It’s been my experience that Anet and the GW2 folks have been incredibly accessible when it comes to changes and working with their playerbase. It was refreshing to see them interacting with folks during the BWEs and online with Twitter and Facebook. I’d never witnessed another gaming company be so open. It made me feel really really good about this company.
But with that level of accessibility and interaction between player and developer there has to be, at the very least, a level of respect shown both ways. Anet folks have done their part being respectful and listening to us, but after reading some of the posts on this forum, I’m not sure we, as players, have returned the favour.
It’s distressing, to me at least, to read people being so aggressive in their demands. I realize this is the nature of the Internet, but the folks at GW2 have done nothing to deserve to be spoken to this way. They’re big boys and girls, they don’t need me to fight their battles, but I wanted to post this because I’m seeing an aggressive and sometimes abusive trend in some of the posts on the forum — a trend that really has no place here.
What I’m asking is that before you hit the “post” button on these forums, is you take five minutes to re-read what you’ve written. Criticism is fair and fine, and nobody should be above it .. but honestly read how you’ve phrased things and ask yourself if you’d be happy if the same was said about you and your work on a very public forum? If you can say “yes this is fair and I’d accept being told this out loud in front of all my coworkers or schoolmates” then go ahead and post. But if you’d be embarrassed or hurt by it being said to you, consider reworking and rewording so that the words aren’t so aggressive and abrasive. You can often say the same thing many different ways — the key is finding balance in your criticism so it doesn’t come off as an attack, as sadly many posts I’ve been reading have.
This company has been open and accessible because it truly wants to work with its playerbase. But if you’re getting bashed over and over with harsh and abrasive words, how willing would you be to continue that relationship? I’d hate to see that change.
L’enfer, c’est les autres