Guild Wars 2

Lheimroo.2947:

Certainly didn’t mean to be offensive with ‘dopes’ – meant it more as a gently chiding nudge, as from a concerned friend.

I wouldn’t put it like ‘headless chickens’ either! But Arghore was essentially right; I think Anet often draws the wrong conclusion from these little confrontations.

Wasn’t offended at all thanks for clarifying.

Chris

notebene.3190:

Do we have any means at our disposal to ask a few simple questions about some odd things that were changed that were never in patch notes, or why two of the same ‘class’ of item available in the gem store weren’t quite designed the same way, and why, and could it ever be fixed?

I tried submitting a ticket once, and almost got somewhere, but then when I was getting warm, and though the person I was talking to could actually go ‘ask the developers’ (or a phrase he/she used close to that), it went cold and I was told to post here.

The problem is, you folks (developers and CMs) only really jump into the bigger, heady stuff (CDI; big feature pack topics), and there doesn’t seem like there is any room to just get some small things answered here or there. Or maybe there is, and I just don’t understand the process?

We need to consolidate the number of communication channels and then we will have more time and visibility on individual threads that the community are posting to engage.

Chris

IndigoSundown.5419:

I know this is going to go over like a lead balloon, but here goes. One of the issues I had with the previous iteration of CDI’s was the extreme length of some of the posts, leading to threads that were just too much to read. Given the redundancy in suggestions, I’d venture to say I wasn’t the only one who didn’t/couldn’t read everything.

I’m not sure how to fix this, except to suggest that people keep it simple, and not try to lay out every suggestion they have in one post. Even in this thread, there have been several essays. I recognize that people are passionate about their ideas, but for the rest of us, and for the devs who are also reading, shorter posts are probably going to have more impact.

Not a lead balloon at all it is something we need to work out for sure.

Chris

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Bryzy.2719:

@Chris

First, just to say many thanks for taking the time to respond to the players. I understand that you have to juggle actual real-life work with posting on here, alongside the fact that you clearly use your time at home to communicate with us too, which in itself is proof enough that you care about the game. Much appreciated.

In terms of CDIs, I’ve personally only been a significant part of one – the Ranger CDI which Allie took charge of some months ago. While she communicated with us relatively frequently, many players within the thread felt slightly frustrated that the devs weren’t communicating which of the suggestions were carrying the most weight with them. The thread ended up becoming very crowded and I think a little direction with semi-frequent developer summaries every ~7-10 pages would have provided a great way to keep the thread moving in directions that weren’t obvious dead-ends for the devs. I think more frequent communication from the devs as to which ideas they like and dislike – along with a ‘no promises’ disclaimer of course – would at least help keep the CDIs running in a helpful direction. The Ranger CDI I think ended up as one huge mess of repeated suggestions, arguments and lack of direction – however this can be forgiven simply due to the fact that it was one of the pioneering CDIs and therefore completely new ground for you guys. I’m confident that future ones will be improving upon these however.

From the OP of this thread, it’s understandable why you guys don’t like to talk speculatively about the game, because it can cause upset when things don’t come to fruition. However, being too afraid to speak speculatively can also be a large hindrance to your communication with the playerbase. As per my suggestion with future CDIs and semi-frequent dev summaries within the threads, as long as you give a disclaimer along the lines of “these are some possible options we’re looking into, however there are no guarantees”, the players are being made no false promises, but at least they know which suggestions to expand on and make the thread more productive.

Finally, one aspect of Allie’s communication was a little concerning to many players in the Ranger CDI. When she spoke of Anet’s “design philosophy” for the Ranger (i.e. a sustained damage-type profession with good mobility) – she seemed resolute in keeping it that way and seemed unwilling for it to be altered to address what the community felt the Ranger needed to become a more viable profession. This may very well have been a one-off case, however I think willingness to change or add-to profession philosophies should definitely be a part of the GW2 experience.

Hi,

Forgive me for copying and pasting this but it will be useful to you i think:

Hi,

I am re-posting a response i posted yesterday as it is pertinent:

’It’s worth pointing out that I had way more time to do the more PVE centric CDIs than some of the other guys and girls did. This is important because I haven’t really gone into this before. there is no doubt that some CDIs were better represented than others.

I acknowledge that that there is a time vs dev problem. If you look back at my posts you will see more details on this.

Do please understand however that just because there are no replies to feedback that we aren’t constantly reading the forums.

We have plans to stop this being an issue in regard to CDI moving forward.
Chris’

If you get a chance have a look at some of the other CDI stickies and hopefully you see just how well we can connect if we have the time as well as how we used summaries as per your suggestion.

Thanks for you feedback,

Chris

And Bryzy. Thanks a lot for taking the time to share your thoughts.

Chris

Kaos.9162:

Thanks for the update, the communication goes a long way.

No worries I am enjoying reconnecting. Just wish I had more time.

Chris

Bryzy.2719:

@Chris

First, just to say many thanks for taking the time to respond to the players. I understand that you have to juggle actual real-life work with posting on here, alongside the fact that you clearly use your time at home to communicate with us too, which in itself is proof enough that you care about the game. Much appreciated.

In terms of CDIs, I’ve personally only been a significant part of one – the Ranger CDI which Allie took charge of some months ago. While she communicated with us relatively frequently, many players within the thread felt slightly frustrated that the devs weren’t communicating which of the suggestions were carrying the most weight with them. The thread ended up becoming very crowded and I think a little direction with semi-frequent developer summaries every ~7-10 pages would have provided a great way to keep the thread moving in directions that weren’t obvious dead-ends for the devs. I think more frequent communication from the devs as to which ideas they like and dislike – along with a ‘no promises’ disclaimer of course – would at least help keep the CDIs running in a helpful direction. The Ranger CDI I think ended up as one huge mess of repeated suggestions, arguments and lack of direction – however this can be forgiven simply due to the fact that it was one of the pioneering CDIs and therefore completely new ground for you guys. I’m confident that future ones will be improving upon these however.

From the OP of this thread, it’s understandable why you guys don’t like to talk speculatively about the game, because it can cause upset when things don’t come to fruition. However, being too afraid to speak speculatively can also be a large hindrance to your communication with the playerbase. As per my suggestion with future CDIs and semi-frequent dev summaries within the threads, as long as you give a disclaimer along the lines of “these are some possible options we’re looking into, however there are no guarantees”, the players are being made no false promises, but at least they know which suggestions to expand on and make the thread more productive.

Finally, one aspect of Allie’s communication was a little concerning to many players in the Ranger CDI. When she spoke of Anet’s “design philosophy” for the Ranger (i.e. a sustained damage-type profession with good mobility) – she seemed resolute in keeping it that way and seemed unwilling for it to be altered to address what the community felt the Ranger needed to become a more viable profession. This may very well have been a one-off case, however I think willingness to change or add-to profession philosophies should definitely be a part of the GW2 experience.

