Guild Wars 2

He who is not busy growing is busy dying…

sigh… and to think I always liked doing dailies. Just another change nobody asked for at the expense of the boxed Expansion that many would enjoy.

The Fun Police win another one…

He who is not busy growing is busy dying…

It’s just another example of ANet rolling out something nobody asked for and nobody likes or understands. The Forum Shuffle! Designed to uh… uh… What was this going to fix anyhow? Oh, that’s right: To foster the illusion of progress. Just like LS does. That it creates a more confusing structure that buries actual useful feedback is a major win for Anet.

Man, talk about getting a lump of coal for Christmas.

Looks like maybe it’s time to go back to playing Diablo III. At least Blizzard had the guts to can Jay Wilson and put out an actual expansion… Oh, and they even had time to fix bugs and make the game more fun.

You can expect to see a GW2 expansion about one year after the China launch. Assuming the game is still around by then.

Meanwhile we get… The Forum Shuffle! Designed to uh… uh… What was this going to fix anyhow? Oh, that’s right: To foster the illusion of progress. Just like LS does. That it creates a more confusing structure that buries actual useful feedback is a major win for Anet.

And the Forum Specialist program? Well, it’s succeeded in creating a job class lower than Intern. So we have that to look forward to.

It is not fun to watch this game circle the drain anymore. 8.5% revenue drop off last qtr any bets on this qtr?

Bad luck for the hare means dinner for the wolf.

“Luck favors the prepared Darling…” E. Mode

Between all the celebrating the new drop(s) and arm wrestling over weighty issues in the forums some really good stuff falls through the cracks. Here’s a few I’ve noticed:

o Weird stuttering is gone. This goes back a couple of drops for me and it was just a minor annoyance but… It’s gone. Back to getting 60 to 70 fps on GTX 760 with Nvidia drivers using override and all the eye candy. Looks stellar, smooth as silk and no SweetFX needed.

o Art tweaks. I noticed little things like better feather animation on my long bow, my quiver now goes stealth when I do. I can see a difference between cloth and leather animation. Nice touches thank you Art Team.

o The Patch Drops. Last two have been timely and well executed with a minimum of hot fixes. It looks like someone has really put their back into improving this and it shows.

o Server Availability. So, for over 800 days the only times I really remember not being able to log in were during the DDOS attacks. That’s an impressive record and you should be proud. In contrast, D3 went down for maintenance during prime time at least once a month.

These achievements are rarely in the patch notes but deserve recondition. They are a part of the dozens people working behind the scenes to bring us a great game experience. Remember, always celebrate the success of others, it may be contagious.

Thanks. You all did good. Much applause to all

I’ve been thinkin again… Gaile, why ask us about our views of Living Story as content when you can just write a simple database query to count the players who are still active and have finished the current Living Story chapter? I’m willing to bet Colin has a report that runs those numbers for him. So, please let me turn this around: Gaile, of the active players (logged in over the last 30 days) what percent finished Living Story?

I know for me it’s always something I start with high hopes but dumb stuff gets in the way and … I lose interest. Like in the last one I killed the Bomb Guy twice and got D/C’d before the NPCs could finish the dialog to advance the story. I know the DDOS were not Anets fault but between that and the stoopid aspect jumping it became a chore. Not a fun thing.

This time Leah’s story started out great then I got into the area where you have to kill the red hat guys, jump into the circle, run up the ramp. I died on the second ramp before I noticed the dang bubble runs out before you can make the top. At that point I kicked out, read stuff on Dulfy too make sure I had it all figured out before trying again. Yeah, I actually play the game within the game for the most part as that’s more fun than playing a walkthru. Thing was Red Beanie Boy wasn’t the only Tricksy gameplay I was gonna encounter. Dang, I hate Tricksy gameplay. I mean to go back but… well, Cursed Shore is home, has standard pew pew gameplay and better drops. So, it’s fallen to a someday maybe chore.

That’s why I have a really really hard time counting it as content. Sadly, most of the chapters fall into this “it’s a chore” zone.

