Guild Wars 2

I think I will read it when it goes live.

You have to understand the function of AMA is PR. But it’ll be interesting, regardless.

Hey everyone, sorry for the slow update – I was doing thanksgiving all yesterday and a birthday all day today.

I wanted to clear something up about the purpose of an AMA! Yes it IS rather PR-related, but it’s not an “any PR is good PR” situation. No one goes into an AMA, makes themselves out to be an kitten and gets any benefit from it. Not how it works.

The reason I’m consolidating these questions is multi-fold;

1. If the AMA is in a subreddit other than the /r/GuildWars2 one (last time was /r/Gaming) – we want to make sure that our message is consistent, and heard loud and clear. It worked in the pre-BWE3 AMA, and I’m confident it will do so again.

2. By collecting and presenting these questions to ANet/Chris Whiteside BEFORE the AMA, it gives them an opportunity to find answers. It doesn’t take “scheming and sidestepping” to say “I can’t answer that” or “I have a tricky way to avoid this question” – if they don’t want to answer it, they won’t, simple as that. However, a lot of questions may need to be researched before they can give an answer, and it’s good form to give them to time to do that then to put them on the spot.

3. The basic premise of this AMA is “we have questions, they have answers.” Make the most of it, don’t be an angry mob, stay civil and human (which most of us should be I believe), and remember that this is a game that we love to play, we want to see continuously get better and better, and that both of these things apply to Anet as well as the playerbase.

ANYWAYS! Again, for those who missed it; this is the link to the AMA question list

I’ve updated it with everyones questions so far that I’m aware of! I would like to get a lot more in before the end of the weekend (a lot of people are asking the same questions, so please look them over before asking it again!) I’m still going to organize it better soon! Please keep posting your questions/complaints/ideas But keep them nice.

-LoreChief

Oh and here’s a google doc link for anyone wanting to just look at the questions!

What is the point of this?

From the last Q&A it became obvious that they are not allowed to answer the real questions. This is a waste of time. They’re gonna cheery pick out questions again. Actual communication is not possible while Nexon/NCsoft stands between ANet and us.

The answers will most likely be generic and insubstantial PR again.

We can’t get answers, they can’t give answers.
It’s just a torture for both them and us at this point.

Would it be possible to change the questions regarding profession bugs to a general question asking when/if they plan on addressing all of the bugs stickied in the profession threads. The way the questions are currently addressed could lead them to believe that the Elementalist/Guardian/Mesmer/Thief and Warrior communities are unconcerned with the status of their bugs.

I’m super glad you took the Player Development topic about skill number and combat depth to a high priority, OP.
That’s the most important imho, far more than this Ascended fiasco.
Because if combat was not repetitive, if it was varied enough, there wouldn’t be so many players ranting about gear problems, as they simply wouldn’t care grinding thanks to a rich “personal” gameplay in PvE (= outside of bosses/group combos/etc).

sidenote : I’m not sure E7 is that important, though …

It would probably be representative to add a couple of questions about Magic Find. For example – are there any plans to change how it works in Dungeons/WvWvW? Either by disabling it’s effect there or sharing any MF out amongst the group.

I’d imagine the answer to these from Anet (and anyone who uses MF in Dungeons/WvWvW) is “no!”. But it can’t hurt to ask.

Seems like it’s here to stay though – for example there are even MF ascended items, despite the fact there are no dedicated +healing (Cleric’s) ones.

chronus.1326:

What is the point of this?

From the last Q&A it became obvious that they are not allowed to answer the real questions. This is a waste of time. They’re gonna cheery pick out questions again. Actual communication is not possible while Nexon/NCsoft stands between ANet and us.

The answers will most likely be generic and insubstantial PR again.

We can’t get answers, they can’t give answers.
It’s just a torture for both them and us at this point.

This.

However, not giving an answer is already an answer.

At least its something. Something is better than nothing at all.

Now for the questions:

Will there be new hairs, beards etc added soon, and will there be a non gem-based way of changing a basic things like hairstyle?