Hi,

Forgive me for copying and pasting this but it will be useful to you i think:

Hi,

I am re-posting a response i posted yesterday as it is pertinent:

’It’s worth pointing out that I had way more time to do the more PVE centric CDIs than some of the other guys and girls did. This is important because I haven’t really gone into this before. there is no doubt that some CDIs were better represented than others.

I acknowledge that that there is a time vs dev problem. If you look back at my posts you will see more details on this.

Do please understand however that just because there are no replies to feedback that we aren’t constantly reading the forums.

We have plans to stop this being an issue in regard to CDI moving forward.
Chris’

If you get a chance have a look at some of the other CDI stickies and hopefully you see just how well we can connect if we have the time as well as how we used summaries as per your suggestion.

Thanks for you feedback,

Chris

Hi Silmar,

if you look through the posts I and others have made about direct impact of CDI that might be helpful for you and it is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of community impact.

You have made a ton of assumptions in this thread that can only be corrected through more knowledge gathering on your part. Such as we read the forums but we don’t listen. The reality of development is that we have a finite amount of time, manpower and therefore we prioritize. I agree we need to get better at communication however.

Finally, as I have said before in this thread. No one is forcing you to do something that you think is pointless. So I would suggest not partaking in the CDIs if you think they are not going to bear fruit. Alternatively you could talk to players who for example partook in the Living World CDI and see what their thoughts are.

Chris

Kaos.9162:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Crise.9401:

This has probably been mentioned already, but since I saw no response for it repetition can’t hurt.

Ages ago, in one of the older Ready Up streams, after the last WvW tournament, a CDI regarding WvW seasons/tournaments was mentioned to be “coming within a week” I don’t think I would have missed it if it did. So whatever happened to that?

Hi Crise,

i will double check. That seems like eons ago so please forgive me for my weak memory (-:

Chris

Any updates on this? Did a quick glance through your post history and didn’t see anything, though I might’ve just missed it.

Hey Kaos,

I will be speaking with the guys on Tuesday and will report back.

Chris

Arghore.8340:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Lheimroo.2947:

Oh, we know Anet reads the forums. I’ll stick to my criticism of this ‘no talkies’ policy with my belief that seeking specific input earlier in the process would lead to lots fewer forums blowups, though.

So for the CDIs.. Anet, pick your own topics. Forward looking topics, as general or specific as you like.

And in general.. no offense intended, but stop acting like dopes.

You draw this huge lesson about early announcements from the precursor hunt scandal. Lesson drawn: don’t do early announcements. Instead, my lesson? ‘Keep folks in the loop when plans change or get delayed’.

You introduce a changed dungeon path and a new SAB world. Lesson drawn, “New dungeons don’t work.” – My lesson? “Fiddle with the recipe, cuz we recognize how different those two new experiences were from ‘standard’, and yet Molten Facility and SAB world 1 were massively popular”

.. and so on and so forth. Maybe you’re too terrified of user reactions, cuz you’re drawing a lot of timid conclusions.

No that isn’t the case at all.

I have taken the time to answer loads of questions in this thread and many comments around your points can be found in my previous responses.

No idea what you mean by ‘Dopes’ but overall it isn’t conducive to healthy discussion in that i Have no idea what you mean.

Hopefully you will find some of the answers to your questions and assumptions.

Chris

Being a former dope-head I might be able to explain, and I actually wanted to point this out as well in a thread, but might as well do it here (aka. your 180degree turns) …

Anyways: dope is all about the rush (which can be positive (good high) or negative (bad trip)) but both will be this experience of a rush. So how does that apply, well it sometimes feels that when you face criticism or critiques, you react all ‘doped up’ take a complete 180, and fully rush the other way… perhaps, ‘hyped up’ is about the same experience as ‘doped’ implies…

F/e the LS, where it was this mayor 1x big open world ordeals, to now, a timid stream replay-able mostly instanced personal story expansion. While I hope it will pick up some steam, and even though I think in part this solved some issues. It is a full 180… and if you check feedback, there are numerous people missing these big open world things… (a permanent big boss open world event would certainly help here but that aside)

Same with SAB, so ok, part 2 wasn’t all people expected, some things are hit and miss, no need to just abandon it. Analyse why it was received so differently than part 1, see if you can rediscover/recapture that part 1 spirit. Or, simply acknowledge this is it, and just put it permanently in the game, with a ‘if we find that spirit again, we will pick this up, currently our priorities lie else where, and we don’t think we have enough inspiration to do a full part 3 at this moment, but enjoy what is there…

That is ‘what I think’ he means with doped, you get this idea in this rush and go with it like a headless chicken, because you think it’s the best idea you ever had. Being all Hyped up, is probably the best equivalent to it, if you aren’t inclined to get intoxicated. But ‘you know’ even alcohol does this, just write down your great ideas at the bar, and read them again the next morning… doped is a bit different, but still…

;tldr: So really, the full 180s you make based upon feedback are sometimes hard to comprehend, not everything needs a full 180, sometimes a 10-30 degree diversion from the original idea is enough to deal with the concerns.

Hi,

Thanks for taking the time to post and thanks for the honesty in your comments.

The reality is that we probably spend to much time thinking before discussing and not enough time sharing the journey with everyone.

I am still thinking this all through and the conversation is really useful so thanks.

Chris

Going out for a bit, will be back shortly.

Chris

Lheimroo.2947:

Oh, we know Anet reads the forums. I’ll stick to my criticism of this ‘no talkies’ policy with my belief that seeking specific input earlier in the process would lead to lots fewer forums blowups, though.

So for the CDIs.. Anet, pick your own topics. Forward looking topics, as general or specific as you like.

And in general.. no offense intended, but stop acting like dopes.

You draw this huge lesson about early announcements from the precursor hunt scandal. Lesson drawn: don’t do early announcements. Instead, my lesson? ‘Keep folks in the loop when plans change or get delayed’.

You introduce a changed dungeon path and a new SAB world. Lesson drawn, “New dungeons don’t work.” – My lesson? “Fiddle with the recipe, cuz we recognize how different those two new experiences were from ‘standard’, and yet Molten Facility and SAB world 1 were massively popular”

.. and so on and so forth. Maybe you’re too terrified of user reactions, cuz you’re drawing a lot of timid conclusions.

No that isn’t the case at all.

I have taken the time to answer loads of questions in this thread and many comments around your points can be found in my previous responses.

No idea what you mean by ‘Dopes’ but overall it isn’t conducive to healthy discussion in that i Have no idea what you mean.

Hopefully you will find some of the answers to your questions and assumptions.

Chris

minbariguy.7504:

Mike O Brien.4613:

We’ve set a clear policy in the past year: we don’t talk speculatively about future development.

ColinJohanson.2394:

“Our company policy is not to talk about what’s in development”.

Sigh. And this is why, despite the near-Herculean effort by the wonderful Chris Whitside, I feel that this latest push to improve communication is, like all other attempts before it, doomed to failure.

I understand why this policy was initially put in place. But you (as a company) are following the letter of the policy to the detriment of your relationship to your community, as opposed to following the spirit of the policy when it makes sense to do so.

