Guild Wars 2

first off I’m old, have 4 kids etc so my ideas are old school. The point of this post is trying to understand this whole notion of ANET needing to instill trust with players or the attitude that people can simply complain endlessly over trivial matters, or that some how the game developers owe the players anything at all besides a few hours of fun. In the real world 50$ is worth 1 hour and 15 minutes of my time as a mason, 7 minutes of time to a lawyer, 30 minutes to an electrician , would pay for half an evening out on a date etc. these forums are filled with abuse and complaints that have very little to do with a balanced state of being when they should be filled with helpful insights for those looking for answers , well thought out suggestions for future content or work arounds for common bugs. The games is decent , our player base for the most part is decent and it is time that these forums reflect this

Half a date you eat very expensive or they dont pay at all?

I respect the spirit of what you’re trying to do, but you’re going about it wrong. This kind of post will accomplish nothing to that end.

Rather, it’s a bit like throwing a rock at a hornets nest.

They’re just the typical QQ element every single major MMO forum is cursed with. It’s to be expected.

The forums are a microcosm and the angry, irrational, salty elements a microcosm of a microcosm.

Anet has thick skin and they’re impressively tactful in dealing with these types.

A lot of the people here aren’t like that. Don’t worry about it too much. They’re not accomplishing anything. It’s just the way they choose to waste their time.

Don’t let them waste yours.

There’s one thing you have to remember: This is a generation of entitlement.

“I hate people complaining, let me complain about those complainers!”

People posting criticism ( and by that I mean constructive, documented criticism) are usually the people who love the game and want it to get better. Those who don’t care stopped posting long ago or just come for a sarcastic comment like I do. Some QQs are based on misconception of the game ( where’s my trinity, thief too strong, players are toxic and mean), but those threads are dismissed by experienced veteran players anyway. However, balance issues and complaints about anet and NCsoft politics be it economical or simply the way they handle communication, are valid complaints. Don’t make everyone posting a fool because of a few haters. The proportion of not so intelligent people on the forum isn’t higher than the rest of the world.

The game is fun, the game is inexpensive entertainment, the forum doesn’t represent the gamers I know and play with in game.

I’m glad the whiners and whingers (of which I am occasionally a part of) palaver here rather than in-game for the most part.

Velimere.7685:

There’s one thing you have to remember: This is a generation of entitlement.

Eh, it’s not a generational thing at all. And it’s not about entitlement either. Some people enjoy complaining, some people enjoying stirring up kittens [sic], and some with legitimate gripes have trouble expressing their opinion without sounding rude, condescending, or far removed from reality.

Then, there are those with unreasonable expectations.

All of the above will post on the forums. Typically, people who just enjoy the game a lot or a little won’t bother. That means, over time, the vast majority of posters will be whining about this, that, or the other. (Which, by the way, doesn’t make them wrong.)

It has nothing to do with age; I’ve seen it from older people, too.

As someone else stated, it doesn’t really help to post a topic that complains about complaining. If reading the forums frustrates you, don’t read them.

On the other hand, I’d welcome seeing more people who offer a positive attitude and a critical view about the game. To do that, you have to manage to not worry too much about nattering nabobs of negativity.

Hey OP. You’re preaching to the choir. One of the reasons I come of as such a white knight is because I’m old enough to believe that respect out to be shown. You can make legitimate complaints without attacking people, or trying to make them look bad.

But I fully acknowledge that I’m just one voice that’s hopelessly out of place in this day and age.

I thought that dev posts were flagged as such.

Defiling Treekiller.1632:

The point of this post is trying to understand this whole notion of ANET needing to instill trust with players or the attitude that people can simply complain endlessly over trivial matters, or that some how the game developers owe the players anything at all besides a few hours of fun.

The answer is loyal customers and repeat business. An unhappy customer tends to be a disloyal customer who isn’t going to pay for anything further. While I’m not excusing some of the ‘trivial’ matters we’ve seen on the boards, you must keep in mind it speaks volumes about the overall climate within the community.

The ‘mood’ of the players.

And, if it isn’t obvious yet . . . they’re not happy campers.

Honestly? This is ANet’s fault. They’ve set the bar especially high with their weekly to monthly updates. These updates always kept players busy chasing after a new carrot. And then it was gone because it wasn’t enough for certain players who have since went into hiding or started playing something else.

Unfortunately, ANet listened to them . . . and now we’re getting nothing. We’ve got nothing to do. And we’re being told nothing of substance.

