Guild Wars 2

I was just wondering why ArenaNet offers no transparency in the development process. I know it’s your policy, but my question is: Why is it your policy? So many people I talk to in game feel so very jaded by anet’s lack of communication with regard to their plans, and I have to admit I’m more than a bit disappointed after having trawled through the forums and not seen any mention of what’s in the works for the game’s future.

Most developers I’m aware of for MMORPG’s go out of their way to show off upcoming content for their games, yet everything for GW2 seems to be totally under wraps. It seems horribly counter-productive to me to just stonewall your customers.

rapthorne.7345:

I was just wondering why ArenaNet offers no transparency in the development process. I know it’s your policy, but my question is: Why is it your policy? So many people I talk to in game feel so very jaded by anet’s lack of communication with regard to their plans, and I have to admit I’m more than a bit disappointed after having trawled through the forums and not seen any mention of what’s in the works for the game’s future.

Most developers I’m aware of for MMORPG’s go out of their way to show off upcoming content for their games, yet everything for GW2 seems to be totally under wraps. It seems horribly counter-productive to me to just stonewall your customers.

From what I see going on in the forums. In game if and when I EVER log in including the past few Points of Interests episodes. It all boils down to new players and gem store purchases. It is ALL about the almighty dollar. I cant say whether or not its Anets greed or Ncsoft’s but thats the bottom line..

Because whenever something was shown to us before completion, people would rage and never let go when it was cancelled or delayed.

Chameleon Dude.1564:

Because whenever something was shown to us before completion, people would rage and never let go when it was cancelled or delayed.

It makes me wonder how other mmo developers manage to make it work.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/upcoming-events-in-guildwars2/

Exactly 1 month ago, they releaed their plans until the end of the year.

Chameleon Dude.1564:

Because whenever something was shown to us before completion, people would rage and never let go when it was cancelled or delayed.

That’s a cop out and is as old as the “they thought it would confuse new players” comment. They don’t say anything because they don’t have anything to announce, if they did they would be screaming at the top of their lungs because that’s good marketing. The one and only real viable reason not to is because you know that if it isn’t the scope of news people would be expecting at this point (2 years without a major expansion) it would do more harm than good.
Don’t kid yourself, as soon as they think they are in the position to make a major announcement that will bring sales back up and drive in needed cash they would make it, this is a business pure and simple. They don’t have anything substantial to offer, hence the silence.
There is not one company in the world that would risk the mild annoyance of a delay if there was something to placate. A general announcement without specifics would suffice, they haven’t even offered that so speculation is all that is left, hence nothing said, nothing to be said.
My opinion, the whole development in China took a heck of a lot more than they expected, they’re behind the 8 ball because the LS isn’t cutting it so now it’s all about keeping quiet adding some busy work content until they can build an expansion. I predict the remainder of the LS starting Nov 4th to include 4 episodes to open a quarter of another new zone while they run rehashed holiday content and hope it buys them enough to time to be confident enough to announce an xpack. Which they will announce in the spring destined to come some time in the fall, be delayed until the end of 2015. (purely speculation of course because it’s all i have).

rapthorne.7345:

Most developers I’m aware of for MMORPG’s go out of their way to show off upcoming content for their games, yet everything for GW2 seems to be totally under wraps. It seems horribly counter-productive to me to just stonewall your customers.

Out of all the MMOs I’ve played that previewed content, it was because it was always far away, so they had to keep people interested in the meantime. A single content patch every few months is fairly standard. Expansions for example are typically announced 6 months to a year before their release, meanwhile regular releases have stopped entirely.

With a 2 week release schedule, there’s really no point in showing off the next chapter. If they were going to release something big, they would no doubt announce it.

It strikes me as that place where your dad knows he’s lost but keeps driving ahead. This is Anet.

I recently re-installed and the TP was removed from Queensdale, uhm, why? Probably because the new TP layout is rubbish. Why is selling to bids the auto choice? This will lose new players money because they’ll assume that the game has their interests at heart.

Eg. New player get’s an exotic, bid of 1 copper is there…gratz new player you just lost a ton of gold.

Maybe I’m wrong but if I am it means the new TP is more confusing than the old one. You see my point? Lose lose, WD Anet, WD. Slow clap.

Paul.4081:

It strikes me as that place where your dad knows he’s lost but keeps driving ahead. This is Anet.

I recently re-installed and the TP was removed from Queensdale, uhm, why? Probably because the new TP layout is rubbish. Why is selling to bids the auto choice? This will lose new players money because they’ll assume that the game has their interests at heart.

