Guild Wars 2

Hello everyone I’d like to explain the differences between opinions and constructive criticism, because it seems a lot of forum users don’t know the differences.

How to tell if it is an.opinion
Opinions, everyone has them. However they add no real feedback and are often times harmful to the forums.

I think (blank) is unfair
This is a common one, as yes sometimes it does seem unfair to die in PvP, or to be unable to finish a map because of a bug, however we don’t need your emotional tale of the 100 blades warrior, we need information on damage, bugs, stats, and other fixable issues.

I think I should be able to (blank), it is my right as a gamer!
Actually no, this goes to gamer entitlement, which is a controversial title indeed. However, all gamers are entitled to is for the game to function properly. That’s it, fixing bugs is a part of that and the anet team is working hard, and we should post specific bugs within the game that can help them. Saying that you don’t think 100% map completion should have PvP maps is not helping, it is just you expressing your opinion.

This class is overpowered, my class is underpowered
This happens a lot, in every game, ever. The great thing is that arena net actually listen to substantial feedback and fix bugs, it takes time but they are fixing it. Be paitent and think about how much money waiting will cost you, oh wait won’t because there’s no subscription fee.

Anything Diminishing Rewards Related
Now it has really just become mindless complaining, I don’t like DR either but I am not 6 years old so I can wait while they fix a video game. Devs have been so paitent with us that they still respond to DR threads after doing so 100s of times already. It will get fixed.

This game is bad, this other game was so much better
Oh thats nice, but that’s just an opinion and it is also a pointless one to express seeing as this is Guild Wars 2, not Guild Wars 1, not WoW, not Everquest, not Aion it is just Guild Wars 2. comparisons are useless and devoid of anything helpful that would advance this game.

I demand this
No. Go back to your room and eat your vegetables.

Constructive Criticism

This involves feedback that devs can actually put to use in order to fix bugs and improve on the overall game. A post about class imbalances can be helpful if you can provide detailed information, and not just “this class sucks ans I don’t do any damage please fix”. Devs need something like “the necromancer class is imbalanced because the staff attack takes 4.7 seconds to reach its target and with the marks doing only 2330 damage per second when compared to the other classes (stats and info) the necro falls short”. Also if you are reposting about a bug that already was addressed by the devs, then don’t post again. It’s just not helpful. Finally know that all content can be changed and rebalanced, however it is ultimately not up to you, its up to what the devs envision. If they use our feedback then that’s great, but is not what we should expect them to do everytime. Another good example is to provide screenshots to prove your message is correct, just hit print screen, its easy and it provides validation. Know that you need to provide proof along with feedback, as it helps fix the issue, no proof means that no one can actually believe you, so give them a reason to.

Thanks for reading this, hopefully it can help our forums become more constructive and less whiney.

I wish more people realised this. It always is amusing to see posts saying “X IS BORKED, FIX IT”. Well, sorry that there may be an issue with “X”… but one is not in a position, even as a customer, to tell the publisher what to do. It’s rude and childish.

And whilst i can understand some do not wish to PvP, stating “remove it from the achievement”, once again… entitlement. The game works that way, that’s the way it has been designed. And I very much doubt they threw it in there without thought. The game is based around players experiencing as much as possible and the monthly achievement is a reflection of that. Monthly Achievements are not a requirement of the game.

Anything Diminishing Rewards Related
Now it has really just become mindless complaining, I don’t like DR either but I am not 6 years old so I can wait while they fix a video game. Devs have been so paitent with us that they still respond to DR threads after doing so 100s of times already. It will get fixed.

I agree with most of what you have said except that bit. There’s no point blindly defending the indefensible. Today was the first time in weeks someone officially spoke to us about the DR issue. Until this point, NOONE knew if this was a bug, working as intended or working but wasn’t tweaked correctly. All we knew was there was DR; it was to curb gold farmers/bots and that legit play was getting affected.

that was all we knew and it needed weeks of complaints before someone actually wrote to clear up the issue. I would hazzard a guess that the majority of the complaints on this issue was only due to the fact that we were nearly completely dark on its intent and intended function.

saying “wait for them to fix it” implies you knew it was a bug, which you didn’t. Noone did. According to the dev, it’s working but the threshhold needs to be adjusted to be less severe. now we know and now we should be patient.

ounkeo.9138:

Anything Diminishing Rewards Related
Now it has really just become mindless complaining, I don’t like DR either but I am not 6 years old so I can wait while they fix a video game. Devs have been so paitent with us that they still respond to DR threads after doing so 100s of times already. It will get fixed.