That sudden withdraw tends to make those that stayed cranky. And thus . . . the posts and threads you’re seeing.

Sad state, but the expansion crowd asked for this drought. And now it’s here until the expansion is done. Let’s not even discuss the multitude of game-breaking bugs the recent patch introduced. . . .

Defiling Treekiller.1632:

In the real world 50$ is worth 1 hour and 15 minutes of my time as a mason, 7 minutes of time to a lawyer, 30 minutes to an electrician , would pay for half an evening out on a date etc.

I think you’re looking at this the wrong way. When it comes to MMO, longevity is is key to the financial success of the company developing that MMO.

ANet isn’t going to care if you got what you feel is your moneys worth out of the game or how it compares to other forms of entertainment or worldly costs. What they WANT is for you to stick around and keep playing, which in turn increases your chances of spending more money on the game, which also subsequently equates to more income for them.

They DO NOT want you to stop playing, for whatever reason. Even if you’re satisfied they’d obviously want you to stick around for longer if they can help it. It has nothing to do with what they feel they owe you, it is simply business, and any competent business owner would understand the importance of customer retention.

So, what’s the best way to keep players playing, and thus increase income? Well, it’s simple. Keep players happy.

If players become bored of your game for whatever reason, that means they stop playing. If they stop playing, they stop spending money on the game. If they stop spending money on the game, ANet stops earning income, which is used to pay staff and keep the servers running. It’s not the same as a lawyer which offers a one time service for a one time fee and then moves onto the next client. ANet is dependent on consistent customer satisfaction and retention in order for their continued, long-term financial success.

So when players give feedback about matters that they are displeased with, or about why the game might be boring for them, it is, in fact, IN ANET’S BEST INTEREST TO LISTEN and regard that feedback, whether it’s good or bad. That doesn’t mean they have to act on all of it, and certainly some complaints can be regarded as trivial or simply as flaming, but they certainly should not ignore it.

The bottom line is this. Usually when people complain or get upset, it’s because they are passionate about the game and want it to be good. They want it to be good so they can keep playing. Hell, they even want to spend money on it if they feel it’s worthwhile for them to do so (hence why so many people asked for a pay for expansion so they could get more content. They were ready and WILLING to pay for that content).

Ardenwolfe.8590:

Sad state, but the expansion crowd asked for this drought. And now it’s here until the expansion is done. Let’s not even discuss the multitude of game-breaking bugs the recent patch introduced. . . .

I don’t think the expansion crowd asked for a content drought. Nor do I think they believed that having ANet work on an expansion would suddenly lead to a complete lack of content updates in game for the good part of a year.

And even then, I don’t think people would mind it as much if the content in the expansion was worth the wait. But from what we’ve seen so far, even the expansion seems quite scarce in terms of content so far, which perpetuates that feeling of dissatisfaction.

Defiling Treekiller.1632:

first off I’m old, have 4 kids etc so my ideas are old school.

The one does not inherently assume the other. Lets assume you starting making babies at around 16 (although conceivably we could even push that down to 13-14 but that would be weird), so 9 months per-baby, give 2-3 month between babies, so conceivably you could be in your early late teens / early twenties. That isn’t even assuming you’re male and have more than one female partner, hey not judging my country still allows bigamy, in fact the president of my country has like 3 of wives.
Yes, pedantic but I just wanted to point that out, since I’m at present procrastinating.

CETheLucid.3964:

They’re just the typical QQ element every single major MMO forum is cursed with. It’s to be expected.

I’d argue it’s a component of the internet, or more accurately a result of how easy modern technology makes it to complain. 30 years ago if you wanted to protest something you actually had to get out of your chair, get some glitter make a poster and stomp around in circles outside. Now you just tweet a hashtag. If you wanted to send someone abuse, you actually had to write a letter, go to the post office and mail it to them. Now you can just tweet it at someone. Yes I know I’m using twitter a lot here, but I think this is relevant to most social media platforms.

oxtred.7658:

“I hate people complaining, let me complain about those complainers!”

Actually no that would be a strawman. OP is complaining about how the forumites are complaining about things which, according to his perspective, really isn’t significant at all. He uses the whole price thing as an example.

Ashen.2907:

I thought that dev posts were flagged as such.

Implying sock-puppet-ery?
That would be an ad hominem, irrespective if OP is a dev or not his point is separate from himself.