Eg. New player get’s an exotic, bid of 1 copper is there…gratz new player you just lost a ton of gold.

Maybe I’m wrong but if I am it means the new TP is more confusing than the old one. You see my point? Lose lose, WD Anet, WD. Slow clap.

New TP isn’t more confusing than the old one and the overwhelming response to it has been positive. Even with all the people who enjoy pointing out flaws in the game,. the response has been overwhelmingly positive.

Admittedly it’s hard to change from one system to another but that’s something that new players won’t have to worry about.

I’m relatively certain this is better for new players than the last one.

Selling to bids being the auto choice was exactly what the old TP did. When they did try to make selling match the current low sale price there was an uproar.

The TP was removed from the starting zone because the TP isn’t explained to new players until level 8. But instead of phasing him out for new players or tell them to come back later, they chose to smite them from the world.

Behellagh.1468:

Selling to bids being the auto choice was exactly what the old TP did. When they did try to make selling match the current low sale price there was an uproar.

The TP was removed from the starting zone because the TP isn’t explained to new players until level 8. But instead of phasing him out for new players or tell them to come back later, they chose to smite them from the world.

It was also likely removed to get all the icons off the maps except for the ones new players absolutely need to see. Older players may not realize it, but the map is a mess of icons of all kinds, and for new people, it’s easier to learn stuff if you introduce stuff slowly. So you get them used to the icons they need earliest and then keep adding them as they level.

This is the way most teaching works.

Paul.4081:

It strikes me as that place where your dad knows he’s lost but keeps driving ahead. This is Anet.

I recently re-installed and the TP was removed from Queensdale, uhm, why? Probably because the new TP layout is rubbish. Why is selling to bids the auto choice? This will lose new players money because they’ll assume that the game has their interests at heart.

Eg. New player get’s an exotic, bid of 1 copper is there…gratz new player you just lost a ton of gold.

Maybe I’m wrong but if I am it means the new TP is more confusing than the old one. You see my point? Lose lose, WD Anet, WD. Slow clap.

Look it up ion the forums the reason why the TP autos to Highest Bidder is because of overwhelming (a really big thread) on the forums complaining that it defaulted to the opposite when it was first released. In fact “Adjusted selling within the Trading Post so that the default is set to match the highest buyer instead of the lowest seller.” Taken Directly from the Patch Notes Update https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/updates/Game-Update-Notes-September-9-2014/first#post4400022

That is why it defaults where it does. Because ANet listened to a large number of people.

I personally like the TP interface, myself.

Wanze.8410:

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/upcoming-events-in-guildwars2/

Exactly 1 month ago, they releaed their plans until the end of the year.

They should do something like this to make us happier, even though they wont deliver half of what is promised.

Wanze.8410:

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/upcoming-events-in-guildwars2/

Exactly 1 month ago, they releaed their plans until the end of the year.

Not very impressive… and planning for “the end of the year” is the same as planning 3 months out at this point.

Halloween and xmas will be mostly recycled from the previous years, so nothing new in that “plan” except for the last part of LS2 (which is late considering it should be on a 2 week cadence instead of a month on, month off, month on, etc.)

Emtiarbi.3281:

Wanze.8410:

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/upcoming-events-in-guildwars2/

Exactly 1 month ago, they releaed their plans until the end of the year.

They should do something like this to make us happier, even though they wont deliver half of what is promised.

Man… I’d forgotten how much better communication used to be

I can’t believe that they chose radio silence over simply explaining why the things they didn’t implement were put on hold (or cancelled, we don’t even know).

Fernling.1729:

Chameleon Dude.1564:

Because whenever something was shown to us before completion, people would rage and never let go when it was cancelled or delayed.

It makes me wonder how other mmo developers manage to make it work.

To answer this question we need to look back at how the product is initially marketed before release (all the way back to 2011, maybe even further, how your fan culture is developed over the course of the first initial product, maybe looking as far back as 2005), what types of target audiences are well, being targeted, how well those targets get hit and how often you are hitting your targets. How expectations from the consumers are built up until launch(everything from interviews, gamescon, sneak peaks, etc) and then how the product is maintained afterwards(from how staffing is structured, the types of updates that go through, and how it affects our overall experience).

I know this sounds like a very blank and simplistic statement but for those who have been here since launch or even as far back as early testing phases, know that there is a lot of history here and research is your best friend.

