Guild Wars 2

IndigoSundown.5419:

Cryptic solved this for CO/STO by having a mod create a forum post with a sentence or two with a link to an interview, etc. that had any substance. It could go something like, “Colin Johannson interviewed on Eurogamer and talks about GW2’s proposed Guild Raids.”

The Announcements area on the forum main page could be used as a central clearing house for links to diverse sites which ANet is using to share info about the game. It could increase the number of players who actually get the communications that do occur. Surely Anet knows where its staff is communicating. Why not a central clearing house with that info so players don’t have to depend on the good will of a random poster to link the articles? Maybe one of Gaile’s team could be given this responsibility.

I like this idea! Especially since we can’t easily search these forums without google + “site:http://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/”.

Anet has no big features planned. If they did, they would tell us to get players coming back. Truth is they have nothing more to add than the usual meager updates that are the par for the course “quickest, least costly change” type additions that they usually do.

The only reason they say nothing is that they know people will hold on longer if they have hope versus being told that there is nothing more than a typical LS update coming.

Just look at the raiding CDI. It will be six months minimum before they get a raid working. They can’t even get dungeons to resolve dps only speed runs, for crying out loud.

dlonie.6547:

~Snip~

I like this idea! Especially since we can’t easily search these forums without google + “site:http://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/”.

You don’t even need to go that far, just search Google without adding the forum extension, it will still find it…so maybe they should just add a Google search function to the forum.

For those that keep asking, here’s the forum post about the Precurser Crafting…found it doing a plain old Google search:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/crafting/gw2-precursor-recipe-scavanger-hunt-news/3780700

Also, as much as it would be nice to get an idea of what they might be working on, that goes against the stated policy of A.net, which is to not talk about anything until it’s ready for “prime time”. I know a lot of you don’t like that stance, but until it’s changed not much is going to be said. Personally, and I’m only speaking for myself here, I could really care less what features are being worked on or are potentially on the way. I look at it this way, it’s a business, a very competitive business and anything that you’re possibly working on that could be revolutionary, you don’t just want to announce so that all your competitors know about it now too, but that’s just me speaking from a business mindset.

Zaklex.6308:

dlonie.6547:

~Snip~

I like this idea! Especially since we can’t easily search these forums without google + “site:http://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/”.

You don’t even need to go that far, just search Google without adding the forum extension, it will still find it…so maybe they should just add a Google search function to the forum.

Agreed! Google makes it pretty easy to a site-specific search widget to a personal site, though I’m not sure about a commercial one. Still…it’d be worth whatever they’d charge for a license (if its not free)!

For those that keep asking, here’s the forum post about the Precurser Crafting…found it doing a plain old Google search:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/crafting/gw2-precursor-recipe-scavanger-hunt-news/3780700

Thanks for the find!

Jerus.4350:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

I see this, precursor crafting/scavenger hunt, brought up almost always when listing communication woes.

ArenaNet did keep us in the loop, announcing when it was being pushed back, and then when the current iteration was scrapped, and had to be started from scratch. The announcements have been quoted countless times in threads, and yet….it always seems to come up as something the Devs totally ignored and kept silent about.

Good thing it wasn’t something else, or it would be used as an example of how ArenaNet ‘over-hypes’ everything!

A real case of darned if you do, and darned if you don’t. /sigh

This is the first time I’ve seen mention of them saying that there were setbacks. Do you have quotes?

First time im hearing about it aswell please share the link to those statements.

Oh and what interview is it you keep refering to in this thread that talk about no new dungeons guys?

Edit
Thanks about finding that link to scavenger hunt Zaklex.6308

Edit 2
Still a post from 8 months ago that we will give more info when we know more, when will this be 1 year 2 years later?

Gaile Gray.6029:

Ok, I’m back. About Harry Potter…

I think that the whole basis for the presentation in this and other threads about communication has a few pillars. And it’s one of them that I’m thinking about. J. K. Rawlings wrote a series of well-loved books, and I am sure (although I didn’t follow it) that people gave feedback to her on every release, heck, probably every nuance of every release, and that they also provided suggestions for future books. It’s a natural thing: People were highly invested in the series, loved it a bunch, and wanted to know more, or to have input.

In that small sense — and yes, that’s only part of the communication question — I don’t think I’d want our team to communicate about the game’s direction. Like, “Yes, so in the future, all frogs will become sentient, treble in size, and take over Lion’s Arch, leading to the elimination of all non-amphibian races. Yep, yep, that’s where we’re heading with the story.” NOTE: This is NOT where the story is going. This is only a wildly-improbable scenario offered for purposes of… umm… providing a wildly-improbable scenario.

My question: Do you agree that it’s good to not share that sort of information, information related to the actual direction of the game saga as a whole?

If so, then my sense is that you want to know more about the nuts and bolts.

• “Are you looking at XXX new feature?”
• “Do you intend to improve ABC functionality?”
• “Is ### working as intended, or is it bugged, or will you incorporate player feedback to change it?”

Again, this is a small part of the discussion, but I wanted to make sure I was looking at that part accurately. I wondered if generally, no one is asking about the whole “Tell us where the story is going” bit.

Gaile, please… we may be the end users of this game but that doesn’t mean we need to be insulted. I couldn’t give a crap about where the story is going more than most of the other players here, but what I want to know is why you can’t even get back to people (or even redirect the question/comment to the appropriate person) about stuff in the game that needs fixing.

I can point out 3 active threads right now (but won’t at the risk of infraction) where they’re all dealing with the same subject and not one ounce of Anet feedback has been posted about it. Do we know if it’s supposed to be bugged? Why is it bugged? Why wasn’t it fixed in a patch just after release? WHY IS IT BEING NEGLECTED?

I’m sorry Gaile, but you’re copping the rap for this by posting in this thread; I’ve invested far too much of my gaming time to idly sit here and be either lied to or ignored about a LOT of the game’s features that need so much fixing, and no one has done a thing about it. We get this little tid bit about communication from your boss (Mr O’Brien) and suddenly the floodgates open about talking to your players. Such a facade. Us players are not the plebs you’d believe we are, and you should know that already from your interaction with us here on the forums.

I won’t support a game that doesn’t support its players. Anet’s whole philosophy is “sod the playerbase, sod their wishes for the game, we’re gonna do what we want to do, the way we want it, and if anyone has any objections to it (on the forums) they’ll either get ignored or infracted for daring to raise such issues to the broader playerbase”.

Your lack of communication with us about the game’s direction is exactly what has us all on edge, and not edge of the seat either… I’m talking about driving us away from the game. If you can’t see this then I suggest you remove your blinkers. Yes you’ll talk to us about trivial crap but NOTHING ABOUT THE GAME’S DIRECTION.