Defiling Treekiller.1632:

first off I’m old, have 4 kids etc so my ideas are old school. The point of this post is trying to understand this whole notion of ANET needing to instill trust with players or the attitude that people can simply complain endlessly over trivial matters, or that some how the game developers owe the players anything at all besides a few hours of fun. In the real world 50$ is worth 1 hour and 15 minutes of my time as a mason, 7 minutes of time to a lawyer, 30 minutes to an electrician , would pay for half an evening out on a date etc. these forums are filled with abuse and complaints that have very little to do with a balanced state of being when they should be filled with helpful insights for those looking for answers , well thought out suggestions for future content or work arounds for common bugs. The games is decent , our player base for the most part is decent and it is time that these forums reflect this

Even if probably is a lost battle, as many have pointed out, I like you for stepping forward and saying this. Thank you sir.

CureForLiving.5360:

Implying sock puppetry?.

No. Implying nothing of the sort.

I’ve been on so many MMORPG forums to know that… well. This complaining and being so negative is the norm of it.

I was actually confused when I saw how bad it was for gw2. This is the absolute best I’ve seen a gaming company treat their players / community.

People always want more. Want better. Want now. And think they can get it by throwing a few fits via internet. Never occurred to most that perhaps if they acted in a respectful way and appeared to have a head on their shoulders; in return they’d get respect back and even an answer they would enjoy hearing.

And this is coming from someone who isn’t old. I was just raised to appreciate and respect others. :P

Defiling Treekiller.1632:

first off I’m old, have 4 kids etc so my ideas are old school. The point of this post is trying to understand this whole notion of ANET needing to instill trust with players or the attitude that people can simply complain endlessly over trivial matters, or that some how the game developers owe the players anything at all besides a few hours of fun. In the real world 50$ is worth 1 hour and 15 minutes of my time as a mason, 7 minutes of time to a lawyer, 30 minutes to an electrician , would pay for half an evening out on a date etc. these forums are filled with abuse and complaints that have very little to do with a balanced state of being when they should be filled with helpful insights for those looking for answers , well thought out suggestions for future content or work arounds for common bugs. The games is decent , our player base for the most part is decent and it is time that these forums reflect this

So whats that in McDoanlds burger flipping wages? And if you think this is bad… google “I want to speak to a Manager haircut”.

I understand where you are coming from, OP. The world used to be a much, much different place. Even just 10 years ago…..

Vayne.8563:

Hey OP. You’re preaching to the choir. One of the reasons I come of as such a white knight is because I’m old enough to believe that respect out to be shown. You can make legitimate complaints without attacking people, or trying to make them look bad.

But I fully acknowledge that I’m just one voice that’s hopelessly out of place in this day and age.

It’s pretty hard to respect a company that decides to invalidate your progress that you obtained through hours of tough play ( getting to FOTM level 49) and resetting everyone to level 30 because of “leaderboards” which they have no idea how to implement and then completely abandon.

That’s a lot of respect for players right there.

“We’ll take your progress away because we need to reset everyone so leaderboards are fair” – ok – I can understand that.

“We don’t know how to implement leaderboards but they are coming” – wait so you just reset our progress knowing full well you had no decent idea about how to make the leaderboard (reason they invoked) work? That sounds pretty bad doesn’kitten

There are many more examples such as “new legendary weapons and legendary weapon types coming in 2013” – sure you can make a statement and you can end up not making it happen because of various reasons ( developer/publisher issues or whatever) but at least come out and tell us : You know that thing we announced? it won’t happen because of x or y issue. Or at least tell us something.

They made that statement and then basically never said anything on the topic again – same as with the leaderboards.

Not even a modicum of respect in the form of “ok guys we made a mistake” or “plans were delayed” – nothing.

Let’s look at another issue – precursor crafting – that was thrown around and then not discussed again until very recently.
Let’s look at Jeweler 500 – a lot of things are put out there to generate “hype” and then are just left hanging.

This lack of communication is the basis for the lack of respect a lot of the community is showing right now.

Tenrai Senshi.2017:

Ardenwolfe.8590:

Sad state, but the expansion crowd asked for this drought. And now it’s here until the expansion is done. Let’s not even discuss the multitude of game-breaking bugs the recent patch introduced. . . .

I don’t think the expansion crowd asked for a content drought. Nor do I think they believed that having ANet work on an expansion would suddenly lead to a complete lack of content updates in game for the good part of a year.

And even then, I don’t think people would mind it as much if the content in the expansion was worth the wait. But from what we’ve seen so far, even the expansion seems quite scarce in terms of content so far, which perpetuates that feeling of dissatisfaction.