How soon will you implement a way to re-customize your character?

Will there be any changes to the UI anytime soon. Like being able to resize/move windows that cannot be resized/moved at the moment. The bank/crafting UI is something that needs to be able to be resized, possibly decrease the size of the grid/icons.

Will there be a way to separate chat tabs into different windows?

Hi, here are some questions that I would like asked. Not sure if they are applicable to this venue or not but here they are:
1. How many accounts in Guild Wars 2 are linked to accounts in GW?
2.Of all those linked accounts in question 1, how many brought a complete HoM over to GW2 INCLUDING THE GWAMM title?
3. What are the basic requirements this year to get a signed Christmas card from GW2 coders and developers?

I would like to know if there’s any plans for making Engineer kits and Elementalist weapons scale with weapon stats.

Why do you have an undodgable agony effect at maw? I’m at lvl 33 never had to do a level twice had pretty long no agony resistance cause you can avoid it with skill only place you can’t do it is maw so I die there anyway even with low hp gear full healset healsignet for half life instant rez with elemental glyph on fire mists form in downmode→ it’s pretty said it’s the only place I have to die cause I’m not geared enough if you would take this away.. you could beat the whole dungeon doens’t matter how many levels without agony resistance ( witch should be the case in my opignon)

Elephant in the Room style question:

Will those players who participated in the Lost Shores event and yet were unable to obtain the chest for a variety of reasons (DC, short chest timer, etc.) receive anything? The various errors that occurred late in the event meant that a lot of people who participated in much of the rather lengthy quest were unable to to get the 20 slot bag or trinket, let alone have a chance at precursors. Is anything going to be done about this issue, and if so, when can we expect a resolution?

No one is using traps? oO I love traps!

Apart from that comment, I suppose I’ll just let you guys ask away – it appears my questions are all already in there.

Is there anyone working on the looks/ clipping of existing armours?

It’s a very small issue, and most armours are fine. The Medium SE exotic that I got has a poor texture on the mouth of the helm (which is pretty prominent), and a very noticeable clipping issue with the Pauldrons.

It just devalues something that takes a player like me a lot of effort to get. If it’s relatively easy to fix I’d really appreciate it.

So my actual question is just: “Is there anyone working on the looks/ clipping of existing armours & gear”?

chronus.1326:

What is the point of this?

From the last Q&A it became obvious that they are not allowed to answer the real questions. This is a waste of time. They’re gonna cheery pick out questions again. Actual communication is not possible while Nexon/NCsoft stands between ANet and us.

The answers will most likely be generic and insubstantial PR again.

We can’t get answers, they can’t give answers.
It’s just a torture for both them and us at this point.

If the exercise can pry open the wallet of even one disillusioned fanboi and fill him with warm fuzzies, then it is Mission Accomplished.

LoreChief.8391:

Oh and here’s a google doc link for anyone wanting to just look at the questions!

These are hard core questions and I for one appreciate that, I’m so sick of fan sites ignoring issues in the community like their scared to ask the hard questions; at least we’ll get to see if Anet can balls up and be strait with us.

Fractal daily chest is the only way to get rings with agony resist but its 1 time day, (yes i know its more since 1-9 10-19 20-29) but how is can we progress when its all about luck getting a ring?

I’m covered by the questions expressed already.

I gotta admit though I think your expectations for this thing are not very realistic. The official Anet posts regarding the Lost Shores event and Ascended gear debate have set a certain tone that will most likely be the one adopted during Monday’s little shindig. The “ascended items were introduced in order to address the gap between exotic and legendary items” statement is a fine example of what I expect to read on Monday.

If you believe that the introduction of ascended gear contradicts your original vision of the game and constitutes an omen for things to come, whatever PR response Anet may provide should not really reassure you anyway. I mean actions speak louder than PR.

Let’s face it, the vertical progression mmo formula is extremely popular for a reason. People are so used to it by now that they have come to expect it and GW2 has by now attracted a lot of players from such mmos that will never rest until they have it and will defend it to the bitter end. Pleasing both horizontal and vertical progression fans is not possible.

