Guild Wars 2

Linnael.1069:

We DO want to know what’s in development.

No I don’t. Surprise me.

EverythingXen.1835:

Walhalla.5473:

And we all know what will happen if this level of toxicity remains. Hello Dev Silence.

If a pair of vocal posters are enough to shut down an entire customer communication initiative, then…

…I honestly don’t know what to say.

A “pair” will turn into five, and that five will turn into twenty. Like information, this is how misinformation spreads.

Flytrap.8075:

Iason Evan.3806:

Flytrap: It’s ok to be letdown because of this stuff. It’s not OK to be disrespectful though. In fact, if you are respectful in your comments and criticism you are more likely to be listened to rather than heard and ignored because how you are saying what you want to say is hurtful and disrespectful.

Tell that to the people who keep upvoting me.

I’m glad you brought this up. There seems to be a bug on the forum, I’m seeing my +1s going to comments I’ve never even read before and have to un-submit them.

Nevets Crimsonwing.5271:

~butts~

I just wanna thank you for using ‘trust’ and not ‘faith’ or ‘hope’.

I certainly feel excited for most announcements. Seems apt.

Esplen.3940:

Boneheart.3561:

Flytrap.8075:

Mark Katzbach.9084:

ipan.4356:

2 years is a long time for an MMO not to release anything.

I think you are mistaken. We have released content and features in the last two years on a fairly regular basis. Just because the content and/or features were things that you personally did not particularly care for doesn’t mean we didn’t release anything.

Please don’t trivialize the efforts of our design and development staff down to “nothing” because you didn’t like it. It’s fine to comment that you didn’t care for what was released, but don’t pretend like we’ve done nothing here for the past two years.

Looks at WvW

Looks at sPvP

Looks at precursor crafting

Looks at official GvG game-mode

Looks at guild capes and guild halls

Looks at new zones and dungeons

Looks at new weapon, utility, and elite skills

Looks at slow and almost non-existent balance updates

Ok Mark.

You just confirmed what he typed.

He was being sarcastic although…

Yes, I was referring to him telling Mark they had done nothing, backing it up with cherry-picked aspects of the game.

Flytrap.8075:

Mark Katzbach.9084:

ipan.4356:

2 years is a long time for an MMO not to release anything.

I think you are mistaken. We have released content and features in the last two years on a fairly regular basis. Just because the content and/or features were things that you personally did not particularly care for doesn’t mean we didn’t release anything.

Please don’t trivialize the efforts of our design and development staff down to “nothing” because you didn’t like it. It’s fine to comment that you didn’t care for what was released, but don’t pretend like we’ve done nothing here for the past two years.

Looks at WvW

Looks at sPvP

Looks at precursor crafting

Looks at official GvG game-mode

Looks at guild capes and guild halls

Looks at new zones and dungeons

Looks at new weapon, utility, and elite skills

Looks at slow and almost non-existent balance updates

Ok Mark.

You just confirmed what he typed.

fadeaway.2807:

I’ve got a bunch of friends in the order of whispers who owe me a few favours.

Riel Darkwater: “I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that, Agent. But since you seem to be unoccupied, I have an assignment for you.”

Pact Commander: “I’m organizing the races of Tyria to combat an Elder Dragon!”

Riel Darkwater: “Then this should be a walk in the park.”

Flytrap.8075:

Boneheart.3561:

EverythingXen.1835:

… you cant break promises you never make.

This is true, I support this statement.

Carrots on a stick
Yes, ANet loves empty words
This is all we get

Is that haiku on purpose?

EverythingXen.1835:

… you cant break promises you never make.

This is true, I support this statement.

Yes, it’s not as difficult as I remembered.

“Day and night, night and day, I play this game, for what?”

“I don’t—”

“SHUT UP! And when I ask you a question, you keep your trap shut! Think I’m talking to hear myself talk? ANSWER ME!”

kasoki.5180:

You do realize that not everything you do in game is done as Ambassador of the race X or as Commander of the Pact. For example, you kill him, even though you are Commander of the Pact, that doesn’t mean that that the whole of the Pact was in the conspiracy. The same goes for you as the Ambassador.