I agree with most of what you have said except that bit. There’s no point blindly defending the indefensible. Today was the first time in weeks someone officially spoke to us about the DR issue. Until this point, NOONE knew if this was a bug, working as intended or working but wasn’t tweaked correctly. All we knew was there was DR; it was to curb gold farmers/bots and that legit play was getting affected.

that was all we knew and it needed weeks of complaints before someone actually wrote to clear up the issue. I would hazzard a guess that the majority of the complaints on this issue was only due to the fact that we were nearly completely dark on its intent and intended function.

saying “wait for them to fix it” implies you knew it was a bug, which you didn’t. Noone did. According to the dev, it’s working but the threshhold needs to be adjusted to be less severe. now we know and now we should be patient.

Unfortunately you are not entitled to information about updates, or bugs, or exploit fixes. So they didn’t even have to fix this issue at all. In facr they could have said its not an issue and left it. Information on the current standing of future updates and bugs is a privilage given to you from arenanet, it is not a right.

arrownin.3128:

Unfortunately you are not entitled to information about updates, or bugs, or exploit fixes. So they didn’t even have to fix this issue at all. In facr they could have said its not an issue and left it. Information on the current standing of future updates and bugs is a privilage given to you from arenanet, it is not a right.

Is this a joke? I’m just curious. Yes, correct, it is “a privilege”, however as has been seen in many previous games, the less they tell you, the more up in arms the customers get.

Guess what happens if customers get unhappy? They leave. And then you have a dead game. And it HAS happened before. WoW was a classic example where they weren’t telling anyone even things in patch notes close to the beginning. The outcry was HUGE, and they changed their stance.

Edit to add : And with that attitude, did you even realize the fact that they let you play is also technically a privilege? But just because something is a privilege, doesn’t mean you can’t absolutely complain about it.

arrownin.3128:

Hello everyone I’d like to explain the differences between opinions and constructive criticism, because it seems a lot of forum users don’t know the differences.

How to tell if it is an.opinion
Opinions, everyone has them. However they add no real feedback and are often times harmful to the forums.

I think (blank) is unfair
This is a common one, as yes sometimes it does seem unfair to die in PvP, or to be unable to finish a map because of a bug, however we don’t need your emotional tale of the 100 blades warrior, we need information on damage, bugs, stats, and other fixable issues.

I think I should be able to (blank), it is my right as a gamer!
Actually no, this goes to gamer entitlement, which is a controversial title indeed. However, all gamers are entitled to is for the game to function properly. That’s it, fixing bugs is a part of that and the anet team is working hard, and we should post specific bugs within the game that can help them. Saying that you don’t think 100% map completion should have PvP maps is not helping, it is just you expressing your opinion.

This class is overpowered, my class is underpowered
This happens a lot, in every game, ever. The great thing is that arena net actually listen to substantial feedback and fix bugs, it takes time but they are fixing it. Be paitent and think about how much money waiting will cost you, oh wait won’t because there’s no subscription fee.

Anything Diminishing Rewards Related
Now it has really just become mindless complaining, I don’t like DR either but I am not 6 years old so I can wait while they fix a video game. Devs have been so paitent with us that they still respond to DR threads after doing so 100s of times already. It will get fixed.

This game is bad, this other game was so much better
Oh thats nice, but that’s just an opinion and it is also a pointless one to express seeing as this is Guild Wars 2, not Guild Wars 1, not WoW, not Everquest, not Aion it is just Guild Wars 2. comparisons are useless and devoid of anything helpful that would advance this game.

I demand this
No. Go back to your room and eat your vegetables.

