Guild Wars 2

Warning: wall of text about one player’s personal opinion.

I am somewhat disappointed with how information was presented this week. The subjects discussed and the particular information isn’t my issue (though I do have some concerns over some of the WvW changes) but rather how and when said information was presented. Now this is just the opinion of one person who has played off-and-on since beta and it may very well be that I am alone in my disappointment — after all the particular information may be along the lines of what a considerable portion of the population want — but this topic is more or less an open letter to Anet so let’s get started.

Semantics in Gaming Media

My first issue is with the phrase ‘extra cool’. This phrase was used at the end of PoI last week to tease us about the following week’s information. My problem is that it means different things to different people. For some, this week’s info is dead on that ‘extra cool’ description but is not for me. If we consider the Elite Specializations as ‘cool’ I am expecting something more interesting than the next elite specialization.

Now, if any of you popped into my other topic this week, you’ll know that I postulated a rather outlandish thought — one that was quite unrealistic by any measure but an example of what I thought ‘extra cool’ could mean. For those who did not pop in, I thought perhaps they were announcing the date of the specializations patch for Vanilla with updated numbers for trait tooltips. There was no information to corroborate this, I was wrong, that is not my issue. My issue is that ‘extra cool’ should be so for EVERY player. Every player would be happy with that info, or about guildhalls, or about how they will handle difficult content in HoT, or any number of other things that have not been announced and will impact EVERY player. There are players who do not touch WvW and for them this week is a total let down. For the record I DO dabble in WvW, though I wouldn’t consider it a main focus of mine, and I found some of the changes interesting, others disheartening.

I realize that as livestream hosts covering a game that is in development they have to say things to keep people interested but please be careful with how things are worded! This leads me to my second issue:

Closed Door Development

I get that you are still making the game, I get that plans change… But what is the use of keeping us in suspense? There is no logical reason that I can think of to not disclose next week’s topic at the end of each friday’s livestream. I say this because everyone who is interested in GW2 will be watching/listening/reading about that info next week anyway! If we are straight-up told what to expect one week from now, there can be no complaints due to vaguely worded comments (as above), and you can still keep whatever internal schedule you have.

Furthermore, the suspense of being in the dark every week is stressful! We are all fans of the franchise and fans of this game, but it is physically impossible to be excited for 6 months straight, so why try to keep the same level of tension? My understanding is we are still a couple months at the least from launch (which is a completely arbitrary guess based on exceedingly limited information and more than one assumption) so I don’t understand the theatrics. After a certain number of dramatic reveals players will become numb and their interest will fade to an average level. I understand company policy, but we fans are going to be buying the xpac anyway :/

Double presenting information

We were told last friday that the information THIS week would need a full livestream to present. Ok. Sounds good, we’re getting a highlight on some new feature, great. However, the contents of this week’s Ready Up were already presented on thursday in the blog. There were perhaps 2 clarifications, but the exceedingly large majority of the information was contained in the blog post, verbatim. Even to the bullet points.

I know a livestream is a different medium, but it would be nice to get either new, more specific information or details, or perhaps a case study on a particular reason for a particular change. Personally, I felt my time was wasted watching this week’s Ready-Up. There was no new information and while I am somewhat intrigued by the idea of the theorycrafting duels (I do love me some theorycrafting), I can think of several other things I’d prefer to see in terms of GW2 news.

The Content of this Week’s News

Lion’s Arch Rebuild

Excellent. I’m excited to see this happen! I love that GW2 has dynamic development that leaves persistent changes in places like L.A. and I’m very happy to see that tradition continue.

I’m a little less happy about the current implementation. Don’t get me wrong: I love that players can vote on the names of landmarks, that is 100% top shelf, thanks Anet — what I’m disappointed about here is that there doesn’t appear to be any playable content to go along with these changes. I know it’s early days yet, and I’ll hold out hope that there will be a little mini story-arc with the consortium or something, or perhaps a dynamic event in L.A. similar to the holiday events or something, but pleaaaase don’t just have npc’s working in the background and suddenly poof we have a shiny new LA. We, as players, have been spoiled by the constant content updates and we’re in a dry spell — we are all dying for something new and shiny to play with, not just look at.

