Guild Wars 2

timmyf.1490:

Kalarchis.8635:

You really screwed the pooch on this one guys. You’re going to have to really work to win back the good will you’ve lost with this fiasco.

Or you’ll have to downgrade your expectations for developer involvement on the forums.

It is nice to see that the predictions made by myself and others that a simple “we are reading this” confirmation would be considered insufficient turned out to be true, though.

To go back to my new store analogy: if one of my staff went back to the old store, popped his head in the door and said “Hey, we hear you but we’re really busy,” and then left, would that be sufficient?

We’re past the point of “a response or two would go a long way.” That was a week ago. We (or I) have reached the point of “the way you’ve handled this whole ordeal is frankly shameful and my respect is broken.”

As for developer involvement in the forums….make a post about not being able to buy gems, or ask how to put in custom music. The devs have no problem responding to those right away.

ceol.9175:

Nike.2631:

I’m trying to see how in the broader MMO industry the notion of stepping out for a month is all that radical.

Have we really been that conditioned by the 2-week cadence of the Living Story to lose our minds because they’ve been busy elsewhere 16 days? Your definition of “drought” as it applies to bug fixes must come from some other language than English because there have been 8 patches since the features pack with the most recent only 5 days ago.

And really, this silence people are harping on is grossly exaggerated. There’s still new entries in the Dev tracker daily (excluding weekends). I guess Chris will be happy to know that people are pining so fiercely for the CDIs. Because outside of an unusual gap in those, I’m still seeing various devs poke their heads in once in a while in their respective areas – tracing problems in the Personal Story arc, John Smith teaching economics lessons, the occasion “Hmm, that might be a good idea for PvP ranking” chatter. Pretty much business as usual on that front.

How much hand holding do we really need? Yes, a glossy front page announcement of LS Season 2 would be nice, but I’m thinking I can guess what it’s going to be about .

Can you point to any other game that, when expanding to a new market, took their resources from their stable markets instead of expanding themselves? Did Blizzard stop talking on the forums when WoW was released in China? Did Riot tell the NA playerbase, “Sorry folks, but we’re launching in China soon, so unless the servers are on fire, you’re gonna have to wait for some indeterminate length of time until we aren’t launching in China anymore.”? Can you actually name any industry where “We’re going to ignore you for a couple months while we launch in another region” goes over well?

The vast, vast, vast majority of dev tracker posts are Gaile, then CC, then random threads that really have no consistency. Mesmer and ranger damage too strong in PvP? Dev’s on top of that! Warrior gets an extra 180 power and 40 precision due to a trait bug? Temple of Balthazar and Megadestroyer bugged? Certain infused ascended celestial rings didn’t get the stat boost? Fractal drops bugged? Necro minions AI bugged? No response, sorry, we’re just too busy! Megaserver caused guild missions to become even more tedious? Trait/Hero UI abysmal? Skyhammer map still glitching out? China China China! We can’t hear you, la la la!

Look at pretty much every other game on the market right now. The communication is much more consistent. You get a reply when your bug report is added to the tracker, even if it’s an automated one. You have devs responding to major concerns instead of dismissing them or just flat-out ignoring them in favor of what are obviously their pet issues (e.g. anything that hampers their favorite PvP class or anything that buffs the others.)

We don’t need to know anything about LS s2. No one is even talking about that. There are major concerns with the things they’ve implemented and bugs that go back months that still haven’t been fixed. Those are the issues that need attention, and instead, they think it’s kosher to put their devs on this release in China because apparently they’re so starved for cash, they can’t afford any more people.

Edit: I should add, Gaile and CC and their customer support staff do a great job. I’m sure their devs are trying their best, too. It seems like the problem stems from management and higher-ups — the ones deciding who works on what.

Wow, comparing a company that has 4700 employees (Blizzard North) to A.Net (which has 350 BTW) is really telling. They are also still supporting GW1, also. So, I do think they are spread a little thin but that is how business is now.

If you are going to compare companies, compare A.Net to ZeniMax Online (which is the developer of ESO – as of 2012 had 250 employees).

Kalarchis.8635:

As for developer involvement in the forums….make a post about not being able to buy gems, or ask how to put in custom music. The devs have no problem responding to those right away.

I don’t mean this in an insulting way, but how old are you? Have you held a job in a corporate environment before?

I’ll give you an example. My company has a big message board where people can ask questions. We’re an enterprise software company. I work within my company’s Education group, so if people have questions related to training, I’ll pop in and answer. I’ll occasionally also answer questions about the product when I know the answer.

Sometimes people have questions about the next version of our product. I might know the answer. Or at least think I know it. But it could have changed. I’m not directly involved in those talks. Or the meetings they have about how to communicate the changes. etc.

So yeah, somebody came in and gave the link for the playlists. What makes you think he is in ANY way knowledgeable or authorized to respond on behalf of the company on THIS thread?

He isn’t.

You guys keep acting like every single human being at ArenaNet is equally capable of answering your demands here. They are not. And the guys who are? They’re busy with China.

You don’t have to like it, but you should at least understand what’s happening.

Was that dev post nothing more than a carrot being dangled in front of us? Hmmmm.

Romo.3709:

munkiman.3068:

I posted this earlier…

https://twitter.com/TemplarCW

@hurradurra Sorry just read this,been a little busy. We are reading and discussing all the feedback and will evolve the system

There is you’re feedback

Looks like some of them are in China…

So Twitter is their go-to communication now? Using third party sites…

Couple things to note. If in fact the majority of devs that post on here are in China, they would really only be able to read the forums on smart phones, since China’s interwebs are lopped off from the rest of the world. If you’ve tried to follow things on this forum from a smartphone, you’d know it’s pretty much a pain.

