Guild Wars 2

That’s great!

I have a whole lot of art ready to go for next year’s Halloween episode of Community Showcase Live, and this make a great addition.

Timing? I can’t imagine what you mean.

We take on board that some of you have suggestions or requests on this subject, and we do appreciate your feedback. However, for a variety of reasons, the changes that were made are not something that will or even can be reversed.

Ziggy.3842:

I don’t like any of these solutions. The host server holds the major bulk of the population while the linked server only holds a small amount. With all of these solutions you take AWAY the identity of servers. not fix them..

It seems to me that this is on topic and states a valid opinion. While it’s unfortunate you don’t like any of the suggestions, it would be really helpful to know if you can suggest an alternative that you would find more desirable.

Hi,

The moderator team is going to have to do quite a bit of clean-up on this thread, so let’s get a few things straight:

• This is a well-intentioned thread by the World versus World Team. They are inviting your feedback and engaging on an important subject. Please do share your thoughts.
• To those of you sharing valid feedback, sincere thanks!
• The WvW Team is not involved with game balance. Please do not hop on this thread to post salty, negative comments, nor to try to redirect the team to do your bidding.
• When you ask for engagement, please stop and think about how you’d like to be treated and extend that courtesy to everyone, dev and player alike. That is the way we can look for more interaction, more information, and a better and more productive form of engagement.

Please read our thread on Giving Good Feedback for information on how you can provide valuable and constructive feedback, which will help all of us.

Oh my gosh, another change:

Norn-Vember will be airing on Wednesday, November 30th at Noon Pacific. (I edited the initial post to make the clear, too.)

I will pull the art on the same date, November 8th, but because of other projects, we’ll be airing one week later in the month.

Thanks for your understanding about these date changes!!

Hey everyone. As Linsey mentioned, this thread is now closed. She will update everyone with more information soon.

There are some things about the Mysterious Asura that… must remain mysterious at this time. However, James Richter from our Audio or Sound Team provided some information on processing that you might want to know: “Everything from the September VO sessions was reprocessed last week using higher-quality source material. To be clear, these were recordings of the same performances, but with some de-noising removed that was causing things to sound compressed and grainy (which other players had noted in earlier releases!). In addition, there was a bug in the Distorted Intercom process that was causing it to sweep through a much narrower pitch range than intended. So it’s possible that players were accustomed to hearing less pitch variation from this character than they have now, but the current version is more what the sound designers wanted.”

Interesting stuff, eh?

We’re seeing frequent retreads of previously-discussed topics. Normally we’re neutral on such a situation, even while we know it makes gathering feedback more challenging, and reading the forums more (and needlessly) time-consuming. But when threads closely mirror a topic presented just a few posts below — as this appears to do — and when a thread heads into ToxicLand, it’s best to close and move on.

Player input on this topic has been read and is understood by the team. Opinions vary quite widely , but the devs are aware of the many opinions on this subject.

Closing now.

This topic has been brought up and discussed many, many times, When more than half the recent posts in a thread are by the same person, and when the content seems to lean towards a rousing game of “Quote Wars,” it’s clear the thread has exceeded its viable shelf life.

Thanks for the discussion, but it’s time to move on to other subjects.

These are lovely, millanne!

I love this so much!

We already filmed and aired the October Community Showcase Live show, but hey, I will definitely flag this for next year’s show!

Due to scheduling adjustments, I changed the “gathering dates” for art. The new dates are:

November: The Norn-vember Show will be broadcast on our Twitch Channnel on Wednesday, November 23 at Noon Pacific Time. I will be selecting featured art by Tuesday, November 8.
December: The Wintersday Show will be broadcast on our Twitch Channnel on Wednesday, December 14, at Noon Pacific Time. I will be selecting featured art on by Thursday, December 1st.

If you have any questions, please let me know!

A message from the PvP Team:

We wanted to give you a quick heads-up regarding some changes coming to the Ranked Arena map pool for Season 5.

