Guild Wars 2

Hey everyone,
With Tuesday’s release we are gearing up to launch the new Looking For Group tool for Guild Wars 2. As the system comes online, our primary focus is with the quality and the stability. To ensure a solid rollout, we’ll turn on the LFG tool in beta form to a subset of players. As the week goes on, we’ll periodically unlock the system to additional groups of players.
In Tuesday’s release notes, you’ll see the complete list of what the feature will do once we’ve fully unlocked the system. However, during the beta rollout not everyone will be able to use the LFG tool and the World vs. World subcategories will be disabled.
The Looking for Group feature has been highly requested and we’re excited to be this close to its final release, but quality is paramount. Therefore, we ask for your patience and understanding while we work through this phased beta rollout and with any problems we encounter.
Thanks,
Mike Zadorojny
& the Looking For Group team

Just curious as to how this subset was determined, and whether or not it will be rotating as the beta progresses.

Gnat.9405:

Hey everyone,
With Tuesday’s release we are gearing up to launch the new Looking For Group tool for Guild Wars 2. As the system comes online, our primary focus is with the quality and the stability. To ensure a solid rollout, we’ll turn on the LFG tool in beta form to a subset of players. As the week goes on, we’ll periodically unlock the system to additional groups of players.
In Tuesday’s release notes, you’ll see the complete list of what the feature will do once we’ve fully unlocked the system. However, during the beta rollout not everyone will be able to use the LFG tool and the World vs. World subcategories will be disabled.
The Looking for Group feature has been highly requested and we’re excited to be this close to its final release, but quality is paramount. Therefore, we ask for your patience and understanding while we work through this phased beta rollout and with any problems we encounter.
Thanks,
Mike Zadorojny
& the Looking For Group team

Just curious as to how this subset was determined, and whether or not it will be rotating as the beta progresses.

It’s upvotes divided by infraction points.

edit: joke … obviously.

I think this entire decision is a joke

The LFG system is supposed to be released on the 17th, not go into live limited beta testing on the 17th…

Not impressed

Wow, I’m disappointed. They need a beta for this after all the time? Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good thing that they want to release it when it’s stable, but telling us that it comes on 17th on the event page and then literally taking it away from us (even if I will have access to it … it’s a beta and not the promised release, kitten it). That’s a joke.

There goes all my hype for the next patch. Great Job.

They release stuff “without testing it”: people complain.
They test it and people complain.

I would rather have these test than getting into a situation where my character is locked into something due to a bug.

I agree that it might have been better to leave the LFG out of the preview page though.

I don’t complain about them testing. I complain about them showing off and then saying “Nah, that’s mine”. It’s like stealing candy from a baby. It’s so annoying. I was in a wrong impression about the next patch, thinking we would finally get a LFG tool which they could have released last week in beta status or whatever. But no, they tell us “hey, here is your LFG tool”, showing off at PAX and ALL OF A SUDDEN, it’s a beta. That is just weak. I don’t want to be their beta tester, I want to play the game. But well, a beta tester would cost money, so …

relax guyz

its a very big system and there can always be something wrong – its the final beta

it works but its a beta so they can say it is just a beta when something goes wrong^^

Acerola.6407:

Wow, I’m disappointed. They need a beta for this after all the time? Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good thing that they want to release it when it’s stable, but telling us that it comes on 17th on the event page and then literally taking it away from us (even if I will have access to it … it’s a beta and not the promised release, kitten it). That’s a joke.

There goes all my hype for the next patch. Great Job.

I was impressed with the limited gmail beta for years until it was finally “released”.

They’re not taking anything away. I refer to my signature for all necessary explanation. Until then, the gw2lfg.com works just fine.

lordkrall.7241:

They release stuff “without testing it”: people complain.
They test it and people complain.

I would rather have these test than getting into a situation where my character is locked into something due to a bug.

I agree that it might have been better to leave the LFG out of the preview page though.

