Guild Wars 2

Aomine.5012:

That’s why people suggest to fix the wording to “selected from some of the luckiest fellows among all accounts”, because otherwise it’s misleading.

Is it a better choice as an opening statement in a congratulatory letter though? Just to be perfectly neutral on all players? This is a letter that informs you about an invitation of beta, not telling a player that he/she is more loyal than others.

There is another way to look at this: “As one of our most loyal players” appear to be the phrase that everyone focuses on the most. Now, can you disprove that the players who received invitations are not loyal players?

This is why ANet tend to keep their communication to minimal requirement. Every time they say something, a statement gets blown out of proportion.

We’re all loyal players; we all want to participate. That’s why this is based on lottery.

Imagine the case where ANet actually send invitations based on playtime, achievement point, and gem purchases. Do you EVEN want that to happen? Can you imagine what would this discussion be like?

So much entitlement in this thread.

The only thing that caused your disappointment is your over-hyped expectation on a random element. It’s like saying “I’ve been buying lottery tickets for over a decade, I deserve at least a million dollar consolation prize for my loyalty.”

There will be more tests. Guys, just sit down and wait for next one.

Loudog.9721:

I am thanking Anet for a good game, with a response for trolls if needs be(I know how the forums work)! If you don’t like the game, leave! If you don’t like my post, leave! If you wish to argue points make a thread to counter. I just want to say thanks to Anet for what they have done up to this point and see like minded folks post their views.

So wait, you asked Luke to elaborate on his opinions which he did, then you tell him to leave because he is not politically correct in this thread?

This isn’t appreciation; this is blind worship.

Do I need to tell you, that a good customer in a restaurant let the chefs know what they did well and what needs improvement, not just claiming “THIS IS THE BEST FOOD EVER” even when there is a fly in your soup?

100% agree.

Personally I also invested traits in elixirs, so heals, condition-cleansing, and quickness bombing comes quite handy when Liadri is trying to slow you down and chip your health away.

I feel like I have to throw my 2 copper in this thread.

I am a casual player, and I had serious problem with Liadri yesterday as well. More than 100 face-scrubbing attempts failed, and nearly rage quit.

I have changed my traits and weapons based on guides I read, going for guardian and necromancer like other players have suggested. All the efforts bares no fruit. I decided to stay away from the builds that I am unfamiliar with, and went for my high-mobility bomb engineer. I stayed alive, but my dps wasn’t fast to beat her in time. I noticed my weakness and changed some trait around, then I finally beat her.

I promise you this. Once you did it, the sense of accomplishment will be unforgettable.

TL;DR, let me give you a few tips as a fellow casual player:

1. Find out your weakness.
– Time running out? Get to phase 2 as fast as possible. Or DPS problem. Cleanse the weakness condition as well.
– Die from her normal attacks? Toughness and vitality problem.
– Getting crippled? Take out all your condition-cleansing.
– Getting pulled from that rift? Environment awareness and stability.
2. Find out her attack pattern.
– Circle-strafing in the small circle to minimize travel distance.
– Other than the rift locations, the attacks are never random.
– Dodge roll in the shadowfall (or even the visions) if you have to. Count the timing.
– Rift can be used for rally.
3. Don’t be afraid to change you builds and traits, especially it’s free to change traits all-time and everywhere now. Experiment to improve your weakness. Getting out of the comfort zone is mandatory for learning.
4. Don’t forget your food. Preferably endurance-related nourishment.
5. Good luck. Yes, it’s somewhat required.

Again, good luck, and hopefully you can overcome the challenge.

http://gw2.kongzhong.com/act/antiplug/index.html

For those who can’t read Chinese, what is basically on that page is a list of offenders that had been found and punished. 3000 accounts has already been taken care of in between May 2 to May 17, and seemed to be updating daily.

The list has included censored out account names, which servers they are on, character names, reasons for ban (including phishing, botting, pretending as developer, buying&selling gold, and stealing account), methods of punishment, and when it was done.

I believe this shows the transparency of how the illegal activities are treated, prevent players from involvements with shady services, and ultimately, that the devs do care about the game and the communities.

Any chance that we can get it as well?

