Guild Wars 2

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2dx5c9/i_feel_anet_has_lost_touch/

This really nails my current feelings.

And ya know what… it doesn’t matter that you don’t know where the game is going.

It’s NOT YOURS. Period. Arena.net does NOT owe you transparency. They do NOT have to give you a road map. They do NOT have to give you [x], [y], and/or [z], nor do they have to give you reasons why they aren’t giving you those things.

You are NOT a share holder. You are NOT their boss. You are a CUSTOMER. If you don’t like their PR, if you don’t like what they are saying, your power is to walk away and not support them.

Nothing more, nothing less.

Ironically, the simplicity of that power is also in some ways the greatest one. Because if enough people think like you and walk away, THEN you have the opportunity to get what you want, or the company will wither.

But you have to be willing to walk away and take your money with you.

Sarathiel.6374:

Where is this game going?

I’m not the greatest artist, but I think you will get my message.

chemiclord.3978:

if you don’t like what they are saying, your power is to walk away and not support them.

Nothing more, nothing less.

Actually, you’re forgetting the “and tell all my friends that I’m walking away, and all the online communities I’m a part of, and anyone on this street corner who will listen, etc. etc.” part that comes after the walking away. Reputation is a huge part of business, and one (or many) extremely dissatisfied customer(s) can do a lot more to hurt it than one (or many) extremely satisfied customer(s) can do to help it.

VincentDW.9376:

Actually, you’re forgetting the “and tell all my friends that I’m walking away, and all the online communities I’m a part of, and anyone on this street corner who will listen, etc. etc.” part that comes after the walking away. Reputation is a huge part of business, and one (or many) extremely dissatisfied customer(s) can do a lot more to hurt it than one (or many) extremely satisfied customer(s) can do to help it.

This is true. And if you honestly believe Arena.net doesn’t care about their product or what their customers truly want, you SHOULD spread that word of mouth. THAT’S how you get a company to change course.

What DOESN’T help is complaining that you’re not getting the “transparency” that is not owed to you in any way, shape, or form.

reposted from Reddit:

I see a HUGE backlash from the Guildmag interview, and you know, I can sort of understand it. It’s a terrible interview. I mean really bad. But let’s break down the three major issues people are talking about.
First person view Fov SAB
Now, the first two, we never had in game. We were never told we were going to have it. I know I wasn’t expecting it. And suddenly, Guildmag asks whether we’re going to get them and someone, probably unready for the question, tries to find a way to say why we’re not going to get them.
We’re not going to get them because they’re working on other stuff they consider higher priority. That’s the real reason.
The SAB thing doesn’t say we’ll never have SAB again. They have a story going that some people seem to like. I seem to like it. One of the complaints about the first season was lack of continuity. We were always doing something different. It felt disjointed. How jarring, tone-wise, would SAB be if they brought it out in the middle of this story?
The should just put it in the game and leave it there, and it wouldn’t have been a distraction from the story. Because those who don’t care about it would ignore it and they’d only have the story. They could just throw it in with no fanfare or no annoucement at all. It would solve a lot of problems.
But realistically speaking, this magazine piece as bad as it is came out at a very bad time. Anet is talking about a feature pack and we don’t know what most of it is about yet…and we’re up in arms over the lack of features we were never told we’d get, and we should have never expected.
Personally, I’d love to see first person point of view in the game, but you have to know there are a ton of clueless players out there who would get into that view, not realize it’s not the main view, hate the game and leave. That’s why we really can’t have nice things.
But Anet can’t really come out and say that in an interview for obvious reasons.

I like the game. I have a good time when I log in. The game in a great medium for me to have a good time with my guild and friends.

If your going to complain, and are making “transparency” a point of issue, don’t be a hypocrite, and offer specific a list of very reasons that you feel the game is becoming less fun so those can be addressed. Otherwise your just complaining for the sake of complaing.

chemiclord.3978:

…You are a CUSTOMER…

Sorry, in the corporate world, the customer is the shareholders. We paying peasant players are nothing more than a revenue stream. The company sets revenue targets based on operating costs and put metrics in place to measure the results. As long as the revenue targets are met, there is no incentive to change anything.

Audrey.7246:

Sorry, in the corporate world, the customer is the shareholders. We paying peasant players are nothing more than a revenue stream. The company sets revenue targets based on operating costs and put metrics in place to measure the results. As long as the revenue targets are met, there is no incentive to change anything.

Yes… uh… thank you for saying EXACTLY what I was saying. Congratulations?

But you DON’T have a right to the roadmap if Arena.net doesn’t want to provide it. You don’t own a piece of the company. If they say “we aren’t going to tell you what we are planning”, that is the end of the discussion.

You get to decide to accept that or not. If not, you walk away and let your wallet speak for you. If enough people join you, the company learns their lesson, or it withers on the vine.

Vayne.8563:

Personally, I’d love to see first person point of view in the game, but you have to know there are a ton of clueless players out there who would get into that view, not realize it’s not the main view, hate the game and leave. That’s why we really can’t have nice things.

Really bad argument, I thought you would come up with better ones. I won’t even go into debunking it for “players are stupid” is a common excuse in the gaming industry and you can find people more eloquent than me that got it covered.

Wolfheart.1938:

Vayne.8563:

Personally, I’d love to see first person point of view in the game, but you have to know there are a ton of clueless players out there who would get into that view, not realize it’s not the main view, hate the game and leave. That’s why we really can’t have nice things.

