Guild Wars 2

Hello there,
I have a simple question which has been bothering me. I’d like to get closure on it hopefully from the ANet team.
But its obviously open to anyone to comment. (please keep it honest and adult)

This might be silly to ask since I have worked with a team before in developing kitteny games for the 360.

Not long ago i watched a Documentary called “Indie Game The movie” as well as “Heckler”. It made me realize how much negative comments can have an effect on the performer or the product.

I was wondering,
When a bunch of kids complain on these forums about pvp and OP builds, and state things like “this game is dead, don’t play it…these people don’t understand how to balance”…does that hurt you guys overall as a team?
Does it hinder your reputation?
Can careless negativity like this possibly destroy this game?

Because it bugs the hell out of me at how little these people know about developing a game let alone balancing it. Yet they give such ignorant and meaningless comments on selfish subjects.

Thanks,
All the best,
-M

I think playing the game would actually satisfy everyone, as opposed to wondering about it..

lexdead.7610:

I think playing the game would actually satisfy everyone, as opposed to wondering about it..

Hi there, I’m not sure what you mean by that, sorry. Can you explain?

I don’t think it’s prudent for ANet to answer this question outright on the public forums. Maybe they’ll give you a PM reply, although I think the answer would be quite obvious.

I haven’t seen many posts like the ones you are criticising. Either I haven’t visited the forums enough or they get taken down fast. In any case, I think most gamers who care to read the forums with regularity can differentiate between valid dissatisfactions, that they also care about, and general malcontent. I don’t think developers’ reputation can be “wrongfully” hurt by this.

The point of forums is to give opinions and provide reasons. You don’t have to agree with the reasons. Opinions that are arbitrary like “I hate GW2 just because” or opinions that cite false information are reported and removed. Otherwise, even unpopular opinions are perfectly valid. It’s a way for both existing and prospective gamers to see the game from different perspectives.

I would guess game companies have learned to differentiate between people who never seem happy, and legit complaints.

Always seems like there’s more negative comments in forums than positive – the happy people, are perhaps too busy enjoying the game

Yeah, I’m not sure what all these people are complaining about. I love this game, and my two favorite classes (ranger and necro) seem to be the two most hated classes.

Most devs are thick skinned.

Well, on some level I think it WOULD bug them. But not that much. The game has proven successful, so I’m sure they aren’t running home crying into their pillows after hearing some stupid kid insult the game. But, at the same time, nobody LIKES to hear bad things about something they put YEARS of their life, into. A-net didn’t become successful by taking advice from people on forums, who think building a computer makes them smart enough to know the “ins and outs” of game developing. They got successful by IGNORING THEM, like they should…

This is true, but it’s a double edged sword if they ignore too much.

In my experience, gaming forums (especially MMO forums) tend to be filled to the brim with self-entitled, attention-seeking whiners… and the devs know this and wisely ignore them.

This is not to say that games don’t have flaws and that they shouldn’t be constructively critiqued and addressed. Clearly, they should be. However, there is a very big difference between constructive criticism and a continual flood of moaning from those who can never be happy, or delusional conspiracy theories from the tin foil hat brigade.

As far as I have seen, map chat (at least on my server) is always dramatically different in tone from the silliness that often pervades the forums. It may be cliche, but I think it’s true, those who mostly enjoy the game are busy playing it rather than complaining about it. And I rather suspect that the happy ones constitute the overwhelming majority.

As someone who spends to much time kittening on the forums I just want to say that I really enjoy the game but I also think it is important to let the developers know of problems such as bugs and balance or difficulty issues.
If you look at the current state of PvP you can see that balance there is a mess and just being quiet and accepting that will not help anyone. The reason these forums are here is so that developers can get feedback on the game and see what needs to be fixed or how the comunity likes the direction they are taking the game in.
Just accepting everyithing they do is not being a fan but a fanboy.

I enjoyed the game like most people but that said the game still has some major flaws that hopefully with community feed back will be fixed.

Mandra Madador.1709:

lexdead.7610:

I think playing the game would actually satisfy everyone, as opposed to wondering about it..

Hi there, I’m not sure what you mean by that, sorry. Can you explain?

What you said:

When a bunch of kids complain on these forums about pvp and OP builds, and state things like "this game is dead

That is true. Some of them say it like that, but its not necessarily implies the conclusions you made. The game got me not by commercial or nice stories and comments about it. I watched the gameplay, and I thought its a nice game. But the whole awesome part really came about when I actually played it. Now, while some players may feel bad about those comments on the forum, they have kind of solution to solve the whole “dying” part “problem” with their precious mmo (it really is precious for me too, btw ) by doing this “invite-3-friends” thing. So, in the end, you will actually see sales growing, not droping.

That being said, I really dont like when people are discussing and wondering about lies a bunch of kids state. This forum is about GW2 discussion, not a psychology nor marketing forum.

Martin Kerstein has some thoughts on this matter: http://mkerstein.tumblr.com/post/35618548307/musings-about-the-internet

I hope they don’t take the negative feedback too harshly. It’s really depressing how dramatic some people can become..

My personal theory is most bs like this is started by people planted from rival mmo companies trying to ruin the community. Only takes a min for a couple people at blizzard to post on these forums trying to inspire the stupidity of the masses.

Think about it, the panic atm is about a possibility of something 3 days from release.

I agree OP! Well said! In this day and age whiners have taken over, someone needs to put a stop to it. BUT no one can except the people themselves, so it’s not the developer ruining games, it’s the community.

viennapleads.1784:

Yeah, I’m not sure what all these people are complaining about. I love this game, and my two favorite classes (ranger and necro) seem to be the two most hated classes.

Awh~ Hugsies for your necro. So much health and life force, very beefy. Doom in Death Shroud can be cast while stunned (no cast animation) and goes through Defiant. Converts boons into conditions on enemies and conditions into boons on allies. Very useful!

Rangers – usually sit in the back, not given a lot of support tools. Mine feels worthless, maybe use spirit to res a couple downed people once in a while. Healing Spring every other minute. Never use mine for dungeons, never like having them in dungeons, but it’s not entirely their fault.

I can safely say that most people who work in the industry develop thick skin. Professionals actually seek out critiques on their work, it’s one of the best ways to improve. That being said, you also learn to take a crit with a grain of salt.

Community critiques are all over the board. Some are VERY well thought out and others aren’t.

I think overall, the industry’s appreciation for a game isn’t quite the same as the audience’s appreciation. A lot of games that “fail” financially are praised within the industry if they try something new. The indie scene is prime example of this right now.

They’re all human though, and harsh critiques can take their tole. It’s speculated that two co-founders of Bioware recently left for that exact reason. In the end, the devs know what the MMO scene is like and that some people are just never satisfied.