Guild Wars 2

I inquired about these concerns, and our narrative director shared the following:

Thank you so much for your comments. We realize that the changes that were made have impacted the personal story, and we are working to fix this. This requires a good deal of resources, so we do not have a set date for when these fixes will be implemented. We appreciate your patience and will update with more information as it becomes available.

I believe since this refers to the same storyline, this reponse from our narrative director would apply to the situation described in this thread. If they are different problems, please let me know. I feel that overall the same information about “My Greatest Fear” and its future corrections would also apply here.

Thanks.

Linken.6345:

3 days and 4 pages with no reply have Gaile forsaken us?

Never! I was in England for a few days. Lots and lots of meetings, and I’m sorry I wasn’t able to post too much while I was away!

Vlad Morbius.1759:

The whole lack of direct communication now has me feeling like the direction of the game itself might be in limbo and that is worrisome. Isn’t it odd that all these new hires and ads for specific people (one would associate with expansion like content) have hit so far down the road, 2 years in? I think to be honest the silence is a way to keep us all distracted from the truth, LS and rehashed holiday content is all that is on the horizon for a very long time and if they do lay out the roadmap the fear is that many will simply walk away and stop supporting the game.
Think about it and tell me you don’t draw the same conclusions at this point. Why the silence, why the lack of a roadmap, why the lack of specific answers regarding things like dungeons, classes, traits, races?

Ok, here’s some info on these specific comments:

• No, the game is not lacking direction. Nor is it lacking vision or goals, plans, ideas, concepts, or any of the other properties that guide our future. The quiet now is not an indicator of anything other than the fact that, at this time, the company is not talking about the future but is, instead, working on it.
• Game companies, like most major industries, experience a certain level of turnover, and hire to fill those spaces. They also hire for new or expanded roles. Nothing startling here whatsoever.
• The silence is decidedly not a distraction effort. As Mike O’Brien said, "We’ve set a clear policy in the past year: “We don’t talk speculatively about future development. We don’t want to string you along. Creating fun is an uncertain business: sometimes things work out and sometimes they don’t; sometimes we go back to the drawing board over and over before we get something right. If we make optimistic promises and then can’t deliver on them, everyone suffers. So when we attend a trade show or give an interview, we’re there to talk about what we’re getting ready to ship, not to speculate on what we might ship someday.”
• Living World and holidays are important, yes. They are not the only thing on which the team is working, quite clearly, when you see substantial updates coming out on a regular basis. (Case in point: feature packs, the coming PvP update, etc.)
• We are not “afraid” to lay out a roadmap. Quoting Mike again, “The intention of the CDI threads is to talk with you about the roadmap.” If you’re not participating, you’re missing out on a means of sharing your feedback and a method that we may use to give information, when the time is right.
• No, we’re not fearful of player reaction to our plans; we’re simply choosing a different path in communicating in the here and now.
• In general, with nearly anything, there are ebbs and flows in communication. If we’re in an ebb right now, you can count on there being a flow in the future. That’s just logical.

Let me see if I can get an update on this.

Given that Colin has answered the concern (many thanks, Colin!), we can close this thread and remove the off topics now.

Welcome to our community! I hope you have a long, pleasurable time playing Guild Wars 2.

One asset that I don’t think was mentioned previously is the awesome Guild Wars 2 Wiki. I really like the details provided, and of course the Discussion pages are active, beyond the “facts and figures” provided one each specific page. For instance, you might look up skill points on the wiki, and when you get to that page, note that there are player tips and suggestions on the related discussion page.

Our wiki community is incredibly passionate, active, and dedicated, and I encourage you to visit that incredible resource any time you’d like to know more about the game! (Of course, the forums are a fantastic place, too — but when you’re in the game and need some quick info, the wiki has it right there without waiting for an answer.)

See you in Tyria!

Cithryth — I agree with you, there’s so much “under the surface” that we can do to customize our characters and our experiences. I love the dye system, and some of the names just make me smile. The skinning is wonderful! Back in the day, I was known to keep a bow or piece of armor in GW, even if it was inferior to other items, simply because I loved the look. Now, best of both worlds.

Vikkela is right, there are even more options through the makeover kits. I forget that fact myself, at times: that amongst all the face choices, there are even more in the kits. (No, this is not a “brief commercial message” for the Black Lion Trading Company, just a note that, again, the choices are so plentiful!

I hope you and your husband have many years of pleasure in Tyria!

Glad that sorted out for you, poke. And thanks for updating.

I’m sort of mulling over whether this suggestion might be best in the Black Lion Trading Company Sub-forum. It seems to me it would be more likely to be seen by the relevant devs in that forum.