Raeysa Penrose.8450:

snip

What about you guys? What are some things you’ve enjoyed about GW2?

1. Scenaries. Some vistas you just can’t get tired of viewing them.

2. Some minor details of the GW lore all around the maps. Still trying to relate the materials from GW2 back to GW. Personally I believe these background stories need to be emphasized more, instead of pushing out thinly sketched new characters.

3. …quite honestly, I’m out of ideas. Sniping champions in Queensdale, maybe?

Kumu Honua.2751:

There are actually FEWER people that look at the launcher than there are people who look at the forums.

Source or citation please?

Kumu Honua.2751:

But it’s NOT buried.

It’s the very first post in the News and Announcements section. Under the stickies of course.

You people keep saying that. What IS buried is the post about keeping your blade shards as there will be a future use for them. That is an example of actual terrible communication by Anet.

You like GW2 forum, congratulation. Yet you keep ignoring the fact that forum activities are NOT mandatory for GW2 players.

Forums are indeed helpful, offer strategies, discussions, and player interactions, all sorts of good things. But here is the thing: THAT particular post, is NOT linked from anywhere, despite the importance of it.

Not launcher (personally I read it), not front page where it always have links to release notes, not facebook, not twitter, not YouTube, not google+ (heck, it even has a PvP glory phasing-out reminder posted on March 17), not LS Atlas. Only a post that forum frequent visitor will notice.

Kumu Honua.2751:

So what do you want them to do?

I can’t decide for them. I don’t work for ANet.

Their communication is the reason that brought up this situation. Myself and several others are merely pointing out that a single, buried forum post is not clarified enough as a medium for important announcement for ALL the players.

We have links to release patch notes on the front page, and I personally like that. Why not the update to removing the merchant? I have no idea why.

Kumu Honua.2751:

Not utilizing the official forums to learn about what is happening in the game is simply willful ignorance. Ignorant people get burned by things that the well informed do not.

Forum activities are not mandatory for Guild Wars 2 as a game. Helpful, yes, but not a must. Yet the only crucial announcement is posted on forum.

Kumu Honua.2751:

However the information was posted. It was posted in the right place. It was posted in the right place and with plenty of time.

The only people to blame are the willfully ignorant.

For you, it was enough. For many others, apparently not so. To be completely honest I do not visit forums often. I come on here only when there is a problem in the game, last time being players not participating the fight on the Prime Hologram.

Kumu Honua.2751:

The only thing they could have done better was to link that information directly from the launcher, but we would have another class of ignorant people complaining if they did that because almost everyone has autoplay turned on and they never look at the launcher anyway.

A slippery slope. I have mentioned the example on Dragon Bash above. If ANet announced something on the event release page and someone didn’t read it, you are right they should be reading the more. But a single forum post? Even right now, there is only 23280 views after the panic.

The view counts on that News and Announcement forum ranges from 4000 to 50000. Taking the numbers from the last 10 articles, which pans from last week back to 4 months ago, the average view count is 19956, minus the possibility that same person can view the page multiple times. Considering that GW2 is a game with 3 million copies sold, that’s quite low.

If you insist that the majority of the players are lazy individuals that didn’t bother with the forum, then I stand by my argument: ArenaNet should do a better job at their communication, so people can be informed better.

JustTrogdor.7892:

Again, if they do bring the vendors back what happens to the people that read the official message about the vendor being gone and deleted their items? Now you have a whole new group of people unhappy. At some point Anet has to say this is what it is and I think they have already.

This kind of reminds me of the Dragon Bash fireworks event for getting those helms. After the event ended people started complaining, “But I didn’t know,” or “I wasn’t paying attention to the news.” They asked for the fireworks to happen again to please them for their lack of paying attention. The thing with that was people that did make the event went out of their way to make sure they were there. The people that missed it said things similar to this situation, “What would it hurt to add more firework events?” Well because people that made sure to be there for the event and spent hours to achieve it would feel angry as well if they did the event again to please those that didn’t make the effort. Adding more fireworks later would have devalued the effort of those that made the event.

This in my mind is a no turning back scenario because if they bring the vendors back they are going to bring along a whole group unhappy because they deleted their items based on official word from Anet.