It’s not about if you kill him, but whether or not it can be connected to your superiors

What crime have I committed without being referenced as Commander?

Trixie.7614:

I had no problem buying my precursors for my legendaries. No one ever said making a legendary was easy and fun . If it was, everyone would have them. Arena net said precursor crafting is comming so calm your kittens. They also said that it’s not going to be easy, so don’t expect to make your precursor from 2-3 Arah runs.

ArenaNet: “Well, the CDI was a success, here’s precursor crafting!”

Thomas Malthus: “I logged onto my character and I didn’t have a precursor. Did you even look at the CDI, you idiot! This flop has bought you maybe a month before the game collapses, but knowing you you won’t lift a finger. So long.”

kasoki.5180:

Walhalla.5473:

Ayakaru.6583:

fine, fine, kill Phlunt, we don’t need the asura to fight the elder dragons

To be more precice we need no other race to fight the dragons. Killing an ambassador is political suicide and I don’t think the other races would work with us when they see that we killed an ambassador.

Just because a member of the race X killed him, that doesn’t mean that it was on the orders of the given race’s government. It can be a personal quarrel

Nobody needs, to know. Now, Councilor Phlunt, this way please….

The Commander of the Pact has murdered an ambassador. This sentence has the gravity of Superman splattering Congress all over the walls.
Forget about what this would mean for working together against Mordremoth, you are a wanted criminal. Considering your resources, skill and reputation, you will have nowhere to hide. And the Pact and Rata Sum will definitely come looking for you, you’ll be lucky to rot in a cell instead of being executed.

phys.7689:

Boneheart.3561:

Xillllix.3485:

… it’s taking so long for new content to be released.

What new content? Examples are fine, I would like to better understand what hasn’t been added.

more than 2 new skills per class
new weapons per proffession
more than 2 new maps
new proffesions
new dungeons
more than 5 new traits per class
lots of dynamic event chains
new game modes
more difficult content (because people who keep playing tend to improve at it)

basically an evolved version of all the type of things that were introduced on release of the game, and some new things that werent there

especially since this year started really little has been added, first year had a couple big ones like fractals, guild missions, a number of new jumping puzzles, and some dynamic events.

i understand that you are satisfied, but most players expect, within 2 years to get some order of content on the level of a GW1 campaign/expansion or FFXI WoW expansion.

And I would call those players unrealistic.

New skills would be nice, if there weren’t already balances made every update and threads clamoring for bug fixes. They can wait.

I agree, underwater could use a new weapon or two, but I can’t think of an appropriate item. But I’ve heard there’s even more balancing/bug issues there, and they removed my favorite SPvP map because of it.

Now you’re just being silly, we’ve had at least half a dozen new maps.

More professions, huh, just pile them on, the bugs and balances will just fix themselves if they reach a critical mass.

We’ve had a few new dungeons, too, c’mon now, this list isn’t standing up.

I am patiently waiting for new Traits, they clearly didn’t want to just toss new ones at us and are playing with the idea of unlocking them. I think we’ll get more, but they’ll likely compound the bugs and balances.

I remember reading that they added some simple Dynamic Events quite a while ago and they went unnoticed. In my experience, most people can’t be asked to stick around for a chain unless it’s a World Boss. So that’s pretty demoralizing.

More modes in SPvP would be nice, I’m waiting on that. Seems like they’re testing the waters with that Team Deathmatch they introduced.

There’s definitely harder content being introduced, quite recently but not only just.. Now? If the difficulty is just ramped up, it’ll fall into exclusive territory and this is an inclusive game. So players will have to acclimate.

And who told you this lie that I’m “satisfied”? You’ve erred greatly in this understanding.

sishbob.3987:

Boneheart.3561:

sishbob.3987:

… the Living Story, which is something that the majority of players do not want.

[CITATION NEEDED]

Lemme correct that then. LS is something that a majority of players do not want over content that actually matters and changes the game.

Define “actually matters” and “game”. Because there’s massive vines running through Iron Marches and your statement sounds flat-out subjective.
But let’s pretend I didn’t type any of that, I’d like a citation for this “correct” statement.

Coopziana.1802:

… constructive…

You asked what I thought, and I explained. You have no solution to their obtrusive original design? If I’ve come to a thread not welcome of critique and solely for praise, perhaps you should have made that clear.