To be honest I’m not sure I want to know where this game is going anymore. I was so excited to be able to play it during the beta’s and now after all this time you’re managed to suck the life right out of it. You’ve made most of your veterans leave the game (early on I might add) because it’s nothing like what you (Anet) hyped it to be. All this because your tight-fisted POLICY won’t allow any part of the game’s direction to be revealed, or the status of any fixes. This is NOT how you communicate with your customers, by treating them like mushrooms.

For a B2P, currently the game is awesome. And I’m sure they’ll make it event better. I don’t see what’s the fuss all about? See ya ingame.

Valandil Dragonhart.2371:

~Snip~

I can point out 3 active threads right now (but won’t at the risk of infraction) where they’re all dealing with the same subject and not one ounce of Anet feedback has been posted about it. Do we know if it’s supposed to be bugged? Why is it bugged? Why wasn’t it fixed in a patch just after release? WHY IS IT BEING NEGLECTED?

~Snip~

I seriously doubt you’d get an infraction for pointing out 3 threads that have allegedly been neglected(your words), without any response from A.net. Perhaps they responses people are looking for have already been stated or aren’t posted in those threads but are posted in another thread that has to do with the same subject(s). If there was a statement made(like the one I Googled from 8 months ago about the Precurser Crafting), then it would/should show up. Part of the problem is, people only try the forum search function when looking to see if something has been posted already or trying to see if they’res been response. When they could just as easily do a standard Google search, which might take all of a few extra seconds(such as the one I did), remember, the google bot trolls everywhere, even private forums(except perhaps government sites, but I wouldn’t be to sure about those either). So try it, post links to the threads, you might be surprised.

As for refocusing and clarifying; what’s wrong with a free flowing creative process that has broad outlines of what you’re striving for but allows for complete experimentation on how to reach those goals. With a process like that, you could never give someone an idea of what might be going on as it would/could/should include everything and anything at that point, and only when you’ve managed to complete a particular project and getting working would you be able to talk about, and by that time you might as well just go and release it to the live world, imo.

Gaile Gray.6029:

Ok, I’m back. About Harry Potter…

I think that the whole basis for the presentation in this and other threads about communication has a few pillars. And it’s one of them that I’m thinking about. J. K. Rawlings wrote a series of well-loved books, and I am sure (although I didn’t follow it) that people gave feedback to her on every release, heck, probably every nuance of every release, and that they also provided suggestions for future books. It’s a natural thing: People were highly invested in the series, loved it a bunch, and wanted to know more, or to have input.

In that small sense — and yes, that’s only part of the communication question — I don’t think I’d want our team to communicate about the game’s direction. Like, “Yes, so in the future, all frogs will become sentient, treble in size, and take over Lion’s Arch, leading to the elimination of all non-amphibian races. Yep, yep, that’s where we’re heading with the story.” NOTE: This is NOT where the story is going. This is only a wildly-improbable scenario offered for purposes of… umm… providing a wildly-improbable scenario.

My question: Do you agree that it’s good to not share that sort of information, information related to the actual direction of the game saga as a whole?

If so, then my sense is that you want to know more about the nuts and bolts.

• “Are you looking at XXX new feature?”
• “Do you intend to improve ABC functionality?”
• “Is ### working as intended, or is it bugged, or will you incorporate player feedback to change it?”

Again, this is a small part of the discussion, but I wanted to make sure I was looking at that part accurately. I wondered if generally, no one is asking about the whole “Tell us where the story is going” bit.

Here is what I think bugs a lot of people, even when the team talks about something 95% of the time its story based talk, specially arguments against talking about the future or any kind of roadmap. This leaves dungeon-lovers, sPvPers, WvWers completely out of the loop wondering if there will be anything of interest to them.
There is just not enough information out there from you (Anet) about the general direction of where things are going for ALL ASPECTS of the game.

I personally love how bungie does it, they have expansions that touch every aspect of their game (my interest is in what we know of their plans and how they handle it more than their business model in this example)
What I love even more of what they do (and it’s very similar to some initiatives that existed during the GW1 days), they have weekly updates laying out exactly what we can expect in the near future. (They are also not scared to commit to what they anounce and are doing a good job, and best of all, they do not back down like what anet did with all the negative anger at the roadmap – they actually have more “entitled babies” on their forums than GW2 has)
I really think not having a roadmap like you originally tried (you will only get better at making them if you keep writing them) and do something similar to their weekly updates. (I know you have those webcasts, but they are totally boring and its filled with chatter that has no added value, though a great way to give a more intimate feel to the extremely passionate crowd)

tl;dr Roadmap does more good than bad (there will always be idiots that dont get what a roadmap is – and conspiracy theorists that will accuse the company of everything) and weekly updates posts about what is going on (plz go take a look @ one from Bungie to understand the format / content style (detail) that I think is interesting)

PS: Gaile, no matter how well you and your team do your job, unfortunately the feeling of proper communication comes from the actions the devs take after. I’ll use bungie as an example again (most recent ecosystem i’ve been in and freshest in my memory), they never replied to a single post on the forums yet we know they liste because all the major issues (real ones) complained about on the forums are being addressed one after the other and we are clearly seeing results.

I’ll say this one last thing, Bungie is the closest game company in terms of similarities with Anet from my experience and I think they are a good case study for the positive stuff anet can learn from them and apply with your own twist to it and vice-versa.

Linken.6345:

Oh and what interview is it you keep refering to in this thread that talk about no new dungeons guys?

Here, have a sad. (4:15 for the entire dungeon bit, 5:45 for the gut punch)

And another.

Linken.6345:

Jerus.4350:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

I see this, precursor crafting/scavenger hunt, brought up almost always when listing communication woes.

ArenaNet did keep us in the loop, announcing when it was being pushed back, and then when the current iteration was scrapped, and had to be started from scratch. The announcements have been quoted countless times in threads, and yet….it always seems to come up as something the Devs totally ignored and kept silent about.

Good thing it wasn’t something else, or it would be used as an example of how ArenaNet ‘over-hypes’ everything!

A real case of darned if you do, and darned if you don’t. /sigh

This is the first time I’ve seen mention of them saying that there were setbacks. Do you have quotes?

First time im hearing about it aswell please share the link to those statements.

Oh and what interview is it you keep refering to in this thread that talk about no new dungeons guys?

Edit
Thanks about finding that link to scavenger hunt Zaklex.6308

Edit 2
Still a post from 8 months ago that we will give more info when we know more, when will this be 1 year 2 years later?