If you want to use Dragon Bash as a past example, so be it:

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/releases/june-11-2013/

As you can see, the release page has all the information that players need. Event summaries, date starting and ending—especially on the firework. The firework is also an achievement so players get an in-game reminder.

THIS is exactly what players need. And I’ll agree with you, people who missed out because they didn’t read the release page on the Front page and didn’t click on the launcher information are just…well, lazy.

I’ll put on a more drastic example: Ancient Karka. One time only; miss it and you lose. Guess how that turned out? Such uproar within community that ANet decided not to touch one-time only event again.

However, on the Belongings merchant’s case, here’s what we have:

- from The Battle for Lion’s Arch release page:

A small release will be available on March 18, which will provide an epilogue to recent events. That release will show the aftermath of what players experience in the Battle for Lion’s Arch and will conclude the current story arc.

No other information has been given.
– The Aftermath bares the title of “Battle of Lion’s Arch”, giving an impression that it’s a small expansion on the storyline without anything being removed.
– The only announcement on the removal of the merchants is the forum post.

And, I keep hearing people saying that the Devs have already announced the removal of the merchants a week before the patch all of the place, so people who missed it are mal-informed. Can someone points me a link to such official announcement other than THAT particular forum post?

Now, I can’t make the decision on whether ANet should keep their word and let all the Found Belongings become garbage or regurgitate and let the people who already deleted their items rage. Because that’s their job.

Kal Spiro.9745:

The website front page and the game loader are the same thing. And are never used for this purpose. Maybe they could be, but I personally would rather not have to wade through all the minor little updates in order to find that actual relevant news items, especially when that’s what the forums are for.

I agree. The front page is reserved for important news, and can be bothersome if all minor update like “we fixed a icon” or “we slightly buffed/nerfed a certain monster” cover up the significant news. But “we are removing the item-exchanging merchant on March 18”, isn’t that…very important? It doesn’t even need a news article on its own, just a mention or a link to the announcement would do the trick. That’s the failure in communication; the message didn’t get delivered.

Kal Spiro.9745:

Other than a small handful of people who failed to acquire some insignificant items of little actual worth. The value of restoring it doesn’t match the actual need for the restoration. I don’t understand your “consequence.” Should I say a small number of players feel that it is unfair that they should put in the smallest amount of effort to keep themselves informed because ANet does actually communicate these things?

Please don’t decide the value on your own opinion. Sure, selfless/Thoughtless potions from exchanging heirloom may be cosmetic and may be considered insignificant. Belongings, however, exchanges recipes for Gift of Blade (though can now be bought from Miyani for 5 Gold), Tomes of knowledge, and obsidian shard. Perhaps you’ve been playing enthusiastically so these items seemed trivial to you, but the same cannot be said for other player.

And this “consequence” is the claim coming from the players who disagree that the merchants should return, which is approximately like this:

- You snooze, you lose. Better luck next time.
– The event is over. We don’t need the merchants anymore.
– It your own fault that you are not serious enough to check the forums frequently to get the most out of ArenaNet Experience.
– ArenaNet need to keep their words, no matter what costs.
– Those items are insignificant anyways. Just forget about them and move on.

Kal Spiro.9745:

And there are at least 5 threads, current and killed about AFK, and as many threads about “loss of equity” on Fractals. ANet handily ignored all of those too, for the same reason. An insignificant population of the game, complaining about an insignificant injury to their play, that no one will even care about, if they remember at all, in a month.

Again, that does not take away the fact that ANet did not delivered the message properly. I really don’t mind what method they use, if they are able to let 90% of the players know that “the merchants are being removed”, the whole panic would never existed in the first place. Forum post obviously did not work well. If it did, how come there are so many threads about it?

Ponku.7925:

Just thought about anoter one! :
6 “ANet knew that ppl dont use the forums as much as they want it so they did it to draw more ppl (that would want to complain about vendor removal) to engage in forum activity”

Dang, conspiracy much?

One simple thing they could have done is have all the update info posted on front page or launcher, and people will be directly into the forum through the links, thus increasing the interactivity. And all the missing-out can be prevented.

Kumu Honua.2751:

That being said, at least this time they DID post and they did post it in the RIGHT PLACE. (News and Announcements.)

