Guild Wars 2

I know a lot of players think these forum’s are usually only filled with the vocal minority of players. The sort of player’s who are upset and feel the need to express their opinions. Most people seem to think that the majority of the player base are content and happy playing the game.

Use caution making that statement people. In my experience for every one person that posts a reply or topic stating they are unhappy, there are usually 3-4 behind them who agree but don’t waste the time posting.

I don’t think we can say what the size of any group of players is. People keep linking the stocks around the forums and what does that prove? Are any of these people economists? What kind of training do they have to know how this company is doing?

There’s a lot going on and it all seems like fear mongering and if you have issues with the game, then by all means you are welcome to voice them.

You should try to avoid using anecdotal evidence to support your own claims.

The only thing the Vocal minority is a minority in is being vocal opposed to being silent. There is no proof that the people complaining are actually the minority or majority at all, but ignoring such an outcry only shows a lack of leadership at the top.

Most players are in the game right now, playing the event, having fun, a minority is on the forums crying. Nothing new here to see in the world of MMO forums.

I’m off to play the game, have fun with all the forum PVP, lulz.

I think, especially since we have no way of knowing either way, that the forum is not representing the minority or the majority…

Since we don’t know, I safely assume the forum is a good representation of the community playing the game.

I see positive posts and I see negative posts.
So yes: I tend to think the tone of the forums is representative for the game, good or bad.

Me and all my friends are enjoying the game and loving the changes. I think the people complaining are ridiculous.

DegoLocc.5976:

Most players are in the game right now, playing the event, having fun, a minority is on the forums crying. Nothing new here to see in the world of MMO forums.

I’m off to play the game, have fun with all the forum PVP, lulz.

you have no idea of knowing what ‘most’ players are doing or what they like or dislike.

Everybody should stop speaking for others.

Forums are only a minority for those who disagree on what’s being said.

Just take the forums as feedback.

DegoLocc.5976:

Most players are in the game right now, playing the event, having fun, a minority is on the forums crying. Nothing new here to see in the world of MMO forums.

I’m off to play the game, have fun with all the forum PVP, lulz.

I used to read these same posts on the swtor forums. Word for word what you just wrote.

What DegoLocc says is true. Players who enjoy the game are probably going to play the game instead of waste time crying on the forums.

But since you guys like numbers, let’s do numbers. If one takes the sales figures (well over 2 million) into account, and say that maybe for every person who cries on this forum, there are 3-4 who share their opinion, that’s a mere fraction of the total people playing this game.

Snow- Anecdotal evidence? most people do not post on forums, the majority just lurk. Let’s take for instance this post, 4 replies and 96 views in the past 4 minutes. That means one of us has been refreshing this page OR 96 people have viewed this post and only 4 have chosen to respond. Out of those 96 people how many do you think agreed or didn’t agree?

This is brilliant. Tell people not to make assumptions and follow it up with more assumptions and unsubstantiated numbers.

“For every person who has a problem with ANets broken event and changed game philosophy there are [insert made up number] people who are gleefully happy. "

Just state YOUR opinion and keep it moving.

xtorma.1283:

DegoLocc.5976:

Most players are in the game right now, playing the event, having fun, a minority is on the forums crying. Nothing new here to see in the world of MMO forums.

I’m off to play the game, have fun with all the forum PVP, lulz.

I used to read these same posts on the swtor forums. Word for word what you just wrote.

Yea I was on SWTOR forums as well, telling them how static, bland and boring their game was instead of playing it. :P

Vermillion Hawk.9037:

What DegoLocc says is true. Players who enjoy the game are probably going to play the game instead of waste time crying on the forums.

Because people who play computer games don’t open browsers, and look at forums for hints tips and information on the game. They’er not facebook and twitter either. They’re too busy being dumb happy, while the vocal minority are fringing about.

Kimbald.2697:

DegoLocc.5976:

Most players are in the game right now, playing the event, having fun, a minority is on the forums crying. Nothing new here to see in the world of MMO forums.