Also, generally speaking, they post far more info on twitter and facebook than they do here.

munkiman.3068:

Also, generally speaking, they post far more info on twitter and facebook than they do here.

And that does not trouble u in any way?

Romo.3709:

munkiman.3068:

Also, generally speaking, they post far more info on twitter and facebook than they do here.

And that does not trouble u in any way?

No – they are communicating, even if you don’t like where they are doing it at.

Romo.3709:

munkiman.3068:

Also, generally speaking, they post far more info on twitter and facebook than they do here.

And that does not trouble u in any way?

Not even a little bit. Given the way this forum gets, I’d do the same thing. Also, the irony of it all: this topic has a red post. Anet responded.

OPs title is defeated.

Romo.3709:

munkiman.3068:

Also, generally speaking, they post far more info on twitter and facebook than they do here.

And that does not trouble u in any way?

It sure troubles me because, I rarely go to facebook and I LOATHE Twitter(stupidest social network).

Romo.3709:

munkiman.3068:

Also, generally speaking, they post far more info on twitter and facebook than they do here.

And that does not trouble u in any way?

Not really. It’s an excellent outlet to get information to the majority of your player base. Far better than here for sure. A fairly educated assumption on my part is, there are a good deal more followers on facebook and twitter they can reach than posting here on the forums.

timmyf.1490:

Kalarchis.8635:

As for developer involvement in the forums….make a post about not being able to buy gems, or ask how to put in custom music. The devs have no problem responding to those right away.

I don’t mean this in an insulting way, but how old are you? Have you held a job in a corporate environment before?

I’ll give you an example. My company has a big message board where people can ask questions. We’re an enterprise software company. I work within my company’s Education group, so if people have questions related to training, I’ll pop in and answer. I’ll occasionally also answer questions about the product when I know the answer.

Sometimes people have questions about the next version of our product. I might know the answer. Or at least think I know it. But it could have changed. I’m not directly involved in those talks. Or the meetings they have about how to communicate the changes. etc.

So yeah, somebody came in and gave the link for the playlists. What makes you think he is in ANY way knowledgeable or authorized to respond on behalf of the company on THIS thread?

He isn’t.

You guys keep acting like every single human being at ArenaNet is equally capable of answering your demands here. They are not. And the guys who are? They’re busy with China.

You don’t have to like it, but you should at least understand what’s happening.

i agree that its pointless to demonize people commenting on other things, that they are relevant to.

But really, they made this big world altering patch, likely to create a lot of issues, and in strong need of feedback and fairly quick iteration. And they scheduled it right before they all have to leave to do something else?

You work in software, you know that a lot of times when its time to go live its time to go live, but you generally have MORE people on hand to respond to new issues, and have quick turn around on solutions and issues. And you got some people whose job it is to listen to the customers complaints and assure them what issues you can solve and when you expect to solve it by.

If you dont, they are likely to be calling you every day harrassing you.

So really, Id say it may have been a better idea not to do this a couple weeks before china if thats a problem… Well except for the possibility that they did it as a beta for china.
Which honestly i aint that mad at, but if this is a beta, then they need to get on a beta update schedule and response to feedback.

Im Mudbone.1437:

Romo.3709:

munkiman.3068:

Also, generally speaking, they post far more info on twitter and facebook than they do here.

And that does not trouble u in any way?

It sure troubles me because, I rarely go to facebook and I LOATHE Twitter(stupidest social network).

I hate both and I’ll never make a personal account on either; but it’s a simple enough thing to simply read what they put there.

Btw, Chris would’ve look a lot more professional if he wrote here what was written on Twitter. Instead of random CDI comment.

Dusty Moon.4382:

They are also still supporting GW1, also. So, I do think they are spread a little thin but that is how business is now.

GW is actually all automated now. Even bans are automated, though there are some stories of false bans getting reversed days into the ban.

Even with 350 employees, they could send a team, say 20, to handle GW2 EU/NA and provide quality customer support by replying on the forums. Not the PR ’We’re reading your feedback! Don’t worry as we’ll fix it as soon as China is stable!’ I mean legit ‘We see many of you are having problems with the Megaserver so we’ll take a look and we’ll keep you updated!’

None of you can tell me that the former is kind of feinting on ANet’s part.

timmyf.1490:

Kalarchis.8635:

As for developer involvement in the forums….make a post about not being able to buy gems, or ask how to put in custom music. The devs have no problem responding to those right away.

I don’t mean this in an insulting way, but how old are you? Have you held a job in a corporate environment before?

I’ll give you an example. My company has a big message board where people can ask questions. We’re an enterprise software company. I work within my company’s Education group, so if people have questions related to training, I’ll pop in and answer. I’ll occasionally also answer questions about the product when I know the answer.

Sometimes people have questions about the next version of our product. I might know the answer. Or at least think I know it. But it could have changed. I’m not directly involved in those talks. Or the meetings they have about how to communicate the changes. etc.

So yeah, somebody came in and gave the link for the playlists. What makes you think he is in ANY way knowledgeable or authorized to respond on behalf of the company on THIS thread?

He isn’t.

You guys keep acting like every single human being at ArenaNet is equally capable of answering your demands here. They are not. And the guys who are? They’re busy with China.