• Skyhammer will be added to Ranked Arena on a trial basis.
  • Reasoning: The current iteration of Skyhammer is a far cry from what it was when it was released in 2013. We’ve made an effort to remove gameplay elements that prevented it from being a competitive map, such as deaths from fall damage and unavoidable secondary mechanics. We’re looking forward to seeing how this map performs in the ranked environment and will be keeping an eye on your feedback throughout the season.
• Battle for Champion’s Dusk (Stronghold) will be removed from Ranked Arena.
  • Reasoning: One of our main goals for the revamp of leagues is to make divisions a more accurate reflection of skill. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to achieve this goal when players can opt out of playing an entire game mode within the league system and never face a significant proportion of the PvP player base. That said, we’ll be removing Stronghold for Season 5 while we evaluate the game mode for ranked play for future seasons.

We wanted to let you know that the Shadow of the Mad King (Halloween) festival will end in one week, on November 8, 2016. I hope you have a blast — as I know I will — in this final week of the festivities.

Enjoy!!

That’s adorable.

What a great idea, CornishRose. And that’s sure to encourage others to jump into next year’s event. Major high fives to everyone who was involved in such a fun event!

I didn’t see this until now, but wanted to say I really love it! It’s a very stylish presentation of one of my favorite characters, too.

That’s great! I hope your neighbors were suitably scared… or impressed.

So much personali… I mean asura-nality in that image!!

That’s great!

That’s really fun, and your images are great! Thanks for sharing and Happy Halloween!

That’s very nicely done! Thanks for sharing.

BenjaminK.8792:

Some new stuff created during the last week ;-)

Hi Benjamin,

In preparing for Norn-vember, can you tell me how I would write the name of the female ranger in the second set of images? The URL has a gap, and I’m not sure how it would be written. It seems it may be Sjælla Sigrunsdottir. Is that right?

Thank you!

Hey, those are nice!

Endless Soul.5178:

Well, it’s on the Gem Store for 350 gems. 4 days only!

~snagged it~

Me too. In about .3 nanoseconds. I never spent gems so quickly — or so happily — in my life.

October 2016 Episode

Guest: Steve Hwang, Game Designer – ArenaNet

Here are the featured artists from this month’s show:

• Kaedalus
• Joyce Moenen
• Eldritch Rach
• The Designs
• Shira
• Citri
• Wild Dalek Appeared
• Sefokusu
• Yubria
• Serenity
• Manya
• Red Dandellion
• Koreena Anchalis
• Dragon Food
• Silkia
• Eexa
• Suzzanne
• ach-die-anna
• Artrisy
• Marzy Marrs
• Katnaxel
• Light of Dwayna
• Ask Leo the Asura Engineer
• Ting Siu Ip
• Renaissance Girl
• Obfuscate
• Charlotte
• LyraHeart
• Dream of Trahearne
• Rebecca Whitten
• Sayael
• mistbeing
• Marschire
• Dominik & Arcus Pride

Thanks so much to everyone who contributed to the show, as well as those who joined us during its presentation. Special thanks to our guest Steve Hwang, who is a long-time coworker and friend.

Please remember that we can go “back in time” to select art for a show, so never hesitate to share things, even if they are “off season.” For instance, some of the art for next year’s Halloween show will be chosen from this year’s shared art. If you share here, great! Sharing on the forums means you have given us have permission to feature the art. If you’re sharing on Tumblr, please always use the hashtag #GW2 Fan Submission to ensure we can showcase your art!

Next Show: Wednesday, November 23, 2016 — Noon Pacific Time

Oh hey, and you can help me out, if you would! Sometimes the human and the norn look a lot alike. So if you have posted art and haven’t specifically said it’s a norn, update the thread to say that, ok?

Honestly, I often can figure it out. Tall. Braids. Transform to animals. Serious expressions and massive weapons. I got all that. But sometimes there’s this dainty norn in Hoelbrak and I do a double-take, so better for me to ask.

setius.3498:

So your question made me curious and i asked my friend why he wanted me to do this again…and well.. look here:

forgiveme I never played gw1. (but sooon, maybe?)

Well, now I feel really, really guilty! In truth, I have a fond place in my heart for Prince Rurik… or at least I did until he reminded me for the 419th time about his childhood.

Hey all,

If you tune in the Community Showcase Live, or watch it later on YouTube — October episode here — then you know we’re going with “theme” shows for the November and December episodes:

• November is Norn-vember, and while we’ll feature other works of art, our primary focus is the Norn (and winter as a sub-theme).
• December will be, as you might expect, our Wintersday Show.