To be fair, I’ve looked into other games out there and I gotta say they can’t touch GW2 in Looks or Combat. While they might seem to have a more open format they charge you up the kazoo for the “Basic starter kit.” Guild Wars has always been a super value.

So, for me at least it’s continue with my basic plan since what we got is what we’re gonna get.

Again, welcome to gaming in the twenty first century: Smile and be as happy as you can.

OK, well please allow me to return the favor and thank you for not barking at me for soap boxing outside the scope of the question. My bad.

As to " 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." I gotta tell ya it’s a solid nope for me. It’s hard to quantify but the dynamic is off somehow.

Ok, ok now you know why I’ve never been hired for my spelling. Elona it is then.

Or just maybe it was a cheap gag to see if folks really read this TL;DR stuff

As quoted by Gaile: “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?”

Wow, lotta “Nopes” to that question Gaile. I’ll be the odd one out as usual and cast my vote as “Sorta.”

The deal is GW1 set expectations for a large Boxed Expansion at a rate of about one per year. Other games on the market re-enforced that expectation. Then, Living Story comes along and I thought “Great! Something to mess around with until the expansion drops!” Then at some point I had a terrible realization that LS was to replace the large Boxed Expansion. I was horrified to think that was the direction the game was going. As we’ve already beat Living Story to death I’m just summarize with it’s nice filler but nowhere near the same experience I was expecting. Living World isn’t well… Living.

That’s where the tension comes from: The gap between expectations and reality.

Even though Leah did a great job in the last drop it still doesn’t feel like we’re laying the foundation for a expansion much less delivering it. Cantha, Ebola Elona and Eye of the North all scratched that itch. More to the point, I was happy to pre-order them with real world money.

For me, that’s also part of the problem: Why won’t you take my money? Serious, I’ve run the numbers in my head thousands of times. Even at 50 bucks for Cantha you’d have roughly a million pre-orders in 48 hours. That’s 50 million dollars! On an announcement! At that point all these problems and snarky comments would go away.

However, continuing down the path of LS without any word of an expansion just re-enforces the sinking feeling that LS is it. Go back to the OP’s post: “I felt cheated. I spent more than a year waiting for content that they knew a lot of us wanted, but they knew it would never come.” I share this feeling and it isn’t going to go away until we get a traditional boxed expansion along the lines of the GW1.

Try a simple thought experiment: Cantha expansion is announced and 50 million is raised overnight. There is joy in Whoville. Or… Living Story is it and the game continues to bleed players until critical mass is lost. Not talking about it doesn’t change the fact that each player gets burned out on the current path and in time stops playing. It really is that simple. After two years it’s time for ArenaNet to face up to the fact that Living Story isn’t gonna cut it as a replacement.

Remember, Denial isn’t just a river in Egypt.

I for one, welcome our Evil Hylek Overlords!

Honestly, any issues raised on glassdoor are internal matters to ArenaNet and have nothing to do with the players.

Open a new thread if you want but even I would vote to close it. Consider this: How much do you think about your Grocery Store? Same thing, it’s none of our business.

I said before it would be great to have a broad brush statement regarding “Where we are and Where we’re headed.” But, after thinking it through maybe the current approach has some advantages. Specifically:

o AreaNet has their hands full. Now Mike, Colin et al have to deal with NCSoft, Nexon, KongZhong and Internal Staff. There may be some growing pains in the short term but when they pull this off they can look to a larger player base and longer term health. Short term loss with Long term gain is a bet I’ll take. It’s important to note nobody is being evil.

o The Lord of the Flies effect. Whenever any information is leaked, the Forums, Reddit, Massively, etc. go totally nuts with speculation. “ArenaNet hired a Raid programmer?!? Whoa we’re totally getting a new playable race!” Then things get really crazy. About 75% of those threads fall into a weird toxic soup of rage with a side order of QQ. Reddit seems to really get whack what with the data mining and all. So why would it be a smart thing to throw more gas on the fire?

I figure the best bet is to Smile and be as Happy as you can. After all, when you back somebody in a Poker Game you don’t jiggle their elbow.