OP — you might want to make a [Suggestion] thread over there and if you do, please flag this thread with a request for closure so a moderator can close it, to focus the discussion in that new thread.

Thanks.

We seem to have a couple of threads about this, and while they may not fit together perfectly, for efficiency and broadening the discussion, I’ll merge them now.

Please note that reporting for exploits may or may not be a workable solution, as the data required may be different than that culled for other types of in-game reports. The devs may be able to look into that in the future.

In the meantime, thanks for understanding if the thread seems a little messy, but in the end, good input is welcome!

MountainPanda.5831:

After almost a year and completely find that GW2 had changed so much. I start to appreciate the effiency of the devs in GW2 in terms of speed of fixes, class balances and content. Yes, some stuffs are delayed but imagine ESO could not even fix guild bank and took weeks to fix gamebreaking exploits and still could not fix the problem. You wont see ppl working together for world events coz there are non.

My point is, be thankful to GW2 team for a good game with high replayability. I am enjoying the dungeons, pvp and world bosses. Thank you Anet, you guys are great.

Thanks a lot for your insights, MountainPanda! And welcome back to Tyria.

You can report the use of exploits via Exploits@Arena.Net. That’s the better course than adding a check-box to the report function in the game, because it allows you to describe what’s going on.

I’ll ask about changes and improvements to the in-game reporting system. This is something that’s come up in the past, and I’ve thought about, too. I’ll see if we can learn if this is in the works.

In the meantime, player input is welcome on how to improve the reporting system. One stipulation: I have never heard internally that there are plans to add the ability to “write notes” in the in-game report system. That may be on the docket, but at this time it would be best to make your suggestions around the existing system and not based on one that would include report notes.

Thank you.

Infernia.9847:

I think a major question should be asked before this change takes place:
Exactly how event scaling works.

The GW2 Wiki page:

Events scale both up and down according to the number of players who are currently participating. Events can scale in a number of ways:

Enemy stats can be increased
Enemies can gain new abilities
New enemy types may appear, including veterans or even champion versions
Enemy count can be increased
Objective requirements may increase

Most events scale for up to 10 players.Group events and large scale events such as the finale for meta events will scale much higher. For example, The Shatterer scales up to 100 players. Events can detect that players have not performed any actions relating to the event within a period of time and will scale down the event accordingly.

Dang, I knew I should have consulted the wiki about that!

I wasn’t sure if scaling adjusted (as it clearly does) and that was one of the questions I was going to ask the devs. So thanks for sharing that info!

This is an interesting idea. I’d love other feedback on this before taking questions to the dev team. (I’m sure they’ve thought of this, but there may be info to share on the subject.)

What do you guys think about auto-waypointing people (assuming after a certain period, of course) in the midst of specific types of combat encounters? And because I don’t think it’d work for every situation, can you specify which combat instances you believe would benefit from this functionality? Somehow I think dying to a rampaging bandit in Ashford wouldn’t count.

Crovax — I hope you don’t mind, but I changed “bad” to “downed” in the subject. It just seems better (and more relevant) that way. S’ok?

Gulesave.5073:

Gaile was not asking whether the promise of more LW is sufficient to sate our desires for intel, just whether it counts.

Yes, this is correct. When I see comments like “there’s nothing new to do” or “we need fresh content” it just occurred to me to ask if you’re taking LW into account, if you see that as new content and pretty significant chunks of it, at that. (Admittedly, it may not be what you personally have requested, but if the statement is “there’s nothing new” that doesn’t seem quite right.)

Thanks everyone for not barking at me when I asked the question. Again, the question was not “is it enough?” I really was pointing to it to ask for your impressions of the concept and the execution as continuing, new content in an ever-changing world.

Please see a similar discussion in the Audio Sub-Forum and do feel free to share your suggestions in the sub-forum as well!

Thanks.

Alerno — Taking what you have (and everyone else has) put on the table I do wonder something. I want to ask, and hope nobody will bite my head off here.

You mention wanting to know there will be more to the game. The new and continuing episodes of the Living World count towards that, right? The fact that players know there’s a team working on new content and features, and that there are releases on a regular basis? I fully understand that may not fulfill every desire, but it does show a continuing commitment to “new stuff” for us players, wouldn’t you agree?

Here’s a merge of two threads about the in-game reporting system. For efficiency I’ve merged, and we welcome your continued input.

Do you think it would go over well now or better in the spring?

I’m happy to ask the team, but I imagine they’d want to schedule it properly.