You don’t have to like it, but you should at least understand what’s happening.

I’m in my late twenties since you asked, and I work in a corporate retail environment. I completely understand what you’re saying, and I do understand what’s happening. What’s happened is that, instead of hiring new employees to handle the new market, they took all the old employees and moved them over.

Hence my store analogies. When you open a new store, you hire new staff. Some of the existing staff goes to help open the new store…but you only send what you can afford to send. You always leave behind enough to run the old store and handle customer issues. That’s how we do it. Clearly it’s not how ANet does it.

The fact that the guys who can answer us are busy with China is exactly the issue. They did not leave anyone behind to handle the existing market. Why not? And why shouldn’t they be taken to town about this? If we did the same exact thing with one of our stores the community for that store would flip their kitten. It would do irreparable damage to that community and our reputation as a company.

Skan.5301:

Dusty Moon.4382:

They are also still supporting GW1, also. So, I do think they are spread a little thin but that is how business is now.

GW is actually all automated now. Even bans are automated, though there are some stories of false bans getting reversed days into the ban.

Even with 350 employees, they could send a team, say 20, to handle GW2 EU/NA and provide quality customer support by replying on the forums. Not the PR ’We’re reading your feedback! Don’t worry as we’ll fix it as soon as China is stable!’ I mean legit ‘We see many of you are having problems with the Megaserver so we’ll take a look and we’ll keep you updated!’

None of you can tell me that the former is kind of feinting on ANet’s part.

Really what i think they need to get, is some people who can act as inbetweens. Who know how to steer the converstations in directions the devs need feedback for, as well as give players feedback from the devs, and the directions they are looking at. Not so much about policing. Chris does a pretty good job of it when he is doing cdi’s but thats not really his main job. Not that it would be easy to get, it would need to be somebody familiar with a lot of the systems at play for players, and able to communicate get to the heart of what devs are looking at/aiming for/need to hear.

But even though its not easy shoes to fill, it probably still needs to be filled.

Kalarchis.8635:

The fact that the guys who can answer us are busy with China is exactly the issue. They did not leave anyone behind to handle the existing market. Why not? And why shouldn’t they be taken to town about this? If we did the same exact thing with one of our stores the community for that store would flip their kitten. It would do irreparable damage to that community and our reputation as a company.

It’s not like it’s a completely crazy thing for the Game Director to leave for a big launch. And it’s borderline insane to suggest that they should have hired an additional game director for the China launch.

Video games are not retail, anyway, and I wish we’d quit with the rather tortured metaphors.

Romo.3709:

lordkrall.7241:

Romo.3709:

China is getting smooth release, while we’re dealing with issues and problems. Sighs…

None of which are game-breaking and thus ArenaNet is rightly focusing on something that might very well decide the future of the company.

Game-breaking, No. Immersion-breaking, Yes.
It is true that they’re in the middle of something that might decide the future of their company. Especially since they’re treating China as their only customers right now.

It’s because of this that I’ve had to cut my time on GW2 right back. I was (mostly) happy playing my own game from a few hours a day, now it’s about 1hr a day or less. Such a shame because I was just starting to enjoy my first self-made (ahem, not TP-bought) legendary, and I’d been waiting since headstart to craft it… shame that I only really got to enjoy it for one day, and that was before the megaserver crap hit the fan.

Yes, it’s been mentioned hundreds of times and it’ll be mentioned again. Megaserver is not good for the game. It serves to unify a very small number of people into much bigger crowds and has far more cons outweighing the pros.

From a PvE-only standpoint:

• no immersion. Anet want to assure us that it helps people get together and do stuff in maps (on one hand), but on the other it serves to alienate just as many (RP’ers).
• barely any loot (elites and champs I’m looking at you).. is this what you’d call a trade-off for making our armour repairs free?
• far more annoying people/trolls from other servers
• DPS race
• massive lag, on top of lost packets
• daily achievements trimmed (big mistake)

So now while Anet and minions are waiting hand-and-foot on the new Chinese playerbase, we’ve been forgotten, yet again. If there’s no communication, it’s for a reason. I can think of several actually; Anet are typically bad communicators, who have a bad rep of scalding any loose-cannons who offer their advice without Anet vetting the advice first (you vill do sings by procedure!), also their history regarding correcting horrendous mistakes is far from laudable… the procedure is; silence, damage control, optional apology and even further optional recompense to try to get those they’ve wronged back into the game.

To me it seems like Anet choose the wrong channels of communication, if any, because it looks like communication based on a committee. Get together to decide how to respond to people upset with the game, choose a popular answer that is totally politically-correct and PR-based (eg. overly positive-from-negative with a big helping of spin), then finally reply to those who are already on the verge of a full-fledged revolt.

Bad form.

My concern(s) regarding this issue are not that there are bugs and general problems with the update. Major updates in this field often require significant amounts of fine tuning over a period of time after they go live. I am also not inclined to consider it a major issue if a development team cuts back on their customer communication for a couple of (or a few) weeks in order to launch a new title or the existing title in a new market. Those last few weeks before a major launch are an all hands on deck crunch like virtually no other. People who do not get paid overtime may very well be working 12 and 16 hour shifts.

What I do take issue with is the combination of the two circumstances. Launching something that you know is going to adversely affect your customers at a time when you know you are not going to be able to properly address their concerns or the problems themselves due to other commitments is bad service.