Say, have you ever considered the many advantages of joining the Hair Club of Tryia?

Call now, operators are standing by! (Offer void where prohibited by law)

He who is not busy growing is busy dying…

Luck favors the prepared

This is coming straight from the shoulder of a Living Story Hater. Specifically:

o Amazing use of Media. Leah, the team got it right. The use of cut scenes, vistas, NPC dialog is nothing short of masterful.

o The Art. Wonderful execution of terrain design, textures, background animations give me the impression that this is vast unexplored area. Kudos to the most unknown group at ArenaNet: The Art Department. A fitting expansion to the most beautiful MMO on the market.

o It’s not Cursed Shore. A fantastic blend of Story, Events and Exploration.

Colin, please extend my hand in patting Leah and the team on the back for the single most amazing addition to date.

It’s as if everyone has embraced the idea of Fun in a unified vision.

Absolutely brilliant. Much applause to all!

Oh god! choke I just found this with a crumpled note "Have a good first day at work Daddy!

Luv Little Risen Timmy" sob

He who is not busy growing is busy dying…

It seems to me it would be simple to replace the Old One while they were fixing the New Crummy One. If they were serious about fixing the problem.

Anyhow I don’t plan on using the Gem Store until they fix it somehow.

That this was a manufactured crisis is obvious. I feel strongly that this has more to do with NCSoft rather than Anet. Anet in not stupid but is looking more out of the loop than I thought. That’s a shame.

Please consider establishing two code trees such that the NA/EU version doesn’t clash with the China one again. While counter-intuitive it’s gotta be better than what’s going on now. The bad PR alone is costing both AreanNet and NCSoft a ton of sales at a time when folks are inclined to splurge a bit.

Gaile, you talked about it gonna take time to implement this fix. In my experience, progress on something like this is measured in hours or days. I’m pretty sure that forms the basis of everyone’s expectations. OK, I’m able to wait that long for my Gem Store purchases. In fact, I’d like to see the new UI before I make anymore transactions. Still.

To be honest this has left me with a bad copper-penny taste in my mouth. Moreover, it’s thrown a big wet blanket over the holidays for me.

Thanks for the links Vayne. It’s always of interest to see the bigger picture even when the data is not the entire player base.

From my experience maps are getting empty and slow again. At least in Cursed Shore.

I’m starting to think folks are really really tired of running the same events all the time.

He who is not busy growing is busy dying…

Agreed. Played a couple of times today and felt kinda sickening to be honest. Not at all fun. Was thinking about a couple of Gem Store items but I think I’ll just walk away from ’em. Anet has their NCSoft meeting around 5pm pdt. They will say something after that. Not sure I care at this point.

The one move you always have in a tug of war is to drop the rope.

It’s settled: Rope dropped

Shame to see it all end this way though. I remember when it was a Game…

“When is someone going to come back and ‘talk’ to us?” Not ’till they get a whip and a chair. Sheesh…

Looking at the bright side 26 pages in less than 24 hours is a personal best for us. And for once, everybody is saying the same thing. Myself included. Again, Anet please allow for an Advanced page button that has the old UI on it.

Fair warning: I’m not above saying “Please” again.

I’m pretty sure Anet is meeting right now with NCSoft on how to put out the fire. It’s gonna be jarring but OK soon. Again.

For the record, I’m in favor of an “Advanced” button that access the old screen.

While my post about this being an NCSoft/China thing and not an “Anet goofed again” thing was, at best highly speculative, it does pass Hanlon’s Razor: “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.” Or in this case ignorance since the China Devs aren’t in our loop. Nobody is being a Bad Person but stuff happens ’cuz Life.

Sometimes you have to take the Bull by the tail and face the situation. Anet is not stupid they just have a Bull by the tail.

Whoa, this is bad. But, I think I’ve figured some of it out. In a word: China. In another word: NCSoft. At least it fits all the clues.