Others have already mentioned that there are other ways to accomplish the end goal of not being held accountable for changes in content production that have already been announced:

• Communicate very clearly that things are subject to change (not in tiny print at the bottom of a blog post or in a later follow-up post in a forum thread). I, too, get frustrated when people cling to announcements of future content as “promises” when it is fairly obvious to most of us that they are not written in stone.

• When priorities change or problems arise, you must communicate the delay in implementation. People really only become angry and toxic when they are kept in the dark for long periods of time. This has been the result of your communication policy, and it will not change unless your policy also changes. If you keep us informed, I believe most of us will be on your side.

You are being repeatedly given feedback that your policy does not work as intended. If you do indeed listen to feedback, then do not ignore this. This one little gem could singehandedly change the way the community relates to this company for the good.

We are all going to try really hard mini. The big issue last time was lack of time. I intend for us to solve that problem first and it will let everyone know how it is going.

Your two main points are well made.

Chris

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Illysharia.7286:

phys.7689:

<big snip>

its a very real statement that people have no idea what the future of gw2 holds, and that isnt working well for a lot of people (especially people who have been playing longer)

I agree, and I would add that it isn’t just the uncertain, unknown future of GW2 that is causing player friction in regards to lack of communication. They seem to have that wrapped up in a tight little bow of company policy. What about the very current issue of the last feature patch and the wall of silence that followed? I’d say that isn’t working well for a lot of people either, but it would be a thunderous understatement.

Chris, I suppose I would just like to know why feedback threads were made and then there was no reciprocal discussion. Your players made thousands of well thought out posts, with suggestions of improvements, and there wasn’t even acknowledgement by your team that our concerns were being looked into. I simply don’t understand how that choice on your end was a good decision.

I’m also going to share that my personal frustration of the Trait re-vamp, our attempts to gain answers and fixes, and then 5 months of silence was a deciding factor in making me leave your game. Not only uninstalling, but throwing the CD in the garbage. I don’t want to sound over-dramatic on that, but it is exactly what happened.

Now, understand that I love GW2. I was having a blast up until the last Feature Patch in April. But, the non-communication just killed the game for me (as well as the Trait re-vamp). I have no problems whatsoever buying another copy of your game, but I need to see if the conditions here improve. If I didn’t love the game, if I didn’t care about it’s future, then I wouldn’t have been following and participating in discussion for the last few months.

I really hope there is a turnaround. I think it’s great that you are here talking again! But, you also have to understand that a lot of ill-will came about by months silence. I’m hoping that these discussions, and the up-and-coming CDI will improve the current player/dev relationship.

Hi,

I am resposting a response i posted yesterday as it is pertinent:

’It’s worth pointing out that I had way more time to do the more PVE centric CDIs than some of the other guys and girls did. This is important because I haven’t really gone into this before. there is no doubt that some CDIs were better represented than others.

I acknowledge that that there is a time vs dev problem. If you look back at my posts you will see more details on this.

Do please understand however that just because there are no replies to feedback that we aren’t constantly reading the forums.

We have plans to stop this being an issue in regard to CDI moving forward.

Chris’

If you get a chance have a look at some of the other CDI stickies and hopefully you see just how well we can connect if we have the time.

Thanks for you feedback,

Chris

One thing to add is that we are always looking at the forums. Just because we aren’t active in the discussion doesn’t mean we aren’t reading it. This isn’t an excuse. i just wanted to clarify.

Chris

Illysharia.7286:

phys.7689:

<big snip>

its a very real statement that people have no idea what the future of gw2 holds, and that isnt working well for a lot of people (especially people who have been playing longer)

I agree, and I would add that it isn’t just the uncertain, unknown future of GW2 that is causing player friction in regards to lack of communication. They seem to have that wrapped up in a tight little bow of company policy. What about the very current issue of the last feature patch and the wall of silence that followed? I’d say that isn’t working well for a lot of people either, but it would be a thunderous understatement.

Chris, I suppose I would just like to know why feedback threads were made and then there was no reciprocal discussion. Your players made thousands of well thought out posts, with suggestions of improvements, and there wasn’t even acknowledgement by your team that our concerns were being looked into. I simply don’t understand how that choice on your end was a good decision.

I’m also going to share that my personal frustration of the Trait re-vamp, our attempts to gain answers and fixes, and then 5 months of silence was a deciding factor in making me leave your game. Not only uninstalling, but throwing the CD in the garbage. I don’t want to sound over-dramatic on that, but it is exactly what happened.

Now, understand that I love GW2. I was having a blast up until the last Feature Patch in April. But, the non-communication just killed the game for me (as well as the Trait re-vamp). I have no problems whatsoever buying another copy of your game, but I need to see if the conditions here improve. If I didn’t love the game, if I didn’t care about it’s future, then I wouldn’t have been following and participating in discussion for the last few months.

I really hope there is a turnaround. I think it’s great that you are here talking again! But, you also have to understand that a lot of ill-will came about by months silence. I’m hoping that these discussions, and the up-and-coming CDI will improve the current player/dev relationship.

Hi,

I am resposting a response i posted yesterday as it is pertinent:

’It’s worth pointing out that I had way more time to do the more PVE centric CDIs than some of the other guys and girls did. This is important because I haven’t really gone into this before. there is no doubt that some CDIs were better represented than others.

I acknowledge that that there is a time vs dev problem. If you look back at my posts you will see more details on this.

Do please understand however that just because there are no replies to feedback that we aren’t constantly reading the forums.

We have plans to stop this being an issue in regard to CDI moving forward.

Chris’

If you get a chance have a look at some of the other CDI stickies and hopefully you see just how well we can connect if we have the time.

Thanks for you feedback,

Chris

synk.8762:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

The precursor hunt is simply something we just wasn’t ready to be discussed. Case in point therefore regarding policy.

I’d like to address this specifically, because it keeps coming up, and it illustrates a larger issue.

Regardless of whether you jumped the gun mentioning it, it’s obviously something people wanted to hear. People keep bringing it up because it’s become obvious that the route to a Legendary isn’t functional with drop/forge RNG at this point in the game. It’s become more of an economic and playtime issue than anything. I truly believe you’d be hearing about precursor crafting at this point in the game, regardless of whether you’d mentioned it or not.

Having a route to a precursor means a focused goal that people can work towards. It’s also new content in some shape or form. Similar to new PvP and WvW maps, new dungeons, new open world content, it’s representative of something the game community wants – new content and new goals. The reason people keep harping on these things that you guys mentioned two years ago is because they’re still important and relevant, now more than ever, since so much of the game has become familiar to long term players. I understand the frustration of having people hang on your every word, but please understand that these are things that the community have prioritized over others and want in the game.

And thank you to you and all the other Anet folks that have taken time to read and respond, especially on your day off. It shows a marked change for the better and is much appreciated.

Thanks for your feedback and you are exactly right. I think it is fine for us to discuss features in the CDI but discussion around Precursors etc was way to early and as such there was no point in continuing to discuss it and thus the disconnect.

Chris

Grebcol.5984:

@Ipan

I know but a small update like “its not from the table” would be nice.

I will ask the folks tomorrow.