Coopziana.1802:

Boneheart.3561:

Capes cover my armor, inconvenient.

Lol… Don’t get one then!

No. None of the current back items cover my body, why start.

sishbob.3987:

… the Living Story, which is something that the majority of players do not want.

[CITATION NEEDED]

Xillllix.3485:

… it’s taking so long for new content to be released.

What new content? Examples are fine, I would like to better understand what hasn’t been added.

Coopziana.1802:

… we are all feeling the pinch at the moment (by “all” I mean 2-year old players).

I’m not.

Capes cover my armor, inconvenient.

fadeaway.2807:

Seriously. My character would be having none of his attitude.

Braham: “Whoa! Put the axe away, boss! Look, I trust you to make the right decisions, but something about this doesn’t feel right.”

Phlunt: “I’m demanding another stipulation!”

Vox Hollow.2736:

It’s not like I don’t think the living story isn’t flexible enough to handle challenging 5 man content in theory, it’s just a really questionable vehicle.

Like, there’s no doubt the system is agile.
It allows for them to try new things in small manageable chunks, so design-wise the fights can progress quickly and be a constant source of giving us something new.

Super Promising, yeah?

But, just think about what trying to grab some friends and do The Summit’s Shadow of the Dragon fight entails.

• Making some wonky general party in the party finder system.
• A literal procession where you twiddle your thumbs through dialogue.
• A checkpoint system that is so forgiving to failure it nearly undermines the idea of ‘trying’ at all.

Nevermind the larger questions of feeling one-time-only because the Living Story is divorced from progression. It lacks a connection to the gold reward system that serves to give a sense of progress to long-term aesthetic goals. It’s not a system that has a means to address the elephant in the room question of difficulty vs. accessibility (ala’ normal and hardmode dungeons in WoW) which really calls into question the idea it can serve as a means of skill progress or knowledge progress.

It’s like moving a coffin with a golf cart.
I’m sure you could probably get enough duck tape to sort of swing it. But why would you when something like a hearse exists?

Seems like you make all assumptions and ignore some other areas. Something about you giving it credit, then lampooning it doesn’t sit with me.

A better example of designing a dungeon within a Living Story instance would be the episode Entanglement, when you fight Aerin.

Just as you type, it’s surely flexible enough to have checkpoints that won’t allow you to hurl your corpse at a boss until they die of exhaustion (from beating you repeatedly).

And if the content is being designed for five players, perhaps the Achievements would award gold and valuables. Some Activities have repeatable Achievements that reward Loot Bag.

Something I misunderstood?

Relshdan.6854:

lol…so Anet will choose.

wow….this player-base is so passive aggressive. instead of stating what you want, you wait for them to not do what you want, so you can complain.

I thought of this, too. Although, I haven’t looked to see who has voted what, namely certain accounts voting for choice one. That would be dishonorable.

nexxe.7081:

If you listen to that video carefully, they think Living Story achievements is a replacement to Dungeons. Rofl. I feel bad for you dungeoneers.

What part?
I liked the part where they mention the Achievements from Living Story and Aetherpath and imply we could see more of that in future dungeon content.

Andred.1087:

I say 1. ANet should decide.

We all know mounts would be #1 topic if 2.

Precursor crafting. And it wouldn’t be pretty.

BrotherBelial.3094:

When I do a dungon(with Friends), we kill everything in our way.

Can.. Can we be friends? Stacking touch me in bad place.

ipan.4356:

Nobody likes the company policy.

Did you just call me a “nobody”?

ipan.4356:

tolunart.2095:

I’m not the one complaining and making demands that no one here has the authority to grant.

No, what you’re doing is attempting to dimmunize and trivialize people’s legitimate issues with this game.

You are antagonizing well meaning customers who have serious complaints – to the detriment of the community.

Hardly. They made one post, not even a new thread, about how unlikely it is we’ll see the level of transparency you demanded. Yes, you sure as hell didn’t ask.

Was the cookies thing a reference to the bin of cookies they were sent, or a patronizing comment?

Belenwyn.8674:

If you do not want to communicate about things until they are ready to ship then the developers have to be 100% sure that they know what the majority
of players want and how they want it implemented.