My thoughts exactly. Threads like these make me happy I’m not in the games industry.

I suspect that one of the last stresstest simulations of the system showed some issues with stability. By releasing it on a slower pace you prevent the system crumbling down the moment it is there and to be overflooded by people checking it out.

Just like they kept the TP off after the last update. The new mats and the new crafting levels ment that it wouldn’t work anyway cause the mass would be dos-ing it anyway.

marnick.4305:

lordkrall.7241:

They release stuff “without testing it”: people complain.
They test it and people complain.

I would rather have these test than getting into a situation where my character is locked into something due to a bug.

I agree that it might have been better to leave the LFG out of the preview page though.

My thoughts exactly. Threads like these make me happy I’m not in the games industry.

No. They have literally been bragging about how they’re finally adding in the LFG tool since they announced it. To slyly announce LAST MINUTE that “oh, by the way, we’re not actually releasing it” is ridiculous.

Also, if they want testing, they should have TEST SERVERS. As has been suggested since forever.

AlietteFaye.7316:

No. They have literally been bragging about how they’re finally adding in the LFG tool since they announced it. To slyly announce LAST MINUTE that “oh, by the way, we’re not actually releasing it” is ridiculous.

Also, if they want testing, they should have TEST SERVERS. As has been suggested since forever.

So, lets see a possible situation here:

LFG getting ready to launch.
They find something that might create issues with too many people using the system at once.
They decide to have a limited release in order to find the limits and/or adjust the system accordingly based on certain threshold of people.
They increase the amount of people having access to said system slowly in order to stop a total system-crash.

Please tell me how that is a bad thing?

Also they HAVE test servers, how else do you think that people can leak patch-notes and such? Another thing to keep in mind is the fact that a test server is NEVER identical to a live server, thus some issues won’t be testable anyway (such as server loads and the like, due to the fact that the live servers have way more traffic and user interaction than a test-server ever will.

But I suppose you would rather they release it fully on Tuesday and the whole system crashes and no one will be able to use it for weeks?

I hope it’s done on an activity basis on the rollout. It’d be pretty ironic if over half the players that were put in the beta weren’t actively playing the game.

AlietteFaye.7316:

marnick.4305:

lordkrall.7241:

They release stuff “without testing it”: people complain.
They test it and people complain.

I would rather have these test than getting into a situation where my character is locked into something due to a bug.

I agree that it might have been better to leave the LFG out of the preview page though.

My thoughts exactly. Threads like these make me happy I’m not in the games industry.

No. They have literally been bragging about how they’re finally adding in the LFG tool since they announced it. To slyly announce LAST MINUTE that “oh, by the way, we’re not actually releasing it” is ridiculous.

They’re releasing it, but phased. That way they can make sure the players don’t DDOS it on day 1. Sounds like a pretty good idea, considering how popular this tool is going to be.

Your answer is going to be “make more servers then”. That’s a ridiculous position, to reserve tons of serverspace for a tool that’ll have its peak users moments after launch. It’s a total waste of money, whereas a phased launch is far more lenient towards system resources. It’s win-win for everyone, including you.

Would you rather have a bad tool now, or a good, functional tool in a week or so? Quality takes time.

Also, if they want testing, they should have TEST SERVERS. As has been suggested since forever.

There is a test server. Your ignorance doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.

Morsus.5106:

I hope it’s done on an activity basis on the rollout. It’d be pretty ironic if over half the players that were put in the beta weren’t actively playing the game.

Now THAT would be hilarious!

Acerola.6407:

Wow, I’m disappointed. They need a beta for this after all the time? Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good thing that they want to release it when it’s stable, but telling us that it comes on 17th on the event page and then literally taking it away from us (even if I will have access to it … it’s a beta and not the promised release, kitten it). That’s a joke.

There goes all my hype for the next patch. Great Job.

The point is this: if the patch told you that the only change was a remake of Tequila you would have considered it ’’poor’’…it can be.
Now, instead I think that this is another ‘’communication fail’’ from Anet.