Think about how as one player put it “… Game has changed direction in the last 6 months…” Specifically:

o NPE – Who are these “New Players?” NA/EU is pretty well tapped. China is new.
o Common Code Tree – Why? To piggyback on the China devs work. Confirmed.
o Feature Patch – Leftovers from China rollout. Confirmed.
o Gem Store UI – " Make it easier to understand." For China.
o The Delay – Anet was freaked out by the China drop as well.
o Cmrd Tags – “Horrible version of the CDI!” China devs didn’t read it.
o Projected Profit – An after thought poorly integrated. China does not want it.
o Female Idle Animations – Breaks a Rule under China game codes.
o Repeated Content – Not to China.
o No Communication – Anet is in the dark too.

At least it makes a lot more sense. Anet isn’t that stoopid to make so many errors in design as have been rolled out the discussed timeframe. And if you think about it, it’s a pretty savvy business plan: NCSoft eats X% of NA/EU rage quitters but we were pretty tapped out anyway. They gain Y% of new China players they can re-sell old content to and get access to cheap China Devs who never see our forums. Result: Z% Won increased profit. The main purpose of a business is to return value to it’s shareholders. Bingo!

Then after NCSoft realizes they will lose more than X% of the NA/EU players they green light a fix by Anet. Once again there is Joy in Whoville.

I’m not sure of how I feel about it all. When the China roll out was announced I was kinda excited to think we’d all be in the same World game. Looks like we are and that comes with a cost.

I know everybody is pretty upset right now but again we’ll get a little tweak to make things right. I’d expect more of this in the future. Looking forward this means more resources resulting in a healthier game. Meanwhile, Anet mostly in the form of Gaile are left to scramble dealing with a fire that could have been avoided.

The deal is if we knew about it we might say “Yea.” We have had a lot of good things happen lately. Welcome to 21st century gaming… Smile and be as Happy as You Can.

OK, ok yeah… I’m not exactly happy with the new UI ’Cuz when I could buy gems it was always a matter of how much gold I wanted to spend not how many gems I needed. The new UI completely bags the concept of “Odd Lots.”

My feels is to bring back the old UI in some way for us Veterans while leaving this UI up for the new chums. Maybe have an “Odd Lots” button to access it. Problem solved.

My fallback is go with the 100 gem lots. I’ll get used to it I guess. I was very skilled with the old UI and had a lot of data in my head about the historic prices. I never got much use outta the graph except to flag very broad trends.

I’m very confused how this got past any internal design review without serious objections being raised. For the life of me I can’t see how this is a positive for Anet.

I would like to ask that we remember Gaile is/has been/ will be a strong advocate for the players while maintaining her job. That’s a tough road to walk so please, stay frosty, she’s a really good egg. Makes a great Spice Cake too.

If it’s a choice between getting it right or getting it Tuesday… Getting it right is usually less disruptive.

Take your time…we’ll be here

Meanwhile, have you tried Gaile’s Spice Cake? It’s Epic! Gaile, I hope you made enough for everyone

Awww, c’mon. Let’s cut him some slack. Whiteside is doing pretty good on four hours of sleep a night. Besides, isn’t that how they spell it in England to?

Ya know, I quoted a couple of Monty Python Holy Grail lines on the first page since they summed up this thread so well. Our feels are all over the place based on speculation. We do that a lot. Myself included.

The Holidays are also a good time to stop for a minute and count our blessings. I’d like to give a Laurel and Hardy handshake along with a Big Hug to the folks at ArenaNet who make our game more than just a bunch of binaries.

Gaile – The Spice Cake was wonderful and so are you.
Chris – Yur a good sport. Glad I don’t have yur job.
John Smith – Stable. How do you put out so much work without being twins?!?
Jon Peters – You finally proved to me that balance is more than nerfs. Yum, Crow.
Colin – So, yur the one doing all the heavy lifting huh?
Mike – They’re gone. It’s safe to come put from under the desk now.
Devs – Repeat after me: “Bring me your Problems, not your Solutions.”

I’ve played every day since Pre to the tune of about 3,500 hours. Uh… at 60 bucks that works out to about 1.7c per hour. Best money I spent in a long time.