I have 2 more for you.

E9: Things like the trinity were removed and systems added like scaling content and side kicking to keep players playing together. Many players now feel the scaling of FotM is causing a divide in players and making it harder and harder to find lower level groups. Do you see the power scaling of FotM as adding to player separation and is this in line with the original ideologies for GW2?

E10: Prior to the announcement of Ascended gear the top tier of gear could be obtained in a number of ways; crafting, karma, or running dungeons. Players truly could play GW2 anyway they liked and still find a path to the most powerful rewards in the game will this freedom of choice be restored to endgame? Ascended gear feels like the new raid gear was this your intention? Will a path to Ascended (the top level) gear be restored to crafters and open world players?

Only one question -

- More often, zones (especially pre-80, but not limited to those) are feeling considerably less populated, due in part to some player attrition, players congregating at FoTM/Lost Shores, other hotspots, etc. Is ArenaNet looking into ways to keep those zones fuller, possibly through server mergers or the use of “overflow” technology? This is becoming a particular issue on less popular servers and, in some cases (gates of arah, Balthazar, etc) can inhibit players from playing the content/reaching the goals they desire.

Why did you lie to us about gear progression?

That is what we need to know.

Will the level cap stay at 80?

Q: Can the dungeons (including fractals) be re-designed to SCALE, like explorable areas, such that I can solo or play with 2-3 friends/family? Otherwise, I won’t be doing dungeons, and will abandon the game if dungeons are the only way to progress.

Q: What is you solution to LFG spam in Lion’s Arch, and the disinterest in helping new players even START the Fractal dungeon?

Q: Is Ascended the last tier of gear, or have you broken you initial promises by deciding to add a perpetual gear grind to GW2?

Q: Are you ever going to “fix” rangers, or are you just going to keep buffing Warriors?

Will we ever see an Oceanic-based server? People in this area will never see ping rates under 100ms like most of the US and EU people with their own servers do. Latency of this kind makes it completely unfair on anyone from this area having a level playing field with someone else with 20-40ms ping in something like sPvP and the like.

The closest we got to this in original GW was the Asian-based servers which were eventually merged in with the US ones anyway.

To date Elementalist’s are sitting with 98 documented and carefully explained bugs! Would you kindly add this post to your profession specific questions: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/NEW-Elementalist-bugs-and-glitches-thread/first#post290693

LoreChief.8391:

<snip>

Feel free to add your questions here, send me a PM, or just add it directly to the thread on Reddit if you feel like it. Oh, and please reference the thread when submitting questions so you know the kinds of things we don’t want to see!
<snip>

Why is FotM the only place to gain the new gear if it is the intention that you should be able to obtain it from multiple paths?

From a designer perspective, what does the existance of Magic Find gear add to the game and does it offset its downsides? What is the reasoning behind it working in dungeons?

Also, could you please answer everything Ascended-related in detail, pretty please?

The list has become large and cumbersome, and some questions in particular are redundant in each section.

I strongly suggest combining their only-slightly-variant intents into a single, unified question.

Hey guys, added the most up to date stuff.

In all seriousness, a lot of people need to take a deep hard look at their complaints about the idea of having an AMA in general. There are quite a few of you that want to brush off ANet ignoring questions due to some “ultimately evil agenda backed by the evil NCSoft and Nexon”.

The reality of the situation the last time around was that they had X amount of time to answer questions, and even though we successfully got many answered, the large list we’d submitted was more like throwing a brick through a wall than presenting it slowly. The goal with this one, and it has been successful so far – is that we’re giving ANet enough time to look over the questions so they can answer more than they did before. They know about the list, and hopefully that will work in our favor (i.e. getting more questions answered).

What I need from everyone here, is to keep bringing up good questions for me to add to this list. Even if they aren’t answered, we can at least be kitten sure they were asked.

Thank you.
-LoreChief

please be sure to post answers back to this thread.

I will be in transit most of monday.