There is no digging required, and the launcher does link to the forums.

Even if they put the information in the launcher we would have people here complaining because they set it to AutoPlay and never bother to look.

I checked the launcher, there is no link that points to the announcement on removal of Found Belongings merchants.

And that is a big problem. A lot of these update patches and information only shows up in the forum, not on website front page or launcher’s bulletin board. I don’t think forum activities is a mandatory requirement for all GW2 players.

Sometimes I find ANet keep making fundamental mistakes that a seasoned game developer should not be making, whether it’s game design or in-game communication, it’s disappointing. Heck, they had GW1 for more than six years.

Let’s sum up the situation:

- ANet did inform the players that the merchants will be removed—on a single forum post. Not website front page announcement, not game loader announcement, not in-game letters, not Living-Story release page, not twitter, not facebook. One single forum post that only forum-goers may notice.
– The Found belongings and heirlooms have already stopped dropping, and the exchanged items are mostly account-bound, therefore not lower the value of said items.
– There are no major consequences for ANet to re-implement the merchants, other than a group of players feel that it is unfair to ignore their enthusiasm and constant attention on every single ANet communication.
– There are already at least 4 threads about this subject matter, signifying that quite a number of players suffer from this communication problem.

Am I missing anything?

If they are laughing about it in the chat, take screenshot and report. That is legitimate griefing and is punishable.

Mad Rasputin.7809:

timmyf.1490:

Mad Rasputin.7809:

timmyf.1490:

The other alternative is to actually earn the achievement by playing the content properly.

Sorry, I missed the guide that ANet issued detailing how to play the content properly.

Oh yeah, right, they didn’t put one out.

Play how you want, I’ll play how I want.

Except you’re not playing. You’re hiding in a corner.

Actually, you have no way of knowing what I am doing.

It has been said many times by the devs that playing the TP is a legit way of playing the game. You have no idea of what I am doing during this time, and I could very legitly be playing the TP for a bit. Among other things.

On the rule book, sure. Nothing says you can’t TP or chat or doing any other ingame business other than fighting. This is the exact excuse that AFK players are using in the last LS. Well, LA is a big place, some places are indeed safe for trivial matters.

But the breachmaker is different. You’re in a small arena now, and everyone on the platform in technically a giant “party”. Let’s say if this event is a 5-man instanced dungeon and needs all the manpower to succeed, would you still place yourself in a corner buying and selling items while your teammates fight?

kokiman.2364:

timmyf.1490:

The other alternative is to actually earn the achievement by playing the content properly.

Griefing/Afk leching won’t be punished, so why bother?

(I don’t grief/afk leech)

Maybe that’s why we discuss about it?

So here are the 4 reasons that people wanted to hide in the corner:

1. Emergency from real life and need a safe spot.
2. Need a fail-safe attempt on achievement.
3. Leeching.
4. Griefing.

For the first one, unlike the previous LS, I don’t see why people can’t get out of the breachmaker, take care of the business, then pop back in since the 3 attunements stays there for a period of time. Or better yet, wait for the next attempt if your life truly demands your full attention.

To fix the leeching problem though, other than devs personally go there and swing the ban-hammer, look at players screenshot reports one by one, a patch that makes hologram’s attack cover the player’s hiding spot would help. In the last LS, people hides in all kinds of place in the city so it’s difficult to track all the leechers, but breachmaker is a small arena, should be easy.

Only if ANet release a booster to increase server player’s overall morality.

Wait, I thought back when the Cutthroat Politics were running, the “evil antagonist” was Mai Trin, and there was only little mention of Scarlet during the Aetherblade Retreat ending. Molten Alliance mentioned nothing of her either.

Perhaps ANet already planned out that Thaumanova Reactor was Scarlet’s doing months ago, but how are people supposed to know during the vote? If all the players knew that Kiel’s Fractal will feature a villain that everyone will hate to see in the future, Gnashblade would definitely have an overwhelming victory.

Just happened to me as well. 4 rares gone. Don’t need them that much but if I get a plenty of yellow-font nothing, I might as well salvage them.

I hope we all get our stuff back, or a way to compensate.