Çould Anet discuss future updates beforehand?

Çould Anet discuss future updates beforehand?

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Posted by: Tai Kratos.3247

Tai Kratos.3247

With the new updates coming around, I’m really excited with the direction that GW2 is taking. The wardrobe is similar enough to DCUO, and I loved that system.

On the flip side, I’m more of a casual player, so I didn’t have a stockpile of goods that are going to be ruined by this update. So I’m not economically stressed for it.

With that in mind, is there any reason why Anet cannot discuss with the player base beforehand the updates they know for sure they are going to add and which features they are thinking about changing / replacing?

So having a level of transparency similar to what Mojang does with Minecraft. Obviously that system is a little bit clumsy – many of those features never make it in. But still, with that knowledge, you stay excited for things that might be in the future and, in the case of GW2, can plan ahead. If people had known for months that this kind of update was in the works, they could have worked to alleviate the financial harm. I mean, if they were working on this since the wallet update, that’s a long time, and I’m sure there are people who got duplicate legendaries in that time that would have liked to know this was coming around before investing thousands of gold into it.

I think Anet has talked about this before saying that they don’t want to talk about features that may or may not make it in for fear of raising the hopes of the player base, disappointing, and then angering. But it seems like they angered many people anyways, so that seems inevitable. This is the internet, after all.

So I guess what I’m suggesting is that Anet have more of a dialogue and discussion with their player base on what things they think might add or change, with the understanding that these things may or may not make it in. Because with the way it is right now, it feels like you just make a suggestion, send it at Anet like a prayer, and that’s the end of it. The Devs posting around the forums is great, but they usually don’t provide this kind of information and seem to be more in the business of answering direct questions or gathering data.

I mean, maybe this isn’t a normal thing for a dev to do, but Anet is fond of trying to be different. And I think this kind of honesty would be healthy for them and the community. Ever since the release of the game, there seems to have been a certain level of distrust of Anet from the player base on the forums and in game. So it would also help their image a bit.

So yeah. What do you guys think? It would also be interesting to get a dev response on this.

Çould Anet discuss future updates beforehand?

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Posted by: Max Lexandre.6279

Max Lexandre.6279

The changes that will affect players, as some of this Feature Patch, should be discussed before any announcement that they will be implemented, such it gets the community by surprise and causes major tsunamis of feedback because… too many things changed too fast.

Today’s change to dyes affected the game economy itself, with prices raising to the sky and geral panic, where mostly the FAQs should have been created first, linked with the blog posts to avoid this forum madness.

I’m The Best in Everything.
Asura thing.

Çould Anet discuss future updates beforehand?

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Posted by: Tai Kratos.3247

Tai Kratos.3247

The changes that will affect players, as some of this Feature Patch, should be discussed before any announcement that they will be implemented, such it gets the community by surprise and causes major tsunamis of feedback because… too many things changed too fast.

Today’s change to dyes affected the game economy itself, with prices raising to the sky and geral panic, where mostly the FAQs should have been created first, linked with the blog posts to avoid this forum madness.

And they’re not even done with the feature patch reveal! So I’m sure there are probably other things that will tick somebody off. It’s just the nature of these kinds of things.

Çould Anet discuss future updates beforehand?

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Posted by: chemiclord.3978

chemiclord.3978

No, they shouldn’t discuss every change with players first. And it’s the height of entitlement to expect/demand they do so.

It’s THEIR game. Not YOURS. They choose what they do, and you choose whether to continue supporting their efforts or not.

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Posted by: Cush.4063

Cush.4063

The reason Anet has been keeping hush hush about things like this is because of the player base. I don’t know how many threads I’ve read about people saying Anet doesn’t keep their promises and so they’re untrustworthy and this and that. Then you see threads saying the reason the game is dying (its not) is because Anet doesn’t tell us anything by the same kitten people lawl. Hell I’ve seen both of these in the same post plenty of times. The community has already ruined any hopes for Anet to release future features imo. People have to understand that this is a company with deadlines and a budget and priorities and some things just won’t make it into the game. Its too bad.

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Posted by: Healix.5819

Healix.5819

Over the years, companies have learned to not freely talk about stuff because people simply complain about broken “promises” when something doesn’t happen. Look at precursor crafting for example. They first revealed it when they were still drawing up the concept.

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Posted by: nGumball.1283

nGumball.1283

Far more reasons to not announce than to do it. One of the obvious reasons is that stuff may not even get implemented and even if will take long time. Wether the player-base would take them possitivly or not, the hype and the long wait may demolish the content.

Regarding information about updates simliar to this, it wouldn’t help. Even if it got announced a month a go, there would still be the people who complains about what they accomplished is now gettin’ easy, also the affect on the economy would have started back in time.

MMOs change and it is part of the EOLA they do. Solving issues like I am an old hard-core player and I want compensation may be done differently but at the end of the day, it happens in every MMO, not big of a surprise.

PS. I forgot mentioning the drama. People fancy to start speculations leading to drama whatever the content is. An announcement will basically open the forums for that for possibly months.

(edited by nGumball.1283)

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Posted by: Tai Kratos.3247

Tai Kratos.3247

No, they shouldn’t discuss every change with players first. And it’s the height of entitlement to expect/demand they do so.

