Guild Wars 2

Why is the dev chat not here where ALL Members of guild wars 2 can join in? If anyone can post what they want here it must be MO?

As they explained in their post, reddit’s format is better suited to Q+A sessions then a forum.

Also, “all members of GW2” can join in on reddit, so that’s not an issue at all

By putting it on Reddit:
1)They allow people to post who have been banned from posting on official forums (there are many)
2) can reach players who don’t currently have GW2 and reply
3) independent moderation (no ANET dictatorship in some people’s eyes – not mine !)
4) allows f2p players to also take part in the discussion and reply
5) ANET uses reddit as the GW2 unofficial forums -
Devs seem to have a more relaxed policy what they can say on Reddit vs official forums (which requires pre approvals etc).

…. Reasons

Much as I like the idea of stuff happening on the forums, this forum software isn’t great, and a forum isn’t a great platform for a Q&A like this, anyway.

I don’t even use Reddit, and I would still rather read it over there than read a massive thread here. It’s just better suited to the occasion.

TPMN.1483:

By putting it on Reddit:
1)They allow people to post who have been banned from posting on official forums (there are many)
2) can reach players who don’t currently have GW2 and reply
3) independent moderation (no ANET dictatorship in some people’s eyes – not mine !)
4) allows f2p players to also take part in the discussion and reply
5) ANET uses reddit as the GW2 unofficial forums -
Devs seem to have a more relaxed policy what they can say on Reddit vs official forums (which requires pre approvals etc).

…. Reasons

Only one problem here …… the dev’s do NOT require preapproval for posting here. The only thing they are not allowed to post are things that are covered under an non disclosure thing about stuff that’s being worked on before it’s ready.

John.8507:

Why is the dev chat not here where ALL Members of guild wars 2 can join in? If anyone can post what they want here it must be MO?

Well, one reason is because ALL members of Guild Wars 2 (community) can’t post on the Official Forums. But, they can on Reddit.

Fermi.2409:

As they explained in their post, reddit’s format is better suited to Q+A sessions then a forum.

The thing I wonder is if reddit’s format is so superior(not an opinion I hold personly) why dont they adopt that format here?

Personaly I find reddit’s layout a mess to read and the comunity only a few baby steps above the “Chan’s” It may be easier to pick def responses out of the natural list the thread forms than a forum but I find navigating the site in general obnoxious when not just following a link or a google search result.

Merendel.7128:

Fermi.2409:

As they explained in their post, reddit’s format is better suited to Q+A sessions then a forum.

The thing I wonder is if reddit’s format is so superior(not an opinion I hold personly) why dont they adopt that format here?

Personaly I find reddit’s layout a mess to read and the comunity only a few baby steps above the “Chan’s” It may be easier to pick def responses out of the natural list the thread forms than a forum but I find navigating the site in general obnoxious when not just following a link or a google search result.

Because to adopt here means they would need time and money to do so, both of which are being directed to more important matters. Not saying that these AMAs and what not aren’t important it’s just stuff like LS3, new raids, QOL improvements, expansion 2, etc take a much higher priority than updating the forums to allow for an easier use of an AMA style discussion.

Merendel.7128:

The thing I wonder is if reddit’s format is so superior(not an opinion I hold personly) why dont they adopt that format here?

It’s better for Q+A. I never said it was “so superior”. Which layout is better for general discussion is going to be up for debate, both have their upsides and downsides.

Merendel.7128:

Personaly I find reddit’s layout a mess to read and the comunity only a few baby steps above the “Chan’s” It may be easier to pick def responses out of the natural list the thread forms than a forum but I find navigating the site in general obnoxious when not just following a link or a google search result.

Sounds like a you issue or you’re just not used to the site. The layout just splits things up a bit more then your average forum’s but it’s not crazily different at its core

It doesn’t say anything good about a company that has an official forum, yet their staff is more active in interacting with their player base and clients on some third party platform.

It pretty much tells everyone that opted to post this from that we would have been better off posting Reddit instead.

Merendel.7128:

Fermi.2409:

As they explained in their post, reddit’s format is better suited to Q+A sessions then a forum.

The thing I wonder is if reddit’s format is so superior(not an opinion I hold personly) why dont they adopt that format here?

From what I understand, the forum layout/software wasn’t developed by ANet; they decided to purchase a license for existing forum code instead of dedicating dev time to creating their own. Thus they don’t actually have the rights to make changes to the forum architecture. Apparently this is also the reason the search function has been broken for well over a year. Probably a bad decision in hindsight.

Fermi.2409:

As they explained in their post, reddit’s format is better suited to Q+A sessions then a forum.

Also, “all members of GW2” can join in on reddit, so that’s not an issue at all

How is reddit any different to a forum..

Personally neither will help open world pve imo, it used to be fun but now its just too hard with zero rewards..

Dante.1508:

How is reddit any different to a forum..

The way comments are laid out is different. Go take a look for yourself, it will be easier then my trying to explain it.

