Guild Wars 2

Hello, I’d like an invite to the EU guild if possible. I’ve been playing since launch and still haven’t done any Explorable Dungeons at all. Thanks.

I fully support this initiative. It would indeed give us at least an idea about the issues aknowledged by the devs. One suggestion though: instead of removing the items that have been dealt with, it might be better to just cross them off.

That being said I do have on issue with this. How are you going to identify and, more importantly gurantee the existence of such major threads? Wouldn’t it be better to have only one sticky thread where you guys post those summaries and just reference the relevant posts? I think it would make for a better experience. You could have for example one thread per sub-forum dedicated to some aspect of the game.

In any case, I totally approve of this idea

SkylightMoon.2098:

Jamal Hakim.8035:

Because the community might choose some topic that ANet isn’t really prioritizing at the moment and so anything we would say wouldn’t be as impactful. By letting them choose the topic we’re assured that we’re working towards something tangible.

Then whats the point in all of this. Its if everyone on here unanimously said something like “guild halls”, showing the community had a great desire for it, why wouldn’t they start actively working on this feature after they finished feature pack 2. Its just silly to even give us the option at that point.

That’s the issue though, there is no guarantee the community is going to “unanimously” choose something. Everyone has some part of the game that they think deserves improvements. I think it’s one of those cases where the common good would be to let them choose something where we can have the most impact. You can see it as just getting the ball rolling. Then again it’s your choice obviously, just trying to explain why a lot of people are going with option 1.

SkylightMoon.2098:

Why are so many people saying Anet chooses? This is your chance to let Anet know what you want so do it.

1. Anet chooses

jk

1. Permanent Content

More needs to be discussed about this. The second season has definitely brought us “permanent” content, yet the type is not necessarily diverse enough to satisfy the playerbase.

Because the community might choose some topic that ANet isn’t really prioritizing at the moment and so anything we would say wouldn’t be as impactful. By letting them choose the topic we’re assured that we’re working towards something tangible.

I think the second option would be too devisive. It would be better for ANet to choose a topic where our input might have a more visible outcome in hopefully the not-too-far future.

Edit: Someone suggested that ANet first makes a list of topics they are ready to have a meaningful discussion about and then the community votes on one of those topics. I’ll go with this option preferably.

Hello Colin,

Regarding company policy, I feel like one important point that cannot be understated is that ANet needs to be in control of the debates and speculations surrounding the game. If ANet isn’t guiding the debate then speculation WILL run wild and unfounded expectations WILL be set.

I fear that the current policy at ANet is frankly wishful thinking. Lack of communication does not mean lack of expectations from the playerbase. It just means more frustration as speculations appear to be off the mark. So again ANet needs to take control over this.

Now how do you do this?

• Interaction : Players need to feel that they are being listened to. Their concerns need to be aknowledged and more importantly discussed. Internal discussions are good and necessary obviously but some form of public debate on core issues is also important. It doesn’t have to be in the form of forum posts though, which brings me to my second point:

• Consolidation : Right now there is no platform for players to go to and easily have an idea about ANet’s stance on various issues. A simple fix would be regular blog posts summarizing the issues brought forward in the forums and then discussing them. The discussion shouldn’t be about features or promises, rather developers and designers can use the opportunity to explain their thought process about the issue, what they think might be problematic about it, things that players might not be considering, etc.

• Predictability : Incertainty is frustrating, this is just our human nature. We like to know, it makes us feel good. So far, the feature and content updates have been pretty messy in terms of release schedules to say the least. Living Story is starting to follow a predictable cycle which is very nice, but outside of that we don’t really know what to expect until it’s at our door steps. You don’t need to tell us exactly when every single thing will happen but I feel like having at least some form of roadmap with very vague date ranges for the important milestones (feature patches, holidays, wvw seasons, ls seasons) might appease the community and foster a healthier interaction. It’s also important to communicate on such roadmap and make sure that people are actually seeing the whole picture.

• State of the Game : You said that the SotG posts created expectations that couldn’t always be met and that in turn made people frustrated, which is a totally valid argument but I feel like this is a case of throwing out the baby with the bath water. In my opinion the reason SotG didn’t work was because it wasn’t done enough! State of the Game shouldn’t be only about the things you’re working on, it should also be about stuff that didn’t work out and stuff that you’re restarting from scratch. Of course some people will be upset but those people won’t be less upset if you stay silent (as I said people will always set expections themselves because it makes them feel good). But if you communicate more and make sure people are updated on features that might be taking more time and the reasons behind such decisions, then you’re taking control over the narrative and ultimately players will feel reassured.

Well that’s pretty much it for my 2 cents