Arena Net is in a very tough spot currently. A large portion of their leadership is new to the gaming industry so its to no surprise that some expectation do not get met. One thing is for sure and that is this has been a learning experience for a lot of people.

(all things considered I believe GW2 is still in a better spot than most other MMOS currently, the CDIs help streamline things however I dont I’ve ever seen any other MMO do it before)

Vayne.8563:

Paul.4081:

It strikes me as that place where your dad knows he’s lost but keeps driving ahead. This is Anet.

I recently re-installed and the TP was removed from Queensdale, uhm, why? Probably because the new TP layout is rubbish. Why is selling to bids the auto choice? This will lose new players money because they’ll assume that the game has their interests at heart.

Eg. New player get’s an exotic, bid of 1 copper is there…gratz new player you just lost a ton of gold.

Maybe I’m wrong but if I am it means the new TP is more confusing than the old one. You see my point? Lose lose, WD Anet, WD. Slow clap.

New TP isn’t more confusing than the old one and the overwhelming response to it has been positive. Even with all the people who enjoy pointing out flaws in the game,. the response has been overwhelmingly positive.

Admittedly it’s hard to change from one system to another but that’s something that new players won’t have to worry about.

I’m relatively certain this is better for new players than the last one.

You should define overwhelmingly positive response. 1 person typing overwhelmingly positive posts on every thread does not mean that the response to the change was overwhelmingly positive. That doesn’t mean the response to the change was particularly negative either, but just because the response wasn’t negative doesn’t automatically make the change an 11/10.

Chrispy.5641:

Vayne.8563:

Paul.4081:

It strikes me as that place where your dad knows he’s lost but keeps driving ahead. This is Anet.

I recently re-installed and the TP was removed from Queensdale, uhm, why? Probably because the new TP layout is rubbish. Why is selling to bids the auto choice? This will lose new players money because they’ll assume that the game has their interests at heart.

Eg. New player get’s an exotic, bid of 1 copper is there…gratz new player you just lost a ton of gold.

Maybe I’m wrong but if I am it means the new TP is more confusing than the old one. You see my point? Lose lose, WD Anet, WD. Slow clap.

New TP isn’t more confusing than the old one and the overwhelming response to it has been positive. Even with all the people who enjoy pointing out flaws in the game,. the response has been overwhelmingly positive.

Admittedly it’s hard to change from one system to another but that’s something that new players won’t have to worry about.

I’m relatively certain this is better for new players than the last one.

You should define overwhelmingly positive response. 1 person typing overwhelmingly positive posts on every thread does not mean that the response to the change was overwhelmingly positive. That doesn’t mean the response to the change was particularly negative either, but just because the response wasn’t negative doesn’t automatically make the change an 11/10.

When I say overwhelmingly positive, in every single thread that people posted negative stuff in,. more than 80% of the posts on those threads were positive. You can go back to any thread complaining about it and check that if you want.

Do you even read the forums?

Vayne.8563:

Chrispy.5641:

Vayne.8563:

Paul.4081:

It strikes me as that place where your dad knows he’s lost but keeps driving ahead. This is Anet.

I recently re-installed and the TP was removed from Queensdale, uhm, why? Probably because the new TP layout is rubbish. Why is selling to bids the auto choice? This will lose new players money because they’ll assume that the game has their interests at heart.

Eg. New player get’s an exotic, bid of 1 copper is there…gratz new player you just lost a ton of gold.

Maybe I’m wrong but if I am it means the new TP is more confusing than the old one. You see my point? Lose lose, WD Anet, WD. Slow clap.

New TP isn’t more confusing than the old one and the overwhelming response to it has been positive. Even with all the people who enjoy pointing out flaws in the game,. the response has been overwhelmingly positive.

Admittedly it’s hard to change from one system to another but that’s something that new players won’t have to worry about.

I’m relatively certain this is better for new players than the last one.

You should define overwhelmingly positive response. 1 person typing overwhelmingly positive posts on every thread does not mean that the response to the change was overwhelmingly positive. That doesn’t mean the response to the change was particularly negative either, but just because the response wasn’t negative doesn’t automatically make the change an 11/10.

When I say overwhelmingly positive, in every single thread that people posted negative stuff in,. more than 80% of the posts on those threads were positive. You can go back to any thread complaining about it and check that if you want.

Do you even read the forums?

You have, on many occasions, pointed out, when people point out that the forum response to something is overwhelmingly negative, that such is not representative of the response of the player base as a whole because the forum represents a tiny fraction of the player base.