Some more questions:

Acctually one question but elaborating on it to be clear what I mean.

1. Reffering to what Chris Whiteside has written in these two statements:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/news/A-message-from-our-Studio-Design-Director-Chris-Whiteside/first#post721451

“Ascended and infusion rewards will be available in both PvE and WvW over time, and be made available through all sorts of content around the world including existing content.”

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/chris-whiteside-on-the-lost-shores-and-beyond

“•Revamping all of our existing dungeons (Story and Explorable versions) through rebalance and overhauled encounters.
•Adding new dungeons to the Fractal of the Mists.”

Does this mean that basically GW2 from now on will be all about grinding instances/dungeons as end-game if want the top stat gear as well as ingredients for crafting top stat gear ???

There is no mention of crafting at all and PvE content can simply mean revamp all dungeons to also drop these items but not through any other PvE content like random drops, World Bosses or even for Karma by Vendors ???

Yes WvWvW is mentioned but still not crafting and if crafting is dependant in ingredienst from dungeons isn’t GW2 simply turning into the same type generic MMO that we have seen so many times before, catering to the typical Elitit instance type of players, without mentioning any names of those MMO’s ???

Wasn’t GW2 going to be about being able to play the style You preffer and be rewarded eqaullly no matter what that style is ? Crafting, Open World Bosses, Especially Open world and a lively breathing world in PvE, Of course some Instances/dungeons, instanced battleground sPvP, as well as semi open PvP in WvWvW ?

To me and many more instances are simply single-player game with multi-player option. Simply for You and a group of people. The opposite of Open World or even “living breathing world”. It is Ok to have them but not to try to mold/force everyone to basically have to do them or have lesser gear or not be able to craft top gear.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game

“Enter a living, breathing fantasy world”

These ANET guys better have prepared for this, or all is lost. I would have made them skip Thanksgiving Holiday to prepare for this AMA discussion.

Just wanted to give everyone a heads up. I’ve finalized the AMA Questionaire, updated the main thread in this page, as well as the reddit page and Google Docs version. I’ll make sure these questions get asked during the AMA tomorrow.

If you are a redditor and you support these questions being asked, please upvote the submission when it’s provided to Chris Whiteside tomorrow during the AMA.

For anyone who still has questions, I urge you to participate in the AMA yourselves! Reddit is a friendly place, and we can use all the friendlier people in reddit.com/r/GuildWars2 (it’s become full of oh-so-many trolls/baddies since launch! )

Also; links for the lazy:

Reddit Thread: http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/13lio6/prepare_for_the_chris_whiteside_ama_here/

Google Docs Link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PmsDw6AfTYzy7Wh1j_bnaz4Fyop3_8wpbxGcxrhgNUI/edit

Thanks!
-LoreChief

1: How many levels of gear beyond Ascended are being planned.

2: Are there plans for an increase of max level beyong 80, if there is to what?

3: When will a one time event be sceduled for the greatest concurrency of Australian and New Zealand players.

4: why when introducing a new tier of gear did you require a ton of materials used to make exotic gear, not only leaving the people trying to get the old gear one step behind but making it even harder to make exoitcs.

oh god.. please no more fractal dungeons.

Enough of that.. the gating is already destroying our community with JUST ONE

Q: What is being done to re-work fractal “levels” to prevent encouraging players to exclude those who don’t have a high enough level?

As an addition to

PR6: Are ranger pets going to get a survivability buff? Also, according to the wiki on pets, bears far outclass any of the other pets – are there plans to normalize pet stats?

What about necro minions? They are currently useless in most fights as well cause they die way to easily to AoEs. Any intentions to change that.

And a question about conditions:
Any plans on removing the 25 cap for bleeds or changing the system so the cap is per player?

I wanted there to be more questions about dynamic events. They seemed like such a cornerstone of the game before release, but on release they just didn’t live up to the hype surrounding them (completely changing maps). So many events are the same thing (waves of monsters/escort mission) and they are totally destroyed by zergs of players. Do they think dynamic events are working as intended or do they have more work to do?

