Guild Wars 2

the person that initially came up with the ridiculous non disclosure policy of what devs are currently working on and communicating the outlook for the future of the game. This is a business killer imo.

If this policy is revoked and you can speak freely about what your plans are, then there will be a lot less tension in the air and it will also restore hope any faith in many for your company.Also many of the veteran players could also use the morale boost!

If this policy remains in effect then I quote one of your infamous NPC’s “This won’t end well!”

The trouble with that is that, as Colin explained, when you make announcements, and then later have to change or dump those plans because of unforeseen issues (would affect the economy/launching game in a new region/turned out to be much more difficult to implement than first thought), you will have players who snatch up torches and pitchforks and accuse ANet of broken promises. It’s the same negativity, just in a different form.

I do agree that it would be nice to know what ANet is working on, but generally they will only tell us what’s coming when they’re 90% (maybe even higher?) sure that it will be released.

Zaxares.5419:

The trouble with that is that, as Colin explained, when you make announcements, and then later have to change or dump those plans because of unforeseen issues (would affect the economy/launching game in a new region/turned out to be much more difficult to implement than first thought), you will have players who snatch up torches and pitchforks and accuse ANet of broken promises. It’s the same negativity, just in a different form.

I do agree that it would be nice to know what ANet is working on, but generally they will only tell us what’s coming when they’re 90% (maybe even higher?) sure that it will be released.

Or you know, people could read up to the end – the disclaimers that says it could change…

Or maybe ANet needs to put those on top, middle and end sections of every announcements. /sarcasm

knives.6132:

Or you know, people could read up to the end – the disclaimers that says it could change…

I think that it would be best, assuming that the policy preventing devs from commenting on current in development projects can be revised, to start with the disclaimer.

Make it part of the title. Reinforce it in the post itself. Repeat it at the end.

Leave no wiggle room for people to claim, “promise,” when, “maybe,” was said.

A thread divided into:

Imminent:
Where elements that are so close to release as to be certain additions to the game are discussed. This thread could be linked to in the launcher, the main site, etc. This is what you know will be hitting live soon even if the devs are still working out some bugs. Don’t be too specific about time-tables however as last minute hiccups are always a possibility.

Iteration: This is stuff that Anet is working on. It may never make it into the game but it is actively being developed, tweaked, and/or tested. No time table should ever be mentioned for Iteration stage projects because this section is meant to give the players an idea of some of the things that Anet considers worth at least spending some resources trying out internally. Who knows this stuff may make it to the Imminent stage at some point. Wouldn’t it be cool to see that progression ?

Concept: This stuff is in the notepad stage. Not really in development so much as ideas being bounced around the office. No (or very little) resources have been assigned to determining feasibility but it sounds cool so maybe we can talk about it. This is kind of like a suggestion forum for the devs. No time table should even be hinted at for this section as items here may never go beyond a series of conversations over pizza in the company cafeteria,

I think that there is room for a stage between Iteration and Imminent where devs have decided to give the item a real shot at full development resources to see if it can be produced in a workable manner. Not sure though.

Again a header and footer disclaimer, perhaps even an entire first post dedicated to the speculative nature of all but the Imminent section, and even a disclaimer for that section, would be a must.

That still wouldn’t help. People would then accuse ANet of being evasive and wishy-washy, or that they refuse to commit themselves. There’s really no way they can win.

Zaxares.5419:

That still wouldn’t help. People would then accuse ANet of being evasive and wishy-washy, or that they refuse to commit themselves. There’s really no way they can win.

Of course I may be off-base but I don’t think that we should be giving up on trying to address complaints or concerns because we can never eliminate all complaints.

I have no doubt that you are correct that some people would find something to complain about no matter what Anet does, but that doesn’t mean there shouldn’t be an attempt to improve in areas where both players and Anet think there is room to improve.

Oh yes, definitely. Improvements should always be made if there is scope for it. But I’ve just learned in my experience that the “we’ll announce it when it’s ready” is truly the best option in a range of less than perfect media strategies. (Unless, of course, it gets to HL Ep3 levels, then it starts to become an industry joke.)

Zaxares.5419:

Oh yes, definitely. Improvements should always be made if there is scope for it. But I’ve just learned in my experience that the “we’ll announce it when it’s ready” is truly the best option in a range of less than perfect media strategies. (Unless, of course, it gets to HL Ep3 levels, then it starts to become an industry joke.)

It may be a matter of my work environment influencing me at home. Right now I am engaged in a process of re-examining process and procedures that, "we have always done this way,’ to see if we can find things that work better. I have been really leaning on my subordinates to try new things, new ways of doing old things, etc. If it doesn’t work no foul, but lets see what we might be able to accomplish. Not change for its own sake but change to see if we can push the boundaries of productivity, efficiency, or ease of work for ourselves.

This mindset has carried over to wondering if trying something new (or even something old in a new way) here to see if it works might be better than the status quo. If it doesn’t work you try something else, or revert.

To be honest I can live with not hearing until its ready to launch (though I wouldn’t mind have more insight into the dev process here). This is not one of my primary concerns with the game. Just trying to see if something can be done to improve this aspect of the game for those who are really bothered, for those who are bothered by the way those who are bothered express their dissatisfaction, etc.

It all boils down to having people read the entire thing.

But the problem is, people DON’T read. Or better, people only choose what to read. How can we expect people to read tons of texts when they couldn’t even do it in a 1 line LFG post in-game? lol

It’s an ugly introduction if ANet uses this template:

<Title> \n
<Image> \n
<disclaimer>“The follwing post is subject to changed based on our testing bla bla…”</disclaimer>
<body/post>
<footer>

See also: Riot and Magma Chamber.

How long did it take before that finally came out? And it wasn’t even close to what was originally discussed and/or promised/made out to be. It’s a sound, albeit, annoying policy.