You have also stated, on more than one occasion, that what is easy to understand, not confusing, to one person might be confusing to another and that no one can state absolutely what is difficult or confusing for others.

And yet you completely contradict your previous comments on these subjects with this post.

juno.1840:

Wanze.8410:

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/upcoming-events-in-guildwars2/

Exactly 1 month ago, they releaed their plans until the end of the year.

Not very impressive… and planning for “the end of the year” is the same as planning 3 months out at this point.

Halloween and xmas will be mostly recycled from the previous years, so nothing new in that “plan” except for the last part of LS2 (which is late considering it should be on a 2 week cadence instead of a month on, month off, month on, etc.)

OP asked for Anets future plans and here they are.
If they dont meet your expectations, thats a different discussion.
Fact is that they announced their plans 3 months in advance.

well for a time they kept everyone hooked with promises of future content,
it was only when the months started to tick by and people started to ask “so…where is it?”
that they decided that it may not have been the best idea ever, so now they just remain silent as the grave.

Ashen.2907:

Vayne.8563:

Chrispy.5641:

Vayne.8563:

Paul.4081:

It strikes me as that place where your dad knows he’s lost but keeps driving ahead. This is Anet.

I recently re-installed and the TP was removed from Queensdale, uhm, why? Probably because the new TP layout is rubbish. Why is selling to bids the auto choice? This will lose new players money because they’ll assume that the game has their interests at heart.

Eg. New player get’s an exotic, bid of 1 copper is there…gratz new player you just lost a ton of gold.

Maybe I’m wrong but if I am it means the new TP is more confusing than the old one. You see my point? Lose lose, WD Anet, WD. Slow clap.

New TP isn’t more confusing than the old one and the overwhelming response to it has been positive. Even with all the people who enjoy pointing out flaws in the game,. the response has been overwhelmingly positive.

Admittedly it’s hard to change from one system to another but that’s something that new players won’t have to worry about.

I’m relatively certain this is better for new players than the last one.

You should define overwhelmingly positive response. 1 person typing overwhelmingly positive posts on every thread does not mean that the response to the change was overwhelmingly positive. That doesn’t mean the response to the change was particularly negative either, but just because the response wasn’t negative doesn’t automatically make the change an 11/10.

When I say overwhelmingly positive, in every single thread that people posted negative stuff in,. more than 80% of the posts on those threads were positive. You can go back to any thread complaining about it and check that if you want.

Do you even read the forums?

You have, on many occasions, pointed out, when people point out that the forum response to something is overwhelmingly negative, that such is not representative of the response of the player base as a whole because the forum represents a tiny fraction of the player base.

You have also stated, on more than one occasion, that what is easy to understand, not confusing, to one person might be confusing to another and that no one can state absolutely what is difficult or confusing for others.

And yet you completely contradict your previous comments on these subjects with this post.

Pretty much what I wanted to say. Also, I’m pretty sure that 80% of this thread isn’t positive. Counting individual posters instead of posts themselves, there’s about 50% positive and 50% negative, which is exactly where it should be.

Chameleon Dude.1564:

Because whenever something was shown to us before completion, people would rage and never let go when it was cancelled or delayed.

That’s just the nature of the business really. You will get people complaining about stuff, you will get criticism, but that’s just how it is in the MMO genre.

Wanze.8410:

juno.1840:

Wanze.8410:

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/upcoming-events-in-guildwars2/

Exactly 1 month ago, they releaed their plans until the end of the year.

Not very impressive… and planning for “the end of the year” is the same as planning 3 months out at this point.

Halloween and xmas will be mostly recycled from the previous years, so nothing new in that “plan” except for the last part of LS2 (which is late considering it should be on a 2 week cadence instead of a month on, month off, month on, etc.)

OP asked for Anets future plans and here they are.
If they dont meet your expectations, thats a different discussion.
Fact is that they announced their plans 3 months in advance.

What I read from it, and what I’ve gathered from the backlash on the forums, it’s not about what events are planned that transparency is requested in. It’s more “x issue has been here since beta, is there any discussion internally about it?” A simple “yes we are aware but are having difficulty finding a balanced approach to fixing it that doesn’t break something else.” Would satisfy many people. More than anything people want confirmation that their issues and concerns are at least being looked at and considered.

The typical PR is “can you tell us if you are working to fix x issue?” Response " we can’t talk about that right now". There is even a video montage of interviews with a counter that includes the typical response to any questions the players voice as concerns.