That’s a good list, I hope that Mr. Whiteside gets through all of them and realizes this is somewhat important for some of their player base. I for one, am looking forward to some answers as they will potentially affect my future participation here.

2 items of high interest:

1. Will there be more dungeons added in the original style? Story/EXP mode, with cosmetic armors?

2. Will fractals of the mists get its own chat channel? Or maybe a LFG? Its odd to have added a dungeon site to the main city hub of the game that was the location for people to try to put together groups for the other dungeons..

I saw this thread at the last minute and only have enough time to post my questions, so I apologize if they have already been mentioned/asked.

1) Can we get a general timeline as to when profession bugs (that have been present since release) will be fixed?

2) Would it be possible to receive more input from Anet regarding various community concerns in the future? as opposed to the current lack of communication in my opinion. (for example: biggest necromancer concern is minion ai, and we have received nothing from Anet regarding possible fixes or a “we’re looking into it” response).

Thanks, hope this AMA has some positive results.

Regarding SR3, players already travel for free to these places anyway, there’s really no reason to waste player time and server side resources just for us to get to:

• Lion’s Arch
• your character’s home city
• heck, make that any city

In addition to SR2, these would also be welcomed:

• Asura gates to all cities in Heart of the Mist
• earn one free waypoint on a 100% cleared map
• gem shop “frequent flyer” waypoint discount item

I would also like to propose a SR on additional crafting opponent storage (any chef would agree), even as a gem shop option; and suggest that in game currency such as dungeon tokens should not require physical bank space.

He’s not going to answer anything that could be misconstrued..for the simple fact he will be crucified if its not perfect. Each one of you wants a specific answer or he’s wrong..this an AMA, not a firing squad or an interrogation. and honestly Im glad they got thanksgiving weekend off..I wouldnt want guys who had not had the chance to be with their families and wind down a bit to be answering questions from hostile fans.

PR1: When can we expect this list of engi bugs to be fixed?
PR3: When can we expect [this list of necro bugs]((https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Necromancer-bugs-compilation-NB44-NT18-NP7/first)) to be fixed?
PR4: When can we expect this list of elementalist bugs to be fixed?

Really?!?! Is anyone expecting any answer other than “We are working as fast and as hard as we can to get all bugs under wraps. You’ll be updated as soon as they’re fixed.” Or is anyone expecting exact dates and circumstances of what bugs are being worked on when?

What a waste of three questions and a serious waste of the little time they’re lending us… especially with question PR12 basically covering the issue.

Thanks for the compilation. Would highly recommend you stick with the actual plural of gear, which is gear not gears. It always hits me like, How many deers were in the road? The plural of deer is deer and the plural of gear is gear.

Ditton.3149:

He’s not going to answer anything that could be misconstrued..for the simple fact he will be crucified if its not perfect. Each one of you wants a specific answer or he’s wrong..this an AMA, not a firing squad or an interrogation. and honestly Im glad they got thanksgiving weekend off..I wouldnt want guys who had not had the chance to be with their families and wind down a bit to be answering questions from hostile fans.

We would hope that he would answer each of these questions truthfully. An AMA presupposes that any question is on the table, and any question asked should be answered truthfully. This is because this is an AMA, not a PR event.

Edit: If he is not forthcoming with his answers he will be crucified by the community. This is the forum to come clean and state what the current thinking is regarding the vision clearly defined in the manifesto and the game elements introduced which represent a clear repudiation of the Manifesto.

They had better have worked over Thanksgiving to be prepared for this.

Any planned improvements to the chat UI (changing colors, etc)?

Anything planned to allow for players to rebind the current 3-action “f” key to three separate keys?

Any plans to allow the person who created a guild to demote or kick a “leader”?

Will we see the “Colossus” ever again? (I’m referring to the chained giant in FoTM…)

Kain Francois.4328:

Will we see the “Colossus” ever again? (I’m referring to the chained giant in FoTM…)

Love that guy <3

Will we see Largos as a playable race in the future?