I’m off to play the game, have fun with all the forum PVP, lulz.

you have no idea of knowing what ‘most’ players are doing or what they like or dislike.

Everybody should stop speaking for others.

Forums are only a minority for those who disagree on what’s being said.

Just take the forums as feedback.

I do, I’m psychic, and all knowing, and I can tell you this, what the majority of ppl want, is usually not the best thing for the game. Simply because most ppl don’t know what they really want, or what they’re even talking about to begin with.

Ok enough critical forum pvp hits, I’m off to the event for real this time :P

MrDmajor.7084:

Vermillion Hawk.9037:

What DegoLocc says is true. Players who enjoy the game are probably going to play the game instead of waste time crying on the forums.

Because people who play computer games don’t open browsers, and look at forums for hints tips and information on the game. They’er not facebook and twitter either. They’re too busy being dumb happy, while the vocal minority are fringing about.

Read the second bit.

MrDmajor, you can use numbers in opinions, that’s why they’re opinions. As was my statement, which is why I said in “my experience”.

The point is “vocal minority” is an excuse and cop out regardless of the stance taken. Unless people have data to back it up, what you SEE is what you get. Forum users aren’t some obscure collection of special people. ESPECIALLY when it comes to mmorpgs.

Vermillion Hawk.9037:

What DegoLocc says is true. Players who enjoy the game are probably going to play the game instead of waste time crying on the forums.

But since you guys like numbers, let’s do numbers. If one takes the sales figures (well over 2 million) into account, and say that maybe for every person who cries on this forum, there are 3-4 who share their opinion, that’s a mere fraction of the total people playing this game.

Give up the number crunching. You are bad at it.
You’re telling me that there are 2 million active people on right now? lol
I’m telling you there is less than 100 of them. My point is as valid as yours. No proof no nothing. Just tossing numbers out there.

There is no such thing as a “vocal minority” in reality. There are only voices and they are either in the minority or majority. The forums are only one medium for feedback on the state of the game, but it is a significant one as it functions as one of the official channels for communication. It would be silly for a company to ignore significant feedback. The feedback, ideally, will be evaluated and given it’s due weight in their decision-making processes.

MrDmajor- If what you see is what you get, then I could make the assumption that the majority of the player base is unhappy regarding the recent changes made. And the people screaming the people who don’t like the changes are the “vocal minority” are wrong. So no, it wouldn’t be an excuse or cop out with the replies you just wrote, you’ve failed with your argument.

Forum goers themselves are a minority of an MMOs playerbase, an even smaller number than that bother to post. While it’s certainly possible that the views here could be held by a “majority” of players, it’s equally possible that they are not.

What we do know atm though, is despite all the moaning on these forums, the servers are jam packed, with overflows in many zones, which might suggest that the majority have no issue, or at least not enough to cause them to stop playing the game, with the recent changes.

Vermillion Hawk.9037:

Sales does not necessarily mean active players, but they certainly precipitate them. Looking stupid to prove a point will get you nowhere.

You should really start listening to your own advices.

so why play this game vs. WoW at this point. WoW has everything this does now, and better quality. Seriously, how is this game differentiated vs wow now?

Malefactor.2971:

Forum goers themselves are a minority of an MMOs playerbase, an even smaller number than that bother to post. While it’s certainly possible that the views here could be held by a “majority” of players, it’s equally possible that they are not.

What we do know atm though, is despite all the moaning on these forums, the servers are jam packed, with overflows in many zones, which might suggest that the majority have no issue, or at least not enough to cause them to stop playing the game, with the recent changes.

Better watch out with those stats, you might hurt someone’s brain trying to convince themselves the game’s dying.

There were 178 views of this thread. My opinion is that the majority of the viewers see this thread as an uninformed opinion being passed off as informed opinion based on made up statistics.

Malefactor.2971:

Forum goers themselves are a minority of an MMOs playerbase, an even smaller number than that bother to post. While it’s certainly possible that the views here could be held by a “majority” of players, it’s equally possible that they are not.