Sincerely,

M. Foy aka Tal San

Now now…Let’s not Bicker and Argue over who killed who… This is a Happy Occasion!

We want… another Shrubbery! Alongside this one perhaps a little lower to get a level effect, and a path!

Whiteside, “Your Mother was a Hamster and your Father smelled of Elderberries!”

English K-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-niggit

Well, this is interesting. In my last TL;DR post I suggested that “improved transparency” is kinda vague and we’d be well served to refine our thoughts into something more …. tangible. ‘Cuz if you can’t describe it how will you know if someone’s doing it? Thing is, nobody took a shot.

No big. Not a judgement, just an observation. It’s not like anybody is killing baby Quaggan or anything. What I see continue to see is a lot of anecdotal data about good things that happened recently. Agreed. Great posts. However, it reenforces Gaile’s anecdote about cake on page 6. For me at least it puts the Anet “Can’t win, why try?” approach into a more lucid zone. The only thing wrong with hugging our own tree is we can’t shake hands.

Personally, I’m already on to my Fallback plan and back to having fun in-game again. I think I’m gonna table my expectations until after the first of the year. I’m thinkin this may be a non issue by then. Gaile, thanks again for allowing us to speak straight from the shoulder. I know some of my comments were pretty raw but I didn’t even get a Yellow Card.

And I like Spice Cake! Who said I didn’t like Spice Cake <mutter mutter… trailing off>

I’ve been thinkin about this one again and here’s the dealio. In seven pages of TL;DR we have: Begged, Reasoned, Threatened, Whined and Bribed. In return, we have had the ArenaNet policy stated three or four times. In all, we’ve done a very good job of presenting lucid cogent arguments for why we feel better disclosure could be a win/win for everybody. But, it’s not working.

When you can’t raise the bridge, lower the river.

If ya get bogged down on this kinda stuff ya gotta ask yourself “What part of this do WE control?” ‘Cuz we can work on that without getting tied up in a policy knot. Yeah, yeah, No bucks, No Buck Rodgers. I’d suggest putting that on the shelf as we’ve already tried it. Besides, a threat is a crummy way to gain trust and a better working relationship.

I’ve come up with two things we control: Our overarching goal(s) and our backup strategy. For example, talking about improved transparency is kinda vague. Here’s a straw man set of goals or objectives off the top of my head. See what you think and slice and dice ’em:

o Where are we and where are we headed statement from ArenaNet
o What are the current expansion plans
o What can we do to reduce the stress associated with more timely disclosure

In my experience a lot of the stress comes when the Estimated Completion Date becomes a hard date in the users minds. Which I’ve always replied “Ya want it right or ya want it Tuesday?” I’m willing to accept a very broad brush date with no penalties for slipping. ’Cuz life. The point is we can work on this in this thread right now. Can we work out what can be implemented to achieve greater transparency? I suggest we use three bullet points of simple declarative sentences. K, have at it.

As to our backup strategy:
o Smile and be as happy as we can.
o Ask ArenaNet to do a refresh of Cursed Shore and SouthSun events
o Wait until after the next couple months and revisit

Right now may be an incredibility bad time to be asking these questions. It may well be that having gone through a number of staff changes, the Holidays, etc. things are in flux around there. ArenaNet deserves time to go into a huddle and discuss internal matters without our input.

It sounds like we’ve built up a little momentum talking to Gaile yesterday and it’s a good time to ask “What can we do to help?” Sure beats chasing around that barn again.

For what it’s worth I’ve been real proud of us. We’ve got a lot of Smart Cookies on this thread.

Agreed. Nicholas and John are stating the number one on my hit parade as well. Expansion news. Swear to God I’ve got the $60 cash right here. No gemstore games.

Given that what we have is what we got… Gaile is what we got able to shed any light on this one? It seems to be the deal breaker in most folks minds. I would agree that the “Where are we and where are we headed?” is a variation on Expansion news.