Chris

MFoy.3284:

Mr Whiteside -

Well, After my question about the actual impact of the CDI’s it looks like several items have actually been implemented! Wonderful, I love being wrong at times. I have a couple suggestions that might make things make the next steps forward a bit easier on everyone.

o Please don’t feel the need to write a monograph wall-o-text review of the CDI accomplishments. I think a short bullet chart showing the implemented changes should be enough. Personally, I’m convinced based solely on the community response.

o I’m not sure I’d start another CDI based on my perception of your team’s current workload. Rather, I’d dust off the old summaries from prior events and somehow (magic?) give us a broad brush view of where we are and where we’re headed. The root cause of our problems is when, in the absence of information, we players begin to speculate wildly about the future.

In closing, I’d like to offer an apology for suggesting the Devs are off in a field picking flowers. That was untoward and I’m sure not the case. As a Systems Engineer living in the Silicon Valley my pressures are not your pressures; my methods are not yours.

All the best to you and yours

-M

No need to apologize Mfoy and many thanks for your feedback. I appreciate it.

Chris

cainejw.7142:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

However a number of CDIs…

Now, this is part of the problem. You say it did, but you can’t say how. Say how!

I’ll give you an example. Recently, a game was making overhaul changes to some characters. People were throwing around all sorts of great ideas, but I threw one too. In it, I said that one power or ability could increase the power of another set of abilities resulting in a wider power set usage. It allowed depth and synergy. Suddenly, when you used Power A, a whole set of powers became more powerful and more useful.

The developers did not respond with “That’s a good idea.” or “We’ll look into that.” They made the change, came back to the forums and said, “Bam! Your idea is now in the game. Look for it!”

You know what that did to me and to other players? We perked up immediately. It was clear that our feedback was directly changing gameplay. We knew something we’d done made it into the game. Personally, it made my character feel unique to me because I helped to make the character! More feedback flew in with such strangely cool ideas that people felt included in the game even more. One change. Might have already been in there for all we know, if it felt like we did it.

That is what could help. It doesn’t require being instant. You can say, “Ooh, I love that idea. I’m going to take that to someone and see if we can get that done.” If it can get done, “You got it! It’s in!” if not? “I wanted that in so much, but it’s just not doable. Sorry.” Then the players feel like even if they failed, they were involved somewhere, somehow, in the creation of the power of their character or the definition of what the character cannot do. They feel involved.

I wish the City of Heroes forums were still around. That gave is the template for how developers should interface with their community. You’re developers. We love talking to you guys because it makes us feel connected to the game on a deeper level. Talk to us like people. Joke with us, take our memes with you, etc. You do this some, but it’s really few and far between.

If you think our complaints about Necromancer are valid, jump in and say “You know, I personally agree with you. I’m going to see if I can get that changed. I can’t promise it’ll happen, but we’ll try.” You can even say, “I don’t think that Necro has a problem there, but I’ll bring it up to someone here and see what they think.”

I know you guys and ladies work. You have to do work, but part of your work is to make your players feel connected in a world of play that requires a player to feel connected at all times or else the world you create relies only on your ivory tower without any connection to the real problems. See: academia. Ivory towers.

And I keep harping on it, but ANet has got to get the gem store under control. I again point you to City of Heroes and how they used their store. You could get almost everything in the game in a relatively reasonable amount of time. The store was there as sort of a “if you want it, here it is” alternative. The Gem Store is literally the only place you can have some items at all and others within reason.

So while the developers are in their disconnected Ivory Tower, they’re putting things through the store that you can’t get anywhere else. That, to many people, looks disconnected and like the emphasis is not on developmental or quality. It’s on money. Make gems achievable in the actual game outside of gold. Make the items achievable. Make it feel like the gem store is just a side thing where you go if you want a look at a bunch of cool stuff. Stop making it a vital part of the game where you HAVE to go if you want a new outfit, a new armor, new pets, etc. One way to do this could be to have the items in the store a certain time then in the world after the initial release.

The point is, as I posted before, you gotta treat users as more than wallets. You gotta talk to users like people. Joke with us, laugh with us, take 30 minutes out of your day to reply to 2-3 threads either with content based on the game or just jokes and laughter. Join your community. Then you won’t have to push the gem store with “And you can get gold!” We will see you as people who we want to support so we’ll buy that useless, silly trinket in the store because it goes to help the developers we appreciate.

Finally, in today’s world, professionalism is dead. You’re wearing jeans and t-shirts to work. Unless you’re at the top of the ladder, you’re going polo and slacks. You guys don’t have to treat us like you’re in suits. Treat us like you’re in jeans. Be cool. Be fun. Be HUMAN.

You should probably read through the entire thread. Every one of your points as been covered and for want of a better term is old feedback now.

Thanks for taking the time to post however.

Chris

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

good morning Chris! Take your time, welcome back!

Morning Marcus and everyone.

Chris

phys.7689:

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

Prysin.8542:

which in hindsight can be seen as a bad policy. Just look at the dissatisfaction on these forums, that policy is the sole cause of that. […]

I understand your point, but how would you suggest to prevent future outrages about features that get announced (like the precursor hunt) and possibly scrapped later on because it doesn’t meet Anets standards?

People will scream that they’d rather want a bad implementation than nothing at all, but this would lead to a game where half-baked stuff is implemented which would lower the quality of the game as a whole.

you dont, thats what it all boils down to. Yes you create expectations you dont fullfill, but many times its worse to create no expectations than to fail to meet one. Also explaining WHY you didnt meet expectations, and HOW you plan to meet them asap is a HUGE means of dealing with expectations that arent met.

The reality is that the announcement of the precursor scavenger hunt SAVED anet for many many many months. They had a big problem boiling, and knowing it was in the works HELPED anet and players grin and bear it because they had hope for the future. Never announcing that feature would have helped no one, and hearing peoples feedback about the concept probably helped anet scrap some ideas that they may have gone with if they didnt announce that idea.

precursor hunt announcement gave anet a lot more benefit than not doing it would have done, the results were bad because they didnt deliver, the results would have been worse had they said nothing about it 1 year ago, and we still had no solutions, or if they had gone forward with a system that all feedback that came from the announcement shows would be a bad answer.

short version, for arenanet, the precursor announcement was actually a way better thing than the current system would allow, even with its negative backlash.

The precursor hunt is simply something we just wasn’t ready to be discussed. Case in point therefore regarding policy.

This said I personally feel that there is room for maneuver and a policy adjustment to be more inclusive.

I am really looking forward to seeing how the next CDI goes as that could lead to some more open discussion for sure.

Chris

P.S: Going back to bed for a bit.

Hi All,

The CDI is starting up again. How would you like the topic/s to be chosen for this round.

Here are you options for now:

1: Anet chooses.
2: You list your number 1 topic and the one with the must number of votes wins.

Note: This isn’t a call for topics just asking how to pick them(-:

Chris

Good morning all.

I am up to date on the discussion and will post my thoughts etc in a bit.

I haven’t had much sleep so I am going to try to get an hour or two and then I will be back.