WvW Ability Changes

I am… undecided on whether I like the thought of these changes. On the one hand, it’s great that the over-powered buffs are gone, but on the other hand… it sets a disturbing trend. Anet has been very clear that it wants to attract and cater to new players and to make learning the game fun and easy, however I’m a little disappointed that they are doing so by nerfing long-time players. Don’t get me wrong, Applied Fortitude and Strength were really strong and required a massive time investment to get — I agree that there needed to be a change to remove and/or limit this time-gate for WvW. The issue is: players earned those buffs, and now those players who did spend the time to acquire those buffs have nothing to show for it. Yes, they can invest those points into other things, but they have lost something they chose to get, and I think that’s a bit unfair. In my opinion, a better solution would have been to keep the buffs, but make them at 5 ranks into their respective lines, and perhaps nerf the specific number of stats they give.

I am concerned for GW2’s future, as long time players need to have rewards for their time investment. I agree that new players shouldn’t feel beholden to take certain traits or abilities, or be overly disadvantaged against a long-time player, but we need to have some things to work for. We need challenging content and we need difficult to acquire or limited-time skins to feel rewarded for our loyalty and time investment.

WvW Upgrade Changes

Again, undecided, but I have some serious concerns over this one. I am from a small server that is fairly low on the ratings (IoJ) and I think these changes might just kill WvW for my server. When upgrades took resources and gold, there were always at least a few paper towers that could be easily flipped. With the proposed changes most everything will be fully upgraded and I am concerned over one server dominating the matchup. As I said, IoJ is a small server, and there are times when there are very few people running about WvW — if it only takes an hour or two, by the time my server has another zerg going, everything will be fully upgraded and we’ll have a disproportionately hard time to regain our territories. I like that this will advocate a more active playstyle and rewards defensive play, but I’m unhappy that it also rewards inaction.

Nothing is required from the players to upgrade objectives anymore. There is no choice or strategy, just hold the line and get those dolyaks through. I’m interested to see how WvW will change, but I’m a little disheartened that it is becoming more simple.

Closed Beta

Woot, pure hype for this! Of course I can’t participate as I didn’t get a portal for my efforts on that event, but the lack of an NDA will make me happy with news next week

Unfortunately, game developer employees who speak with the fans are expected to make everything sound great, even if it isn’t going to be so for everyone. Welcome to the world of hype and public-relations-speak.

It’s better to adjust your expectations downwards, as you might with interviews of athletes by sports journalists. It’s exceedingly rare to find an athlete saying anything but the expected, whether that’s, “Well, it’s a team effort.” or all the other pap we usually hear.

Okay one person said one thing on one podcast and everyone is thinking great things are afoot.

I don’t get this at all. People wonder why Anet says nothing ever about anything. This is why.

I’m still waiting for the big announcement, because as it stands they haven’t said anything…..

Vayne.8563:

Okay one person said one thing on one podcast and everyone is thinking great things are afoot.

I don’t get this at all. People wonder why Anet says nothing ever about anything. This is why.

Because they did say great things are a foot. If you accept that their usual podcasts are ‘cool’ then logically they are saying next week is going to be ‘cooler’ than this week. I do not find the WvW changes they listed cooler than elite specializations. It is PR-speak, but this is also why there are people who’s sole job is public relations.

I would have loved to see them do something with the mercenary camps in WvW, perhaps give them upgrades or allow them to build racial siege equipment or make them do an event that other players contest…

What if they made the dredge have an event where they tunneled into a nearby tower? Or have the Ogres bring a massive battering ram that does more damage? There are many things they could have done to make WvW more complex and interesting, but they did nothing of the sort — they made it simpler and less skillful.

-Closed Beta Testing on May 26
-Ready Up: WvW Automatic Upgrades and Dragonhunter PvP demo
-Guild Wars 2 – The Rebuilding of Lion’s Arch
-Overwolf Guild Wars 2 App Challenge!
-Upgrading World vs. World Upgrades Blog
-The third Guild Wars 2 Tournament of Legends

We all can’t like the same things, and trust I would have preferred to see the Ranger specialization preview over this list, but I’m still glad I got to see all this stuff anyhow.

Actually, they did say that we’d log into the game and see Lion’s Arch instantly changed.

+1 op. I’m with you on this, gj articulating it.

Wetpaw.3487:

-Closed Beta Testing on May 26
-Ready Up: WvW Automatic Upgrades and Dragonhunter PvP demo
-Guild Wars 2 – The Rebuilding of Lion’s Arch
-Overwolf Guild Wars 2 App Challenge!
-Upgrading World vs. World Upgrades Blog
-The third Guild Wars 2 Tournament of Legends

We all can’t like the same things, and trust I would have preferred to see the Ranger specialization preview over this list, but I’m still glad I got to see all this stuff anyhow.