The viola is an awesome instrument, often rather forgotten because it’s overshadowed by the fact that so many orchestras have a gazillion violins.

I hope it happens!

Thank you, Rip. Voice of reason here.

Jmaster: I’m sure you know this, but you can locate the nearby nodes shown on your overmap by holding down Ctrl and looking around the local map.

What a lovely post, and so perfect for a Friday evening after a busy week.

Thank you for the graciousness of posting, all of you.

<3 <3 <3

maestrochino.7104:

I pass this every day to work and think, “Ooh, an undiscovered waypoint!”.

:D

brunana.8519:

When you try to collect rewards from the Thomas Cook in town…

That is darling! <3

Fyrebrand.4859:

Some (embarrassing) real-life ones for me:

• I’m watching a gameplay video of GW2 and I try to hover my mouse over their skills to see more info

Oh, I have never done that. ~blush!

Aerinndis.2730:

Hubby has played too much because his license plate is now Tyria.

Seriously? Luv that!!

Raeysa Penrose.8450:

When your go-to reaction for people who get on your nerves is “Foo!”

I do that! Someone gets carried away and I say “Oh foo!”

Ok, I’m back. About Harry Potter…

I think that the whole basis for the presentation in this and other threads about communication has a few pillars. And it’s one of them that I’m thinking about. J. K. Rawlings wrote a series of well-loved books, and I am sure (although I didn’t follow it) that people gave feedback to her on every release, heck, probably every nuance of every release, and that they also provided suggestions for future books. It’s a natural thing: People were highly invested in the series, loved it a bunch, and wanted to know more, or to have input.

In that small sense — and yes, that’s only part of the communication question — I don’t think I’d want our team to communicate about the game’s direction. Like, “Yes, so in the future, all frogs will become sentient, treble in size, and take over Lion’s Arch, leading to the elimination of all non-amphibian races. Yep, yep, that’s where we’re heading with the story.” NOTE: This is NOT where the story is going. This is only a wildly-improbable scenario offered for purposes of… umm… providing a wildly-improbable scenario.

My question: Do you agree that it’s good to not share that sort of information, information related to the actual direction of the game saga as a whole?

If so, then my sense is that you want to know more about the nuts and bolts.

• “Are you looking at XXX new feature?”
• “Do you intend to improve ABC functionality?”
• “Is ### working as intended, or is it bugged, or will you incorporate player feedback to change it?”

Again, this is a small part of the discussion, but I wanted to make sure I was looking at that part accurately. I wondered if generally, no one is asking about the whole “Tell us where the story is going” bit.

dlonie.6547:

I still feel bad for Gaile. It feels like after the communication blow-up, they just shoved her outside of the ArenaNet fortress of silence, bound and gagged, and told her to do a little dance to keep us entertained. As much as I’d like to see the things she’s said in that thread come true, it’s not up to her to make them happen. :-(

<3 Gaile, even though I’ve been a kitty to you sometimes!

Hey, dlonie — <3 you too!

And that is not what happened, with me getting this job. I’m not bound and gagged and told “don’t dare talk to them!” On the contrary, I’m here to do whatever I can to increase our talking to you! That’s the objective for my whole team.

Quite honestly, this is my best, most favorite, most beloved of all opportunities, and I’m thrilled to be here. Extra thrilled to be able to give some tasty information, like this about Engineers or this about copyrights, or this about the Gem Conversion Tool and any variety of other significant topics that you care about. Ok, fine, happy, too, to talk with players about favorite game moments, attainments, welcomes, and squirrels, too.

I have a thought, but I have a meeting. I want to ask a question so I’ll come back to this in a while. Remind me: It has to do with Harry Potter.

Please keep the conversation respectful, even if you strongly disagree with someone else.

Thank you.

skullmount — thank you for taking that time, that’s very helpful!

And my apologies, too, for the off-topic conversation here.

ON the topic: I’ll remember this post and if there’s something new on the subject, will update.

TheBlackLeech.9360:

the only time i wow’d

Show off.

Ok, just kidding. Congrats!

Are you suggesting that once you have a level 80, of any profession and race, you get some sort of advantage for every other character, including those of different professions, races, or personal stories?

Do you mean, for instance, that you play your Level 80 Mesmer, but the benefits (XP) go to your Level 10 Engineer and your Level 31 Thief? All of them? One designated one? Does that apply to karma and other attainments?

I’m curious about what you have in mind with this suggestion, so thanks for the details.

lakdav — it’s not necessarily “re-artifying” the items, but optimizing art if an item is resized.