Guess its this interview your talking about

Awww, I wasn’t fast enough

Jerus.4350:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

I see this, precursor crafting/scavenger hunt, brought up almost always when listing communication woes.

ArenaNet did keep us in the loop, announcing when it was being pushed back, and then when the current iteration was scrapped, and had to be started from scratch. The announcements have been quoted countless times in threads, and yet….it always seems to come up as something the Devs totally ignored and kept silent about.

Good thing it wasn’t something else, or it would be used as an example of how ArenaNet ‘over-hypes’ everything!

A real case of darned if you do, and darned if you don’t. /sigh

This is the first time I’ve seen mention of them saying that there were setbacks. Do you have quotes?

I don’t have them off hand but I’ve seen them posted several times in other threads.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

I see this, precursor crafting/scavenger hunt, brought up almost always when listing communication woes.

ArenaNet did keep us in the loop, announcing when it was being pushed back, and then when the current iteration was scrapped, and had to be started from scratch. The announcements have been quoted countless times in threads, and yet….it always seems to come up as something the Devs totally ignored and kept silent about.

Good thing it wasn’t something else, or it would be used as an example of how ArenaNet ‘over-hypes’ everything!

A real case of darned if you do, and darned if you don’t. /sigh

I’m sorry, but no, they did not keep us in the loop on precursor scavenger hunt thing. What I remember is it was part of the “things we want to get done this year” post, with a note that it was the most likely to get bumped. Year was over, no hunt. I’m fine, at that point I still felt informed. Then months go by, no mention. Patches, feature update, still nothing. I’m assuming it’s gone, but no word was ever given. No word still has ever been given to my knowledge. If I’m wrong, point me to the announcement and I’ll concede the point.

I read the forums at least every few days. I read every red post via the Dev Tracker. I watch many of the Twitch streams. The ones I don’t, I catch the notes on Dulfy. I occasionally check in on the Twitter feed, but frankly find it not useful for the purpose of being informed.

Where else am I supposed to keep informed?

Edit:
Ok, so someone dug up the post from 8 months ago. They told us then it wouldn’t be in the feature pack, but that it was being integrated into progression rewards. So… that was 8 months ago. Have we heard anything since? Do we have any clue on even the outline of what the progression rewards will be? We’ve gotten leveling rewards with the snafu’d new player experience, but it’s obviously not in that.

Gaile, I want to say how relieving it is to have you back as a community leader. It takes me back to the days of sitting in LA with you and The Frog. I missed you since then and it’s really good to have you back. You’re awesome.

On the topic at hand: the core of this issue is lack of content. I came into this game with expectations set by GW1. Do you know this picture of Tequatl’s size next to Zhaitan? Zhaitan is GW1; Tequatl is GW2. That’s what the difference in content feels like.

The game is stale. There’s no two ways around that. All the increased communication, while definitely a good thing, will not fix that. The only thing that’ll make the game fresh again is a serious helping of new content. The Living Story, even with Dry Top and Silverwastes, doesn’t even come close, esp. since S1 isn’t replayable. And I love both of those maps.

Because, let’s be serious, in two years a company like ANet, with a track record like GW1, can realistically be expected to produce expansion or two. An expectation like that is 100% justified, and people are rightly disillusioned now that things have fallen short.

Now, there’s another picture. This one has the Glory of Tyria. I see that next to Zhaitan, and I see it in the sky in the Silverwastes, and well…you still have time to win me over again. I’ve been invested in this series for too long to give up yet. Here’s hoping.

Wow. I feel it is completely disingenuous to act like this thread is about wanting spoilers for the story. Yeah. I’m going on hiatus from GW2 for a while, in a few days, I think. I’ll log in to get the update unlocked, but I’m going to need a break after the last couple of days of communication.

Just…. wow.

Guhracie.3419:

Wow. I feel it is completely disingenuous to act like this thread is about wanting spoilers for the story. Yeah. I’m going on hiatus from GW2 for a while, in a few days, I think. I’ll log in to get the update unlocked, but I’m going to need a break after the last couple of days of communication.

Just…. wow.

Yeah…first I was, like you, totaly confused about that story thing too. Why would Gaile talk about story and spoilers when we were talking about content (for me story doesn’t count as real content update bc if you count everything in, like dialogs, alts and achievments, one stiry update will give you a total playtime of maybe 5 hours. On the other hand new dungeons, a hardmode, new weapons, new races and professions don’t have anything like a cap.)?
But then again…what if that was the answer? You know? Like…new conent? sure! Here have some more story updates where your charakter fells like a npc!
If story realy is all “content” that we will get, it would be appreciated if someone, you know, tells us!

I came from gw1, I played it from release up until the day gw2 came out, along with other games, but primarily gw1. When I bought prophecies I was like cool this looks fun. The experience that I had leveling my first character was very engaging because it was new, new skills, new armor, new weapons, I felt like I was getting stronger and stronger. When I reached max level (and this is a very similar experience to playing gw2 from betas to 3 day headstart) I had already become engaged in the story, I had no idea where the story was leading me but I was willing to fight what ever battle I had to to get to the end. The missions and Economy were strong, Drok runs at release were very hard and cost a pretty penny but were so iconic that it made you want to continue learning the game so that you too could drok run. This also is talking about items, skins, that were rare (usually farmed from hard content ‘till heroes came around), but if you put in the effort and got good at the game you could become rich. This included PvP. Conquest simply CANNOT be the only game mode backed, I don’t think you realize how many people would come back simply to do 2v2 3v3 rated arena (deathmatch). There would have to some tough balancing decisions, I’m fairly certain that if the team were allowed to perform said decisions they could accomplish that in a respectable time frame.
I simply do not have the feeling of holding halls and /ranking my phoenix, along with 7 other people, as I open the chest (for all to see with spectator that had top 100 guild versus guild matches AND Heroes Ascent matches, or getting Gold Trim after practicing hours and hours with my team, coordinating different spikes on targets) when I play PvP at this time. I’m glad that their are teams of REALLY good players but the prestige looks and jaw dropping plays are not seen by the majority of the people playing when they win, in GW1 the winning team for HoH/HA would be broadcast across the screen/chat, people KNEW who Lulu the monk was, or Power Rangers, they saw their names next to “has won a battle in the Hall of Heroes, Northa America has favor of the Gods, the Underworld and Fissure of Woe have opened,” and could watch the high ranked high rated teams and get better at the game.
I remember when prophecies expanded, and then expanded again, and then again. Whole new stories to be told. My character continued to become stronger, while still being lvl 20. Entire new continents worth of armor and weapon skins. All the while I still felt alien because my main character was Ascalonion, not Kurzick or Vahbi. My other characters felt like they were from Shing Jea or remembers Koss fondly. There was identity, this game lacks identity. It has the root of something, but it’s just not clear what. I want to see some one walk buy and get jealous because his greatsword is so wicked that I look up how to get it and cry when it comes from chests found only in "X difficult map, where a team of 5 has to support each other to bring down the foes.
This game has a future, we just hope that your dreams of the future of Tyria are as profound as ours.