This is a very risky bet. In the case of the commander tag the bet failed partially. The damage could be fixed over weekend. What happens when a big bet fails? Back to the board for several/many months? In some cases it could break GW2’s neck.

In my opinion we need a solid communication between players and Arenanet. Both sides have to know what the other side wants/likes/dislikes/aims for. There has to be a windows between (near) end of development and launch where the players should be involved if needed. The drama around the commander tag was completely avoidable with a proper working communication between both sides.

Have there been any “big bets” in the past?

Bensozia.8071:

Valky.2574:

They can’t tell us what they are working on since they are not working on any thing big related to gw2.
If you want to know what they have been doing the last 2 years then here
http://www.wildstar-online.com/en/

Wildstar is developed by Carbine Studios.

If you rearrange the letters, ‘Carbine Studios’ spells ‘We Are ArenaNet’. Coincidence?

ColinJohanson.2394:

What if every major thread offered a dev sticky at the top that summarized the key discussion points around that area we’re aware of as a dev team?

Sounds p. neat.

ipan.4356:

They are working on creating a list of things they can’t talk about.

Colin, how much do you want for the golden goose?

phys.7689:

one is about input, you say it has no value as far as you can see.

We are so not on the same page.

ipan.4356:

We…

I do.

phys.7689:

Boneheart.3561:

phys.7689:

Boneheart.3561:

I’m seeing about a dozen, maybe, posts mentioning that policy should be scrapped? The number one topic I remember sparking fiery outrage, like the Centralia mine, is precursor crafting. It seemed quite natural, at least to me I dunno I’m weird, to not want to share anything that wasn’t so close to being complete that it might as well be kissing the finish line.

Are there some factors I’m missing, gaps in this incident that would justify the rampant contempt? Am I leaving out too many words, causing confusion or misunderstanding? How can ArenaNet exercise transparency on conceptual content without being susceptible to vilification (general issue, nothing to do with who’s innocent or guilty in the precursor crafting incident)?

its natural for some people.
Its also in general a really bad policy for keeping people engaged with long breaks in things delivered of value.

Its also a really bad policy if you dont have a visionary style of development. If your main method of refining products is about gathering feedback and reworking things, anything that lowers your feedback is a really bad idea.

basically there is two ways to keep people engaged, constantly deliver winners often, or make big plans and talk about them and deliver on them. Whats good for some situations, is really bad in others, close to the vest communication is like this as well

That is subjective, for one, and secondly you do acknowledge that at least there have been deliveries. I heard one particular game went fourteen months without an update.

I was under the impression that ‘feedback’ and ‘reworking’ is for finalized content, whereas ‘input’ is for conceptual, yes? I don’t feel players’ input is as important as many on the forum make it out to be.

I’m not sure what you mean by “engaged”, playing the game? Surely something is being done correctly, almost two years in and the Worlds haven’t been collapsed into just two (nine, in this case).
Talking about “big plans” and delivering sounds pretty easy. You lay out what’s to be done, and then release the finished product. I have heard about there being more than a handful of details (internal obstacles), though, that make this not so easy. I feel player input wouldn’t be important at all, then, there would be no room for it.

its not exactly subjective, this strategy has been in play for about a year, and it has not worked. All released indications of current NA/EU playership and spending that i have seen are down. As far the climate and the feeling of player/company relationship, many indications say that is suffering as well.

feedback can happen at any stage of development, and its often most effective earlier into development.

• For ex: If i decide i want to invent a finger warming keyboard, and i talk to 100 people and they say they would rather have a finger massaging keyboard, that is feedback, and it saved me a lot of time, and a lot money to get it while in the brainstorm phase rather than the finished product phase.

For an iterative development system, the more points of feedback you have, the better your product will be, because your product depends on getting feedback in order to refine itself.

going by the world hasnt collapsed isnt really a good metric, by the time the world has collapsed its usually too late to save it. What we do know, is profits are down, public metrics on hours played are down, and it seems that there is a disconnect between players and developers

talking about big plans (by big i mean overall plans) and delivering is actually the industry standard, and the standard of many industries which have a long time between products/services.
Movies, Tv, most other games, automobiles, comics, books, music just a few industries off the top of my head, where i can generally find out what a company in the field roughly has planned for the upcoming months, and the overall directions they are trying to go in.

personally i understand wanting to keep things close to your vest, but its not really a good idea in this situation from all indications.