Dante.1508:

Fermi.2409:

As they explained in their post, reddit’s format is better suited to Q+A sessions then a forum.

Also, “all members of GW2” can join in on reddit, so that’s not an issue at all

How is reddit any different to a forum..

Personally neither will help open world pve imo, it used to be fun but now its just too hard with zero rewards..

Not sure what the forums or any communication have to do with PvE or your perception of hard to begin with.

Besides what you find to be hard, i find to be easy.

TPMN.1483:

By putting it on Reddit:
1)They allow people to post who have been banned from posting on official forums (there are many)
2) can reach players who don’t currently have GW2 and reply
3) independent moderation (no ANET dictatorship in some people’s eyes – not mine !)
4) allows f2p players to also take part in the discussion and reply
5) ANET uses reddit as the GW2 unofficial forums -
Devs seem to have a more relaxed policy what they can say on Reddit vs official forums (which requires pre approvals etc).

…. Reasons

1) though moderator’s seem to be quite generous when it comes to giving infractions lately for comments that don’t blindly praise everything A.Net does, getting banned still takes some effort. And I don’t know if it’s a good idea to have those people participating in the discussion
2) why should someone not owning GW2 care at all about upcoming changes and the direction the game takes!?
3) well, if that’d be the case it would say a lot about the internal atmosphere at Arena.Net…
4) well, good intention, but I don’t think it’s neccesary to get those people on board that play the cut down demo version of the game that misses so many features
5) was already proven wrong; I mean, they could have sticked to the GW1 model (no official forum, some officialy supported fan-made-forums, like the guru one), but they decided to make an official one, so I see why people expect them to use it as their main communication channel

I admit that the reddit format (though I really dislike it and find it very tedious to follow a discussion there) might suit a Q&A better than a classical forum, but… they could also implement some sort of live chat to this page. Shouldn’t be too much work nowadays. And for moderation, they could only make it accesible for those sessions = no need for perma live moderation.

So I think it all comes down to your last point…. reasons

Nash.2681:

1) though moderator’s seem to be quite generous when it comes to giving infractions lately for comments that don’t blindly praise everything A.Net does, getting banned still takes some effort. And I don’t know if it’s a good idea to have those people participating in the discussion

They’re “generous” when it’s someone clearly breaking the rules. Saying “your kitten kittening sucks, go die” is vastly worse than saying “XYZ arent good things, ABC being the reasons.” You dont need to “blindly praise” them to avoid infractions.

2) why should someone not owning GW2 care at all about upcoming changes and the direction the game takes!?

Really…? If people not owning a license to the game didnt care about new things coming to the game, who would be the new players that begin playing the game? Or are they all secretly advanced AIs based off cleverbot?

I admit that the reddit format (though I really dislike it and find it very tedious to follow a discussion there) might suit a Q&A better than a classical forum, but… they could also implement some sort of live chat to this page. Shouldn’t be too much work nowadays. And for moderation, they could only make it accesible for those sessions = no need for perma live moderation.

So I think it all comes down to your last point…. reasons

Changes to the site, at least the forums, in such a way that would allow such interactions are, unfortunately, resigned to the pit of things called Technically Impossible. Main reason being that they’d have to completely restructure the BTS workings of the forums. Coincidentally, it’s the same reason they cant fix the search function.

Aidan Savage.2078:

Nash.2681:

1) though moderator’s seem to be quite generous when it comes to giving infractions lately for comments that don’t blindly praise everything A.Net does, getting banned still takes some effort. And I don’t know if it’s a good idea to have those people participating in the discussion

They’re “generous” when it’s someone clearly breaking the rules. Saying “your kitten kittening sucks, go die” is vastly worse than saying “XYZ arent good things, ABC being the reasons.” You dont need to “blindly praise” them to avoid infractions.

Believe me, it takes much, much less to get an infraction. But anyway, those “clearly breaking the rules” (like in your example) aren’t the audience I’d like to have participating in a discussion about the future of this game.

2) why should someone not owning GW2 care at all about upcoming changes and the direction the game takes!?

Really…? If people not owning a license to the game didnt care about new things coming to the game, who would be the new players that begin playing the game? Or are they all secretly advanced AIs based off cleverbot?

Uhm, whenever I’m looking for a new game I take a look at what the game generaly is about (genre, playstyle, payment, hardware req., etc.), maybe check some major gaming homepages about how they rate it, try out a demo version if there’s any, but I certainly won’t dig into every detailed aspect of the game beforehand or even bother about a dev Q&A about the next update

I admit that the reddit format (though I really dislike it and find it very tedious to follow a discussion there) might suit a Q&A better than a classical forum, but… they could also implement some sort of live chat to this page. Shouldn’t be too much work nowadays. And for moderation, they could only make it accesible for those sessions = no need for perma live moderation.