I just want to see a Necromancer and question myself if I want to fight or not because his armor and staff are so epic that I feel like I’m fighting Grenth himself, that armor takes a lot to get, and not just money. Or the complete opposite with a petite, cat eared, bubble gum pink, girl with rainbows and kitten (hehe ;]). But even then, I know that effort has been put in, I know that THAT player is also engaged in the game. There are a ton of avenues that could be taken to turn GW2 into that kind of experience, both PvE and PvP. The problem is that it seems currently the only way you are willing to give us anything is either through the gem store, or in very small pacifist “moment to moment”s or worse, not at all.

Gaile Gray.6029:

Ok, I’m back. About Harry Potter…

I think that the whole basis for the presentation in this and other threads about communication has a few pillars. And it’s one of them that I’m thinking about. J. K. Rawlings wrote a series of well-loved books, and I am sure (although I didn’t follow it) that people gave feedback to her on every release, heck, probably every nuance of every release, and that they also provided suggestions for future books. It’s a natural thing: People were highly invested in the series, loved it a bunch, and wanted to know more, or to have input.

In that small sense — and yes, that’s only part of the communication question — I don’t think I’d want our team to communicate about the game’s direction. Like, “Yes, so in the future, all frogs will become sentient, treble in size, and take over Lion’s Arch, leading to the elimination of all non-amphibian races. Yep, yep, that’s where we’re heading with the story.” NOTE: This is NOT where the story is going. This is only a wildly-improbable scenario offered for purposes of… umm… providing a wildly-improbable scenario.

My question: Do you agree that it’s good to not share that sort of information, information related to the actual direction of the game saga as a whole?

If so, then my sense is that you want to know more about the nuts and bolts.

• “Are you looking at XXX new feature?”
• “Do you intend to improve ABC functionality?”
• “Is ### working as intended, or is it bugged, or will you incorporate player feedback to change it?”

Again, this is a small part of the discussion, but I wanted to make sure I was looking at that part accurately. I wondered if generally, no one is asking about the whole “Tell us where the story is going” bit.

Yes, you’re right that we don’t want plot spoilers. We want to know that there’s a direction for the game, and a 6-12 month preview would probably be sufficient. What kinds of content are we going to get beyond the LW updates? Updates on the various types of content people keep asking for (classes/professions, races, continents, skills, SAB, dungeons, new sPvP maps etc.) are what we want.

Namely, ARE any of these things going to happen? We don’t actually know that they are. Development has been much slower than the player base anticipated. At least it seems that way because we don’t know what’s actually in development.

I know the current strategy is to tie all PvE development into the Living World framework. And from that, I get that you can’t really reveal much without actually spoiling the plot.

For example, say you want to release the Tengu as a playable race. Announcing that specifically might be too spoilerific for your tastes because it strongly indicates where the story is headed, so instead say “over the course of this story, you’ll be gaining access to a new playable race” and leave it at that. At least we know it’s coming and we know it’s happening within the time frame of THIS story.

A friend of mine finished his third level 80 toon last week, then turned to me blankly and said, “ummm, what now? What else is there to do?” I had absolutely no idea what to tell him because he’s basically new and missed all of the LW and there’s no roadmap beyond that.

For anything that’s more feature-based, just announcing it when development starts is a good plan. Again, we don’t need specifics, but knowing something like “We’ve started cooking up something that will help with server population imbalance” or “We’re planning a major overhaul to the trait system.” (I suggest this because I, like everyone else, have no idea how long ideas spend in development at Anet, because we never hear anything more than two-ish weeks in advance.)

I’ll use Traits as another example, since that’s the hill I’ve apparently chosen to die on. Telling us that serious efforts to redesign the system have begun would be a god-send right now. Saying something like, “Don’t expect to see any changes before April 2015” would even be something.

And to really help avoid this “I can’t find the link to XYZ quote, they never said that!” just sticky these kinds of development posts.

TL;DR – No spoilers, just tell us what is actually in development.

My question: Do you agree that it’s good to not share that sort of information, information related to the actual direction of the game saga as a whole?

I think there’s a balance here, and one that partly a book series doesn’t need to touch:

Gameplay:
For gameplay, they should DEFINITELY pitch to the future. This “we don’t discuss something until it’s done” rule is absolutely toxic to the game’s community. They absolutely need to be talking about features well in advance, what their plans are for various classes, various changes to the game, etc. We should have known about the NPE in the spring and the trait overhauls last fall. Whatever you’ve got planned for six months from now, we should be talking about it now. And if a feature was discussed months or years ago, and hasn’t yet materialized (like Precursor crafting), then get back to us and explain where it’s at (even if cancelled), and most importantly why that is the case.

Things will change, and people will get upset when bad things happen to a feature that they wanted to see, but if it is explained then they can get passed it.

Story:
For this they shouldn’t be releasing spoilers, but they should be releasing hints, stuff like is released in the E3 trailers for games with a fall release, basic indications of directions, but not specifics. For example, six months or more ago, they could have said that their plans for the back of 2014 would include the addition of two more zones, each roughly the size of Southsun, but packed with ongoing meta event chains. Discuss some of the mechanics of that. They wouldn’t have to give away the story that would get us there, or even exactly where they are, but just give us some idea of the general plans. Let us know how many maps are currently being worked on, that sort of thing.

Also, as far as the basic story goes, it would help to have at least a little more focus to it. With Potter, it was fairly simple, he had eight years of schooling, each year hijinks would ensure, and at the end he’ll take out Voldamort, fairly simple. With GW2, there are Six elder dragons, we’ve only killed one, we’ll hopefully kill another within six months or less, but what sort of general pacing are we looking at here? If the game every reaches the point that GW1 is now, where it’s basically in autopilot, without us successfully defeating all six dragons, I will be sorely disappointed, so I hope that there is at least an internal timeline as to when you guys expect us to engage and defeat each dragon, and that we’re sticking to that timeline. We don’t need to see it, I just want to know that it’s in action.