I like updates but what the kitten, at least make us surprises, they’re better than this kind of misleading communications!!!

PS: I got trolled both by Celestial-not-refounded-stat and by MF-not-account-but-soulbond things. OMG now this.
I think i won’t trust release notes anymore, sad but TRUE, at least speak with each other before posting these important things.

PPS: why i have pristine fractal relics in my bags? they’re not tokens?

Guys, guys. It will be all of one week. ONE WEEK. During which they will ramp up to add everyone in. Says so right in the post. Now, they might find game-breaking issues once all the players are using it, things that just can’t be tested in advance because they don’t have 2 million testers. However, the plan is to do a one-week phase in and seriously, unless you have a terminal illness that is taking you away in a few days and your dying wish is to see LFG in GW2, that delay is nothing in your life as a whole.

Chill out, please.

Whatever happened to “don’t sweat the small stuff?”

I hope that at least top 100 on the achiev point leaderboard will have this beta access.

So who get’s the special access? The ones who spend the most money in Cash Shop?

marnick.4305:

AlietteFaye.7316:

marnick.4305:

lordkrall.7241:

They release stuff “without testing it”: people complain.
They test it and people complain.

I would rather have these test than getting into a situation where my character is locked into something due to a bug.

I agree that it might have been better to leave the LFG out of the preview page though.

My thoughts exactly. Threads like these make me happy I’m not in the games industry.

No. They have literally been bragging about how they’re finally adding in the LFG tool since they announced it. To slyly announce LAST MINUTE that “oh, by the way, we’re not actually releasing it” is ridiculous.

They’re releasing it, but phased. That way they can make sure the players don’t DDOS it on day 1. Sounds like a pretty good idea, considering how popular this tool is going to be.

Your answer is going to be “make more servers then”. That’s a ridiculous position, to reserve tons of serverspace for a tool that’ll have its peak users moments after launch. It’s a total waste of money, whereas a phased launch is far more lenient towards system resources. It’s win-win for everyone, including you.

Would you rather have a bad tool now, or a good, functional tool in a week or so? Quality takes time.

Also, if they want testing, they should have TEST SERVERS. As has been suggested since forever.

There is a test server. Your ignorance doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.

My answer is not to make more servers. My answer is to not market it like they’re releasing it to everybody like they have been. Thanks for assuming I would just say “more servers,” though. It’s appreciated.

And as for the alpha client testers, they clearly don’t test enough. There are so many hotfixes and incidents that happen when it goes live that it feels like a joke. When I said they should implement test servers, I mean test servers that players can use. Not just some handful of people that doesn’t represent the kind of loads that these sorts of systems will get on live. PTRs would help this game a lot.

We haven’t had this for a little over a year. What’s one more week?

AlietteFaye.7316:

marnick.4305:

AlietteFaye.7316:

marnick.4305:

lordkrall.7241:

They release stuff “without testing it”: people complain.
They test it and people complain.

I would rather have these test than getting into a situation where my character is locked into something due to a bug.

I agree that it might have been better to leave the LFG out of the preview page though.

My thoughts exactly. Threads like these make me happy I’m not in the games industry.

No. They have literally been bragging about how they’re finally adding in the LFG tool since they announced it. To slyly announce LAST MINUTE that “oh, by the way, we’re not actually releasing it” is ridiculous.

They’re releasing it, but phased. That way they can make sure the players don’t DDOS it on day 1. Sounds like a pretty good idea, considering how popular this tool is going to be.

Your answer is going to be “make more servers then”. That’s a ridiculous position, to reserve tons of serverspace for a tool that’ll have its peak users moments after launch. It’s a total waste of money, whereas a phased launch is far more lenient towards system resources. It’s win-win for everyone, including you.

Would you rather have a bad tool now, or a good, functional tool in a week or so? Quality takes time.