It wasnt a surprise for Anet that there were problems with the update and that it would have further unforeseen issues (or at least it should not have been a surprise). It also was not (or should not have been) a surprise that the China launch would mean being very busy. What is surprising is that a AAA studio would allow those two points to come into conflict.

Ok, I know, I know, you say it’s because of the Chinese release, but I just can’t stop wondering…

…whaddazhaitan are all of them doing in China if they’re launching the same game, simply translated and with a minor premium BLTC thingie, and whaddatrahearne is doing the Chinese team then?

Dusty Moon.4382:

Wow, comparing a company that has 4700 employees (Blizzard North) to A.Net (which has 350 BTW) is really telling. They are also still supporting GW1, also. So, I do think they are spread a little thin but that is how business is now.

If you are going to compare companies, compare A.Net to ZeniMax Online (which is the developer of ESO – as of 2012 had 250 employees).

Yeah, go look at ZeniMax Online. Look at all the awesome stuff they’re implementing as a direct result of user feedback. Look at how often they post on reddit and the official forums. Look at their GMs running around the megaserver, literally slaying bots that users /whisper them about. They have incredible presence.

Your argument is, “They don’t have a lot of people, so they can’t handle being spread thin!” Then they shouldn’t be spreading themselves thin. That’s my point.

timmyf.1490:

Kalarchis.8635:

The fact that the guys who can answer us are busy with China is exactly the issue. They did not leave anyone behind to handle the existing market. Why not? And why shouldn’t they be taken to town about this? If we did the same exact thing with one of our stores the community for that store would flip their kitten. It would do irreparable damage to that community and our reputation as a company.

It’s not like it’s a completely crazy thing for the Game Director to leave for a big launch. And it’s borderline insane to suggest that they should have hired an additional game director for the China launch.

Video games are not retail, anyway, and I wish we’d quit with the rather tortured metaphors.

Who said anything about a new director? I’m talking new staff. Hiring new staff to handle a new market/release for a game is completely normal, particularly PR staff when the new release coincides with a major upheaval of the existing market. I already noted that it’s normal to send some existing staff to help with a new release. Indeed, it’s recommended. What’s “borderline insane” is to send all the staff and leave no one to handle the existing market.

And what’s so tortured about the metaphors? They seem rather accurate to me.

ceol.9175:

Dusty Moon.4382:

Wow, comparing a company that has 4700 employees (Blizzard North) to A.Net (which has 350 BTW) is really telling. They are also still supporting GW1, also. So, I do think they are spread a little thin but that is how business is now.

If you are going to compare companies, compare A.Net to ZeniMax Online (which is the developer of ESO – as of 2012 had 250 employees).

Yeah, go look at ZeniMax Online. Look at all the awesome stuff they’re implementing as a direct result of user feedback. Look at how often they post on reddit and the official forums. Look at their GMs running around the megaserver, literally slaying bots that users /whisper them about. They have incredible presence.

Your argument is, “They don’t have a lot of people, so they can’t handle being spread thin!” Then they shouldn’t be spreading themselves thin. That’s my point.

Right – go reread their forums on the load times, the quests that are so broken people can’t actually finish or level up, etc. The Bots camping bosses and nodes for crafting. As well as the amount of gold sellers (I have not had one whisper me in months and then it was only one). That game is so broken and it is a sub game too (plus it costs more than GW2 – if you want the imperial race and a mount). Sorry – your argument is thin also – they have Bethesda to back them which is a big company – A.Net has itself.

Not saying they shouldn’t be doing some communication but people’s expectations are just too high.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Hi,

The CDI is not Kaput at all. I have just been extremely busy like the rest of the team and as I have said before there is absolutely no point in doing a CDI if we cannot contribute properly to it.

A new CDI will be coming shortly! Thanks for your patience.

Chris

Well, if you are that busy, you should ask for more money from NCSoft or whoever is actually paying you to hire more developers, so you can start to fix core issues once and for all.

timmyf.1490:

Kalarchis.8635:

The fact that the guys who can answer us are busy with China is exactly the issue. They did not leave anyone behind to handle the existing market. Why not? And why shouldn’t they be taken to town about this? If we did the same exact thing with one of our stores the community for that store would flip their kitten. It would do irreparable damage to that community and our reputation as a company.

It’s not like it’s a completely crazy thing for the Game Director to leave for a big launch. And it’s borderline insane to suggest that they should have hired an additional game director for the China launch.

Video games are not retail, anyway, and I wish we’d quit with the rather tortured metaphors.

Your credibility just evaporated.. the little you had.

Just what does selling and servicing a product directly to consumers mean to you? If it isn’t retailing, what is it? And what does having YOUR exact label/interpretation matter anyway re the analogy.

Bottom line. It isn’t wise, for any business, regardless of how you label that business, to neglect a current, agitated customer base in favor of new customers.. for any length of time.

Developer responses put me at ease. I’m not being sarcastic.

Teofa Tsavo.9863:

timmyf.1490:

It’s not like it’s a completely crazy thing for the Game Director to leave for a big launch. And it’s borderline insane to suggest that they should have hired an additional game director for the China launch.

Video games are not retail, anyway, and I wish we’d quit with the rather tortured metaphors.

Your credibility just evaporated.. the little you had.

Just what does selling and servicing a product directly to consumers mean to you? If it isn’t retailing, what is it? And what does having YOUR exact label/interpretation matter anyway re the analogy.