Gemstore focus causes lots of damage to the rewards elements of the game. Everything you do in this game feels unrewarding. Fractal, sPVP, hunting T6 for legendaries, etc. Drop rate and rewards are choked to the point of frustration.

e-Sport focus can never be achieved. There are huge imbalances due to weapon skill, traits, condition damage that cannot be fixed without major overhaul, bunker encouraged mentality and spvp maps design. The skills and cc are spamfest, with lack to minimal tactical feel involved at all.

GW2 to sum it up seems to actually aim at box sales of the game then gems (real life cash) purchase on each respective customers as quickly as they can, before the customers realize there aren’t many things that can keep you excited for long term at the end. Plays the game long enough and you can tell they don’t aim to retain long term players. There aren’t many 20k+ AP players around pretty much shows it.

The game caters new players. Once you hit around 10k AP you’ll most likely to feel the emptiness creeps in. Ironically, the NPE change is to cater for carebear new player base these days.

Bottom line is don’t expect much from aanet, nothing is going to change drastically. B2P+gemstore and fail sPVP e-sport are pretty much what the game revolves around and all about.

Play the game for what it is, a quick fun every now and then. If you hit fractals, dungeons and pvp on daily basis consistently, you are going to burn out fast.

Zaklex.6308:

dlonie.6547:

~Snip~

I like this idea! Especially since we can’t easily search these forums without google + “site:http://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/”.

You don’t even need to go that far, just search Google without adding the forum extension, it will still find it…so maybe they should just add a Google search function to the forum.

For those that keep asking, here’s the forum post about the Precurser Crafting…found it doing a plain old Google search:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/crafting/gw2-precursor-recipe-scavanger-hunt-news/3780700

Also, as much as it would be nice to get an idea of what they might be working on, that goes against the stated policy of A.net, which is to not talk about anything until it’s ready for “prime time”. I know a lot of you don’t like that stance, but until it’s changed not much is going to be said. Personally, and I’m only speaking for myself here, I could really care less what features are being worked on or are potentially on the way. I look at it this way, it’s a business, a very competitive business and anything that you’re possibly working on that could be revolutionary, you don’t just want to announce so that all your competitors know about it now too, but that’s just me speaking from a business mindset.

Wow, thank you!

And sorry dlonie but kinda feel that this issue is pretty relevant. Fact is I had NEVER seen that, never seen it even mentioned and of course not quoted.

I had more to say but my way with words is simply not on point at 3am but, there is this area of the forums, News and Announcements… seems like a good place for this type of information, but it seems largely unused. It would have been nice to check in there and see a post, “State of Precursors”, or one saying “Engi backpacks, we understand”, stuff like that. Just letting us know that these old issues are still being discussed just not necessarily handled yet.

Using the News and Announcements Section more often is something I can definitely get behind.

Gaile Gray.6029:

My question: Do you agree that it’s good to not share that sort of information, information related to the actual direction of the game saga as a whole?

If so, then my sense is that you want to know more about the nuts and bolts.

• “Are you looking at XXX new feature?”
• “Do you intend to improve ABC functionality?”
• “Is ### working as intended, or is it bugged, or will you incorporate player feedback to change it?”

Again, this is a small part of the discussion, but I wanted to make sure I was looking at that part accurately. I wondered if generally, no one is asking about the whole “Tell us where the story is going” bit.

Honestly i’m scared that you asked this as a community lead when you actively participated in a lot of discussion and possibly lurked in a lot thread.
You should know this what the previous 2 pages are all about (not asking for the direction of story) and what many other threads discussed in the past months.
Sincerely.

A disappointed llama.

Zaklex.6308:

dlonie.6547:

~Snip~

I like this idea! Especially since we can’t easily search these forums without google + “site:http://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/”.

You don’t even need to go that far, just search Google without adding the forum extension, it will still find it…so maybe they should just add a Google search function to the forum.

For those that keep asking, here’s the forum post about the Precurser Crafting…found it doing a plain old Google search:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/crafting/gw2-precursor-recipe-scavanger-hunt-news/3780700

Also, as much as it would be nice to get an idea of what they might be working on, that goes against the stated policy of A.net, which is to not talk about anything until it’s ready for “prime time”. I know a lot of you don’t like that stance, but until it’s changed not much is going to be said. Personally, and I’m only speaking for myself here, I could really care less what features are being worked on or are potentially on the way. I look at it this way, it’s a business, a very competitive business and anything that you’re possibly working on that could be revolutionary, you don’t just want to announce so that all your competitors know about it now too, but that’s just me speaking from a business mindset.

from a business standpoint, that only applies if your competitors are cutting edge. MMORPGS are not cutting edge. They incorporate already existing game ideas in a cool package and world. Even among the innovative features, nothing was really new in MMOs or games in general when it came out.

Its basically bad business not to fully market and use your product. Really bad business. In fact the biggest hurdle most businesses face is getting people aware of your product and why people should take part in it.

This is why movies announce they are coming long before the arrive, and tend to spend months trying to get people to know they are coming soon.

Gaile Gray.6029:

My question: Do you agree that it’s good to not share that sort of information, information related to the actual direction of the game saga as a whole?

I personally don’t feel that it’s a simple black and white issue that you can answer with yes or no. I think in the case of giving spoilers to the games direction, there is a place for that and it could result in some really epic story telling. It would also help you to get a better idea of which parts of a story players really enjoy and which parts kind of drag before it hits the mass population and it’s too late to change.

The problem with this is that sharing anything like that will result in spoilers, no matter how careful you are with it, the information will be heralded through the community within a matter of minutes (cough dulfy cough)

While surprises are great and all, I think it would be unfair to say that the only thing we should be given to provide feedback on is the nuts and bolts. The reason being is that if we have the full picture, it makes it much easier to understand how the small pieces we’re given fit into it, and how to improve that before you spend weeks of dev time on something that potentially will have a negative reception.

I don’t know the answer to this problem, as either way you go there will be people who aren’t happy with the resolution. I’m on the side of the fence that is okay with spoilers and would love the opportunity to contribute feedback on ideas that are still vapor. Even if they’re ideas that don’t work out, or never come to fruit, that discussion can lead to other ideas, better ideas, that do.

Are you aware that your living story does not interest everyone?

purecontact.1680:

Are you aware that your living story does not interest everyone?

And new zones are new zones, living story or no living story. People act like everything in the zone is living story. That’s not the case.

Dalanor.5387:

Gaile Gray.6029:

I wondered if generally, no one is asking about the whole “Tell us where the story is going” bit.

Honestly i’m scared that you asked this as a community lead when you actively participated in a lot of discussion and possibly lurked in a lot thread.
You should know this what the previous 2 pages are all about (not asking for the direction of story) and what many other threads discussed in the past months.

Guhracie.3419:

Wow. I feel it is completely disingenuous to act like this thread is about wanting spoilers for the story.