I’m sorry but the expansion crowd, as you call them, was absolutely asked that numerous times. Most of the people calling for the expansion did say that they would be okay with not getting regular updates, if they could get an expansion.

Even in threads now you see some people saying I don’t care about updates now, if the expansion is good.

Let’s not forget that before GW2 launched Anet had massive community trust, support and good will. I actually thought they were a company that could do great things.

Ever since launch they’ve done a LOT to help erode the community’s trust and support and much of the current “backlash” has been caused primarily by their various policies and goof-ups.

Look at the LS – that annoyed a LOT of people. I don’t think anybody remembers the days of LS season 1 fondly – with the rushed releases that had massive bugs that people exploited and content that left after 2 weeks never to return again.

Look at what happened even at launch – dozens of QOL features that were present in GW1 weren’t there ( especially for guilds) – this isn’t their first MMO – these things should have been put in the game.

When you create a product and people buy it you create expectation. If your next product is lacking features the previous one did people that owned the first one will want those features because guess what – it’s only normal.

It’s been 3 years almost and we still don’t have build templates.

Harper.4173:

Vayne.8563:

Hey OP. You’re preaching to the choir. One of the reasons I come of as such a white knight is because I’m old enough to believe that respect out to be shown. You can make legitimate complaints without attacking people, or trying to make them look bad.

But I fully acknowledge that I’m just one voice that’s hopelessly out of place in this day and age.

It’s pretty hard to respect a company that decides to invalidate your progress that you obtained through hours of tough play ( getting to FOTM level 49) and resetting everyone to level 30 because of “leaderboards” which they have no idea how to implement and then completely abandon.

That’s a lot of respect for players right there.

“We’ll take your progress away because we need to reset everyone so leaderboards are fair” – ok – I can understand that.

“We don’t know how to implement leaderboards but they are coming” – wait so you just reset our progress knowing full well you had no decent idea about how to make the leaderboard (reason they invoked) work? That sounds pretty bad doesn’kitten

There are many more examples such as “new legendary weapons and legendary weapon types coming in 2013” – sure you can make a statement and you can end up not making it happen because of various reasons ( developer/publisher issues or whatever) but at least come out and tell us : You know that thing we announced? it won’t happen because of x or y issue. Or at least tell us something.

They made that statement and then basically never said anything on the topic again – same as with the leaderboards.

Not even a modicum of respect in the form of “ok guys we made a mistake” or “plans were delayed” – nothing.

Let’s look at another issue – precursor crafting – that was thrown around and then not discussed again until very recently.
Let’s look at Jeweler 500 – a lot of things are put out there to generate “hype” and then are just left hanging.

This lack of communication is the basis for the lack of respect a lot of the community is showing right now.

I absolutely understand why someone who got to high level fractals and had to go back to 30 would be annoyed.

I also am guessing it’s such a small percentage of the playerbase, that it’s not necessarily bad business to annoy that percentage. In the past, in businesses I ran, some decisions I made annoyed a percentage of the customer base. I always tried to make sure it was a small percentage.

You got your progress reset on something that 3 weeks later you could have back? I’m sure that it really galled some of you. On the other hand, some realized that the fractal HAD changed and you’d never done them with those mistlock instabilities.

The Fractal Leaderboard was an absolute fiasco. But I don’t look at single issues. I look at the whole picture. Anyone can take any single thing and find a flaw. I can find a dozen serious flaws with this game. However I can find hundreds of things done right.

I’d love to see you find an MMO where you personally agree with every single decision a dev team makes. Because I know games like ESO and Archeage and Wildstar were touted by people pre-launch as being the next big thing and all of them have just sort of struggled along. If you look on the forums of those games, you’ll see there as bad or worse than these forums.

It’s the same with any MMO. I can pick out individual points on which Anet has let me down. But individual points are not the whole story.

There are no perfect games. If you don’t like what Anet did, that’s fair enough, but that 20 level fractal drop was just a temporary problem that many people played through, and 20 days later, they were back up to level 50.

When I was a boy, £35 (or $50) got you 2-3 Sega Mega Drive games, with about 2 hours content each.

Vayne.8563:

Stuff

I was not annoyed by the reset – but the made-up false reason that they used to justify it.
I can understand a reset being necessary for the good of the game or for whatever reason but be decent and tell us the truth – don’t try to throw dirt in our eyes by saying “oh because new leaderboards” and then come out a few months later and declare " we have no idea how to make these leaderboards".