For extra XP it would be great if yourself or even Mike could hit the high points on ArenaNet and the games health. Even if all you could say is “We’re following up with a successful launch in China and enjoy a stable player base in NA/EU.” it would be something.

What would it take to bring this to the table?

Now, you don’t have to answer right now but sooner is better than later. Serious, what can we agree on regarding timeline disclosure?

(Note to self: Buy more torches)

Ya know, I was thinking about this a bit and keep coming back to the same spot. I (and others) get out the torches and Storm the Castle shouting “They owe us < Insert here > because…” and I kinda get stuck. Then I noticed "What was the Quid Pro Quo? Uh… I give you $60 for a couple of gig of binaries and game server access. “But but I have an emotional investment in this!” Well, that’s on me. Yeah, they could do better than have two random devs kinda smirk and say SAB is on the shelf via some weird web interview. As an aside, that was a really really bad way to let that news out and I don’t even like SAB. But, life is hard, wear a helmet.

The truth is Anet filled the agreement. I got my $60 bucks worth.

I am kinda surprised that Anet has let this thread discuss areas clearly outside their comfort zone without repercussion. I’m pretty sure no one has been banned or even had posts taken down. In a way that’s a significant step towards a more honest even visceral form of communication. Although I notice Gaile hasn’t posted in the last few pages I’d guess the thread is getting read at some level.

So, it’s settled: What we’ve got is what we have. Smile and be as happy as you can.

After all, we make our own fun…

Well, as my Father would have put it: “Roll up your pants Son, it’s too late to save your shoes.” Telling players that Anet supports “Transparent Communications with our community” while maintaining a policy of non disclosure as outlined by Mike O’s posting is singular in my experience as both a Project Manager and a Player.

While I recognize Anet’s right to run its business as they see fit you still can’t have it both ways. As Vlad put it "The reality is, Anet needs to stop propagating the fact that they want to be transparent when they self impose limitations that preclude the ability to be transparent. "

Moreover, said policy is something created by humans for humans. It is not carved in stone. As I am fond of saying on my projects “Let me introduce you to my little red pen.”

Unfortunately, the more we ask for information the harder the door is being slammed in our face. I’m very surprised to see Mike, Chris, Gaile et al act as if they are being backed into a corner based on prior experience. That there is an Area 51 of topics that Must Not Be Discussed when it would be simple to post a note that you’re “on top of it” or “here’s the reason for the change” is darn weird to me.

As to the CDI’s they a wonderful way to sandbag (or slow walk) topics that would have been a no-brainer in the past. For example, if the CDI on Guild Halls was so essential to progress how did they ever get added to GW1? Or any other game for that matter? What remains are simply Bread and Circuses.

While I might make conjecture regarding the pressures both Anet and NCSoft are under at the moment it would be untoward to do so. However, the net effect is one of telling us repeatedly that “Transparency? Not our problem and you can’t fix it.”

Sadly, what remains is a situation where the Devs march out Project X while the Players are expecting Project Y.

Everybody loses.

Agreed. A couple of days ago I posted a question “Why are we getting a lump of coal for Christmas?” when it seems every other game under the Sun is getting an Expansion this year. I was expecting a sly “wait until Nov 4th” type of response. The question was never answered. In the absence of Light, Darkness prevails…

I’m thinkin we’re tied to the China version and that puts an expansion way out in the future. If ever. From that, I infer that telling us The Truth would cause even more Forum Fires than The Wall of Silence does. Expansion news is only one example of the weird stuff that Must Never Discussed. Lag, Female animation, DDOS attacks, etc should all be answered without question.

Meanwhile, Anet could give Cursed Shore a much needed makeover and turn SouthSun into more than a one trick pony. That would give us long term players something without causing major issues for any new players worldwide.

Saying you’re working on better communication repeatedly is kinda pointless. Better communication isn’t something you say… it’s something you do.

He who is not busy growing is busy dying…

What’s been really bothering myself and I suspect others is the lack of any Expansion news. Meanwhile, it seems as if every other game has announced a Boxed Christmas Expansion but GW2. Speaking for myself, I feel like we’re being punished. What we did that was so wrong? I’m kinda confused as I suspect others are.