I had the same feeling initially, but now that we’ve unambiguously cleared that up, let’s see if a discussion forms about the actual topic. Because if this is true:

Gaile Gray.6029:

I’m not bound and gagged and told “don’t dare talk to them!”

then we should be able to discuss the meat of this issue, no? We’ll see how it goes after the weekend

I think the topic has focused and clarified itself nicely over the last few pages — I hope they get read, processed, and understood by someone who sets these policies, and we see some meaningful, two-way communication about them.

Simple question to get my point across.
Do we have any idea what will happen after the living story season 2?

We can have guesses and speculations, but we have no idea of direction.
And I don’t mean to say that in terms of story.

Do we get a feature pack?
Are ‘’out of living story releases’’ still on the table?
WvW tournament?
Break?
Pvp/WvW content?
Is crafting jewelry/cooking to 500 still on the table?

I can go on, but my point is I have no idea what to expect. What so ever.
If I had known that the majority of the emphasis of LS2 was going to be on story telling instances, than I would’ve had different expectations and I wouldn’t have been let down. I had different expectations for way too long.
I’m still not sure if I should be expecting elite achievements or not?

In simpler terms
I want to know if I’ll get a cookie or a chocolate.
Maybe some hint at what the flavor it would be, sure.
I don’t have to know the ingredients.
Currently I don’t even know if there will be food on the table ‘tomorrow’ .
And that is what makes me sad.

If I had known replayable content was done this way, then personally I would’ve prefered the way S1 handled it.
Point is, it’s too late to give feedback on things that are already set in stone.
I’m not trying to say my opinion should be the game direction, but take for instance some cases where you actually did get imput before release (wvw tag costs) the community was happier with the outcome.
I’m thinking that in a lot more cases you could get awesome feedback just if you ask.
Biggest example of failing communication is how traits work now.
Majority agreed that the former system could use improvements. We had a big CDI about brainstorming ideas. And what happened next? You left us in the dark, brewed something up that you expected us to like without including us in the proces.
The ideology was discussed, and what the community wants is clearly represented.
Now I feel stuck with a system that completely missed the point and we’re still completely in the dark with the situation. Even though it was done with good will.
We had some little improvements since then, but it’s a long way off being good.

You could ask people how they wanted the trait system done, even in it’s current format.
I can take a couple hours and go over every single trait acquisition and give you a different perspective on how I would think it would be a really nice way to go and get yourself enthousiastic about getting traits rather than them feeling like a chore, with some being absurdly harder than others.

Wasbunny.6531:

Wait…is this seriously a thread demanding to know the ending (and thus being able to pre-approve the direction) of an open ended saga?

No, it is a thread where we’re suggesting that perhaps it would be nice for the authors to at least keep us informed what genre they are aiming for. Because we’re really unsure if the next chapter is going to have a school romance setting, vampires, aliens, ninjas, moody horror story, or perhaps even all of the above. We don’t know if the story that started as a children book will stay that way, go to growing teenagers version (or even end up as r-18 steamy novel). And the authors’ responses instead of clearing up the situation only keep us in the dark even more.

We don’t need to know how it’s going to end. We don’t need story spoilers. What we do need to know is of the next book will be aimed for the audience we’re part of, or not.

Edit: just to clear any misunderstanding, i’m not really speaking about the story here. I am speaking about the direction the game as a whole is taking.

Astralporing.1957:

Edit: just to clear any misunderstanding, i’m not really speaking about the story here. I am speaking about the direction the game as a whole is taking.

If you’re not talking about the story, don’t use it as an example, it’s misleading.

Astralporing.1957:

Wasbunny.6531:

Wait…is this seriously a thread demanding to know the ending (and thus being able to pre-approve the direction) of an open ended saga?

No, it is a thread where we’re suggesting that perhaps it would be nice for the authors to at least keep us informed what genre they are aiming for. Because we’re really unsure if the next chapter is going to have a school romance setting, vampires, aliens, ninjas, moody horror story, or perhaps even all of the above. We don’t know if the story that started as a children book will stay that way, go to growing teenagers version (or even end up as r-18 steamy novel). And the authors’ responses instead of clearing up the situation only keep us in the dark even more.

We don’t need to know how it’s going to end. We don’t need story spoilers. What we do need to know is of the next book will be aimed for the audience we’re part of, or not.

Edit: just to clear any misunderstanding, i’m not really speaking about the story here. I am speaking about the direction the game as a whole is taking.

so you are using it as analogy, was gaile?

If it was an analogy, then uhhh…

to make it clear we need a very clear idea what the direction of the game is, what to expect going forward.
before release GW2 was promoted as a buy2play game, that would most likely feature regular expansions.

Later not long after release, a few dev comments implied they intended to give us that same level of content for free

After about 2 years following that paradigm we are pretty far from the b2p with a small cash shop focus.

We started out with a focus on dynamic events/chains and dungeons

We now hear dungeons are out of favor, and dynamic event depth is not on the level of the better dynamic event chains on release.

Before release the progression systems in place were said to be easy to update, and we could expect new skills, or traits, and even weapons pretty easily. This has only had slight developments.

point is not that things are on a wrong path, but they definately are different, they definately are not anything where you can make an accurate prediction about what the focus of the game is, or what to expect.
Thats ok, but if its the case, it is imperative that you do communicate what the design is.

We really have no idea what to expect from this game, any persons opinion is likely as any other. So the question becomes, to anet, What is it that you see as the focus of the game, how are you planning to develop it in the future.

I dont really get why you guys act like this stuff is mysterious, you were very good at giving previews, reveals, and details in the 5 years up to release. I dont know why all of a sudden it becomes a mystery.

you told us about gw2 coming 5 years early.
You told us what the overall setting was within 4 years of release
talked about WvW and dynamic events within 3 years
talked about various progression systems (even if they ended up changing)
I remember a vid of aimed ranged attacks.

and the result of all of this communication, and telling people about the game before it was “fully baked” something like 1 million preorders. Why change to a less successful strategy? complaining aside, the results overall was more players feeling more connected, and more aware of the future.

You forgot to mention the introduction of ascended tier despite exotic being the highest item tier which “everyone should be able to get when reaching lvl80”. Yet ANet wondered players got in full exotics when the reached level cap … Logic?

The OPs questions need to be explicitly answered.

Having no plans to release new dungeons ever is very ridiculous for an MMO, just as ridiculous as how we’ve gotten no news on new races, classes, weapons, skills, or anything other than feature overhauls or living story updates for ages now.

I don’t understand how anyone can possibly wonder why GW2’s playerbase is a little disgruntled.