This sort of attitude is the reason I’m upset and why I’ve lost a lot of faith. Not the reset itself.
It was their initial deceptive motive coupled with their later announcement that made me lose even more faith because not only had they been deceitful they also proved
incapable of following their OWN plans through because they had no idea how to.

So on top of looking deceitful they also ended up looking like they have no idea what they were doing really.

The problem is not the flaws vs things done right – it’s the way things that go wrong are handled that makes people angry.
It’s the fact that whenever they fail to meet a self-imposed deadline or standard instead of coming out and saying what’s happening and what’s going on( let’s see who gets this reference) they simply go silent about it.

Honesty and communication go a long way – and the lack of these also goes a long way but in the wrong direction.

I would also like to stress out that how I or any other individual player feels about this decision or another has nothing to do with the core issue of how different decisions were handled.
It’s not about whether I agreed with it or not – it’s about how they went about it.

Typical older generation complaining about the younger generations economic position. It is the older generation that ruined the economy so keep your ideas on how the younger generation manages its finances and perceives value to yourself unless you want to open that can of worms.

Harper.4173:

Vayne.8563:

Stuff

I was not annoyed by the reset – but the made-up false reason that they used to justify it.
I can understand a reset being necessary for the good of the game or for whatever reason but be decent and tell us the truth – don’t try to throw dirt in our eyes by saying “oh because new leaderboards” and then come out a few months later and declare " we have no idea how to make these leaderboards".

This sort of attitude is the reason I’m upset and why I’ve lost a lot of faith. Not the reset itself.

This is what most of the player base anger boils down to right now, I think. It’s the lack of communication/poor communication that has been going on not just for a week, but for a couple of years now.

I know the recent stuff in WvW was mentioned in this thread. The one time a dev came into that forum this week to talk to us about a fix for lag issues, they were met with appreciation, not anger. There was civil conversation.

The last game I played in, about two years ago people were complaining about a lack of communication from the devs. And the devs in that game stepped up and started communicating better (though they already communicated with their player base better than a lot of other games I’ve seen). That increase in communication did wonders for the player base’s trust in the company and the game. They’ve been growing steadily since, too. Communication is important in the gaming industry right now, you need to talk to your player base. And Anet just isn’t doing that well. When that’s been going on for years, it’s understandable that people would be angry. The ones who stay in the game come to the forums. The others just find new games to play.

Harper.4173:

Look at the LS – that annoyed a LOT of people. I don’t think anybody remembers the days of LS season 1 fondly – with the rushed releases that had massive bugs that people exploited and content that left after 2 weeks never to return again.

I actually look back at them fondly. It was a great time. I don’t remember a lot of exploits, although I do remember all the bug patches. At the time, it was so annoying, but part of that was because they built up anticipation a week before with details, screenshots, and sometimes videos of what was coming. So when it was released, I jumped in and wanted to do everything. They usually tried to address bugs relatively quickly, so not much of my play time was affected overall.

I don’t think so many people would want it to return if they didn’t remember enjoying it in some way. It is also unlikely that people would want it to stay if it wasn’t fun.

My two cents:

What I want most of all is value for my bucks. I don’t care if a game is free, or cost 90$ (as most do over here.) I want to play a game and know I got value for my money. That’s pretty much it. That’s why I rarely go to the cinema. Movies are just too expensive, so when I rarely go to see one in the cinema, it’s because I know I get value for the money. I know the movie’s worth it. Which is why I watched Jurassic World three times in the cinema, but nevermind that.

With GW2, I know I get value for my money. Tons of it. It was cheap to begin with, and it doesn’t cost anything to play other than the one time investment when I bought it. How can anyone complain about that? I’ve been around for three months this time (nevermind the launch account I lost), so that’s already two and a half months more than I’ve played just about any other game, other than LotrO, Neverwinter and Vanguard. All MMORPGs. Neverwinter even had the guts to be completely free. Imagine that. Completely free, one of the best MMOs on the marked.

And know what I did last night? I played Fallout Shelter for four hours non-stop while watching TV. Sure most of it was sitting around waiting for dwellers to not show up (sigh…) or fighting back raiders, but I did make progress now and then. Even got two babies and a guy killed in the wasteland. And the best part? Fallout Shelter is free.

On top of that, I bought a second copy of Alien: Colonial Marines. A special edition, even. Sure the game was decent, but two copies? Including a special edition? Well, the special edition means I have an alien fighting a loader standing in my shelf. Totally worth it for an alien nut like me. I enjoyed the game (especially multiplayer), but the alien/loader was totally worth it for me.