Sometimes players think that a miniature is simply a resized piece of art from the game, like a skritt or an NPC. But in fact each miniature involves some level of new or re-optimized art. I like to share details because I think that a lot of folks don’t realize how what looks like “a simple fix” really does involve more than it first appears.

skullmount — can you point me to the most relevant thread? You mentioned “all” and I got worried that I might spend half a day trying to get caught up. If there’s a particular thread, I would be able to focus on that and see what I can glean. If there was a particularly post that contained a concise listing of concerns, even better! (I’m not asking anyone for an investment of time, just wondering if there’s an efficient way to look into this.)

timmyf.1490:

Gaile Gray.6029:

Hmmm. We want to help! What e-mail address are you using?

Thanks Gaile! This was a few months ago, but I used the email address listed on the Content TOU page, community@arena.net. It created a ticket and everything, I just never saw a response.

I would have followed up, but to be honest, I already had felt like I was making extra work for you guys, so I decided to scrap the project.

No no, don’t scrap it! Drop a new e-mail. I review that bucket every day, so I can pretty much guarantee you it will be seen and responded to.

timmyf.1490:

I’d rather get permission than have to play games with Fair Use laws.

I respect that, particularly since I have worked with attorneys for years and from what I understand, most of us non-legal types don’t really understand “fair use.” For instance, someone told me once “If you change XX%, you can use assets.” Not true, there is no “set percentage” for that sort of thing.

The best thing is to do is analyze the project, as I said above, and if this is for single, non-profit use, to see that the CToU clearly allows that.

timmyf.1490:

Gaile-

That said, awhile back I was trying to get a few custom-printed mugs with our guild logo on them. One for me, one for my girlfriend, and one for a giveaway to guild members. The logo got caught in a copyright filter. I directed the company to your legal page, but they told me I needed authorization.

You have an email address for the purpose and I sent an email there, but I never heard back.

We’re in the process of doing a guild t-shirt contest, but I have the same worries: will our art assets (probably the Quaggan image from the API with a unicorn horn added and our guild motto #getunicorned) get flagged? And if they do, will somebody’s hours of work creating the design go to waste because we can’t get a quick “this is okay” from the email address you guys have left?

Anyway, just a minor concern I thought might be appropriate to mention. I know there’s a real “it’s not ArenaNet’s job to okay fan art” problem here, butcomeonquagganwithaunicornhatsooooocuteanetplz.

Hmmm. We want to help! What e-mail address are you using?

Hey all,

The dev team has been tracking the concern about the Engineer backpacks for quite a while. They understand our players’ point of view, and this is something that a few different team members have discussed for a possible remedy. They’ve batted around a few ideas about how to fix this problem, including some of those mentioned in this thread. (Thanks for all the suggestions – they’re very helpful!)

For example, one designer thought that with new art, we might be able to display the kits on the weapon holsters on the right or left hip, so players could tell what kits are in use while allowing the Engineer to display a sweet back-piece, too. Another suggested that perhaps Gem Store items could simply override the kits, so if you owned a Quaggan Backpack, your character displayed a Quaggan Backpack. (Please note: This doesn’t mean to say that either of these ideas will be the one that is settled upon. I just offered examples so you could see that thoughts and possible solutions definitely have been discussed.)

Ultimately, enabling any correction will involve members of several different teams (design, art, programming) and those teams members currently are engaged in other prioritized projects. But as you can see, the team wants to address this situation in the future and we’re grateful for your patience while the team selects the implements the right fix for the issue.

Hoaxintelligence — and lived to tell about it.

Then, can muskrats, wolverines, and hamsters be far behind?

This way lies madness!

Except… I <3 me my squirrels!

For me:

• Go to vista
• Watch video
• Have a “Oh wow!” moment.

Happened last night in Ascalon Settlement. Happens to me just about every. single. time. I can’t tell you how much I love the game world.

Another one, recently: The fun of the Mad King’s Labyrinth. I forgot the frenetic pace, the swirling leaves, the sounds — I really love that romp.

HHR LostProphet.4801:

Gaile Gray.6029:

Randulf.7614:

They’ve been squirrelled away for a future update

Personally I think that’s nuts…but there ya go

Ohhhh, Randulf, you should be ashamed. You could have resisted, but you had to go fur it, right?

You mean furrrrrrrrRRRRRRrrrrrr it?

You are absolutely right about that.

skullmount.1758:

wolfyrik.2017:

DOOD!!

New Squirrel ranger pet plz Anet or GTFO!

I’m not sure I’d be content with just a single squirrel as a pet. It’d have to a mini mob of them.

Actually… you make a good point. The more, the merrier!

skullmount.1758:

Gaile Gray.6029:

I would love LOVE for us to have squirrels someday.