What we want is to know that the time we are investing in a world we have a lot of hope for has a future we care about.

If I knew the majority focus of GW2’s development would be WvW I’d go play something else and cry because I personally want the map and lore being tied back into GW1 as much as possible – and there are other games with very good lore and continued expansions giving their game a “living story”. Yet I choose to play GW2 because of the lore of GW1 and the hopes it will be brought to GW2 and expanded upon.

We don’t want to know exactly what is incoming – we want teasers like what you had leading to GW2 (check out this new profession! It will be epic! /hype /lol@commando).

Little things like – we are going to have a paid expansion mid 2016 or so which will feature X region and incorporate 5 new dungeons and 2 raids at launch! P.S. here is a teaser clip to get the hype train going. And we can be all like “amg make more imgur pics of Colin being awesome! Replay through GW2 5 more times because more epic stuff is coming and we are hyped and want to make sure we haven’t missed a thing”.

At least for me expecting a small release every 2 weeks is just not satisfying unless there is some suggestion it progresses the game in the direction I hope it’ll go – Just like the OP probably wouldn’t care (example..) if you were updating Shatterer and Jormag – but if they knew there was potential for a dungeon they’d be hyped for it. But GW2 is currently not actively promoting its seasons like it did the launch of the game – players are lost and if they haven’t personally seen a release of interest to them in a while they’re becoming depressed with waiting for what may or may not be on the table.

GW2 is almost being developed as though it is not intended to be a person’s primary MMO. There is a “come hang out with us every two weeks and try new stuff and we’ll see you again next patch” mentality to it. Yet so much “grind material” (achievements & need for gold for new TP skins and releases) is constantly being added that it requires players to play alot to be ready to buy the next cool thing. This becomes a problem when we don’t know if we want to be playing because what we want the game to be and contain may never happen while at the same time if an expansion pops out and it is amazing there would be no regret whatsoever having cool looking characters and having devoted time to a game that you’ll continue to enjoy for a few more years.

Similar topic as the SAB thread. YEARS in limbo is a long time. For the sake of playing the game of real life priorities it is nice to say “yea this game – I expect it will be awesome in a year yet based on what they’ve announced” as opposed to “idk what I’m doing or why I am playing this still but I HOPE it’ll have good releases soon even though what has been launched this year hasn’t really been my style”.

purecontact.1680:

Astralporing.1957:

Edit: just to clear any misunderstanding, i’m not really speaking about the story here. I am speaking about the direction the game as a whole is taking.

If you’re not talking about the story, don’t use it as an example, it’s misleading.

I wasn’t the person that first tried to use a novel book analogy for this game.

See, thing is, what you are asking for essentially, is a written admission as to what ANet is going to do with the game.

That’s going to cause a whole lot of problems. Let’s say they say the game is going this direction. However, after a while, they see an opportunity to take it in a different direction. You’re going to have a lot of players kicking and screaming that they lied, blah blah blah. They’re going to moan and groan.

Also, it’s quite possible that ANet is feeling out the story as they go based on feedback from players on the forums. How could they release something about the future of the game if they’re not sure yet?

Overall, a bit of spontaneousness isn’t bad.

NaotsuguLH.8915:

See, thing is, what you are asking for essentially, is a written admission as to what ANet is going to do with the game.

That’s going to cause a whole lot of problems. Let’s say they say the game is going this direction. However, after a while, they see an opportunity to take it in a different direction. You’re going to have a lot of players kicking and screaming that they lied, blah blah blah. They’re going to moan and groan.

Also, it’s quite possible that ANet is feeling out the story as they go based on feedback from players on the forums. How could they release something about the future of the game if they’re not sure yet?

Overall, a bit of spontaneousness isn’t bad.

you still need to have an overall direction/focus/vision for what you are going to do. Development takes time, you will never be able to make anything substantial playing it by ear. and what people want to hear about is the substantial things. like i said, they promoted gw2 for 5 years, they told us many things that changed form, people are fine with change but they still want to know where they are headed.

Even Amazon has development goals it shares :P

Gaile, since its pretty obvious you’re reading this thread, I really hope you’ll be able to give us some answers. I LOVE this game. It has an amazing combat system, a beautiful open world, and despite all the whining that goes on about ascended gear there really isn’t any gear treadmill so I feel free to play as many alts as I want (and I have many many alts). The cultural armor alone made me make several redundant characters just so I could see the armor (the sylvari armor especially). I still enjoy logging on every night to play, even if its just for an hour or two because my daughter is having trouble sleeping and I’m too tired to really play.

Not knowing what is on the horizon for the game though really is a problem. While I think LS was a great idea and does a good job of putting in content, it only equals patch content that you see in other MMOs, it isn’t working as a replacement for an expansion. Are there going to be additions to WvW, more maps or expansions of existing maps? Will PvP ever be more than 5 man conquest maps? Am I going to get new dungeons to play or will the existing ones ever be updated to fall more in line with how bosses are currently being designed? The limbo the game is in has caused almost all the veteran players I know to leave for other games. Like many others, my guild is struggling to try and rebuild itself from all the lost members. We don’t need specifics, but just knowing the major things being worked on would go really far for the community. Knowing raids are coming is a huge start, but there is this big void we have all been staring at for over a year with no indication of what is coming out of it.

The reason we dont get to hear future plans is because Anet doesnt know what they are doing themselves. That much is clear if you look at all the inconsistencies in the game.
Rewarded Achievements Points are completely random(sometimes very hard/time consuming Achievements award next to nothing, sometimes extremely cheap ones award 10 ap.)
new currencies dont use the wallet
new maps dont award Map completion rewards
new skills get introduced and completely forgotten (Antitoxin Spray)
Stupid decisions like not awarding exp for some enemies -> half the sigils malfunction
New features get introduced that depend on existing content, content that is still bugged (collections).. -> Bugs never get fixed if they are older than a week.
etc.

They dont know where this game is going any more then we do. There is no long term planning, or it is subject to change every week. <<They dont commit to anything>>

Gaile Gray.6029:

My question: Do you agree that it’s good to not share that sort of information, information related to the actual direction of the game saga as a whole?

Game saga, as in story, should not be shared with customers. Nuts and bolts about added zones, professions, weapons, skills, races, new types of content (e.g., Guild raids), etc. should be shared ahead of time with customers. Perhaps management should consider which scenario is worse:

1. Players complaining when something is discussed and then has to be put on hold or cancelled. Bear in mind that if the postponement or cancellation is discussed openly, reasonable players will accept this. Those who are unreasonable won’t.
2. Players complaining because they have no clue as to what’s coming and the company will not say. Both reasonable players and unreasonable players will complain about this.