What we do know atm though, is despite all the moaning on these forums, the servers are jam packed, with overflows in many zones, which might suggest that the majority have no issue, or at least not enough to cause them to stop playing the game, with the recent changes.

Because cross sections and microcosms don’t exist. =\

Please stop. Just state YOUR opinion and move on. Besides, what’s the point in trying to convince others “it’s not that bad”? Why is the word “vocal minority” even being brought up? What’s your personal investment? If it is it is, if it isn’t it isn’t.

It looks like people are trying to convince THEMSELVES. It shouldn’t matter. If nothings wrong enjoy it. It will stay the same if it’s true.

MrDmajor- So giving the opinion that people don’t always speak up, is an uniformed opinion? And I was passing that off as being informed because I’m a grown man who understand’s that most people don’t speak up when they don’t favor something? And because I said usually 3-4 people have the same opinion as the one person speaking up but don’t means I was using statistics? Kitten, now i’m lost.

People are always trying to convince themselves, MrD.

Speaking of microcosms, this forum has thus far been quite an entertaining one of Edmund Burke’s political theories.

I refreshed the page 5 times because it kept on getting replies. That leaves 173 other views. For the record, I sided with the minority, but I’m not gonna say which side I perceived as the majority.

MrDmajor.7084:

Malefactor.2971:

Forum goers themselves are a minority of an MMOs playerbase, an even smaller number than that bother to post. While it’s certainly possible that the views here could be held by a “majority” of players, it’s equally possible that they are not.

What we do know atm though, is despite all the moaning on these forums, the servers are jam packed, with overflows in many zones, which might suggest that the majority have no issue, or at least not enough to cause them to stop playing the game, with the recent changes.

Because cross sections and microcosms don’t exist. =\

Please stop. Just state YOUR opinion and move on. Besides, what’s the point in trying to convince others “it’s not that bad”? Why is the word “vocal minority” even being brought up? What’s your personal investment? If it is it is, if it isn’t it isn’t.

It looks like people are trying to convince THEMSELVES. It shouldn’t matter. If nothings wrong enjoy it. It will stay the same if it’s true.

I’m not trying to convince anyone of anything, just stating what is.

Tawngs.8250:

MrDmajor- So giving the opinion that people don’t always speak up, is an uniformed opinion? And I was passing that off as being informed because I’m a grown man who understand’s that most people don’t speak up when they don’t favor something? And because I said usually 3-4 people have the same opinion as the one person speaking up but don’t means I was using statistics? Kitten, now i’m lost.

“Vocal minority” is a term used to insinuate a very small section of people are making a lot of noise thus making them appear bigger than they really are. Its a term used to trivialize whatever stance they are taking whether correct or incorrect.

MrDmajor- Thank you for telling me what I already know, I was stating that because everyone who is unhappy with the recent changes that makes a post gets slaughtered by people under them telling them they’re the vocal minority.

Who knows. But there definitely is a thread with 10k posts in it about this patch.
So no matter what you want to believe – you can’t deny that this patch is controversial.

I’m in the forum minority right now over being annoyed at having to team up to ensure decent drop rates in WvW and sometimes in PVE. It’s very obvious I’m in the minority on that and that most players couldn’t care less or even support forced teaming for loot efficiency.

The Ascended gear complaints in contrast are very obviously not a minority complaint.

11k posts, but many from the same people. Once again, not indicative of a majority or a minority. As of now, I doubt anyone can even say whether there is a majority.

Vermillion Hawk.9037:

11k posts, but many from the same people. Once again, not indicative of a majority or a minority. As of now, I doubt anyone can even say whether there is a majority.

Yeah but it’s definitely controversial no matter who’s the minority or majority here.
A thread doesn’t get that many posts with only 5 people posting about it.

You’d be surprised.

I never said it wasn’t controversial. Controversy does not necessarily imply mass dissent on the matter, however. As I said though, I don’t think there is a majority here.