The shows, and the dates I will be pulling assets, follow:
November: The Norn-vember Show will be broadcast on Wednesday, November 30 at Noon Pacific Time. I will be selecting featured art by Tuesday, November 8.
December: The Wintersday Show will be broadcast on Wednesday, December 14, at Noon Pacific Time. I will be selecting featured art on by Thursday, December 1st.

By way of background, I need to select art early in the month so that we have time to build the show deck, line up a guest, write the script (gotta give credit to all our artists!), and record the show for airing on the dates listed above.

If you have any questions, please let me know. Otherwise, I hope to see you in Twitch chat on the above dates, or through YouTube at any time!

Update: This content has been re-enabled. Thank you for your patience.

Hello,

This thread has run for a long while, and for the most part, it’s gone very well. However, forum members have noted, and we’ve observed, that a pattern has developed amongst some participants of repeatedly asking for items. This wouldn’t be quite so bad if folks were leaving their posts in place so that such patterns were visible. However, by editing the post, or even deleting previous posts, participants make it unclear that they have been gifted with items—sometimes many times over. And that has led others to feel compelled to point out this fact to the Forums Team and ask for help with this well-intentioned thread.

You should know that the Forums Team can see deleted posts, even if members cannot. And all of us can see that edits were made.

I note Saranii’s post above, and I commend it: They edited their post to update, to say “Yes, I received the items I requested, and thanks very much.” And that is the way to do this: To clearly and honestly state “I’d like this item” and then be upfront about receiving it. No stealth deletions, no after-the-fact changes in requests (to ask for more or different things). Just a clear, straightforward Post / Update Post / Done.

So here’s the new rule: One trip to the well. ONE! If you asked for something and received it, that’s the end of the road, and no further requests may be added to this thread now or in the future.

We’ll leave this open for a while longer, as a test. The effort within this thread is a marvelous idea, and we hope that it can continue. But at this point, the generosity of our players is being abused and that cannot continue. If that pattern does continue, we’ll have no other option but to close this thread.

• If you have participated as requesting forum member, you’re done now. No further requests will be permitted at any time.
• If you note multiple requests from the same person, please PM me so we can deal with the matter.
• If you have participated as a gift giver, thank you, and please take confidence that we’ll do our best to keep this effort going in the fairest and most meaningful way possible.

Join us at Noon Pacific for Community Showcase Live!

We are concerned about you, and hope that you will reach out to people or agencies who may be able to help you. Here is the number of the Suicide Prevention Lifeline for North America, available 24 hours a day: 1-800-273-8255. More information can be found here. If you are not in North America, we encourage you to reach out to your local authorities and they will provide you with a resource in your location. Alternately, you may find this list of assistance.

To folks who are arguing for a fix one week in advance of the release of the outfit. Let’s be clear: You didn’t have “early access.” You used data-mined information to try to gain access to, or look at, an unreleased item. We’re not going to try to chase down issue reports related to data-mined or leaked information. Doing so is not productive, and is counter to our policies about such content. Content that is data-mined is subject to change, subject even to removal. Those who view it or try to build a case for its future usefulness — such as seeing stats and expecting that they absolutely will not change — do so at their own risk.

Swagger.1459:

Gaile Gray.6029:

Clearly opinions vary! In the game, I got resounding approval for Cecil, particularly since it eliminated the confusion with another beastie. I’m personally not a fan of using the name of someone I know, like Colin, or Steve. However your mileage may vary, and that’s ok.

The fact of the matter is, if I see someone 2 feet taller than me approaching with a roaring chainsaw, I’m likely to call him “Sir.” Or her “Ma’am.”

Sir Cecil, The Labyrinthine Horror maybe?

Could be. Given it’s all just for fun, and the name won’t change officially, I think anything is fair game.

Sesbog.8705:

Gaile Gray.6029:

We have temporarily disabled the ability to purchase or use the Ghostly Outfit. We will re-enable the outfit as soon as possible.

Topic of this bug was created a week ago, and only now you have seen it?

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/bugs/Ghostly-Outfit-crash/first#post6378654

The item became available this morning. How would we have responded a week in the past?