Bottom line. It isn’t wise, for any business, regardless of how you label that business, to neglect a current, agitated customer base in favor of new customers.. for any length of time.

I’m just excited to find out that, for a moment there, some random guy on the internet thought I had even a little credibility! That’s pretty amazing. I’m sad that it’s gone now, but I’ll never forget the time we had together.

I agree that it is unwise for businesses to neglect their current customers in search for new ones. I also work in the enterprise cloud software world where this is commonplace. You know how much easier it is to get a bug fixed if it means losing a big sale than it is if a current customer is complaining about it?

I’m not saying it’s right. It’s just reality.

That said, I don’t agree that ArenaNet is neglecting its customer base. I do think it is neglecting the often hyperbolic, toxic, angry, vocal minority of its customers that have come here to post demands.

As far as I can tell, they’ve recognized that changes need to be made and are working on making those changes. For most of their customer base, that’s good enough. For a lot of people who require personal attention to their every concern on the forums, it’s not good enough.

You’re welcome to feel that way and I’m well aware that nothing I can say will change your mind. I’m just trying to ensure that the other viewpoint is also represented.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Lheimroo.2947:

The CDI initiative appears kaput, and the four or five feedback threads on feature patch features haven’t garnered a single substantive response.

I don’t think it’s adequate to say ’We’re reading what you post’ if they fail to actually respond to concerns raised.

Comes a point where I need to know what’s coming up or what Arenanet developers actually think about the feedback being offered in order to have ‘faith’ in where they’re setting their development in future.

I mean, take the feature patch – some of those features could’ve been improved significantly if we’d had the opportunity to offer feedback in advance; ie, before they were baked and almost ready to be rolled out. But that’s rather typical of arenanet’s community-communications style: they work on what they got and put it out, THEN get surprised by feedback.

Most other industries seek customer feedback in a multistage iterative process during product creation, and it only makes sense. Even in MMOland, look at Blizzard – discussing the upcoming expansion in detail a year or more out from release.

Even in the CDI threads, developer commentary basically amounted to ‘Yeah, we read that. It’s interesting’.

I hate to say it; we need a ‘Ghostcrawler’.

Hi,

The CDI is not Kaput at all. I have just been extremely busy like the rest of the team and as I have said before there is absolutely no point in doing a CDI if we cannot contribute properly to it.

A new CDI will be coming shortly! Thanks for your patience.

Chris

This is a response mired in the inability of the Anet team to understand the importance of proper corporate communication. I have offered my humble opinion many times, that they need to hire a communications expert, and let that persons team handle the communication. It is obvious that there are too many Indians and no “Chief” involved in the give and take from the community.
As developers, you need your responses tempered through a single channel that can ensure that all answers are coherent and address the concern that the answer is intended to address.
Your response shows that you have an ongoing CDI that nobody is paying attention to because you are too busy. Why wasn’t the CDI stopped or paused, or more importantly, why wasn’t there a person designated to continue the process while others were too busy? The brand is now tarnished because whenever you are “too busy”, the community is not that important.
Most corporate entities understand that the customer is always first and should never be ignored for even a scant few seconds. One person designated to communicate on your behalf in a concerted effort to streamline your thoughts, and those of your peers, would be a first step in honing the points of your interest, and eliminating those points that you feel are not germane to your future view of the game. Being able to eliminate the things you do not want to talk about within the CDI threads for whatever reason you have, and relating that reason accurately, would go a long way to dampening the continued derision you breed in the forums with no response or comment.
IMHO, hire a communications liaison today. 10-20 different people communicating (when they are not too busy) is the problem. Communicate as Anet, not a developer.

Kalarchis.8635:

Hence my store analogies. When you open a new store, you hire new staff. Some of the existing staff goes to help open the new store…but you only send what you can afford to send. You always leave behind enough to run the old store and handle customer issues. That’s how we do it. Clearly it’s not how ANet does it.

The fact that the guys who can answer us are busy with China is exactly the issue. They did not leave anyone behind to handle the existing market. Why not? And why shouldn’t they be taken to town about this? If we did the same exact thing with one of our stores the community for that store would flip their kitten. It would do irreparable damage to that community and our reputation as a company.

The guys that went over were not the equivalent of lowly retail employees and managers. They are more the equivalent in the retail business of corporate coming to visit.

Also the majority of those that post on the forums here are not the low level employees. They are typically team leads or higher.

timmyf.1490:

It’s not like it’s a completely crazy thing for the Game Director to leave for a big launch. And it’s borderline insane to suggest that they should have hired an additional game director for the China launch.

Video games are not retail, anyway, and I wish we’d quit with the rather tortured metaphors.

They do have a Aisa Game director his name Jason Roberts. But his job is not the same as Chris Whiteside. If the credits are still correct it is more equivlent to Colins Job. Colin may also be in China helping Jason Roberts.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Game_credits

Lishtenbird.2814:

Ok, I know, I know, you say it’s because of the Chinese release, but I just can’t stop wondering…

…whaddazhaitan are all of them doing in China if they’re launching the same game, simply translated and with a minor premium BLTC thingie, and whaddatrahearne is doing the Chinese team then?

Giving them the same red carpet treatment they gave us when we pre-pruchased the game. Listening to their feedback. Teaching them the game. Responding to their concerns. Playing the game with them.

Sligh.2789:

Your response shows that you have an ongoing CDI that nobody is paying attention to because you are too busy. Why wasn’t the CDI stopped or paused, or more importantly, why wasn’t there a person designated to continue the process while others were too busy? The brand is now tarnished because whenever you are “too busy”, the community is not that important.