The CDI was potentially an answer to this, however, it turned quickly into “sorry been too busy to keep up to date, someone please summarize this for us” out of the CDI we get comments that show an interest but lack an suggestion of follow through. When things have been taken out of it we get the commander tag fiasco. Why did that happen? Because they failed to listen to what people were actually wanting. marketing read a summary that said more colors and account wide $$$$.
TL;DR They don’t have to make promises, just acknowledge peoples concerns. Start treating the playerbase as an invested client and not a pre-schooler to be guided and protected from disappointment. People are far more forgiving if you tried and failed a goal than if you act like you are ignorant of it while working in the shadows.

Emtiarbi.3281:

They should do something like this to make us happier, even though they wont deliver half of what is promised.

Remember what happened when some of those things were changed or delayed?

lordkrall.7241:

Emtiarbi.3281:

They should do something like this to make us happier, even though they wont deliver half of what is promised.

Remember what happened when some of those things were changed or delayed?

I do remember, a decent amount of players started acting unreasonably and anet’s response was silence and not to talk about anything until it’s ready to ship, meaning because of a part of the vocal playerbase they decided to not inform the 100% of the playerbase about the game’s development.

The funny thing is, even back then the communication on anet’s part was lacking. They did say the precursor crafting is going to be delayed, but I don’t really remember they saying anything about the new legendaries or fractal leaderboards for example. It feels like if they have to talk about something negative, they just ignore it and hope it will go away.

Vayne.8563:

Chrispy.5641:

Vayne.8563:

Paul.4081:

It strikes me as that place where your dad knows he’s lost but keeps driving ahead. This is Anet.

I recently re-installed and the TP was removed from Queensdale, uhm, why? Probably because the new TP layout is rubbish. Why is selling to bids the auto choice? This will lose new players money because they’ll assume that the game has their interests at heart.

Eg. New player get’s an exotic, bid of 1 copper is there…gratz new player you just lost a ton of gold.

Maybe I’m wrong but if I am it means the new TP is more confusing than the old one. You see my point? Lose lose, WD Anet, WD. Slow clap.

New TP isn’t more confusing than the old one and the overwhelming response to it has been positive. Even with all the people who enjoy pointing out flaws in the game,. the response has been overwhelmingly positive.

Admittedly it’s hard to change from one system to another but that’s something that new players won’t have to worry about.

I’m relatively certain this is better for new players than the last one.

You should define overwhelmingly positive response. 1 person typing overwhelmingly positive posts on every thread does not mean that the response to the change was overwhelmingly positive. That doesn’t mean the response to the change was particularly negative either, but just because the response wasn’t negative doesn’t automatically make the change an 11/10.

When I say overwhelmingly positive, in every single thread that people posted negative stuff in,. more than 80% of the posts on those threads were positive. You can go back to any thread complaining about it and check that if you want.

Do you even read the forums?

Let’s also be fair here. Your comments are usually “positive reactions” and in many threads comprise roughly 50% of the posts. Skews the data a bit, eh?

So many people new to mmo’s.

Why do people believe that post history and ad hominem are in any way relevant to an argument?

For whatever reason ANet has decided only to tell the player base what they are sure about delivering and even then the details are kept under raps until the patch is about to drop.

We could speculate the reasons why they do this but that’s just us spinning ever increasing wild theories on the subject.

Now since the Gem Shop is their primary source of income month to month, they are very sure about dropping new items, returning old and putting some on sale. This is to both encourage players to buy gems, deplete any they have on hand and drain gold from the economy into the gem exchange. And because of that need for monthly income, that’s what a lot of players see and wrongly assume that’s all that ANet is doing.

So yes every Tuesday and Friday, normally, something is done to the Gem Shop to try to keep the income flowing.

Indie.4129:

More than anything people want confirmation that their issues and concerns are at least being looked at and considered.

Hit nail on head.

Scipio’s posts and thoughts on this are on the mark as well.

A simple acknowledgement that something is, say, broken and needs fixing, and if it’ll be included in the next patch, would do most people just fine, from what I can gather.

Also Gaile, can we please get the forum’s Search function fixed? It’s been broken for nearly 2 years. I know there’s been heaps of topics on this, but the sad irony is that they get lost in the forums and never acted upon.

Thanks for communicating.

KngGilgamesh.3481:

Why do people believe that post history and ad hominem are in any way relevant to an argument?

Probably the same way that people feel passive aggressive digs are relevant, eh?