Edit to add: If you’re referring to a comment about data-mined content, we do not engage in conversation on the topic of data-mined content any more than we engage in conversations about alleged leaks.

Clearly opinions vary! In the game, I got resounding approval for Cecil, particularly since it eliminated the confusion with another beastie. I’m personally not a fan of using the name of someone I know, like Colin, or Steve. However your mileage may vary, and that’s ok.

The fact of the matter is, if I see someone 2 feet taller than me approaching with a roaring chainsaw, I’m likely to call him “Sir.” Or her “Ma’am.”

There is a possible work-around for this issue that may work for you, too. We can’t make any guarantees, but this has been effective for other players.

If you have your animations setting on “Low,” consider bumping it to medium or high. We have found that this eliminates the crash issues connected to preview the new outfit or to seeing others wearing it.

To change your animation setting, do the following:

1. Click the gear in the upper left-hand corner of your game screen
2. Click Options.
3. Choose the mountain image (2nd from the top), which leads to your graphics settings.
4. Under “Advanced Settings” find “Animation” (the second item in that section).
5. Choose “Medium” or “High.”
6. Exit the Options window and the animations settings will be saved to the new one you designated.

Feel free to share in this thread if this work-around was effective for you.

In the meantime, the team is working on resolving this in the best manner possible.

We have temporarily disabled the ability to purchase or use the Ghostly Outfit. We will re-enable the outfit as soon as possible.

I played my little heart out this weekend, even took a day of PTO to get in more Labyrinth time. And given the confusion with the undersea creature, I’m hoping we can all agree to call the Labyrinthine Horror by the name of… ~drum roll~ … Cecil. It… just seems fitting, and players seemed to agree.

We have disabled the “Cancel Build” skill related to WvW Beta Cannon Blueprints because the skill was not working as intended. The team is investigating making changes to the skill or item, and we will update this thread if more information becomes available. As this time, we suggest that you use the “Drop Bundle” skill instead of the “Cancel Build” skill.

We are so happy that this event is taking place again this year. Thanks to everyone who is involved, and to all who contribute to such a worthy cause!

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Still experiencing DR in the Labyrinth. Maybe it doesn’t apply for events. Sigh.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Last time I went in, a couple hours ago, I noticed that my loot drops still looked like they had DR ongoing even though that char had done some events elsewhere. I quit after a half hour. I’ll give it another try.

Can you give more details? I’m playing Labyrinth right now — have been doing so for a couple of hours — and I’m noticing a significant increase in drops and no DR apparent. I’m talking the whole gamut, from doors to the bosses or regular kills.

If you could give some details, it would be very helpful. Thanks.

So glad you guys were happy with the changes! Mo is tracking this thread, plus I sent him your notes of approval.

Thanks for your understanding, and… as a major fan and participant in the Shadow of the Mad King content (especially Labyrinth!) I just have to say thanks to our team for responding to your concerns to well!

Now, back into the fray!

jheryn.8390:

There were more people than I could count in my instance and we waited for an hour and not one sign of any of you. You cannot tell me that you didn’t know there were going to be many instances. Couldn’t you have divided yourselves up a bit?

Why tell us about the In-Game Events “with Devs” if only a very small minority of players actually got to attend? Very disappointing.

A lot of us hopped maps, and I’m real sorry that we missed you. It’s reminds me of my reply to people when they say “This is the first time I’ve seen you in the game!” I let them know that I’m in the game every night and for a long while on weekends and holidays but with so many worlds, and in some cases so many instances, it’s not unexpected that we might not come across one another.

With this event, devs were on the Clocktower, in the Labyrinth, and in various corners of Lion’s Arch in different worlds, both NA and EU. Some were in the starter zones, too.

I’ll give this subject some thought with the hopes of finding a way to make sure we have more coverage in the future. Thanks for the feedback.

I’ve reviewed the suggestion. It’s hardly new.