It’s THEIR game. Not YOURS. They choose what they do, and you choose whether to continue supporting their efforts or not.

As I said, this is the internet.

No need to be rude. I never “demanded” or “expected” it. I simply suggested it might be a good thing for the player base to prepare or be aware of what Anet plans to do. There was nothing bratty or entitled about what I said.

And it isn’t their game: it’s ours. We bought a product, and with that comes certain expectations. When they sell you dyes and costumes in the store for real cash, there is a certain expectation that those digital purchases will retain their value to some degree. So when they go about changing those without caring about what the player base thinks, or at the very least without input from the, that’s a bad method of PR.

It doesn’t make sense to say it’s their game, not ours. I paid for it: of course it’s mine. (Not to get into the details of ownership of digital purchases, of course…) If they promised me that all of these updates were coming and then just turned of the servers tomorrow without warning and were still accepting microtransactions up till the close of shop, that would not be okay: that would be dishonest business.

Obviously that’s an exaggerated example, but you get the idea. This isn’t entitlement: it’s justified expectations. And I wasn’t even demanding anything, just suggesting a thought.

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Posted by: chemiclord.3978

chemiclord.3978

And it isn’t their game: it’s ours.

No. It’s not. In ANY way, either legal or logical. I don’t care about your emotional investment. That is no grounds for ownership. Period.

You bought a product. That’s all. You are a CUSTOMER. You own the disc that came with your purchase (or the license you were given if you purchased on-line). Your ownership extends no further.

If they want to change something, that is their call, and they are under NO obligation whatsoever to discuss it with you. Nor are they responsible for any expectations you created for them.

(edited by chemiclord.3978)

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Posted by: Tai Kratos.3247

Tai Kratos.3247

And it isn’t their game: it’s ours. We bought a product, and with that comes certain expectations.

No. It’s not. In ANY way.

You bought a product. That’s all. You are a CUSTOMER. You own the disc that came with your purchase (or the license you were given if you purchased on-line). Your ownership extends no further.

If they want to change something, that is their call, and they are under NO obligation whatsoever to discuss it with you. Nor are they responsible for any expectations you created for them.

This isn’t really the subject of this topic… but okay. Last post I’ll make on it.

No, they are not legally bound or anything to discuss it with me. I know that. But the right their customers do have is to walk away and leave the product. Obviously the game isn’t going to suddenly go out of business because of one patch or anything. (Especially since I really like this patch.) But losing fewer customers is better than losing more, and the better PR they can have, the more their customers will be compelled to stay. I do know some people who left the game early on because of the way Anet acted a little post launch. Now they don’t care about the new stuff, even if I tell them it’s cool. I guess you could say good riddance, but from a business perspective, it makes sense to not lose people in this way, if possible.

So, with that in mind, while no, we do not actually have direct rights over the game (a point you seem to enjoy repeating, PUNCTUATED by FREQUENTLY over USED capitalized WORDS) we “own” it in the sense that the game cannot exist without us, so everything they do has to be pleasing to their audience for fear of losing their audience, if that makes sense.

As I said, last post I’ll make on this subject. But I do appreciate some of the other well thought out replies: they make good points, especially nGumball.

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Posted by: Dinks.2478

Dinks.2478

The reason Anet has been keeping hush hush about things like this is because of the player base. I don’t know how many threads I’ve read about people saying Anet doesn’t keep their promises and so they’re untrustworthy and this and that. Then you see threads saying the reason the game is dying (its not) is because Anet doesn’t tell us anything by the same kitten people lawl. Hell I’ve seen both of these in the same post plenty of times. The community has already ruined any hopes for Anet to release future features imo. People have to understand that this is a company with deadlines and a budget and priorities and some things just won’t make it into the game. Its too bad.

You’re victim blaming… The reason people make threads about anet not keeping their promises is because anet does not keep their promises most of the time…

Çould Anet discuss future updates beforehand?

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Posted by: Tai Kratos.3247

Tai Kratos.3247

The reason Anet has been keeping hush hush about things like this is because of the player base. I don’t know how many threads I’ve read about people saying Anet doesn’t keep their promises and so they’re untrustworthy and this and that. Then you see threads saying the reason the game is dying (its not) is because Anet doesn’t tell us anything by the same kitten people lawl. Hell I’ve seen both of these in the same post plenty of times. The community has already ruined any hopes for Anet to release future features imo. People have to understand that this is a company with deadlines and a budget and priorities and some things just won’t make it into the game. Its too bad.

You’re victim blaming… The reason people make threads about anet not keeping their promises is because anet does not keep their promises most of the time…

Yeah, I think there is a difference between promises broken, and if Anet were to specify that certain features discussed may or not make it. When people talk about promises broken, they are referring to direct, confident promises made that were then reversed without apology, such as the ones made about the progression of equipment and the subsequent implementation of ascended patched. That made many people mad…

This is entirely different. Everything in this would be in the air and open for discussion. So things would be varying in degree of certainty, between “this patch is almost done and will be ready soon” to “we are thinking we might do this one thing, what do you guys think?”

From my understanding, SW:TOR devs have done a similar thing in the past with their players. At least, so I hear from someone who plays the game: never took much interest in it myself.