Cool is still relative. What’s cool to one person isn’t cool to another. And it’s still just one person saying something cool is coming.

The funny bit is, if people analzyed what you said, what I said, what anyone said with the same degree of scrutiny that Anet gets, none of us would be safe.

We put too much on each word, each syllable. It’s so people at Anet can’t talk, can’t say anything. They should walk around saying what? We’re not going to show you a profession this week so we can show you something mediocre?

I think people need to embrace reality a bit.

Vayne.8563:

Okay one person said one thing on one podcast and everyone is thinking great things are afoot.

I don’t get this at all. People wonder why Anet says nothing ever about anything. This is why.

I think the fact that there’s so little new in game that this could blow up to be such a big deal is the real problem. These newsposts have kinda replaced actual ingame content. It’s been at least 2-3 months since anything of significance was added to the game. (I know that because that’s how long I’ve been playing :P)

Vayne.8563:

Okay one person said one thing on one podcast and everyone is thinking great things are afoot.

I don’t get this at all. People wonder why Anet says nothing ever about anything. This is why.

Welcome to the Internet, Vayne, where hype cuts all the ways it can.

Probably, the most important thing (I took) from this week’s live-stream was a little tidbit that might have been overlooked.

Josh stated there was a particular schedule for all upcoming news releases. That told me that whether content/mechanics/etc were ready, or not, the information-release is on a set schedule leading up to…well, whatever ArenaNet has in mind.

Before, it seemed (to me) that some information might be released as it was ready; I no longer feel that is the case.

Maybe it is the lack of new content in-game, or something else….but I felt a bit disappointed in how this week played out, as well. It is a bit sad when one must lower one’s expectations for something one feels passionate about, I think.

If you don’t bother trying to mine every minor nugget of info from their pod casts, interviews, etc. and try to interpret some vague comment into something meaningful and then construct your hopes on that foundation, then you can’t be disappointed. Best to remain blissfully ignorant until they actual have something concrete to say, not implied, hinted or a meaningful wink given.

It’s like when you were a child and your parents tell you that if you eat all of your dinner that you’ll all go someplace special and instead going to Dairy Queen or the play ground or even the drive-in to watch a movie, you all go to Home Depot to look at paint swatches. If you never get your expectations up, you will never be disappointed.

Crossflip.4390:

Vayne.8563:

Okay one person said one thing on one podcast and everyone is thinking great things are afoot.

I don’t get this at all. People wonder why Anet says nothing ever about anything. This is why.

I think the fact that there’s so little new in game that this could blow up to be such a big deal is the real problem. These newsposts have kinda replaced actual ingame content. It’s been at least 2-3 months since anything of significance was added to the game. (I know that because that’s how long I’ve been playing :P)

You’re right, of course. There’s not a lot of new content. And in most games, that would actually be normal. Four, five months without new stuff isn’t all that unusual for most MMOs.

But then we know they’re focusing on the end game for an expansion right now, and that’s often when droughts hit in most games.

Oberon Vex.1389:

My issue is that ‘extra cool’ should be so for EVERY player. Every player would be happy with that info, or about guildhalls, or about how they will handle difficult content in HoT, or any number of other things that have not been announced and will impact EVERY player.

Not possible.

I for example, don’t really care about the very things that you describe as being what you (or your fictional every player) were interested in. The information that was released was of far more interest to me than any of the things you mention.

Ashen.2907:

Oberon Vex.1389:

My issue is that ‘extra cool’ should be so for EVERY player. Every player would be happy with that info, or about guildhalls, or about how they will handle difficult content in HoT, or any number of other things that have not been announced and will impact EVERY player.

Not possible.

I for example, don’t really care about the very things that you describe as being what you (or your fictional every player) were interested in. The information that was released was of far more interest to me than any of the things you mention.

You’re assuming you’re the only one that matters.

Ephemiel.5694:

Ashen.2907:

Oberon Vex.1389:

My issue is that ‘extra cool’ should be so for EVERY player. Every player would be happy with that info, or about guildhalls, or about how they will handle difficult content in HoT, or any number of other things that have not been announced and will impact EVERY player.

Not possible.

I for example, don’t really care about the very things that you describe as being what you (or your fictional every player) were interested in. The information that was released was of far more interest to me than any of the things you mention.

You’re assuming you’re the only one that matters.

You are assuming that I am assuming that I am the only one that matters.

You are wrong.

The OP said, “every player.” I merely pointed out that having the release target what every player wants is not possible since players can (and do) have conflicting interests.

Disappointment is the distance between reality and incorrect expectations.