Meanwhile I am going to start a thread on how we want to pick the next topic for the CDI.

Happy Sunday!

Chris

Anymras.5729:

…ugh, that awkward moment when the only questions you have are things that probably won’t be answered or on-topic: Whether Hobosacks (Engineer Kit backpacks) will ever not override back item visuals, and if that every-class-every-weapon thing is still in the works.

Anyway, it’s really cool that this communication thing is happening. I mean it! I know text can be difficult to ‘tone,’ but communication – actual communication like this has been – is always appreciated. Especially since it can be so difficult, whatever the reason.

.. (-: Going to make some dinner and watch Locke.

See you all tomorrow and thanks for the discussion it was fun.

Chris

Atlas.9704:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Morning All,

You asked me to be honest so I am going to be. I am starting to feel like doing another CDI just isn’t worth the frustration, huge amount of time and heartache.

As i have said many many times before getting the logistics around communication right is extremely important. Time is precious and anything that can be done to make every second more valuable is paramount. Any time a developer spends on CDI is time away from the game. The benefit however is huge in terms of the products evolution so it is an extremely difficult balancing act.

Chris

As a developer I sympathize with your frustrations.
There’s too many times I’ll listen to a client use their “client speak” about what they want while my brain tries to translate the problem into “dev speak”.

All that time used could have been used for something constructive (IMO) like coding, maybe finding that blasted bug they will eventually discover, or getting a soda as I rage at the potentially new project that will last a month or more just on pure committee.

Even though my kneejerk reaction would be “maybe if the CDI is a headache we shouldn’t do it” I also get what you’re saying.

ANet needs to see where the community thinks we need fixes, then internally compares them with what ANet sees, and eventually something comes out of it.

Maybe one of the CDIs could be more of what ANet thinks is important and we sit and listen for a change? I can’t remember if this was done in the past, but personally it would help discussions in the future.

If ANet is more concerned about (example) Living world story satisfaction and folks are still wondering why no mounts/ duels/ non gem store skins, the community can at least see the latter being well off your radar at this time.

I’ll still contribute to CDIs if I have something worthwhile, but I wanted to let you know that you have my sympathies during these hectic times.

Thanks for your feedback and understanding.

it’s all good I understand the frustration.

Chris

HHR LostProphet.4801:

The (First World) Problem of GuildWars 2
The real problem with GW2 is that the flaws are multi-dimensional and sometimes that big, that they affect nearly every part of the game. Many of these flaws are so huge that they probably can’t be removed until ANet is willing to rework huge portions of the game to please players who have played this game a long time now, the non-casual gamers.
And I honetly don’t think this will ever happen.

Some initial information:

I’ve played this game now since release and dumbed more than 4k hours in this game. Thus, I wouldn’t describe me as casual player. All “flaws” I am going to list and analyze will only become obvious after multiple, multiple hours in-game time. If you’re new to GuildWars 2 or if you don’t want to stay “forever”, you can happily ignore my concerns, since you wont be limited by the “flaws” I’ll list.

But let’s look for the flaws:

GW2 Manifesto
No Grinding! That was one of the promises GW2 tries to achieve. But how?

1. Currencies as reward instead of items. There is no content dedicated to farm special items. This bares the risk of dominating currencies. We have the problem with gold. Except of fractal skins, everything can be bought with gold or requires no preparations at all.
2. RNG Drops. You can farm everywhere and nowhere because the RNG assures that you always have the same small chance of getting what you want.
3. Diminishing Returns. This actively prevents anyone from farming anything effectively.

Casual Friendly! What it did to the game:

1. Easy content. Anything can be completed with every profession or gear. It may take longer but it’s not impossible. This leads to the fact that there is no challenge in the game and many people get bored quickly. It also limits build diversity.
   Since there is no defensive required, everyone is compelled to maximise their DPS and there can be only one build for each class offering the most damage.
2. Simple AI. Stacking in corners. Nuff said. If I’m recalling correctly, mobs used to walk out of AoEs as example. But this got scrapped before the game shipped.

Balanced Economy! This is how it backfires:

1. Limiting item/currency creation. This ensures that the economy doesn’t get flooded with gold. But because of this, events grant almost no reward and dungeons also grant low reward. Entire PvE maps become redundant because there is nothing to do that grants acceptable reward.
2. Everything can be traded. This also leads to the dominating role of gold. Everything can be bought with gold.
3. Gems can be converted to gold. This, in combination with the dominating role of gold as currency and in combination with the low reward from in-game activities, leads to the fact that it would be more rewarding goldwise, to work in RL to buy gems, rather than to farm in-game to get what one wants.

ArenaNet as company
There are also issues related with the way ANet works as a company:

1. Small Staff. We can see this being an issue on the basis of patchcyles and the age of the content. New content gets only developed in small bits, no huge updates since release, bugs reamin unfixed for several months.
2. Balance. This would also apply to the small staff, but it deserves a separate bullet point. The amount of skills got reduced drastically compared to GW1, yet the balance is still a mess. Countless traits and utilities remain completely unused, there are only one or two “competitive” builds for each class and broken builds like HamBow Warrior, Decap Engie or PU Mesmer remain untouched for far too long.
3. Wrong Ambitions. ANet tries to go it’s own way, tries to push PvP into ESports, tries to satisfy the PvE community with temporary content aka. Living Story, rather than working on popular modes like GvG or delivering permanent content for PvE. Most people would even pay for more PvE content. Not to say ANet shouldn’t be allowed to aim for those goals, but they should address the issues the game has, like old, stale content by delivering new content, rather than to stave off the community with half-baked permanent content.
4. Missing Professionalism. I don’t want to upset anybody, I just suggest to read following thread: Biconics can’t carry GW Franchise.
5. Unloved aspects of the game. See Dungeons. They almost never got (and probably will get) any love.

Note i won’t be replying on the forum to this excellent post as I have asked if we can speak on the phone so I can have a deeper discussion.

Chris

P.S: I have had to delete some of it to be within count sorry.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

zenleto.6179:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

On a separate topic I can’t get over how good this fan made video is.

I mention it because i am watching it again atm.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gHsliMTzhg

Chris

This is wonderful, thanks for putting it in.

It makes up for the sour taste from the Forum -1 I got from page 3. Watch out for those Chris, with the liberation of communication

I have 2 already (-:

Chris

And yeah it is really well done. Great level of understanding of the story.

Chris

zenleto.6179:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

On a separate topic I can’t get over how good this fan made video is.

I mention it because i am watching it again atm.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gHsliMTzhg

Chris

This is wonderful, thanks for putting it in.

It makes up for the sour taste from the Forum -1 I got from page 3. Watch out for those Chris, with the liberation of communication

I have 2 already (-:

Chris

Aeromu.9134:

CDIs aren’t worth developer time because all we have learned from the first ones we have done is that you don’t have time to go through them anyways. I wouldn’t want to read about work when I am not at my job and I don’t expect you guys to do it either. I do expect our comments to be read and the good non-toxic ones to be passed on to you or management by a community team member. I don’t see the community team doing their job well enough that you shouldn’t have to even look at the forums. There seems to be a disconnect there. I hope that you guys move forward to a transparent way of communication because I love the game and I hope the best for it. At this point, depending on how you continue and move forward with the communication will determine if you can keep myself and I am sure others playing the game and/or buying gems.