Tawngs.8250:

I know a lot of players think these forum’s are usually only filled with the vocal minority of players. The sort of player’s who are upset and feel the need to express their opinions. Most people seem to think that the majority of the player base are content and happy playing the game.

Use caution making that statement people. In my experience for every one person that posts a reply or topic stating they are unhappy, there are usually 3-4 behind them who agree but don’t waste the time posting.

Based on the experiences from many MMOs by now; it does seem the vocal minority is speaking with the same opinion of many of the silent group that just leaves the games.

I imagine that it’s very difficult to know how important an issue really is and what percentage of players really are upset.

However, it might not make a difference to ANet whether it’s one person or 1 million who are having a certain problem with a game. If it’s something they think is a problem they’ll try to do something about it.

I can only agree with the OP. As I have just said in another thread,

“in my long experience, the majority are silent for many reasons. But their silence never defines which side of the fence they are on. Never. You would do well to remember that.”

The idea that it’s only a minority of players speaking out about this change is kind of suspect. It kind of seems to ignore that there was outcry on these forums from people who weren’t satisfied with the lack of vertical progression, who asked for more and stronger gear to be introduced into the game.

And I think the reason that nobody remembers that happening is because there is literally more than ten times the outcry now that stronger gear has been introduced.

So the logic here is basically: If 1000 people complain on a forum, they’re just a vocal minority and can be casually disregarded. But if 100 people complain about the opposite problem… That makes them the majority? I think we can all agree that’s a little bit silly.

If we’re being realistic and completely honest with ourselves, it’s pretty obvious what the actual majority opinion is: “I don’t care.”

Most people absolutely do not have any emotional stake in this. If the game never gets items more powerful than Exotics, they won’t care – and if the game introduces Ascended 1, Ascended 2, Ascended 3, Super Saiyan Ascended, etc, in the span of a year and a half? They won’t care. Neither outcome is going to make them play longer, and neither outcome is going to make them quit any faster.

So it’s got nothing to do with one side representing a “majority” of the player base, and one side representing a “minority” of the player base. Both are comparatively small segments of the game’s population.
We know that the people who don’t want a gear grind represent a larger portion of the players who are invested enough in the game to post on a forum about it – that much is pretty patently obvious from comparing the pre-Ascended, “We need better gear” posts, to the post-Ascended “Aaaaaaaaaaa” explosion. That does not necessarily mean that those players make up a larger portion of the overall player base, but it does mean that they can’t be completely dismissed out of hand.

The only thing that can be usefully accomplished on a forum is to give a more persuasive argument for your point of view.

Malefactor.2971:

What we do know atm though, is despite all the moaning on these forums, the servers are jam packed, with overflows in many zones, which might suggest that the majority have no issue, or at least not enough to cause them to stop playing the game, with the recent changes.

Yes because the first free trial weekend, plus an event has nothing at all to do with that…

Malefactor.2971:

Forum goers themselves are a minority of an MMOs playerbase, an even smaller number than that bother to post. While it’s certainly possible that the views here could be held by a “majority” of players, it’s equally possible that they are not.

What we do know atm though, is despite all the moaning on these forums, the servers are jam packed, with overflows in many zones, which might suggest that the majority have no issue, or at least not enough to cause them to stop playing the game, with the recent changes.

Or they haven’t thought through things as far as forum posters have. So they don’t understand enough to complain, even if they would agree with the posters. But they will complain once they are forced to see the reality.

But your point remains, we don’t know what the silent majority thinks. All we know is that the majority isn’t talking.

Overflows don’t tell us anything unless we know how many overflows there are. Especially with all the trial accounts skewing the numbers.

Columba.9730:

so why play this game vs. WoW at this point. WoW has everything this does now, and better quality. Seriously, how is this game differentiated vs wow now?

Dodge rolls. In WoW you role a die, in GW2 you roll your character

You can predict election results with a sample size of a thousand.