Also, if they want testing, they should have TEST SERVERS. As has been suggested since forever.

There is a test server. Your ignorance doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.

My answer is not to make more servers. My answer is to not market it like they’re releasing it to everybody like they have been. Thanks for assuming I would just say “more servers,” though. It’s appreciated.

And as for the alpha client testers, they clearly don’t test enough. There are so many hotfixes and incidents that happen when it goes live that it feels like a joke. When I said they should implement test servers, I mean test servers that players can use. Not just some handful of people that doesn’t represent the kind of loads that these sorts of systems will get on live. PTRs would help this game a lot.

Just do a thought experiment. PTR, perfect alpha team and you as the lead designer. LFG gets launched to everyone at the same time, and Tuesday at 18:00 2 million players try to access it at once. Just imagine what would happen …

There are only two options … a phased launch or huge investments in server space that’d be redundant in less than an hour.

It’s pretty clear that nothing in your post presents any alternative to this phased launch. But assuming you’re perfect and you don’t ever have to cover for contingencies, please enlighten me. What would your alternative be to the imminent DDOS?

Talk about disappointment. I probably won’t even log in now. There’s no point. How could A-net think this is a good idea? Worst idea ever.

nexxe.7081:

Talk about disappointment. I probably won’t even log in now. There’s no point. How could A-net think this is a good idea? Worst idea ever.

I would lol so hard if you were one of the subset that had access, but you never knew it because you were too busy stamping your feet and throwing a tantrum like a toddler, instead of logging in.

Banquetto.9521:

nexxe.7081:

Talk about disappointment. I probably won’t even log in now. There’s no point. How could A-net think this is a good idea? Worst idea ever.

I would lol so hard if you were one of the subset that had access, but you never knew it because you were too busy stamping your feet and throwing a tantrum like a toddler, instead of logging in.

You’re missing the point entirely. I’m not here to beta test. I’m here to play with others. It’s ridiculous that they hype up the feature, then limit it to others. It’s a bad way of doing business. Denying access to features is just bad. Look how terrible it was with Overflow servers during Clockwork Chaos, and now with the upcoming Tequatl Rising update.

The only one acting childish is you, by using immature analogies instead of looking at this logically. So please, think before you post next time.

marnick.4305:

AlietteFaye.7316:

Also, if they want testing, they should have TEST SERVERS. As has been suggested since forever.

There is a test server. Your ignorance doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.

They meant a public server, so that, you know, things can be tested in a test environment that is confidently similar to live, instead of a server that only has 100 or so dev/QA people on it which requires them to then beta test on live. Among about a hundred other reasons why PTR is a good idea.

Your ignorance of context doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.

What happens in test servers still won’t translate well on live servers. Testing in a live environment yields better results than in a controlled environment. Nothing compares to what could happen than what you think you know will happen.

nexxe.7081:

Banquetto.9521:

nexxe.7081:

Talk about disappointment. I probably won’t even log in now. There’s no point. How could A-net think this is a good idea? Worst idea ever.

I would lol so hard if you were one of the subset that had access, but you never knew it because you were too busy stamping your feet and throwing a tantrum like a toddler, instead of logging in.

You’re missing the point entirely. I’m not here to beta test. I’m here to play with others. It’s ridiculous that they hype up the feature, then limit it to others. It’s a bad way of doing business. Denying access to features is just bad. Look how terrible it was with Overflow servers during Clockwork Chaos, and now with the upcoming Tequatl Rising update.

The only one acting childish is you, by using immature analogies instead of looking at this logically. So please, think before you post next time.

Google does it all the time. Grow up. You’ve been waiting for a year. Can’t you wait another week to make sure it’s working 100%.

I’m pretty sure you could make it work perfectly but in that case you should be posting in red colors. Please apply for a job as lead designer, you’re clearly fit for the job. /sarcasm.

Leablo.2651:

marnick.4305:

AlietteFaye.7316:

Also, if they want testing, they should have TEST SERVERS. As has been suggested since forever.