It’s worth pointing out that I had way more time to do the more PVE centric CDIs than some of the other guys and girls did. This is important because I haven’t really gone into this before. there is no doubt that some CDIs were better represented than others.

I acknowledge that that there is a time vs dev problem. If you look back at my posts you will see more details on this.

Do please understand however that just because there are no replies to feedback that we aren’t constantly reading the forums.

We have plans to stop this being an issue in regard to CDI moving forward.

Chris

On a separate topic I can’t get over how good this fan made video is.

I mention it because i am watching it again atm.

Chris

Essence Snow.3194:

For some reason I thought we already had a cdi on the formatting of cdi’s the 1st time round. Probably wrong..it’s late afterall

We did but we didn’t continue to refine and the CDI is still unwieldy. The plan was to do a retrospective after each one.

Chris

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Essence Snow.3194:

Any inclination to what type of cdi ya’ll will start with?

(hopefully not a cdi on how communicate via a cdi…think I saw that mentioned somewhere…might be wrong)

Well we do need to talk about format but we end up never doing it because folks would rather discuss the actual game (-: (How dare they!)

I plan to post on Monday asking if folks want us to pick or we do a poll on the forum.

Chris

I could do that post now actually….

Chris

Essence Snow.3194:

Any inclination to what type of cdi ya’ll will start with?

(hopefully not a cdi on how communicate via a cdi…think I saw that mentioned somewhere…might be wrong)

Well we do need to talk about format but we end up never doing it because folks would rather discuss the actual game (-: (How dare they!)

I plan to post on Monday asking if folks want us to pick or we do a poll on the forum.

Chris

pdavis.8031:

tolunart.2095:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

tolunart.2095:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

And whilst we are on the subject. if you think everything mentioned in a CDI is going to be agreed upon and magically created overnight then your expectations are perhaps a little bit high.

Chris

It’s the Twitter generation. If you can’t compress an idea into @100 keystrokes it’s not worth trying to read or understand. These are the same people who go to a restaurant, spend 20 minutes taking pictures of their food and posting to social media, then complain about the service because their food is cold.

These are people who are so caught up in narcissism that they can’t even understand that they are responsible for their own problems.

It is probably incorrect for me to say this but your post made me lol.

Thanks for social commentary humor, you have made a rather somber day turn into one where i am smiling now.

Chris

P.S: Somber because my Yellow Tang died 0-: not because of anything else.

Sorry about your fish

The funny thing is the story is true – I read an article not long ago about a restaurant where the management noticed a dramatic rise in complaints and bad comments on Facebook and such. They used to have video cameras taping the kitchen and dining areas so they found some old tapes and compared them to footage from their current system. They found that vs. 10 yrs ago people were taking a lot longer to order because now as soon as they sit down a lot of people are absorbed in their phones – talking, texting, surfing the web – where they used to pick up the menus immediately and order within five minutes or so, now it’s more like 10. Then the food arrives and they spend more time tweeting about it than eating it. This adds an extra half hour or so to the average visit and these are the people who are more likely to complain that the service was slow, food was cold, etc. The service is still as fast as ever, the customers have changed.

Food for thought…

Yeah saw the same article and thought the same thing. Also Yellow Tang is a fish? I was thinking about the drink…no wonder is was confused about the aquarium bit…

Sorry to hear that man.

Yeah fish. he was a bully to the other fish anyway.

All is well that’s ends well.

Chris

tolunart.2095:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

tolunart.2095:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

And whilst we are on the subject. if you think everything mentioned in a CDI is going to be agreed upon and magically created overnight then your expectations are perhaps a little bit high.

Chris

It’s the Twitter generation. If you can’t compress an idea into @100 keystrokes it’s not worth trying to read or understand. These are the same people who go to a restaurant, spend 20 minutes taking pictures of their food and posting to social media, then complain about the service because their food is cold.

These are people who are so caught up in narcissism that they can’t even understand that they are responsible for their own problems.

It is probably incorrect for me to say this but your post made me lol.

Thanks for social commentary humor, you have made a rather somber day turn into one where i am smiling now.

Chris

P.S: Somber because my Yellow Tang died 0-: not because of anything else.

Sorry about your fish

The funny thing is the story is true – I read an article not long ago about a restaurant where the management noticed a dramatic rise in complaints and bad comments on Facebook and such. They used to have video cameras taping the kitchen and dining areas so they found some old tapes and compared them to footage from their current system. They found that vs. 10 yrs ago people were taking a lot longer to order because now as soon as they sit down a lot of people are absorbed in their phones – talking, texting, surfing the web – where they used to pick up the menus immediately and order within five minutes or so, now it’s more like 10. Then the food arrives and they spend more time tweeting about it than eating it. This adds an extra half hour or so to the average visit and these are the people who are more likely to complain that the service was slow, food was cold, etc. The service is still as fast as ever, the customers have changed.

Food for thought…

haha points for the great pun!

Chris

Merus.9475:

I’m someone who’s thoroughly fed up with ArenaNet’s communication, and is largely on the way out, so hopefully my perspective is useful. I’m going to try to be constructive.

It doesn’t feel like ArenaNet acknowledges or is aware of the problems with their game, leading people like me to believe that they’re largely not going to be fixed. It doesn’t feel like they recognise the strengths of their game, or intend to build on them. Communication is a part of this, but so is a lack of trust, and that cannot be fixed with any number of CDIs.

Most of the things that have blown up over the past week have been long-standing sore points amongst the community. In each case, people got snippets of information and extrapolated wildly from there. I’ve been on the other side of this: the problem is not ‘people got inaccurate information’ (because the same thing happens if they do get accurate information) but that people have been looking for any information at all, without the context to make sense of it. A good example is the radio silence after the poorly-received changes to fractals, and the trait system. This wasn’t future content. What was needed there was a dev to explain the design choices they made, discuss expectations and intentions, and because it was absent, that bred resentment. Josh Foreman did this excellently during SAB2, and the players who are still around from then remember that he engaged, understood, and learned from the negative feedback. I know it was particularly kitten him, but ANet had gone through a big period of radio silence so Josh unfairly got the brunt of that.

If devs are scared of toxic feedback, look at how John Smith handles it – even his insults show he is paying attention, because he is responding to toxic comments as if they’re toxic and not “good points that we will take into consideration”. There’s a sense that John won’t bullkitten us.

You don’t even talk about how the game’s going now – any other company would be putting together a press release every time they got another 500,000 players. Talk about upcoming MMOs don’t even mention GW2 as a game that’s current, and it’s certainly not the new hotness any more.