On topic: Simple statements as to development priorities would go a long way to appeasing the forum community. Many of us (or maybe just me) get the sense that ANet is a ship without a rudder, simply going randomly where the wind takes it. We’d (I’d) like to know that ANet has some sort of direction, because right now that’s not entirely clear. Also, in the past, ANet has disregarded some very constructive criticism from members of the community that it has invited to test unreleased content (certain guilds’ dismissal from test servers due to negative reactions towards ascended gear cough cough). This is also an area of concern. We (I) want to know that you actually care about player enjoyment and not just the bottom line. In short, if we (I) felt as if ANet cared about our enjoyment and had a plan other than “how do we milk them for more money?” we (I) wouldn’t be constantly asking for better communication.

Gaile Gray.6029:

I think this post may be a valuable read: Mike O’Brien on Communication.

I take on board some well-expressed comments here. Quite honestly, I’m not sure how it would work to say “Yes, we’re aware of XYZ.” Those who say “We just want to know you’re aware” are terrific. But we all know that there are others for whom that wouldn’t be satisfactory. “We want to know you’re aware and we want to know what you’re going to do about it” can even become "We want to know you’re aware, we want to know what you’re going to do about it or [insert something here, from “I’m taking a break” to “I’ll never buy another gem,” to “I’m encouraging my entire gazillion-member guild to jump to Game Z].”

Please understand I’m not dismissing the desire for the first level of info, not at all! But can you see how the outcome can be unpredictable and how, no matter the question or request, there is no perfect answer? Further, can you see how “We’re aware of this and we plan to [whatever]” can become “Ok, you said you were aware of it three days ago, where’s the fix?”

I’m sort of writing to think, but I’d like to understand what truly reaches the point of “I’d like more info, but I’m satisfied with what you’ve been able to tell us right now.” Can you give me a few examples, where players would really like to know everything, but where there is a level of disclosure that meets the basic info request?

I’m glad to hear that the “We’re aware of _ and working on it” seems doable to y’all.

The issue on communication, however, is broader than this. As far as long-term things are concerned (full-on expansions, additions of new classes/weapons, etc.) I think the present approach has been totally understandable. You all are the devs. You’ve got the leeway to withhold preliminary info on new content.

In this realm, the best kind of communication would be a decent breakdown of project priority. Even knowing as little as

“Our dev priority is…
1. Guild Halls
2. WvW class balance
3. Necro Re-work
4. etc.”

would go a long way to balancing expectations in the forums. When everyone hears “We’re aware of and working on _,” without some sort of prioritization associated with it, everyone ends up thinking their pet peeve is the number-one priority.

But!

The most frustrating communication problems (as far as my perspective’s concerned) have to do with already existing content. These are things like class balance (which should have NEVER been bundled with feature patches, fwiw), map changes, gamemode alterations, equipment tweaks, etc.

These things should always have a rationale accompanying the change/tweak/modification, and have a section talking about what the devs are looking at over the course of the next few weeks as far as gauging the effectiveness of the tweak.

Ultimately, then, the playerbase would feel like there they could follow the devs’ logic, and feel like the devs were willing to dialogue about the change/tweak should it not result in the original plan.

Thus far, this has been a huge weak spot in ANet’s communication with its playerbase. Classes don’t line up with original goals. Buffs/nerfs go without any comment or explanation of the “hows” and “whys.” And when the the playerbase demonstrates that a change/tweak has failed, the response has been near-universally “Deal with it; we like it.”

That’s unhealthy communication.

I’ve seen several online, large-playerbase game developers do an excellent job of what I’ve outlined above. Players know where they stand, where the developers stand, and what they can expect as far as changes and responses to feedback can be.

I will say this: The fact that the conversation has progressed this far with this kind of vocabulary and issues is promising to me. There is hope!

Phenn.5167:

I’ve seen several online, large-playerbase game developers do an excellent job of what I’ve outlined above.

like?

Gaile Gray.6029:

I think this post may be a valuable read: Mike O’Brien on Communication.

I take on board some well-expressed comments here. Quite honestly, I’m not sure how it would work to say “Yes, we’re aware of XYZ.” Those who say “We just want to know you’re aware” are terrific. But we all know that there are others for whom that wouldn’t be satisfactory. “We want to know you’re aware and we want to know what you’re going to do about it” can even become "We want to know you’re aware, we want to know what you’re going to do about it or [insert something here, from “I’m taking a break” to “I’ll never buy another gem,” to “I’m encouraging my entire gazillion-member guild to jump to Game Z].”