Er… you realize there is NOT a CDI running presently? Specifically because in an environment predicated on every post being read by the hosting Dev, if the Dev’s not available, the social contract is not upheld. So rather than hold a sham (and a sham we’d detect almost instantly) they’re waiting until they can make good on their side of the bargain. There is no promise or presumption that CDIs are a constant undertaking. But if you feel honesty tarnishes the brand… well, I can see why they’re so eager to communicate with you.

Most corporate entities understand that the customer is always first and should never be ignored for even a scant few seconds.

It’s like a time capsule from the 1960s .

The customer hasn’t been first any time this century. Shareholders come first. Sorry if enlightened self-interest dictates spending a month conquering new markets.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Lheimroo.2947:

The CDI initiative appears kaput, and the four or five feedback threads on feature patch features haven’t garnered a single substantive response.

I don’t think it’s adequate to say ’We’re reading what you post’ if they fail to actually respond to concerns raised.

Comes a point where I need to know what’s coming up or what Arenanet developers actually think about the feedback being offered in order to have ‘faith’ in where they’re setting their development in future.

I mean, take the feature patch – some of those features could’ve been improved significantly if we’d had the opportunity to offer feedback in advance; ie, before they were baked and almost ready to be rolled out. But that’s rather typical of arenanet’s community-communications style: they work on what they got and put it out, THEN get surprised by feedback.

Most other industries seek customer feedback in a multistage iterative process during product creation, and it only makes sense. Even in MMOland, look at Blizzard – discussing the upcoming expansion in detail a year or more out from release.

Even in the CDI threads, developer commentary basically amounted to ‘Yeah, we read that. It’s interesting’.

I hate to say it; we need a ‘Ghostcrawler’.

Hi,

The CDI is not Kaput at all. I have just been extremely busy like the rest of the team and as I have said before there is absolutely no point in doing a CDI if we cannot contribute properly to it.

A new CDI will be coming shortly! Thanks for your patience.

Chris

Wow….

Thousands and thousands of posts on the myriad of issues that players are having with the recent patch and game system overhaul, and this is the response we finally get weeks after the problems started? A post that doesn’t even address the actual issues in even the most cursory way? I mean, I don’t want another “We’re looking into it!” response but this is like someone saying “We’ll take a look at the window soon!” when you’ve been complaining about the door for 2 weeks.

Dusty Moon.4382:

Right – go reread their forums on the load times, the quests that are so broken people can’t actually finish or level up, etc. The Bots camping bosses and nodes for crafting. As well as the amount of gold sellers (I have not had one whisper me in months and then it was only one).

They’re in the process of fixing load times and bugs. In fact, you can read all about it in this reddit thread where the devs are responding to players! Look at that! It’s like they’re actual, approachable humans!

A year ago, there was a thread in the GW2 subreddit where a customer service rep was telling people why their character was banned — to a humorous effect, because the now-banned user would act like they did nothing wrong, and the CSR would paste in an extremely offensive and obviously ban-worthy message they said in chat. Where did that ArenaNet go?

Dusty Moon.4382:

That game is so broken and it is a sub game too (plus it costs more than GW2 – if you want the imperial race and a mount). Sorry – your argument is thin also – they have Bethesda to back them which is a big company – A.Net has itself.

You’re the one who said to compare ArenaNet to ZOS. And of course it costs more! It just released! GW2 has been out for 2 years. It took them a year and a half to drop the digital price from $60. The digital collector’s edition was $80. So they were actually the same exact price on release.

timmyf.1490:

It’s not like it’s a completely crazy thing for the Game Director to leave for a big launch. And it’s borderline insane to suggest that they should have hired an additional game director for the China launch.

You don’t actually need a Game Director to act as a community go-between. It’s because all the community communications outside of direct support are done by people who should really be doing other things that creates this problem (well, is a part of the problem – the other part is that it seems they are just unwilling to engage in any communication when what they hear is not all sunshine and rainbows). They need a dedicated community relations person. Not someone doing this as a side job (not even paid, btw, from what i understand). And they need to communicate not only when it is convenient for them to do so, but even when (especially when) it is not.

And by the way, this is not the case of “China first”. As far as i remember, there’s always been something other going on that was more important than talking to community.

Astralporing.1957:

timmyf.1490:

It’s not like it’s a completely crazy thing for the Game Director to leave for a big launch. And it’s borderline insane to suggest that they should have hired an additional game director for the China launch.

You don’t actually need a Game Director to act as a community go-between. It’s because all the community communications outside of direct support are done by people who should really be doing other things that creates this problem (well, is a part of the problem – the other part is that it seems they are just unwilling to engage in any communication when what they hear is not all sunshine and rainbows). They need a dedicated community relations person. Not someone doing this as a side job (not even paid, btw, from what i understand). And they need to communicate not only when it is convenient for them to do so, but even when (especially when) it is not.

And by the way, this is not the case of “China first”. As far as i remember, there’s always been something other going on that was more important than talking to community.

I don’t disagree with you. I find that ArenaNet’s communications have been somewhat lacking, both in and out of game.

I just don’t make the link between “bad communication” and “they don’t care/aren’t fixing anything/are ignoring us.”