There is a test server. Your ignorance doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.

They meant a public server, so that, you know, things can be tested in a test environment that is confidently similar to live, instead of a server that only has 100 or so dev/QA people on it which requires them to then beta test on live. Among about a hundred other reasons why PTR is a good idea.

Ye right. The only thing people ever do on a PTR is raid orgrimmar and dual with max gear. If exploits are found, they’re kept secret to exploit on launch day for world firsts. In the end, it’s just wasted resources and achieves almost nothing. Furthermore, all interesting content gets spoiled and months of whining is wasted on essentially nothing since balances get pushed anyways. In the years I’ve played WoW, I’ve never seen the PTR achieve anything.

Your ignorance of context doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.

True. That’s why I gave my interpretation of the context. PTR doesn’t work like you seem to imagine. In a perfect world … sure. But we’re talking entitled elitist exploiting gamers here. The better alternative is to have a closed group of testers who can be banned and sued for breaking NDAs and not doing their job.

I’m still holding out hope that someone will stay on topic and provide any info as to who will receive the first look at the LFG, considering the LiveStream is having technical issues. I guess we’d rather talk about WoW though.

Thanks anyway guys.

lordkrall.7241:

They release stuff “without testing it”: people complain.
They test it and people complain.

I won’t deny there’ll always be people who complain however there will be many more complaints in the following instances:

They release untested/barely tested stuff that ends up not working right.
They test something after the announced release date.

Testing something before the date it’s supposed to be released should greatly reduce the amount of complaints; and should also be what is usually done.

I’m just happy that the LFG tool is coming. I hope i’m in the Beta, if not, I’ll kindly wait.

I’m ready for this. There is nothing worse then asking in Map for a group and you get blasted with “use gw2lfg.com!”. I don’t want to use a website, I want to stay in the game and find a group of people there. Don’t get me wrong, gw2lfg works, I’d just rather have an in game system.

Had to login to comment, this is extremely annoying. Don’t advertise it as a new feature to be released with this update, when its just in beta phase. This is why you need to have test worlds for new update testing, like that “other” game.

The tool has been hyped up for a while now and this is really disappointing anet :/.

marnick.4305:

They’re releasing it, but phased. That way they can make sure the players don’t DDOS it on day 1. Sounds like a pretty good idea, considering how popular this tool is going to be.

Your answer is going to be “make more servers then”. That’s a ridiculous position, to reserve tons of serverspace for a tool that’ll have its peak users moments after launch. It’s a total waste of money, whereas a phased launch is far more lenient towards system resources. It’s win-win for everyone, including you.

Would you rather have a bad tool now, or a good, functional tool in a week or so? Quality takes time.

DDOS? Really? Which is more likely to be “overwhelmed” by players this LFG system which is basically a browser interfacing with a database of people who are looking for people to do things with or the Black Lion Trading company which is a database of millions of order where people are constantly selling and buying, creating and fulfilling orders?

I highly doubt that there is any chance of a “DDOS” here: for one thing, despite what you’re saying, everyone will not start creating and browsing groups straight away and even if they did creating a few hundred thousand entries over the course of an evening really shouldn’t be enough to overload the servers.

More likely it’s not quite ready, hence the “beta” status.

This kind of thing require testing to work properly and while ANet’s dev team as a reasonable amount of people to do such, there are things that can only be tested using the straining spoon and outside factors.

I don’t think its necessary to make a storm in a glass of water over a feature that we will eventually get, besides, we’ve survived this long without it and we have an unofficial alternative that has been up for months. Use that one instead if you can’t live without it. Simple as that.

There’s just no way they will be able to please everyone no matter what they do or say. I’m just content that they keep quality in mind when delivering these things, and you should be as well.
See the positive, leave the ‘crying a river’ to those that are actually testing it for us. Its not being delayed for a month, or two, or three, its just a few more days.