Guild Wars 2

I’m playing King Arthur’s Gold now – such espahts.

Also, I badmouth everyone – no one is special enough to be specifically targeted by my insults.

Congratulations!

Many best wishes for the future!

Allie.9268:

Yes – I do have an account, and I will be playing as a normal player, gasp!

Bear – I was open to you being a shoutcaster until you badmouthed one of the most active and helpful members of the GW2 PvP community. I also thought that it was strangely coincidental that after I confronted you about it, a known acquaintance of yours published an adorable video also badmouthing that person and praising you.

Do GW2 shoutcasters need improvement? I don’t think anyone is denying that. Even professional shoutcasters that get paid to do what they do need improvement. You have to give them some credit though – GW2 is not easy to read as a spectator, even as a top 100 QP player.

Sorry, but if you truly wanted to “help the community” as you claimed, you could have at least acted like you would be polite to those putting in a real effort to do the same. I won’t deny that your casts were enjoyable, in an aggro-pvper kind of way, which is why I was open to it in the first place.

If ArenaNet decides to bring you into the program, more power to them. I think you would add a lot of flavor to the team, but I do hope that you learn to treat your peers with some respect.

Back on track – I just wanted to say thanks to everyone for the well wishes. It’s meant a lot to see the comments, even from those that didn’t always agree with me in this thread. I will sincerely cherish the time I’ve had on the ArenaNet team and with you all.

For the record, the guy who he “bad mouthed” is someone I believe to be an incredible shoutcaster and someone I respect on many different levels.

That being said… the fact that you barred Bear because he “bad mouthed” someone is incredibly shortsighted.

Having said that, it doesn’t matter what sport it is, or on what level; a rivalry infuses “oomph” into the game. This is exactly what competing is all about, and what Guild Wars 2 eSports was missing.

Some rivalries are small but others are literally larger than life and transcend beyond the genre. Those are the ones that fans love the most. These rivalries involve more than just superiority, but clutch factor, grit and perseverance as well. These are the ones that we all know regardless of age or even knowledge of the game in general.

Rivalries are a logical extension of any “eSport”. When you train for days to become the best at a particular event, you are bound to run into opposition. That opposition can take many forms.

When you take that kind of opposition and drop it into a microcosm of various circumstances, a rivalry is born. They can spring up just about anywhere.

Rivalries are what make “eSports” transcend from mediocre to great. That is what will fill up the streams to capacity.

Trust me on this, bitter rivalries in eSports is a very good thing for this game. Not just between teams but between shoutcasters.

Friend A: “Hey did you hear what Bear said about Jasher in his last stream?”

Friend B: “No… kitten what did he say?”

… next stream, “Friend B” tunes in to listen to Jasher’s stream to see if he will respond… he also tells his friends in guild chat who also tune in. the vicious cycle of entertainment and angst repeats

In the world of competition and rivalries, you cannot be thin skinned… you can’t keep slapping people on the wrist and telling them to play nice because they said something mean about someone else.

In other words, I don’t really know Bear that well, but if you prevented him from shoutcasting (even though you admitted that he would actually benefit the shoutcasting arena) just because he said something mean about someone was wrong. You guys did something wrong, which directly hurt eSports.

Well, to be fair since the shoutcasters are selected by ArenaNet, and thus they need to take responsibility for what they say, and therefore it is quite logical to not allow people that are known to behave badly into such a position.

TUF executives hired coaches Chael Sonnen and Wanderlei Silva, thus they too need to take responsibility for what the say.

… or do you think they should just shut up and coach their teams?

Behaving “badly” is relative. This is the competitive arena… in this world, enmity, passion, resentment and bandwaggon behaviour actually PROMOTES the scene.

That’s why Helseth and Bear were popular viewing. Helseth took his criticism too far though, trying to be all Spartacus, which made Anet cry to Twitch to stop making them look bad.

People like Blu serve their purpose in the presentation of sport. People like that because its neutral, informative, and, every once in a while, exciting to hear. Anet likes that because he can be advertised without making them look anything but good. He knows enough about PR to never be challenged seriously by anyone as a caster until someone smoother comes along.

But

Competition demands color, which is why ESPN is so popular to this day. The “Not Top 10,” blooper reels, feature stories about one player running his mouth, coach meltdowns, dramatizing the events of a game, etc. captivate the audience.

I think Anet wants to aspire for another Grouch though, combining Blu’s PR usefulness with Hairseth/Bear’s competitive personality. People miss Grouch as a caster because he had that mix.