It’s subjective that there are “long breaks in things delivered of value”.

I think that’s still ‘input’, because it’s a completely different product after hearing that massaging was preferred over heating, not with. If the product were tested and people said they didn’t like the sensation of the heat or the addition of massaging would help, that’s feedback, right? So then you could make adjustments to the structures of the keys and the degree of heat if the sensation tested wasn’t up to snuff.

I don’t think those examples of other companies/industries stand, since audience input there might as well be worthless. The frequency in which the game is updated, I would guess almost necessitates player input.

Both choices have their merit. I choose that ArenaNet decides what topic(s).

phys.7689:

Boneheart.3561:

I’m seeing about a dozen, maybe, posts mentioning that policy should be scrapped? The number one topic I remember sparking fiery outrage, like the Centralia mine, is precursor crafting. It seemed quite natural, at least to me I dunno I’m weird, to not want to share anything that wasn’t so close to being complete that it might as well be kissing the finish line.

Are there some factors I’m missing, gaps in this incident that would justify the rampant contempt? Am I leaving out too many words, causing confusion or misunderstanding? How can ArenaNet exercise transparency on conceptual content without being susceptible to vilification (general issue, nothing to do with who’s innocent or guilty in the precursor crafting incident)?

its natural for some people.
Its also in general a really bad policy for keeping people engaged with long breaks in things delivered of value.

Its also a really bad policy if you dont have a visionary style of development. If your main method of refining products is about gathering feedback and reworking things, anything that lowers your feedback is a really bad idea.

basically there is two ways to keep people engaged, constantly deliver winners often, or make big plans and talk about them and deliver on them. Whats good for some situations, is really bad in others, close to the vest communication is like this as well

That is subjective, for one, and secondly you do acknowledge that at least there have been deliveries. I heard one particular game went fourteen months without an update.

I was under the impression that ‘feedback’ and ‘reworking’ is for finalized content, whereas ‘input’ is for conceptual, yes? I don’t feel players’ input is as important as many on the forum make it out to be.

I’m not sure what you mean by “engaged”, playing the game? Surely something is being done correctly, almost two years in and the Worlds haven’t been collapsed into just two (nine, in this case).
Talking about “big plans” and delivering sounds pretty easy. You lay out what’s to be done, and then release the finished product. I have heard about there being more than a handful of details (internal obstacles), though, that make this not so easy. I feel player input wouldn’t be important at all, then, there would be no room for it.

It has so few uses, why bother.

xallever.1874:

Boneheart.3561:

xallever.1874:

And… about people being bitter with the dev team… I remember Danicia mentioning that it was her job to translate the players’ frustrations into something that can be positively absorbed by the devs.

I guess, overall, it’s more helpful for the devs to read 5 pages of positive inputs rather than having to skim through 20 pages of rants. But… I’m also just saying that it’s Anet’s job to be able to filter whatever good stuffs they can find amidst whatever is being posted here.

Sifting through this forum’s posts; the ol’ Morale-Killer.
Is it their job? I must’ve missed that hook when hearing about the game.

It still is. Obviously, there are things that can be done to make their jobs easier.

I remember someone writing the proposal for Chris in the Fractals CDI so that he could easily submit that as a report. But he asked the community to help him and they did.

Even if the community didn’t, he initiated the CDI and he should communicate whatever he got from it to whomever he’s supposed to report it to anyways, whether it’s in a jungle format or a very clean resume format.

Was kinda asking you to clarify that aspect of their job, at least where should I look to know about it.

I’m seeing about a dozen, maybe, posts mentioning that policy should be scrapped? The number one topic I remember sparking fiery outrage, like the Centralia mine, is precursor crafting. It seemed quite natural, at least to me I dunno I’m weird, to not want to share anything that wasn’t so close to being complete that it might as well be kissing the finish line.