Please don’t beat that dead horse “But Living Story…” as it does not meet my expectations for genuine content addition. Moreover, it fails to answer the question.

I’m expecting something along the lines of Factions, Nightfall, etc that became a regular feature of GW1. Oh and this silly shaving Frog Hairs about rather something is an True Expansion or Whatever is also distracting from the main point.

Love ya like family Gaile but how come everyone else is getting a Christmas present and we’re getting a lump of coal? Why are we being punished?

He who is not busy growing is busy dying…

Anyohaseyo! Konichiwa! Ni hao! Ola! Cao! Mazel Tov! Bonne Temps! Wie geht es dir?

We have many Heroes in Tyria and should take pride in our large community. I’ve always thought that the NA servers have many players is one of the coolest aspects of the game. I’m sure this will translate over to a more Real World view over time.

Consider this: Woodstock was a half a million people at a concert for three days and nights. It changed the world. Guild Wars is over a half million players from all over the world 24-7. Might have the same potential…

No kidding, I didn’t think we were gonna have a patch today (9/30) much less one that didn’t nerf me and included a bunch of nice QoL improvements. I’m sure the forums will continue it’s roiling All That Is Bad In The Game ways. However, I’m of a mind that if you care enough to criticize then you should care enough to complement.

So, with that in mind much applause to all

Thank You

What I’ve always done for both the Users and upper Management is to keep my focus on presenting a clear view of “Where we are and Where we’re headed.” regardless of the project. In that manner a consistent message is presented that answers the most nagging questions of all folks.

The problem I see with Anet is that no one seems to be able to answer that legitimate concern. To make matters worse the replies we do get seem to reenforce the feeling that they don’t know either.

Remember, Cantha by Christmas!

Play full screen mode always.

I’ve just noticed that the problem comes up just running down the road in Cursed Shore. For example, run from Caer to Penitent a couple of times and what was a smooth ride has gotten all jerky at times now. Doesn’t matter if there are players on screen or not.

We may want to consider that we could be chasing different problems here since “Odd Stuttering” is a bit vague

Yeah, I’m still seeing the same “Odd Stuttering” issue since the patch. Since we have so many cases of players like myself who didn’t change anything on their rigs I’ve been thinking maybe it’s not a client side rendering issue. To me it feels more like a server side communication problem given the random nature of it. I know we were having the DDOS attacks around the same time so looking at it from a WAN perspective might be warranted.

Specifically, did you change any of the communication stack either with the patch or around the same time?

OMG! I can’t think of anyone more deserving than Gaile to move up the ladder. I’m sure she’ll continue to earn the trust of the players the old fashioned way: Through her integrity and commitment to the player base. She embodies that old saying: “Hire attitude, you can teach everything else.”

Absolutely brilliant and much applause

Geez, and to think, I knew you when you were a Frog…

What’s bothering me most is Diablo got an expansion, ESO got an expansion, Aion got an expansion, Rift got an expansion, EverQuest got an expansion, ArcheAge is getting an expansion, Wildstar is getting an expansion etc. What do we get? a couple of weeks in a new zone the size of a coat closet and a Feature Patch that breaks all kinda game play. To top it off about 80% were “features” no one asked for. Like all the nerfs. Again. As usual.

Moreover, lately we get a steady drop off of new items in the Gem Store. Add to all this ArenaNet only seems to pay lip service to providing players with some kinda roadmap for the future of the game. It kinda makes you feel as if all they’ve got up their sleeve is their arm. Pretty much all the talk we get from them is a form of “Smiling and Nodding”. You should go over to http://massively.joystiq.com/ to see Guild Wars 2 in perspective to other games and the companies supporting them.

Now, before you jump all over me with the banal “..but but Living Story” and “Why do you still play?” replies let me point out: that doesn’t answer the question.

Where are we and where are we headed?

Me too. It’s about a 15% drop off. I’m also getting an odd kinda stuttering while I’m running along.

Anybody put it a ticket?