Helseth and Bear, however, haven’t been favored by Anet because they make them look bad when they criticize how the game is balanced. Grouch never went that far, he just subtly made a pass at it like, “Yeah Warrior is… uh… pretty strong right now!” which the audience knew meant, “Warrior is OP and everyone knows it but I’m on stream right now so I won’t say it like that.”

While Anet does need to realize that their game isn’t well balanced, can you blame them for not wanting their game to be publicly berated during a competition?

Relentless.7023:

That’s why Helseth and Bear were popular viewing. Helseth took his criticism too far though, trying to be all Spartacus, which made Anet cry to Twitch to stop making them look bad.

People like Blu serve their purpose in the presentation of sport. People like that because its neutral, informative, and, every once in a while, exciting to hear. Anet likes that because he can be advertised without making them look anything but good. He knows enough about PR to never be challenged seriously by anyone as a caster until someone smoother comes along.

But

Competition demands color, which is why ESPN is so popular to this day. The “Not Top 10,” blooper reels, feature stories about one player running his mouth, coach meltdowns, dramatizing the events of a game, etc. captivate the audience.

I think Anet wants to aspire for another Grouch though, combining Blu’s PR usefulness with Hairseth/Bear’s competitive personality. People miss Grouch as a caster because he had that mix.

Helseth and Bear, however, haven’t been favored by Anet because they make them look bad when they criticize how the game is balanced. Grouch never went that far, he just subtly made a pass at it like, “Yeah Warrior is… uh… pretty strong right now!” which the audience knew meant, “Warrior is OP and everyone knows it but I’m on stream right now so I won’t say it like that.”

While Anet does need to realize that their game isn’t well balanced, can you blame them for not wanting their game to be publicly berated during a competition?

Great insight.

I’ll say this… and this is just my personal opinion…

Helseth always came off as super whiney. I didn’t agree with his rants on balance (or lack thereof). I always felt a little irritated after watching his stream.

I don’t really know Bear… but if he was as whiney as Helseth then I completely understand why ArenaNet banned him.

If all I hear when I tune into a stream is negativity…

“this is broken”
“that is broken”
“I’m done with this kitten game”
“that is too overpowered”
“they don’t know how to balance the game”
“cry cry cry”

All that makes the viewer want to do is look into possibility of investing their time into another game (especially for the newer viewers).

So yeah… shoutcasters like that are only a cancer.

My gripe was based on the notion that they banned him because he was mean to another shoutcaster. That would have been dumb.

I’d rather us not derail Allie’s lovely goodbye thread with this argument. Let’s make a new one, because it’s actually REALLY interesting to discuss.

Helseth <3

Take care and gl with your new job,wish you all the best

If you ever want me to kick your behind in Pvp,send me an ingame pm ! ;d

Allie.9268:

Yes – I do have an account, and I will be playing as a normal player, gasp!

Bear – I was open to you being a shoutcaster until you badmouthed one of the most active and helpful members of the GW2 PvP community. I also thought that it was strangely coincidental that after I confronted you about it, a known acquaintance of yours published an adorable video also badmouthing that person and praising you.

Do GW2 shoutcasters need improvement? I don’t think anyone is denying that. Even professional shoutcasters that get paid to do what they do need improvement. You have to give them some credit though – GW2 is not easy to read as a spectator, even as a top 100 QP player.

Sorry, but if you truly wanted to “help the community” as you claimed, you could have at least acted like you would be polite to those putting in a real effort to do the same. I won’t deny that your casts were enjoyable, in an aggro-pvper kind of way, which is why I was open to it in the first place.

If ArenaNet decides to bring you into the program, more power to them. I think you would add a lot of flavor to the team, but I do hope that you learn to treat your peers with some respect.

Back on track – I just wanted to say thanks to everyone for the well wishes. It’s meant a lot to see the comments, even from those that didn’t always agree with me in this thread. I will sincerely cherish the time I’ve had on the ArenaNet team and with you all.

My videos have reached adorable status, there is no higher honor. But regardless good luck on your adventures Allie.

Countless

Countless is OP.

DoYourBestBear.6810:

I’m playing King Arthur’s Gold now – such espahts.

Also, I badmouth everyone – no one is special enough to be specifically targeted by my insults.

you might badmouth better with 15 in tools

So I just watched a shoutcast by Bear… no trashtalking ArenaNet, and funny as hell. I approve of his stream 10/10.

Awh well shucks, but alas, leaving for the best reason.

Was always rooting for ya, will continue to!

Seems like all the people involved with ranger balance keeps on leaving the company. Coincidence? I think not.

Jokes aside, good luck and may the great adventures be with you!

Lol you remember Robert Hrouda