Are there some factors I’m missing, gaps in this incident that would justify the rampant contempt? Am I leaving out too many words, causing confusion or misunderstanding? How can ArenaNet exercise transparency on conceptual content without being susceptible to vilification (general issue, nothing to do with who’s innocent or guilty in the precursor crafting incident)?

xallever.1874:

And… about people being bitter with the dev team… I remember Danicia mentioning that it was her job to translate the players’ frustrations into something that can be positively absorbed by the devs.

I guess, overall, it’s more helpful for the devs to read 5 pages of positive inputs rather than having to skim through 20 pages of rants. But… I’m also just saying that it’s Anet’s job to be able to filter whatever good stuffs they can find amidst whatever is being posted here.

Sifting through this forum’s posts; the ol’ Morale-Killer.
Is it their job? I must’ve missed that hook when hearing about the game.

Piogre.2164:

Pretty irritating that Anet silences community demand for the SAB by merging the many threads on the topic all into one thread, which they can then safely ignore.

Come on, Anet, if you have so many threads on this topic that you have to close a bunch and merge into one topic, doesn’t that merit at least one red post somewhere in the thread, addressing the issue?

I wonder if the volatility has something to do with it. Maybe the volatility in this thread isn’t at a low enough level to address, but then I just finished reading about Whiteside and Colin posting a statement that covered all contents.

Nevets Crimsonwing.5271:

Boneheart.3561:

Majuub.6215:

It saddens me that the focus of the game is on casual content…

Well it is a casual game.

You’re speaking with authority on this subject?

Sure.

Jerus.4350:

I feel like “casual” is thrown around to mean a lot of different things.

There is no reason that Casual can’t also involve Difficulty.

Casual simply means less time invested. I play this game more casually than I have any other MMO, and it’s casual nature is why I love it. Doesn’t change that I very much enjoy the challenges it has more than the “press 1 to win” fights that make up much of it’s content.

What makes this game great for casuals is the lack of a gear treadmill and difficult progression. That combined with a lack of raids or really any content that is designed to take hours pretty much makes it perfect for someone who can’t devote that amount of time and devotion. Doesn’t mean that those same people can’t learn to solo Lupi or smoke lvl 50 fractals.

I’m unclear on why you’re telling me this.

Majuub.6215:

It saddens me that the focus of the game is on casual content…

Well it is a casual game.

Alasteir.7031:

Lord Kuru.3685:

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

Something that would help is if you could gather a thread for each dungeon (perhaps you’ve all already created one per dungeon?), and list out the major changes that you feel the dungeons would need to make them better, in concise bullet points. That way it’s easier for us to provide them to the development team.

Every time there’s a public outcry about something, this is what Anet asks for. People are foolish enough to oblige. It cools them off because they think Anet is finally listening. And Anet gets away with doing nothing.

For example, see WvW forum: this has happened several times there already.

I’m sorry but Anet isn’t a sloth demon. They don’t sit there finding excuses to be lazy. You want Anet to listen? Treat them as if they’re humans with human limitations, capable of having stress, don’t like having their toes stepped on, or being yelled at and insulted, and actually provide constructive criticism (as per the standards listed in the sticky on the general discussion forum I do believe, and not some rude, self-esteem inflated kittenization of constructive criticism in which the devs are outright insulted).

Whoa there, Bono! You are asking too much.

Hunter.4783:

I can’t believe Regina is telling us all to “suck it up” in such a cheerful way; it really makes me /uninstall right now.

You won’t. You never will.

One Note Chord.5031:

And also, it’s not changes to dungeons we want. It’s more dungeons.

Do not presume to speak for me.

I swear, if a new dungeon is released soon and people say ‘they released it because of the backlash’, I will tear this dimension asunder.

Caro.2730:

Now, give us Anise’s armor.

“Give its to me. Huh!”

Nothing about new dungeons was mentioned. He types precisely what I took away from the interview, in it’s context (which I feel is being largely ignored), that building a new path in an existing dungeon takes more work. Whereas in Fractals, you can just build whatever you want. This was a neat way to dodge and dance around mentioning new dungeons.

In summation, it sounds like they’ll create new dungeons that won’t be approached in the same manner as existing dungeons.
Brings to mind the Boss Blitz. The Bosses, specifically.

But who cares, Veruca Salt wants what she wants.