People build bad expectations really easily. Getting overly excited when someone uses a completely idiosyncratic phrase like ‘extra cool’ is kinda asking to get kicked in the teeth. I recommend not letting other people pull your strings that way. And I can’t really recommend letting them know they succeeded in puppet-mastering your expectations so easily either.

Meh … so there will be some changes.

You must be new around here. Where “here” is dealing with marketing from various places. Nothing really new. Although ANet seems to be especially overenthusiastic(usually unjustified) about everything. It’s like how excited people were about being able to jump. -_-

On further reflection, this is a tempest in a teapot.

Game designer hypes product. Pictures at 11.

Khisanth.2948:

Meh … so there will be some changes.

You must be new around here. Where “here” is dealing with marketing from various places. Nothing really new. Although ANet seems to be especially overenthusiastic(usually unjustified) about everything. It’s like how excited people were about being able to jump. -_-

After Guild Wars 1 and its endless waist-high fences? Yes, I’ll admit it made me excited to see what they’d put together with jumping. (And swimming, by extension.)

Seriously. It’s also like being around when we moved in First Person Shooters from Doom 2 even just to Duke Nukem 3D and its bridges, or the “cheaty” sort of structure which Dark Forces used. Or the “hub and spoke” design Hexen adopted. Then there were people really really pleased with Quake.

Go back and take a look, it’s really hard to say it’s worth getting worked up over but having the difference between engines made a big deal out of things.

These days, that sort of excitement seems weird. But at the time . . . well.

You know what else was a really strange thing to see people get excited about? Mono-colored Legends. The potential for Peter Gabriel to be on tour with the old classic band again. Figuring out who shot JR. Whatever latest project Monty Oum was working on.

Fans are weird.

Vayne.8563:

The funny bit is, if people analzyed what you said, what I said, what anyone said with the same degree of scrutiny that Anet gets, none of us would be safe.

We put too much on each word, each syllable. It’s so people at Anet can’t talk, can’t say anything. They should walk around saying what? We’re not going to show you a profession this week so we can show you something mediocre?

I think people need to embrace reality a bit.

It’s important to note that the reason why people put such an outrageous emphasis on any and every little thing a dev says is because we have been conditioned to do so from being completely in the dark in terms of the game’s development. Anet does not tells us ANYTHING until it’s practically done and finalized. This leads to ridiculously long periods of time where we simply don’t know what is being developed or changed.

Thus, we latch onto any word that may indicate what is in store because that is all we have to go on. If Anet was more open with their development process and communicated more with the community people wouldn’t be so preemptive in every little thing that is said.

Yes, people may react if they are looking forward to a feature and it doesn’t turn out the way it was originally advertised. But the outlash is, again, caused by a lack of communication.

There are a few channels on youtube that are owned by indie devs, and every few weeks they update their channel explaining the new changes into the games they make. Some of these changes drastically alter the game and planned mechanics, and there have been some disappointments to come from them. However, I’ve never seen any negative criticisms or outlashes from the comments when there are, and I attribute that largely to the amount of communication that community receives from the devs.

I know it’s Anet’s policy to not talk about things until they are finalized. I just think it’s a horrible policy that makes things worse rather than not.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Khisanth.2948:

Meh … so there will be some changes.

You must be new around here. Where “here” is dealing with marketing from various places. Nothing really new. Although ANet seems to be especially overenthusiastic(usually unjustified) about everything. It’s like how excited people were about being able to jump. -_-

After Guild Wars 1 and its endless waist-high fences? Yes, I’ll admit it made me excited to see what they’d put together with jumping. (And swimming, by extension.)

Seriously. It’s also like being around when we moved in First Person Shooters from Doom 2 even just to Duke Nukem 3D and its bridges, or the “cheaty” sort of structure which Dark Forces used. Or the “hub and spoke” design Hexen adopted. Then there were people really really pleased with Quake.

Go back and take a look, it’s really hard to say it’s worth getting worked up over but having the difference between engines made a big deal out of things.

These days, that sort of excitement seems weird. But at the time . . . well.

You know what else was a really strange thing to see people get excited about? Mono-colored Legends. The potential for Peter Gabriel to be on tour with the old classic band again. Figuring out who shot JR. Whatever latest project Monty Oum was working on.

Fans are weird.

Jumping has made very little difference. Sure it has made jumping puzzles possible but those are a very minor part of GW2. I can also throw myself off a cliff anytime I want …

Being able to move while casting and dodging actually makes a much bigger difference. With jumping it just means some of those waist high fences were made taller.