The point is, it doesn’t matter to me what a game cost. Some are free, some are expensive. But as long as I can put the game down with a smile and agree with myself that I got value for my money, that’s all I want. I’d buy a retro-game for 200$ (actually, I did… Castlevania: The New Generation in perfect condition on Sega Genesis) if I think it’s worth it. If it’s not worth it, I won’t even download it for free.

Vayne.8563:

The Fractal Leaderboard was an absolute fiasco. But I don’t look at single issues. I look at the whole picture. Anyone can take any single thing and find a flaw. I can find a dozen serious flaws with this game. However I can find hundreds of things done right.

…

It’s the same with any MMO. I can pick out individual points on which Anet has let me down. But individual points are not the whole story.

An interesting point. What I find when I look back is that most everything that I find good about the game was in it at launch, and that most everything I dislike has been added since. There are exceptions to both, but by and large the game is becoming worse for me over time.

I’m sure ANet has reasons for what they’ve done, and they may even in general be good reasons. However, some of their decisions I look at and shake my head. And I’m with Harper on the FotM reset for LB’s. Changing a game system and removing player progress to make room for a system enhancement that you have not yet determined can be done was a poor decision.

brittitude.1983:

Harper.4173:

Look at the LS – that annoyed a LOT of people. I don’t think anybody remembers the days of LS season 1 fondly – with the rushed releases that had massive bugs that people exploited and content that left after 2 weeks never to return again.

I actually look back at them fondly. It was a great time. I don’t remember a lot of exploits, although I do remember all the bug patches. At the time, it was so annoying, but part of that was because they built up anticipation a week before with details, screenshots, and sometimes videos of what was coming. So when it was released, I jumped in and wanted to do everything. They usually tried to address bugs relatively quickly, so not much of my play time was affected overall.

I don’t think so many people would want it to return if they didn’t remember enjoying it in some way. It is also unlikely that people would want it to stay if it wasn’t fun.

I think many people want LS season 1 back for a number of reasons that have little to do with its quality.

1.It’s content – it is done and complete content – people want content and currently there’s a content drought.

2.Without it story continuity is lost. No matter how good or bad it was not having it in the game breaks continuity. All new comers to the game have to basically play the PS and then start LS season 2 with only wiki posts and youtube videos to explain who Scarlet was, why Mordremoth awake and so on.

I also want to emphasize how not communicating with your player base can turn small things into big things.

A while ago a lot of idle animation from the characters was removed – why? Nobody knows.
I’m sure they had a valid reason – but not telling us why means that players have made dozens of threads with various reasons and a small thing has turned into something much bigger.
Angry people have a way of angering each other up in a sense. It would have been much better to just include it in the patch notes, state the reason and move on.

Harper.4173:

It’s pretty hard to respect a company that decides to invalidate your progress that you obtained through hours of tough play ( getting to FOTM level 49) and resetting everyone to level 30 because of “leaderboards” which they have no idea how to implement and then completely abandon.

In that case do not play any MMOs with gear-treadmills (which is a very large percentage of them… as far as I know).

Harper.4173:

Look at the LS – that annoyed a LOT of people. I don’t think anybody remembers the days of LS season 1 fondly – with the rushed releases that had massive bugs that people exploited and content that left after 2 weeks never to return again.

I do! Molten Facility was a good dungeon… too bad I didn’t get my pack piece… Rather liked the Tower of Nightmares design, still think Marrionette is better than vinewrath.

Teevell.1684:

This is what most of the player base anger boils down to right now, I think. It’s the lack of communication/poor communication that has been going on not just for a week, but for a couple of years now.

I know the recent stuff in WvW was mentioned in this thread. The one time a dev came into that forum this week to talk to us about a fix for lag issues, they were met with appreciation, not anger. There was civil conversation.

I seem to remember the whole business about the precursor scavenger hunt… ANet tried communicating their plans but that didn’t work out well. Since then they’ve only communicated about things that are done or mostly done.
Also as for years, maybe. But I honestly think that with the specialisations they’ve been extremely communicative about the changes and rationality behind it.

Vayne.8563:

I also am guessing it’s such a small percentage of the playerbase, that it’s not necessarily bad business to annoy that percentage. In the past, in businesses I ran, some decisions I made annoyed a percentage of the customer base. I always tried to make sure it was a small percentage.

How small to be that percentage? Like 6-8%, as colorblind people are?
I will not comment this business model. After 3 years since launch, I am too tired trying to find a needle ( read: mouse cursor) in a haystack.