Please understand I’m not dismissing the desire for the first level of info, not at all! But can you see how the outcome can be unpredictable and how, no matter the question or request, there is no perfect answer? Further, can you see how “We’re aware of this and we plan to [whatever]” can become “Ok, you said you were aware of it three days ago, where’s the fix?”

I’m sort of writing to think, but I’d like to understand what truly reaches the point of “I’d like more info, but I’m satisfied with what you’ve been able to tell us right now.” Can you give me a few examples, where players would really like to know everything, but where there is a level of disclosure that meets the basic info request?

This company thingy is just a pile of crap, we just ask you to be more human and discuss on what is your vision of the game (which is not clear at all) and what features are you working on, give us some teasers let us get excited about the future, and you just answering us with a company way “sorry we just do business, we only talk about stuff when we are sure about em” just for the record, thats not the Anet that made me buy gw2 and play their game.

^ Exhibit A

Why would anyone want to communicate when faced with this drivel? A degree of maturity and politeness will get everybody further than some in your e-face ranting.

zenleto.6179:

^ Exhibit A

Why would anyone want to communicate when faced with this drivel? A degree of maturity and politeness will get everybody further than some in your e-face ranting.

What about the people who are polite and show a good degree of maturity? We just want information of what is the future of Gw2

Just look at this announcement, just a plain image with a date, that is just sad.

Gaile Gray.6029:

I think this post may be a valuable read: Mike O’Brien on Communication.

I take on board some well-expressed comments here. Quite honestly, I’m not sure how it would work to say “Yes, we’re aware of XYZ.” Those who say “We just want to know you’re aware” are terrific. But we all know that there are others for whom that wouldn’t be satisfactory. “We want to know you’re aware and we want to know what you’re going to do about it” can even become "We want to know you’re aware, we want to know what you’re going to do about it or [insert something here, from “I’m taking a break” to “I’ll never buy another gem,” to “I’m encouraging my entire gazillion-member guild to jump to Game Z].”

Please understand I’m not dismissing the desire for the first level of info, not at all! But can you see how the outcome can be unpredictable and how, no matter the question or request, there is no perfect answer? Further, can you see how “We’re aware of this and we plan to [whatever]” can become “Ok, you said you were aware of it three days ago, where’s the fix?”

I’m sort of writing to think, but I’d like to understand what truly reaches the point of “I’d like more info, but I’m satisfied with what you’ve been able to tell us right now.” Can you give me a few examples, where players would really like to know everything, but where there is a level of disclosure that meets the basic info request?

Why not just treat the players as a stakeholer (since, well they kinda are one) and get them on board and inform them, for instance look @ how many suggestions and ideas pop up in CDIs, there is NO WAY your team will be able to produce all that in lets say the average of 6 months that all players would want to see all that.

1- Be a lot more verbose about fixes, so many things get ninja patched, lots of stuff gets reported and players dont feel you even read their report, why bother.
solution: Show bugs/glitches pipeline (no not on the same level as the devs, but just a way for players to track bugs and:
a) feel and understand you are actually doing work on fixing lots of things
b) get a sense of priorities and see how much you guys actually do over time
reason for transparency: bugs are very annoying and affect the end user which is why they should be informed about that since as a stakeholder they have a stake in things running smooth.

2- You guys used to do a roadmap and it was a good thing. Though instead of improving your method of communication of how you did it, you stopped doing it entirely.
reason for transparency: Users (players) must have something to look forward to (specially in these long dead periods, for instance i stopped playing because well, nothing new to do and nothing to grind because nothing to look forward to)
solution: Establish a roadmap like you used to with 2 minor changes to how you used to do it.
a) make it more dynamic, not just a one time post, because things change, priorities change, problems occur and its fine, users understand, what is wrong is to act like everything is perfectly fine and not deliver (which is what happened with your original attempt – heck, precursor crafting is still not in game and no word on it to date)
b) make priorities clear and as good project managers, get people involved and let them know when choices have to be made, stop the guesswork. How? NOT on the forums. It’s easy to integrate these decisions into the lore and story you deliver just like players had the Kiel vs Gash. (sorry if i messed up his abbreviated name).

Example:
Master crafter informs the player he has discovered a legendary method of crafting that will revolutionize how things are made (precursor crafting)
Kiel says she plans on taking the lion guard to invade/explore the sea of sorrows area (new zones in that part of the map)

Now the player has a 1 time choice to make which will impact the priority of when these things actually happen. (how to indirectly get players to help you set priorities based on what the masses want) this is just one example of how you can approach this.