Because we don’t have that kind of visibility into the game as it exists, all we have is wild speculation. We don’t know what ArenaNet’s priorities are, or what they even consider as problems. (I know it came as a surprise to me to find out that increasing demand for cloth way above supply was intentional.) Which means that for every big and little problem that we can think of, whether it’s the frustrating way loot works or engineer hobo backpacks or PPT or dungeon story-mode rewards or or or or or or, the only way to get some closure is to bring it up at even wildly inappropriate opportunities.

Part of that is your unwillingness as a studio to discuss what you’re working on – which would be fine if we trusted that you were working on something exciting, but that trust is long gone.

It started to fray during Living World Season 1, which was probably not the plan – Guild Wars has always valued a certain amount of consonance between the lore and game mechanics, and the idea of making updates part of a story was a fascinating idea. The PvE players loved the idea that there’d be a surprise every two weeks – a new dungeon? a holiday? new bosses? new events? – but every update grated on WvW and PvP players because they’d constantly get their hopes dashed. The Feature Pack model was supposed to fix this, but the problem there is that because they’re much further apart, WvW and PvP players are encouraged to believe that each Feature Pack will contain ‘major updates’, and in the absence of information, that will inevitably mean ‘the thing that players have been wanting most’.

PvE players are also feeling like ArenaNet haven’t made good on their promises – you’re hearing a lot about precursor crafting, but there’s a certain amount of disappointment with Season 2 as well. It’s more consistent, but as a result it’s also a lot less surprising, and that feels like we’re getting less.

Do you see how, even though you never intend to make promises, that they happen anyway? There’s been a huge erosion of trust, and that colours everything. There’s a lot of skepticism over yet another CDI because it feels like they’re trotted out for disingenuous reasons. (They started just after a previous big PR disaster when an ArenaNet employee had choice words for GvG players in WvW.)

I don’t know how you rebuild that trust without making commitments, because as far as I’m concerned you don’t do what you say you’re going to do, so why should I believe you when you say you want things to be different. And you don’t seem willing to make commitments.

This came out sounding more like a breakup letter than I had intended.

(Don’t you dare respond to this with ‘all good points’, Chris.)

Hi Merus,

Don’t worry I won’t.

Chris

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Aww, I’m so sorry to hear that. I’ve always enjoyed my aquariums, though I’ve never had the pleasure of a saltwater one. Loads of freshwater, though! They make wonderful pets and are quite soothing to watch.

My condolences.

Thanks. I don’t think he was to smart and decided to go into some coral. Not sure. it is weird. Meanwhile my stupid clowns are trying to bond with a torch coral and it isn’t happy.

Not a good day for my fish tank (-:

Chris

ToaLux.6478:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

ToaLux.6478:

Geez, I love all of Chris’s sassy answers—he takes the words right out of my mouth half the time

I have no clue how you guys can slog through all the gunk here to find the constructive posts, but I really do appreciate the simple existence of this thread!

Sorry if they are coming across as sassy. just trying to be honest and a bit more human and less water of a ducks back as many of you have said i should try harder with.

It is actually much less frustrating to just say it like i see it. I hope though that this approach is taken in the spirit it is intended and not in a negative way.I tend to be like this on CDIs.

Chris

Pff, no! They’re brilliant! Haha, I love reading how bluntly honest they are

Believe me: I certainly do not take them negatively; I also think most others would agree with me. Keep it up!

Good because i am honestly not trying to be a naughty junior feline.

Chris

Belligerent.6843:

It is really nice to see so much interaction with a Dev, thanks Chris! Look forward to the CDI’s

Me too really looking forward to it.

I am just concerned about how much time i am going to have next week as i am very busy Monday Tuesday but that is what evenings are for right (-:

Chris

tolunart.2095:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

And whilst we are on the subject. if you think everything mentioned in a CDI is going to be agreed upon and magically created overnight then your expectations are perhaps a little bit high.

Chris

It’s the Twitter generation. If you can’t compress an idea into @100 keystrokes it’s not worth trying to read or understand. These are the same people who go to a restaurant, spend 20 minutes taking pictures of their food and posting to social media, then complain about the service because their food is cold.

These are people who are so caught up in narcissism that they can’t even understand that they are responsible for their own problems.

It is probably incorrect for me to say this but your post made me lol.

Thanks for social commentary humor, you have made a rather somber day turn into one where i am smiling now.

Chris

P.S: Somber because my Yellow Tang died 0-: not because of anything else.

pdavis.8031:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

pdavis.8031:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

phabby.8945:

Mike great to see the honesty and commitment to us here, so Ill be honest Go play with the boys they are way more important then us, we can wait till your Monday and if anyone thinks we can’t they don’t have kidds.

Woohho I see we have Regina popping in always a pleasure to see her on, Now if we get Gaile then what a party, be like the old days.

great impact Devs thanks for your time on the weekend now go relax looking like the next few weeks may become hectic in here with CDI and other communication

cheers Phabby

hi Phabby,

its all good, the boys are playing lego around mea nd we are chatting. Thanks for your concern though.

I think i might take the day off tomorrow though (-:

Chris

Yeah im with phabby on this one. Go be with your family. Much more important. If anyone who wants to say differently, well they can go take a long walk off pier 61. But we do greatly appreciate your time here with us. If its not too much to ask, I would greatly appreciate your look into this thread? Would love to hear your thoughts…if any. Thanks! !

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Improvised-CDI-thread/first#post4322881

Hi,

I was looking at this thread last night. Will catch up now.

Initial thoughts are it is cool.

Chis

Thanks you rock! !!!

No you rock!

Chris

Zoso.8279:

Hamfast.8719:

First off, Chris, thank you for coming forth and doing what is not really a part of your job description, and doing it on your weekend to boot. I have always understood that many of the Developers do what they do out of love for the game. Your taking personal time to repair the lines of communication only reinforces that notion.

Put anybody who thinks you aren’t serious about this on your “ignore” list. You’re doing a nice, diplomatic job so far in the face of some really hostile comments, whereas I might’ve managed to get myself infracted by this point.

Now on with my thoughts…

I have often read comments that most of the gaming community doesn’t go to the forums, and when they do it is often because they have a gripe about something. So while a CDI may be a good way to brainstorm solutions, it may not be the best way to determine WHAT needs to be solved. The forums don’t reach a broad enough section of the community.

During the Beta testing, we were given little in-game questionnaires to help you guys decide what people liked, and disliked, and what needed work. That seems like a good way to reach a nice, sizable spectrum of gamers. Do you think your little questionnaire program could be adapted to quiz the community on their desires?

Let each account respond ONE time. Offer a checklist of “hot topics” we’d like to see addressed. Everyone can check three items on the list, and your computers can tally up what topics are the most important to the community as a whole. (Checklist responses only… no freeform replies. That would take forever to sort through).

Once the results are in, THEN open your CDIs and talk about the “winning” topics. This would help assure that the issues we discuss are truly the issues uppermost in the minds of the majority of the community.

I think this is a pretty good suggestion any thoughts? If not exactly like this some form of it? I agree I don’t jump on forums too much but spend 10+ hours in the game sometimes each day! (will be jumping and have been on forums more often!)

I think it is a good idea. I will discuss it with the guys and girls on Monday and get back to you all.