What if moment: What if this is all a test. Anet wants to see how we will react without new content or any word about updates. They prolly even put in that dev comment to see how we would react. This is all a huge scientific experiment…

Nah, but more seriously. If they aren’t saying anything, that means they are working. If they are working, that means we will have new content soon. I honestly expect more content a few weeks after the China Release. It shouldn’t be long now. I’m excite. You excite? No? Well you should be. I hear Chauncey von Snuffles III is going to make a hit appearance in LS2. Maybe even the hero. Like we team up with Chauncey to fight Mordremoth. So, hold up and waiiiiiiiit for iiiiiiiiiit. XD

Chauncey!?!?

HE’S SOOOOO FANNNNCCCYYYYY

Chris,

You really shouldn’t have to apologize for being too busy with the primary aspects of your job, to post in Forums/on Social Media. In all honesty, people need to grow up and realize that people like Danicia are the ones that supposed to be (and are) posting here and stop demonizing the rest of you for being to bust to do so.

Your interaction with us is definitely appreciated by the majority of us, but said majority also understands that you go out of your way to be here and chat with us, in addition to your actual responsibilities. =)

videoboy.4162:

Chris,

You really shouldn’t have to apologize for being too busy with the primary aspects of your job, to post in Forums/on Social Media. In all honesty, people need to grow up and realize that people like Danicia are the ones that supposed to be (and are) posting here and stop demonizing the rest of you for being to bust to do so.

Your interaction with us is definitely appreciated by the majority of us, but said majority also understands that you go out of your way to be here and chat with us, in addition to your actual responsibilities. =)

no offense to danica, but she is a cop.
Her primary purpose and skill set is policing the forum. She isnt actually (or at at least doesnt seem to be) someone who can lead discussions and act as an inbetween for the devs and the players various issues and questions.

Its a hard job to fill, but i think it would be worthwhile to get someone whose job it is to serve that purpose

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Hi All,

I just wanted to take the time to make it clear that we are indeed reading all the feedback, not just about Megasverver but in many areas of this forum, others and in game.

As Colin has mentioned in the past Megaserver technology is a multi phase release and we are monitoring\discussing it every day.

We are very focused on a multitude of areas of GW2 including China and excited for our new global community and what lies ahead.

I wanted to say that I agree with the concerns around the post on twitter. I have a very small number of followers and rarely catch up on my account and following a very late night earlier this week caught up on my notifications and replied. I am a strong believer in exposition to all and will be more careful about this moving forward.

Regarding Dev communication on the forums currently, as I said we are very focused on a number of areas currently and are looking forward to being able to turn our attention to healthy discussions with you all soon.

This post is not designed to appease, it is designed to inform so please take it in the spirit in which it was intended.

Chris

Thank you for taking the time to post. I think this is exactly what we needed to hear. You obviously can’t please all the people all the time, or address everyone’s concerns individually, but small communications here and there to know you’re at least looking at our feedback helps.

Good luck with the China release. Launches are madness; try to keep up on your sleep.

phys.7689:

videoboy.4162:

Chris,

You really shouldn’t have to apologize for being too busy with the primary aspects of your job, to post in Forums/on Social Media. In all honesty, people need to grow up and realize that people like Danicia are the ones that supposed to be (and are) posting here and stop demonizing the rest of you for being to bust to do so.

Your interaction with us is definitely appreciated by the majority of us, but said majority also understands that you go out of your way to be here and chat with us, in addition to your actual responsibilities. =)

no offense to danica, but she is a cop.
Her primary purpose and skill set is policing the forum. She isnt actually (or at at least doesnt seem to be) someone who can lead discussions and act as an inbetween for the devs and the players various issues and questions.

Its a hard job to fill, but i think it would be worthwhile to get someone whose job it is to serve that purpose

IIRC, Danicia’s title is “Community Coordinator”. That’s why she’s the one that has been making these feedback topics and merging multiple topics into one. I’m pretty sure moderations is a side responsibility and not her primary one.

Either way, if you check the Dev Tracker, you can see that the employees that have been assigned to the forums, have actually been on the forums. =)

Chris Whiteside.6102:

synk.8762:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Hi All,

I just wanted to take the time to make it clear that we are indeed reading all the feedback, not just about Megasverver but in many areas of this forum, others and in game.

As Colin has mentioned in the past Megaserver technology is a multi phase release and we are monitoring\discussing it every day.

We are very focused on a multitude of areas of GW2 including China and excited for our new global community and what lies ahead.

I wanted to say that I agree with the concerns around the post on twitter. I have a very small number of followers and rarely catch up on my account and following a very late night earlier this week caught up on my notifications and replied. I am a strong believer in exposition to all and will be more careful about this moving forward.

Regarding Dev communication on the forums currently, as I said we are very focused on a number of areas currently and are looking forward to being able to turn our attention to healthy discussions with you all soon.

This post is not designed to appease, it is designed to inform so please take it in the spirit in which it was intended.

Chris

Thank you for taking the time to post. I think this is exactly what we needed to hear. You obviously can’t please all the people all the time, or address everyone’s concerns individually, but small communications here and there to know you’re at least looking at our feedback helps.

Good luck with the China release. Launches are madness; try to keep up on your sleep.

Thank you Synk. So far things have been great on the release (fingers crossed) and I am very excited about other areas that we are working on as well.

All round aside from the lack of sleep things are really exciting at the moment.

Chris

Please read this
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Why-have-town-cloth-tonics/first#post3979785

I was happy with most of the new patch but this was disappointing.

Ok I get that you are very busy with the China release, and you are all doing your best.