I in no way think that Anet is required to talk about planned content, but I do think it would be a better business decision to do so. Build-up of consumer enthusiasm matters in the entertainment industry. Sure, there are times when anticipation leads to disappointment, but no anticipation can and does lead to loss of interest.

I said before it would be great to have a broad brush statement regarding “Where we are and Where we’re headed.” But, after thinking it through maybe the current approach has some advantages. Specifically:

o AreaNet has their hands full. Now Mike, Colin et al have to deal with NCSoft, Nexon, KongZhong and Internal Staff. There may be some growing pains in the short term but when they pull this off they can look to a larger player base and longer term health. Short term loss with Long term gain is a bet I’ll take. It’s important to note nobody is being evil.

o The Lord of the Flies effect. Whenever any information is leaked, the Forums, Reddit, Massively, etc. go totally nuts with speculation. “ArenaNet hired a Raid programmer?!? Whoa we’re totally getting a new playable race!” Then things get really crazy. About 75% of those threads fall into a weird toxic soup of rage with a side order of QQ. Reddit seems to really get whack what with the data mining and all. So why would it be a smart thing to throw more gas on the fire?

I figure the best bet is to Smile and be as Happy as you can. After all, when you back somebody in a Poker Game you don’t jiggle their elbow.

IndigoSundown.5419:

Gaile Gray.6029:

My question: Do you agree that it’s good to not share that sort of information, information related to the actual direction of the game saga as a whole?

Game saga, as in story, should not be shared with customers. Nuts and bolts about added zones, professions, weapons, skills, races, new types of content (e.g., Guild raids), etc. should be shared ahead of time with customers. Perhaps management should consider which scenario is worse:

1. Players complaining when something is discussed and then has to be put on hold or cancelled. Bear in mind that if the postponement or cancellation is discussed openly, reasonable players will accept this. Those who are unreasonable won’t.
2. Players complaining because they have no clue as to what’s coming and the company will not say. Both reasonable players and unreasonable players will complain about this.

I in no way think that Anet is required to talk about planned content, but I do think it would be a better business decision to do so. Build-up of consumer enthusiasm matters in the entertainment industry. Sure, there are times when anticipation leads to disappointment, but no anticipation can and does lead to loss of interest.

When things like this needs to be discussed in the forums is like … I don’t know, i’ll just quote myself.

Dalanor.5387:

I wish Arenanet would be an inexperienced, indie team made of freshly graduated youngsters instead of a 14 year old company filled with veterans so i could forgive this to them. :/

NaotsuguLH.8915:

See, thing is, what you are asking for essentially, is a written admission as to what ANet is going to do with the game.

That’s going to cause a whole lot of problems. Let’s say they say the game is going this direction. However, after a while, they see an opportunity to take it in a different direction. You’re going to have a lot of players kicking and screaming that they lied, blah blah blah. They’re going to moan and groan.

Ok, let’s talk about the elephant in the room. I’ll try to be graceful about this so I don’t get in trouble for it. But there is a reason that the scenario you describe has happened many times already, and there’s a reason that the published content has been scattered, non-cohesive, and not up to our quality/quantity standards. And that is a decisive lack of unity, coordination, and comprehensive design vision within the company.

There are too many teams working on too many separate things, without enough coordination or discussion of things like “how does this fit in with the rest of the game and what everyone else is working on, and is it even something we should be working on at all?” Some content and feature decisions were clearly made in a vacuum, without a real understanding of the realities of implementation and feasibility. It’s clear that the teams have been working very hard to put out good content for us, but it’s also clear that the deck has been stacked against them. The teams are stretched thin, not unified, and faced with ever-changing design goals and expectations.

This is not the fault of the players for wanting information. This is the fault of the company for not being properly unified and coordinated in their vision and execution. I do not mean this as a personal attack against the company or anyone in particular. As someone who works for corporate retail, I know very well the realities of this sort of situation. This is meant as constructive criticism from someone who understands and sympathizes.

The reason people are calling for a refocused and clarified vision moving forward is because it’s obvious that’s what is needed. And it can’t happen as isolated ideas or wishful thinking, or we’ll get a repeat of the precursor crafting and new legendaries announcements of the past that never saw fruition. ANet, as an entire company needs to sit down together and come to a comprehensive, unified design vision. More than that, they need to work together to stick to that vision and execute it in a coordinated way.

I know that’s easier said than done, especially in the modern corporate world. You can’t just snap your fingers. But it’s something to think about and work towards.

EDIT – I agree 100% with dlonie below. Much as I think this issue is core to the discussion at hand, I do not wish to derail the thread or get it locked. If this post is deemed problematic, please simply delete it instead of locking the thread. I do not intend or endorse any attacks or slander against the company or any individuals. Please guys, keep it civil and non-personal so we can continue this conversation.

I tried to touch on this by mentioning glassdoor earlier, but didn’t want to bring it up directly because, well…it’s hard to do. That’s something especially out of Gaile’s hands, and yeah…I completely sympathize with the employees in that sort of situation. You’re right, can the external changes even happen while they’re rather disjointed internally?

Now here’s the part where I start to feel a little dirty, asking you to do this…as crucial as this issue is to the communication problems in the thread, let’s please discuss them in a new thread. I hate to do this, as I feel it is really, really important for the changes needed to fix the health of this game’s veteran population, however…

Earlier this week I think I got a thread locked by bringing this topic up. I don’t want to lose this thread over it.

Mods: If this line of discussion is deemed inappropriate (I really hope it wouldn’t be), please just delete the individual posts. Don’t lock this thread over it, as we can continue to discuss other topics, such as the types of communication we’d like to see.

So again, hate to do this, but let’s open a new thread if we want to talk about that topic in detail. But better not to, as there’s no way that could end well…

Good luck getting any information about the future of this game from them, seriously it’s like they think this is some sort of secret project for the defense department or something. People know what’s coming in the next warcraft expansion a whole year before it, but here in gw2 we get massive changes to wardrobe/dyes, megaservers, etc which we only learn about two weeks in advance of release in their “special blogs”.
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But whatever, if all they want to do is quietly pump out living stories for gem sales, and give out no hope on the future of this game so be it, they’ll start to lose vets at a faster pace.

Honestly, any issues raised on glassdoor are internal matters to ArenaNet and have nothing to do with the players.

Open a new thread if you want but even I would vote to close it. Consider this: How much do you think about your Grocery Store? Same thing, it’s none of our business.

I agree. Our input cannot fix that. I don’t think it needs a thread, but I just want to make sure it doesn’t kill this one.