So I think it all comes down to your last point…. reasons

Changes to the site, at least the forums, in such a way that would allow such interactions are, unfortunately, resigned to the pit of things called Technically Impossible. Main reason being that they’d have to completely restructure the BTS workings of the forums. Coincidentally, it’s the same reason they cant fix the search function.

That’s why I said “to this page” and not “to this forums” . Like a fifth link at the very top of this page “Dev Q&A chat” leading to a new and seperate page specificaly for that purpose. When there’s no Q&A, the link would be deactivated. As long as they make a quick and clean new page for it, I don’t see why that should be technically impossible.
I mean, I don’t demand them doing so, it’s just a suggestion of how they could interact with their playerbase through their very own homepage, avoiding to force people to fall back on utilizing other platforms they normaly wouldn’t bother to visit.

Aidan Savage.2078:

Technically Impossible.

/Buys forums
Dislikes forums
/Buys some new ones
/Adds IRC rooms
/Adds Reddit module for Q&A
Removes IRC rooms as they were a terrible idea

Technically impossible? They coded an entire game and they can’t get new / better forums and / or add mods?

Please.

General Health.9678:

Aidan Savage.2078:

Technically Impossible.

/Buys forums
Dislikes forums
/Buys some new ones
/Adds IRC rooms
/Adds Reddit module for Q&A
Removes IRC rooms as they were a terrible idea

Technically impossible? They coded an entire game and they can’t get new / better forums and / or add mods?

Please.

Of course they can. I’ve asked the same thing for months. Many of us have. It’s just obviously not high on a list of priorities (though it seems it’s been an issue for awhile now) , when they can tell us to bookmark Reddit and their format is better over there for this kind of thing. However, if this is how we’re “communicating” now (as in more than 4, maybe 5 posts in a thread that is almost 3k in posts) maybe some redesign of this site needs some looking into, after all, this is the official site and it should be the place where communication happens with highest priority, right?

I kinda feel for the mods over on Reddit though. They got no heads up about this AMA until it was announced to all of us (surprise!!), and as players (and volunteers to that site) themselves, I’m sure they were looking forward to playing tomorrow (now today) to see what changes are made to the game. Now they get to man the fort, likely more than they had planned.

I think it makes sense to allow free players, and even non-players, to participate because there may be some very specific things that put them off purchasing and if Anet can get that feedback they may be able to do something about it. But if they never know there’s a problem nothing will change, they lose sales and potential players miss out on a game.

Of course they can’t act on everyone’s feedback, and won’t make some changes they are capable of because it won’t suit the game they want to make (like people wanting a new tier of equipment above ascended exclusive to raids). But at least people can tell them what they want and they can explain their reasoning.

I don’t like reddit either and won’t be participating, but Ivan understand why they’d choose that site in this case.

Gaile Gray.6029:

PyrateSilly.4710:

TPMN.1483:

By putting it on Reddit:
1)They allow people to post who have been banned from posting on official forums (there are many)
2) can reach players who don’t currently have GW2 and reply
3) independent moderation (no ANET dictatorship in some people’s eyes – not mine !)
4) allows f2p players to also take part in the discussion and reply
5) ANET uses reddit as the GW2 unofficial forums -
Devs seem to have a more relaxed policy what they can say on Reddit vs official forums (which requires pre approvals etc).

…. Reasons

Only one problem here …… the dev’s do NOT require preapproval for posting here. The only thing they are not allowed to post are things that are covered under an non disclosure thing about stuff that’s being worked on before it’s ready.

That is correct. Thank you for that clarification.

We don’t muzzle or censor our employees. We don’t pre-approve their posts. We have a policy of showing you what we’re doing in the here and now rather than taking about what we’re doing in the future. Tomorrow, you’ll have a look at the latest developments in several areas of the game. We’ll read your feedback, and that will play a major role in where we head with several initiatives. (See Mike O’Brien’s posts for more info.)

I’d love to ask questions, but reddit is a sprawling mess. Everything someone links a dev post on reddit, I find the format a complete mess. But I’m not going to change anyone’s mind on this.

I sure do miss when Ghostcrawler used to work on Blizzard and used to post on WoW forums, people might have not agree with the changes that are being made etc etc, but at least he was someone that truly read the forums, and he actually used to join funny threads like when paladins used to say something about paladins being nerfed and he joins and write “To the ground baby!” and then they actually gets nerfed.

But here … eh it is like the last place to look for information that anet put or plan to do, and as a player who WvW, that place is where the developers ignore the most, we felt that we have been ignored for loooong time and we are probably still being ignored.

Use your forums even if they are not the best, I am pretty sure many people used to read MMO champions, but at least the information were taken from WoW forums, here if the developers say something it might not even reach this forums.

So once again, please use these forums even if they are not perfect or not the best, you can try to improve them a bit, and people will have more respect for you I guess.

Thank you.

Many game publishers use third-party forum software for their official forums. Seems to be working fine for them.

Perhaps this in-house solution has outlived its usefulness. It’s not like it seems to get any updates anyway (just look at the useless “search” function).