Howerver, what i do not get is that at the introduction of the megaservers it is announced that you will roll them out slowly and listen to feedback. Next to that most maps that were included in initial megaservers release, were the low populated maps that benefit most from it.

After the first weekend the reports of trouble/concerns with megaservers grow rapidly, but no one reacts to this with a reply on the forums, INSTEAD after the weekend the Megaservers are rolled out to ALL the other maps, including high populated maps like queensdale that hardly needed megaservers to begin with.

Still no reactions on forums and 10 days after the feature patch we get a nice blogpost titled “Rollout of megaservers is complete” ok it contained a small line that there still are issues that need to be resolved but thats all.

If you were so busy, would it not have been better to put the roll out of mega-servers on hold till after the China release so you all would have had some time to discuss the issues that came up with the community first and find a solution for this?

Goodluck with the release, i look forward to see some more feedback/solutions about the current issues in the future.

Vin Lady Venture, The Rising Falcons[RiFa] Fissure of Woe

Rin of Rivvinda.4971:

Ok I get that you are very busy with the China release, and you are all doing your best.

Howerver, what i do not get is that at the introduction of the megaservers it is announced that you will roll them out slowly and listen to feedback. Next to that most maps that were included in initial megaservers release, were the low populated maps that benefit most from it.

After the first weekend the reports of trouble/concerns with megaservers grow rapidly, but no one reacts to this with a reply on the forums, INSTEAD after the weekend the Megaservers are rolled out to ALL the other maps, including high populated maps like queensdale that hardly needed megaservers to begin with.

Still no reactions on forums and 10 days after the feature patch we get a nice blogpost titled “Rollout of megaservers is complete” ok it contained a small line that there still are issues that need to be resolved but thats all.

If you were so busy, would it not have been better to put the roll out of mega-servers on hold till after the China release so you all would have had some time to discuss the issues that came up with the community first and find a solution for this?

Goodluck with the release, i look forward to see some more feedback/solutions about the current issues in the future.

Vin Lady Venture, The Rising Falcons[RiFa] Fissure of Woe

Because their focus is on the 95% of the player base who are actually playing the game and not on the forums.

Rin of Rivvinda.4971:

Howerver, what i do not get is that at the introduction of the megaservers it is announced that you will roll them out slowly and listen to feedback. Next to that most maps that were included in initial megaservers release, were the low populated maps that benefit most from it.

Why do people keep claiming that they would roll them out slowly?
I am almost 100% certain that they said they would roll them out OVER TIME, which says nothing at all about the speed of the roll out.

lordkrall.7241:

Why do people keep claiming that they would roll them out slowly?
I am almost 100% certain that they said they would roll them out OVER TIME, which says nothing at all about the speed of the roll out.

I also do not recall seeing a post saying that they would roll them out slowly.

But, keep in mind that measuring something done, “over time,” is a measure of speed. Speed/velocity is, by definition, a measurement of movement over time.

So saying that they would roll them out over time did say something about the speed of the roll out. Unfortunately we do not know what that something is because slowly/quickly are subjective. One person might consider the roll out to have been too fast while another might have thought it was slow.

Over time basically means they won’t roll it all out at the same time. Which they didn’t. Thus they rolled it out over time.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Hi All,

I just wanted to take the time to make it clear that we are indeed reading all the feedback, not just about Megasverver but in many areas of this forum, others and in game.

As Colin has mentioned in the past Megaserver technology is a multi phase release and we are monitoring\discussing it every day.

We are very focused on a multitude of areas of GW2 including China and excited for our new global community and what lies ahead.

I wanted to say that I agree with the concerns around the post on twitter. I have a very small number of followers and rarely catch up on my account and following a very late night earlier this week caught up on my notifications and replied. I am a strong believer in exposition to all and will be more careful about this moving forward.

Regarding Dev communication on the forums currently, as I said we are very focused on a number of areas currently and are looking forward to being able to turn our attention to healthy discussions with you all soon.

This post is not designed to appease, it is designed to inform so please take it in the spirit in which it was intended.

Chris

Acknowledgment of lack of communication, no acknowledgment of issues; feels like the “no communication” directive has been (temporarily?) lifted, the “no discussion of issues and no promises” directive is still there, thus the vague formulation. Still, makes sense for me and delivers more than could be said directly

anzenketh.3759:

Giving them the same red carpet treatment they gave us when we pre-pruchased the game. Listening to their feedback. Teaching them the game. Responding to their concerns. Playing the game with them.

So naturally, our feedback is not worth listening to, and the only things we’re currently really needed for before the release are 3000 gems infinite tools, 2000 gems baby minis and 1000 gems gold edition upgrade? Rrright.

lordkrall.7241:

Why do people keep claiming that they would roll them out slowly?
I am almost 100% certain that they said they would roll them out OVER TIME, which says nothing at all about the speed of the roll out.

Here:

With the launch of the April 2014 Feature Pack, we’ll be activating the megaserver system on our level 1–15 maps, main cities, and the PvP lobby. We’ll monitor and test the system to verify that everything works correctly. Later in 2014, we’ll activate our megaserver technology across the entire world of Tyria.

Obviously, from the player’s experience with regard to precursor crafting, new legendaries, guild halls, “large projects cooking in background”, QoL features etc., “later in 2014” was not “in 1 or 2 weeks”, but rather “sometime in early 2015”.

OP, you can’t hear the silence. That’s why it’s called silence.