Constructive Criticism

This involves feedback that devs can actually put to use in order to fix bugs and improve on the overall game. A post about class imbalances can be helpful if you can provide detailed information, and not just “this class sucks ans I don’t do any damage please fix”. Devs need something like “the necromancer class is imbalanced because the staff attack takes 4.7 seconds to reach its target and with the marks doing only 2330 damage per second when compared to the other classes (stats and info) the necro falls short”. Also if you are reposting about a bug that already was addressed by the devs, then don’t post again. It’s just not helpful. Finally know that all content can be changed and rebalanced, however it is ultimately not up to you, its up to what the devs envision. If they use our feedback then that’s great, but is not what we should expect them to do everytime. Another good example is to provide screenshots to prove your message is correct, just hit print screen, its easy and it provides validation. Know that you need to provide proof along with feedback, as it helps fix the issue, no proof means that no one can actually believe you, so give them a reason to.

Thanks for reading this, hopefully it can help our forums become more constructive and less whiney.

Speaking of entitlement… Man does this post come off as smug, condescending and rude. I’ve got an idea. Stop posting your opinion about other peoples opinions. See what I did there?

Fiennes.9568:

I wish more people realised this. It always is amusing to see posts saying “X IS BORKED, FIX IT”. Well, sorry that there may be an issue with “X”… but one is not in a position, even as a customer, to tell the publisher what to do. It’s rude and childish.

Actually, they have every right to tell the publisher to fix it. The publisher can come right back with a “no.”

See what you people don’t seem to get is these people are paying customers. Now, I HATE customer entitlement, but the point you aren’t seeing is the word “paying”. As in, they buy things on the market. When they buy things on the market, the game keeps going. However if customers leave or stop buying things on the market the game will start to die. Why? Because the cost to keep the game going will start to be higher than their intake.

So yes, the publisher can do /whatever they want/ with the game. But they certainly also have repercussions to their actions. Just like when someone exploits. They’ll also have their repercussions.

What a lot of people seam to forget is GW1 survived quite happily on the system Gw2 currently has in place. Your a customer whos paid for the game, your not paying for anything else unless you want to optionally. Your getting the right to play on the servers using the software provided and they reserve the right to provide it to you in pretty much any state they wish. Check the TOS, i’m sure its going to be in there somewhere about changes to the product. Once purchased you can do nothing but (believe it or not) provide your opinions to help shape the game. Opinions become common direction and helps drive the game (if they also feel its feasible/meets their goals and objectives). Leave if you wish they already have your input to the project and as such you reserve the right to come back in a years time and still enjoy the same service free of charge.

There have been people who purchased the game and demanded their money back which out of good faith Arena Net have complied and refunded them… something i bet you’d never see from any other major development/publishing companies out there. Feel free to provide examples to correct me, i’d love to see it!

Regardless of all of the I’m going to leave even though i’ve paid my monies and no one enjoying the game could care less posts….

I do agree with the OP’s point, and to be fair i’ve fallen victim to a little moaning purely because i loved GW1 and i came with the expectations that some of the principles i loved about it would continue on and have sadly been lost in the drive to innovate and create something fresh.

Kindeller.3072:

There have been people who purchased the game and demanded their money back which out of good faith Arena Net have complied and refunded them… something i bet you’d never see from any other major development/publishing companies out there. Feel free to provide examples to correct me, i’d love to see it!

http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/355166/20120622/diablo-3-refund-patch-1-0-new.htm#.UG2gVE3A8po

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/355/index/10297553/1

There’s also charge-backs. Most of the time, the credit card companies will side with the customer. Now, with that being said, don’t think you can ever buy anything on that CC again with ANet… But, uh, most people do have multiple credit cards. (and friends/family with credit cards, etc.)

Any game forum post abusing the word “entitlement” should be ignored completely. It’s the scapegoat buzzword for those with no real argument.

I still don’t understand the DR complaining. I guess I play different than the complainers, but I have never run into it.

When Arah was down the other day on TC, I ran the plinx + tar elemental + escort missions in the north of Cursed Shore for about 2 hours straight, and didn’t have a single drop in the amount of loot I was getting or the amount of Karma I got from the events.

I got 374 (I think that’s the right number) karma for every event I ran, and it didn’t drop at all the entire time.

Loot was also consistent. I think it’s all much ado about nothing…