(I have a squirrel feeder in my back yard and we sometimes have as many as six little beasties queued up for nuts. Gradually I’m turning the whole place into a wildlife sanctuary. )

New title for Gaile:
(or if squirrels get put in, and there’s an npc around it)

WANT!!

I thought this was great fun. Kudos to Angel, Scott, Bobby , and Leah!

[[Thanks for posting, KDT!]]

I enjoyed reading the novels in order of publication, because I felt the story unfolded more fluidly that way. But each stands well alone, too.

Enjoy and welcome to Tyria.

Randulf.7614:

They’ve been squirrelled away for a future update

Personally I think that’s nuts…but there ya go

Ohhhh, Randulf, you should be ashamed. You could have resisted, but you had to go fur it, right?

I worry about this thread. How many characters are throwing themselves of cliffs, buildings, and bridges to see how drastic their death will be?

My answer: Enough to kill my char.

I would love LOVE for us to have squirrels someday.

(I have a squirrel feeder in my back yard and we sometimes have as many as six little beasties queued up for nuts. Gradually I’m turning the whole place into a wildlife sanctuary. )

Ashandar.2570:

It always says that it is a replacement item when anet mails something to you that you didn’t buy in the shop.

I didn’t win but I’m happy for those who did

That’s very nice of you to say, Ashandar. I also congratulate those who received an item!

Also, you’re right: Our distribution mail is a little wonky right now, and even if it’s a prize, it seems to indicate that someone is getting a “replacement item.” So I can’t verify any particular screenshot, but that is the message that appears when you’re sent a prize.

Hello. I checked with the team and yes, all Halloween Skins have been distributed. (They went out yesterday.)

Guhracie — we are trying for the “happy medium” that you suggested even while right now we are not in a position to talk about some things that are quite visibly on our players’ minds.

Torsailr — Thank you for your constructive sugggestions. As a matter of fact, one of the key projects that I’ve been tasked with since I became Forum Communications Team Lead is assessing forum software, and the “voting” feature is one that I find very intriguing and believe could be quite useful for us.

tigirius — I’m actively pursuing info in relation to that thread, as you’ve probably noticed. Can’t say what I’ll learn, but the issue is clear and I hope for information to share.

Robert — Interesting idea. I’m investigating things along similar lines, actually.

In general I’m going to see if we can answer some of the major threads — both older and recent. But please know that with a busy team involved in a lot of projects, and most of them very time-critical, it’s not always possible to shift resources to address a particular issue. The fact is, sometimes it’s not even reasonable to ask for a detailed status report. (And again, I do know how frustrating that can be.)

And having said all that, this thread does seem to be heading down a rather off-topic and unnecessarily negative path, and we need to close it. We’d appreciate not seeing resurrections of this topic, when it has been addressed often in the past and to the degree that we’re able to address it right now.

Frostfang. By far.

But the best of all is The Dreamer. It has everything I love in one beautiful package.

lordkrall.7241:

Also Gaile I believe our neighbors to the north celebrate Thanksgiving day as well

Which is why I said “North American” and not “U.S.”

People, this is not a thread about politics, it’s a thread about a holiday celebrated in many countries around the world to express respect and gratitude for those who serve their countries through military service. (Other occupations are commemorated, at least in the U.S., through another holiday, btw: Labor Day.)

I regret that some of you have turned a thoughtful, even whimsical (read the OP) request into a dispute.

zach.1374:

Perhaps adding “Harassment, verbal or non verbal” to the list of options would be appropriate. Thanks

Hi Zach. The “non-verbal” makes me ponder, and really, the best way to handle non-verbal harassment — anything that would be impossible to find in chat logs — is to submit a ticket. (I’m really not sure what would define “non-verbal harassment” but the team could at least review the ticket to figure that out.)

Players have suggested that we expand the list of issues that they can report in the game. At the present time, the team is focused on developing some really cool behind-the-scenes tools that will allow us to better support our players. In the future we may be able to look at expanding the in-game report system. In the meantime, for issues of harassment of a verbal nature, please choose offensive chat and the report will be reviewed as soon as possible.

I don’t imagine anyone would rage about it, JT. After all, no one objected to Pumpkin Pie around Thanksgiving in Guild Wars, right? And Thanksgiving is uniquely North American, after all. But still, a Veterans Day commemoration is not something the devs have incorporated into GW2.

But on the topic, I’d like to take the opportunity to thank everyone who served his or her country, or who serves today. (I’m proud to say we have a lot of active duty military folks who play Guild Wars 2.)