Wasn’t Monty working on the latest season of RWBY?

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Whatever latest project Monty Oum was working on.

Was being the key word. RIP Monty.

I wish anet would at least, be fair, and show us entire WvW and how this things work in action, to be honest I’ve expected Guild Halls.. but what we did get in return?
MAKING FREKITTEN WvW EVEN MORE CASUAL AS IT IS… GG anet..pukes

Khisanth.2948:

Being able to move while casting and dodging actually makes a much bigger difference. With jumping it just means some of those waist high fences were made taller.

Agreed. It makes such a big difference I hadn’t been able to play a more “traditional” MMO when I tried it.

Wasn’t Monty working on the latest season of RWBY?

From what I hear, he was always working on a lot of things. But that’s neither here nor there.

Loki.8793:

Vayne.8563:

The funny bit is, if people analzyed what you said, what I said, what anyone said with the same degree of scrutiny that Anet gets, none of us would be safe.

We put too much on each word, each syllable. It’s so people at Anet can’t talk, can’t say anything. They should walk around saying what? We’re not going to show you a profession this week so we can show you something mediocre?

I think people need to embrace reality a bit.

It’s important to note that the reason why people put such an outrageous emphasis on any and every little thing a dev says is because we have been conditioned to do so from being completely in the dark in terms of the game’s development. Anet does not tells us ANYTHING until it’s practically done and finalized. This leads to ridiculously long periods of time where we simply don’t know what is being developed or changed.

Thus, we latch onto any word that may indicate what is in store because that is all we have to go on. If Anet was more open with their development process and communicated more with the community people wouldn’t be so preemptive in every little thing that is said.

Yes, people may react if they are looking forward to a feature and it doesn’t turn out the way it was originally advertised. But the outlash is, again, caused by a lack of communication.

There are a few channels on youtube that are owned by indie devs, and every few weeks they update their channel explaining the new changes into the games they make. Some of these changes drastically alter the game and planned mechanics, and there have been some disappointments to come from them. However, I’ve never seen any negative criticisms or outlashes from the comments when there are, and I attribute that largely to the amount of communication that community receives from the devs.

I know it’s Anet’s policy to not talk about things until they are finalized. I just think it’s a horrible policy that makes things worse rather than not.

So what you’re saying is, to paraphrase, because Anet isn’t giving us information, people are right to analyze every syllable, blow it out of proportion and then blame Anet for saying stuff.

The problem is, the more people do this, the less likely Anet is to say stuff, and it becomes a self-perpetuating cycle.

If we are mature enough to not play the blame game (which is counter productive anyway) and to relax a bit and just take things in stride, take a reasonable approach instead of breaking out pitchforks immediately, we might in fact not be in the situation we’re in. It’s the chicken and the egg thing.

Anet was, at one point, somewhat more up front with us. At some point they decided to tell us less. I’m guessing that’s a reaction to the unreasonable over-reaction of a small but vocal percentage of the fan base.

Vayne.8563:

Anet was, at one point, somewhat more up front with us. At some point they decided to tell us less. I’m guessing that’s a reaction to the unreasonable over-reaction of a small but vocal percentage of the fan base.

Which was not a very sound decision in my opinion.

“A very small, absolutely tiny really, portion of our player base cannot control their reactions to our efforts to communicate with and engage with the community as a whole….so we are going to cut everyone off.”

Poor customer service in my opinion.

Ashen.2907:

Vayne.8563:

Anet was, at one point, somewhat more up front with us. At some point they decided to tell us less. I’m guessing that’s a reaction to the unreasonable over-reaction of a small but vocal percentage of the fan base.

Which was not a very sound decision in my opinion.

“A very small, absolutely tiny really, portion of our player base cannot control their reactions to our efforts to communicate with and engage with the community as a whole….so we are going to cut everyone off.”

Poor customer service in my opinion.

I agree it wasn’t a good decision from my point of view. That doesn’t mean it’s not a decision with a motive. Anet made the decision as a business decision. There’s no way to tell if their decision is good or bad, from a business point of view. That is to say, there’s no way of knowing if long term they would make more or less money doing it their way. The only real way to judge if it was a successful measure.

So far the game is doing okay, so I have to say that Anet must be doing something right. We have no way of knowing if it would be doing better or worse if they did it differently.

Vayne.8563:

Ashen.2907:

Vayne.8563:

Anet was, at one point, somewhat more up front with us. At some point they decided to tell us less. I’m guessing that’s a reaction to the unreasonable over-reaction of a small but vocal percentage of the fan base.