Things you might want to know:

• Each of the threads in the sticky section of GW2 Discussion is pretty essential.
• We have an index thread for suggestions, but too many people failed to look there, and we were getting multiple suggestions a day, when it’s really most effective and efficient to post in the thread on the continuing topic.
• Customer Support made a sticky thread for a bunch of previously-stickied threads, and readership dropped by a huge amount, thus prompting the creation of new threads on the same topic, and causing the loss of valuable information on the topic at hand.
• Some of the sticky threads offer simple functionality information that is very valuable, and which was being lost before it was “stickied.”
• A sub-forum for sticky thread is absolutely out of the question, for multiple reasons.
• Yes, having sticky threads handy to which veteran forum members can point newer members is a very valuable thing.
  
  This is obviously something I’ve given a good deal of thought. We make periodic adjustment to stickies, and we may do so in the future.

The ArenaNet Team recognizes that, as a forum member and a player, you may want to share your feedback about the game. We welcome your doing so! We cannot reply to every thread on the Guild Wars 2 forums, but rest assured that most are read.

The purpose of this post is to provide a little guidance about how to give thoughtful, well-presented, and constructive feedback. Keeping a feedback or suggestion thread on-topic and relevant increases the likelihood that members of the Development Team will read the feedback and share it with their team members, even engage in the thread, if time allows.

If you create a feedback thread, we would appreciate it if you monitor the thread and send reports to the moderators when things veer off-topic or when the content of the thread becomes disruptive. Moderators then can kitten post content to ensure the conversation is on the right track. Do keep in mind, though, that it’s not appropriate to report a post simply because it contains a different opinion than your own.

When posting feedback, please keep these considerations in mind:

• Suggest improvements: “What can I suggest that will make this game content better?”
  • How do you think this particular element or aspect of the game could be improved?
  • What changes to other Guild Wars 2 content resulted in improvements that you liked?
  • How have you seen this particular problem solved in other games?
• Give details and examples: Not a generic “I don’t like this!” but a specific “I think this could be improved by {suggestions}.” And if someone asks a question about the topic, don’t just answer it — explain why you answered the way you did.

• Present opinions as opinions, not facts: Not “This is the only possible change” or “Your idea will not work” but “This is my idea” or “I believe {alternative suggestion} would be the better because {reasons}.”

• Speak from experience: If you’re offering an opinion on new or changed game content, get experience with it before commenting. If you offer input on a profession, skill set, or game mode, be sure you have sufficient background in the subject to validate your opinion. Opinions are welcome, but they’re always best when they’re grounded in fact and experience and, again, when they’re presented as a personal opinion and not an immutable fact.

• Be accurate: If your feedback includes inaccurate information, readers may discard it completely. Do some fact-checking and read through a thread before joining in. This helps you avoid making redundant or inaccurate comments.

• Use references: If there’s a dev forum post, a blog post, an interview, or an external resource, include links in your post so that readers can see you’ve done your homework and have reviewed previously-released information before offering feedback or making a suggestion.

• Avoid making it personal: Resist arguing with a person, but by all means debate a point being made. Not, “I think your idea is bad” but “I would prefer to see this handled a different way {details} because {reasons}.” Not “I know the game better than you,” but “In playing GW2 I have found…”

• Don’t take things personally: By the same token, don’t be offended if someone disagrees with your opinion or suggests alternatives to an idea you’ve put forth. Also, if you make a suggestion and the developers choose to move in a different direction, don’t let that bother you or color your opinion, but review the changes with an open mind and offer your thoughts without rancor.

• Share positives: Not all feedback involves a suggestion on how things could be changed or improved. Sharing your thoughts on things that you like in the game is helpful, because your satisfaction can help steer us in the right direction with future development.

As you can see, what you are saying is important, but how you are saying it is equally important. Your strongest points will be lost if they are delivered without details, if they’re presented in an aggressive or unpleasant tone, or if they are buried in a huge wall of meandering text.

By considering the points above, your feedback will be focused on providing solutions to problems rather than simply focusing on the problems. It will shine a light on content that you enjoy, so that we’re aware of that fact when making future updates and developing upcoming projects. These things are the heart of what we’re looking for from your feedback, and both will result in the best game possible!

I wanted to follow up to let you know that this situation has been corrected, and your out-of-body experiences will now proceed as intended.

And… more information:

This issue will be resolved with today’s build. So when the ghoulies and ghosties appear, this probably will…disappear! Thanks for your patience, and we’re sorry for any inconvenience this caused.