!”

Everything comes from gems, we don’t even have the opportunity to unlock them without grinding… ANet stated they are working on various stuff, to please the community (“it will be like GW1 but better”), and all they ask for is more money.

I’m scared that everything will be reduced to gems (something like LS3 will require gems to unlock each episode maybe)…

They really need to focus on what the community wants and not what they think it needs.

Another example of the kind of rumors and irrational assumptions about the future that they need to squash.

Blaeys.3102:

Another example of the kind of rumors and irrational assumptions about the future that they need to squash.

That’s it, they just need to communicate, not to state. But they don’t seem to get it…

Anet can’t speak to us. Not because of some business practice or anything, but because they’ve dug themselves a hole since launch and if they say something there’s going to be a lot of people looking down at them screaming – “It rubs the lotion on it’s skin..”

Remember way back when we had that election, remember when Anet was all “we want the players to shape the game!”…yeaaaah

Silhouette.5631:

Remember way back when we had that election, remember when Anet was all “we want the players to shape the game!”…yeaaaah

Exactly. I remember when the comment was made about wanting things to be less grindy, only to find out that it’s even worse than WoW. I envision a guy wearing a black suit with coat tails, a monocle, a long mustache and wringing his hangs while giving this gargamel like laugh…

“Yes, we’ll make the game less grindy… sure we will. We’ll make farming and acquiring money so atrociously unprofitable they’ll have no choice BUT to buy gems and convert it to gold!!”

+1 Vayne. Although, I do have to say, their silence has spoken volumes and will be extremely hard to retract.

Their silence happened after the release in China. It probably has something to do with it, and upper management is behind it. I don’t know though. It sounds too conspiratorial. lol.

Im Mudbone.1437:

+1 Vayne. Although, I do have to say, their silence has spoken volumes and will be extremely hard to retract.

Their silence will be forgotten within a matter of weeks save for the perennially kitten that look for any reason they can to be angry.

Like it always has.

The only part of that post that I agree with is that we need more communication.

The part I don’t agree with is the part where he advocates for more lip service. If that’s all their communication is going to be then don’t bother imo. I don’t need a THIRD set of promises made we already have two, those from prelaunch, and the list still on Wiki.