Edit: Even though bungie’s forums are much less clean and harder to read than the GW2 ones, they do something you should to… Notify us that someone has replied to us in the top forums UI and let us click it to go directly to the reply.

Emtiarbi.3281:

zenleto.6179:

^ Exhibit A

Why would anyone want to communicate when faced with this drivel? A degree of maturity and politeness will get everybody further than some in your e-face ranting.

What about the people who are polite and show a good degree of maturity? We just want information of what is the future of Gw2

What about them? They’re more likely to get an answer than otherwise. Slim as that chance might be.

Compare the post above my first one and then the one above this and tell yourself who you’d rather deal with.

zenleto.6179:

^ Exhibit A

Why would anyone want to communicate when faced with this drivel? A degree of maturity and politeness will get everybody further than some in your e-face ranting.

Well, go on the bungie forums where 10 yr olds get to kitten like there is no tomorrow, what happens?
a) laughed @
b) ignored

There will always be whiners, but why not have a minority of “frustrated” people.

See, on bungie’s forums (yes that again) you can see people’s stats which totally discredits the whiners.

ex: complain about dungeons sucking, being to repetitive. Go see player stats, never even set foot in AC or other dungeons … then everyone can go “Yeah… he sure knows what he’s talking about….”

Emtiarbi.3281:

zenleto.6179:

^ Exhibit A

Why would anyone want to communicate when faced with this drivel? A degree of maturity and politeness will get everybody further than some in your e-face ranting.

What about the people who are polite and show a good degree of maturity? We just want information of what is the future of Gw2

Just look at this announcement, just a plain image with a date, that is just sad.

I agree. When I saw the advertisement I felt disappointed and a bit miffed. It does nothing to excite me about the upcoming release. Furthermore, it reinforces Anet’s terrible company decision to not relay information about upcoming features.With Mike O’Brien cowering behind the “it’s our company policy” spiel he ensures the disconnect between developer and playerbase remains firmly in place.

What the heck happened to the ArenaNet we so adored?

zenleto.6179:

^ Exhibit A

Why would anyone want to communicate when faced with this drivel? A degree of maturity and politeness will get everybody further than some in your e-face ranting.

so being honest to you is the same as being rude?

There are more constructive ways of delivering honesty, even if the truth hurts a bit.

Immensus.9732:

zenleto.6179:

^ Exhibit A

Why would anyone want to communicate when faced with this drivel? A degree of maturity and politeness will get everybody further than some in your e-face ranting.

so being honest to you is the same as being rude?

Hardly. Being honest and being rude are two different things.

edit: And since we’re way off the track that Gaile tried to put us on I’m going to be finished with this.

A question answered will alleviate a lot of angst on these forums.

Is there an expansion in the works?

Emtiarbi.3281:

What about the people who are polite and show a good degree of maturity? We just want information of what is the future of Gw2

Just look at this announcement, just a plain image with a date, that is just sad.

Actually if you look at the details of the image, will notice that is a new unexplored area. If Anet is trying to say anything with that image is that for the return of Living Story Season 2 a new area will be open.

I was more than content when I saw that. Do you know where is that map ‘portal’ located? I do! I’ve seen first hand before it was patched months ago and for sure am looking forward to check it out.

Gaile Gray.6029:

I’m not discounting your other comments, and thanks for them. But I have to quote that bit ^ and respond: Yes, Yes, and Yes again! By all that Dwayna holds holy, I truly wish we could get a functional search engine!

It’s no secret that the forum software has some noticeable issues. We don’t have the ability to fix Search, just as we cannot address a few other things we’d like to tackle. I’m really sorry that it can be difficult to efficiently use the forum. Quite honestly, I’m absolutely delighted when I see someone was able to find links to old threads and provide them in current thread. In fact, I often find myself wondering "How long did it take that poor forum member to find those links? )

This is something we’re looking into, and there may be a couple of ways we can address it, even as we examine both short-term and long-term solutions.

“How long did it take that poor forum member to find those links? )”

We use Google. Or some of us just keep a list of common threads.

1.) Go to google
2.) Type
term site:https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu

Or just setup a Google custom search like I did. Perhaps ArenaNet could replace the search bar with a Google custom search. I don’t know the legal/monetary issues behind it so I can not say. It also won’t search inside of a thread but it returns more valid results then the current search does.

https://www.google.com/cse/publicurl?cx=005577824729523617251:2j4s4yjitgy

On the topic of form bugs…. Where did the thread go.