Really bad argument, I thought you would come up with better ones. I won’t even go into debunking it for “players are stupid” is a common excuse in the gaming industry and you can find people more eloquent than me that got it covered.

No thanks. I don’t really think that making a game foolproof is all that bad. Fools are really ingenuous.

That game was not DESIGNED to be played in first person point of view period. Whether people want it or not, that’s not how it was designed.

It’s not even relevant whether people want it or not. We were never supposed to get it. It’s there for testing purposes.

First person point of view would render much of the game unplayable. If you think particle effects are bad now, just wait till you see them in first person.

Where is it going? Where it’s always been. RNG rewards. Time-gated content. Dailies. Massive Gold Sinks.

Vayne.8563:

Wolfheart.1938:

Vayne.8563:

Personally, I’d love to see first person point of view in the game, but you have to know there are a ton of clueless players out there who would get into that view, not realize it’s not the main view, hate the game and leave. That’s why we really can’t have nice things.

Really bad argument, I thought you would come up with better ones. I won’t even go into debunking it for “players are stupid” is a common excuse in the gaming industry and you can find people more eloquent than me that got it covered.

No thanks. I don’t really think that making a game foolproof is all that bad. Fools are really ingenuous.

That game was not DESIGNED to be played in first person point of view period. Whether people want it or not, that’s not how it was designed.

It’s not even relevant whether people want it or not. We were never supposed to get it. It’s there for testing purposes.

First person point of view would render much of the game unplayable. If you think particle effects are bad now, just wait till you see them in first person.

So what? How does that affect people who want to use FPV for screenshots or non-combat immersion? If people want to play combat in FPV, then let them. Why all the restrictions? Anet can just implement it, and state bluntly that it’s not going to design their combat around a FPV playstyle.

Vayne.8563:

How jarring, tone-wise, would SAB be if they brought it out in the middle of this story?

Well, I don’t know about the other stuff, but story-wise this would seem to me to be a PERFECT time for SAB. By now you know there are plenty of rumors about killer vines and dragons and the like circulating among the non-adventuring folks. People are probably starting to worry, and might even be on the verge of panic. Lots of folks are probably buying extra food and supplies right now, which could lead to riots when the markets inevitably run dry. Something like SAB reopening – hey, guys, nothing to worry about, come have some fun – might help keep things calm, at least for a while.

Seems like something the Arcane Council might go for, anyway.

Arcane Council: Hey there, Moto, old buddy, old pal, howzabout reopening that Box?
Moto: I can’t do that! I’m not done with the upgrades!
Arcane Council: Oh? Too bad, too bad. In that case, we’re going to have to make you an offer you can’t refuse.

Later on, of course, you can have people rioting and attempting to overthrow the various governments for not warning them of the imminent danger and all that. If anyone survives, of course.

But I am just a lowly player and know little of the ways of game developers. Plus it’s difficult to type with an orange cat stretched out across your forearms. But I guess that’s beside the point.

The game is not foolproof, and nothing can be 100% foolproof. Fools are really ingenuous. And you are supporting gutting features in a game because fools would misuse it, which is an entirely different thing from making games foolproof. A simple pop-up that says “1st person mode is only for taking screenshots” would be enough for anyone but the terminally fool. And you know it, so stop being intellectually dishonest.

Most people don’t want first person to fight while using it. I’m not arguing that GW2 is designed to be played in first person and I dare you to quote one forum post that says it. That’s a strawman you are putting up to better defend your undefendable position. Most people want it to admire the view and take screenshots. For those that want to fight while using it, it is their prerogative to do so like it is mine to set all graphic options to max and play at an unplayable 10 FPS (something fools could do yet they are allowed to). This takes care of your 2nd and 4th paragraph.

Whether GW2 players want something or not is not relevant to GW2 devs? Really? What is relevant then? The random passersby request? Why do you think we got LS journal and ascended and different commander tags…You could argue that it’s not the only thing to value when deciding the priority of different features, and I would agree with that. Your statement however is so nonsensical I’m baffled you typed that.

Wheter or not we “were supposed” to get it, whatever that means, is not relevant. We were supposed to have the best statistical loot by level 80 too, yet as you can testify, things change.

What is relevant is pros & cons of implementing the feature. The pros are that it’s already implemented and that an unspecified number of people want it. What you’ve come up so far for cons (stupid people would misuse it) doesn’t cut it, I’m sorry.

On a different note: I myself don’t really care a lot about 1st person. I would undestand why it would not be their top priority. I care however about nonsensical apologetic arguments for the terrible reason they’ve given in the interview.

P.s. are you a writer of the “Ken Ham” variant? Because if that’s the case I’ll politely withdraw, I lack the patience and the eloquence.

@Tachenon: Giff picture of cat plx

Wolfheart.1938:

@Tachenon: Giff picture of cat plx

This is him last winter, not long after I took him in. He’s grown quite a bit since then. He and I have discussed SAB extensively and he agrees that it would have been cool for Anet to let the people who enjoy SAB to (at the very least) replay the old parts. He’s also not a fan of megaserver. Ahem.

Almighty Internet is pleased with your cat picture offering. It said that your cat is particularly cute and fluffy, and as such, his opinion on anything should be highly regarded.

However the forces of evil (moderators) lurk so we shall end this exchange here.

Day 1, a decent response has yet to be produced. I don’t blame you Vayne, the argument you decided to support is kind of idiotic. Just admit that it is and all be well, try to divert as usual with “they were out of their area of expertise” or whatever, instead of parroting that bovine waste with a straight face.