Which was not a very sound decision in my opinion.

“A very small, absolutely tiny really, portion of our player base cannot control their reactions to our efforts to communicate with and engage with the community as a whole….so we are going to cut everyone off.”

Poor customer service in my opinion.

I agree it wasn’t a good decision from my point of view. That doesn’t mean it’s not a decision with a motive. Anet made the decision as a business decision. There’s no way to tell if their decision is good or bad, from a business point of view. That is to say, there’s no way of knowing if long term they would make more or less money doing it their way. The only real way to judge if it was a successful measure.

So far the game is doing okay, so I have to say that Anet must be doing something right. We have no way of knowing if it would be doing better or worse if they did it differently.

We may not have proof of how the decision has affected revenue for Anet one way or the orther, but there is a reason why businesses in general spend money aiming for more customer engagement. Its been shown to be better for the product and for the companies’ bottom line. I suppose that its possible that Anet is an exception and that in this case stonewalling customers and actively aiming for lesser community engagement works better for them.

Who can say how many are (or would be) in each category?

1. People get disgusted with ANet’s lack of transparency and leave or stop buying
2. People hang on because they don’t know what’s coming and hope that it will be something they want, whereas they’d leave if ANet was more transparent and the info did not meet their expectations.
3. People who would stick around and be are more likely to buy if ANet were more transparent.

1 is a negative thing from a business perspective
2 and 3 are positive only if the stuff that eventually comes out or which gets announced meets player expectations.

There is a psychological negative associated with 1 and 2. The message is, “We think you’re immature, and don’t want to face your negativity until we actually get to a point of certainty.” The message associated with 3 is, “We value you as customers and want you to know what we’re thinking.” People understand these messages, even if they don’t or can’t articulate their reactions.

Vayne.8563:

So what you’re saying is, to paraphrase, because Anet isn’t giving us information, people are right to analyze every syllable, blow it out of proportion and then blame Anet for saying stuff.

The problem is, the more people do this, the less likely Anet is to say stuff, and it becomes a self-perpetuating cycle.

If we are mature enough to not play the blame game (which is counter productive anyway) and to relax a bit and just take things in stride, take a reasonable approach instead of breaking out pitchforks immediately, we might in fact not be in the situation we’re in. It’s the chicken and the egg thing.

Anet was, at one point, somewhat more up front with us. At some point they decided to tell us less. I’m guessing that’s a reaction to the unreasonable over-reaction of a small but vocal percentage of the fan base.

I disagree. How Anet is handling information dissemination is directly at the root of the issue. They are being very closed-mouthed about topics and revealing very little information to cultivate mystique and excite their players. They are actively inviting speculation by giving us tiny glimpses of what may be coming. Are they responsible for the content of that player speculation? No, not at all. Players themselves are the ones over-hyping, but Anet IS feeding it and making it happen, on purpose — it’s part of their marketing and development strategy.

Ashen.2907:

Oberon Vex.1389:

My issue is that ‘extra cool’ should be so for EVERY player. Every player would be happy with that info, or about guildhalls, or about how they will handle difficult content in HoT, or any number of other things that have not been announced and will impact EVERY player.

Not possible.

I for example, don’t really care about the very things that you describe as being what you (or your fictional every player) were interested in. The information that was released was of far more interest to me than any of the things you mention.

While every player has their own opinion, and perhaps I mis-spoke by saying ‘every’, I find it really hard to believe that you don’t want to hear about any of those things listed. You don’t want the new traits/specialization patch? You don’t want customizable guild-centered maps for your guild? You don’t want to see anything outside of WvW?

I can accept that there are players that ONLY play GW2 for WvW, and any such players definitely have as much need for new info as any player that focuses purely on any other aspect (PvE or sPvP), but even then the announced changes are not only limited in scope, but based around a policy that is systematically dumbing the game down.

Ideally they would be increasing complexity of the game while making the UI easier to use and understand, but they seem to be taking a different tact.

Oberon Vex.1389:

I find it really hard to believe that you don’t want to hear about any of those things listed. You don’t want the new traits/specialization patch? You don’t want customizable guild-centered maps for your guild?

Believe it.

The L.A. naming poll was far more interesting, to me of course, than any of the other bits you mention.

The new trait spec patch will get here when it gets here. It, like the rest of HoT, isn’t going to do anything whatsoever about any of my concerns for the game. At this point I am leaning toward giving HoT a pass. I may very well change my mind between now and launch but nothing mentioned so far does anything for me.