Chris

ToaLux.6478:

Geez, I love all of Chris’s sassy answers—he takes the words right out of my mouth half the time

I have no clue how you guys can slog through all the gunk here to find the constructive posts, but I really do appreciate the simple existence of this thread!

Sorry if they are coming across as sassy. just trying to be honest and a bit more human and less water of a ducks back as many of you have said i should try harder with.

It is actually much less frustrating to just say it like i see it. I hope though that this approach is taken in the spirit it is intended and not in a negative way.I tend to be like this on CDIs.

Chris

pdavis.8031:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

phabby.8945:

Mike great to see the honesty and commitment to us here, so Ill be honest Go play with the boys they are way more important then us, we can wait till your Monday and if anyone thinks we can’t they don’t have kidds.

Woohho I see we have Regina popping in always a pleasure to see her on, Now if we get Gaile then what a party, be like the old days.

great impact Devs thanks for your time on the weekend now go relax looking like the next few weeks may become hectic in here with CDI and other communication

cheers Phabby

hi Phabby,

its all good, the boys are playing lego around mea nd we are chatting. Thanks for your concern though.

I think i might take the day off tomorrow though (-:

Chris

Yeah im with phabby on this one. Go be with your family. Much more important. If anyone who wants to say differently, well they can go take a long walk off pier 61. But we do greatly appreciate your time here with us. If its not too much to ask, I would greatly appreciate your look into this thread? Would love to hear your thoughts…if any. Thanks! !

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Improvised-CDI-thread/first#post4322881

Hi,

I was looking at this thread last night. Will catch up now.

Initial thoughts are it is cool.

Chis

Ashen.2907:

Gene Archer.8560:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

and honestly a lot of the team who care deeply about Arena and the community are to scared to post because let’s be honest forums in general can be quite toxic.

I’m sorry, Chris, but this is neither a good nor acceptable reason to avoid the forums.

I work right now as pizza delivery. It really, really sucks. You can be delivering in a snowstorm, be two minutes late, and the customer won’t care. And they will berate you, withhold a tip, and complain to your manager.

And we take it. And we apologize, and we give them a free pizza and try to make the delivery a better experience next time. Because that person is a customer, and no matter how kittenty they are to us, we need their business.

And it’s horrible. It’s a really demeaning and stressful job for sucky pay, and I hate it, but I accept it. Because that’s what it means to provide a service. That’s what it means to rely on a customer. I don’t get to hide my head in the sand. I don’t get to avoid the angry customer, I have to face them head on. I have to take the initial brunt if they’re upset. And I don’t get to retaliate, because my job is on the line.

And that’s for a lowly pizza delivery job. You guys are so much higher up on the food chain.

Doesn’t it strike you as a little odd that the lowly pizza guy is being held to far higher customer interaction standards than the large corporation that has a critically acclaimed video game?

Do you do all of that for your customers on your free time? Off the clock? Does the accountant or payroll person at your company’s corporate HQ drive out to the customer’s house to apologize?

I ask because dev posts on the forums are not part of their work-load. They do it on their own time. The forums are not part of their job. It is perfectly reasonable for someone who is not paid to interact with often irate or rude customers to opt to not volunteer their free time to do so.

You took a customer service job, and work directly with customers. Developers are not customer service reps any more than are assembly workers at a Nike factory.

You put it much better than me.

Chris

codiac.5642:

I just bought a spare character slot, number 9, on special, just in case there is a new class sometime … don’t waste my investment!

Nice try (-:

Chris

phabby.8945:

Mike great to see the honesty and commitment to us here, so Ill be honest Go play with the boys they are way more important then us, we can wait till your Monday and if anyone thinks we can’t they don’t have kidds.

Woohho I see we have Regina popping in always a pleasure to see her on, Now if we get Gaile then what a party, be like the old days.

great impact Devs thanks for your time on the weekend now go relax looking like the next few weeks may become hectic in here with CDI and other communication

cheers Phabby

hi Phabby,

its all good, the boys are playing lego around mea nd we are chatting. Thanks for your concern though.

I think i might take the day off tomorrow though (-:

Chris

JoluMarti.9165:

Please listen to the community!
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2edt1i/did_i_listen_to_a_different_interview/
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2ed3js/thank_you_for_finally_cutting_the_cord_arenanet/
They are really annoying

Hi,

Not sure what you mean by this post sorry.

Chris

Tanith.5264:

Well.

I have been wading through these forums, the reddit, and other sources trying to figure out just what the hell happened this week. Real life issues have kept me from devoting more than the barest attention to GW2, and it seems a lot’s gone down.

I’m not sure whether it’s good or bad, but this thread is definitely a step in the right direction. As soon as things calm down here on the home front, I’ll also try to provide some helpful feedback. It’s the least I can do for this game I’m so attached to.

And in the meantime…yeah, keep talking.

Thanks Tanith.

Chris

Deified.7520:

Hey Chris/Regina, what are the possibilities of doing development path or track or something along those lings?

Like maybe you can do it for certain things that you consider to be important, but not name them. Like.

PvP Mechanic Path

---

25%

PvE piece of content

---

20%

Things like that. Give people an idea of what you all are working on, because I believe many people are a bit confused with what direction Anet wants to go with gw2.
\
Also thanks for talking again on the forums. Even if it isn’t revealing something I do truly appreciate it.

Hi,

Sorry I won’t be talking about schedules or manpower division.

And thanks for your support. Let’s also see how things go with the CDIs and maybe I can be more open. We will see.

Chris

Gene Archer.8560:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

and honestly a lot of the team who care deeply about Arena and the community are to scared to post because let’s be honest forums in general can be quite toxic.

I’m sorry, Chris, but this is neither a good nor acceptable reason to avoid the forums.

I work right now as pizza delivery. It really, really sucks. You can be delivering in a snowstorm, be two minutes late, and the customer won’t care. And they will berate you, withhold a tip, and complain to your manager.

And we take it. And we apologize, and we give them a free pizza and try to make the delivery a better experience next time. Because that person is a customer, and no matter how kittenty they are to us, we need their business.

And it’s horrible. It’s a really demeaning and stressful job for sucky pay, and I hate it, but I accept it. Because that’s what it means to provide a service. That’s what it means to rely on a customer. I don’t get to hide my head in the sand. I don’t get to avoid the angry customer, I have to face them head on. I have to take the initial brunt if they’re upset. And I don’t get to retaliate, because my job is on the line.

And that’s for a lowly pizza delivery job. You guys are so much higher up on the food chain.

Doesn’t it strike you as a little odd that the lowly pizza guy is being held to far higher customer interaction standards than the large corporation that has a critically acclaimed video game?

Hi,

The development teams job is make the game not to work on the forums. They do however read the forums all the time and as I said engage with player in game. They would love to spend more time interacting on the forums I am sure but time and the sometimes toxic environment are nig barriers to entry.

Also please note again, that the CDI is not a ‘Community’ tool it is a development tool. These two things are very different.

So please forgive me but yes i do a big difference between the two roles you define above.

Chris